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Neo-liberal values affect early childhood education through the production of specific teacher subjectivities. These subjectivities are connected not only to the logic of competition, but also to competing definitions of worth, trust and values, as demonstrated by data. Neo-liberal values of accountability are also intertwined with the traditional discourse of child-centred learning. This study contributes to research concerning early childhood education and care staff’s professionalism by focusing on the effects of the commercialization of early childhood education and care teachers’ understanding of their work. With survey data (161 responses) collected from the five largest municipalities in Finland, the authors examine the reasoning that early childhood education and care staff provide for choosing commercial as well as non-commercial digital applications, licensed programmes and ready-made learning materials. The research is highly topical since the number of innovations targeted at early childhood education and care is increasing. Digitalization opens new ways for the privatization and marketization of education by introducing appealing commercially produced programmes and materials. In this study, the authors show how the advertising of these innovations as providing ‘easy solutions’ to improve either children's learning or early childhood education and care practitioners’ working time has become a discourse through which teachers and other staff members evaluate their work and their professionalism. In addition, the authors suggest that Finnish early childhood education and care practitioners seem to have internalized the pressure to enhance efficiency and accountability in early childhood education and care.

Relying on approaches which acknowledge the potential of picturebooks to challenge or confirm social norms, this chapter focuses on representations of non-normative families in Finnish picturebooks. The analysis shows that picturebooks can address non-normativity with an educative and informative emphasis, which often frames non-normativity as a problem, despite aiming to educate about diversity. Another approach is declarative. Even though the declarative books are not as didactic, they still focus on non-normativity as an issue. There are also books that approach non-normativity as part of life rather than as a problem. Capable of challenging normalizing discourses, these postmodern and expanding books utilize playfulness to promote “new” and “different” understandings of family. The analysis of selected contemporary Finnish children’s books indicates that when non-normativity is part of the characterization rather than of the plot, the comparison with the “normal” does not seem as powerful, which in turn facilitates questioning normative assumptions related to gendered binary dichotomies, such as male/female, strong/weak, and provider/caregiver.

Tatun ja Patun Suomesta (2007) julkaistiin Suomen 100-vuotisjuhlavuoden kunniaksi päivitetty versio: Tatun ja Patun päivitetty Suomi (2017). Kirjassa esitellään Suomea, sen historiaa, luontoa ja esimerkiksi suomalaisten tapoja. Tatun ja Patun Suomi ei kuitenkaan ainoastaan toista jo tunnettuja tarinoita Suomesta ja suomalaisista, vaan myös haastaa parodian avulla lukijansa pohtimaan, jopa kyseenalaistamaan, kulttuurisia tapoja, aina saunomisesta juhannuksen viettoon. Tässä artikkelissa tarkastelen Tatun ja Patun päivitettyä Suomea ja tehtyjä muutoksia ja lisäyksiä osana Suomen ja suomalaisuuden, erityisesti monikulttuurisen Suomen kuvausta. Artikkelissa esitän, että väärinymmärtäminen toimii strategiana normatiivisten kansallisuuden diskurssien haastamisessa. Tarkastelen myös Suomi-kuvan uudelleenrakentamista, esimerkiksi Suomen leijonan esittämistä sateenkaarilipun kanssa, irrottaen sen kansallismielisistä ja rasistisista diskursseista. Tatun ja Patun päivitetty Suomi osoittaa, ettei ole yhtä yhtenäistä kansaa ja tarinaa, vaan kieliltään, taustoiltaan ja arvoiltaan moninainen Suomi.

This chapter examines the possibilities of applying children’s storybooks in supporting the development of critical literacy as well as intercultural understanding. Valuing and supporting children’s reading is known to provide understanding and empathy towards other human beings. The chapter focuses on theoretical notions related to promoting critical literacies through children’s storybooks, but also includes practical examples of utilizing multicultural children’s stories. The chapter introduces different strategies that parents and teachers can use to support the development of critical literacy, including critical thinking and understanding multiple perspectives. Focus is especially on young children, because they already are capable of moving beyond what is in front of them on the page. Since children’s storybooks offer possibilities for readers to question implicit assumptions about self and others, books can support readers in becoming more culturally aware and sensitive. Consequently, reading storybooks can affect children’s intercultural understanding, and the role of storybooks in children’s moral development – both shaping and changing attitudes – should be seen as transformative.

This article examines anti-racist strategies employed in Finnish children’s literature. The examples from four stories illustrate that certain physical characteristics and cultural markers can become strong signifiers of nationality, that is Finnishness. The characters in these stories have to cope with experiences of exclusion and loneliness before the people around them learn that difference and diversity do not change the fact that all humans are worth the same. However, the paper argues that the intended positive outcome of books with a strong anti-racist agenda threatens to be lost as heavily accentuated moral lessons often become counterproductive. The paper demonstrates some of the changes that have taken place in Finnish children’s literature during the past two decades and addresses significant cultural and societal issues that affect children’s everyday lives.