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Norwegian early childhood education and care organizations are marked by tensions. These tensions are rooted in the social mandate, in recent changes in the ownership structure and in increased competition. The challenges that these changes pose to ECEC organizations and leadership need further exploration. This two-tiered article first analyzes these changes using the notion of the hybrid organization. Building on existing regulations, policy documents, previous research, and available statistics, the analysis takes a particular interest in organizational goals and missions and argues that organizational hybridity is a central feature of ECEC organizations. The analysis relates hybridity to governing mechanisms. Second, the article discusses the consequences of hybridity for ECEC directors. The inherent tensions generated by potentially conflicting missions are discussed in relation to internal and external leadership. The article aims to contribute a new perspective on organizations and leadership in Norwegian ECEC research.

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.

Our aim is to investigate how Sámi early childhood education and care institutions (ECECs) contextualise their work to support psychosocial well-being among children aged 4–6. We have conducted seven qualitative interviews among ECEC educators. Using Stepwise Deductive Induction (SDI) analysis we found that Sámi ECECs contextualise their work to support psychosocial well-being among children by constantly balancing between dealing with the possible consequences of Norwegianisation and the assimilation process from the past and highlighting Sámi culture in a positive way. In practice the staff try to support the children’s positive sense of self, recognition and feeling a sense of belonging to the Sámi culture. They also strive to contextualise Sámi practices in terms of today’s society and adjust to the present group of staff, children, and parents to ensure the children’s well-being.

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.

I studien undersøker jeg hvorfor enslige kvinner som har fått barn ved hjelp av en sædgiver, velger å orientere barnehagen om sin bruk av donor, og hvordan de informerte om det. Totalt 29 av de 33 mødrene valgte å orientere barnehagen. Hovedgrunnen til å være åpne var å få anerkjennelse for sin familieform, at barnehagen skulle kunne besvare spørsmål fra barnet deres og andre, og å støtte barnets opplevelse av sammenheng. Mødrene informerte aktivt, både skriftlig og muntlig. Både ansatte, barn og foreldre fikk informasjon.

The purpose of this article is to illuminate various pedagogic identities in Norwegian White Papers directed to Early Childhood Education and Care institutions. In this article, I present a study of eight White Papers concerning ECEC in Norway. I place emphasis on political efforts related to learning in ECEC institutions and further on, identify various learning discourses. I have chosen to place emphasis on a period of 40 years to identify if and in what way the learning discourses have changed. Further, I discuss various learning discourses based on Bernstein’s theory of pedagogic identities and shed light on various ideologies in ECEC policy. Bernstein’s theoretical framework is fundamental in this article.

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.