Democratisation of early childhood education in the attitudes of Slovene and Finnish teachers

Teachers’ Implicit Theories on Child Participation in Preschool

“…However, the traditional (modern) conceptualisation of childhood and child participation remain present in one third of the teachers; the result corresponds with the anti-democratic orientation that has been identified in a similar share (Turnšek & Pekkarinen, 2009). Our study thus confirms the scientific knowledge that suggests that implicit theories represent those personal constructs that are deeply-rooted and therefore difficult to change (Turnšek, 2008b).…”

“…In the study on a representative sample (Kroflič et al, 2002) almost two-thirds of preschool teachers claimed that introducing more possibilities for children to co-create and be actively involved in the way they spend their time in preschools would contribute significantly to improving the quality of preschool education. Child participation being placed as the highest priority of Slovenian teachers represented a progressive step away from traditional curricula, and was considerably more supported than by Finnish teachers (Turnšek & Pekkarinen, 2009). However, the subsequent studies suggest a gap still remains between the goals/priorities expressed and what is actually being put into practice.…”

Children’s Participation in Slovene Preschools: The Teachers’ Viewpoints and Practice

“…Soon after the introduction of the new curriculum, it was discovered that the educators are highly in favor of it, since the study-on a representative Slovene sample-showed that almost two-thirds (61%) of the teachers believe participation is one of the crucial ways of improving the quality of preschools (Kroflič et al, 2002). It is interesting that Turnšek and Pekkarinen's (2009) comparative study showed that in Finland, only one-third (34%) of the teachers consider participation a priority for a quality preschool. However, it is important to consider that ten years ago, as the study shows (Kroflič et al, 2002), there was virtually no participation in preschools, so that both children and adults had very little say in the decisions that heavily impacted their lives and their work in the preschool.…”

“Başarılı bir öğretmenin çocukların katılımına önem vermesi gerektiğini düşünüyorum.”: Okulda Çocuk Katılımına İlişkin Fenomenolojik Bir Çalışma

“…Yurt içinde ve yurt dışında okul öncesi (Batistič Zorec, 2015;Koran & Avcı, 2017;Tozduman Yaralı & Güngör Aytar, 2017;Turnšek, 2016) ve ilkokul (Horgan, et al, 2017;Shaik, 2016;Urfalıoğlu, 2019) öğretmenlerinin çocuk katılımına yönelik bilgi düzeylerinin ve katılım hakkına ilişkin uygulamalarının yetersiz olduğu sonucuna ulaşılan çalışmaların gerçekleştirildiği görülmektedir. Öğretmenlerin çocukların karar verebilecek olgunluğa ve sosyal yaşantılarını belirleyecek yeterliklere sahip olamadıklarına ilişkin düşünceleri, okulda katılım süreçlerinin sınırlanmasına neden olmaktadır (Turnšek, & Pekkarinen, 2009). Bu yüzden öğretmenlerin çocuk haklarını bilmeleri, çocukların haklarına saygılı ortamlar oluşturabilmeleri ve davranışları ile çocuklara örnek olmaları önemlidir (Peker Ünal, 2010).…”