Through the project, we wanted to gain new experiences and content for our international education, both from the perspective of daycare centre staff and children, and from the perspective of developing the entire Kerava early childhood education. The main goal of the Kerava Early Childhood Education Europe Mobility project was to strengthen the pedagogical skills and cultural awareness of educational staff by visiting day care centers and following the partners' approach to early childhood education, as well as comparing different organizations and pedagogical models. The aim was to observe and experience different learning environments, to get acquainted with local curricula and operating methods, and to reciprocally offer a large-scale and comprehensive presentation of Finnish early childhood education and experiences with colleagues in partner countries.The aim of the Mobility project was to increase the awareness about multiculturalism and internationality, to support pedagogical competence and multilingualism, and international skills. The project introduced both administrative and pedagogical models and learning environments, curricula and the organization of teaching and learning in Belgium.
We applied for the Kerava European Mobility project for early childhood education, because for several years Kerava's early childhood education has developed operating models for early childhood education for children with different linguistic and cultural backgrounds, language-rich early childhood education and international education. However, Kerava's early childhood education has not participated in Erasmus+ projects before, and we felt that through this we could develop international education and establish contacts with European colleagues. The aim of the Kerava Early Childhood Education Europe Mobility project was to increase the awareness of Kerava early childhood education staff about multiculturalism and internationality, to support pedagogical competence and multilingualism, and international skills. In Kerava's early childhood education, the pedagogical model of the activity has been project learning and the related involvement of children, for which diversity was sought through European contacts. The project introduced administrative and practical pedagogical practices, learning environments, curriculum and ways of organizing teaching and learning in Malta and Belgium, while giving new perspectives to their own work. The aim of the project was to establish European contacts with which early childhood education staff can develop co-operation projects with children. The participants in the project practiced European contact and co-operation so that European co-operation could be part of the activities of staff and children in the future. Through the project, the aim was also to deepen the language-rich teaching of early childhood education, to strengthen the language skills of early childhood educators and to expand pedagogical competence and cultural knowledge.