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.