In this blog, we examine the power of collaboration in early childhood education, introduced by Anniina Berg. We focus on the importance of multidisciplinary teamwork for the quality of early childhood education and how the strengths of different professional groups together create a solid foundation for our children’s growth and learning. Read interesting perspectives and useful tips on how to effectively implement collaboration between early childhood education professionals for the best interests of children.

The societal changes affecting early childhood education and care require new types of multidisciplinary expertise from professionals working in education and care. These changes are related, for example, to the diversification of families, the increase in cultural diversity and the identification of children’s support needs in a more timely manner. Early childhood education is, to the greatest extent, a multidisciplinary team effort, with each child, with their individual strengths, interests and needs, at its core.

The importance of collaboration in supporting families in early childhood education

In everyday early childhood education, in addition to the individual level, the interaction and friendships of a group of children are also supported, and the psychological, physical and social well-being of the entire group is taken care of. Supporting holistic growth, development and learning also requires timely and continuous cooperation with families from the team – supporting parenting, finding common ways of working and creating an atmosphere of trust. The service network built around early childhood education often also participates in the joint educational work, in which each actor has their own central role for individual children and families.

Collaboration between professional roles as a strength of early childhood education

High-quality early childhood education is not only a multidisciplinary team effort, but it also requires it in order to be implemented in a high-quality manner. In addition to the core competence shared in a multidisciplinary team, each member brings to the team, through their own specific educational background, perspectives and expertise that are needed to support children’s growth, development and learning. An early childhood educator is a professional in basic care and growth support who supports and guides children in everyday life. An early childhood education social pedagogue brings to the team strong expertise in the service system, cooperation with families and the comprehensive well-being of a group of children. An early childhood education teacher, on the other hand, is a pedagogue who is responsible for the pedagogical activities of early childhood education and the individual learning path of each child. In addition to these, the work of the teams is also supported and enriched by many other professionals, such as teachers, pedagogical leaders and assistants.

In everyday teamwork, functions are mixed, and team members do things with children, both together and separately. The fact that team members have different skills brought by their education does not exclude the fact that all these early childhood education professionals also have a lot in common in their expertise – a common value base, knowledge of guiding documents, and shared skills in guiding, assessing, observing children, and developing activities. The similarity of professional roles enables genuine and flexible cooperation and the setting of common goals for team work. Different educational backgrounds bring different strengths and cutting-edge skills to the work, which enrich the team’s knowledge base.

The role of a multidisciplinary team in the quality of early childhood education

By harnessing the entire team’s potential for competence and multidisciplinary expertise, ways can be found to create a good and functional everyday life for every child and adult. To do this, the team needs leadership to support its work, which helps the team not only to identify the educational strengths of individuals but also to target the strengths in the best possible way for the benefit of the team. The leader’s task should be to create an operating culture in the work community where people rejoice in different competences and recognize that by targeting the team’s resources on a competence basis, not only the quality of early childhood education can be affected, but also the well-being and coping of the entire team.

Anniina Berg, MEd., Early childhood education teacher

anniina.berg@ralla.fi