Many early childhood learners enter kindergarten not academically and social-emotionally prepared. This qualitative study explored teachers' perceptions of what constitutes high-quality learning concerning kindergarten readiness and parents' understanding and support of kindergarten readiness. The conceptual framework is based on recent studies by early childhood researchers on how and what early learners should experience during their pre-k years. The research questions focused on teachers' understanding of structural quality and process quality, kindergarten readiness, and age- appropriate curriculum. In addition, parents' understanding of kindergarten readiness and what types of learning opportunities they offer their children were examined. Through purposeful sampling, 16 teachers and 17 parents were interviewed from an early childhood site. Interview data were analyzed using a thematic analysis. The data were analyzed by coding and observing for recurrent categories and themes. Key findings indicated that teachers demonstrated a lack of understanding of structural quality and process quality and believed that the current curriculum is outdated and should be replaced to significantly impact student learning. Parents perceived that academics were far more important than social-emotional development and that affording their children learning opportunities outside of school was important. As a result of this study, a professional development program was developed for teachers intended to enhance their instructional practices in preparing early learners towards kindergarten success. Parents will also receive training from teachers to support social-emotional learning opportunities. The training could enable both teachers and parents to better support the cognitive and social-emotional growth of children.

The study shows how to create a deeper understanding of the educational practice by using intra-active theory and analysis. We have let the five-year-olds at two preschools mark places on the premises which they perceive as rowdy/conflicted. These sites have since been observed and analysed with a focus on how environmental factors make up the situation and the thoughts that are possible to think there. The study has shown that the intra-active analysis method is an effective tool to make visible how educators, children and material combine to create environments with different charge. We have also been able to show how intra-active analysis gives a value to unregulated environments of preschool; how the theory offers an argument for disorder many times can be a prerequisite for children themselves to get space to define what creation can be.

This study is about 1-3-year-old children and their meeting with the documentation made available to them by preschool teachers. Eight preschool teachers in seven different preschools were interviewed. These interviews were combined with observations of the preschool environments to be able to view the documentation that was made available to the children. In this study we examine what happens in the meeting between children and material objects in documentation practises. We also sought to understand how material objects play a role in children’s participation in documentation practises. In this study we therefore use Karen Barads (2007) theory of agential realism to analyse the relationship between humans and the material environment. Basing the analysis on agential realism by viewing material objects as active agents instead of passive, we were able to gain insight into how photographs of children taking part in earlier activities or pictures of insects played a part in the activities and negotiations around the documentation. The youngest children’s handling of the documentation made available to them did not always coincide with the expectations of the preschool teachers. The documentations hanging on the wall would be worn out or taken down by the youngest children. Understanding the potential meaning behind the worn-out corners was made possible by using an agential realist approach where the child is seen as entangled in a constant intra-action with the human and non-human environment. We found that an agential realist approach has the potential to contribute to a versatile understanding of documentation practices with preschools youngest children.

Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur förskollärare utbildade på den nya förskollärarutbildningen ser på dynamiken mellan utbildning och praktisk verklighet och se vilka förutsättningar de får för att undervisa i teknik som ämnesområde. Studiens frågeställningar är följande: Hur definieras teknik och teknikundervisning i förskolan av nyutbildade förskollärare? Vilka förutsättningar anser nyutbildade förskollärarna att det finns för att arbeta med teknik i förskolan? Studien är utförd med kvalitativa intervjuer tillsammans med fyra förskollärare och en fenomenografisk analysmodell har hjälpt till med bearbetningen av insamlad data under intervjuerna. Resultatet av studien visar delade meningar då några menar att utbildningen var mycket gynnsam för en framtida proffesion samtidigt påpekar andra att undervisningen inte alls var anpassad för barn i förskoleåldern. En annan respondent menar att hon själv skapar sina förutsättningar för en verksamhet som ska präglas av teknik medans en annan erbjuds fortbildning av sin chef. / The aim of the study was to investigate how pre-school teachers educated at the new pre-school teacher education look at the dynamics between education and practical reality and to see in what conditions they are required to teach technology as a subject. The study's questions are as follows:• How is technology and technology education defined in preschool of newly educated preschool teachers?• What conditions do newly educated preschool teachers see for working with technology in preschool?                                                          The study was conducted with qualitative interviews with four pre-school teachers and a phenomenological analysis model has helped with the processing of collected data during the interviews.The result of the study shows divided perspectives, since some believe that the education was very beneficial for a future profession while others point out that the education was not at all adapted to children in pre-school age. Another respondent means that they themselves create their prerequisites for an activity that is characterized by technology while another is offered training by the boss.

