I spänningsfältet mellan mätbarhet och meningsskapande : - diskurser om kvalitet i förskolan

• Main Author: Persson, Åsa
• Format: Others
• Language: Swedish
• Published: Södertörns högskola, Lärarutbildningen 2016
• Subjects: quality; discourse analysis; social constructionism; quality work; pre-school; Educational Sciences; Utbildningsvetenskap
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-32561

The aim of this study is to explore discourses that emerge in texts in pre-school quality reports from 2011-2015 and how pre-school practitioners talk about quality in pre-school. Because of the complexity of the concept of "quality" the study is limited to focus on and explore discourses about quality in preschool that emerge in texts where preschools make a comprehensive analysis and assessment of their educational activity and quality. Five texts from different pre-schools and three transcribed interviews/conversations with pre-schoolteachers (one of these teachers has previous experience of being a preschool director) and one preschool director/teacher are analyzed. Three of the texts originate from communal pre-school units in a larger city in Sweden and the other two are from smaller community pre-schools throughout the country. The texts and the statements in the interviews are analyzed from a social constructional perspective and with discourse analytical tools inspired by Norman Fairclough (2010). Two different dimensions are analysed; the texts and the discursive practice but mainly the focus is on the analysis of the texts. The result of the analysis of the texts and the statements from the interviews, shows two emerging discourses of quality; “measurability” and “meaning making”. These two perspectives about quality in pre-school stand side by side in the texts and dialogs which results in a “field of tension” between the discourses. The first discourse, measurability, can be related to a political agenda of management, financial interests and controllability where pre-school quality is connected to accomplishments and results. In this perspective, knowledge and learning connect to an idea that all children develop and learn in a predetermined and predictable manner and therefore becomes measurable. The second discourse, meaning making, has its roots in a social constructional perspective were learning and knowledge are socially constructed by language when people interact, and therefore knowledge and understanding are undergoing constant transformations by reflection and negotiation.