The aim of the present study is to describe and analyse how an inter-cultural perspective presents itself in the didactic considerations and in the practice of preschool teachers on a multiethnic preschool. The theoretical perspective upon which the study is founded is social constructivism, but in addition to this Ingegerd Municio’s idea of two existing discourses present within the institutions in the Swedish educational system, as well as René León’s concept of a diversified normality, has been used as theoretical tools and points of departure. The empirical investigation consists of a qualitative field study at a multi-ethnic preschool, where participating observation and group interviews have been used to collect data. In these teachers from the preschool have participated. The results and the analysis of the data show that an inter-cultural perspective surfaces in the didactic considerations and in the practice of the preschool teachers in their construction of a diversified normality. The diversified normality thus constructed is constituted through different social processes. I have here identified the following ones: the preschool teachers emphasize differences among the children in general, they allow that the children behave differently and they allow them to be different; they recognize “cultural” differences, differences in origin, and frames of reference, and they recognize that the children at the preschool are bilingual.

Syftet med denna studie att undersöka yrkesverksamma förskollärares förhållningssätt till den organiserade rörelselekens betydelse för barns kommunikativa lärande. Bakgrunden ger läsaren en litteraturgenomgång kring barns kommunikativa lärande och den organiseraderörelseleken i förskolan samt samband mellan dessa två faktorer. Dessa faktorer framhållsäven utifrånett mångkulturellt perspektiv och utifrån Lev Vygotskijs pedagogiska teori. Datainsamlingsmetoden som använts för att samla in relevant data utifrån undersökningenssyfte, är genom halvstrukturerade intervjuer med utgångspunkt i en kvalitativ studie. Totalt treintervjuer med kvinnliga, yrkesverksamma förskollärare har genomförts. Resultatet visar attsamtliga respondenter anser att rörelseleken är ett ypperligt instrument att stimulera barnsspråkutveckling och även övriga lärande, då den exempelvis ger barnen konkretasinnesupplevelser. Studien framhåller dock att rörelseleken endast är ett av flera pedagogiskaverktyg vid stimulans av barnens kommunikativa lärande. Eftersom att detta är en idiografiskstudie, innebär det också att detta resultat ej går att generalisera i allmänhet. / The purpose with this study is to examine preschool teachers conceptions of the organized physical play and its importance for young children’s communicative learning. In the background the reader is given a knowledge at the learning of children’s communication, the physical play in preschool and its connections between each other. Its also gives a short view at the learning of communication out of a multicultural perspective and also a pedagogicaltheory out of Lev Vygotsky. In this specific study it was qualitative research interviews that was used as a method, with 3 female preschool teachers. The result of the study shows that educated preschool teachers regularly thinks that physical play is an excellent instrument to stimulate the verbal communication of children. That’s because it gives children concrete experiences. But the study underline that the physical play only are one of many pedagogical tools. Since this study is based upon three interviews, the result can not be generalized into a bigger perspective.

Studiens syfte var att undersöka och analysera pedagogers erfarenheter av en skriftlig utformad plan för att motverka diskriminering och kränkande behandling i förskolan. Det är en kvalitativ studie som bygger på intervjuer med pedagoger på förskolor. Frågeställningarna som låg till grund för studien var: Hur upplever pedagogerna processen kring utformandet av den skriftligt utformade planen för att motverka diskriminering och kränkande handling? Hur beskriver pedagogerna den skriftligt utformade planens användning i arbetet att motverka diskriminering och kränkande handling? Vilka utvecklingsmöjligheter ser pedagogerna kring den skriftligt utformade planen som verktyg i arbetet att motverka diskriminering och kränkande handling? Resultatet i studien visar bland annat att pedagogerna upplever processen kring utformandet av planen som svår då det till exempel var svårt att få tag i information. Användningen av planen beskriver pedagogerna som en punkt på dagordningen, de tycker att den används samtidigt som den upplevs mer som en pappersprodukt än som ett innehållsförankrat dokument. När det gäller utvecklingsmöjligheter kring planen ger pedagogerna uttryck för att de själva behöver mer kunskap i ämnet och planen behöver på olika sätt implementeras mer i verksamheten. / The purpose of this study was to investigate and analyze teachers´ experiences of a written plan designed to counter discrimination and offensive behavior in preschool. It is a qualitative study based on interviews with educators at preschools. The questions that formed the basis for the study was: How do preschool teachers experience the process of designing the written plan designed to counter discrimination and offensive action? How do teachers describe the use of the written plan designed to combat discrimination and offensive action? What development opportunities do the teachers see around the written plan designed as a tool in efforts to combat discrimination and offensive action? The results of the study show that teachers experience the process of designing the plan as difficult as it was difficult to obtain information. The teachers describe the use of the plan as an agenda item, they think that it is used while it is perceived more as a paper product than as a content embedded documents. When it comes to development opportunities of the plan the teachers express that they need more knowledge on the subject and the plan needs to be more implemented in the preschool’s activity.

