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Knowledge about how quality in extended education is defined, formulated, and communicated regarding quality-related problems in educational practices, and school leaders’ roles in these processes is limited. This article presents findings from research focusing on educational quality in extended education in Sweden (commonly known as School-age educare) is defined by school leaders in one Swedish municipality. The data examined written documents associated with governance and organizations of School-age educare created by school leaders at different levels of one Swedish municipality. The analysis of data was based on the concepts of Bernstein’s pedagogical codes (2003), and from Scherp and Scherp's School organization model (2007). The results revealed that the educational-pedagogical code dominated, and the leisure-pedagogical and social-pedagogical codes only appeared sporadically in the analyzed documents. A new ‘educational-economic’ pedagogical code emerged during analysis. It included formulations indicating that quality can be addressed by economic actions. The analyzed documents revealed power structures between different levels of school leaders, and also a lack of shared understanding and definition of quality in extended education. School leaders should discuss, and agree on, what quality in extended education includes and not only rely on quantitative and measurable aspects of this educational practice.

Research topic/aim: In 2016 the Swedish school-age educare (SAE) got an explicit part in the curriculum. In that text the concept of teaching was introduced in an explicit way for a profession that formerly hadn’t used teaching to describe their work.

The aim of this study is to contribute with knowledge about the negotiations that are expressed when the curriculum text is interpreted and realized in SAE practice.

Theoretical framework: To analyse and understand the negotiations when the curriculum text is realised in pedagogical practice, parts of Bernstein’s code theory is used. The strength/weakness of the classification and framing of a pedagogical practice constitutes an important basic structure in what Bernstein calls the pedagogical code (Bernstein, 2000). 

Methodological design: Interviews with principals and staff were conducted in six SAEs. This method was chosen to capture unique features and identify common patterns both of interpretation of the curriculum text, and how the curriculum was realised in SAE practice.

The results show that acceptance of the strongly educationally coded concept of teaching was greater in comparison to the commentary material during the formulation process. In particular, staff with pedagogical education at university level with a focus on SAE had reinterpreted the concept of teaching and given it a wider meaning so that it better suited the activities coded in social pedagogy and leisure pedagogy they carried out.

The introduction of the curriculum text had contributed to increased legitimacy for the SAE practice and strengthened the SAE staff in their professional role, but the organisation of the activities, the access to common planning time, the access to their own premises and whether the staff had educational training at university level with a focus on SAE affected the staff's ability to carry out the teaching that is outlined in part four of the curriculum. Unequal power arrangements between after-school centers and schools emerged in both the formulation arena and the realisation arena, and the weaker classified and framed after-school activities were often subordinated to the more strongly classified and framed school activities in the realisation arena.

This shows that the formulation and realization of a part of the curriculum is a complicated process and that in the realisation arena there are negotiations about how the formulated curriculum is to be interpreted and implemented in pedagogical practice. Those who shall interpret and implement the curriculum in practice are working in contexts characterized by pedagogical traditions and are subject to different conditions. Hence, a curriculum text receives partly different interpretations and is realized in partly different ways in different practices.

Relevance to Nordic educational research: This study is of relevance to Nordic educational research since there are both similarities and differences between the Nordic countries in how the practice of childcare for school aged children is organized and governed.

References:

Bernstein, B. (2000). Pedagogy, symbolic control and identity : theory, research, critique (Rev. ed.). Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

The aim of this study is to contribute with knowledge about the negotiations behind formulating part four of the Swedish curriculum Lgr 11, with a focus on pedagogical codes and power relations between school and school-age educare (SAE), as well as the negotiations that are expressed when the curriculum text is interpreted and realised in SAE practice.

To reach this aim, parts of Bernstein’s code theory is used. The strength/weakness of the classification and framing of a pedagogical practice constitutes an important basic structure in what Bernstein calls the pedagogical code (Bernstein, 2000). 

In the formulation arena, a thematic analysis was conducted on comments in working-documents, to identify the major negotiations throughout the formulation process. In the realisation arena, interviews with principals and staff were conducted in six SAEs, to capture unique features and identify common patterns both of interpretation of the curriculum text, and how the curriculum was realised in SAE practice.

The results show that the comments indicate that the commenters perceived the proposal texts as too strongly educational-pedagogically coded, and during the formulation process they influenced the text so that its social-pedagogical and leisure-pedagogical coding was reinforced to some extent.

In the realisation arena, the acceptance of the strongly educational-pedagogical coded concept of teaching was greater than in the comment material. In particular, staff with pedagogical education at university level with a focus on SAE had reinterpreted the concept of teaching and given it a wider meaning so that it better suited their social-pedagogically and leisure-pedagogically coded practices. The introduction of the curriculum text had also contributed to increased legitimacy for the SAE practice and strengthened the SAE staff in their professional role. However, frame factors like the organisation of the practices, the access to shared planning time, the access to their own premises, and whether the staff had educational training at university level with a focus on SAE affected the staff's ability to carry out the teaching as outlined in part four. Unequal power relations between SAEs and schools emerged in both the formulation arena and the realisation arena, and the weaker classified and framed SAE was often subordinated to the more strongly classified and framed school in the realisation arena.

