Vad är undervisning i förskolan? : En kvalitativ studie av hur begreppet undervisning tolkas och används i förskolans praktik

The term teaching became a part of the Swedish curriculum in 2018. The term was supposed to contribute a new understanding for teaching in preschools. The curriculum says that teaching should cover both care, development and learning and that these should become a whole. Teaching in preschool is often a disputed term in the context of the specific settings of social constructions when it comes to teaching in preschools. The aim of this study is to analyze how eight preschool teachers approaches and reflects to the term teaching in eight different preschools and whether different pedagogies might affect their outlooks. We wanted to see how the term teaching can give children the opportunity to learn and develop new things. We wanted to see what differences and similarities we could find between the different preschools and the preschool teacher’s approach. Further we will examine what might separate them from each other when it comes to Reggio Emilia and Montessori pedagogy. The following questions are the starting point for the study: - In what way do the interviewed preschool teachers feel that the concept of teaching should be used in practice to stimulate children's development and learning? - How do the preschool teachers relate to the concept of teaching based on the different pedagogical focus at the respective preschool? The method we have chosen is a qualitative research method with sound recording. We have chosen to interview eight different preschool teachers that works in the same county which is Stockholm county. The theoretical framework considers development pedagogic, Vygotsky’s socio-cultural theory and Malaguzzis theory about environment and the hundred languages of children. We have chosen these three theories to answer the aim and the questions of the study and we will return to those in the study’s results and discussion part for analysis. Our results are expressed in three different narratives which are: Goal-oriented learning processes Preschool teachers approach to the concept of teaching based on Vygotsky´s socio-cultural theory and on the revised curriculum Care versus learning. Our results point out difficulties that we could find in our study. Preschool teachers had a hard time understanding the term teaching even if the term teaching barely is a new term in the curriculum. The majority expressed that they thought it was too wide and that you could interruptive the term in a lot of different ways. In our results, we came to the point that depending on what social constructions the teachers have in mind, they will have a different outlook and approach on the term teaching. Many of the teachers said that they see teaching like a goal-oriented learning process while other teacher said that learning is spontaneous learning situations