– Snälla du! Kan du sätta dig?: om vägledning i förskolan

The purpose of this study is to provide knowledge about how socialisation (fostran) is performed in preschool. The study focusses particularly on preschool teachers' verbal guidance of children in everyday situations where children and adults interact.

The results show that the preschool teachers' guidance varies significantly and assumes many different forms. In the thematic analysis, two themes stand out: direct guidance and indirect guidance. Direct guidance consists of direct correction, where indirect guidance is expressed as praise, distraction and questions.

Direct correction means that the teacher speaks directly to one or several children to make the children change their actions. This sometimes also entails physical guidance where the teacher uses his/her body to guide and direct the children towards a specific goal, to hold back a child in order to prevent it from walking away or to stop a running child. The study suggests that the teachers often use many and long verbal arguments in their guidance through direct correction, which requires the children to have a highly developed understanding of language. This may result in certain children not understanding what the teacher is trying to say, and therefore they may not follow the teacher's instructions.

The study shows that sometimes the teachers use questions to encourage the children to behave in a certain manner. These questions are often "closed-ended", and the teachers do not always expect the children to answer them. This is evident in a situation in which a child is playing on an iPad, and a teacher says: "That's very loud. Can I turn it down a bit? The teacher then turns down the volume before the child gets to answer. The study shows that children are guided with praise in situations in which they have either acted or behaved in a way encouraged or desired by the teachers, for example when children are helpful or considerate. According to the author, the data material includes no examples of situations where the children are praised for arguing or saying what they believe, or where children express resistance against the norms prevailing in the preschool. In such situations, the teachers' guidance of the children takes the form of direct correction instead.

The results from the thematic analysis show that direct correction is the most common way in which the teachers guide the children. Then follows the use of questions, whereas distraction is used least by the teachers. According to the author, in situations where the teachers guide through distraction, they try to distract the children away from various activities by trying to change the children's focus. The study shows that distraction is often used when the children are angry, upset or in some other way express resistance.

The author finds that the children are guided in different ways in different situations, and that the guidance varies in relation to different children. The girls who receive most guidance are girls who argue most and express resistance in different ways. Among the boys, the most timid and calm boys receive most guidance. The results also indicate that children who follow the rules and routines of the preschool do not receive any guidance from the teachers whatsoever.

The empirical foundation of the thesis consists of video observations carried out in two preschools (förskoler). The observations stretched over two long periods in four departments at the two preschools: three departments with children aged between 3-5 years and one department with children aged between 1-6 years. A total of 73 children, 17 preschool teachers and 14 employees with other pedagogical qualifications took part in the study. The author observed different everyday situations, such as free play, getting dressed, circle time and outdoor activities. The data material and the analysis of data were divided into two parts: first a thematic analysis in which the results were descriptively presented, and where observations and recordings of the adults' verbal guidance of the children were structured in themes. The data material was subsequently analysed on the basis of theories of power.

Rantala, A. (2016). – Snälla du! Kan du sätta dig?: om vägledning i förskolan. Doktorsavhandling. Umeå universitet, Samhällsvetenskapliga fakulteten. Institutionen för tillämpad utbildningsvetenskap.