Studien syfte var att undersöka och beskriva skilda uppfattningar av konflikter mellanbarn och dess hantering i förskolan hos förskollärare. Studien är en kvalitativ studiemed en fenomenografisk ansats som bygger på intervjuer av ett antal förskollärare.De frågeställningar som låg till grund för studien var: Hur ser förskollärare påkonflikter mellan barn i förskolan? På vilket sätt hanteras återkommande konflikter? Påvilket sätt kan förskolläraren få stöd i sitt sätt att hantera konflikter?Det framgår av resultatet att förskollärare i studien har erfarenheter av konfliktereftersom de möter dem dagligen på förskolan. Dessa erfarenheter ligger till grund förhur de agerar i sin yrkesroll. De ser gärna att barnen själva hanterar konflikter ochagerar när de anser att behovet finns. Förskollärarnas agerande grundar sig i personligakänslor och uppfattningar som de mer eller mindre reflekterat över. Förskollärarnaanvänder de strategier som de menar fungerar utifrån deras erfarenheter i barngruppen.Konflikter och konflikthantering visar sig vara ett komplext ämne som kräver reflektionhos förskolläraren och arbetslaget för att fullfölja uppdraget enligt läroplanen. Resultatetvisar att det förekommer sällan organiserad och formell kompetensutveckling angåendekonflikter i förskolan. Ämnet behöver upp på agendan för att barnen ska få bästamöjliga förutsättningar att hantera framtida konfliktsituationer. / The purpose of this study was to examine preschool teachers´ different perceptions ofconflicts between children and preschool teachers´ behavior to deal with them inpreschool. The study is a qualitative study with a phenomenographic approach, basedon interviews of a number of preschool teachers.The issues wich formed the basis of the study was: How do preschool teachers view onconflicts between children in preschool? In what way do they handle recurringconflicts? How can preschool teachers be supported in their efforts to manageconflicts?It follows from the results that the preschool teachers in the study have experiencedconflicts as they meet them every day at preschool. These experiences form the basis ofhow they act as professionals. They prefer that the children themselves deal with withconflicts and act when they belive that the need exists. Preschool teachers acting isbased on personal feelings and beliefs that they more or less reflected upon. Preschoolteachers are using the strategies that they think works based on their experiences in thegroup of children. Conflicts and conflict management turns out to be a complex subjectthat requires reflection of preschool teacher and the team to fulfill the mandate of thecurriculum. The result show that there are rarely organized and formal competencedevelopment regarding conflicts in preschool. The subject needs to be on the agenda forthe children to get the best possible position to meet future conflicts.

This work deals with mathematics teaching in preschool classes. The purpose of my study is to investigate the preschool classes’ teachers' aspirations for the children learning mathematics in two different preschools. To achieve my goal, I formulated the following questions to be explored and answered through interviews with five teachers.  Does mathematics in preschool classes have a prominent role in educators' planning? What perception do the educators in the field have about the learning and teaching of mathematics in the preschool classes? How do the teachers understand their own work with mathematics in preschool classes in relation to multilingual students?                                 A qualitative interview method was applied. It is based on interviews with teachers who convey math skills in different ways to children in preschool classes. Theories and previous research have been applied to analyze the informants’ answers and to find out the aspirations of the teachers in their mathematics teaching. The results of my investigation show that all teachers in preschool classes agree that mathematics is an important part in preschool classes’ activities. Moreover, the interviews show that the preschool -class teacher's aspirations aims at mathematics learning taking place when children practice math in an enjoyable way, in the preschool classes, and later, during the school years. Some teachers believe that the way of working with mathematics in preschool classes provides even more opportunities for multilingual students to develop their mathematical vocabulary and to be prepared to consolidate what they learned in “playing” with math before starting the first school year. This is why they think that preschool classes should be mandatory for all six-year-old children and especially multilingual students. Many teachers stressed the need for more working hours in preschool classes in order to stimulate children's learning and concretize math in other school subjects. For they think that children can learn mathematics in different activities and operations, as well as through playing, games, outdoor education and during meals, without working with math books. Other educators are working with math books just because the children in preschool classes prefer to work with a book and want to have homework.

