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| 2. |
- Nordén, Birgitta, et al.
(författare)
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New in Sweden : Experiences from Preschool Reception and Newly Arrived Families
- 2017
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In Sweden of today and Europe, there is a lively debate about the reception and education of migrating children, young people and adults (Nilsson & Bunar 2015; Nilsson Folke 2015). The educational challenges have often been conceptualized and explained as a problem of difference in culture, ethnicity and language of the migrant children (León-Rosales 2010; Lunneblad 2013; Nilsson & Bunar 2015). Bouakaz, (2009), for instance, shows that in meeting the newly arrived families, it is the differences that are conceptualized as problematic. The position of the child’s mother tongue is a basic factor affecting access to education and school success (Ball 2011). Intercultural school development is a fundamental condition for democratic societies, and a priority in European policy today (Council of Europe 2007, 2015, 2016). The project at hand aims to address the demands of a changing educational landscape and broaden the picture of the situation of children and families with an immigrant background from a civic perspective. The project focuses newly arrived children’s first encounter with the Swedish educational system in the context of preschool. There are few studies on newly arrived children in the Swedish preschool. According to Tallberg Broman et al. (2015) focus on diversity, migration and ethnicity is also limited in relation to preschool. The forms of early childhood education and care vary greatly across Europe (European Commission, 2015). In Sweden, preschool is part of the overall education system. It has its own national curriculum, as well as formal university level training requirements for preschool teachers. Since the 1970s, preschool has played an important part of Swedish integration policy (Lunneblad 2013), and today an intercultural approach is emphasized (Skolverket 2010). In 2011, one in five preschool children had a different first language than Swedish and this number is increasing. Only in 2015, more than 16,000 children between one and six with the right to attend preschool and preschool class arrived in Sweden (Skolverket 2016; Migrationsverket 2016). In this process preschool as an organisational and educational setting has an important role to play. As Persson (2012) has pointed out, in an increasingly segregated society, and in the case of creating intercultural and multilingual education, the preschool can provide solutions and make a difference. This is why the project’s objective is to develop ways of organising spaces in preschool for successful learning and teaching through a participatory approach. The preschool teachers and other actors, as well as the children and their families take part in and collaborate in the research project from their perspectives and in a manner where their experiences and knowledge are seen as assets. The aims of the project in this respect correspond to the principles set forward by the Working group of the European Commission, which stress that quality depends on ”relationships between ECEC providers and children’s families; relationships and interactions between staff and children, and among children; (...) the involvement of parents in the work of the ECEC setting and the day-to-day pedagogic practice of staff within an ECEC context;” (European Commission, 2014, p. 6) ”A professional role is one which is regulated and requires individuals to develop and reflect on their own practice and with parents and children, create a learning environment which is constantly renewed and improved.” (European Commission p. 70) The participatory research design, in which different actors co-operate to organize preschool as a setting and civic instrument will also constitute a knowledge contribution in itself. Besides the participant’s knowledge development, the objective is to strengthen the scientific base and proven experience as support to professional knowledge. Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources Used The project is carried out in a preschool in southern Sweden, where one of the sections is an introduction class for children 3-5 year who do not speak any Swedish at all or very little. In the section there are 20 children and the activities focus on strengthening the children's identity and language, both the Swedish and the first language. The project is carried out mainly at the introduction section, but the study will also include the preschool as a whole, because the children after about a year's stay in the introduction section, move to another department at the present preschool or to a preschool closer to their home. A participatory approach is used, involving head teachers, teachers and other preschool staff members, the children and their families. We lean on the action research tradition (McNiff 2002; Norton 2009; Kemmis 2009). The approach implies that teachers, teams and institutions, together with researchers, are encouraged to systematically explore their work to develop the pedagogical knowledge and teaching. Much of the implemented research within educational action research has the teachers in focus, although educational action research implies a process in which all involved should be included, also the students (McNiff 2002). In the project, we will involve researchers and teachers, as well as the children and their families (Gallacher & Gallagher 2008; Clark 2010). The staff at the participating preschool have accepted to work in a participatory way, where researchers together with staff, children, care takers, and preschool management investigate strengths and challenges regarding how the preschool can reinforce language development. The model for the implementation of the project follows the typical participatory action research cycle, which includes planning, action, observation and reflection (McNiff 2002). The function of PAR is here taken as Braye and McDonell (2013, 269) argue, to “get the people affected by a problem together, figure out what is going on as a group, and then do something about it”. Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or Findings During the spring of 2017, the project will have run its first phase. In this phase of the project, the families, the prechool teachers, the children, preschool leaders and members of the municipal administration will have had the opportunity to formulate their concerns and discuss them in groups. For adults, focus groups with participants from each category will be carried out, that is, one with staff, another with management and a third with families. To get an insight to the children’s perspectives, we will use suitable methods adapted to the specific group of children. This presupposes a child-centred approach that fits within the children’s play and daily activities. The approach of using groups will give the participants in each category the opportunity to share and formulate problems, which in turn will give the project perspectives and experiences from the various groups of participants. An anticipated challenge is that the families live in different neighbourhoods, which limits opportunities for informal contacts between them. The staff and management of the preschool have identified some challenges and problems, but also strengths that the section and the preschool face in relation to the children’s learning and development. They see that although multilingualism can be considered an asset, the multilingualism in itself doesn’t create the dynamics in which learning opportunities and development can take place, something that also Kultti (2014) has observed in her research on how to deal with newly arrived children with a first language differing from the majority language.
