Att borga för likvärdighet?: Kommunala tjänstemäns iscensättande av en ny läroplan för förskolan.

The study investigates how municipal employees in collaboration with the kindergarten coordinators in a Swedish municipality implement a new curriculum for kindergartens. The purpose is to investigate how the curriculum is received, interpreted, translated and implemented at the administrative level in the municipality, with a particular focus on three employees in education administration who have worked on the new curriculum together with the kindergarten coordinators. The research questions are: 1) How do municipal employees implement the new curriculum and how is this communicated to kindergarten coordinators? 2) What type of content is prominent in the things that are communicated? 3) What resources are being used in the implementation of the curriculum?

The results show the value of conducting regular meetings between the municipality and all municipal kindergarten coordinators. The changes in the new kindergarten plan were positively received by the municipal employees, and the Swedish National Agency for Education was perceived as an external actor they had great confidence in. The employees' own professional experience of previous implementation of curricula formed the basis for them now wanting to ensure equality between the kindergartens by providing the same information and material to all kindergarten coordinators. In this work, they used work methods and materials supplied by the Swedish National Agency for Education. The content of the curriculum that is presented as challenging in the study is teaching and the kindergarten teachers' broadened pedagogical responsibility.

The study is part of a case study that investigates how a Swedish municipality is working to implement a new kindergarten reform. The data material consists of observations of seven meetings, called kindergarten conferences, where three municipal employees met the kindergarten coordinators in the municipality. In addition, interviews were conducted at the beginning and end of the observation period with municipal employees.

Sundström, J., Hjelmér, C. & Rantala, A. (2021). "Att borga för likvärdighet?: Kommunala tjänstemäns iscensättande av en ny läroplan för förskolan". I Den fjärde nationella konferensen i pedagogiskt arbete, Umeå universitet, 19-20 augusti, 2019 (s. 111-124). Umeå universitet.