All Children included!

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 20 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).

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  

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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.

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Sara Hellström

Sara Hellström is a third-year early childhood education teacher student at the Faculty of Education at the University of Helsinki. She is currently working on her bachelor’s thesis, where she studies teachers’ experiences of the value of children's free play in the organisational culture of early childhood education. Her areas of interest include playful and child-centered learning, the interaction between children and staff, methods that amplify children's learning, as well as pedagogy for children under the age of three. Sara aims to continue her academic education and pursue her studies in the master's program in early childhood education to further develop her knowledge in the field.

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Previous team members 

• 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 .