This shows that the formulation and realisation of a curriculum text is a complex process and that there are negotiations in the realisation arena about how the formulated curriculum can be interpreted and realised in pedagogical practice. Those who are supposed to interpret and realise the curriculum in practice, work in contexts characterised by pedagogical traditions and under different conditions, which means that a curriculum text receives somewhat different interpretations and is therefore realised in different ways in different practices.

Swedish school-age educare is a comprehensive practice for children in the ages 6 to 12, that is governed by the same curriculum as the compulsory school. The curriculum was revised in 2016 with a new part that focused the practice in school-age educare. This paper aims to explore which issues and areas that have beenthe subject of discussion during the formulation and referral process preceding the introduction of the revised curriculum.

The paper is part of a doctoral project and theoretically inspired by policy enactment (Ball, 2012). A policy textis not simply implemented into practice, but translated from text in to practice in a process related to the history and context of the practice including the resources available. Local actors have to navigate and reinterpret among different policies and other requirements and demands. They are not only implementers of policies, but are actively taking part in the process to put the policy into practice (Ball, 2012).

The data consist of documents created during the formulation process. In this process different interest groups (e.g., municipalities, universities, and school-age educare teachers) were invited to comment on drafts of the curriculum text. The documents comprise 320 pages. A content analysis (Graneheim & Lundman, 2004) resulted in three categories of core content; 'teaching', 'the task of school-age educare' and 'play'.

A preliminary conclusion is that the actors advocated that the curriculum text should use concepts derived from the social pedagogical tradition, where the school-age educare originates, rather than the tradition where the compulsory school derives from.

References:

Ball, S. J. (2012). How schools do policy : policy enactments in secondary schools. London: Routledge. Graneheim, & Lundman. (2004). Qualitative content analysis in nursing research: concepts, procedures andmeasures to achieve trustworthiness. Nurse Education Today, 24(2), 105–112.

This study aims to explore which issues and areas that have been the subject of discussion during the formulation and referral process preceding the introduction of a revised curriculum for Swedish school-age educare. Swedish school-age educare is a comprehensive practice for children in the ages six to twelve, that is governed by the same curriculum as the compulsory school. The curriculum was revised in 2016 with a new part that focused the practice in school-age educare. The design of the doctoral project is inspired by policy enactment. This paper presents a content analysis of documents created during the referral process. In this process different interest groups (i.e., representatives of municipalities, teacher unions, universities, researchers in the field and school-age educare teachers) were invited to commented on drafts of the curriculum text. The documents comprise 320 pages. The content analysis of the text documents resulted in three categories of core content; ‘teaching’, ‘the task of school-age educare’ and ‘play’.

The aim of this study is to explore the process of introducing a revised curriculum for the Swedish leisure-time centres (which was introduced 2016); to analyse the process of formulating the added curriculum text, how leisure-time centre teachers interpret and re-contextualise the text in their practice, and how formulation-, interpretation-, and realization processes relate to and affect each other: RQ1; What has affected the content in part four in the curriculum and which areas have been the subject of discussion during the formulation process? RQ2; How do leisure-time centre teachers, headmasters and civil servants interpret the new part of the curriculum and do they express that the text has affected the practice in the leisure-time centre? RQ3; To what extent and if so, how is the practice in the leisure-time centres affected by the clearer governance in the curriculum? The theoretical framework builds on concepts of policy enactment. A policy text is not simply implemented into practice. It has to be translated from text in to action in the practice, and this process is related to the history and context of the practice and the resources that are available. Local actors have to navigate and reinterpret among different policies and other requirements and demands. They are not only implementers of policies, but can actively take part in the process to put the policy into practice (Ball, 2012).  This paper focuses on results from the first research question. The analysis is based on documents from the Swedish National Agency for Education and includes responses from the referral process where different interest groups, like municipalities, teacher unions, universities, researchers in the field and leisure-time centre teachers, had the opportunity to send in their view on the draft of the text. The document also comprises texts from the reference group that worked with the development of the curriculum text. The documents comprise 320 pages in total. The method used for this part of the study is a text analysis of the documents where different themes will be identified further on in the process.  Preliminary findings show that the term ‘teaching’ causes most comments and discussions. The majority of the comments are negative towards the use of teaching for describing leisure-time centres’ learning environments. There is a concern that the use of this term will make the practice in leisure-time centres become more school-like, and this is not perceived as something positive. They mean that the term excludes important parts of the leisure-time centres core, the caring, learning and the situational and spontaneous. The results from this study can be of relevance for the NERA conference since there are both similarities and differences in how the Nordic countries organize and governs their school-aged childcare.   

References

Ball, S. J. (2012). How schools do policy : policy enactments in secondary schools. London [u.a.: London u.a. Routledge.