Challenges to relational commitments of preschool staff in supporting children in contexts with a high proportion of early second language learners in Sweden

The study investigates how kindergarten employees in Sweden support children in kindergartens that have a high proportion of multilingual children. The research questions are: 1) What do the kindergarten employees consider important for supporting children’s engagement in kindergarten departments that have a high proportion of multilingual children? 2) In what ways are the aspects that kindergarten employees consider important in supporting child engagement related to what was observed in groups of children with a high proportion of multilingual children?

The results show that kindergarten staff experienced multicultural and multilingual groups of children as both an advantage and a challenge. In departments with a high proportion of multilingual children, the staff had to put in significantly more effort to work in accordance with the curriculum’s objectives and values, while also addressing the various individual needs of children with large social and linguistic variations. To stimulate the children’s engagement, the staff focused on building good relationships with the children and encouraging them to learn from each other. Overall, the results indicate an increased need for general organisational efforts to address the challenges that arise in kindergarten departments with a high proportion of bilingual children.

The study is based on content analysis of semi-structured interviews with 27 kindergarten employees from 11 different kindergarten departments, where there was either a distinctly high or low proportion of multilingual children. The interview subjects were women with varied educational backgrounds and different work experience from kindergarten. Interview data were combined with observations of staff and the children. There were 57 monolingual and 91 bilingual children. In the observational part of the study, data from two previous projects were also included in order to perform quantitative analyses of employees’ and children’s behaviour. The additional sample includes an additional 446 children and 148 employees in 31 different kindergarten departments. All children in the study were between one and five years old.

Finnman, J., Söderbäck, M., Sjöman, M., Welander, J., & Almqvist, L. (2024). Challenges to relational commitments of preschool staff in supporting children in contexts with a high proportion of early second language learners in Sweden. Early Education and Development, 35(3), 628–646.

Online year: 2023

Issue year: 2024

Review year: 2023