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For the purposes of this study, we investigated how special educational needs activities were carried out in the available physical space for preschool children with language difficulties in Belarus and Norway. Muller's and Bernstein's concepts were used to recognise patterns of knowledge construction in special needs education. A qualitative comparative case study approach was used, and through video observations, four categories were identified that exposed various positions within the continuum of the following binary pairs: "regulated -- flexible"; "pre-defined -- diffuse"; "consequential -- casual"; "repetitive -- disruptive." The preschools in both countries showed different profiles. The Belarusian preschools were oriented towards the first notion in the binary pairs, while the Norwegian preschools leaned towards the latter. The implications of the study's results deal with the question of preschool staff preparation, knowledge construction in special needs education, construction and content of curricular documents and the question of promoting a closer dialogue between different practices.

This paper introduces the questions and approaches of a five-nation cross-cultural study of state-based curriculum-making discussed in this issue of "JCS." The paper reviews the two decade-long interest of many nations in state-based curriculum-making and presents a framework for thinking about state-based curriculum-making as a tool of educational governance.

Traditionally, the Nordic curriculum has been viewed as a document with school subjects in focus. This article reports on how two national curricula function as instruments for governing education and explores the possible differences in how national curricula govern education. This investigation was carried out by researching curricula for compulsory schools in Norway (2006) and Finland (2004). In Norway, the governing that emphasises output mechanisms is compared to Finland where the governing is distributed in a more intricate manner at three identified levels. All three levels in the hierarchical legal levels (Act, Regulation and circular letters) are directly activated in the formal rule system, whereas only the two first levels, as part of the formal rule system, are used within the Finnish curriculum decision-making structure. A second finding is that a consequence of the use of the formal rule system is that, at the higher level of the legal status, legitimacy is acquired through a process of essential voices being heard in the process of creating the curricula. Unlike the Finnish curriculum, the Norwegian curriculum does not have the same level of democratic procedures behind it concerning consultation over the content.

The article discusses the concept of core subject analysis of pedagogy in teacher education in Finland. Teacher education is a relatively new phenomena in Finland, and dates back to the 1970s for the class teacher education. In the analysis of the core subject four perspectives in an analytical sense have been identified, namely, perspective on the society, the individual, research and the didactics. The content and conditions in a social perspective have been shaped on various levels within the education policy hierarchy and parties involved have worked and lived within various cycles of power relations. The individual perspective sets the human development and the process of learning during the human life cycle in focus. The discussion about the pedagogy in teacher education can to a large extent be situated to the faculty section didactics.

This paper presents an historical overview of issues around the language of instruction and the curriculum of mother-tongue education for the Swedish-speaking minority in Finland during the half-century after the establishment of the public school in 1866. In a linguistic- and culturally-diverse society like that of Finland it has not been self-evident that the question of language as a medium of instruction and as a school subject would be understood and shared in the same way by Finns and Swedes. This paper focuses on two collective themes, homogenization and differentiation. Homogenization stands for forces aiming at securing equal opportunities for education, regardless of vernacular languages and cultures. Differentiation refers to the possibility of accommodating the education to specific needs of the Swedish-speaking population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]