‘Sometimes we have to clash’: how preschool teachers in Sweden engage with dilemmas arising from cultural diversity and value differences.

The study investigates how kindergarten teachers in Sweden deal with challenges related to culture and diversity, especially tensions arising from different perspectives, between staff but also with the children they work with and the children's parents or caregivers. The aim of the study is to gain more knowledge about how best to adapt pedagogy in kindergartens in order to accommodate the increasing diversity in society.

Through the analysis of the focus group interviews, the researchers identified three main themes: (1) The kindergarten teacher's desire to avoid conflicts and for kindergarten to be a peaceful place, (2) Culture as a barrier and opportunity to deal with dilemmas, (3) To engage in conflicts as a way to develop the kindergarten teaching profession. In the interviews, the teachers reflected critically on their own norms, behaviour and prejudices, and in this process of collective self-reflection they concluded that conflicts may sometimes be necessary to create sufficient vulnerability between them and the parents so that they can acknowledge each other's perspectives and differences.

The researchers conducted focus group interviews with eleven kindergarten teachers. The study participants worked in six Swedish kindergartens where almost 70% of the children were newly arrived immigrants or had parents or caregivers who were born in a country other than Sweden. The interview data were analysed using thematic analysis.

Anderstaf, S., Lecusay, R., & Nilsson, M. (2021). “‘Sometimes we have to clash’: how preschool teachers in Sweden engage with dilemmas arising from cultural diversity and value differences”. Intercultural education, 32(3):296-310.