In Sweden, male pedagogues in preschools make up only 3,5% of the employees. Since they are a minority, do they experience themselves as being positioned peculiarly by the female staff? The preschool curriculum says that the adults should be role models for gender equality and neutralize traditional gender roles, but if a shelf needs to be hung up or heavy items need to be lifted, who will be asked to do those tasks? The purpose of this thesis was to examine how male pedagogues in the study are being positioned in a female-dominated occupation. Which subject positions appear, and how do they appear, from the informants’ descriptions of their occupation? We wanted to find out how male pedagogues describe their work practice according to which masculinity norms appear. The study was made through interviews with seven male pedagogues working in three different preschools. The theories we used to analyze the material was Raewyn Connell and Rebecca Pearse’s perspective on gender and Connell’s masculinities and Marianne Winther Jörgensen and Louise Phillips interpretation on Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe’s discourse theory. The result of the study was that depending on how men are being positioned we can find different answers. When they position themselves as “preschool pedagogues” they claim that men and women work equally, whilst when they position themselves as “men” they describe how they are being expected to do tasks that are masculinely coded. Some informants are being expected to perform like a supply father and role model. Thus, some of the male pedagogues perceive the preschool as a practice where traditional gender roles are being reproduced.

Multilingualism in classrooms is currently prompting debate and has significantly impacted on schooling in South Africa over the last decade. At present South African educators face the challenge of coping with and finding solutions to culturally and linguistically diverse urban school contexts that did not exist before. In many South African communities young learners, without any prior knowledge of English, are placed in English preschools. Preschool teachers have the demanding task of preparing these multilingual preschoolers for formal schooling in English, and, in addition, are pressurised by parents or caregivers who expect their children to be fluent in English by the time they enter primary school. A group of preschool teachers in a specific urban, multilingual preschool context expressed concern about multilingual preschool learners’ academic performances and their future, and requested advice and support. Consequently a need was identified for speech-language therapists to make their expertise available to multilingual preschool learners, as well as to their preschool teachers. To address this need, an exploratory, descriptive, contextual research design, incorporating the quantitative perspective, was selected to describe the specific educational context of multilingual preschools in the Pretoria Central Business District (CBD) and Sunnyside area. A descriptive survey was conducted and two survey techniques were employed to collect the data, namely a questionnaire and a test battery. The questionnaire was used to collect information from 32 teacher participants to investigate the needs and strengths of preschool teachers and multilingual preschool learners. The test battery was utilised to collect data on the language and communication proficiency in English of 30 learner participants. Results indicated that the teacher participants perceived certain personal challenges while supporting the preschool learners acquiring English as Language of Learning and Teaching (ELoLT). These teachers expressed a need for knowledge and support. They also reported that the multilingual preschool learners in the research context had to communicate in ELoLT despite it being an unfamiliar language. Some of the multilingual preschool learners displayed behaviours that could be indicative of negative influences on their self-esteem. The language and communication assessment revealed that many learner participants’ comprehension and expression in ELoLT were insufficient for learning and that they required support for academic success. In addition, the results support the claim that an integrated view of the multilingual learners’ communication abilities need to be established across contexts, by combining assessment strategies, such as naturalistic and structured assessment, as well as interdisciplinary perspectives. The results of the empirical research was used to propose a service delivery model for the acquisition of ELoLT in the research context. This proposed model may be an effective approach to provide supportive intervention to multilingual preschool learners with linguistic barriers to learning. In addition, initial stage intervention guidelines for the basic level ELoLT learner were offered in response to the needs of the specific community. These guidelines may provide a basis for the planning of intervention strategies to preschool teachers who were concerned about the education and future of multilingual preschool learners. / Thesis (DPhil (Communication Pathology))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology / Unrestricted

