Early Childhood Educators’ Perspectives of the Swedish National Curriculum for Preschool and Quality Work

Abstract

There is today an increasing global interest in early childhood education, especially with regard to curriculum and quality work. The aim of this article is to study preschool teachers' and child care workers' views on the revised national curriculum for preschool in Sweden (Lpfö 98, rev. 2010), and if the educators perceive that they can conduct quality work based on the curriculum. This article is based on a web-based questionnaire distributed to all municipal preschool teachers and child care workers (in this study called educators) employed in a small municipality (n = 111). The questionnaire consisted of eight questions with 54 sub-items with five reply alternatives, including 'don't know'. The reply frequency was 58.6 % (n = 65). Data were compiled and processed in a computer based program. The results showed that the preschool educators were positive to the curriculum and regarded it as a tool for improving the quality in preschool. The most important factors for increasing the quality were, according to the results, the educators' attitudes, the number of children in the group and the teacher-to-child ratio.

Policy-based instructional reform in early education: how US Head Start teachers perceive instructional mandates

“…These findings build upon an emerging foundation of research conducted in early childhood education settings (e.g., Brodin and Renblad 2015;Bullough et al 2014;Sofou and Tsafos 2009;Wood 2004). Both practical and research-related implications emerge from this work.…”

“…Generally speaking, these national curriculums for early childhood lay out a framework for learning that guides local implementation of each nation's government-funded preschool program (Alvestad and Samuelsson 1999;Flottman and Page 2012;May 2008). Though there is a strong research base in early childhood development to inform the content of such national curriculums, there are only a few prior investigations into the implementation of these policy-driven reforms at the preschool-site and -classroom level (e.g., Brodin and Renblad 2015;Bullough et al 2014;Sofou and Tsafos 2009;Wood 2004). For example, researchers in Sweden found that the majority of the 111 preschool teachers they surveyed felt positively about the content and implementation of the new national preschool curriculum (Brodin and Renblad 2015).…”

“…Though there is a strong research base in early childhood development to inform the content of such national curriculums, there are only a few prior investigations into the implementation of these policy-driven reforms at the preschool-site and -classroom level (e.g., Brodin and Renblad 2015;Bullough et al 2014;Sofou and Tsafos 2009;Wood 2004). For example, researchers in Sweden found that the majority of the 111 preschool teachers they surveyed felt positively about the content and implementation of the new national preschool curriculum (Brodin and Renblad 2015). The Swedish preschool teachers shared few concerns regarding the implementation of the new curriculum.…”

Preschool teachers' understanding of quality in preschool: a comparative study in three European countries

“…For instance have Sheridan, Williams and Sandberg (2012) pointed out that the preschool teachers have "conflicting and changing views" on the focus for evaluation (see also Sheridan & Pramling Samuelsson, 2013). Also other studies confirm that the preschool teachers experience difficulties in documenting and evaluating children's learning and development (e.g., Brodin & Renblad, 2014c).…”

T.C. MEB 2013 okul öncesi eğitim programı ile 2006 programının karşılaştırılması

“…Yapılan değişikliklerin neler olduğunu ve bu değişikliklerin nasıl yapıldığını belirlemek değişim sürecinde tespit edilmesi gereken önemli konulardan biridir (Fullan, 2007). Bu doğrultuda, özellikle diğer ülkelerin okul öncesi eğitim programı yeniliklerine yönelik çeşitli çalışmalar yapıldığı ve bu çalışmaların yeni programa ilişkin öğretmen görüşlerini içeren (Brodin ve Renblad, 2015;Sofou ve Tsafos, 2010) ülkelerin müfredatlarını karşılaştıran (Alvestad ve Samuelsson, 1999;Alvestad ve Duncan, 2006;Samuelsson, Sheridan ve Williams, 2006) ve ülkelerin değişen program dokümanları üzerinden yapılan çalışmalar olduğu görülmüştür (Burgess ve Fleet, 2009;Turunen, Uusiautti ve Määttä, 2014). Türkiye'de de son 20 yılda dört defa program güncellenmiş ve bu değişiklikler sonucunda programları karşılaştırma amacı ile çeşitli çalışmalar yapılmıştır (Gelişli ve Yazıcı, 2012;Gündoğdu, Turan, Kızıltaş, Çimen ve Kayserili, 2008).…”