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| 4. |
- Nordén, Birgitta, et al.
(författare)
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Practices In Development : How Is Meaning, Context And Motivation Created For Learning For Sustainability In The Preschool's Educational Outdoor Activities?
- 2019
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- European Commission underlines the import ance of early childhood education for education attainment, and to reduce social inequalities. The Proposal on early childhood education has now been adopted (EC, 2018). But early childhood education also plays a role in achieving Agenda 2030 sustainability goals and honouring European commitments for the environment. Research suggests that early childhood experiences of nature shape emotional relations to the natural environment, supporting agency and environmental awareness (Hammarsten et al, 2018). Outdoor education thus lays a foundation for future engagement and education for sustainability. The present study concerns an outdoor education project at a Swedish urban pre-school for 3-5 year olds that receives a large proportion of newly arrived children, with a focus on a section with about 20 children between three and five years who do not speak any or very little Swedish. It is part of a larger study financed by the Swedish School Research Institute concerning the conditions for learning and teaching in a world characterised by diversity and migration. The researchers support and follow staff, management, parents and children in jointly developing educational environments where different languages, identities, pedagogical relations and organisation work together to support children's learning and development. Outdoor education in this context involves three main dimensions: (1) Children's relation to place and their immediate environment. (2) The curriculum's goals for natural science in preschool. (3) Pedagogical didactic strategies. In Sweden, preschool is an integrated part of the education system, and the preschool curriculum currently stresses a mission of teaching. Policy ambitions in this respect are rising, and from July 2019, the preschool has the task of striving for every child ... "... to develop their ability to distinguish, explore, document, ask questions and discuss natural science ..." The Swedish preschool education curriculum thereby creates challenges for preschool teachers, especially in pre-schools that have not previously focused on nature or science phenomena. The increased demands entail a risk that sustainability will become something that is placed on top of existing activities, and which is difficult to integrate. There are not necessarily relevant given activities or traditional forms of teaching to fall back on, when preschool teachers are to interpret the curriculum's intentions in their practice. Should the children develop a relationship with the place they live in, or should focus rather lie on learning limited abstract elements about different phenomena? Is the subject-specific language important, or the phenomenon itself? Is the child assumed capable of thinking independently, and find his or her own explanations, or is it instead important to teach the difference between facts and imagination? In practice, there is not much room to go into depth about such issues in planning. There is therefore a risk of working with fragmented and decontexualised activities that are easy to implement in practice. The study consequently examines reflection-in-action processes of the preschool staff, in connection with the group of staff, management and children in their collaborative work to improve the preschool playground. Focus lies on the one hand on the preschool teachers’ thoughts on how different changes can offer opportunities for learning, and on the other, on the children’s participation and children's own thoughts in these processes. Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources Used The research approach draws on Participatory Action Research ( PAR) focusing learning through action and with reflection in focus. The approach used in the study aims to change practitioners' understanding of their practice and under what conditions they practice. PAR is understood as a practice-changing practice with the aim of developing the practice by creating a critical approach to what one does, how to think and how to relate to the contexts in which it operates (Kemmis 2009). The analysis tool consists of the concept of Practice Architecture (PA), which helps us explore and understand what enables and limits teaching practices and learning opportunities.The starting point for the PA is that people meet in intersubjective spaces that are arranged in specific ways. These spaces mediate the conditions for practitioners: Cultural-discursive arrangements (1); Material-economic arrangements (2); Social policy arrangements (3) (Kemmis 2009; Kemmis et al 2014; Rönnerman, 2017). Changing the PA involves changing the overall framework for what is said, done and how to relate to each other and to what you do - thereby opening new spaces for their teaching, development and learning practice. In the period 2017-2018 the children have taken pictures of their environment and talked about it; conversations with children; a children’s council has been formed. The outdoor group meetings