Pædagogers faglighed: i lyset af en stigende regulering af danske daginstitutioner

The research report presents the analytical findings from an empirical investigation of educators’ professionalism in Danish kindergartens. The investigation provides specific insight into educators’ way of understanding their own professionalism, in light of increasing external management. The author hopes that this insight can support future discussions and investigations of how educators’ professional work can be understood, developed and accommodated. The ambition of the project is: to shed light on what characterises educators’ professionalism in kindergarten, in light of an increasing degree of external professional regulation and management.  

The collected interview material is extensive, complex and disorganised. The conversations between the educators do not follow any clear tracks or topics, but are instead intertwined with each other. The six interviews and their accompanying analyses basically represent six different pedagogical realities that cannot easily be compiled into a common overview of the educators’ professionalism. Nevertheless, the author identifies two common themes that affect the educators’ professionalism: A very distinct conditions category and a very clear management category:

In all the interviews, the educators express frustration regarding pressured working conditions and that they feel inadequate. The educators say that they are too busy, there are too many children and too many practical tasks and interruptions. This leads to different forms of prioritisation regarding the children’s needs, and different forms of academic grouping (based on the number of children, age or the children’s prerequisites).

In general, the educators talk about various external initiatives and requirements, from municipal administrations, schools and parents, that govern their everyday work.

The author has conducted six focus group interviews with educators from kindergartens in six Danish municipalities. The sample consisted of 3–6 informants from each municipality with a strategic goal of representing the institutional demographic and geographical diversity in the Danish kindergarten sector. The group interviews were semi-structured and each lasted four hours.   

Aabro, C. (2019). “Pædagogers faglighed: i lyset af en stigende regulering af danske daginstitutioner”. Forskningsrapport. Københavns Professionshøjskole.