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This article explores preschool teachers’ experiences of conducting analysis of their own and each other’s spontaneously arising teaching situations. Grounded in an ecological perspective on teachers’ agency, the study addresses two central questions: (1) What prerequisites appear to be essential for enabling preschool teachers to conduct analysis of teaching in spontaneous situations? (2) What insights do preschool teachers gain through such analyses, and how do these contribute to developing their teaching? The study draws on a one-year Swedish research and development project involving three researchers and 50 preschool teachers. Data were collected through notes documented by both researchers and preschool teachers. Key prerequisites identified include access to continuing professional development, opportunities for collaborative reflection work, and dedicated time for analysis. The use of an analysis tool aligned with teachers’ perceptions of core preschool values and practices also proved beneficial. Through their analysis, teachers gained awareness of their own interactions with the children and the children’s interests. However, connecting spontaneous situations to specific curriculum goals emerged as more of a challenging aspect of the process.

In this article we explore how children's opportunities for subject-related learning in Nordic early childhood education and care (ECEC) depend on intra-actions between the physical environment, gender norms, and the relevant learning content. We apply a socio-material perspective and draw on three Swedish ECEC studies, in which the learning content was related to physics, dance, and environmental sustainability, respectively. The analyses illustrate how socio-material intra-actions encouraged or impeded certain bodily encounters, thereby encouraging or impeding certain kinds of subject-related learning.

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) is changing across Europe, reflecting multiple policy intentions and assumptions about education in early years, and the role of the state in supporting, funding and regulating its institutions. In this article, we examine the evolution of ECEC comparatively in Finland and Sweden, and we explore the shifts in goals, governance mechanisms and policy ideas that have characterised reforms in the sector. We draw on an analysis of policy documents, and argue that the incremental changes achieved over the last 50 years have been in response to changing goals assigned to ECEC and ideas about its roles and functions as part of the welfare and education sectors. The power of ideas in effecting policy change is tempered by established institutional framings, yet is visible in the early dominance of child-centred ideas, and the later controversies over the emergent labour-market and education-driven rationales of the post-2010s.

Detta kapitel handlar om hur, med vilket innehåll och med vilka resurser en ny läroplan för förskolan iscensätts av kommunala tjänstemän i arbetet med rektorerna i en svensk kommun. Studien genomförs som en fallstudie med intervjuer och observationer. Genom ett policy enactmentperspektiv i enlighet med Braun, Ball, Maguire och Hoskins analyseras olika kontextuella dimensioner i studien: situerad, extern, professionell och materiell kontext. Resultatet visar värdet av att kunna använda en redan inarbetad organisation med regelbundna träffar med samtliga kommunala rektorer för förskolan. Förändringar i förskolans nya läroplan tas emot positivt av de kommunala tjänstemännen, och Skolverket framstår som den externa kontext som de visar stor tilltro till. Tjänstemännens egen professionserfarenhet från iscensättande av tidigare läroplaner ligger till grund för att de nu vill borga för likvärdighet mellan förskolor genom att ge samma information och material till samtliga rektorer. I detta arbete utgår de från arbetssätt och en del material som tillhandahålls av Skolverket. Det läroplansinnehåll som framför allt framställs som grundläggande och särskilt utmanande i studien är undervisning och förskollärares utökade pedagogiska ansvar. Genom ingående och praxisnära studier över tid bidrar detta kapitel till forskningsfältet i pedagogiskt arbete med kunskap om huvudmannanivån i förskolan.

The aim of this article is to acquire knowledge regarding children’s influence and the construction of gender during free play situations in preschools in different local contexts. Attention is focused on both children’s choices and pedagogical practices in which free play takes place. The research draws on ethnographic studies based on participant observation and group interviews of teachers and children in different contexts (high-income, immigrant, rural). Following deep immersion in the data, interpreted through the lens of Basil Bernstein’s conceptualisation of power and control, in combination with gender theories, the research finds that play choices are strongly affected by norms and by what is “on offer” in the different preschool contexts. The analysis shows two dominant patterns of play that are salient; gender-stereotyped choices primarily divided into “girl and boy groups”, and mixed choices with no clear gender-based division. The article argues that free play provides good opportunities to resolve the tensions between gender equality and steering of teachers, especially when clear pedagogical ideas guide the play offer in preschools. In such cases, gender equality and teacher influence can work in synergy in order to allow children’s influence on free play to emerge without contradicting gender equality ideas.

Andelen nyanlända familjer med barn som börjar i förskolan i Sverige har ökat under senare år. Detta ger många möjligheter, men ställer även stora krav på förskollärare att kunna arbeta utifrån respekt för allas olikhet och lika värde.