take place regularly, involving children and staff. Conversations took place in groups with staff or with staff together with managers, as well as individual interviews with parents. Pre-school teachers (n = 5) were interviewed, examining their and the children's perspectives on what are important activities in science/environmental and sustainability education. The study also involved informal participant observation and conversations with children. Cooperation between the three sections of the preschool has been initiated through a "child council" (n = 4 children) and teacher´s "outdoor group" (n= 6: staff + researcher), focusing ways to change the preschool’s playground, and create an outdoor environment offering rich opportunities for play and learning. Conclusions, Expected Outcomes o r Findings Initial findings involve spatial perspectives of ch ildren's places: (1) Adults organise spaces for children at preschool.The physical space and design, including vegetation, water and surfaces affect how the space creates - or does not create - opportunities for action and interactions for the children. (2) The children take their place in these spaces, create their own places and invest them their own meanings. Children attribute meaning and emotions in ways that may differ from adult practices and intentions for the same places. Material-economic arrangements: Physical time-space enables and sets limits to how we can do things in the (outdoor) c lassroom, shapes and gives content to the "doing" of practice: (1). Educational Development Limitations: (1.1) fragmentation of the educational content; (1.2) family's living conditions; (1.3) the way activities are organised in time and space; (1.4) the allocation of human resources and staff schedule. (2). Opening up the physical space (changing the action): (2.1) Create spaces for shared reflection between and within the different organisational levels, and between children, educators and researchers. (2.2) The researchers actively participate in the development of the learning space. The role of the preschool teachers and educators is multifaceted and complex: to provide care, security, learning, entry into society, and entail transparency in difficult living conditions. What the staff express is in line with findings from the report by Zetterqvist, Nelson and Hagström (2017) on newly arrived children in Sweden. It appeared that administrative and other factors placed considerable constraints on the staff’s and children’s agency in creating a greener outdoor environment, which would greater opportunities for activities and experience. Nevertheless, the processes encouraged action, reflection and collaboration. Engagement in the process of changing their immediate environment appeared particularly important for the newly arrived children, as a way of making their own place in Sweden.
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| 5. |
- Nordén, Birgitta, et al.
(författare)
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Praktiker under utveckling : hur skapas mening, sammanhang och motivation att lära för hållbarhet i förskolans utepedagogiska aktiviteter?
- 2018
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Från juli 2019 har förskolan uppdraget att sträva efter att varje barn..."...utvecklar sin förmåga att urskilja, utforska, dokumentera, ställa frågor om och samtala om naturvetenskap...". Förskoleläroplanen skapar utmaningar för förskollärare, särskilt i förskolor som inte sedan tidigare haft fokus på natur eller naturvetenskapliga fenomen. De ökade kraven medför en risk att naturvetenskap blir något som läggs ovanpå befintlig verksamhet, och som är svårt att integrera. Wanda Sass (2018) betonar istället motivationens betydelse för ”viljan-att-handla". Det finns inte nödvändigtvis relevanta givna aktiviteter eller traditionella former för undervisning att falla tillbaka på, när förskollärare skall tolka läroplanens intentioner i sina praktiker. Skall fokus ligga på att barnen utvecklar en relation till platsen de bor på, eller snarare på att lära sig avgränsade abstrakta moment om skilda fenomen. Är det fackspecifika språket betydelsefullt, eller fenomenet i sig? Kan barnet fundera självständigt, och hitta sina egna förklaringar, eller är det viktiga att förstå skillnad på fakta och fantasi? Det finns inte mycket utrymme att gå på djupet omkring sådana frågor i planeringen. Snarare än att följa didaktiska argument, uppstår därför risken att man arbetar med lösryckta aktiviteter som är lätta att genomföra praktiskt. Presentationen redogör för en studie om ett utepedagogikprojekt på en förskolaför 3-5-åringarsom tar emot en stor andel nyanlända barn. Mellan tre avdelningar har samarbete initierats genom ett "barnråd" (n=4 barn) respektive en "gårdsgrupp"(n=6 personal + forskare) och gårdsmiljöns förändringsmöjligheter fokuseras. Förskollärare (n=5–10) intervjuas varvid deras och barnens perspektiv på vad som är viktiga aktiviteter i natur-/miljö-och hållbarhetsundervisning undersöks genom ett participatoriskt och aktionsforskningsinspirerat arbetssätt. Studien syftar till att ta fram lämplig verktygslåda för att stärka det pedagogiska utvecklingsarbetet i förskolan och utgör ett delmoment i en större studie finansierat av Skolforskningsinstitutet om förutsättningar för lärande och undervisning i en värld som kännetecknas av diversitet och migration.
