A Becoming, Humanist Child: An analysis of Learning and Care in the Swedish Curriculum for the Preschool (Lpfö 18)

Author
Billmeyer, J., Pastorek Gripson, M. & Bergnehr, D.
Source
Education in the North, 26(1):42-55.
Year
2019

Purpose

The article investigates how the child is discursively interpreted and conceptualised in the new Swedish curriculum for kindergartens (Lpfö 18). Particular focus is placed on how the child is viewed in relation to the concepts of learning (including teaching) and care (including compassion and empathy). The four research questions are: (1) What types of child appear in the curriculum? (2) Is it a being and/or a becoming child? (3) Is it an entangled and/or separate child? (4) Is the child described as being active or passive in the child’s relationships and disturbances?

Result

A curriculum is per se a future-oriented document with goals to reach regarding the child’s future. This is reflected in the Swedish kindergarten curriculum goal of preparing, promoting and activating children. However, kindergarten and school are two different institutions with different tasks vis-à-vis the child, and therefore they should not be compared. The main task of school is to educate the child, while kindergartens have other tasks and are not exclusively, perhaps not even primarily, educational institutions. The curriculum for Swedish kindergartens focuses on the child’s future and on the child as a passive recipient of knowledge. This view of children can come at the expense of the kindergarten’s care tasks for the child and view of the child as a living individual here and now.

Design

The analysis was divided into two parts. In the first part, the researchers investigated the curriculum for terms and descriptions related to, or synonymous with, learning and care in an open and broad way. In part two, a semantic field analysis was carried out. This is a discursive analytical strategy that focuses on the distinction between concept/counter-concept or generality/singularity.

References

Billmeyer, J., Pastorek Gripson, M. & Bergnehr, D. (2019). “A Becoming, Humanist Child: An analysis of Learning and Care in the Swedish Curriculum for the Preschool (Lpfö 18)”. Education in the North, 26(1):42-55.

Financed by

Not specified