The aim is to understand more about inclusive learning environments in preschool. This is done by investigating how different aspects of democracy become visible in teacher's talk about inclusive learning environments, and by discussing possible consequences for children's meaning making. UNESCO (2009:10) states that inclusive "education for all" has to be linked to learners' needs and be relevant for their diverse lives. In similar ways there is a large emphasis on democracy and equality in the curriculum for Swedish preschools (Pramling Samuelsson, Sheridan and Williams 2006:26). However, this inclusive approach on education highlights a complex dilemma between education as compensatory and education as participatory (Nilholm 2006:30). The use of democracy is based on three characteristic aspects of democracy in Swedish preschool education; i) support autonomy, ii) develop solidarity, iii) socialise to institutional norms (Klaar and Öhman 2014). The methodology is based on pragmatic curriculum theory and selective traditions (Öhman 2006, Svennbeck 2004). Walk-and-talk interviews (Klerfelt 2016) have been conducted with four different preschool teachers in four different preschools, and their utterances have been qualitatively analysed. Ethical approval was sought from the preschool teachers and the interviews were conducted when no children were present. The analysing process is still in progress but one preliminary result shows a tension between supporting autonomy and developing solidarity that differ depending on preschool location and current group of children. With a large focus on the autonomy aspect of democracy there is a possibility that the solidary aspect of democracy is left in the background

The aim is to contribute to the field of pedagogical documentation in preschool by developing a theory-based didactical tool for practice-oriented reflections on teaching and possibilities to learn. The Swedish preschool curriculum (Lpfö98/2016)highlights preschool teachers' responsibility to observe and analyse children's development and learning in order to develop the preschool practice. Despite this, former research shows that preschool teachers often observe and estimate children individual maturity and development, and do not include a critical review, or a focus on the development of practice (VallbergRoth 2012, Eidevald 2013, Formosinho & Formosinho 2015). As a result of this criticism, there is a demand for ways to observe, document, and reflect that highlight possibilities for learning from a practice-oriented perspective (Eidevald 2013). The theoretical starting point is John Dewey's transactional perspective (Dewey & Bentley 1949/1991), where learning can be described as undertaking actions and experiencing their consequences, changing actions and experiencing potentially new consequences. We will work together with teachers from two different preschools using a method based on ParticipationAction Research (Herr & Anderson 2005, McIntyre 2008, and Reason & Bradbury 2009). Ethical approval has been sought from the preschool teachers, and will be sought from the parents. The research project is in progress but results will be discussed as e.g. differences between preschools, and questions about diversity and multiculturalism in documenting processes. The ambition is, from a practice-oriented perspective, to deepen critical reflections about children's learning and the learning possibilities offered by preschools.

The aim is to analyse research articles connected to Early Childhood Science Education (ECSE) with a specific focus on “why it is important to teach and learn science in preschool practices”.

To teach and learn about science in preschool practices can be understood as e.g. learn to care for nature or to create knowledge about natural phenomena and processes. With a specific focus on Early Childhood Education, Hedefalk et.al (2015) and Somerville and Williams (2015) present surveys connected to Education for Sustainable Development, and Zohar and Barzilai (2013) present a review on research in Science Education in the field of metacognition.

This present study will use curriculum theory to analyse and critically discuss teaching traditions and learning content (see Svennbeck 2003, Öhman 2006).  

Words used in the ERIC database search was: early childhood, natural science,  science education.

Approximately 90 articles from Early Childhood Journals and Science Education Journals will be scrutinized regarding arguments for ECSE, using a coding scheme based on introductions and purposes of the studies.

Initial results from this ongoing review of articles show arguments that focus on ECSE as: i) laying the foundation for knowledge and interest in science, preparing for school, ii) making children able to engage in environmental issues, iii) offering children to explore everyday-science as lived experiences.  

Only peer-reviewed articles were chosen, and the same words were used during the complete search.

The result can be used in critical reflections on arguments for teaching and learning science in preschool, to create multifaceted teaching and learning environments.

The aim is to illustrate a didactical reflection tool that facilitates teachers’ critical discussions about teaching for children’s person-formation in preschool. Person-formation, as an aim described to education, takes form as identification and as subjectification (Håkansson et al. 2018). Previous Early Childhood Education research shows the importance of teaching approaches that strive toward children’s identification; autonomy, solidarity and socialization (Correja et al. 2017; see also Klaar and Öhman 2014). However, approaches aiming at subjectification is less emphasized. A reflection tool that highlights teaching for identification has previously been developed and used (see Klaar et al. 2020). Adding subjectification as a second concept connects theoretically to Biesta’s (2019) argument for subjectification and uniqueness in education (see also Van Poeck and Östman 2019). Previously conducted qualitative interviews with teachers and children (Klaar et al. 2020) are re-analyzed by using subjectification as an additional analyzing concept. This provides extended opportunities to analyze teachers’ and children’s utterances about play in a more multi-dimensional way. The teachers and the parents agreed to participation and recording of the interviews, by giving written consent. The children were also asked orally before the interview started. The initial result shows children’s confidence, strength and ability to make unique playmate choices and to refrain to take part. However, the teachers mainly talk about children’s ability and possibility to play. This reflection tool will give teachers the opportunity to discuss the interplay between expectations about being autonomous and social, and the possibility for the child to be unique and develop subjectivity.

