Inclusive ideals and special educational tools in and out of tact : didactical voices on teaching in language and communication in Swedish early childhood education

The aim of this research is to highlight didactical voices on inclusive ideals and special educational tools noted in the written reflections of 178 preschool teachers in 10 Swedish municipalities. The research questions are as follows: How do preschool teachers signify inclusive ideals in written reflections of teaching in language and communication in preschools? Which special educational tools emerge in the written reflections about teaching in language and communication in preschool, and how are these tools said to be used? The material was analysed with multi-voiced didactic modelling and didactical tact as a theoretical base. The results show that there are didactical voices on inclusion in the analysed material. The core foundation of the teaching appears to be built upon inclusive ideals where all children are involved, included and part of the group. Utterances of a more individual character are sparingly present. In our interpretation, the (special) educational tools that are brought to the fore are described and used in an inclusive way and are didactically modelled into more general, rather than specialised, tools.Published online: 24 Feb 2020Undi

What may characterise teaching in preschool? : The written descriptions of Swedish preschool teachers and managers in 2016

This paper addresses national concern about teaching in preschool, building on the challenges, opportunities, and requirements facing today’s preschools due to the higher expected level of preschool assignments. The aim is to build knowledge of how preschool teachers and managers from ten Swedish municipalities characterise preschool teaching. The material was generated in a 2016 survey completed by 243 respondents (91% response rate). A didactics-oriented textual analysis referred to Kansanen’s (1993) three-level schema comprising the action, theoretical, and meta-theoretical levels and the results identify eight distinctive traces ranging from the rejection to the recognition of preschool teaching. Recognition traces emphasise wide-ranging, diffuse, and child-centred teaching. The results indicate that traces of the action level are more prominent and ‘multivocal’ than are traces of the theoretical and meta-theoretical levels. Overall, the combined analytical results support the concept of ‘diffuse multivocal teaching’

Att skapa läroplan för de yngsta barnen i förskolan. Barns perspektiv och nuets didaktik

This thesis takes as one point of departure the concept of the expanded curriculum where curricula encompass both the formal steering documents, as well as that which goes on within the framework of preschool education and through the actors in preschools. The overarching purpose is therefore to generate knowledge about what conditions for learning the work of teachers make possible when curricula are created in preschool settings for children aged between 1 and 3. The purpose is also to contribute with knowledge about what these created curricula would mean for children’s agency, and the importance they can have for children’s opportunities for learning and development. The three empirical studies consist of digitally recorded interviews with teachers and video observations with a focus on teachers’ communication with children in preschool. The discussion in the overarching text is constructed around three aspects that emerge in the overall results of the studies. First, the studies reveal how teachers’ work can be likened to a limiting curriculum which, on the one hand, is entirely child-centered, with the children as seen actors, but, on the other, can be interpreted as entirely teacher-centered. Secondly, there is the discussion about the affirmative curriculum, where children are presented as affirmed actors. In other words, content becomes those things that children are interested in, and their modes of expression are seen, affirmed and often repeated. Finally there is the discussion about the possibilities and dilemmas related to an expanding curriculum where children are regarded and treated as real actors in the sense that their intentions and expressions are taken seriously as relevant challenges. The current curriculum text for Swedish preschool can, in this sense, be seen as an obstacle in that its formulations are extremely broad-based, as discussed related to the results of this thesis