<p>Preschool is a central part of Swedish family life. The manner in which the state regulates preschool through laws, ordinances, and various kinds of written objectives has an impact on many people in the Swedish society. </p><p>The thesis examines the development of preschool state regulation from the 1940s until 2008. The starting point of the study is a draft for a new Education Act, put forward in 2003, which proposed that preschool should be integrated into the school system as a new form of school. The purpose of the study is to generate knowledge about the state regulation of Swedish preschool, and how it has contributed to the shaping of preschool as a societal institution. Questions considered in the analysis are how regulation delimits preschool as a social category, what role this regulation assigns preschool in relation to other actors and societal institutions involved in early childhood education and care, and what principles this regulation is based on.</p><p>The study has evolved within the research tradition of curriculum theory as developed in studies in educational politics. The analysis is carried out as a text analysis, where the concepts of boundary work, official classification and activity system serve as important analytical tools. Texts produced within the formal chain of decision and legislation: directives for committees, government white papers, ministerial task forces, bills, legislative texts etc., form the empirical foundation for the study. </p><p>The analysis shows that economic as well as legal and ideological governing instruments are used in the shaping of the framework of preschool. These frameworks are indicated in the form of different boundary markers that delimit preschool as a specific category and arrange it in relation to other categories. The boundaries indicated by these boundary markers have been subject to extensive discussion during the formulation process. Through this boundary work, preschool has been constructed as a full time preschool, commissioned to provide both education and care. The boundaries of this commission are in some respects indistinct and contain several overlapping elements with regards to family, social services and school. At the same time, preschool holds a fixed core with more distinct boundaries, in the form of a part time public preschool delimited by time and age and regulated by far-reaching legislation regarding the rights of children to attend. Owing to this construction, preschool may balance several different and partly contradictory demands placed on it by other institutions and by different interest groups, while at the same time maintaining a core of identity of its own. In that sense, preschool may be described as a boundary object. Thus, when it is suggested that preschool should constitute a form of school and be placed in the more formal regulation structures of the school system, the balance of this construction is challenged. </p>

Life course literature states that early childhood development (ECD) can influence most aspects of health throughout the life-cycle. Canada ranked last among 25 wealthy nations in meeting ECD objectives. Fewer than 5% of children born have clinically detectable shortcomings in developmental health, increasing to 26% by school age with emerging socioeconomic associations. Understanding how social determinants of health (SDH) influence ECD at the household and neighbourhood scales would help identify conditions for optimal developmental outcomes. The effects of SDH on ECD in the Kingston, Ontario area were studied. SDH were classified via marginalization (ONMarg) and deprivation (Pampalon) indices. ECD was measured via 2006 Early Development Instrument (EDI) scores for children most at risk upon school entry (Grade One). The basic spatial unit of analysis was 2006 Census of Canada Dissemination Areas, subdivided into quintiles of deprivation (Q1 being the least deprived and Q5 the most). EDI results from each of the quintiles within the two indices were compared and then combined. The socioeconomic health gradient assumes that EDI scores will directly correlate to material and social deprivation. Social deprivation had a slightly greater impact than material deprivation on children’s developmental vulnerability, with Q5 being the most vulnerable in all competencies. Surprisingly, emotional health and social competence were significant areas of vulnerability for children in Q1 and Q2. “Village effects” – when social determinants at the neighbourhood level have protective effects on ECD despite material deprivation at the household level – were present within the Q3 and Q4 groups for the domains of social competency and emotional health. While the highest proportions of early childhood developmental vulnerability are found within the most deprived households, the largest numbers of vulnerable children are spread throughout the middle-class in a variety of neighbourhoods. Canadian policy should focus on mediating avoidable risks within this critical time to avoid future deleterious health effects and costs. Mapping the effects of SDH at the neighbourhood level generates knowledge that informs intersectoral action by policy makers to provide the supports needed to foster healthy children. / Thesis (Master, Geography) -- Queen's University, 2013-05-04 10:36:25.165

