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Children's diverse linguistic backgrounds in Finnish early childhood education and care (ECEC) are acknowledged in the National core curriculum for ECEC. It states that multilingual children are supported in their languages, identities, general well-being, and self-esteem. In addition, the staff need to support and cooperate with multilingual families in matters related to multilingualism and learning. ECEC providers also create and follow a local curriculum, which is based on the national curriculum, and which considers local features and other local plans and curricula. In this study we examine intertextuality in local curricula for ECEC in twelve bilingual municipalities and specifically a section on multilingualism in languages other than Finnish and Swedish. We apply content analysis to examine similarities and differences in the local curricula on issues related to support for multilingual children and whether the rights of these children are realised on equal terms in the municipalities. The results show that issues related to language are discussed in each document. However, variation in authorities’ ways to handle the section on multilingualism becomes visible when the curricula are compared between the municipalities, between the language versions of the curricula and in the formulations. We argue the importance of following similar guidelines in municipalities even if local specifications are highlighted, to ensure equal possibilities for all multilingual children in ECEC.

The study examines language aware practices in early childhood education and care (ECEC) in Finland. In Finland, the number of citizens with languages other than the national languages is estimated to increase, and population growth is dependent on migration. Children enrolled in ECEC have increasingly diverse language backgrounds. This calls for adjusting pedagogical practices to the needs of multilingual children only starting to familiarise themselves with the language of instruction. The data analysed were part of a national survey. A total of 882 respondents working in ECEC answered the survey. For this study, we concentrated on two open questions: “What kinds of practices do you have to support the language learning of children with an immigration background?” (N = 538) and “What kinds of needs to develop practices have you identified regarding language learning of children with an immigrant background or organising linguistic support?” (N = 509). Qualitative content analysis was used as an analytical approach. Our findings were condensed to a model consisting of six steps of language aware ECEC. The first three steps were well implemented according to the data. However, more attention is still needed to fully support language aware teachers, teams and systems.

This study examined student teachers' beliefs about teaching multilingual classrooms across three European contexts; Slovenia, Spain (Catalonia), and Finland. Research shows that teachers' confidence in handling linguistically diverse classrooms is lacking. Linguistically sensitive teaching (LST) was used as a lens to explore different expressions of 'fears' in student teachers vis-à-vis handling plurilingual pedagogies. We collected reflections of 128 student teachers and carried out an inductive, thematic content analysis in multiple cycles. The findings showed that student teachers' fears were related to the following five categories: 1) languages in society; 2) building relationships; 3) teaching skills and methods; 4) external evaluation and teacher's autonomy, and 5) legislation and policies. Student teachers in all three contexts shared concerns over how to protect minority languages and how to obtain enough opportunities to train for LST. A major difference between the contexts emerged in the categories of building relationships and external evaluation. By examining student teachers' expressions of fear in the Slovene, Catalan and Finnish contexts, the study gives clues to better design initial teacher education courses that support the inclusion of LST in teacher practices.