This study aimed to realize the relationship between the teacher educators¡¦ educational technology role modeling impact and the development of technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK) of preschool teachers in Taiwan. Quantitative Data was collected from a sample of 335 in-service preschool teachers who teach in either public schools or private schools in southern Taiwan. Follow-up interviews were also conducted with five survey respondents. The instrument was translated and adapted from Schmidt et al. (2009) TPCK survey instrument. The five modeling technology uses by teacher educators were identified from the related literature. Data analysis methods included descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, and MANOVA. In addition, a multiple regression was conducted with the preschool teachers¡¦ self-assessed TPCK as the dependent variable, and the five modeling technology uses by the teacher educators the potential predictors. Findings from the study summarized as follows: (a)The development of preschool teachers¡¦ pedagogical knowledge(PK), content knowledge(CK) and pedagogical content knowledge(PCK) are the best among the seven knowledge sub domains in TPCK.(b)The number of years of teaching experience is significantly positively correlated with preschool teachers¡¦ pedagogical knowledge (PK), content knowledge ( CK)and pedagogical content knowledge(PCK). Besides, preschool teachers with over ten years of teaching experience have better self-assessed pedagogical knowledge(PK), content knowledge(CK)and pedagogical content knowledge(PCK) are better than those teachers with less than ten years of teaching experience.(c)A significant positive correlation was found between pedagogical knowledge(PK),and pedagogical content knowledge(PCK) and age; however, a significant negative correlation existed with technology knowledge(TK) and age. Older preschool teachers¡¦ self-assessed pedagogical knowledge(PK) is better than younger teachers while the young preschool teachers have a better self-assessed technology knowledge(TK).(d)The frequency of using information technology is significantly positively correlated with pedagogical knowledge(PK), technology knowledge(TK), content knowledge(CK), technological content knowledge(TCK) and technological pedagogical knowledge(TPK).Preschool teachers with a frequency of using information technology above 20 hours a week have better self-assessed technology knowledge(TK) and technological content knowledge(TCK) than those with a frequency under 5 hours a week.(e)There are no significant differences between responding preschool teachers¡¦ different college teacher education program types and the development of their self-assessed TPCK. (f) A significant positive correlation was found between teacher educators¡¦ educational technology role modeling and the respondents¡¦ self-assessed TPCK. (g) Digital teaching strategy is the most significant predictor to development of core element- technological pedagogical content knowledge(TPCK). Recommendations were also provided based on the findings from this study. It¡¦s recommended that the teacher education programs should incorporate technology components in their teacher preparation programs for preschool teachers and integrate technology across the curriculum instead of a stand-alone technology course. Besides, the design of mentoring program into the professional development should be incorporated to include both the older and younger generations for reciprocal mentoring to promote preschool teachers¡¦ development of technological pedagogical content knowledge.

The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationships among preschool teachers&rsquo / and preschoolers&rsquo / parents&rsquo / developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) and developmentally inappropriate practice (DIP) beliefs in relation to parental involvement attitudes and perceived parental involvement barriers. To reach to the purposes of the study, data were collected from 279 teachers and 589 parents via a demographic information questionnaire and two main data collection instruments. The demographic information questionnaire aimed to obtain information about the participant&rsquo / s gender, age and educational level. In order to collect information from teachers and parents regarding their beliefs about developmentally appropriate practice / Teachers&rsquo / Beliefs Scale (TBS) (Burts et al., 2000) and the parent adaptation of the scale, Parents&rsquo / Beliefs Scale (Yen, 2008) were used. To ascertain parents&rsquo / and teachers&rsquo / attitudes and the barriers on parental involvement, the School and Family Partnerships Questionnaire (Epstein &amp / Salinas, 1993) was used. The investigation of the relationship between the teachers&rsquo / and parents&rsquo / DAP and DIP beliefs in relation to their parent involvement attitudes (PIA), parent involvement barriers (PIB) revealed significant results. The findings of the study revealed that both the teachers&rsquo / and parents&rsquo / PIA and PIB made significant contributions to their DAP and DIP beliefs. As found in the current study, the interaction between the teachers and parents should be increased to help children develop in the most appropriate way. In order to increase this relationship, a detailed focus on the parental involvement paradigm should be undertaken.

