| 1. |
- Wahlgren, Catarina, 1967-, et al.
(author)
-
Barns berättelser : kamratkulturer skapas kring förskolans fotodokumentation
- 2022
-
In: Barn. - : Norwegian University of Science and Technology. - 0800-1669 .- 2535-5449. ; 40:1, s. 43-58
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Preschool documentation aims to enchance children's participation in everyday practice. However, research shows that documentation tends to be controlled in a way that fulfils teachers' intentions rather than compels teachers to listen to the children. Drawing on theories of normalizing power and agency of subjects, this study analyses stories about documentation from 19 preschool children, aged 4-6 years. Children were asked to speak freely as the study aimed to catch children's perspectives. Resulsts show two co-existing discourses of negotiating relations among peers. A "community peer discourse", oriented towards preschool practice and community interests, and an "individual centered peer discourse", focused on the self and material objects to negotiate relations. Children negotiated relations by constructing belongings and differences, often by using stereotypical gendered expressions and mannerisms. The study shows that childrens' interest in themselves and their peers, in combination with teachers' active challenge of stereotypical gendered expressions, can contribute to preschool's active work with relations among peers.
|
|
| 2. |
- Wahlgren, Catarina, 1967-
(author)
-
En bild säger mer än tusen ord : Barns perspektiv, positioner och påverkansmöjligheter i förskolans dokumentationspraktik
- 2023
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The overall aim of this thesis is to examine children's perspectives, positions and possibilities for participation in Swedish preschool documentation practice. The empirical data consists of 1575 photographs from six preschool classes located in different suburban areas. The thesis includes four articles that examine different aspects of the practice of pedagogical documentation. In the first article the children's own stories about the photographs are analysed. In the second article, notions of the child from photographs presented on the preschool walls and from the Swedish Curriculum for the Preschool are compared. The third article examines the content and circulation of digital photographs. Finally, the fourth article explores how children are portrayed in photographs of outdoor activities. All articles are grounded in theories about power and knowledge production, such as discourse theory, and discuss intersections between age, gender, ethnicity and class.The results show that children are capable of creating their own stories in interaction with photographs. However, their stories tend to be gender specific although the photographs mediate gender neutrality. The children mainly described their mutual relationships and, to a lesser extent, the displayed activities. The photographs align with trends of schoolification and masculine-coded production and accomplishment, while care and play are made invisible in the photographs. However, the outdoor photographs, stand out in the sample as they make children visible as sensitive and closely attached to nature. Unlike indoors photographs, outdoor photographs visibilized feminine-coded values as desirable. Outdoor and digitally circulated photographs often displayed children as anonymous, and as neutral in terms of gender and ethnicity. This could be positive since children were able to include themselves in activities represented in the photographs. At the same time, the photographs became impersonal and sometimes insipid; as the anonymisation made children's experiences and knowledge production invisible.The thesis concludes that notions of the child, communicated in preschool photographs, are conform and make competence appear as production and accomplishment, while alternative ways of being a preschool child are made invisible. Therefore, a feminist definition of professionalisation is suggested in order to increase children's participation and incorporate alternative stories in preschool knowledge production, which, in turn, can challenge the notion of the competent child.
|
|
| 3. |
- Wahlgren, Catarina, 1967-
(author)
-
Nature as a gender neutral space : Preschool photographs framing a Swedish natureculture identity
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The image of Swedishness connects to ideals of gender equality and closeness to nature. In this article, 320 outdoor photographs, from four Swedish preschools, with diverse ethnic composition, are analysed to identify how the ideals are activated. The results reveal a display of a Swedish natureculture identity, more clearly expressed in multi-ethnic preschool classes. The natureculture identity seems to be neutral in relation to both ethnicity and gender, whereas children are hard to identify in the photographs. At a first glance, these displays of children might be interpreted as diversity is made invisible. At a second glance, though, it is possible to interpret neutrality as active equality work. The Swedish natureculture identity seems to be caring and sensitive, and thereby raising feminine values as desirable for everyone. The displayed neutrality also sheds light on ways of making all activities possible to participate in, regardless of gender and ethnicity.
|
|
| 4. |
- Wahlgren, Catarina, 1967-
(author)
-
Nature as a gender neutral space : Preschool photographs framing a Swedish natureculture identity
-
Other publication (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The image of Swedishness connects to ideals of gender equality and closeness to nature. In this article, 320 outdoor photographs, from four Swedish preschools, with diverse ethnic composition, are analysed to identify how the ideals are activated. The results reveal a display of a Swedish natureculture identity, more clearly expressed in multi-ethnic preschool classes. The natureculture identity seems to be neutral in relation to both ethnicity and gender, whereas children are hard to identify in the photographs. At a first glance, these displays of children might be interpreted as diversity is made invisible. At a second glance, though, it is possible to interpret neutrality as active equality work. The Swedish natureculture identity seems to be caring and sensitive, and thereby raising feminine values as desirable for everyone. The displayed neutrality also sheds light on ways of making all activities possible to participate in, regardless of gender and ethnicity.
|
|
| 5. |
|
|
| 6. |
|
|
| 7. |
- Wahlgren, Catarina, 1967-, et al.
(author)
-
Portraits of Swedish natureculture identity – entanglements of (gender) equity and integration in early childhood education
- 2024
-
In: Gender and Education. - : Taylor & Francis Group. - 0954-0253 .- 1360-0516. ; 36:5, s. 527-544
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Photographs of children are used on a daily basis in Swedish preschool practice. Although the preschool curriculum prescribes gender equality and celebration of diversity, photographs of indoor activities have shown to display a homogenous view of children and an emphasis on masculine-coded productions and accomplishments. This article examines 325 photographs of outdoor activities from Swedish preschools with diverse ethnic compositions. Our results reveal a Swedish natureculture identity that is more explicitly performed in the multi-ethnic preschool classes. Since ideals of gender equality and closeness to nature connect to the image of Swedishness, this can be understood as compensatory pedagogy. Moreover, the natureculture identity appears to be neutral in relation to ethnicity and gender, which risks rendering diversity invisible. However, the displayed neutrality is also possible to understand as working towards equity where conventionally feminine values such as care, empathym and sensitivity are underscored as desirable for everyone.
|
|
| 8. |
- Wahlgren, Catarina, 1967-, et al.
(author)
-
The child in the Swedish preschool photograph versus the child in the curriculum : a comparison of contemporary notions
- 2022
-
In: International Journal of Early Years Education. - : Routledge. - 0966-9760 .- 1469-8463. ; , s. 1-15
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Photographs constitute an important visual language in contemporary Swedish preschool, as they are legible to young children themselves. This article aims to examine which notions of the child are represented in preschool photographs, and how these notions correlate to notions of the child expressed in Swedish preschool curriculum. The analysis uses Fairclough's critical discourse analyses and the critical concepts of performativity and celebrated subject positions. First, the curriculum's descriptions of the child and modes of learning in preschool are analysed. Second, photographs from four preschools are thematised, analysed and theorized, with a focus on the performances and subject positions repeatedly displayed. Results show that while the curriculum promotes holistic performances where play and care are interwoven with education, the photographs celebrate performances within teacher-led educational situations, and invisibilize care as well as play. The focus on education in the photographs corresponds with international trends regarding the professionalization and "schoolification" of early childhood education. Crucially this is connected to gendered meanings linked to care and education, respectively.
|
|