O atendimento á infância na maioria dos países ocidentais encontra-se ainda em estágio crítico. Os serviços oferecidos são fragmentados, inflexíveis, incoerentes e segregados, refletindo cisão entre as ações de cuidar e educar a criança pequena. Essa tese é o resultado de um longo percurso em busca de possíveis determinantes desse quadro e de elementos que pudessem conformar um modelo de atendimento unificado e responsivo às necessidades, interesses e potencialidades das crianças e suas famílias. Assim, um modelo de sistema unificado de cuidado e educação infantil foi sendo construído a partir de premissas lançadas em estudo anterior (Haddad, 1991) e ampliado com visitas de estudo a países da Europa ocidental, o contato com o trabalho desenvolvido pela Rede Européia de Atendimento Infantil e, mais especificamente, o conhecimento dos sistemas de atendimento infantil dos países escandinavos. Partindo do pressuposto de que um sistema unificado de atendimento infantil deve apoiar-se numa perspectiva de desenvolvimento humano, suficientemente ampla para incluir as forças provenientes dos ambientes sociais, econômicos e culturais que afetam o desenvolvimento, a teoria ecológica do desenvolvimento humano de Urie Bronfenbrenner (1996) passou a constituir-se a referência básica desse estudo. As informações reunidas nesse trabalho assinalam a coerência entre os aspectos filosóficos, políticos e práticos, a responsabilidade partilhada entre família e poder público, unidade de objetivos e funções, profissionalização, universalização do atendimento, diversidade, continuidade e flexibilidade nos serviços oferecidos como as principais características que compõem um sistema unificado de cuidado e educação infantil. / In most Western countries, the public child care is still in a critical stage. The services offered are fragmented, inflexible, incoherent and segregated, reflecting the division between care and education of young children. This thesis is the result of a long search for possible determinants of this picture and for elements that could comply with a unified model for child care and early childhood education that would meet the needs, interests and potentialities of children and their families. Hence, a model for unified system of care and education has been constructed from the premises launched in previous study (Haddad, 1991) and has been enlarged by study visits to Western European countries, the contact with the work developed by the European Childcare Network, and more specifically, by learning about the Scandinavian child care systems. Starting from the presupposition that an integrated system of care and education must be supported by a broad perspective of human development which includes the strengths forthcoming from social, economic and cultural environments that affect the development, the ecology of human development of Urie Bronfenbrenner (1996) became the basic reference to this study. The data gathered in this work signalizes the main characteristics of a unified system of care and education for young children: the coherence between philosophical, political and practical aspects; the shared responsibility between family and public power; the unity of objectives and functions; professionalism; universal aims, diversity, continuity and flexibility in the services offered.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T14:32:50Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Hilda Lucia Cerminaro Sarti.pdf: 1032420 bytes, checksum: 8c7cb6608a7ad2fb2d52151aad17ce2c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-06-21 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This work analyzes the knowledge of teachers of children aged zero to three, examining their daily practices basis, in the context of a municipal early childhood education center in the city of São Paulo. The study was a research-action: it used observation video registers of four teachers daily routines, working with three groups of children, at four moments: stories telling, feeding, playing and contact with the families. The filmed registers were then commented by them, in individual interviews and in pairs, with the aim of getting their interpretations about the scenes and their explanations about the several sources of knowledge and experiences that based the observed practices. The several types of knowledge were perceived as adaptations, transformations and associations of theory with practice, using personal filters, in accordance with the concrete situations in the work place, having as background their professional and personal trajectory. The knowledge of the teachers are built, over time, from their life stories, their childhood memories, experiences including those as mothers, readings, courses, tastes, getting along together and observation of other professionals, knowledge of the child, contact with the families, reflections on and about the practice, availability to hear and to perceive children s needs and rhythms, in addition to the academic training. Such process is crossed by the complexity and emergence of day to day situations, when such knowledges are mobilized in order to adequately work with the child. The research concludes that, to be successful and to contribute to the improvement of small children s education, all public training policy must be based on the knowledge of the teachers work place, on their thoughts, speeches, needs and expectations, acknowledging their professional value, stimulating their protagonism as social actors and looking for ways to understand how they transform their knowledge in day to day practices, with children, their peers and families / Este trabalho analisa os saberes das professoras de crianças de zero a três anos, objetivando apreender os fundamentos de sua prática cotidiana, no contexto de uma instituição municipal de educação infantil da cidade de São Paulo. O estudo, caracterizado como pesquisa-ação, utilizou registros de observação da rotina diária de quatro professoras, atuando em três grupos de crianças em quatro momentos: histórias, alimentação, brincadeiras e contato com as famílias. Os registros filmados eram então comentados por elas em entrevistas individuais e em dupla, visando