ERIC Number: EJ1307409
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2021-Sep
Pages: 14
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1476-718X
EISSN: N/A
Preschool Teachers and Caregivers' Lack of Repositioning in Response to Changed Responsibilities in Policy Documents
Cervantes, Sara; Öqvist, Anna
Journal of Early Childhood Research, v19 n3 p323-336 Sep 2021
Preschool teachers and caregivers have a close working relationship as part of a working team to benefit the children in Swedish preschools. In 2011, a new educational reform was introduced according to which preschools became a school form in their own right within the overall educational system in Sweden. The objective of the policy was to strengthen the profession of preschool teachers by affording them clearer responsibility over the quality of educational practices and curriculum work. It also entailed a division of labour between the preschool teachers and caregivers in the working team. The current study explored how Swedish preschool teachers and caregivers positioned themselves in response to these changes in responsibility. In this qualitative study, data were collected from 17 preschool teachers and caregivers via an open-ended questionnaire. Preschool teachers and caregivers viewed themselves as having equal responsibility in the working team. Specifically, preschool teachers upgraded the competence and position of caregivers while downgrading their own professional competence and position. Caregivers downgraded the profession and position of preschool teachers and upgraded their own competence and position to be equal to that of preschool teachers.
Descriptors: Preschool Teachers, Child Caregivers, Teacher Responsibility, Educational Policy, Educational Change, Foreign Countries, Teacher Collaboration
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Early Childhood Education; Preschool Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Sweden
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A