Encountering diversity: educators' ways in mediating toddler's inclusion in the Finnish early childhood classroom
Wang, Lijuan; Jokikokko, Katri (2025-05-28)
Taylor & Francis
28.05.2025
Wang, L., & Jokikokko, K. (2025). Encountering diversity: educators’ ways in mediating toddler’s inclusion in the Finnish early childhood classroom. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2025.2509799
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
© 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
© 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:oulu-202506064171
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:oulu-202506064171
Tiivistelmä
Abstract
This study explores educator-child interactions and their relationship with educators’ approaches to diversity and inclusion during the mealtimes in Finnish early childhood education and care. Based on video-recordings of mealtimes, a mixed-method approach was adopted to analyse 539 moments of educator-child interactions. The results suggest diverse educator-child interaction patterns mediating children’s inclusion. In educator-child interactions, children’s diverse agency for participation is considered by educators. Educators’ approaches to diversity suggest their open attitudes towards inclusion which are not limited to ethnicity but relate to children’s individual needs. During moments of tension within educator-child interactions, children’s agency contributes to transform educators’ attitudes towards inclusion. However, there seems to be a tendency to understand equality as uniformity which contradicts the core principle of equity as social justice in multicultural inclusive education.
This study explores educator-child interactions and their relationship with educators’ approaches to diversity and inclusion during the mealtimes in Finnish early childhood education and care. Based on video-recordings of mealtimes, a mixed-method approach was adopted to analyse 539 moments of educator-child interactions. The results suggest diverse educator-child interaction patterns mediating children’s inclusion. In educator-child interactions, children’s diverse agency for participation is considered by educators. Educators’ approaches to diversity suggest their open attitudes towards inclusion which are not limited to ethnicity but relate to children’s individual needs. During moments of tension within educator-child interactions, children’s agency contributes to transform educators’ attitudes towards inclusion. However, there seems to be a tendency to understand equality as uniformity which contradicts the core principle of equity as social justice in multicultural inclusive education.
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