Early childhood policies of reflections on the curricula in sweden and Turkey

The purpose of the study is to investigate the reflections of early childhood policies on the curricula in Sweden and Turkey. This study was conducted by using holistic multiple case design. The study data collected allowing analysis of documents produced by different people and institutions at different times. The primary documents reviewed for the current study are early childhood curriculum and policy documents on the official website of the National Agency for Education affiliated to the Ministery of Education and Research and other official website in Sweden, along with the early childhood curriculum and policy documents obtained from the archives of the Board of Education and General Directorate of Support Services affiliated to the Ministry of National Education in Turkey. Secondary documents reviewed for the this study are UNESCO, OECD, Eurydice reports and international publications regarding the research topic such as books, research studies, articles etc. The findings of the study indicated that in Sweden early childhood policies were mainly based on gender equality, women's participation in workforce, ensuring children's rights and providing lifelong learning for children, while in Turkey these policies were mainly based on the importance of supporting children's learning and development. The social and economic arguments and justifications of these aforementioned policies in Turkey were not clarified as satisfactorily as in Sweden. The policy differences between these two countries have been influential in the historical development of the curriculum, at the ages covered by the curriculum, in the curriculum structure, in the similarity of each curriculum developed at different times and even in the consistency within the curriculum itself. Another finding was that the goals and objectives of the curriculum are influenced by countries' own socio-political contexts. Finally, the study showed that in the development process of the curricula policy tools varied across countries.