From universalism to selectivity? The background, discourses and ideas of recent early childhood education and care reforms in Finland

Universal public childcare for children under seven has been central in Finland since the mid-1990s, capacitating both gender equality and children’s human capital and wellbeing. In 2015, as a further step in the development of this system, early learning and childhood pedagogy was strengthened through the early childhood education and care (ECEC) reform (statute 580/2015). Some months later, however, the right to full-day ECEC was restricted to...