We report on a scaled-up mathematics intervention in preschool classes (children age six) in Sweden. In the intervention, teachers at seven schools in four municipalities implemented the Thinking, Reasoning and Counting in Preschool Class (TRC) teacher guide in their teaching of 254 students. Results are compared to a previous randomized…

Worldwide, preschool is recognized as an important arena for the implementation of education for sustainability (EfS). In Swedish preschools EfS has been a part of the national curriculum since 2019, but little is known about what this means in practice. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to increase our understanding about preschool…

In recent decades the preschool has leaned more towards a learning-oriented pedagogy, where the subject of technology has been given a more prominent place. Still, studies on how individual preschool staff members perceive and teach technology is scarce. This study shows how seven preschool staff in Sweden describe their work with the subject of…

Digital devices such as iPads are prevalent in children's play from an early age. How this shapes young children's play is an area of considerable debate without any clear consensus on how different forms of play are brought into the iPad interaction. In this study, we examined 98 play activities of children in two preschool settings, featuring 2…

Living in the anthropocene requires addressing several challenges. New forms of teaching where experiences of problem solving, creativity and innovation strategies are needed and considered important. This Swedish study contributes with knowledge on pre-school children's creativity processes when working on an authentic, child-initiated…

Children's language development is a core task in Swedish preschool and central to how educators organize teaching and everyday activities. The curriculum's definition of language is described as extended, with language as both a prerequisite for learning and a learning effect, i.e. both internal processes and communication. This means that…

Preschool, understood as being both a physical and psychological environment, is, according to objectives in national curriculum, required to be inclusive for all those who attend it. Previous studies have identified the stereotypical norms of several everyday activities of preschools, including both interactions and premises. The aim of this…

This article reports on teachers' experience of working during the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis is based on a thematic analysis of group interviews with 76 teachers working throughout the Swedish school system, i.e., preschools, primary, secondary school, and municipal adult education. The interviews were conducted during autumn 2021.…

Based on arguments about the need for greater individual freedom, school choice was introduced in Sweden in the 1990s. Swedish municipalities now set up local school choice systems, whose organization varies between municipalities. This study is based on interviews with three politicians and two civil servants from two average-sized municipalities…

A Swedish preschool must be adapted to all children, regardless of ethnicity, religion or disability. Inclusion and the children's sense of participation are essential keywords in this work. The present analysis was based on two studies in which the staff's and parents' perceptions of significant factors and goal fulfilment for inclusive…

Swedish preschools are supposed to be non-confessional. At the same time, they are supposed to pass on a cultural heritage of a nation where the Lutheran Church has permeated society for centuries. Based on a study of traditions and religion in Swedish preschools, this article describes and discusses how preschools work with religion as an aspect…

This article focuses on preschool teachers' collegial learning in relation to children's use of digital learning tools in preschool. The aim of the study was to investigate how preschool teachers understand, change, and improve learning situations when digital tools are used, under the supervision of a film educator, a preschool colleague, and a…

Technology is a field with strong connections to the female/male dichotomy. Children start to stereotype everyday life regarding this dichotomy as early as the age of two. The preschool, through its activities--among them reading aloud from picture books--is an arena where societal norms can be either preserved or challenged. Books about different…

This study analysed how preschool teachers differently enacted the same mathematical activity for preschool children to discern numbers, and how this affected the children's learning opportunities during the activity. The analysis was based on variation theory and Chi's taxonomy of learning activities. Two Swedish preschool teachers' enactment of…

Research Findings: This study aimed to investigate the developmental path of social skills in early childhood, the associated predictors, and its impact on later school performance. This prospective longitudinal study included 2,121 children, ages 3-5 at baseline, from the general population in a mid-sized Swedish municipality. Results show both…