Att kommunicera stöd för språklig mångfald: Analys av lokala planer för småbarnspedagogik i tolv tvåspråkiga kommuner

Children's diverse linguistic backgrounds in Finnish early childhood education and care (ECEC) are acknowledged in the National core curriculum for ECEC. It states that multilingual children are supported in their languages, identities, general well-being, and self-esteem. In addition, the staff need to support and cooperate with multilingual families in matters related to multilingualism and learning. ECEC providers also create and follow a local curriculum, which is based on the national curriculum, and which considers local features and other local plans and curricula. In this study we examine intertextuality in local curricula for ECEC in twelve bilingual municipalities and specifically a section on multilingualism in languages other than Finnish and Swedish. We apply content analysis to examine similarities and differences in the local curricula on issues related to support for multilingual children and whether the rights of these children are realised on equal terms in the municipalities. The results show that issues related to language are discussed in each document. However, variation in authorities’ ways to handle the section on multilingualism becomes visible when the curricula are compared between the municipalities, between the language versions of the curricula and in the formulations. We argue the importance of following similar guidelines in municipalities even if local specifications are highlighted, to ensure equal possibilities for all multilingual children in ECEC.