Yliopistollisen harjoittelupäiväkodin opettajat uuden toimintajärjestelmän äärellä

This article examines the development of the work of early childhood education and early childhood special education teachers in Finland's first university-owned early childhood education and care (ECEC) centre during the first year of its operation. The analysis focuses on teachers’ activity system and on identifying its inner contradictions and the suggestions for formed solutions. The theoretical background of the study is applied from the cultural-historical activity theory and Engeström's (1995) methodology of developmental work research. The data were collected in 2021, during the Covid-19 pandemic, when Early Childhood and Teacher Education Centre (ECTEC) Rauman pikkunorssi started its operations at the Rauma campus of the University of Turku. Data, i.e. remotely organised meetings (N=7) and diaries (N=10) of teachers as well as meeting memos (N=7) of the Pikkunorssi Team, were analysed abductively. As a result, the teacher’s activity system in ECTEC Rauman pikkunorssi is presented. Additionally, contradictions in teachers' activity system and suggestions for their resolution, especially from the point of view of academic collaboration, are presented.