The Swedish preschool is an important socializing agent because the great majority of children aged, from 1 to 5 years, are enrolled in an early childhood education program. This paper explores how preschool teachers and children, in an ethnically diverse preschool, negotiate the meaning of cultural traditions celebrated in Swedish preschools. Particular focus is given to narrative representations of cultural traditions as they are co-constructed and negotiated in preschool practice between teachers and children. Cultural traditions are seen as shared events in the children's preschool life, as well as symbolic resources which enable children and preschool teachers to conceive themselves as part of a larger whole. The data analyzed are three videotaped circle time events focused on why a particular tradition is celebrated. Methodologically the analysis builds on a narrative approach inspired by Bakhtin's notion of addressivity and on Alexander's ideas about dialogic teaching. The results of the analysis show that the teachers attempt to achieve a balance between transferring traditional cultural and religious values and realizing a child-centered pedagogy, emphasizing the child's initiative. The analyses also show that narratives with a religious tonality generate some uncertainty on how to communicate with the children about the traditions that are being discussed. These research findings are important because, in everyday practice, preschool teachers enact whether religion is regarded as an essential part of cultural socialization, while acting both as keepers of traditions and agents of change. Les analyses montrent également que les récits avec une tonalité religieuse génèrent de l'incertitude sur la façon de communiquer avec les enfants sur les traditions qui sont en cours de discussion. Ces résultats de recherche sont importants car, dans la pratique quotidienne, les enseignants du préscolaire représentent que la religion est considérée comme une partie essentielle de la socialisation culturelle, tout en agissant à la fois en tant que gardiens des traditions et agents de changement.Resumen El preescolar sueco es un importante agente socializador, ya que la gran mayoría de los niños entre 1 y 5 años están inscritos en un programa de educación para la primera infancia. Este documento explora cómo los profesores y niños, en un preescolar de diversidad étnica, negocian el significado de las tradiciones culturales celebradas en preescolares suecos. El foco particular está dado a las representaciones narrativas de las tradiciones culturales mientras son co-construidas y negociadas en prácticas preescolares entre profesores y niños. Las tradiciones culturales son vistas como eventos de convivencia en la vida preescolar de los niños, además como recursos simbólicos que permiten a los niños y a sus profesores concebirse a sí mismos como parte de un mundo más amplio. Los datos de investigación reportados comprenden tres eventos de tiempo de círculo grabados en video enfocados en por qué se celebra una tradi...

The paper explores how in a Swedish preschool with a religious profile teachers balance between keeping education non-confessional and teaching about a tradition with religious roots. In this paper, the focus is on how and why the secular and religious narratives are intertwined in a play that aims to teach children about why Easter is celebrated. Theoretically we combine Grimmitt's theoretical concepts of learning about and learning from religion with Smart's analytical framework. The analysis reveals that through translating between the secular and religious narratives the play offered an opportunity to learn both about and from religion. KEYWORDS non-confessional; preschool with a religious profile; teaching about a religious traditionIn Sweden, over 80% of all children between the ages of 1 and 5 years are enrolled in preschool education. In the 3-5 age range, the rate is 95%. 1 Swedish preschool is thus an important socializing agent. Within the Swedish educational system, of which preschool is an integral part, the concept of freedom of religion is understood in the sense that education is declared to be nonconfessional. This implies that teaching should be neutral in relation to different religions. Thus, in the Swedish education system as a whole, religious education implies "teaching and learning about religion as well as teaching and learning from religion, but not in religion." 2 Nevertheless, in Swedish preschools where the holidays tied to Lutheran Christian traditions are widely celebrated, but whose curriculum does not include any tasks related to either teaching about or teaching in religion, the religious roots of certain traditions pose challenges for preschool teachers. 3 According to the National Curriculum for Preschool, one of the tasks of the preschool is to pass on "a cultural heritage … from one generation to

According to the Swedish Preschool Curriculum, one of the tasks of the preschool is to pass on a cultural heritage, its values, traditions and history, language and knowledge, from one generation to the next. The formulation indicates that cultural heritage plays an important role in defining the tasks of preschool teachers as far as the transmission of cultural norms is concerned. The aim of the overall study was to explore how Swedish preschool teachers implement and reflect on the task of transmitting a cultural heritage. This paper has its focus on how a particular cultural tradition, Easter, is celebrated in two preschools. The empirical data consists of 227 min video data from two preschools. The video data were analysed through qualitative content analysis with a focus on how different semiotic resources, actions and artefacts are used to perform Easter. The different modes of enacting traditions are used as instruments of socialisation into a cultural heritage as well as means of actualisation of a preschool pedagogy. While preschool teachers can be seen as agents of change who challenge some of the ways of celebrating a tradition, they are also agents of national reproduction. Thus, the teachers both enact the curriculum and build a bricolage of elements, some of which represent continuity, while others represent change.

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This study is part of a larger project with the general aim of developing the ability of preschool teachers to reflect critically on questions, topics and theories related to different understandings of death(s). The article is based on three focus-group interviews with a focus on how preschool teachers reflect on what, how, why and when they teach about death and death-related issues. The results show that preschool teachers consider that it is important in early childhood education to teach about death because death is a fundamental aspect of life in daily reality, and they consider it to be their task to comfort a child in grief, as well as care for the well-being of the group. However, much of the time, they avoid teaching about biological death relative to concrete goals that the children are to achieve in understanding what death implies. Instead, they use child-responsive, improvisational teaching that is intended to calm and comfort the children. The content of the teaching arises at the intersection of expert knowledge in talking about death as an irreversible outcome of natural processes and the preschool teachers’ own beliefs and ideas about death, dying and an afterlife. As a consequence, the biological conceptions of death coexist with the teachers’ own beliefs in an afterlife, reflecting a dualistic thinking within which culturally constructed beliefs coexist with biological views.