Kvalitetsarbete i förskolan belyst genom tre ledningsnivåer

• Quality work in prescool: three levels of leading practices This paper will discuss how two examples of quality work in the Swedish preschool are carried out. There are two levels representing the organization, namely the municipality and the pre-school. For this study two municipalities were chosen and their respective directors (so both the municipality and pre-schools have directors, but on different levels). Both directors of the municipalities, as well as the staff in the pre-schools, had the experience of collaborating with the researchers during the time when ‘quality-work’ was implemented. This work involved taking part in a year-long program in action research. Today preschool teachers are responsible for facilitating action research to their colleagues to ensure the continuity of quality of work in the pre-schools. Three levels of leading practices were identified: 1) The director from the local municipality, 2) The directors of each pre-school and 3) The pre-school teachers. The purpose of this article is specifically to using the theoretical framework of practice architecture for analyzing a) how quality-work is organized at three levels in two municipalities, b) what enables and constrains quality work from one level to another and c) how each level is prefigured by cultural-discursive, material-economic and social-political arrangements. Data was collected by interviewing the directors in both the municipalities and in the pre-schools. The open-ended interviews with the pre-school teachers were collated and developed into mind-maps. The article draws on the theory of practice architectures to examine the social nature of the language, the activities and the relationships of a practice. The practices involve how the quality work is being led on the three different levels. A practice is seen as social and is prefigured by cultural-discursive, material-economic and social-political arrangements. These arrangements enable and constrain particular kinds of language (or sayings), activities (or doings) and relationships (or relatings), which together constitute a practice. We analysed the practices on each level, but also tried to see if and, how the practices had influenced other levels. The data was analyzed in two steps. Firstly, a narrative was constructed out of the interviews from all levels in the two municipalities, here referred to as North and South. Secondly, each practice was analyzed using the theory of practice architecture with a focus on how the cultural-discursive, material-economic and social-political arrangements enables or constrains the practice of quality work. In the findings both municipalities used action research as a way to ensure quality work and allowed the pre-school teachers to facilitate peers into the process (cultural-discursive arrangements). Both municipalities’ provided resources such as time and space for the pre-school teachers to conduct action research as a way to improve quality in the everyday work as well as time to the two teachers to facilitate their colleagues (material-economic arrangements). When looking further into the two municipalities’ participation and dialogue two concepts were used to show differences in how the practices on each level was dealing with quality work, but also how this was operating between the three practices (socio-political arrangements). In the North municipality a continuous dialogue and participation between all the three practices were noted. The director of the municipality set up a group in which the director for the pre-school and the pre-school teachers were involved. They met regularly and had an open dialogue about what happened in each practice relating to the quality work. Similarly the director for the preschool developed a group at the preschool involving four pre-school teachers in the planning and later presenting the quality work at the staff meetings which led to whole staff discussion. Time was set aside at the staff meetings especially for sharing experiences about the specific quality work each teacher team were responsible for and to further develop and implement different ideas representing quality work for their specific group of children. In the South municipality the director of the municipality organized a group of directors from three pre-schools, but with no pre-school teacher representatives. Nor were there a group established specifically to have the responsibility of quality work at the actual pre-school. Rather the sharing of experiences was done during staff meetings. The conclusions from the study suggest that when groups were established both within and outside of pre-schools dialogue and participation became important. All these groups ensured that action research was cemented throughout the organization getting all partners involved in the quality work, as the North example best showed.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap -- Pedagogik (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences -- Pedagogy (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

kvalitetsarbete

förskolan

forskningscirkel

praktik arkitektur

praktiknnära forskning

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