”Barnehagen som lærande organisasjon i ein politisk kontekst”.

The purpose of this study is to elucidate and discuss how the Norwegian requirement that preschools are to be learning organisations is expressed and communicated in central government documents, and what understanding of the concept “learning organisation” is communicated to preschools through these government documents.

The study finds that the Norwegian framework plan and other central government documents specify very little of what exactly is expected of a “learning preschool”. This is despite the fact that, over time, the requirement has been repeated and strengthened in many contexts and in several political documents and plans. Up to 2013 no detailed explanation had been published about what the concept “a learning organisation” involves and how preschools are to work towards achieving the goal to become a learning preschool. The discourse-analytical document analysis shows that the requirement that preschools are to be learning organisations was launched more or less simultaneously with the 2006 transfer of preschools to the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research. The requirement was linked to an earlier priority on the content and quality of the preschool and was part of a new political rhetoric in the preschool debate. The preschool as a learning organisation was a central element in the strategy for competence development to improve the quality of preschools.

The empirical data material in the study is composed of the Norwegian framework plan for preschools and notifications from the Norwegian Parliament from 2006 onwards. A hermeneutic framework of understanding, combined with a discourse-analytical methodology was chosen for the analysis.

Skjæveland, Y. (2014). ”Barnehagen som lærande organisasjon i ein politisk kontekst”. I: Mørreaunet, S., Gotvassli, Å., Hoas Moen, K. & Eva Skogen (red.): Ledelse av en lærende barnehage. Bergen: Fagboklaget.