Inte som i skolan – pedagoger positionerar naturvetenskap i förskolan

The study investigated how kindergarten teachers, who use scientific content in their practice, describe their own practice and their own views of science in kindergarten. The study was based on three research questions: (1) What views do educators have regarding the use of research in kindergartens? (2) How do educators position themselves in relation to working with scientific content in kindergartens? (3) What kind of stories/narratives about science are orally produced by the teachers in kindergarten?

The results indicated that kindergarten teachers favoured an ‘anti-authoritarian’ view of children’s science learning. The kindergarten teachers favoured the use of imagination, creativity and intuition in their teaching, and presented science as something that is easily accessible in terms of the children’s learning. The kindergarten teachers also positioned themselves as being competent enough to apply science in their teaching.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 educators (19 women, 1 man) from nine kindergartens in Sweden. The educators’ professional experience ranged from five to 30 years. In addition, the researchers had previously visited nine kindergartens and observed various activities the children were involved in. The researchers used a guidance document from a previous observational study as the basis for the questions they asked during the interview process. The questions revolved around the researchers’ observations from the nine kindergartens they had previously visited. Each interview lasted from half an hour to an hour.

Due, K., Tellgren, B., Areljung, S., Ottander, C. & Sundberg, B. (2018). «Inte som i skolan – pedagoger positionerar naturvetenskap i förskolan». NorDiNa: Nordic Studies in Science Education, 14(4):411-426.