Contemporary Documentation

What is early childhood education like in the 2020s? The Kindergarten Museum currently documents material about today's early childhood education phenomena and early childhood education (ECEC) center life for future generations to research. Materials include, for example, photos, videos, interviews, project descriptions, or objects.

In addition to historical material, the museum's mission is to record and document today's phenomena for future generations to study. Over the years, lots of written and pictorial material on various topics related to kindergarten activities: kindergarten action plans, seminar students' lecture notes, craft models, and, for example, the collection includes correspondence. We could have a different and narrower understanding of what kindergarten activities have been like in different decades if the collection did not have these materials. For this reason, we are doing a favor for future researchers and museum visitors by documenting the 2020s here and now.

Current contemporary documentation projects

Take part in the documentation of the common cultural heritage! The Kindergarten Museum is currently running several documentation projects in which early childhood education workers from all over Finland can participate. We do the contemporary documentation in cooperation with early childhood education professionals. Now you can influence what kind of material future sustainable development and early childhood education researchers will have at their disposal.

Contemporary documentation collaboration with ECEC center Ebeneser

The Kindergarten Museum works closely with Ebeneser, the ECEC center of the city of Helsinki, which operates in the same building. The museum stores documents related to the activities of the ECEC center Ebeneser in its collections by a separate plan. Documentation includes, for example, action plans, project descriptions, and pictorial documentation of the operating environment until 2024. In addition to this, for example, various interviews offer valuable material about today's early childhood education.

Documentation is one of the most important tools for the development of early childhood education. While the Kindergarten Museum records material to tell future generations about today's early childhood education, the museum is also part of today's development work. The innovative implementation of modern documentation as a collaboration between a museum and a ECEC center offers a new type of documentation tools, structures, and opportunities for other early childhood education operators and ECEC centers in their documentation projects.

The museum does contemporary documentation in cooperation with the ECEC center Ebeneser and has a research permit granted by the city of Helsinki.

Past contemporary documentation projects

The effects of the coronavirus (Covid-19) on the work of an early childhood education professional - spring 2021

A free-form writing invitation aimed at early childhood education professionals about the effects of the coronavirus on their own work in kindergarten. The worldwide corona pandemic that spread in 2020 also affected the day-to-day life of ECEC centers. In the spring of 2020, the Kindergarten Museum prepared an online survey about the atmosphere in ECEC centers during exceptional circumstances. As the pandemic continued in 2021, the museum's current documentation material was supplemented with the thoughts of early childhood education professionals about the effects of the entire pandemic on early childhood education and their own work in 2020-2021.

Emergency conditions in ECEC centers - spring 2020

In the spring of 2020, the Kindergarten Museum conducted an online survey aimed at early childhood education workers about the impact of emergency conditions on early childhood education. At the beginning of 2020, the coronavirus (Covid-19), classified as a global pandemic, caused emergency conditions and measures in Finland. The emergency conditions had a direct impact on the operation of ECEC centers. The Kindergarten Museum documents what ECEC center life is like in such exceptional times and what thoughts it evokes in early childhood education workers. The online survey had a total of 587 responses. Further information on the topic is on the Kindergarten Museum's blog (article is in Finnish).

In addition to the online survey, we also recorded an anonymous verbal description of the topics of the conversations held by the early childhood education teachers and conversation recordings on social media in March 2020. In addition, we documented in pictures how the coronavirus and emergency conditions were displayed in ECEC centers, for example, through bulletins on walls and hand washing instructions. We included an empty bottle of hand sanitizer and a pack of hand paper from the ECEC center Ebeneser.

Kindergarten toys and pedagogical material - consumption in ECEC centers in 2020

How and what kind of toys and pedagogical material did ECEC centers attain in Finland in 2020? What happens to old toys and materials? 21 early childhood education professionals from different parts of Finland gave answers to these questions. You can peek into the world of ECEC center toys and pedagogical material consumption on the Kindergarten Museum's blog (article is in Finnish).

The online survey connects to TAKO, the professional museum's documentation and collection cooperation network #kulutuksentallentajat - contemporary documentation campaign, where museums recorded material related to consumption in their collections on the same day, September 18, 2020.

Sustainable development in early childhood education in 2020

Sustainable development is a current topic in society. However, what is sustainable development in Finnish early childhood education in 2020? Nine early childhood education professionals from different parts of Finland answered this question. The documentation project related to sustainable development connects to the joint documentation project of TAKO's Pool 6. TAKO is a documentation and collection cooperation network of professional museums, where the member museums record the same topic from their perspectives under each pool. The TAKO network has seven pools, or cooperation groups formed according to topics. Pool 6, which the Kindergarten Museum is a member of, focuses on Art, learning, and experience.