Prior and ongoing research projects within our research environment address issues related to: The development of teaching in early childhood education for sustainability settings; profession-driven school development projects in preschool and preschool class; Swedish preschool as a site of intercultural communication.

The development of teaching in early childhood education for sustainability settings

This project examines how preschool teachers in Sweden are negotiating increased demands to engage in teaching (defined as “adult-led, goal oriented activity”) and Early Childhood Education and Care for Sustainability (ECECfS) while cultivating local idiocultures that support children’s pretend and exploratory play. The latter can be seen as a challenge in this environment of greater teaching and sustainability demands, given that play and exploration are activities that do not immediately lend themselves to the stabilizing and categorizing impulses of teaching and science. It is this tension that the present project takes as a starting point for characterizing contemporary practices of ECECfS in Sweden.

This study is one component of a larger study linked to a Swedish regional government funded intervention examinining health and educational outcomes for preschools participating in workshops to sustainably develop their outdoor spaces. The study is funded in part by Formas (project #XXXX) and an internal seed mondey grant from the LPS research environment. ADD LINK.

For more information and publications see the publications page and/or project member pages: Robert Lecusay, Lina Mrak, Monica Nilsson.

Swedish preschool as a site of intercultural communication

This licensiate project is broadly focused on how intercultural education can be developed in the context of Swedish preschool provision based on the democratic values that undergird this provision. The project documents and analyses the perspectives of preschool teachers working in schools situated in multicultural areas, as well as the perspectives of recently arrived immigrant parents with children in the preschool system.

For more information and publications see the publications page and/or project member pages: Susanna Anderstaf.