Preschool is seen as an important integration arena for newly arrived families with young children. The reception of newly arrived families has for a long time been unevenly distributed in the country with a strong concentration on metropolitan areas and larger cities. Consequently, previous research on integration of newly arrived families in Swedish preschools has been conducted in multicultural urban areas. However, since 2015, the number of newly arrived children in rural municipalities has increased. For that reason, it is relevant to also pay attention to how integration is achieved (or challenged) in a rural context. In this study, I examine how preschool practitioners at three rural preschools experienced receiving newly arrived families in 2015/2016. For many of these practitioners, working with linguistic and cultural diversity was at the time a new experience. Therefore, I have been able to study practitioners' narratives about the first steps towards integration and inclusion. Data was generated through focus-group interviews. With integration (Penninx 2019) and inclusion (Petriwskyj 2014) as theoretical starting points, the narratives were analyzed through Bakhtin's theory of dialogism. The findings are presented in two research papers: one that explores integration processes in relation to the migrant parents, and one that focus on the children's inclusion in preschool. The results show that the practitioners describe a change in terms of moving from a monologic to a dialogic stance in relation to the parents and the children. As regards the parents, the dialogic stance meant that the practitioners acknowledged the importance of meeting and discussing differences in experiences and perspectives with the parents. The dialogic encounters, in turn, led to enhanced confidence among the practitioners in facing "otherness", at the same time as they resulted in cultural reflexivity regarding the practitioner’s own practices and values. As regards the children, the dialogic stance resulted in a critical examination of existing practices, and led the practitioners to reformulate their sense of preschool "normality". This, in turn, enhanced their flexibility in adjusting preschool’s daily routines and practices in accordance with the needs of the children. In sum, the study demonstrates that a dialogical approach is a prerequisite for integration. / Förskolan ses som en viktig integrationsarena för nyanlända familjer med små barn. Mottagandet av nyanlända familjer har under lång tid varit ojämnt fördelat i landet med en starkt koncentration till storstadsområden och större städer. Följaktligen har tidigare forskning om integration av nyanlända familjer i den svenska förskolan genomförts i urbana områden som präglats av språklig och kulturell mångfald sedan länge. Sedan 2015 har dock antalet nyanlända barn i landsbygdskommuner ökat. Därför är det relevant att även uppmärksamma hur integration åstadkoms (eller utmanas) i en landsbygdskontext. Det gör jag i denna studie genom att undersöka hur pedagoger på tre landsbygdsförskolor har erfarit att ta emot nyanlända familjer under 2015/2016 och därefter. För många av pedagogerna var det en ny erfarenhet att under denna period ta emot och arbeta med barn och föräldrar som migrerat till Sverige. Jag har därför kunnat studera pedagogernas berättelser över de första stegen mot integration och inkludering. Berättelserna samlades in genom fokusgruppsintervjuer. I studien kombineras olika teoretiska ingångar. Studien utgår från Penninx (2019) teori om integration men knyts även till teorier om inkludering i utbildningssammanhang (Petriwskyj 2014). Därutöver används Bakhtins (1981) dialogism-teori för att synliggöra integrations- och inkluderingsprocesser som kommer till uttryck i pedagogernas berättelser. Resultaten presenteras i två forskningsartiklar: en som utforskar integrationsprocesser i relation till de nyanlända föräldrarna och en som fokuserar på barnens inkludering i förskolan. Resultatet visar att pedagogerna beskriver en process som kan tolkas som en rörelse från ett monologiskt till ett dialogiskt förhållningssätt i relation till föräldrarna och barnen. När det gäller föräldrarna, innebar det dialogiska förhållningssättet att pedagogerna insåg vikten av att mötas och diskutera skillnader i erfarenheter och perspektiv med föräldrarna. De dialogiska möten som utvecklades ledde i sin tur till en ökad säkerhet hos pedagogerna att möta det "okända" som föräldrarna representerade, samtidigt som det resulterade i ökad kulturell reflexivitet avseende pedagogernas egna praktiker och värderingar. När det gäller barnen, resulterade det dialogiska förhållningssättet i att pedagogerna började kritiskt granska befintliga praktiker och omformulera sin känsla för förskolans "normalitet", vilket i sin tur ökade deras flexibilitet att anpassa förskolans rutiner och praktik i enlighet med barnens behov. Sammanfattningsvis visar resultatet att ett dialogiskt förhållningssätt är en förutsättning för integration.

