This research project directs attention towards the consequences of the corona pandemic on children and childhoods in the Nordic countries. We are specifically interested in how children´s active participation can be supported and how their resilience can be strengthened by staff in ECEC.

The first study within the project concerns children´s reactions during the early phases of the outbreak in March 2020. Through questionnaires to staff in Finnish and Swedish ECEC, children´s expressions and their opportunities to active participation in their daily lives are given voice. Results from the study are published in Swedish in the journal Barn (nr 2, 2020) and in English through the chapter Heikkilä, M., Hellman, A., Rantala, A., Furu, A-C. & Lillvist, A. (forthcoming) Teachers’ Understanding of Children’s Needs in the Times of Coronavirus: Norms on Children among Finnish and Swedish ECEC Teachers. In A. Hellman and S. Garvis (2021) (Eds.) Global Childhoods in contemporary times. Bristol: Intelect.

The research project is lead by associate professor Mia Heikkilä, Åbo Akademi University, and currently consists of a research group with members from Finland and Sweden:

Ann-Christin Furu, Åbo Akademi University
Anette Hellman, Gothenburg University
Anne Lillvist, Örebro University
Anna Rantala, Umeå University