The purpose of this study was to research how the leadership of kindergarten leaders is correlated to the quality of early childhood education. The correlation between leadership and early childhood education quality was studied from the perspective of personnel and parents. In addition this paper studied how parents and personnel experience the quality of early childhood education. In addition, the correlation between personnel’s as well as parents’ views about leadership and to their understanding of early childhood education quality was studied. It is important to study the correlation between early childhood education leadership and quality because leadership styles affects early childhood education quality (Vlasov ym., 2018, 46). The aim of this study is to find out what leadership factors are correlated to early childhood education. Once you have found the leadership factors, you are able to develop these forward. Research data was collected in 2019 from one early childhood education area in Helsinki. The data was collected by electronic questionnaire from early childhood education personnel (N = 14) and parents (N = 36). The questionnaire had allegations about early childhood education quality and leadership. Personnel’s and parents’ views of the early childhood education quality were studied by descriptive analysis. The correlations between personnel’s and parents’ assessments on leadership and their understanding of the early childhood education quality were investigated by non-parametric Kendall´s tau-b correlation test. For the analysis, sums of variables were created from the claim categories of the questionnaire. There were eight sums of variables on both personnel’s and parents’ questionnaires. Seven of the sums of variables included early childhood education quality claims and one sum of variables included the leadership claims. The personnel´s and parents’ answers implied that the quality of early childhood is positive. The respondent group gave especially high points to the claims that child’s early childhood education curriculum was being fulfilled and that personnel and parents had discussed child’s growth, teaching and care. Kindergarten’s leader’s leadership correlated with early childhood education´s functionality of the premises, versatility, safety and with the premises enabling time to be alone as well as group to operate. In addition, when leadership was seen as high-quality, personnel were more professionally skilled and engaged to work. By taking the findings into account, kindergarten leaders should acknowledge that by their own leadership abilities they might affect the quality of early childhood education.

This study examines children's social skills in nonstandard hour child care. According to previous studies varying situations stress children and challenge employees. This study will assess children's social skills, the quality of nonstandard hour child care and parents' wishes for supporting children's skills. Research was carried out in two nonstandard hour child care centres in Uusimaa. The study involved 45 children and 10 groups. The study was conducted as a survey to parents and staff and by observing the kindergarten group activities and learning environment. The study was a mixed methods study, which utilized both qualitative and quantitative research data. Quality of learning environment varied between the groups to some extent. The results are in line with research conducted in integrated special groups. The quality in preschool groups was higher than in other groups. Social skills develop with age but there is a drop of emotional skills at the age of four and there are differences in social skills between girls and boys. Parents wish support to children's social skills in nonstandard hour child care. The metric used for the quality assessment could be used for learning environment evaluation in the future. There is good opportunity for supporting children's emotional and social skills in nonstandard hour child care. With the support of the sensitive adult children can join in the play and enjoy peers in changing social situations.

The aim of this study is to investigate the perceptions of the value of pedagogy and also its included meanings of the early childhood education personnel who work with children under three years of age. In this study, early childhood education is approached by its central practices: care, upbringing, and education. This is a qualitative thesis using questionnaire as a research method. The data represented a sub-sample of an international survey, which was carried out in 2014 ”Aspects of the professionality in the early childhood education”. The part used in this study included 333 answers considering the views of key matters and professionality in early childhood education with infants. The theoretical frameworks used are Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological and Vygotsky’s culture-historical approaches towards child development and learning. In both theories, acts of other people and choices in children’s learning environments greatly influence child development and learning. The research questions were: Is pedagogy significant in early childhood education with children under three years of age? What are the contents given to the pedagogy? In what ways do different vocational groups describe their perceptions of pedagogy? The results indicated that only every third participant saw pedagogy as an important matter in early childhood education with infants. Three different perceptions were given to pedagogy by the participants: pedagogy was seen as a part of reciprocal processes, as pedagogical methods and strategies, and as pedagogical knowledge of child development. The education of the participants was associated with the significance given to pedagogy in the answers. The importance of pedagogy was brought up mostly by the kindergarten teachers with a bachelor’s degree from a university.