Municipal Awareness of Gifted and Talented Children in Finland Swedish Early Childhood Education and Care in Finland

An including and egalitarian early childhood education and care (ECEC) requires individualised practices, differentiation and an awareness and acceptance of gifted and talented children. The purpose of this chapter is to present Finnish bilingual municipalities that offer early childhood education and care, to show if and how the municipalities approach gifted and talented children. This descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted based on a questionnaire aimed at Directors of Education and on characteristics of the bilingual municipalities in Finland. Based on the municipal characteristics, the education providers have different attitudes and actions for organising teaching for gifted and talented children. The results show that there is a discrepancy in the characteristics of the municipalities in this study, however, despite municipal size, budget and the socio-economic background of its citizens, there is an awareness of giftedness even if the characteristics do not impact the tendency to consider the concept of giftedness. Even if the education provider does not have formalised instructions for assessments and evaluation for gifted and talented children, teachers usually develop and implement informal practices. The trend towards individualism and freedom of choice as well as educational equity and national policy affecting gifted education is discussed.