“A strengthened teaching mission in preschool: teachers’ experiences, beliefs and strategies”.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how preschool teachers experience their newly defined teaching mission, in particular in their work with scientific exploration. The study examines how preschool teachers work on children’s skills within language, mathematics, the natural sciences and technology, for example, as these are the focus areas in the revised Swedish curricula.

The study shows that the preschool teachers have a multi-facetted way of working with scientific exploration. In this context the preschool teachers consider the children’s physical and emotional relationship with their surroundings as important. The preschool teachers’ understanding of scientific exploration and learning is a combination of natural science as knowledge, and natural science as exploration in which focus is on democracy, aesthetics, experimentation and reflection. The study also finds that the proximity of the preschool teachers, and focus on the children’s relationship with the phenomenon being studied, seems to be the strategy of the preschool teachers in realising their newly defined teaching mission. The study concludes that integrating exploration and natural science with knowledge areas and teaching methods well-known by the preschool teachers can enhance teachers’ work with natural science.

The empirical data for the study comprises both individual interviews and group interviews with ten preschool teachers at two Swedish preschools. The preschool teachers volunteered as informants for the study. The interviews were stored as audio files and transcribed then analysed on the basis of a phenomenological approach, with focus on the experiences of the preschool teachers. In the first part of the process, the texts were investigated for phrases and words which explained the nature of the preschool teachers’ work with children and scientific experiences. Next, these were categorised into themes and reviewed across the text material. The themes were then presented to the preschool teachers, who, once they had recognised their own experiences in the theme, were able to contribute with further reflections.

Westman, S. & Bergmark, U. (2014). “A strengthened teaching mission in preschool: teachers’ experiences, beliefs and strategies”. International Journal of Early Years Education, 22(1), 73-88.