The focus of this doctoral thesis is to explore Swedish preschool educators’ narratives in an online protest initiative; #pressatläge (Pressed situation), that aims to improve the working conditions in Swedish preschools. According to policy documents, Swedish preschool is referred to as a right for every child and changed political reforms have made it possible for more children to attend preschool. The content of the preschool's activities has changed as teaching and education are now more in focus than care and play. Coincidentally, the amount of educated staff has decreased and an increased amount of educators have been on sick leave. In 2017, preschool educators started to claim that their workload were too high. The overall aim of the thesis is to generate knowledge about how the working situation appears in #pressatläge, and how preschool educators position themselves in relation to the preschool's changed conditions and mission.

The findings show that Swedish preschool has a multifaceted mission. The preschool educator includes four professional identities; the teacher, the caregiver, the housekeeper and the administrator. The educators fulfil their missions hence several missions sometimes need to be combined. Professional experiences and visions influence the preschool educators’ daily work. Furthermore, the educators are affected by preschool routines, large groups of children, staff shortages and their own values.

The preschool educators highlight extreme situations and stretch their narratives in order to show why their working conditions should be improved. The frequent use of extreme formulations might decrease the trustworthiness of the narratives. These findings may enhance understanding for how social media affect preschool educators’ opportunities to improve their working conditions. 

Fokus för denna doktorsavhandling är att belysa svensk förskola så som den framställs i berättelser av fler än 1000 pedagoger under #pressatläge 2018, en hashtag som syftar till att förbättra arbetsvillkoren i svenska förskolor. Utifrån policydokument beskrivs svensk förskola som en rättighet för varje barn och ändrade politiska reformer har bidragit till att fler barn kan gå i förskola. Innehållet i förskolans verksamhet har förändrats då undervisning och utbildning nu är mer i fokus än omsorg och lek. Samtidigt minskade antalet personal med pedagogisk utbildning minskat och fler pedagoger sjukskrevs. Vidare uttryckte flera pedagoger år 2017 att arbetsbelastningen i förskolan var för hög. Det övergripande syftet med avhandlingen är att bidra med en bild av arbetssituationen såsom den framträder i digitala aktivismtexter från #pressatläge, samt hur pedagogerna positionerar sig i relation till förskolans förändrade villkor och uppdrag.

Resultatet av analysen visar att svensk förskola har ett mångfacetterat uppdrag och att pedagogyrket innehåller fyra professionella identiteter; läraren, omsorgsutövaren, hushållsarbetaren och administratören. Trots att de professionella identiteterna inkräktar på varandra, utför pedagogerna ändå sitt uppdrag. Det dagliga arbetet påverkas av de erfarenheter och visioner pedagogerna uttrycker i berättelserna. Även bestämmelser om barns vistelsetider, förskolans rutiner, stora barngrupper, personalbrist och pedagogernas värderingar om hur arbetet ska ske inverkar. Vidare lyfter pedagogerna ofta fram extrema situationer och tenderar att överdriva berättelserna för att visa varför arbetsvillkoren i förskolan bör förbättras. Den frekventa användningen av extrema formuleringar kan dock minska berättelsernas trovärdighet. Avhandlingens resultat kan öka förståelsen för hur sociala medier påverkar pedagogers möjligheter att förbättra sina arbetsvillkor.

Under 2010-talet förändras bilden av svensk förskola. Från att ha omtalas som ett internationellt föredöme, framträder istället en bild av sjukskriven personal, bristande likvärdighet och problematiska arbetsvillkor. 2018 skriver fler än 1000 förskolepedagoger om sitt arbete på sociala medier under #pressatläge i syfte att visa förskolans brister och skapa förändring. Dessa berättelser betraktas som digital aktivism och utgör avhandlingen empiriska underlag.

Med teoretiska utgångspunkter i narrativ teori och lärares handlingsberedskap visar resultaten att svensk förskola har ett mångfacetterat uppdrag och att pedagogyrket innefattar flera olika professionella identiteter. I berättelserna skildras bristfälliga arbetsvillkor, svårigheter att uppfylla läroplanen och att förhålla sig till vårdnadshavare, skola m.fl. Berättelserna innehåller både kraftfulla uttryck och starka känslor men samtidigt visas hur pedagogerna, trots att delar av uppdragen inkräktar på varandra, dagligen utför sitt arbete och på så vis upprätthåller en professionell komplexitet. Resultaten diskuteras utifrån svensk förskolas förändrade villkor och uppdrag under det senaste halvseklet. 

Maria Lennartsdotter är doktorand i pedagogiskt arbete vid Karlstads universitet. Hon är även förskollärare och specialpedagog.

