The article investigates the ongoing reformulation of the institutional culture of early childhood education and care (ECEC) in Finnish evening ECEC. Educators’ practices in implementing evening ECEC were explored and viewed through the lens of young children’s belonging. Data were collected by observing the evenings of eight children aged 20–36 months in two Finnish centers offering flexibly scheduled ECEC and analyzed using qualitative thematic analysis. Three main themes of educators’ practices were identified: (1) managing a unique and changing social group, (2) fostering homeliness, and (3) maintaining routines and institutional order. While these practices mostly contributed to child-responsive interactions supportive of young children’s belonging, in some of them individual children’s initiatives were not responded to, thereby challenging their belonging. Overall, educators’ practices in implementing evening ECEC manifested the orientation of the institutional culture of ECEC toward the present ideals regarding young children’s belonging.

中文翻译：

---

早期儿童早期教育和照料：重新制定机构文化

本文调查了芬兰晚间ECEC对幼儿教育和照料（ECEC）的机构文化进行的重新制定。通过幼儿的归属感，探讨并观察了教师实施夜间ECEC的实践。通过在两个提供灵活计划的ECEC的芬兰中心观察8个20-36个月大的孩子的夜晚来收集数据，并使用定性主题分析进行分析。确定了教育工作者实践的三个主要主题：（1）管理一个独特的且不断变化的社会群体；（2）养成家庭生活；（3）维护常规和制度秩序。尽管这些做法主要促进了支持幼儿归属感的互动式互动，但在某些互动中，个别儿童的倡议并未得到回应，从而挑战他们的归属感。总体而言，教育者实施夜间ECEC的实践体现了ECEC的机构文化朝着目前关于幼儿归属感的理想发展的方向。