The aim of the study is to explore how Nordic Early Childhood Education and Carepolicies frame values education in preschools with a special focus on the values ofdemocracy, caring and competence. The study is part of a larger Nordic project, Valueseducation in Nordic preschools: Basis of education for tomorrow, the aim of which isto explore values education from various perspectives, policy levels, institutional levelsand personal levels. The study applies Habermas’s theoretical ideas of communicativeactions, lifeworld, and the system. Here the focus is on the system level, namely, valuesin national curriculum guidelines that serve as the basis of pedagogical practices inpreschools in the Nordic countries. Thematic research analysis described by Braun andClarke inspired the qualitative analysis of the documents. In addition, a quantitativelanguage-based approach was applied to the study. Keywords related with democratic,caring and competence values were selected. The findings reveal different dimensionsand meanings of the three value fields, such as democracy as being and/or becoming;care as fulfilment of basic needs and an ethical relationship; and competence values aslearning for sociality and academic skills.