Multilingual Early Language Transmission (MELT) - Mercator ...

(d) The preparation of the child for responsible life in a free society, in the spirit of
understanding, peace, tolerance, equality of sexes, and friendship among all peoples, ethnic,
national and religious groups and persons of indigenous origin; “
These two points lay the foundation for two of the thematic foci of the program namely
multilingualism as well as identity and diversity. In addition, the program was developed in
accordance with various ECEC guidelines. There are legal, national and local documents and
policies regulating ECEC. The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health (2002) points out in its
policy on ECEC that there are specific rights mentioned in the Constitution’s regulations
about the basic freedoms and rights which are especially relevant for ECEC. These include
equality, sanctity of human dignity, securing personal freedom and personal rights, freedom
of religion as well as language and cultural rights. Furthermore, children should be treated as
equals and be heard in things concerning them.
The national curriculum for pre-school (education for 6-year old children) emphasizes that all
children should be given the same opportunities to learn and develop. A socially just
approach is emphasized also by trying to provide, for example, special education services at
an early stage. The national curriculum states that children’s cultural and linguistic identity
should be strengthened and given an opportunity to develop. Children should also become
familiar with different art forms which support the third theme -esthetic education- in our
program. It also suggests that children get to know other cultures than the local and national
as much as possible.(Grunderna för förskoleundervisningens läroplan 2000,
http://www02.oph.fi/svenska/ops/forskola/esiopsve.pdf) .
According to the national curriculum guidelines on early childhood education and care in
Finland (Stakes, 2004, p.15) a child should be “treated fairly regardless of gender or social,
cultural and ethnic background”. Many other things that are highly related to our program
are emphasized, for example, the importance of language, play, artistic experiences and selfexpression.
The Advisory Board for Early Childhood Education and Care (2008) points out
about future developments that a high quality program should diminish differences among
children from different living conditions and social class backgrounds. Early childhood
programs should give children equal opportunities to develop and grow in accordance with
their abilities.
The structure of the program
The early childhood and preschool teacher education program is a three-year Bachelor’s
degree program. Early childhood education and pre-school teachers have had a university
based Bachelor’s degree since 1995. All teacher education is university based in Finland and
early childhood and preschool teacher education is the only one that is only a Bachelor’s
degree. All the other kinds of teacher certificates require a Master’s degree. The university
based early childhood education teacher education also gives a preschool (6-year olds)
teacher certification. There are also early childhood teacher education programs at the
polytechnic level which qualify for early childhood education for 1-5 year olds but do not
include a pre-school certification. The pre-school certification means an additional 60 points
in teaching methods for more subject related courses. Our university based program consists
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