Children’s socialization into the mobile preschool: a priming event collectively performed by novice children, ‘old-timers’, and pedagogues

Abstract

Using video-ethnographic data from a 'try-on day' in a bus-based mobile preschool, we discuss how children with different levels of experience collaborate with one another and with pedagogues to socialize newcomers into an ongoing community. Analyses show how pedagogues create moments of collective orientation and, besides through verbal instructions, invite newcomers to participate in core activities with older children. The novices engage in the priming event by intent participation, while the older children assume, and are assigned, the role of more experienced participants -'old-timers'. In this collective socialization, old-timers, children, and pedagogues strive to create a smooth transition for novices, particularly by stressing the specificity of participating in a preschool that is mobile and located in a bus. The results illustrate how becoming a mobile preschool child entails understanding and mastering competences such as safely riding the bus, eating meals in the bus, and walking in line in diverse spaces.

Teaching nature and nation in the Swedish mobile preschool

“…The chosen destinations to which mobile preschools travel include museums, libraries, playgrounds, but more often are nature spaces, such as outdoor recreation areas, a forest or a beach. To participate in a mobile preschool entails competencies, such as knowing how to act in diverse spaces, walking in line, eating meals in the bus and safely riding on the bus (see for example Gustafson and Ekman Ladru, 2020). Mobile preschools are regarded as providing opportunities for experiential learning in a variety of environments, most notably nature spaces, mirroring the national idea of ‘good’ education in nature.…”

Embodied spatial learning in the mobile preschool: the socio-spatial organization of meals as interactional achievement

“…The number of preschool buses have successively increased and today there are approximately fifty mobile preschools all over Sweden (Ojala, Ladru, and Gustafson 2020). Being a participant in the mobile preschool implies mastering competences such as safely riding the bus, walking in lines, as well as eating meals in diverse spaces (Gustafson and Ladru 2020).…”

“…The pedagogue told the children about appropriate behavior on the bus cautioning them that different rules may be applicable depending on the places they visit. She underlined that the experienced children will help the new and show them what and how to do (Gustafson and Ladru 2020). She informed them that all meals would be eaten inside the bus.…”

“…In addition to what we have focused on in this study, the children sometimes resist participating in everyday routines and use their knowledge of how the meal practice is organized to create space for their own, sometimes subversive, activities that may challenge the order of the preschool. This is a fascinating area for further explorations (see Gustafson and Ladru 2020).…”