Learning in Preschool: Teachers' Talk about Their Work with Documentation in Swedish Preschools

In light of a preschool policy demanding increasing documentation, the purpose of this study is to investigate how preschool teachers' "do professionalism" and form professional strategies in relation to institutional narratives about learning when talking about documentation. Institutional narratives are stories repeated by the members of an institution. For example, in formal documents and in the members' oral stories about the institution.

The authors find that the preschool teachers refer in different ways to an institutional narrative about learning when they talk about documentation in preschool. Three themes stand out: the first theme Children's learning and national curriculum objectives shows how preschool teachers struggle with ambiguities regarding the preschool policy, which objectives in the curriculum to prioritise, and how to do this in practice. The interviews reveal that the preschool teachers are eager to use documentation as a way of making sure that they are working towards the objectives set out in the national curriculum, and as a way of keeping focus on the form of learning initiated by the children themselves. However, the results also indicate that the preschool teachers are uncertain about how to document things in practice. Moreover, the preschool teachers express an ambivalence between documenting learning from the children themselves and documenting the learning goals set out in the curriculum.

The second theme Documentation of learning as a professional strategy illustrates how preschool teachers deal with documenting various forms of learning. The results indicate that the preschool teachers' references to an institutional narrative about learning with regard to what the author calls a "preschool-kind of learning" serve as a professional strategy. The interviews show that the majority of the preschool teachers indicate that it is difficult to document learning without also assessing the children individually. However, many of the preschool teachers find that documentation enables them to be aware of children's initiatives as well as curriculum goals, but it is not clear from the interviews how preschool teachers use pedagogical documentation in practice.

The third and final theme Preschool teachers as learners "doing professionalism" shows that they deal with their insecurity with regard to what and how to document by describing themselves as learners who, in interaction with one another and with the children, are still learning and developing their documentation skills. According to the author, the fact that the preschool teachers position themselves as learners is a special way of "doing professionalism" when talking about their work with documentation. The author concludes that this means that the preschool teachers interpret and enact the preschool policy in a way that allows them to deal with demands for accountability, but also allows professional agency.

The data material consists of life story interviews with 17 preschool teachers from seven preschools in two medium-sized cities in central Sweden. The interviews focused on the preschool teachers' personal and professional story as well as their experience of working with documentation in preschool. Theories on institutional narratives and theories on preschool teachers' professionalism formed the framework of the analysis.

Löfgren, H. (2017). Learning in Preschool: Teachers' Talk about Their Work with Documentation in Swedish Preschools. Journal of Early Childhood Research, 15(2), 130-143.

Löfgren, H. (2016). A Noisy Silence about Care: Swedish Preschool Teachers’ Talk about Documentation. Early Years, 36(1), 4-16.