“Barns övergångar till och från förskoleklass. Gränser, identiteter och (dis-)kontinuiteter”.

The overall objective of this PhD dissertation is to procure knowledge about how the transition to and from Swedish pre-school class can be described and understood from a child’s perspective. Specifically, the study aims to answer the following questions: 1) How can continuity/discontinuity in the transition be described and understood from the child’s perspective, and what types of continuity/discontinuity are indicated in children’s narratives in terms of identity (re)constructions and defining borders? 2) How can pre-school classes be described and understood from a child’s perspective in terms of the borders the child defines with regard to the types of school?

The dissertation shows overall that the transition between different learning arenas from a child’s perspective can be perceived as a threat or burden in the shape of social discontinuity. From the child’s perspective, the greatest concern or threat in connection with the transition from daycare to pre-school class is separation from established friendships and communities. The experience of belonging to a social community is challenged when, in each transition, children are divided into new classes. This means that the transition imposes demands on the child to finish previous friendships and take part in new communities requiring new friendships. This helps characterise the transition as a critical and potentially problematic event. The study finds that it is important to monitor how children adapt to the new school arena and the children’s separation from their old daycare arena and communities.

The study also finds that the transition between daycare and pre-school class causes children to worry if they are not prepared for what they will meet. The transition involves a reconstruction of both children’s identity and their expectations, and the study finds that a gentle transition can be perceived as a spiral-shaped process in which children are able to move backwards and forwards between the new and the old learning arena. Preparatory activities such as introductory visits to the pre-school class, at which children are introduced to new routines, to teachers and to future classmates are a possibility for the children to construct and reconstruct their expectations and experience for the new pre-school class context. For the same reasons, the study concludes that prior cooperation on the transition between daycare centre and pre-school class is important.

The study also finds that children both expect and look forward to the change of the physical space in both content and form in the transition between daycare and pre-school class. Despite the physical discontinuity, there is a cultural continuity between daycare and pre-school class, as the physical environments are relatively similar. This means that children can recognise activities in their pre-school class on the basis of their previous experience in daycare . From the child’s perspective, the cultural continuity is not only positive, as children expect pre-school class to more resemble school. From the child’s perspective, the physical differences in space (form and content) contribute to creating visible, defined borders between the learning arenas.

Data was collected in a medium-sized municipality in Sweden through ethnographically-inspired field work Five-year-old children from two groups of children in the same preschool ("förskola") were observed over a period of 18 months from their final period in daycare to the start of their second year of primary school ("Årskurs 1"). The children were monitored in the transition from childcare to pre-school class and in the transition on to the second year of primary school. At the start of the study, all 20 children from the two daycare groups were included. Four of these children were followed for the entire period. (The children from the two original groups of children were split into different classes in both transitions). Selection of daycare centre and school emphasised 1) that the daycare centre was not located close to the school, in order to avoid that children already had experience in the school’s area (e.g. the playground), 2) that the daycare centre had groups for five years, and 3) that the pre-school class was located in the school area.

The primary data basis was video and sound recordings, observations, photos and informal and formal conversations with the children about their expectations and experience regarding starting school. In addition, conversations/interviews were held with the personnel at the daycare centre, pre-school class and second year of primary school. Theoretically, a socio-cultural perspective was adopted, in which the transition between different learning arenas was considered as social processes that were constructed, negotiated and rendered meaning in interplay with others. The dissertation is composed of three sub-studies published as independent articles. Article 1 describe the transition process in the final period at daycare, when the children visit their pre-school class, while article 2 describes how the borders between the different learning arenas are defined by the children and are significant for constructing the children’s identity. Article 3 describes how the children reason the transition to and from pre-school class, including how the transitions affect the children’s comradeship and social communities.

Ackesjö, H. (2014) “Barns övergångar till och från förskoleklass. Gränser, identiteter och (dis-)kontinuiteter”. Akademisk avhandling för filosofie doktorexamen i pedagogik, Linneaeus University Press.