"Soft governance" i förskolans utvecklingssamtal.

• According to the Curriculum for the Swedish preschool, parent-teacher conferences are important practices in the intermediate sphere and in the relations between home and preschool. This article draws on a study in which the overall aim is to explore how parent-teacher conferences are constructed and used in the Swedish preschool. Using transcripts of audiotaped episodes from parent-teacher conferences, the analysis reveals that the interactions are charactarised by formality in accordance with institutional talk in other institutional settings, but also to a large extent of informality. Additionally, the analyses show that the parent-teacher conferences are characterized by a “soft governance” both in terms of their contents (what) and its form (how). The teachers use various communicative techniques that govern the conversation: closeness and intimacy, the use of anecdotes, references to the common interest of the child, element of humor and laughter, and seemingly neutral questions. In this article it is also discussed how soft governance are used in the construction and assessment of a desirable preschool child and parent.     Keywords: assessment, parent-teacher conference, preschool, soft governance

Keyword

utvecklingssamtal

förskola

bedömning

soft governance

SOCIAL SCIENCES

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)