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Maiju Paananen

Associate Professor (tenure track), varhaiskasvatus

About me

Maiju Paananen works as an assistant professor in ECEPP reseach group. She lead ECEPP subgroup 'Governance and everyday practices in ECEC'.

Maiju Paananen examines how children encounter institutional governance in early childhood settings. She is especially interested in applications of data based and out come based governance, their concequences in the everyday life of early childhood settings, and governing children's equity. Currently, she leads VADA -research project that examines datafication in early childhood education. She contributes to the CHILDCARE -research project. The aim of the project is to examine the potential sources of inequality in Finnish childcare policies. The research project is carried out in collaboration with 10 municipalities that provide different combinations of early childhood education and care services and cash benefits. The project is a consortium between University of Tampere, University of Jyväskylä and National Institute for Health and Welfare.

Selected publications

Fjällström, S., Karila, K. & Paananen, M. (2020). A matter of universalism? Rationalities of access in Finnish early childhood education and care. Nordic Journal of Studies in Educational Policy. Painossa.

Karila, K., Siippainen, A., Repo, K., Paananen, M., & Fjällström, S. (2020). Paikallisuus, vanhemmat ja varhaiskasvatusmahdollisuudet - Tarinoita kunnan ja pienten lasten vanhempien kohtaamisista. Focus Localis, 48(1), 24–39.

Paananen, M., (2020). Fluctuating Child–Staff Ratio: Governing by Numbers in Finnish Early Childhood Education. International Journal of Sociology of Education. 1–19.

Paananen, M., Kuukka, A. & Alasuutari, M. (2019). Assembled policies: The Finnish case of restricted entitlement to early childhood education and care. Journal of Early Childhood Education Research. 8(2), 252–272.

Paananen, M., Alasuutari, M., Karila, K., & Siippainen, A. (2019). Epistemic governance in local policy debates: The case of entitlement to early childhood education and care in Finland, European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology, 7(1), 52–74.

Hohti, R. & Paananen, M. (2018). Miten pitkä on “kohta”? Ajan virta ja kietoumat koulussa ja päiväkodissa. Kasvatus, 50(1), 34–46.

Paananen, M., Räikkönen, E., & Karila, K. (2018). Yksivuotiaiden lasten huoltajien subjektiivisen varhaiskasvatusoikeuden rajaamiseen liittyvät asenteet ja niitä selittävät tekijät. Yhteiskuntapolitiikka, 83(4), 360–373.

Paananen, M., Repo, K., Eerola, P., & Alasuutari, M. (2018). Unravelling conceptualizations of (in) equality in early childhood education and care system. Nordic Journal of Studies in Educational Policy, 1-11.

Paananen, M., & Lipponen, L. (2018). Pedagogical documentation as a lens for examining equality in early childhood education. Early Child Development and Care, 188(2), 77-87.

Paananen, M. (2017). Imaginaries that survived. Societal roles of early childhood education in an era of intensification. Global Studies of Childhood. Ahead of Print. DOI: 10.1177/2043610617704934

Paananen, M. & Tammi, T. (2017). Työn kuormittavuuden kokemusten, työn tehostamisen ja sairauspoissaolojen moniulotteiset yhteydet lastentarhanopettajan työssä. Journal of Early Childhood Education Research, 6(1), 43–60.

Lipponen, L., Rajala, A., Hilppö, J., & Paananen, M. (2016). Exploring the foundations of visual methods used in research with children. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 24(6), 936–946. DOI: 10.1080/1350293X.2015.1062663

Paananen, M., Lipponen, L., & Kumpulainen, K. (2015). Hybridisation or ousterisation? The case of local accountability policy in Finnish early childhood education. European Educational Research Journal, 14(5), 395–417. DOI: 10.1177/1474904115601446  

Paananen, M., Kumpulainen, K. & Lipponen, L. (2015). Quality Drift within a Narrative of Investment in Early Childhood Education. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal. 23(5). DOI: 10.1080/1350293X.2015.1104043

Nislin, M. A., Paananen, M., Repo, L., Sajaniemi, N., & Sims, M. (2015). Working with children with special needs in Finnish kindergartens: Professionals and/or specialists?. South African Journal of Childhood Education, 5(3), 1–10.  

Onnismaa, E-L., Paananen, M. & Lipponen, L. (2015). Varhaiskasvatuksen polkuriippuvuuksien jäljillä. In: Steiner, T., Vainionpää, J. & Huttunen, R. (ed.). Samalta viivalta 9: Valtakunnallisen kasvatusalan valintayhteistyöverkoston (VAKAVA) kirjallisen kokeen aineisto 2015. Jyväskylä: PS-kustannus, 135–162.

Book chapters

Onnismaa, E-L. & Paananen, M. (2019). Varhaiskasvatuksen opetussuunnitelmatradition muotoutuminen Suomessa 1970-luvulta 2010-luvulle. In T. Autio, L. Hakala and T. Kujala. Opetussuunnitelmatutkimus. Ajan merkkejä ja siirtymiä. Tampere University Press.

Paananen, M. & Rainio, A. (2019). Micro-policies of adult-child joint play in the context of the Finnish ECEC system. In S. Alcock and N. Stobbs (Eds). Rethinking Play as Pedagogy. Thinking about Pedagogy in Early Education (4). Routledge.

Lipponen, L., Kumpulainen, K. & Paananen, M. (2019). Children’s perspective to curriculum work: Meaningful moments in Finnish early childhood education. In: Fleer, M. & Van Oers, B. International Handbook of Early Childhood Education. Springer.

Pyyry, N., Tainio, L., Juuti, K., Vasquez, R. & Paananen, M. (2018). Forward. Preface of the book. In: Pyyry, N., Tainio, L., Juuti, K., Vasquez, R. & Paananen, M. Changing subjects, changing pedagogies: Diversities in school and education. Studies in Subject Didactics. Finnish Research Association for Subject Didactics.

Rajala, A., Kumpulainen, K., Hilppö, J., Paananen, M., & Lipponen, L. (2016). Connecting learning across school and out-of-school contexts: A review of pedagogical approaches. O. Erstad, K. Kumpulainen, Å. Mäkitalo, K., P. Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt & T. Jóhannsdóttir (Eds.) Learning across contexts in the knowledge society. Sense publishers.