This article explores Swedish teachers' and school leaders' Facebook rebellion groups as a medium where professional needs and actions can be formulated. Data consist of interviews with administrators representing the rebellion groups. Based on a theoretical perspective of teacher agency we searched for experiences and visions related to contextual aspects expressed in the groups. The results indicate a common experience of lacking resources among the groups. Through a well-balanced agency, they search for support among politicians in their striving to improve working conditions. However, the groups might develop different conditions for participating due to the formation of group-specific conversational climate about what is desirable and possible to post and discuss. Discussions on work-related issues might certainly be affected and the rebellion groups might contribute to preserve the specificity of each level in the school system. A split in the teachers' rebellion group indicates virtual relationships between professionals are easy to give up in favour of new formations, making the virtual groups vulnerable. The results raise the question about changing cultural aspects and what it means to be a professional teacher/school leader. Will teacher agency in the future be dependent on participation in such social media groups?

The research topic focuses the Swedish preschool. This presentation will show a part of the analysis from my dissertation project in progress, focusing on written stories from the hashtag #pressatläge in social media. The hashtag is used to post small stories about the current working situation in the Swedish preschool. The empirical data consists of a sample of 20 stories from a total of 600 stories averaging 300-400 words. The aim with this presentation is to show some glimpses of the Swedish preschool as shown in #pressatläge when analyzed as institutional narratives. 

Analyses of the data will rely on Linde’s (2009) theory of institutional narratives. Institutional narratives constitute versions of a canon of stories about an institution, in this project about the Swedish preschool. I have searched for stories in the data that can be considered to be more influential than others. Such stories are well known and are often retold by different preschool teachers, on different occasions and in somewhat similar words, thereby shaping an institutional narrative.  

Preliminary results from the analysis show one of several possible institutional narrative about increased demands in the preschool. These increased demands hold aspects of policy changes; increased size of groups of children and versions of how several actors, like politicians and childrens’ guardians, affect the preschool’s work. Further, the institutional narratives will be analyzed by investigating how the preschool teachers use these narratives to position themselves and construct their professional identity. For example, how the increased demands in the preschool affect the preschool teachers, who feel that they lack prerequisites to fulfil their mission. Instead, some preschool teachers choose to leave their work.

This presentation is highly relevant to Nordic educational research. The preschool context is quite similar in the Nordic countries and the findings from the study may therefore be useful in Nordic research about preschool. 

Linde, C. (2009). Working the past: narrative and institutional memory. Oxford University Press.

The research topic focus on aspects of preschool teacher profession expressed in narratives including the #pressatläge. The hashtag #pressatläge occurs in more than thousand narratives written by preschool teachers. The aim of the study is to discover how the current situation in the Swedish preschool affect the preschool teacher profession. In the Swedish preschool, the percentage of staff with an academic degree has reduced, and the mental illness caused by stress has decreased. Several narratives show large groups of children and an increased number of children with special needs. In 2019, there were changes in the preschool curriculum. Examples of changes were the clarification of the concept teaching and increased subject didactic requirements. The aim of this study is to discover how the changed situation in the preschool affects the preschool teacher profession. 

Förskoleupproret is a Facebook created by preschool teachers. The group works for improve the conditions in the Swedish preschool. In 2017, Förskoleupproret invited their members to using the hashtag #pressatläge to share their stories about the untenable situation in Swedish preschools. A thousand stories including the hashtag #pressatläge, written and submitted by preschool teachers, were collected (Förskoleupproret, 2018). My research questions deal with what aspects of the profession become superior vs. subordinated in the written narratives, and how do teachers handle their professional responsibility, while fighting to improve the working conditions in Swedish preschools. I have read all the narratives and will choose a sample to analyses how the preschool teachers write about colleagues, preschool children and preschool children’s parents.

Analyses of the data will be conducted from theories of teacher professionalism and institutional narratives. These theories enable analyses of what aspects of the profession become superior vs subordinated and how preschool teachers handle their professional responsibility. The overall results is that the narratives indicate that caring preschool teachers, striving to get the time to fulfil children’s safety and needs, are pushing themselves to exhaustion. Narratives about how preschool teachers sacrifice their leisure time to perform well at work and how they struggle to find the time to complete their work become visible in the written stories. Furthermore, analyses will continue on written aspects about colleagues, preschool children, and the preschool children’s parents as well on aspects that are not mentioned in the narratives, and hence might become subordinated in the teacher profession. 

This presentation is highly relevant to Nordic educational research. Social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram contain many different groups where preschool teachers exchange ideas and participate in discussions. Institutional narratives about the absence of possibilities to work according to the preschool curriculum, might contribute to knowledge about how the preschool teacher profession might be understand from teachers written net-based narratives. Furthermore, the analyses contribute with increasing knowledge about aspects of the preschool that are unsuitable to express in public narratives. 

Förskoleupproret. (2018). Berättelser. Retrieved from https://forskoleupproret.weebly.com/beraumlttelser.html