All Children included!

The aim of the project All Children Included! (ALLBINK) is to study how young children include and exclude other children in organized and free play in early childhood education centers.
About the project ALLBINK

The aim with this research project is to study how and on what basis young children include and exclude others in free and organized activities in early childhood education and care. Since very little research is done in this field in Finland, we expect to produce new knowledge for municipalities, daycare centers, teacher education and researchers on the ways children exclude, bully, and include other children. The study is done from an intersectional perspective within a theoretical framework based on critical racialization and whiteness theories as well as earlier research on inclusion among young children. We expect to observe inclusion/exclusion based on, for example, racialization, language, social class and gender. The is an ethnographic study conducted in 18 daycare centers. The study consists of participant observations of children's activities and behaviors as well as interviews with daycare personnel (center leaders, teachers in early childhood education and childcare workers).
Publications, presentations and material
Publications

Londen, M., Holm, G., Mansikka, J.-E., Saloranta, M., & Nordström, A. (accepted). Done with gender: Reinforcing and reproducing gender stereotypes and roles in early childhood education. Journal of Early Childhood Education Research. 

Saloranta, M., Mansikka, J., Holm, G., Londen, M. & Nordström, A. (forthcoming). Colour-evasive early childhood education and care. In K. G. Eriksen & M. K. Jore (Eds.), Antiracist and decolonial approaches to early years education: Perspectives from the Nordics. Bloomsbury. 

Saloranta, M., Mansikka, J-E., Holm, G. & Londen, M. (submitted). Encounters with social class in class-evasive ECEC: Staff´s and children´s experiences. Journal of Early Childhood Education Research, [Special issue: Special Edition for Young Researchers]. 
Presentations

Saloranta, M., Mansikka, J-E., Holm, G. & Londen, M. (2026, May 6-8). Encounters with social class in class-evasive ECEC: Staff´s and Children´s experiences. Finnish Society for Childhood Studies, Joensuu. 

Mansikka, J.-E., Londen, M. & Saloranta, M. (2025, December 3-6). Challenges of including “diversity” in ECEC. Observing children’s exclusion and inclusion in ECEC centers in Finland. Reconceptualizing Early Childhood Education. Santiago, Chile. 3-6.12.2025  

Nordström, A., Holm, G. & Londen, M., Mansikka, J-E. & Saloranta, M. (2025, August 25-28). Fostering inclusive play and literacy practices in Finnish ECEC: A relational approach. [Conference presentation]. European Early Childhood Education Research Association. Bratislava, Slovakia. 

Londen, M., Holm, G. Mansikka, J-E., Nordström, A., & Saloranta, M. (2025, June 11-13). ‘We are done with gender’: Challenging or reproducing gender stereotypes [Conference presentation]. Intercultural Education Conference, Budapest. 

Londen, M. & Holm, G. (2025, May 12-13). The inclusion and exclusion of minority children in multilingual settings [Conference presentation]. Multilingual Childhoods Conference, Luxembourg. 

Holm, G. Londen, M., Mansikka, J-E., & Saloranta, M. (2025, March 5-7). Gender in ECEC: teacher talk, colors, toys, and play [Conference presentation]. Nordic Educational Research Association Conference, Helsinki. 

Saloranta, M., Mansikka, J-E., Holm, G. & Londen, M. (2025, March 5–7). Children’s encounters with social class in play and class-evasive staff [Conference presentation]. Nordic Educational Research Association Conference, Helsinki. 

Saloranta, M., Mansikka, J-E., Holm, G., Londen, M. & Nordström, A. (2024, November 21–22). Colour-evasive early childhood education and care [Conference presentation]. Finnish Educational Research Association Conference, Turku. 

Saloranta, M. (2024, November 21-22). ECEC staff´s expressions of Racialisation. [Conference presentation]. Finnish Education Research Association, Turku. 

Saloranta, M. (2023, September 9). Racialisation in ECEC. [Conference presentation]. Emerging Scholars in Educational and Learning Sciences, Helsinki. 

Saloranta, M. (2023, August 30-September 2). Examining racialisation in Swedish-speaking daycares in Finland. [Conference presentation]. European Early Childhood Education Research Association. Estoril, Portugal. 

 
Material, in-service training and media

Coming soon.
Researchgroup

Gunilla Holm

 is research director and professor of education in the Faculty of Educational Sciences at the University of Helsinki. Her research interests include diversity and social justice issues in education with special focus on social class, gender, and racialization. She conducts mostly ethnographic research, and her research interests also include the development of participatory photography as a research method. Her current research takes an intersectional perspective and is focused on inclusion and exclusion in early childhood education as well as on racialization in lower secondary education  

Email:  

Phone: +358 503 275 907 

Monica Londén

is a university lecturer in education in the Faculty of Educational Sciences at the University of Helsinki. Her research interests include learning and teaching in higher education, self-regulated learning, positive education as well as diversity in education. Her current research projects focus on inclusion and exclusion in early childhood education (the ALLBINK project), positive education (Study with Strength) and educational leadership (Leadership Pipeline and Quality in Higher Education).  

Email:  

Phone: +358 504 155 382 

Jan-Erik Mansikka

is a university lecturer in education in the Faculty of Educational Sciences at the University of Helsinki. He has a broad pedagogical background, with research interests in questions concerning diversity in education, pedagogical documentation, children’s rights and participation in ECEC. Even if most of his studies are empirically grounded, he also has an interest in developing theoretical understanding for education in our contemporary society. Jan-Erik's role in ALLBINK is as a researcher and supervisor. 

Email:  

Phone: +358 503 175 440 

Maria Saloranta

, M.A. and doctoral student at the doctoral programme SEDUCE at the university of Helsinki. Her research interests are in children´s perspective, equality and diversity in early childhood education and care. In this study her focus is on the expressions of racialization and social class when children are included and excluded in a group. Maria wrote her about the portrayal of adoption in Swedish news media.

Email:  

Phone: +358 504 733 768 

Alexandra Nordström

works as a postdoctoral researcher within ALLBINK. Her research interests include interaction, play, literacy and affect in early childhood education, post-approaches in educational research and figurations of children and childhood. She is also interested in developing (post)qualitative methodologies. In her , Alexandra examined young children's joy and literacy practices from sociocultural and posthumanist theoretical perspectives.

Email:    

Previous team members 

  • Jessica Tunn, research assistant, bachelor student in early childhood education
  • Sara Hellström, research assistant, bachelor student in early childhood education
  • Maria Thostrup, research assistant, master's student in social psychology
  • Christina Landén, technical assistant
  • Emmi Pekuri, master's student in early childhood education.
    Read Emmi's .
Collaborations and funding