Litteraturens og høytlesingens plass og hensikt i nasjonale policydokumenter for barnehagen og barnehagelærerutdanningen i Danmark, Finland, Norge og Sverige

The study investigates the guidelines set by kindergarten policy documents for the work on children’s literature and reading in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. National guidelines for early childhood education are also studied where these exist. Through document analysis, similarities and differences in the policy documents in the four countries are investigated, and the results are discussed in light of the description of a Nordic kindergarten tradition characterised by a holistic view of learning with emphasis on children’s interests and play. The research question for the study is: What place does reading literature have in policy documents for kindergarten and kindergarten teacher education in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, and how can the documents’ descriptions of the purpose of reading be understood?

The document analyses show that reading children’s literature is described to a limited extent, that different importance is attached to it and that both kindergarten teachers and kindergarten teacher educators in the four countries will meet conflicting expectations. Common to the four countries is that there does not seem to be a direct link between reading aloud, literature and school preparation in the curricula and framework plans. The plans are characterised by a holistic view with a focus on children’s participation and interests here and now.

Using a combined quantitative and qualitative document analysis, the authors have searched through the documents looking for words and terms related to reading aloud and/or reading and literature. They have analysed and made national comparisons of the importance, frequency and placement of keywords in the different countries’ documents. The search words were categorised based on the context in which they stood and the purpose for which reading aloud was assigned.

Hogsnes, H. D., Svensson, A.-K., Larsen, M. E. & Damber, U. (2020). «Litteraturens og høytlesingens plass og hensikt i nasjonale policydokumenter for barnehagen og barnehagelærerutdanningen i Danmark, Finland, Norge og Sverige». Barn, 38(4):15-33.