The Importance of Quality Interactions in Early Childhood Education and Care Through the Educators Eyes
Nakagami, Ayana (2024)
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2024122238076
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2024122238076
Tiivistelmä
Childhood is a very significant period in human life as many theories suggest. In Finland, most of over 3-year old children and more and more under 3-year old participate in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC), thus ECEC becomes to have an even more important role in human development and in society. However, the current difficult situation in Finnish ECEC surroundings shows that the quality of ECEC is put in danger. This study aims to emphasize and remind the importance of quality ECEC by focusing on child-adult interaction in ECEC.
Interaction is one of the very basic, yet significant factors in child’s socioemotional development. Attachment theory tells that attachment is formed based on warm and sensitive interactions, and National Core Curriculum for ECEC and Finnish Education Evaluation Centre consider interaction as the essential and fundamental element in quality ECEC. Therefore, this study investigates how the educators perceive the importance of quality interaction and its influence on the child, as well as what factors might be involved in realizing the quality interaction in ECEC. In addition to these, the new role of social pedagogue is taken into consideration.
For the data collection, the semi-structured interview was conducted with 5 educators in a daycare unit in South Finland. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed using qualitative content analysis in order to find out the educators’ view on quality interactions in practice.
The analysis identified the following educators’ interpretations of quality interactions: Being genuinely present, Knowing how to interact with a child, Positive atmosphere, Understanding each child, Setting the boundary and Building trust, and following influences of the interaction on the child development and well-being: Ability to learn and grow, Self-confidence, Emotional skills and Problematic behavior. The analysis also found that the factors affecting the realization of the quality interactions, and they can be divided into three different levels: Interaction skills in individual level, Disturbance factors, Peaceful space, Functioning team in unit and team level, factors related to legislation level and adult’s life situation and well-being that relates to all levels.
The study concludes that the educators’ view on the quality interaction and its influence on the child’s development and well-being align with the theories. The study also provides insights for working life in terms of how the implementation of the quality interaction could be promoted in individual, and unit and team level, as well as recommendations for the future research – in order to bring up the voices of the field and make Finnish ECEC even better quality.
Interaction is one of the very basic, yet significant factors in child’s socioemotional development. Attachment theory tells that attachment is formed based on warm and sensitive interactions, and National Core Curriculum for ECEC and Finnish Education Evaluation Centre consider interaction as the essential and fundamental element in quality ECEC. Therefore, this study investigates how the educators perceive the importance of quality interaction and its influence on the child, as well as what factors might be involved in realizing the quality interaction in ECEC. In addition to these, the new role of social pedagogue is taken into consideration.
For the data collection, the semi-structured interview was conducted with 5 educators in a daycare unit in South Finland. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed using qualitative content analysis in order to find out the educators’ view on quality interactions in practice.
The analysis identified the following educators’ interpretations of quality interactions: Being genuinely present, Knowing how to interact with a child, Positive atmosphere, Understanding each child, Setting the boundary and Building trust, and following influences of the interaction on the child development and well-being: Ability to learn and grow, Self-confidence, Emotional skills and Problematic behavior. The analysis also found that the factors affecting the realization of the quality interactions, and they can be divided into three different levels: Interaction skills in individual level, Disturbance factors, Peaceful space, Functioning team in unit and team level, factors related to legislation level and adult’s life situation and well-being that relates to all levels.
The study concludes that the educators’ view on the quality interaction and its influence on the child’s development and well-being align with the theories. The study also provides insights for working life in terms of how the implementation of the quality interaction could be promoted in individual, and unit and team level, as well as recommendations for the future research – in order to bring up the voices of the field and make Finnish ECEC even better quality.