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

52 - CHAPTER 3. WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES AND STRATEGIES?
kindergartens shall be designed in such a way that feels relevant to individual children and to
the group and should be included in the kindergarten’s annual plan.
The kindergarten’s co-ordinating committee, consisting of staff and parents, must establish
the annual plan for the kindergarten’s pedagogical activities. The staff and especially the
pedagogical leaders are expected to carry out the pedagogical programme in each
kindergarten in accordance with the framework plan, local adaptations and the annual plan.
Based on the different needs of children, centres can develop teaching material, methods of
working, equipment and approaches.
Early Childhood Education services in New Zealand each develop, based on the national Te
Whāriki curriculum, their own curriculum programme for child development in accordance
with the needs of children, parents and the community. Through the use of evaluative
procedures, the programme will be continually or at least regularly modified, to ensure that it
continues to meet the needs of children within the curriculum goals. New Zealand also finds
it important that the curriculum, as a whole or as a particular range of experiences in the
programme, is modified if it is not working well to meet the needs of children and the goals of
the curriculum.
Discussing with stakeholders to ensure stakeholder buy-in
Norway organises ECEC roundtables in the form of a National Kindergarten forum twice per
year, contributing to structural buy-in. During these roundtables, different ECEC topics and
issues are being discussed. Example subjects of discussion include funding; research and
knowledge on ECEC; legislation; quality aspects of ECEC; policy design; and policy
implementation. A wide range of stakeholders is invited and attend these roundtables, which
are lead by the minister, including representatives from the ministry, the directorate for
education and training, county governors, the national parent committee, the national
research council, the national board for teacher education, organisations for centre owners,
teacher organisations, staff organisations and representatives for big cities. These meetings
are organised on a very regular basis, providing opportunities for discussion, updating on
information, finding agreements and creating buy-in for decisions and changes.
Portugal’s curriculum guidelines for three-to-six-year-olds were developed in a process of
broad consultation involving preschool teachers and researchers. Official publication of the
Curriculum Guidelines for Pre-School Education was preceded by a long discussion process
involving the preparation of three drafts. The first draft was analysed by institutional partners:
the Regional Directorates for Education, the Inspector-General of Education, Initial Teacher
Training Schools, Teachers’ Associations, Teachers’ Unions, the Association of Private
Education Providers and Parent Associations. A second draft was produced based on
comments received from the institutional partners and was distributed among groups of
preschool teachers for comments. Teachers were asked to apply the proposed guidelines
prior to commenting. Comments from the teachers were incorporated into the final version of
the curriculum guidelines. Portugal is in the process of developing curriculum guidelines for
ages zero to three, in line with the guidelines for ages three to six. Relevant stakeholders,
including local authorities, ECEC staff, teacher and parent associations, and researchers are
involved in the design process. During a forum in June 2011, debates were organised with
stakeholders discussing what should be included in the curriculum guidelines for ages zero
to three and how they should be implemented.
QUALITY MATTERS IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND CARE: SWEDEN © OECD 2013