Hyvä koti ja henkinen äitiys lastentarhatyön esikuvina : Aate- ja käsitehistoriallinen tutkielma Suomen varhaiskasvatuksen taustasta

This dissertation uses the approach of history of ideas and consepts to examine how the concepts of a good home and spiritual motherhood were seen by kindergarten teachers. These concepts were the guiding principles of Finnish kindergartens from approximately 1890 to 1950. The key research problem explored in the dissertation is the tension between the private and the public in the intellectual foundations of kindergarten activities, in the objectives of these activities and in the self-understanding of kindergarten teachers. The dissertation poses the following questions: How was the concept of spiritual motherhood, as emphasised in the kindergarten ideology, manifested in the professional dialogue of kindergarten teachers? What meanings were ascribed to it and what tensions were involved in its interpretations? What kinds of physical environments and everyday practices did kindergarten teachers create in kindergartens based on the concept of a good home? What arguments did kindergarten teachers use when responding to proposals and calls to expand the kindergarten day care to a full-time day care? The research material includes the diaries and letters of the major actors involved in the early stages of kindergarten education, archival resources related to the education, and biographical and interview material from providers of kindergarten education. The key figures in the study are Hanna Rothman and Elisabeth Alander, both pioneers of kindergarten education, and Elsa Borenius, who developed kindergarten work. Through these individuals, this dissertation analyses the reception aforementioned concepts as well as their processing and application in the education and work of kindergarten teachers. Introduced by Friedrich Fröbel and Henriette Schrader-Breymann, the concepts of a good home and spiritual motherhood were adopted in Finnish kindergarten work largely in their original form. The concepts were shaped by the religious convictions of Hanna Rothman and Elisabeth Alander: spiritual motherhood was close to religious motherhood, and kindergarten work in its early stages was viewed as Christian social missionary work in a pedagogical framework. As a spiritual mother, the female kindergarten educator had to place herself in the service of love for the benefit of those close to her. This expectation created tensions in education and easily resulted in teachers becoming exhausted in their work. The principle of spiritual motherhood guided the professional image of kindergarten teachers for several decades and linked the kindergarten closely with the private, rather than the public, sphere. Maternal qualities were considered professional requirements which weakened the connection between kindergarten teaching and the worlds of school and academia. Initially, kindergarten teaching was an ambivalent profession lying between motherhood and teaching. It was a caring occupation characterised by a strict ethical code and unselfishness. The Christian values of the kindergarten came under scrutiny as the work began to develop into a public social service. The ideal of a good home informed the planning of kindergarten facilities as home-like environments based on the teachers own bourgeois homes. Kindergarten teachers themselves designed the kindergarten facilities and furniture. The kitchen was considered particularly important. The sense of community and social growth were promoted through both pedagogy of work and common activities in the kindergarten. The ideal of the home, emphasis on the link between mother and child, and part-time day care in the kindergarten constituted a practice that was difficult to break when calls for the expansion of full-time day care began to come from various directions of society in the 1940s and 1950s. Kindergarten teachers opposed full-time day care by appealing to children s own good and and the principle of home as the primary environment for child rearing before school age. The teachers felt that part-time day care could satisfy the need for early childhood education. To resolve the issue of full-time day care, the kindergarten teachers suggested as early as the late 1940s that mothers work part-time or receive a maternity salary . From 1918 onwards, separate groups were established in kindergartens for school children in full-time day care, but these groups did not develop as anticipated. The ideological tradition of the pioneers of kindergarten education emphasised religion, spiritual motherhood and Fröbel s pedagogy. The rules of the Ebeneser Foundation, which provided training in the field, were tied to Christian values. This tradition conduced to the uniformity of kindergarten teacher education, but also separated it from other teacher education and may have hampered its academic development. The `shine of spiritual motherhood´wore off when the realities of the profession set in. Changes in social policy began to affect day care arrangements only after the end of my research period. The ideal of the home remained unchanged, although what originally began as private kindergarten work gradually developed into a publicly funded and managed activity. Keywords: History of the kindergarten, a good home, spiritual motherhood, pedagogy of work, part-time day care, full-time day care, day care for schoolchildren

Grantor dc:publisher

Helsingin yliopisto

Year dc:date.issued

2015

Author dc:creator

• Meretniemi, Maija

• kasvatustiede

Statement dc:rights

• Julkaisu on tekijänoikeussäännösten alainen. Teosta voi lukea ja tulostaa henkilökohtaista käyttöä varten. Käyttö kaupallisiin tarkoituksiin on kielletty.
• This publication is copyrighted. You may download, display and print it for Your own personal use. Commercial use is prohibited.
• Publikationen är skyddad av upphovsrätten. Den får läsas och skrivas ut för personligt bruk. Användning i kommersiellt syfte är förbjuden.

Language dc:language.iso

fin

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10138/154347

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:helda.helsinki.fi:10138/154347