Future Literacy in Early Childhood Education in Finland
Poornima, Poornima; Neha, Neha (2025)
2025
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2025102826617
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2025102826617
Tiivistelmä
Children of the 21st century are growing up in a world that is rapidly mobilized by digitalization, climate change, and globalization. For this reason, early childhood education must prepare these learners to be creatively thinking and adaptable in order to act in effective ways when faced with uncertain futures. This thesis examines how play-oriented pedagogy and digital educational game tools can foster such "future literacy" within Finland's early childhood education and care (ECEC) system. With a qualitative approach, six early childhood educators were interviewed from two schools in Helsinki to access their interpretations of future literacy, play, and gaming practices and challenges in everyday teaching.
The results indicate that teachers interpret future literacy as a multidimensional competence that includes imagination, collaboration, problem-solving skills, and resilience. They viewed play and games as potent tools to allow for these competencies as well as to engage children in meaningful, participatory learning. However, educators have also pointed out systemic constraints, including limited curriculum time, lack of access to digital resources for everyone equally, and parental attitudes that devalue play. The importance of professional-development opportunities for teachers and creating partnerships between schools and homes to foster a common understanding of future-oriented teaching and learning.
From a management prospective, the study contributes to educational administration and organization development with insights from the project-based approach about how constructive play-centered strategies could be implemented in a systematic manner in early education institutions. Additionally, it highlights the managerial role of the educators and school leaders in co-creating and resource-efficiently developing sustainable models for digital game-based pedagogy. The thesis will link with practical and policy recommendations regarding managing change, improving teacher training, and fostering equity across various institutional settings to strengthen the foundations of future literacy in Finnish early education.
The results indicate that teachers interpret future literacy as a multidimensional competence that includes imagination, collaboration, problem-solving skills, and resilience. They viewed play and games as potent tools to allow for these competencies as well as to engage children in meaningful, participatory learning. However, educators have also pointed out systemic constraints, including limited curriculum time, lack of access to digital resources for everyone equally, and parental attitudes that devalue play. The importance of professional-development opportunities for teachers and creating partnerships between schools and homes to foster a common understanding of future-oriented teaching and learning.
From a management prospective, the study contributes to educational administration and organization development with insights from the project-based approach about how constructive play-centered strategies could be implemented in a systematic manner in early education institutions. Additionally, it highlights the managerial role of the educators and school leaders in co-creating and resource-efficiently developing sustainable models for digital game-based pedagogy. The thesis will link with practical and policy recommendations regarding managing change, improving teacher training, and fostering equity across various institutional settings to strengthen the foundations of future literacy in Finnish early education.