Ann-Christine Vallberg Roth

Regulated childhood : equivalence with variation

The overriding aim of this article is to make a contribution to the discussion on individual development plans (IDPs) in Sweden as an expression of a regulated childhood and institutional practice. Individual development plans are seen as a phenomenon linked to the emergence of an auditing society. In sum, children are studied as subjects in relation to content, form and assessment in the individual development plans. The IDP material was collected in October 2006 in three urban municipalities and one rural municipality in southern Sweden. The three urban municipalities comprised municipal areas that were ethnically relatively homogenous and heterogenous, respectively. The data consist of 82 randomly chosen plans for children in preschool and preschool classes, and the method is based on textual analysis. An overall picture of a multicontextual regulation of childhood and institutional practice gradually emerges. The analysis can be summarized in distinctive principal tracks, or normalities, marked by equivalence with variation

What may characterise teaching in preschool? The written descriptions of Swedish preschool teachers and managers in 2016

ABSTRACT This paper addresses national concern about teaching in preschool, building on the challenges, opportunities, and requirements facing today’s preschools due to the higher expected level of preschool assignments. The aim is to build knowledge of how preschool teachers and managers from 10 Swedish municipalities characterise preschool teaching. The material was generated in a 2016 survey completed by 243 respondents (91% response rate). A didactics-oriented textual analysis referred to Kansanen’s (1993). An outline for a model of teachers’ pedagogical thinking. In P. Kansanen (Ed.), Discussions on some educational issues IV. Research report 121. Helsinki, Finland: University of Helsinki) three-level schema comprising the action, theoretical, and meta-theoretical levels and the results identify 8 distinctive traces ranging from the rejection to the recognition of preschool teaching. Recognition traces emphasise wide-ranging, diffuse, and child-centred teaching. The results indicate that traces of the action level are more prominent and “multivocal” than are traces of the theoretical and meta-theoretical levels. Overall, the combined analytical results support the concept of diffuse multivocal teaching.This paper addresses national concern about teaching in preschool, building on the challenges, opportunities, and requirements facing today’s preschools due to the higher expected level of preschoo...