Preschool teachers and caregivers’ lack of repositioning in response to changed responsibilities in policy documents.

The study investigates how kindergarten teachers and assistants in Swedish kindergartens adapt to political changes that redefine their roles and responsibilities. The aim of the Swedish curriculum for kindergartens (2011) was to strengthen the kindergarten teacher profession by giving this group clearer responsibility for educational quality and curriculum work, which resulted in a new division of labour between kindergarten teachers and assistants. The study explores how these two occupational groups react to and position themselves in light of these changes.

Kindergarten teachers and kindergarten assistants perceived that they had equal roles and responsibilities. Specifically, the kindergarten teachers emphasised the competence and role of the assistants, while downplaying their own professional competence and role. On the other hand, the kindergarten assistants downplayed the professional role of the kindergarten teachers and raised their own competence and position to be on the same level as the kindergarten teachers.

Ten kindergarten teachers and seven kindergarten assistants from two Swedish kindergartens completed a questionnaire with open-ended questions with the purpose of understanding how they positioned themselves in relation to the division of labour described in political documents.

Cervantes, S. & Öqvist, A. (2021). "Preschool teachers and caregivers’ lack of repositioning in response to changed responsibilities in policy documents". Journal of Early Childhood Research, 19(3):323-336.