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<p>In several European countries, teacher education is regulated by national plans that emphasise pedagogy as the central subject. Pedagogy shall include research-based knowledge, as well as having a strong connection between theory and practice. We have interviewed teacher educators about what they emphasise about theoretical and practical issues in the subject of pedagogy. Though they have to follow the curriculum, they express that they have different conceptions and emphasise different issues both in theoretical and practical pedagogy. Their answers point to the challenges between the establishment of a professional autonomy and the control the national curriculum imposes them The teacher educators were quite vague about their teaching about research-based knowledge. They expressed that they need support, time and possibilities to discuss the content in the curriculum and how to educate high qualified teachers.</p>

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The most important benefits of international comparisons are the indications that make hidden national characteristics visible and shed new light on the system in each country. From a comparative perspective, this article explores what Swedish and Norwegian preschool teachers emphasise as important to preschool student teachers about preschool as an arena for children's language learning. The theoretical framework of the study is based on ecological system theories (Bronfenbrenner in The ecology of human development, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1979; Bronfenbrenner in Dev Psychology 22(6): [723][724][725][726][727][728][729][730][731][732][733][734][735][736][737][738][739][740][741][742] 1986) and socio-cultural theories concerning language learning (Vygotsky in Thought and language, MIT Press, Cambridge, 1986). The data are produced through interviews with 69 Swedish and 35 Norwegian preschool teachers. The analyses focused on what the preschool teachers stated to be the most important elements to work with concerning children's language learning, how and why they worked like this, and what rationales may have led to their pedagogy. The two countries seem quite alike in terms of the values embedded in early childhood education and political ideas concerning a rich childhood based on play and democratic ideals. By comparing the two countries, the results reveal differences that can lead to a deeper knowledge of cultural concepts that are often taken for granted, such as pedagogical approaches, and how these create different conditions for children's preschool language learning.

The aim with this study is to examine how early literacy can be supported in different conversations between a preschool teacher and children. Theory and research on children's early literacy underline that children improve their language skills when they engage in conversations with adults. A preschool teacher must manage to support children with different language and conversation experiences. The preschool teacher in this study was video-observed in language interactions with different children in many types of activities. He managed to adapt his support to the children in accordance with their language experiences.