The Rise of a Universal and Integrated Preschool Sector in Sweden

Swedish municipalities currently offer early childhood education and care services in so-called preschools (förskolor) to all children between one and five years of age, at a low cost. As a result, 84 per cent of all preschool aged children (2017) are enrolled in preschools, which offer a combination of educational and care-giving practices (the so-called EDUCARE-model). In this chapter, I will trace the historical processes that gave rise to this preschool sector. Following a short presentation of the comparatively limited Swedish preschool sector of the first half of the twentieth century, which included privately run infant schools, crèches and kindergartens, I examine the historical processes that gave rise to a unitary preschool sector for children aged one to five, which integrates both social and educational purposes. This chapter addresses landmark decisions as well as changes in preschool practices of education and care, with an emphasis on the developments that have taken place since the 1970s. Consequently, this chapter presents how the sector expanded during the 1960s as a result of the economic boom in post-war Sweden, and the rise of the Swedish welfare state. The main shift came in the 1970s, when the Preschool Law of 1975 was enacted. This law laid the political basis for what was termed a universal public preschool that integrated the educational ambitions of existing kindergartens and nursery schools with the care-giving purposes of existing day care centres. I then examine the dynamics between national politics, municipal supply and parental demand that enabled the remarkable expansion of the preschool sector, from providing access to a mere 33,800 children in 1970 to more than 493,600 children in 2017. In addition, this chapter will explore continuity and change in educational and care-giving practices of this sector and discuss more recent reforms that may be described in terms of marketisation and schoolification