The Presence of Pedagogy and Care in Leisure-time Centres’ Local Documents: Leisure-time Teachers’ Documented Reflections

Abstract

MANY COUNTRIES OFFER younger school children school-age child care. However, the governance, organisation and practical activities and its relation to education and care differs within and between countries. In Scandinavia, the concept of Educare acknowledges the need for emotional, social and intellectual aspects of the holistic view of learning. The Swedish leisure-time centres (LTC) designed for younger school children have, by tradition, an identity that strongly relates to aspects of care. This study aims to gain knowledge of leisure-time teachers’ (LTT) reflections on how pedagogy and care appear in LTCs’ local documents. After examining the written reflections of 22 groups of LTTs involved in a professional development course, it can be argued that care is fundamental to the LTC activities; however, this notion is simultaneously challenged by neoliberal tendencies.

Exploring Children’s Creative Self-Efficacy Affected by After-School Program and Parent–Child Relationships

“…From the comprehensive review of the literature, it is believed that the cultivation of students' creativity mainly depends on their creative self-efficacy. However, in today's social background and context, taking into consideration the fact that both parents are working and the subsequent problems of child upbringing, the after-school tutoring is now playing a key role in helping with students' learning performance and inspiring their creativity potential (Nieting, 1983;Lee, 2001;Plantenga and Remery, 2017;Hjalmarsson, 2018;Ljusberg, 2018). If we consider the influence of the students 'original family again, the parental style and parent-child relationship are the key to it, and it is also the underlying foundation for students' development of personality and behavior patterns (Locke and Prinz, 2002;Kuppens et al, 2009;Scharp and Thomas, 2016;Ensink et al, 2017;Lieberman et al, 2018).…”

“…The definition of the care for school-age children in the literature is generally based on daycare programs provided for children between 6 and 12 before or after the regular school time, and during winter and summer holidays when parents are unable to take care of their children themselves. Such services can be called after-school care for school-age children (Hjalmarsson, 2018). As such, after-school care aims at taking care of elementary school-age children.…”

Valuable everyday encounters in early childhood education: narratives from professionals

“…As a consequence, a number of curriculum and policy studies were conducted, as well as studies of didactics and subject learning during the early years. Some of these studies stress that care is constantly present in preschool activities (Riddersporre and Bruce 2016) and fundamental to the activities in leisure-time centres (Hjalmarsson 2018). In a previous study, we stressed that preschool teachers who talk about documentation refer to formulations about learning (not care) in the national curriculum in order to perform their professional identities (Löfgren 2015(Löfgren , 2016.…”

“…Consequently, recent research, as well as political and value-laden discussions, have focused on how the now more formal and educational side of ECE work can be combined with (Dahlberg 2009), or separated from (Hjalmarsson 2018) the deeply rooted caring aspects.…”

Förskjutningar i innehåll i SFO/Fritidshem i Skandinavien

“…I svenska fritidshem styrs barn i allt högre grad in i vuxeninitierade aktiviteter som ett led i att innehållet i fritidshem ska bli tydligt och utvärderingsbart (Elvstrand & Lago, 2019). Kontroll av vad elever gör, med vem de gör något och var de befinner sig har blivit centralt i fritidshem i Sverige (Hjalmarsson, 2013;Ludvigsson & Falkner, 2019). Björn Haglund (2020) påpekar risken att elevers intressen och vilja att delta i aktiviteter kan komma i konflikt med aktiviteter som personal anser viktiga för elevers utveckling och lärande.…”