”Forståelser av gode overganger og opplevelse av sammenheng mellom barnehage, skole og skolefritidsordning”.

The purpose of the study is to examine what preschool teachers, preschool class teachers, and managers of school-based leisure-time facilities in a Norwegian municipality emphasise in the transition from preschool to school and school-based leisure-time facility. The study examines how respondents relate to the concepts of physical, social, philosophical and communicative continuity. The concepts relate to the degree of continuity in the child’s transition from preschool to school and school-based-leisure-time facility. Physical continuity is about the child experiencing a connection in the physical environment from preschool to school and school-based-leisure-time facility. Social continuity is about the experience of continuity in the child’s identity in the social transition from being a child in preschool to a being pupil at school. Philosophical continuity is related to the experience of a connection between the expectations and requirements of play and learning. Communicative continuity is primarily about the dialogue between the preschool and the school and school-based-leisure-time facility in the transitional phase.

The results from the questionnaire survey show that all three groups, i.e. preschool teachers, teachers and managers of school-based-leisure-time facilities see it as very important for the children to be familiar with the school’s physical environment before starting school. They also emphasise the creation and preservation of friendships in relation to the transition from preschool to school. These measures are categorised as physical and social continuity, respectively.

Measures to ensure that the school has information about the individual child were also prioritised by all respondents of the questionnaire survey, while measures that could contribute to communicative and philosophical continuity for the children in the transition phase were considered more challenging to achieve.

It was primarily the communicative continuity that concerned the informants of the focus group interviews. To be able to prepare the child for its future, the practitioners in the preschools should know what the child will experience when it starts school. Similarly, to be able to take the child’s past into consideration, the school needs information about the child’s previous experiences in preschool. A lack of communication was presented as an obstacle, especially with a view to ensuring a higher level of philosophical continuity.

The study is designed as a mixed-methods-case study where an initial quantitative questionnaire survey is combined with focus group interviews.

In total 44 out of 75 people who were sent the questionnaire completed it; 29 preschool teachers, eight teachers and five with other pedagogical qualifications. A total of 15 of the respondents worked as teachers, 21 as preschool teachers and six as managers of school-based-leisure-time facilities.

The focus group interviews were conducted in three different groups consisting of 4-6 people in each and composed of preschool teachers, preschool class teachers and managers of school-based-leisure-time facilities. In total 14 people participated, of which seven were preschool teachers, five were preschool class teachers and two were managers of school-based-leisure-time facilities.

The results from both the questionnaire survey and the interviews were categorised as physical, social, philosophical and communicative continuity, respectively.

Hogsnes, H.D. & Moser, T. (2014). ”Forståelser av gode overganger og opplevelse av sammenheng mellom barnehage, skole og skolefritidsordning”. Tidsskrift for nordisk barnehageforskning, 7(6), 1-24.