SWEDEN%20policy%20profile%20-%20published%2005-02-2013

QUALITY MATTERS IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND CARE: SWEDEN © OECD 2013
CHAPTER 3. WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES AND STRATEGIES? - 49
development, family and community, and relationships. Five strands, or essential areas of
learning and development, arise from these four principles. The five strands relate to wellbeing,
belonging, contributions of children, communication and exploration. The curriculum
includes a Māori immersion curriculum to recognise and meet the needs of the Māori
population; and it also addresses the Tagata Pasifika culture to ensure that the language
and culture of the Māori and Pasifika is protected, respected and supported. The curriculum
is therefore bilingual and bicultural, developed in both the English and Māori languages.
Norway’s framework plan is based on empathy, forgiveness, a belief in human worth,
equality, common responsibility, honesty and fairness. Kindergartens in Norway should
promote human dignity, equality, intellectual freedom, tolerance, health, sustainable
development and respect for the environment. This indicates that kindergartens are
assigned a societal role: its primary goal is described as to safeguard children’s basic needs
for care and play and promote learning as the core of holistic, all-around development.
Kindergartens are to support each individual child whilst taking into account the common
interests of children. Equality, tolerance and respect are highly important cornerstones of
Norway’s framework plan: the equality of genders and children with different backgrounds is
emphasised and should be reflected in early education. Norway is not merely aiming at
ECEC staff in their framework plan but also the children’s parents or guardians, the
owners/managers of ECEC provisions, and municipal authorities who are responsible for
monitoring ECEC centres. The plan has been developed for all adults closely related to
ECEC in order to stimulate children’s early development; and early development is regarded
as collaboration between these adults. Activities within ECEC centres should be carried out
keeping in mind the values that guide the frameworks so as to promote responsibility and
interest on the part of children and encourage their participation in society. Children and their
parents are expected to contribute to activities and be included in processes.
Curriculum addressing different age groups
New Zealand’s Te Whāriki curriculum defines how progress towards learning in early
childhood learning environments can be achieved. To ensure that the framework is ageappropriate,
the content is made for three different age groups within ECEC: infants (birth to
eighteen months), toddlers (one to three years), and young children (two-and-a-half years to
school entry age). Te Whāriki is designed to be inclusive and appropriate for all children and
anticipates that children’s needs will be met as children learn together in all kinds of early
childhood education settings. For children who require resources alternative or additional to
those usually provided within an early childhood education setting, an Individual
Development Plan or Individual Education Plan (IDP or IEP) will be developed.
The Te Whāriki curriculum takes up a model of learning that weaves together intricate
patterns of linked experience and meaning rather than emphasising the acquisition of
discrete skills. The framework consists of four parts: 1) the principles of the curriculum; 2) its
five strands; 3) goals for the early childhood years; and 4) examples of the links between
early childhood education, the school years and the New Zealand Curriculum Framework for
schools. The five strands or development focus on well-being, belonging, contributions of
children, communication and exploration. Each of these five strands are linked with essential
skills or learning areas, such as communication, language development, numeracy and
mathematics, science, technology, social sciences, arts, health, work and study skills,
problem-solving capabilities, social development and self-management.
Specifying age-appropriate learning areas that are intertwined with play
In Norway, age-appropriateness and needs-based pedagogy are highly valued aspects of
the framework plan. To make it easier for kindergartens to plan a varied and comprehensive
pedagogical programme, the content of kindergartens in Norway is divided into seven