| Summary: | Purpose: The purpose with this study is to investigate how preschool teachers understand the concept the competent child and in what ways this understanding affects their role in children’s learning. Question at issue: What perspective on children do the contributing educationalists have? How do they define a competent child? Do such children exist and if so, are they always competent in all situations? What is the educationalists perspective on learning and knowledge? What is the preschool teacher’s view of their role as educationalists? What do they consider as their most important tasks? Method: To execute this study I have made a qualitative research based on interviews with eight teachers from four different preschools. Main theories: I have built the theoretical part of this study based on four different perspectives on the concept the competent child according to the philosophies of Dion Summer, Jesper Juul and Reggio Emalia. I also describe different theories about learning, knowledge and educationalists as well as the preschools role in the development of child according to different well-known scientists and researchers. Summarized conclusion: The study shows that the interviewed preschool teachers chose to interpret the concept the competent child in three ways. The individual choice affects their expectations of the child and as such the way that they treat it. This shows that it´s important for all preschool teachers to constantly reflect on how they see and treat the children since this shapes them as they grow.
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