Svenske førskolelærere om læring i planlegging og praksis relatert til den nasjonale læreplanen.

The objective of this article is to elucidate, analyse and question a group of Swedish social pedagogues in kindergarten and their perception of their own pedagogical planning and practice as well as their view on children’s learning seen in relation to the national curricula in this area.

Analysis of the interviews can be categorised within two aspects: The learning aspect as well as the methodology and knowledge aspect. These aspects are to reflect the empirical content of the studies as well as broad and central areas within didactics. Two qualitatively different categories are presented within the learning aspect:
- Individual-oriented learning: Learning is described by social pedagogues as coming from the child itself.
- Learning as an interaction process: Learning is described by social pedagogues as an ongoing process in interaction with the surroundings.
Likewise, two qualitatively different categories are presented within
the methodology and knowledge aspect:
- Intuitive methodology and knowledge perspective: Social pedagogues describe how they observe the children and approach the play the children have initiated in order to stimulate current skills and concepts.
- Structured methodology and knowledge perspective: Social pedagogues describe their work as a planned systematic process linked to teamwork that extends over time. Here goals for the child’s development have been predefined, however the children are described as being involved, for instance, in the choice of theme in order to develop the children as democratic citizens.

This study follows a  phenomenographic  tradition. Interpretation of data material is within a hermeneutic framework to ensure that meaningful content in the highlighted parts corresponds to the entireties in which they are included. Eight interviews of an hour and a half were carried out in the data collection process. The interviews were conducted on the basis of a loosely structured questionnaire with four overall questions (planning your work on children’s learning; planning and organising work in the division; the national curricula and local plans seen in relation to the planning; looking back on last year’s planning, what thoughts go through your mind?). The study relates to similar studies carried out in Norway and New Zealand.

Alvestad, M.; Berge, A. (2009). Svenske førskolelærere om læring i planlegging og praksis relatert til den nasjonale læreplanen. Nordisk barnehageforskning, 2(2), S. 57-68.