”Vi har nästan blivit för bra” – Lärares sociale representationer av förskolan som pedagogisk praktik”.

The purpose of this study is, through description and analysis of child carers’ conversations about daycare centres, to contribute with knowledge about and understanding of how child carers at daycare centres talk about the kindergarten’s (the Swedish pre-school) function and its pedagogical content.

The author shows the complexity that characterises the child carers’ construction of meaning. There are several different, contradictory and co-existing themes and categories in their descriptions of the kindergarten’s (the Swedish pre-school) function and its pedagogical content.  The result shows that child carers express two mutually different social representations of the kindergarten as pedagogical practice: the kindergarten as being developing for all children and the kindergarten as being developing for some children. Both representations contain different representations of the child and children’s competences, the role of the child carer as well as the role of the kindergarten in society. Child carers express that the pedagogical practice does not suit all children.

The author has conducted seven focus group interviews of 1½-2 hours with a total of 46 child carers. During the interviews, the child carers, with the author as the moderator, discussed the daycare facility, its purpose and content as well as the concepts of play and learning related to the daycare facility. The interviews were transcribed and analysed to find out what themes and what content of the daycare facility are essential for the child carers, as well how the child carers communicate about these understandings and opinions. The author uses social representations as a concept for how child carers view the daycare facility and how they act.

Granbom, I. (2011). ””Vi har nästan blivit för bra” – Lärares sociale representationer av förskolan som pedagogisk praktik”. Jönköping: School of Education and Communication, Jönköping University.