I svensk förskola är endast 40% av de som arbetar utbildade förskollärare, vilket i praktiken innebär att undervisning till stor del genomförs av barnskötare (eller annan pedagogisk personal). I förskolans styrdokument anges att det är förskolläraren som ska ansvara för undervisningen. Om barnskötare genomför undervisningen ska detta ske under ledning av förskollärare. I artikeln undersöks hur förskollärare beskriver sitt ledarskap över barnskötares undervisning. Analysen har genomförts med stöd i teorier om lärares professionalism som ansvarsfull eller som redovisningsskyldig. Resultaten visar på flera spänningsfält mellan dessa logiker, där förskollärares ledarskap över barnskötares undervisning både förhåller sig till ett professionellt ansvar och en redovisningsskyldighet, men där redovisningsskyldigheten tenderar att överväga. Resultaten diskuteras utifrån möjligheten att etablera ett nytt ledarskapsbegrepp i förskolan: ansvarsfullt ledarskap.

Research topic/aim: In this presentation, we focus on leadership between colleagues in the working team as well as preschool teachers’ responsibility for teaching in relation to the working team. This can be understood as ‘leadership within the preschool teaching activities’ (Jensen, 2022) The aim is to develop a theoretical understanding of leadership in preschool that takes previous experiences from preschool practice as well as from the teachers into account when arranging teaching activities and planning for the future. 

Theoretical framework: The theoretical framework consists of an ecological approach of Teacher Agency (Priestley, Biesta & Robinson, 2015) in which experiences are central and where cultural, structural and material aspects are considered vital when acting and achieving leadership in preschool.  

Methodology/research design: Through an action research project, preschool teachers will act, document and further discuss leadership activities in preschool with researchers. Insights from such discussions will - through recurring processes - be brought back to practice and enacted in new leadership activities. 

Expected findings: We expect the results to contribute a new understanding of leadership – a responsible leadership, which takes the context, history and temporality into account. Thereby, knowledge about how to enact a responsible leadership can both take advantage of the preschool’s own traditions and experiences and look ahead towards a teaching based on proven experiences and scientific basis.

Relevance to Nordic educational research: The topic is relevant to all Nordic countries as leadership in preschool are relevant and similar within the Nordic education (and other school forms where teachers are expected to shared leadership)

References

Jensen, M. (2022). Ledarskap mitt i verksamheten: Att leda kollegor i förskola, skola och fritidshem. [ Leadership within the teaching activities, in prescjool, school and leisure time centres]. Gleerups

Priestley, M., Biesta, G., & Robinson, S. (2015). Teacher agency: An ecological approach. Bloombury Academic.

This article explores how preschool teachers, over time, collectively manage teaching as a new part of their mission. The study’s empirical data consist of two related but temporally separated sets of data containing collegial discussions among preschool teachers; talks during a development process and group interviews with the same preschool teachers six months later. Through a theorydriven analysis, using the theoretical concept of teacher agency, different ways of achieving teacher agency are brought into light. When tensions appear, the preschool teachers achieve teacher agency by using professional core values in order to make adjustments, additions or changes to school policy. These professional core values consist of for example, sensitivity to the interests and needs of children, the ambition to perform a pedagogical practice for the greater good of children and the professional tradition of preschool teachers and child minders working together in teams.

Policy regulating Swedish preschool practice stresses preschool teachers’ responsibility to take a leading position towards childcare workers when teaching. Practicum places are sites in which development of students’ professional practical skills and experiences of leading childcare workers are expected to take place. However, research has shown resistance among preschool teachers toward taking the leadership making such skills and experiences hard for student teachers’ to achieve during practicum periods. The research aim is to shed some light on what possible combination of theoretical and practical skills about leadership student teachers experience during their preschool teacher education. Guiding questions are: What were their hopes and visions concerning leadership during their preschool teacher education? How are they, as beginners with a few months' employment as preschool teachers, able to practice their skills in the here and now? What gaps are there to mind? We use the theoretical framework of teacher agency (TA) (Priestley et al, 2015). TA is achieved through an interplay between the context and the individual. Experiences from the past (preschool teacher education), the cultural, structural and material aspects in the here and now (in the preschool settings), as well as visions for the future, affects the student teachers’/beginners’ achievement of abilities to practice their leadership skills. Data consist of a total amount of 70 sound-recorded seminars with 15 student teachers. These students were involved in a longitudinal research study during 7 semesters, continuously meeting with a group of researchers, discussing issues related to the preschool teacher profession. In this study, we conducted follow-up interviews with seven of them as beginner teachers a few months after graduating as preschool teachers. Preliminary findings indicate the student teachers’ experiences concerning leadership in preschool as limited, shaping a gap to mind when they as beginners are supposed to enact their visions. As students, they consider leadership to be an important topic to learn. They talk about theoretical skills achieved at campus but fear they will not be able to develop these skills during practicum periods. The study is of Relevance to Nordic educational research as the topic of theoretical and practical skills during teacher education are at hand in all Nordic countries. 

Priestley, M., Biesta, G., & Robinson, S. (2015). Teacher agency: An ecological approach. Bloombury Academic.

The focus of this doctoral dissertation is the teaching preschool teacher and how the teaching mission is transformed and shaped by different actors. The perspectives of three actors are addressed in empirical studies; 1-2 year old preschool children, the preschool principal and the preschool teacher. The overarching aim is to generate knowledge about how these actors contribute to teaching.

The preschool children contribute to teaching by participating and showing initiatives by using a vast variety of different non-verbal expressions and gestures. Principals contribute to teaching by creating conditions. These conditions consist of inviting preschool teachers to take active part in a meaning-making process that involves shaping and transforming of the understandings of teaching. These transformed understandings then influence preschool teachers’ teaching. Preschool teachers handle and manage teaching as a concept and as a new part of their mission during collegial discussions over time. By using professional core values, preschool teachers transform and adjust the concept of teaching in coherence to preschool practice and tradition. One of these professional core values consists of being sensitive to the initiative of children and building on the interests and needs of children when teaching.

The two main results are (a) the importance of non-verbal communication when teaching, and (b) preschoolification as a strategy for preschool professionals when handling policy. Preschoolification is a strategy used by preschool principals as well as preschool teachers in order to transform the concept of teaching by using professional core values. By adding or changing the definition of the concept of teaching found in the School Act, the concept is transformed to fit preschool practice rather than letting preschool practice be a victim of schoolification.

Den här avhandlingen fokuserar den undervisande förskolläraren och mer specifikt hur undervisningsuppdraget formas. Tre empiriska studier har genomförts utifrån olika aktörers perspektiv: de yngsta förskolebarnen, rektorerna och förskollärarna. Avhandlingen skapar kunskap om hur dessa olika aktörer på olika sätt bidrar till undervisningssituationer i förskolan.

De yngsta förskolebarnen bidrar till undervisningssituationer genom att delta och visa initiativ, vilket sker i huvudsak genom icke-verbal kommunikation. Rektorerna bidrar till undervisningssituationer genom att skapa förutsättningar för förskollärares förståelse för undervisning som begrepp och uppdrag. Förskollärarna bidrar till undervisningssituationer genom att ta ansvar och genomföra undervisningen tillsammans med barnen.

Avhandlingens sammanvägda resultat visar den icke-verbala kommunikationens betydelse för undervisningssituationer och på förskolifiering som en strategi för professionen i hanteringen av ny policy. Förskolifiering sker när rektorer och förskollärare fyller begreppet undervisning med ett innehåll som rimmar väl med förskolans tradition och kultur.