Since 2010 the Swedish policy document in Early childhood education has had an explicit focus on children’s knowing and knowledge. In order to evaluate the quality of the early childhood education, preschool teachers use documentation of the children´s development and skills. The purpose of this study is to contribute to knowledge of how preschool teachers reason and position themselves in relation to their discussions on children’s knowledge and abilities in early childhood education.
The study is based on four conversations recorded at a preschool with children in the age of one to three years old in the south of Sweden. Every second week the teacher’s assemble to discuss and reflect upon their documentation of the children's development and skills. At each specific meeting the teachers has chosen which documentation is to be discussed. Focus for the recorded discussions is the development of an on-going mathematical project. They also discussed other things relating to the preschool practice. The role of the researcher was to listen to the conversation of the teachers, and at the end of the discussion ask supplementary questions. The dialogues have been recorded and transcribed.
An inductive approach was used in order to make content categories.These initial categories were based on how teachers discuss children’s cognitive, social and linguistic knowledge. Further analysis focuses specifically on the relation between how the teachers discuss their positions and strategies in relation to how they talk about children’s abilities and knowledge.
The presentation is part of the Swedish National Research School on Communication and Relations as Foundations for Early Childhood Education (FoRFa), funded by the Swedish Research Council (grant no. 729-2013-6848).
Keywords: Early childhood education, Children’s knowledge, preschool teachers, positioning