captar suas interpretações sobre as cenas e suas explicações sobre as diversas fontes de conhecimentos e experiências que fundamentaram as práticas observadas. Os diversos tipos de saberes evidenciaram-se pelas adaptações, transformações e associações da teoria com a prática, a partir de um filtro pessoal, de acordo com as situações concretas do trabalho, tendo como pano de fundo sua trajetória profissional e pessoal. Os saberes das professoras são construídos, ao longo do tempo, a partir de suas histórias de vida, suas lembranças de infância, experiências inclusive como mães, leituras, cursos, gostos, convivência e observação de outros profissionais, conhecimento da criança, contato com as famílias, reflexão na e sobre a prática, disponibilidade para ouvir e perceber as necessidades e ritmo da criança, além da formação acadêmica. Tal processo é atravessado pela complexidade e emergência de situações no cotidiano, que implicam a mobilização de saberes, para atender adequadamente à criança. A pesquisa conclui que toda política pública de formação, para ter êxito e contribuir para a melhoria da educação da criança pequena, deve ser baseada no conhecimento dos espaços de trabalho das professoras, seus pensamentos, falas, necessidades e expectativas, valorizando-as profissionalmente, estimulando seu protagonismo e buscando compreender os modos como transformam seus conhecimentos na prática cotidiana, nas relações com as crianças, com seus pares e com as famílias

在全球民營化的風潮中，臺灣地方政府已推動設置有32所公辦民營托兒所。本研究採個案研究，運用相關人士訪談、機構文件檔案、家長問卷與幼兒學習環境量表蒐集之資料，探究「臺北市政府社會局委託社團法人臺北市親子成長協會辦理吉利托兒所」的經營歷程。從承辦單位如何履行契約書中的教保服務內容，如何形塑教保品質與獲得哪些內/外在評價，以理解公辦民營幼托政策對幼托機構形塑教保品質的影響。研究結果分別從（一）過程評估觀點談公私協力關係中的曖昧現象；(二) 從建構整體教保服務生態品質觀點，論述公辦民營幼托政策於推動幼托機構設置的合理性。 / There has been a rapid growth in “privatization” over the past decade around world. Under the trend of global privatization, currently there are a total of thirty-two such publicly-funded, privately-managed day care centers in the fifteen counties of Taiwan. The purpose of this research is to inspect the influence of the Public-Private Collaboration Model on the quality of the early childhood programs. This research focuses on a case study of a publicly-funded, privately-managed day care center in Taipei in order to answer three research questions: how to implement contracts ,how to promote high-quality care in the process of managing, and what kind of outcome was achieved. Tools to collect data included interviews, documentation, questionnaires, and the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale-Revised (ECERS-R). According to the result, the paper discusses the ambiguous relationship between the government and the day care center from the viewpoint of process evaluation, and the rationality of the Public-Private Collaboration Model for the quality of early childhood care and education.

Preschool is a central part of Swedish family life. The manner in which the state regulates preschool through laws, ordinances, and various kinds of written objectives has an impact on many people in the Swedish society. The thesis examines the development of preschool state regulation from the 1940s until 2008. The starting point of the study is a draft for a new Education Act, put forward in 2003, which proposed that preschool should be integrated into the school system as a new form of school. The purpose of the study is to generate knowledge about the state regulation of Swedish preschool, and how it has contributed to the shaping of preschool as a societal institution. Questions considered in the analysis are how regulation delimits preschool as a social category, what role this regulation assigns preschool in relation to other actors and societal institutions involved in early childhood education and care, and what principles this regulation is based on. The study has evolved within the research tradition of curriculum theory as developed in studies in educational politics. The analysis is carried out as a text analysis, where the concepts of boundary work, official classification and activity system serve as important analytical tools. Texts produced within the formal chain of decision and legislation: directives for committees, government white papers, ministerial task forces, bills, legislative texts etc., form the empirical foundation for the study. The analysis shows that economic as well as legal and ideological governing instruments are used in the shaping of the framework of preschool. These frameworks are indicated in the form of different boundary markers that delimit preschool as a specific category and arrange it in relation to other categories. The boundaries indicated by these boundary markers have been subject to extensive discussion during the formulation process. Through this boundary work, preschool has been constructed as a full time preschool, commissioned to provide both education and care. The boundaries of this commission are in some respects indistinct and contain several overlapping elements with regards to family, social services and school. At the same time, preschool holds a fixed core with more distinct boundaries, in the form of a part time public preschool delimited by time and age and regulated by far-reaching legislation regarding the rights of children to attend. Owing to this construction, preschool may balance several different and partly contradictory demands placed on it by other institutions and by different interest groups, while at the same time maintaining a core of identity of its own. In that sense, preschool may be described as a boundary object. Thus, when it is suggested that preschool should constitute a form of school and be placed in the more formal regulation structures of the school system, the balance of this construction is challenged.

