Nordic Comparative Analysis of Guidelines for Quality and Content in Early Childhood Education

Abstract

The article is based on a project intended to further develop understanding of similarities and differences in Nordic binding guidelines and non-binding guidance for content and quality in early childhood education. The study is of a descriptive and comparative nature and the process is based on a research tradition connected to curriculum studies. Both variation and standardisation emerge in the comparative analysis with regard to content construction. Quality is expressed and may be interpreted as operationalised as both structure and process. In relation to the study results, quality may be interpreted as primarily oriented towards institutions, activities and secondarily towards individuals. Quality is consistently related to learning (lifelong learning) and is more linear and oriented towards goal-rationality than non-linear.