Consequences of staff composition in Norwegian kindergarten

The purpose of this study is to examine how staff composition and professional skills affect the division of labour between qualified early childhood educators and childcare assistants in Norwegian kindergartens.

Just over 32% of the staff in Norwegian kindergartens are qualified kindergarten early childhood educators. The rest include childcare assistants without formal pedagogical qualification. The study concludes that there is a limited division of labour at kindergartens between childcare assistants and early childhood educators. Both groups of respondents say that management responsibilities and specific pedagogical activities are carried out by kindergarten early childhood educators, whereas the other activities are carried out equally by kindergarten early childhood educators and childcare assistants. This corresponds to the actual division of tasks in which both groups of respondents say that the early childhood educators are more engaged in pedagogical management responsibilities as well as specific and clearly defined pedagogical activities, whereas both staff groups carry out other activities to an equal extent. When asked what competences are most important to the kindergarten staff, both groups of respondents say that general competences and personal characteristics are more important than professional competences obtained through formal education. The kindergarten early childhood educators assess the importance of practical skills to be lower than childcare assistants, whereas the two groups assess the importance of professional/technical knowledge equally high. The study explains the limited division of labour on the basis of a theoretical model, the framework-factor model, which illustrates the conditions in the kindergarten on the basis of legislation, curricula and resources. The study concludes that the established kindergarten traditions, strong practical structures and weak technical skills in kindergarten early childhood educators lead to a lack of division of labour between the two groups of employees.

The study is based on a representative survey study of all Norwegian kindergartens. The survey was carried out as part of the national MAFAL research project (Mastering the role as kindergarten teacher in a field dominated by laymen). The questionnaire was sent to kindergarten managers of 1,000 randomly selected kindergartens in spring 2009. The managers were asked to return at least one questionnaire (and no more than three) from each staff group of kindergarten early childhood educators and childcare assistants. The response rate was 59%. Responses from a total of 1,357 childcare assistants and 998 qualified kindergarten early childhood educators were used in the study.

Steinnes, G.S. & Haug, P. (2013). Consequences of staff composition in Norwegian kindergarten. Nordic Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 6 (13), 1-13.