Kommunikation i förskolan: Förskollärares och barnskötares kommunikation med föräldrar i ett digitaliserat medielandskap

The primary objective of the doctoral thesis was to investigate communication work among the staff in Swedish kindergartens, with a particular focus on mediated communication with parents/guardians. In addition, the purpose was to analyse the type of roles given to various members of the profession in this communication with the parents; partly to identify which subject positions were constructed and partly to identify how boundaries were drawn within the communication practices.

Research questions:

1. What does the kindergarten communication environment look like and how does the communication work take place in it?
2. What type of prerequisites for communication work exist in kindergarten and what type of challenges can be identified?
3. What characterises the content and form of communication in kindergarten?
4. How does digitalisation take place in kindergarten and how can it be understood?

The study shows that communication environments vary between kindergartens. There were different practices in terms of the types of media used and how they were used. The author identifies several factors that stand in the way of communication between kindergarten and home. Many of these (but not all) are related to the socioeconomic status of the parents.

In the mediated communication, kindergarten staff often position themselves as experts on practical and educational issues while parents/guardians are positioned as actors that require guidance. One of the most important functions of mediated communication is to give parents/guardians responsibility for the kindergarten in line with norms for what constitutes good (kindergarten) parents. Parent/guardian boundary setting is done using several different modalities that create boundaries and establish professional positions.

The results are based on observations in five kindergartens, interviews with 32 kindergarten employees and multimodal analyses of communication material aimed at parents. In addition, the author has conducted interviews and document studies in the form of a case study that investigated the introduction of a digital learning platform.

Eckeskog, L. (2019). “Kommunikation i förskolan: Förskollärares och barnskötares kommunikation med föräldrar i ett digitaliserat medielandskap”. Akademisk avhandling. Umeå universitet.