Forty years of Finnish pre-school education: the development of curricula between 1972 and 2000 Tuija A. Turunen a *, Kaarina Ma¨a¨tta¨ b and Satu Uusiautti b a Research Institute for Professional Practice, Learning & Education, Charles Sturt University, Albury, NSW, Australia; b Faculty of Education, University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, Finland Since 2001 in Finland, all six year olds have had the right to free pre- school education, and almost all pre-school-aged children take advantage of this opportunity. The purpose of this article is to dissect the development of Finnish pre-school education curricula within the societal context and within the changes in trends of curriculum planning between 1972 and 2000. The study analysed five curricula texts through qualitative content analysis by paying attention to the functions of pre-school education and the positioning of children and educators. The development of pre-school education consisted of four phases: (1) the era of pre-school education trials; (2) the era of heterogeneous pre-school education arrangements; (3) the era of changes in curriculum policies; and (4) the era of pre-school education establishment. The results indicated that the changes in pre-school education curricula related to the changes in Finnish society and in basic education. Keywords: pre-school education; early years curriculum; qualitative content analysis; history of education Introduction In the new millennium, curriculum increasingly guides early years education globally. In Australia, the first national early years learning framework, Belonging, Being & Becoming, was released in 2010 (Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations 2009). In Finland, pre-school education received its first binding curriculum in 2000 (National Board of Education 2000) and the National Curriculum Guidelines on Early Childhood Education and Care in Finland were introduced in 2005 (The National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health 2004). Accordingly, in the UK the Early Learning Goals were launched in 1999 and were followed by the Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage in 2000 (Qualifications *Corresponding author. Email: tturunen@csu.edu.au The Curriculum Journal Vol. 23, No. 4, December 2012, 585–599 ISSN 0958-5176 print/ISSN 1469-3704 online Ó 2012 British Curriculum Foundation http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09585176.2012.731010 http://www.tandfonline.com