Tid till att bli svensk: En studie av mottagandet av nyanlända barn och familjer i den svenska förskolan.

The overall purpose of this study is to examine how children and their parents who have recently arrived in Sweden are treated and welcomed at two Swedish daycare centres (förskola).

The analysis is divided into three topics:

1) culture and communication: This part of the analysis is about the early childhood educators' attempts to understand and familiarise themselves with the perspective of the parents. The analysis shows that it is important that the early childhood educators do this in order to understand cultural differences in their cooperation with parents. This is extremely important, as misunderstandings in the communication can counteract otherwise good cooperation. For instance, it is important that the children arrive on time, so they can have breakfast, as it may be difficult for them to concentrate later if they are hungry.

2) Time and Swedishism: The early childhood educators' speech and communication are closely linked with different practices (e.g. when to eat, or when to go to bed at night), which have a moral undertone of what is appropriate to do and when. The early childhood educators' communication with the parents verbalises the perception of Swedishism as (culturally) connected to being a good parent (e.g. you do not eat dinner at 10pm, and the child should not go to bed at midnight). The argumentation is therefore that the children must go to bed early, as this is best for the child.

3) Time and education: Through conversations, the early childhood educators encourage the parents to be on time, and the parents are corrected if necessary. Analysis of the study shows that welcoming new children at the daycare centre is a complex issue. How this welcome should be dealt with is not clear among the early childhood educators interviewed: Some early childhood educators think that it is a question of how the children and the parents can adapt to the practices of the daycare centre and Swedish culture. Others think that focus should be on the current practice of the parents and children, and that the day should be organised on the basis of this.

Moreover, the analysis illustrates a spatial dimension which is about identities and lifestyles coupled to notions about space, and what belongs in this space and what does not. In this context, space not only means the daycare centre, but also more general practices perceived as Swedish (e.g. when children eat dinner or go to bed). The daycare centre is an institution characterised by different discourses about learning and development, but also by discourses about what it means to be a good parent (and thereby implicitly what it means to be a good parent in Sweden).

The data basis for this study constitutes empirical material from a completed research and development project "Børns Bedste - For flygtningebørn i børnehaven” (best for the children - refugee children at kindergarten).

The study includes pedagogical staff from daycare centres in suburban areas with around 50,000 inhabitants, and in which about 50% of the children were born in a country outside Sweden. The study focusses on two daycare centres, one of which has a special department for refugee families. The group of children includes a total of 16 children, the majority of whom were born in Somalia or Iraq or whose parents were born in these countries. The other kindergarten has a group of 18 children who arrived during the day. The majority in this kindergarten were born in Somalia, but Iraq, Libya and Syria were also represented.

The study is an ethnographic study which creates analytical categories through an interplay between theory, previous studies and the observations and interviews. The study uses observations (of early childhood educators, the children and their parents), conversations, interviews, focus group interviews with early childhood educators and text analyses. The analysis is aimed at how the new children and their families are perceived and positioned in the early childhood educators' speech and activities at the daycare centres. The analysis was conducted on the basis of a sociological perspective (Bourdieau and Wacquant's theory on social positions) and a narrative perspective.

Lunneblad, J. (2013). Tid till att bli svensk: En studie av mottagandet av nyanlända barn och familjer i den svenska förskolan. Nordic Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 6 (8), 1-14.