Planning and implementing teaching in preschool – the examples of technology and art making

Since 2010, teaching has been one of the preschool teacher’s tasks in Sweden. Preschool teaching is often discussed and has been addressed from different perspectives (Eidevald & Engdahl, 2018; Sheridan & Williams, 2018; Thulin & Jonsson, 2018). The concept of teaching in preschool was already advanced in the referral opinion prior to the adoption of curriculum for the Preschool Lpfö98, when the committee decided that ‘teaching can be defined as a conscious pedagogical act towards a goal’ (1997/98:93, 28). The preschool steering document has been continuously revised since it became part of the educational system. Since 2010, preschools have had clearer educational goals, and legitimate preschool teachers are to teach rather than merely supervise children (Korpi, 2015). The revised preschool curriculum, Lpfö18 (Skolverket, 2018), clarifies that preschool is expected to contribute to children’s learning, and preschool has become more focused on knowledge. These two discourses—activity-based and academically-focused preschools (Bennett, 2005)—sometimes appear as contradictions. However, several preschool researchers point out that teaching should grow out of children’s experiences and that the teacher can purposefully integrate play and learning into an educational approach that encompasses aspects of both discourses (Bennett, 2005; Bodrova & Leong, 2007; Elkind, 2003; Pramling Samuelsson & Asplund Carlsson, 2003/2014). The purpose of this licentiate thesis is to promote a better understanding of teaching in preschool. The overall aim of the present studies is to empirically illuminate the preschool teaching processes with children aged four to six years. The present study rests on a socio-cultural perspective on learning. Central to this is Rommetveit’s (1974, 1979) theoretical work on conversation and communication, in the study used to elucidate the work of the preschool teacher and the teacher team. This work takes place before teaching and in the conversations between participants during the activity with children. This study is qualitative, and the research questions and purpose serve as a starting point to examine teaching in small groups (Edwards, 2010). Both studies are observational; they were conducted in two participating preschools. The results indicate that the preschool teachers are confident that the children can take on the suggested activities; however, initially, the teacher gave no direct feedback in relation to how the children understood the task. In these studies, the children did not have the opportunity to dialogue with each other about the preschool teachers’ assertions, and the children’s understanding of the purpose and content of the teaching were not addressed. The preschool teacher used subject-related (scientific) concepts in teaching without explaining these concepts or checking whether the children understood them. A didactic starting point that connects the two studies is that the children were expected to gain experience that they could apply to other contexts, but this was not clearly explained. Play is central to preschool activities, and while the studies used materials that signal play (Legos in study I and a toy lion and paper and pens in study II), play was not explicitly included in the teaching.Denna forskning är en del av den nationella forskarskolan i kommunikation och relationer som grundläggande för förskolebarns lärande (FoRFa), finansierad av Vetenskapsrådet (nr. 729-2013-6848)