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Copyright of Barn: Forskning om Barn og Barndom i Norden is the property of Cappelen Damm Akademisk and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article explores preschool principals’ leadership agency when enacting a new curriculum, looking at how they perform their role, how they organise their work and what challenges they face in the process. Drawing on the concept of agency, this case study focuses on the principals’ positions, practices, opportunities and limitations as well as their construction of agentic leadership. The data collection consists of in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 16 preschool principals working in a large Swedish municipality. The analysis of the material has taken place through thematic coding and interpreted through the lens of agency; the results show how the cultural, structural and material aspects of each preschool influence the enactment of the curriculum and shape the principals’ agentic capacity. Both time and context provide a framework for these principals’ enactments of a new curriculum within the specificities of their particular preschools and their own ambitions for the future. The principals’ discursive positionings are both filtered through these aspects and constructed on the basis of values and ideas about their own role and the role of staff. In addition, they underpin how the principals describe themselves as leaders and how they view their opportunities to act in an agentic manner.

Copyright of Nordic Early Childhood Educational Research / Nordisk Barnehageforskning is the property of Cappelen Damm Akademisk and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Nordic Early Childhood Educational Research / Nordisk Barnehageforskning is the property of Cappelen Damm Akademisk and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The purpose of this study is to investigate in what ways kindergarten teachers explain their understanding and practices of education for sustainable development. The study uses the term “green sustainability” to refer to the concept of caring for nature, the environment, and the earth’s climate in ways which meet basic human needs and preserve them for future generations. The data are generated from six focus groups conducted in 2020. The sample is comprised of 23 kindergarten teachers representing six kindergartens. Analyses of the data material revealed the following theme-based categories: 1) digital, multimodal resources, 2) experiences in nature, 3) from farm to fork, 4) sorting garbage and food waste, and 5) avoiding waste. The findings indicate that existing practices are largely in accordance with longstanding traditions within the kindergartens. The study also indicates that there is a need for critical and reflective practices to meet the needs of children in developing a nascent understanding of sustainable development. Currently, 21st century skills that can be applied to sustainability challenges include critically evaluating different pieces of information, connecting knowledge, collaborating creatively, and communicating across disciplines.

In this study, the use of the term movement in the Framework Plan for the Content and Tasks of Kindergartens (hereinafter, the “framework plan”) was investigated. Movement is understood as crucial for the core values in the framework plan, as it creates the base for children’s play, exploration, learning, care, and formative development. Through a document analysis, this enquiry examined whether the use of the term movement in the framework plan supports the steering document’s focus on the intrinsic value of childhood. This enquiry was guided by the research question, “How is the term movement outlined and used in the Framework Plan for the Content and Tasks of Kindergartens?” The analysis consisted of a word search, identifying how often, when, and in relation to what the term was used. Furthermore, this article discusses the implications of the use of the term for the underlying understanding of movement in children’s lives. We postulated that providing a clearer rationale for meeting, celebrating, and working with different approaches to movement in the framework plan could create a more substantial base for didactic designs and further research focusing on movement not only as motor skills but also as exploration, participation, communication, and a kinesthetic way of understanding oneself and one’s surroundings.

