Family day care providers operate at the interface of the private and the public. They are self-employed and work at home, yet their 'suitability' to provide childcare is scrutinised by officials and rules and regulations operating on different levels which can restrict their business opportunities. Family day care takes place in a particular cultural context concerning ideas of childrearing and against the backdrop of other childcare and educational provision. The focus of the thesis is the family day care provider, one of the members in the childcare triangle of child, parents and childcare worker. Previous research was mainly interested in the quality of childcare provided and parents' satisfaction. Here working conditions, such as hours worked, workload, income are examined, as are career prospects. Who are the women who become family day care providers and how do they see their future? The daily routines of family day care providers are examined and possible detenninants investigated. However, perceived needs of children may differ from demands arising out of parents' reason for using this kind of childcare service. Family day care providers accounts are examined in order to identify the various aspects of childcare arrangements and how to develop relationships that promote successful arrangements. Since family day care takes place in the home other family members are part of the setting and are affected by their mother's or wife's work. At the same time their contribution to the work of a family day care provider has to be included in the investigation ofthe working conditions. The comparison of family day care providers living in two different locations, four local authorities in the Northeast of England and one town in the Northeast of Germany allows the influence of family and childcare policies and the impact of cultural perceptions of good childrearing practices to be traced. A combination of quantitative and qualitative methods was employed. Apart from new insights into the actual working conditions of family day care providers, a better understanding of the intended and unintended effects of policies regulating family day care has been gained. The findings contribute to the debate on paid and unpaid work, and paid and unpaid care, as well as to the debate over equal opportunities, showing a more complicated relationship than just a gendered division.

Le but de cette étude est d'apporter un éclairage sur la contribution peu reconnue des assistantes maternelles à titre non permanent dans le développement psychoaffectif du jeune enfant. Notre objectif a été de mettre en évidence le développement de « l'intelligence au travail » (C. Dejours, 1993) des assistantes maternelles à partir d'un paradigme « d'ergologie clinique » (Y. Clot, 1999). Pour cela, nous avons posé 3 hypothèses de travail : 1) les assistantes maternelles développent une intelligence secondaire à l'expérience au travail dans les « fonctions de maternage » (D.W. Winnicott, 1969). 2) Les assistantes maternelles développent une intelligence secondaire à l'expérience au travail dans les « fonctions tierces » (F. Dolto, 1984). 3) Les assistantes maternelles développent une intelligence secondaire à l'expérience au travail sous la forme de « stratégies défensives » (C. Dejours, 1993 ; P. Molinier, 2006). La population a été constituée en 2 groupes : 3 assistantes maternelles « novices » et 3 assistantes maternelles « expertes ». La méthodologie consistait en une méthode qualitative de recueil de données (entretiens semi-directifs avec consigne d' « instruction au sosie » et « auto-confrontation croisée ») et une méthode qualitative de traitement des données (analyse clinique thématique et analyse linguistique de l'énonciation). Cette analyse a permis de valider les hypothèses de recherche et d'identifier les qualités, savoir-faire et stratégies défensives aboutissant à l'efficience au travail auprès des jeunes enfants. / The purpose of the study is to shed light on the unknown contribution of the childminders in the psycho-emotional development of young children. Our goal was to highlight the development of « intelligence at work » (C. Dejours, 1993) of the childminders from a paradigm of « ergology clinic » (Y. Clot, 1999). For this, we asked three working hypotheses : 1) the childminders develop a secondary intelligence at work experience in the « functions of mothering » (D.W. Winnicott, 1969). 2) The nurses develop a secondary intelligence at work experience in the « paternal function » (F. Dolto, 1984). 3) The childminders develop a secondary intelligence at work experience in the form of « defensive strategies » (C. Dejours, 1993; P. Molinier, 2006). The population was incorporated into 2 groups : 3 childminders « novices » and 3 childminders « expert ». The methodology consisted of a qualitative method of data collection (semi-structured interviews with « instruct the double » and « self-confrontation cross ») and a qualitative method of data processing (clinical thematic analysis and analysis of the linguistic utterance). This analysis was used to validate the research hypotheses and identify the qualities, knowhow, skills and defensive strategies leading to efficiency in working with young children.

