The purpose of this study is to understand teachers' view of what function the reading-aloud of fiction serves in preschool. A recent event motivating such a focus is the Government's stated aim of promoting reading in preschools and a general emphasis on reading as a teaching tool, which has been clarified in the 2018 revision of the preschool curriculum.  The result of my survey shows that more than half of the 368 participants are aware of or have heard about the Government's approach to reading, while just over a quarter of the participants do not know about it. However, most of them are positive about the school's clarification of reading as a teaching tool, regardless of whether they know about the initiative or not.  According to the result, reading aloud is prioritized by the teachers themselves and just under half of the teachers make their choices based on the students' wishes. In those cases, it is most common that the teacher selects books recommended by teacher colleagues or other teachers on social media.  The results also reveal that the stated purpose of reading aloud is to awaken the reading desire and gain a common language experience as well as to make the students interested in books. Here, the Swedish National Agency for Education emphasizes primarily the teachers' fourth option, namely reading as a pedagogical tool. Teachers also point out that the daily fruit session is well suited for taking time to read. / Syftet med studien är att bidra till en förbättrad förståelse av lärares syn på vad högläsning av skönlitteratur fyller för funktion i förskoleklass. Bakgrunden är regeringens tydliga satsning på högläsning i förskolor samt skolverkets betoning på högläsning som pedagogiskt redskap, vilket förtydligats i 2018 års revidering av läroplanen för förskolan.  Resultatet av min enkätstudie visar att mer än hälften av de 368 deltagarna känner till eller har hört talats om riksdagens satsning på högläsning, medan drygt en fjärdedel av deltagarna inte känner till den. Däremot ställer sig en övervägande del av deltagarna positiv till skolverkets förtydligande av högläsning som pedagogiskt verktyg, oavsett om de känner till satsningen eller ej.  Enligt resultatet prioriteras högläsningsböcker som läraren har läst själv och knappt hälften av lärarna gör sina val utifrån elevernas önskemål. Därefter är det vanligast att läraren går på rekommendationer från lärarkollegor och lärare på sociala medier.  Resultatet visar även att lärarnas främsta motiv till högläsning av skönlitteratur är att väcka elevers läslust och att skapa en gemensam språkupplevelse samt väcka elevens intresse för böcker. Här betonar Skolverket främst lärarnas fjärde alternativ, nämligen högläsning som pedagogiskt verktyg. Lärare påtalar även att den dagliga fruktstunden lämpar sig väl för att ta tid till högläsningen.

Reading in Sweden has not always looked like it does today. Reading and reading comprehension has a history and it has been influenced by different factors, earlier as well as today. Today the society has a different view of reading and reading comprehension than before. Reading today is more like a central part of a human’s everyday life where we are surrounded by different forms of writing that requires reading constantly. The purpose of this essay is to examine how the past and current research looks at children´s reading and reading comprehension in Sweden, within the school subject Swedish. What the literature says about how the society sees reading today what it looked like in the past and also its development over time. This study also aims to analyze if there are any socio-economic factors that affects children's reading and reading comprehension. In order to pursue this study, we have chosen to use the following questions: What does the previous research say about reading comprehension? How does the previous research look at reading in a historical perspective? What does the previous research say about children's reading comprehension today? Which socio-economic factors have influence on children’s reading and reading comprehension? We have chosen to do a literature-study which is based on previous research about children´s reading and reading comprehension, both national and international. In order to obtain relevant research for our area, the research was made on different databases such as DiVA, ERIC and the school library. We have chosen to look at the previous research through the transactional theory made by Louise Rosenblatt (2002). This study showed that the view of reading and reading comprehension has changed through time. The study showed that the socio-economic factors as gender, heredity and environment has an effect on children´s reading and reading comprehension.