The aim of the study is to gain insight into Swedish preschool pedagogues’ conceptualization who work with a special outdoor learning concept, of including children with special needs within their groups. Sweden is a country which is famous for its “education for all” policy, however there is a little to know about the presence of children with special needs in the preschool setting. Children with special needs often risk being isolated as a result of limitations in the number of activities available for them in school. Although various studies examined both the effect of time spent outdoors, both inclusion’s positive effect on children with special needs. Interviews were conducted with four preschool pedagogues who work in the i Ur och Skur preschool, the outdoor education approach popular in Scandinavia. Sociocultural theory was applied as a conceptual framework for analysis of the interview transcripts. The pedagogues demonstrated to support inclusion of children with special needs in preschool activities. The pedagogues showed more willingness to include children with cognitive impairment or neurodevelopmental disorders, than with physical disabilities. Among their concerns, issues of safety, weather and the outdoor activities potential for highlighting differences in skills and abilities (mostly physical) were mentioned. In order to adapt the settings and practices to be more inclusive for children with special needs, pedagogues proposed including extra personnel to provide assistance.

O atendimento á infância na maioria dos países ocidentais encontra-se ainda em estágio crítico. Os serviços oferecidos são fragmentados, inflexíveis, incoerentes e segregados, refletindo cisão entre as ações de cuidar e educar a criança pequena. Essa tese é o resultado de um longo percurso em busca de possíveis determinantes desse quadro e de elementos que pudessem conformar um modelo de atendimento unificado e responsivo às necessidades, interesses e potencialidades das crianças e suas famílias. Assim, um modelo de sistema unificado de cuidado e educação infantil foi sendo construído a partir de premissas lançadas em estudo anterior (Haddad, 1991) e ampliado com visitas de estudo a países da Europa ocidental, o contato com o trabalho desenvolvido pela Rede Européia de Atendimento Infantil e, mais especificamente, o conhecimento dos sistemas de atendimento infantil dos países escandinavos. Partindo do pressuposto de que um sistema unificado de atendimento infantil deve apoiar-se numa perspectiva de desenvolvimento humano, suficientemente ampla para incluir as forças provenientes dos ambientes sociais, econômicos e culturais que afetam o desenvolvimento, a teoria ecológica do desenvolvimento humano de Urie Bronfenbrenner (1996) passou a constituir-se a referência básica desse estudo. As informações reunidas nesse trabalho assinalam a coerência entre os aspectos filosóficos, políticos e práticos, a responsabilidade partilhada entre família e poder público, unidade de objetivos e funções, profissionalização, universalização do atendimento, diversidade, continuidade e flexibilidade nos serviços oferecidos como as principais características que compõem um sistema unificado de cuidado e educação infantil. / In most Western countries, the public child care is still in a critical stage. The services offered are fragmented, inflexible, incoherent and segregated, reflecting the division between care and education of young children. This thesis is the result of a long search for possible determinants of this picture and for elements that could comply with a unified model for child care and early childhood education that would meet the needs, interests and potentialities of children and their families. Hence, a model for unified system of care and education has been constructed from the premises launched in previous study (Haddad, 1991) and has been enlarged by study visits to Western European countries, the contact with the work developed by the European Childcare Network, and more specifically, by learning about the Scandinavian child care systems. Starting from the presupposition that an integrated system of care and education must be supported by a broad perspective of human development which includes the strengths forthcoming from social, economic and cultural environments that affect the development, the ecology of human development of Urie Bronfenbrenner (1996) became the basic reference to this study. The data gathered in this work signalizes the main characteristics of a unified system of care and education for young children: the coherence between philosophical, political and practical aspects; the shared responsibility between family and public power; the unity of objectives and functions; professionalism; universal aims, diversity, continuity and flexibility in the services offered.

