European Union countries generally provide early education to children since the age of two, while the new Finnish statute on basic education number 852/1998 directs that at least 700 hours of pre-school education a year should be offered to six-year-olds in all municipalities of the country from 1 August 2001. To this year children’s opportunities to get pre-school education have varied depending on the municipality and region. We have experiences from pre-school education within basic education from a period of thirty years, but the question of providing overall pre-school education appears valid right now.
In my licentiate’s dissertation I researched pre-school education in Kiuruvesi village schools. The main aim of this study was to gather information about the education of six-year-olds, and the major tasks here to study the respective attitudes of children themselves, their parents and teachers to pre-school education. The status of a preschool pupil in a combined class was also researched. The present study enlarges the same theme with the help of views from children, parents, teachers and administrators from the whole of Finland, it also discovers what early education schools, social administrators and congregations offer.
The present research describes the arrangement of pre-school education in small schools. Part one concentrates on theory, part two on empirical experience. The theoretical section contains a history of scholar education in Finland. There is the development of small schools, their current threats (such as discontinuity), how educational policy treats them and their pedagogics, their status compared with bigger schools as to administration and funding, and how they intergrate pre-school education in their work. A cultural analysis is realized by comparing Finnish solutions with the rest of Europe: the percentage of women working outside their homes, arrangements of day care, and equality between men and women. Scholar success tests within Europe offer reasons for comparison, Finnish children starting their school education at a later age than their European peer groups. The quality of arrangements of pre-school education is studied with the help of a model made of teaching quality elements by Helakorpi (1993). Aspects included are planning, guiding, physical environment and learning atmosphere and how they should be developed in the Finnish school framework. A distant goal is to improve practices.
The focus of the present research does not lie on activities. However, my experience in teaching class E-2 at a small school, participation in the first Finnish pre-school experiment in its years 1982–1985, and membership in the network Teacher as a Researcher contribute to developing theories linked to this work. On the other hand, few researches have been made from the context of practical school work, which supports the inclusion of this aspect. I want to participate in debate in our society. My research tries to draw attention to the significance of small schools in Finland, their pre-school education and the training of their teachers. I never felt I was a teacher of ”only” a small school but a multi-skilled, well-trained teaching expert in a small school. Pedagogic experts have expressed a need for views from those in practical teaching work and their share in social debate. Furthermore, research of our own cultural practices support our independence. Pre-school education should be visioned against its background, variable in each municipality and teaching unit. This has been taken into account in my study.