Early childhood educators’ perspectives of the Swedish National Curriculum for Preschool and Quality Work.

The purpose of this study is to examine how preschool teachers and child care workers view the revised national curriculum for preschools in Sweden, and whether the teachers find that they can deliver quality work based on the curriculum. Quality work refers to documentation and evaluation procedures, the objective of which is to develop the individual preschool’s quality and thus also the children’s possibilities for developing and learning.

The results show that teachers were positive toward the revised curriculum and saw it as a tool for improving the quality of the preschool. According to the respondents, the most important factors for improving the preschool’s quality was the attitude of the teachers and child care workers themselves, the number of children in the group and the teacher-child ratio.

The article is based on data collected via a web-based questionnaire that was distributed to all the preschool teachers and child care workers employed in municipal preschools in the same small municipality. The questionnaire consisted of eight questions with 54 sub-questions and five possible answers, including a “Don’t know” option. The response rate was 58.6% (65 of a total of 111). Data was collected and analysed quantitatively using a computer programme called Netigate.

Brodin, J. & Renblad, K. (2014). “Early childhood educators’ perspectives of the Swedish National Curriculum for Preschool and Quality Work”. Early Childhood Education Journal, 43(5), 347-355.