Students' discourses on interprofessional collaboration in the context of Finnish early childhood education

Around the world, the professionalism of early childhood education (ECE) has been under reform. In Finland, the administrative changes of recent years have raised the need to clarify and strengthen interprofessional collaboration among ECE professionals. This study examined ECE students' discourses of interprofessional collaboration in ECE teams and ECE professionals' differentiated expertise and competence. The data were collected by conducting focus group interviews (n = 17) for ECE teacher students (n = 20) and social pedagogue students (n = 9) as well as childcare students (n = 12). As a result, six discourses of interprofessional collaboration were identified: interprofessional collaboration as a prerequisite, secondary asset, unclear, causing inequality, impossibility, as well as a need for improvement. The discourses of expertise and competence, in turn, considered education-specific areas, differentiated pedagogical expertise and competence, and theory versus practice. The results reflect how ECE students create their understanding about their future profession surrounded by contradictory discourses. The study provides perspectives that can be utilised by working life and education programmes to support ECE professionals' professional development and improve the interprofessional collaboration in ECE teams.