Denna studie syftar till att undersöka hur förskollärare tänker kring och arbetar med bilderböcker i barngruppen i den dagliga verksamheten. Studien undersöker förskollärares attityd till lässtunden och bilderbokens vidare användningsområden. Datainsamlingen gjordes genom kvalitativa intervjuer med fem förskollärare från fem olika förskolor. Materialet har bearbetats genom analys och resultatet är en förståelse för professionens möjligheter och begränsningar inom det berörda området. Denna studie utgår från en hypotes om att den planerade lässtunden i förskolan ofta är kort och utan bakomliggande tanke vad gäller språkutveckling. Resultatet visar på en tydlig språklig medvetenhet bland förskollärare i deras arbete med bilderböcker. Studien visar utifrån min hypotes andra resultat vad gäller bilderbokens vidare användningsområden samt barnens delaktighet i både lässtunder och annan användning av bilderboken. I resultatet av studien framkommer också förskollärarnas önskan om utökat arbete kring flerspråkighet, vilket vissa tror att en vidare användning av bilderboken kan ligga till grund för. / The purpose of this study was to explore preschool teachers’ attitudes and work with picture books as an active component of daily activities. The purpose was also to investigate in what other ways picture books are used apart from reading them out loud to the children. In order to examine this, qualitative interviews with five preschool teachers were used as a method of investigation. An analysis of the interviews indicates the possibilities and limitations of the profession in this area. This study is based on the hypothesis that the planned reading sessions with children in preschools are often short and without purpose in terms of language development. The result shows that the preschool teachers are well aware of the possibilities and applications offered by picture books. The result of the study shows a different view compared to the hypothesis, of how the preschool teachers use picture books in several different ways in their projects with the children. It also shows that the participation of the children while reading, and in other preschool activities, is a constant factor. The result also shows how preschool teachers wish to work more with multilingual development and that preschool teachers believe that picture books can provide the foundation for that kind of work.

The purpose of this study was to examine preschool teachers’ thoughts on roles within activities in the subject chemistry. The main focus has been their perceptions of their own and the children´s roles when planning and executing activities within the subject chemistry.   The method used to execute the study was semi-structured interviews, and all respondents have been certified preschool teachers. When analyzing the material I have used a constructivist perspective.   The study shows that there were several roles that the preschool teachers strived for. The different roles did not occur exclusively in one person, but seemed to be something the preschool teachers alternated between. The different roles show different levels of control in the activities from the preschool teachers. The majority of the preschool teachers aimed to be a co-researcher who inspires the children, although some control in the activities seemed to be necessary according to a majority of respondents.   Several different factors which had an effect on the conditions for the children’s roles and the preschool teacher´s possibilities to act as a co- researcher emerged in this study. Those were factors like what questions were asked around the activities, the material being used, teaching documentation, child perspective, ICT which was used to explore with the children and whether one would proceed with the children´s interests as a starting point when planning an activity. The age of the children and the children´s personal differences were also pointed out as important factors. / Syftet med min studie har varit att undersöka förskollärares tankar kring rollfördelning vid aktiviteter inom kemi i förskolan. Mitt fokus har varit hur förskollärare ser på barnens samt sin egen roll vid planerande och utförande av aktiviteter inom kemi.   Semistrukturerade intervjuer har använts som datainsamlingsmetod och samtliga respondenter har varit förskollärare. Jag har använt mig av ett konstruktivistiskt perspektiv när jag analyserat mitt material.   I studien framkom att fanns flera roller som de intervjuade förskollärarna strävar efter och att de olika rollerna inte verkade exklusivt hos en person, istället verkar rollerna vara något förskollärarna alternerade emellan. De olika rollerna visar på olika stark styrning i aktiviteterna ifrån förskolläraren men att vara en medforskare som inspirerar barnen var den roll majoriteten förskollärare strävade efter samtidigt som man såg en viss styrning i aktiviteterna som nödvändig.   Flera olika faktorer som påverkade förutsättningarna för barnens roll och förskollärarens möjlighet att verka som en medforskande pedagog framkommer i studien. Faktorer som de frågor som ställdes runt aktiviteten, det material som användes, pedagogisk dokumentation, barnsyn, IKT som användes för att utforska tillsammans med barnen, huruvida man utgick från barnens intresse vid planering vid aktiviteter. Barns ålder och barns olikheter lyftes också fram som betydande faktorer.

published_or_final_version / abstract / Education / Master / Master of Education