Research Article

Moral Foundation of the Kindergarten Teacher’s Educational Approach: Self-Reflection Facilitated Educator Response to Pluralism in Educational Context

Table 1

Research methods, participants and gathered sets of data.

Data 1: Multi-method data gathered by Lamminmäki-Vartia Data 2: Multi-method data gathered by KuusistoData 3: Documentary data
MethodObservationInterviewsQuestionnaire dataStaff focus group interviewsInterviews with parentsObservation of pre-school groupsInterviews, discussions, storycraftingSurveys with educational practitionersSurvey with educational teams of threeTextual data

Time of data gatheringNov 2007–March 2008Nov-Dec 2008Dec 2009–Feb 2010March-April 2009March-April 2009Dec 2008, May 2009Aug-Sept 20092008–2010

Research participantsDay care centres ( ) day to day activities, the staff and some 90 children, with particular attention to a group of 20 children aged 3–6Personnel of one day care centre ( )Day care centre educational teams ( )Personnel of four day care centres ( )10 parents (between ages 28–55; eight females and two men)Some 80 children and ECEC personnel80 children (5-6-year-olds)(1) The staff members of four day care centres ( )
(2) Educational practitioners participating in staff development seminar ( )
ECEC teams ( individuals), each responsible for a group of children(1) National curriculum guiding documents;
(2) Municipal curriculum guiding documents;
(3) Kindergarten-specific documents;
(4) ECEC teams’ plans targeting diversity

Form(s) of dataField notes; transcribed notes, 93p. all togetherTranscribed interviews (50–70 min each), 76p. all togetherQuestionnairesTranscribed focus group discussions(1.5–2.5 h each, 8 h altogether)Transcribed interviews (20–60 min each)Field notes; photographsField notes, recorded discussionsQuestionnairesQuestionnairesDocuments