Parental perspective in the Finnish early childhood education context

In this chapter, we demonstrate the current situation in parental participation in the Finnish ECEC context. Cooperation with parents is emphasised in the Finnish ECEC steering documents. Central factors for successful collaboration are parents’ attitudes towards their own participation in ECEC as well as teachers’ attitudes towards parents and cooperation. Universities in Finland train teachers for cooperation with parents by teaching them not only how to conduct a plan for a child’s development and learning with the parents but also how to meet the diversity of families. New steering documents set the goal for parental participation on a new level; therefore, both teacher training and structures for parental participation in ECEC centres must be developed in Finland.