Worldviews and national values in Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish early childhood education and Care curricula.

The study investigates how worldviews and national values are emphasised in the national curricula for kindergartens in Sweden, Finland and Norway. The specific goal is to investigate the similarities and differences between these three curricula with regard to the position of religions and other worldviews. The research questions are: 1. How are worldviews and national values portrayed in the kindergarten curricula of Sweden, Finland and Norway? 2. What similarities and differences are there between these three kindergarten curricula in terms of the position of religions and other worldviews?

The study shows that the three Nordic countries all have similarities, but also significant differences, in the ways they relate to national values and worldviews. The analysis shows that the stated societal values primarily include a view of the nations that they rest on democratic societal values. This includes many references to children's own active participation in the kindergarten community, how to take children's initiative into consideration and how kindergartens can educate children to empathise with diversity through this national framework of values. With regard to differences, the researchers point out that while Norwegian and Finnish framework plans have a separate section on religions and other worldviews, the Swedish plan explicitly refers to religion only once, and otherwise only contains references to more general categories such as children's questions, views or identities.

Using a syllabus analysis/informed content analysis, this study investigates the curriculum/frameworks of kindergartens in each country's context, highlighting the identified national value preferences related to worldviews.

Kuusisto, A., Poulter, S., & Harju-Luukkainen, H. (2021). “Worldviews and national values in Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish early childhood education and Care curricula”. International Research in Early Childhood Education, 11(2):41-62.