Barnehager som konkurrerende virksomheter

The study investigates kindergarten teachers’ experiences of and views on competition between kindergartens, and whether they find competition to be challenging or positive. The research question is: What experiences of and views on competition do kindergarten teachers who are employed by large private kindergarten chains have?

The informants who participated in the investigation were of the opinion that competition existed between the kindergartens. They believed that this competition arises because the kindergartens, in order to ensure continued operation, must fill all the places they have at their disposal. The results show that kindergarten teachers say they feel trapped in the tension that exists between, on the one hand, the ethical values inherent in the profession, where they emphasise their own professional assessments and the children’s interests, and, on the other hand, the owners’ need to win in a competition between the kindergartens, which leads to product orientation, marketing and secrecy. Kindergarten teachers experience dilemmas related to expectations of what the kindergarten should offer, and of their professional assessments of whether this is good for the children.

The empirical material is based on interviews with 18 kindergarten teachers employed by large private kindergarten chains. The researcher conducted two rounds of interviews that were six months apart. The first round of interviews was conducted in the spring of 2019 and consisted of three focus group interviews with a total of ten informants who were recruited through union representatives in the Union of Education Norway. The second round of interviews was conducted in the autumn of 2019 involving eight individual interviews with kindergarten teachers from the four largest kindergarten chains in Norway. The interviews were audio recorded and encoded into different topics.

Dahle, H. F. (2020). «Barnehager som konkurrerende virksomheter». Nordic Studies in Education, 40(3):210–228.