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| 7. |
- Harju, Anne, 1965-, et al.
(författare)
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Samverkan i motstånd : ett utvecklingsprojekt för flerspråkig förskoleverksamhet
- 2018
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Ingår i: NÄD2018 - Nationell Ämnesdidaktisk konferens 2018, 26-27 april 2018, Kristianstad. ; , s. 20-20
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- I detta paper problematiseras samverkan i ett utvecklingsprojekt som genomförs i en förskoleavdelning med participatorisk ansats (PAR). Projektet genomförs på en avdelning med ett 20-tal barn mellan tre och fem år som inte talar någon eller mycket lite svenska. I participatorisk forskning ligger ofta tonvikten på utveckling av professionella praktiker på den enskilda arbetsplatsen. Handlingsutrymmet för pedagoger ligger dock inbäddat i strukturer som är svåra att påverka. Bland annat kan en strikt tillämpning av likvärdighetsprincipen medföra att det blir svårt att tillgodose specifika behov och förutsättningar, eller att utveckla nya modeller lokalt.
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| 8. |
- Harju, Anne, et al.
(författare)
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Space of action for pedagogues and researchers in action research projects
- 2018
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The ai m of the presentation is to discuss the possibilities of action research to make profound and long-lived educational changes. We discuss this in relation to an ongoing action research project carried out with pedagogues in a preschool section in southern Sweden. The section is in a phase when they need to review the organisation in relation to inner and outer structure and pedagogy. One challenge that has been identified during the research process is that the section is perceived as being 'isolated' and 'invisible'. This perception relates to the surrounding organisational, juridical and economic structures, which, according to the pedagogues, make it difficult to work with the organisational and pedagogical changes they feel are needed. Based on these results, we want to address the possibilities of change-making in an action research project in relation to power relations between different organisational levels of power (pedagogues, preschool management, municipality management, researchers). We draw on the concept of practice 'architectures' (Kemmis and Smith 2008; Kemmis 2009) to explore how scope for change at the section is shaped and formed by mediating preconditions for practice, that is, how cultural –discursive, material –economic and social –political preconditions shape and give content to the ‘thinking, ́doing ́ and ́relating’ that orient and justify the practices.
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| 9. |
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| 10. |
- Åkerblom, Annika, et al.
(författare)
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Becoming a Swedish Preschool child
- 2019
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- In Sweden, the reception and education of migrant children is seen as a challenge for the school system, and the opinions concerning how to educate and socialize young migrant children differ. The educational system in Sweden, and elsewhere, has historically been given a double function. On the one hand, it is viewed as a mediator of dominant culture, language, and imagined nationality, and on the other hand, in an increasingly globalized world, it is seen as a promoter of values like multiculturalism and tolerance (Hjerm 2001; Lappalainen 2006; Tobin 2013; Mavroudi and Holt 2015; Allemann-Ghionda 2015). As Mavroudi and Holt (2015) point out, schools and preschools are often at the forefront in teaching children to be more accepting and tolerant of differences, as part of a democratic mission. However, at the same time they also remain key sites where national belonging and identity are taught. Both these aspects are at play in the Swedish preschool curriculum and practice. On the one hand, ideals of child-centeredness related to aspects such as tolerance, equality, egalitarianism, democracy and cooperative social relationships are emphasized (Einarsdottir et al. 2014). On the other hand, monolinguistic as well as a monocultural norms prevail in settings aimed for education of the future citizens, and previous research has shown that these norms concern specially immigrant children (Johansson and Pramling Samuelsson 2006; Johansson 2012; Lunneblad 2013). The paper explores how the tension between these different ideas is embedded in the preschool curriculum and how the ideas are interpreted and operationalized. This is made through the lense of everyday nationhood, and therefore specifically at how issues concerning language and culture are expressed in relation to the pedagogy formed around the migrant child. We consider preschool policy documents, educators’ talk as they try to reinterpret the ideas, and everyday routines formed around migrant children. Questions asked are: What are the explicit and implicit purposes of the preschool education for migrant children? Who is the migrant child to be educated and to what ends?
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