This scientific essay starts with a description of a dilemma that I as a childminder find hard to handle. The story is reproducing an incident where this day care child -John- is getting an outburst that is affecting many persons in the group activity local for childminders. The problems that are created by the repeated defiant and unwieldy outbursts by this boy are challenging to handle. I have got certain experiences of children with special needs, but that competence is not sufficient in this case. The text also describes the doubt if a single childminder really is capable to handle a child that is demanding a lot more assistance than what is normal among day care children. Is it possible to offer all the children secure attention and interesting learning when one of them is demanding extra attention and support? Would an single-handed educator be able to help the boy to function better in social contexts? When I reflect over my dilemma, I am framing my questions. Through the writing I seek a deeper insight about what solutions eventually turns out to work for the challenging child. As a result of this examining writing process, I have found that the including of the child in the day care group was successful beyond expectation. The relation between me and the child is developing in a positive way when I choose to handle his tantrums in a less emotional way. An empathic approach and dialogues opens up for a cooperation which give the child possibilities to become a participant and able to affect his everyday situation at the family day care. The smaller group is a postulate for the positive development taking place within the boy. According to me, professional childminders should have a natural place as carers to children who for various reasons do not work or thrive in larger groups. The essay also includes explorations of other educators experiences in the form of participating observations on a preschool. The initial report, the observations, the empirical analysis and the result are all linked together with the theories of practical knowledge, my reflections, new insights, theoretical knowledge, research and literature that strengthen these. The practical knowledge is running like a red thread through the text. / Den här vetenskapliga essän börjar med en beskrivning av ett dilemma, som jag som dagbarnvårdare, upplever svårhanterligt. Berättelsen återger en incident där dagbarnet, John får ett utbrott, som påverkar många personer på dagbarnvårdarnas gruppverksamhet. Problemen som pojkens återkommande trotsiga och svårhanterliga anfall orsakar är utmanande att handskas med. Viss erfarenhet av barn med speciella behov har jag men den kompetensen räcker inte till i det här fallet. Jag funderar över vilken inverkan pojkens raserianfall har på de andra barnen och vuxna i gruppverksamheten -både i den större och mindre gruppen som barnet vistas i. I texten beskrivs också tvivlet över huruvida en ensam arbetande dagbarnvårdare är kapabel att hantera ett barn, som kräver betydande assistans utöver det som dagbarn vanligtvis gör. Kan en pedagog på egen hand hjälpa pojken att fungera bättre i socialt kontext? När jag reflekterar över mitt dilemma så väcks mina frågeställningar. Genom skrivandet söker jag en djupare insikt om det som med tiden visar sig fungera för det utmanande barnet. Till följd av den här granskande skrivprocessen har jag kommit fram till att inkludering av barnet i dagbarnsgruppen lyckades över förväntan. Relationen mellan barnet och mig utvecklas positivt när jag väljer att hantera de problematiska utbrotten mindre emotionellt. Empatiskt förhållningssätt och samtal öppnar till ett samarbete, som ger barnet möjlighet att vara delaktig och påverka sin vardag på familjedaghemmet. Den mindre gruppen är en förutsättning för den gynnsamma utvecklingen som sker hos pojken. Enligt mig bör yrkesgruppen dagbarnvårdare ha sin givna plats som omsorgsgivare för barn som inte av olika anledningar trivs eller mår bra i större grupper. Uppsatsen innehåller även ett utforskande av andra pedagogers erfarenheteri form av deltagande observationer på en förskola. Den inledande berättelsen, observationerna, analysenav empirin samt resultatet knyts samman med den praktiska kunskapens teori, mina reflektioner, nya insikter, teoretiska kunskaper, forskning och litteratur som stärker dessa. Den praktiska kunskapen går som en röd tråd genom texten.

Since 1960s, preschools have been important parts both of Swedish welfare and of labour market policies. The preschool thus constitutes a very important site for rearing and educating young children. Reforms of the Swedish preschool in the 1990s concerning both accessibility and quality were introduced at a time when the economy of the municipalities dramatically deteriorated because of reductions in State subsidies. The strained economy of the State and the municipalities, has resulted, among other things, in a growing number of children in preschool groups and pressure to change organization and pedagogical content. These changes took place in a time of decentralization where the responsibility for organization of preschools was given to the municipalities. Changes in economy, organization and curriculum form the background for this study. The purpose of the study is to examine and understand how preschool working teams shape and realize the pedagogical practice and how working conditions affect this process. The approach of the study is interpretative, where the interpretative perspective is mainly represented by activity theory and theories of cultural reproduction. Three aspects of the actions are observed: the object of the actions, the instruments mediating the actions and the content of mediating actions. Bernstein’s concepts classification and framing are used as tools in analysing the empirical data. The interpretative, empirical study is based on qualitative data collected mainly by observations and interviews. Three preschools are chosen for the study. The preschools in the study are located in two municipalities in the north of Sweden, representing three different environments. All preschools receive children one to five years old. The personnel consist of preschool teachers and childminders working in teams. Eleven of them where interviewed. The study shows that daily routines both shape and restrict practices in preschools. The work is mainly focused on care giving, where the children are supposed to adapt to and subordinate themselves to the norms and to the existing routines. The children’s influence varies between organized activities, where they have little influence, and play time, where they can choose what to do. It also varies between the preschools, where the preschool with children from more affluent families have more freedom than children from the multicultural, lower-income environment do. The work is collectively oriented toward training adaptation, but also, to a certain extent, training for autonomy and responsibility taking. Organization of learning activities often takes the form of transmitting information. The informants regard themselves as caregivers with the main purpose to mediate security and create conditions for the children to develop socially. The changes in conditions emanating from political decisions have brought new working tasks to the preschools and have reduced the level of resources at the same time as the demands made are experienced as being harder. This creates frustration and tends to result in lower levels of ambition.

This essay concerns practical knowledge and examines preschool teachers experience of responsibility in preschool. The material is obtained through four interviews with preschool teachers. Data have been analysed with a hermeneutic approach and the discussion is based on reasoning about responsibility. My questions are: How do preschool teachers reason about responsibility concerning their professional role in preschool? How do preschool teachers experience joint responsibility for their childcare colleagues and the work team in the preschool? The results show that preschool teachers develop strategies for taking responsibility, but feel uncertain about childminders’  responsibility in preschool. This results in preschool teachers taking more responsibility for compensating for this uncertainty. / Denna uppsats är en studie i praktisk kunskap och undersöker förskollärares erfarenheter av ansvar i förskolan. Materialet erhålls genom fyra intervjuer med förskollärare. Data har analyserats med en hermeneutisk metod och diskuteras utifrån resonemang kring ansvar. Mina frågor är: Hur erfar förskollärare sin yrkesrolls ansvar i förskolan? Hur erfar förskollärare sina banskötarkollegors och arbetslagets gemensamma ansvar i förskolan? Resultatet visar att förskollärare utarbetat strategier för ansvarstagande men känner en osäkerhet kring vilket ansvar barnskötare har i förskolan. Detta resulterar i att förskollärare tar mer ansvar för att kompensera för denna osäkerhet.