Research project With an emphasis on children's perspectives, this project investigates how preschool is made in practice.
What a preschool is may seem obvious. There is a framework for the different levels in preschool, then they are implemented and take place in practice. It is often emphasized as favourable for children's development that they attend preschool and 85% of children in Sweden spend their days there. Preschool is a complex system that is demanding for individuals and groups. The organization can be said to be both ordered and unpredictable, which has consequences. In the Swedish Work Environment Authority's statistics from 2021, preschool teachers are the group in the education area that is highest on the list of reported occupational diseases. Similar statistics are not available on the children’s situation. How are they doing in preschool?
Parts of the preschool have been problematized and investigated in research for a long time, mainly from the adults' perspective. How the children experience preschool needs to be researched further. In the preschool curriculum and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, children's participation and influence are highlighted. I am interested in children's agency. Do they experience that they are participating? What do their experiences of preschool look like? In my research, the children's perspective will be in focus. The project description will be updated as the project develops.