I och med en växande befolkning och negativ klimatpåverkan går dagens planeringstrend i Sverige mot förtätning som innebär att städer utvecklas genom att ny bebyggelse koncentreras på redan exploaterad mark. Trots att förtätning är förknippat med hållbarhet har denna strategi resulterat i att barns betydelsefulla utemiljöer, såsom skol- och förskolegårdar, tagits i anspråk. Samtidigt är barn en relativt maktlös social grupp som utgör samhällets framtid och således behövs kunskap om barns perspektiv i planeringen av städer. Syftet med denna studie är därför att bidra med en ökad förståelse av hur barnperspektivet, insikten om barns bästa, kan tillämpas i samband med stadens förtätning inom kommunal samhällsplanering. I studien avgränsas barnperspektivet genom att undersöka hur en kommun kan skapa barnvänliga utemiljöer för skolor och förskolor. I studien tillämpas ett kvalitativt tillvägagångssätt genom en fallstudie av Eskilstuna kommun. Med hjälp av intervjuer och en dokumentstudie inhämtades data om kommunens arbete med skolors och förskolors utemiljöer. För att skapa en förståelse av den kommunala samhällsplaneringens förutsättningar studerades lagstiftning samt statliga och kommunala publikationer. Vidare utfördes en litteraturstudie beträffande barnperspektiv, barnkonsekvensanalys, barnvänlig utemiljö och kollaborativ planering. Tillsammans med data som inhämtades från expertintervjuer formar detta studiens teoretiska referensram som i sin tur legat till grund för den efterföljande diskussionen.  Resultatet påvisar att barnvänliga utemiljöer för skolor och förskolor innefattar ett flertal faktorer som bidrar till barns utveckling: plats för utelek, reducerad trafik, gröna och naturliga miljöer, variation samt utmaningar. Av dessa fastställs att plats för utelek, storleken på gården, utgör den grundläggande faktorn. Studien visar på att skolors och förskolors utemiljöer är en fråga som ofta hamnar i konflikt med andra utmaningar som samhällsplaneringen ställs inför. I Eskilstuna kommun finns en strävan att uppnå barnvänliga utemiljöer för skolor och förskolor. Dock utgör brist på tillgängliga ytor och avsaknad av konkreta strategier samt riktlinjer hinder som försvårar detta i praktiken. För att uppnå barnvänliga utemiljöer för skolor och förskolor belyser resultatet av denna studie vikten av ett kollaborativt arbetssätt genom samverkan och samförstånd mellan olika aktörer. Dessutom fastställs att barns behov bör lyftas fram i ett tidigt skede av processen för att säkerställa plats åt skol-och förskolegårdar i den täta staden. / As a result of a growing population and negative climate impact, today’s planning trend in Sweden is going towards densification which means that cities are being developed by concentrating new buildings on already exploited land. Even though densification is linked to sustainability this strategy has resulted in the exclusion of significant places for children’s outdoor play, such as school and preschool playgrounds. At the same time, children are a quite powerless social group that constitute the future of society and thus knowledge of their perspectives is necessary in urban planning. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to contribute to an increased understanding of how the child perspective, the perception of a child’s best, can be applied in relation to densification of the city in the municipal community planning. In the study the child perspective is defined by examining how a municipality can create child-friendly school and preschool outdoor environments. This study applies a qualitative approach through a case study of the municipality of Eskilstuna. By conducting interviews and a documentary study, data regarding the municipality’s work with school and preschool outdoor environments was generated. In order to gain an understanding of the conditions for municipal community planning, legislation as well as government and municipal documents were studied. A literate review was also conducted with the aim of studying previous work on the child perspective, the child impact assessment, the child-friendly outdoor environment and collaborative planning. Together with data collected from expert interviews this constitutes the study’s theoretical framework that in turn formed the basis for the following discussion. The results prove that child-friendly outdoor environments for schools and preschools comprise several factors that promote children’s development: room for outdoor play, reduced traffic, green and natural environments, variation and challenges. Among these, room for outdoor play, the size of the school or preschool playground, is the fundamental factor. The study also shows that school and preschool outdoor environments are a matter that often conflicts with other challenges that the municipal community planning has to deal with. In the municipality of Eskilstuna there is an ambition to create child-friendly outdoor environments for schools and preschools. However, the lack of available places as well as strategies and guidelines makes this difficult in practice. In order to create child-friendly outdoor environments for schools and preschools the results indicate the importance of using a collaborative approach through cooperation and mutual understanding between different actors. Also, it is stated that children’s needs should be highlighted in an early stage of the process to ensure room for school and preschool playgrounds in the dense city.

Flerspråkighet blir allt vanligare i svenska förskolor. Tidigare forskning visar att förskollärare känner en osäkerhet inför arbetet med flerspråkighet. Denna kvalitativa studie vill skapa förståelse för förskollärarnas olika uppfattningar om arbetet med flerspråkighet. Studien är baserad på intervjuer, där förskollärarnas arbete och förutsättningar lyfts fram. Utifrån resultatet har vi skapat två teman som är kopplade till våra frågeställningar och det interkulturalitet. Första temat är; Interkulturalitet i förskolan- inställning till kulturella olikheter i förskolan. Andra temat är; Interkulturalitet i förskolan - arbete med flerspråkighet. I analysen tillämpades ett interkulturalitet, som tar upp om hur förskollärarna ska förhålla sig i sitt arbete kring flerspråkighet. Resultatet visar att förskollärare ser positivt på arbete med flerspråkighet i förskolan. De känner att det finns verktyg för att arbeta med flerspråkighet. Däremot finns det en osäkerhet på hur de ska ta vara på verktygen. I slutsatsen framhålls att förskollärarna får ta ansvara och engagera sig själva för arbete med flerspråkighet.

This diploma thesis deals with current topic of lack of capacity of public nurseries and sketches possibilities of establishment of company nurseries as another way of preschools in the theoretical part. The diploma thesis makes an effort to summarize basic factors which can influence establishment and development of these company nurseries. Emphasis is put on importance of preschool education. The research part describes poossibilities of establishment and operation of company nurseries, finds out current development a identifies factors which influence their establlishment and operations. The research part is also focused on quality of education in these company nurseries. The qualitative research was used to achieve the research goal, the main method used to achieve the goal was multiple-case study.