Introduction to preschool: strategies for managing the gap between home and preschool

The overall purpose of this study is to investigate preschool teachers’ perceptions of the interaction between home and institution in relation to children’s introduction to preschool. The focus of the study is on the preschool teachers' descriptions of how they cooperate with the parents on the child's introduction, and how they manage the transition from home to preschool.

The analysis of the focus-group interviews illustrates how the changed introduction practice has changed the preschool teachers' view of cooperation between the home and preschool. The preschool teachers say that they have shifted from a perspective that viewed home and preschool as separate domains to a perspective that views the two domains as overlapping, where parents and teachers work as partners to do what is best for the child. This shift of perspectives involves a change in expectations of parents in the introduction process, where two parent positions can be compared. In the traditional introduction process of one to two weeks, the parents are on the sideline and are not involved in the preschool activities. They are expected to be passive and almost invisible. However, the new child and the preschool teachers are active in creating a relationship with each other and with the other preschool children. Here, the child is governed towards coping on his or her own, without the parents’ help. The other position arising in connection with the new parent-active introduction process involves new expectations and discourses on how to manage the gap between home and preschool. Here, the parents have an entirely different position in the introduction phase, in which they are expected to be active and involved in the child's activities in preschool during the day. The preschool teachers' role in the introduction becomes somewhat more peripheral and observational, as they need to follow the child and the parents in their interactions and doings, while simultaneously obtaining insight into the family relations. In this way, different interaction dynamics emerge between the various actors in the introduction compared with previously, and the preschool teachers' professional role changes during the introduction period.

According to the preschool teachers in the study, the parent-active, intense introduction can help facilitate cooperation with parents and understanding of differences and similarities between home and preschool. In this sense, the gap between the two domains is reduced, and the goal is to create an intermediate domain, consisting of, for example, shared knowledge about the child; interactions between the parents, children, the preschool and the preschool teachers; and expectations for a parent-teacher partnership in preschool. Discourses on responsibility, performativity and efficiency become central, and parents and preschool teachers are required to negotiate issues regarding the individual child, the various actors' positions and the exchange between the different domains.

The authors' discourse analysis indicates that, in the changed introduction practice, the preschool teachers allocate new subject positions to the parents, for example as experts, team members and active participants, which means that the parents are seen as more competent and important than previously. In this way, the parent-active introduction generates new positions for both parents and preschool teachers, and creates expectations of more intense parental involvement, in which parents are governed towards a more self-regulating and active role in preschool. According to the authors, the preschool teachers' statements on the more active parental role illustrate how boundary work between home and preschool has changed. In the new introduction approach, both parents and preschool teachers are seen as responsible for ensuring a good introduction to preschool and for managing the transition from home to preschool.

The empirical material consists of seven focus-group interviews with seven preschool teacher teams that have started to use an introduction approach in which the parents play a more active role (parent-active introduction). Overall, the changed introduction approach entails that the parents are present in the preschool and actively participate in the child's everyday activities for a short period (a week or less). This is contrary to the traditional approach, in which the introduction period lasts for one to two weeks, and the child is gradually becomes accustomed to staying in preschool without his/her parents. The seven teams participated in one focus-group interview each, with two to three participants in each team (a total of 17 participants). The following topics were discussed: 1) the meaning of the introduction period in preschool, 2) planning and realisation of the introduction period, 3) the method of the introduction and 4) the roles of the child, family, preschool staff, group of children and preschool environment. The authors conducted a qualitative analysis inspired by a discourse-analytic framework. The analysis focuses on episodes that expose implicit or explicit expectations about the interaction between home and preschool during the introduction. The analysis draws on concepts related to knowledge, power and subjectivity.

Markström, A., & Simonsson, M. (2017). Introduction to preschool: strategies for managing the gap between home and preschool. Nordic Journal of Studies in Educational Policy, 3(2), 179-188.