Copyright of Barn: Forskning om Barn og Barndom i Norden is the property of Cappelen Damm Akademisk and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Barn: Forskning om Barn og Barndom i Norden is the property of Cappelen Damm Akademisk and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study is a qualitative study, based on group discussions reported from two workshops involving headteachers and pedagogical leaders in three kindergartens in Norway. The result shows the viewpoints of kindergarten teachers concerning quality in the development of play and learning environments in kindergartens. What the kindergarten teachers (headteachers and pedagogical leaders) highlight is the facilitation of an inspiring play and learning environment, leadership and collaboration, the role of adults, the participation of children and employees, as well as the importance of documentation in terms of reflection and the development of pedagogical practice. What appears is a child-centred value base, focusing on the staff, who facilitate and support the children. In essence, the process quality is highlighted and described as essential for developing quality in the play and learning environment in the kindergarten, though structural, content, and result quality are also affected. The structural conditions seem to have received increased attention due to the changes experienced in kindergartens after the Covid pandemic and the restrictions that followed. These changes seem to provide new perspectives on the value of cooperation, the opportunity for collective reflection and the importance of process work, all of which have been indicated by informants and the research field as essential to ensuring good quality in the kindergarten. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artikkelen sammenstiller og drøfter forskning på spenningen mellom institusjonelt mangfold blant eiere av norske barnehager, og myndighetenes ambisjoner om å gi et likeverdig barnehagetilbud til alle barn. Med basis i 14 forskningsartikler og rapporter fra perioden 2004-2017 finner jeg at private eiere av barnehager har stort handlingsrom og påvirkningskraft i barnehagesektoren. Både lovregulering og institusjonaliserte normer for et godt barnehagetilbud bidrar til at en ser små forskjeller etter eierskap. Disse normene utvikles og vedlikeholdes i nettverk som inkluderer private barnehager. Det har vært lite forskning på disse nettverkene og på de mykere styringsformene i sektoren. Det er spesielt behov for mer kunnskap om hvordan kommunene som forvaltningsorganisasjoner håndterer møtet med større og mer profesjonelle private barnehageeiere. This article reviews research on the tension between institutionally diverse owners of Norwegian early childhood centers/kindergartens and the governments ambitions of providing an equitable, high-quality service to all children. Based on 14 research articles and reports published between 2004 and 2017 I find that private owners of early childhood centers have considerable influence in the Norwegian ECEC-sector. Both legislation and institutionalized norms of what constitutes a good ECEC-service contribute to small differences according to ownership. These norms are developed and maintained in networks including also private early childhood centers. Few researchers have taken interest in the networks and other soft forms of governance in the Norwegian ECEC-sector. We need more knowledge on how the municipalities interact with large, professional private ECEC-owners.

Children’s play and exploration involves risk and a possibility for being injured. Early childhood and care institutions (ECECs) should provide children with physical challenges in a safe environment. Over the past years, the attention towards playground safety and injuries in ECECs has increased. Norwegian practitioners have a liberal approach to children’s risk taking in play, raising questions on injury prevalence in Norwegian ECECs. The aim for this study was to gain knowledge about the injury prevalence and characteristics of the injuries in Norwegian ECECs. Managers from 2105 institutions completed an electronic questionnaire retrospectively asking the managers to report injuries and accidents the past year. The results indicate that injuries are rare in Norwegian ECECs, and that most of the injuries are minor and do not require a follow-up from professional medical personnel. The moderate and severe injuries are very rare, and often mishaps. There are some indications that boys experience injuries more often than girls do. The main cause of moderate injuries is falling, both outdoors and indoors.

In this article, it is argued that Early Childhood Education and Care management can be distributed on more persons than the director. Attention is directed towards the educational managers in the ECEC center departments in Norwegian ECEC, and their managerial responsibility. Interviews were conducted with 18 such managers in 10 different ECEC centers in order to examine their role in the managerial process of ECEC centers. The material seems to suggest that these department managers operate in a fairly hierarchical structure, and that they do not contribute in any collective management process for the entire center. They have a different management responsibility than the directors, and within a hierarchical framework, they exercise a significant management responsibility in their departments. Denne artikkelen argumenterer for at barnehageledelse kan være fordelt på flere personer enn styreren og fokuserer på ledelsesoppgavene til de pedagogiske lederne som leder de arbeidsgruppene som barnehagen har på grunnplanet. Dybdeintervjuer ble gjennomført med 18 pedagogiske ledere for å kaste lys over deres bidrag i barnehagens ledelsesprosess. Studien viser at som ledere er de plassert i en hierarkisk struktur og at de i liten grad er deltagere i kollektiv ledelse eller i barnehagens lederteam. De har en annen ledelsesprofil enn den vi finner i forskningen om styrere, og innenfor hierarkiske rammer har de et betydelig lederansvar på avdelingen.