The purpose of the study is to describe how the relationship between preschool and parents is experienced in everyday life, and if there are differences based on the parents' gender. To study this, Sara Lawrence Lightfoot's sociological theory about the relationship between parents and school is used. With the support of Yvonne Hirdman's gender system, the gender perspective in the relationship is highlighted. First, parents were interviewed in groups. Then, their views were applied in the interview guide for individual interviews with preschool teachers. Through a thematic analysis became the conclusion that the relationship is perceived as mostly positive. Security, trust, individualization, good communication, consensus, authenticity are words that describe a good relationship according to the interviewees. This is achieved by prioritizing the relationship through physical meetings that are supplemented via digital platforms. There are tendencies that show that the relationship differs between mothers and fathers. Fathers tend to signal ignorance and disinterest in cooperation. For practical reasons, it is therefore easier for mothers to be responsible for the primary responsibility for a functioning everyday life. This means that preschool staff choose to contact mothers before fathers because that’s the easiest way to achieve the best for the children. / Syftet med studien är att beskriva hur relationen mellan förskola och föräldrar upplevs i vardagen, samt om det finns skillnader utifrån föräldrarnas kön. För att studera detta används Sara Lawrence Lightfoots sociologiska teori om relationen mellan föräldrar och skola. Med stöd av Yvonne Hirdmans genussystem lyfts genusperspektivet i relationen. Först intervjuades föräldrarna i grupp. Därefter applicerades deras synpunkter i intervjuguiden för individuella intervjuer med förskollärare. Genom en tematisk analys blev slutsatsen att relationen upplevs som mestadels positiv. Trygghet, tillit, individualisering, god kommunikation, konsensus, autenticitet är ord som beskriver en god relation enligt intervjupersonerna. Detta uppnås genom att prioritera relationen genom fysiska möten som kompletteras via digitala plattformar. Det finns tendenser som visar att relationen skiljer sig åt mellan mammor och pappor. Pappor tenderar att signalera okunnighet och ointresse för samarbete. Av praktiska skäl är det därför lättare för mammor att ha huvudansvaret för en fungerande vardag. Det innebär att förskolepersonal väljer att kontakta mammor före pappor eftersom det är det enklaste sättet att uppnå det bästa för barnen. / <p>2024-05-31</p>

I förskolan finns det barn som av olika anledningar har svårt i leken. Denna studie har i syfte att belysa hur ett organiserat arbetssätt kan främja och stötta de barn som har svårigheter i lek. Det arbetssättet är speciella lekgrupper. För att synliggöra hur arbetet med speciella lekgrupper kan organiseras har en kvalitativ studie genomförts. Semistrukturerade intervjuer genomfördes med sex pedagoger i två olika kommuner för att få pedagogernas uppfattningar om arbetet, samt urskilja eventuella möjligheter och utmaningar. Med hjälp av det sociokulturella perspektivet och de centrala begreppen; proximal utvecklingszon, medierande redskap och scaffolding, analyserades resultaten. I resultatet framkommer att leken har en väsentlig roll för barns utveckling samt att redskap och lekmaterial bidrar till samspel och en inkluderande lek. Pedagogerna har en närvarande roll som stöttar och stärker barnen i det sociala samspelet. Resultatet synliggör att arbetet med lekgrupper har sina utmaningar, såsom tid- och personalbrist. Pedagogerna lyfter flera fördelar och möjligheter med sitt arbete kring speciella lekgrupper. En slutsats är att det är av stor vikt att barn med svårigheter i lek får tillgång till en miljö där de med hjälp av omgivningen kan få stöttning i sin lekutveckling. / In Early Childhood Education and care (ECEC), there are children who, for various reasons, find it difficult to play. The purpose of this study is to highlight how an organized way of working can promote and support children who have difficulties in play. That way of working is special play groups. In order to make it visible how the work with special playgroups can be organized, a qualitative study has been carried out. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six pedagogues in two different municipalities to get the pedagogues' perception of the work and to see any opportunities and challenges. Using the socio-cultural perspective and the central concepts; proximal development zone, mediating tools and scaffolding, the results were analyzed. The results show that play has an essential role in children's development and that tools and play materials contribute to interaction and inclusive play. The educators have a present role that supports and strengthens the children in the social interaction. The result makes visible that work with playgroups has its challenges, such as a lack of time and staff. The educators highlight several advantages and opportunities with their work around special playgroups. One conclusion is that it is of great importance that children with play difficulties have access to an environment where they can receive support in their play development with the help of the environment.