Representations of Children’s Finnish Language Skills in Early Childhood Education and Care Plan Meetings Between Teachers and Language Minority Parents

Abstract This study aims to report different representations of the second language (L2; Finnish) and tensions between these representations in the early childhood education and care (ECEC) context. The research data consists of six voice-recorded children’s ECEC plan meetings between Finnish ECEC teachers and language minority (LM) parents. Guided by a social constructionist approach, discourse analysis was used to examine the data. The results show four representations of the L2 emerged in the ECEC plan process discussions with LM parents: (1) L2 development as a natural process assumed to develop without instruction; (2) L2 development as less prioritized than L1 development, with emphasis on strengthening the mother tongue; (3) Insufficient L2 skills as an excuse for undesirable behavior, linking language difficulties to misconduct; and (4) L2 proficiency as a requirement for social and educational inclusion, wherein participation is seen to depend on L2 fluency. Therefore, it is very important to take LM parents’ concerns about their child’s educational progress into consideration and achieve a mutual understanding between parents and ECEC staff about how to collaborate, as well as support and facilitate children’s language development.