The overarching aim is to deepen the understanding about teaching processes when preschool children learn about nature. Research into the teaching and learning of science in the preschool tends to either focus on teaching for children’s conceptual development (Charlton, 2003; Zembylas, 2009) or practices that prioritises child-centred activities (Garbett, 2003; Thulin, 2011). Nature content in these practices can be either everything or nothing, but still, preferably cognitive. However, in my previous research into preschool children´s learning about nature, I show that teachers guide towards learning contents that intertwine cognitive, moral, aesthetical and practical learning qualities (Klaar and Öhman, 2013). In this study, teaching processes are investigated by the use of a methodology based on John Dewey’s pragmatic philosophy and the concept of transactions (Dewey and Bentley, 1949/1991; Garrison, 2001). Outdoor nature experiences of preschool children (aged one to three) were video-recorded, transcribed and analysed by the use of 'epistemological move analysis' (Lidar et al., 2006), here oriented towards teaching processes and teachers' guidance in children's nature learning. The preschool teachers and the parents gave their written approval and the participants were told that they could withdraw at any time during the recordings. The analyses show that the relations between teaching and nature-learning processes are intertwined and include education and care. The teachers’ guide towards different qualities in learning about nature by challenging, admonishing, instructional, confirming, generative, reorienting and reconstructing moves. The results contribute to nature-oriented teaching practice and nature-oriented preschool research when critically discussing teachers´ guidance in learning processes.

The aim is to illustrate practical analysing tools that facilitate investigations and critical reflections of situated teaching and learning. Early Childhood Education needs to open up for pluralistic pedagogy and move away from transmissive pedagogy (Formosinho & Formosinho 2016). Early childhood research seldom concerns teaching and learning activities in practice (Ryan and Goffin, 2008) and we argue for the need to open up the “black box” showing what teacher do when they teach, and what children learn in the teaching process (Lave 1993). In this work we turn to John Dewey’spragmatism, his view on meaning making (Dewey 1938/2015; Dewey 1958/2009) and functional coordination of actions(Garrison 2001). Data were collected using video-recordings of an activity in preschool practice. The tools used in the qualitative analyses were Practical Epistemology Analysis (Wickman & Östman, 2002) and Epistemological Move Analysis(Lidar, Lundqvist & Östman 2006). The study follows the Swedish Research Council's (2017) ethical rules and guidelines for good research practice. Informed consent was given by parents. The children were asked verbally and also informed that they could say ‘no’, at any time. The results show teaching and meaning making processes as multifaceted and dynamic, including teaching toward practical and intellectual learning as well as socialization and individual development. This way of document and assess teaching and learning can be used when evaluating and developing preschool education. By using these analysing methods the teachers can reflect over their own teaching approaches as well as over children’s learning processes and learning content. 

Preschool teachers in Sweden are expected to document children's learning and assess their learning outcomes, for the purpose of long-term evaluation and to develop the educational preschool practice. Previous research shows that the tools for documenting individual learning are particularly focusing on children's cognitive knowledge, while the tools for evaluating the preschool practice are developed for standardized assessment and teachers' self-reflection. The purpose of this study is to present and illustrate an action-based tool that (i) facilitates documentation and assessment of children's multifaceted learning and (ii) combine and interweave individual learning with situated teaching approaches and evaluation of the preschool practice at institutional level. The action-based methodological framework takes a starting point in John Dewey's pragmatism, transactions and functions of education including qualification, socialization and person-formation. Two analytical approaches; Practical Epistemology Analysis (PEA) and Epistemological Move Analysis (EMA) are used to clarify and illustrate individual, social and institutional dimensions of learning from four sequences of one preschool activity including four children and one teacher talking about a fairy tale. We argue that this tool for assessment and evaluation facilitates action-based reflection and discussion about relations between children's individual learning and institutional norms and values.

The aim is to deepen understanding about learning contents by empirically investigating relations between preschool teachers’ teaching and child ren’s content learning. The aim is also to present an analysis method that facilitates these investigations. Research has shown that early childhood science education is based on education and care, sometimes stressed as a dichotomy. Additionally, ECE rese arch seldom concerns teachers and their teaching activities, i.e. what they do when they teach. There is therefore a need for more research into what teaching in early childhood education actually entails. The approach is informed by John Dewey’s pragmatic philosophy and his use of transactions. A transactional analysing tool called SLQA (Substantive Learning Quality Analysis) is developed and used to facilitate investigations of specific learning qualities in terms of which learning content the teacher gui des towards. The empirical material consists of video - recorded situations where preschool children (1 - 3 years of age) experience nature together with their teachers In this study the preschool teachers and the parents gave their written approval and the pa rticipants were told that they could withdraw at any time during the recordings. The analyses show that the relations between teaching and learning processes and content are intertwined and include education and care. The teachers guide towards aesthetical , moral, cognitive and physical qualities in learning. A multi - dimensional approach on quality can be useful for teachers as a tool for reflections about teaching and learning content in preschool in their work within the area of pedagogical documentation.

Research into preschool education has paid a lot of attention to investigating children's conceptual development and cognitive learning about nature, with methods based on observations and verbal interviews before and after a teaching period. The purpose of this study has been to present and illustrate an approach that facilitates the analysis of practical meaning making in Early Childhood Education. The study is largely based on John Dewey's pragmatism and has a particular focus on his use of transaction, functional coordination, inquiry, educative experience and nature. In this context meaning making is understood as the growing, learning process that contributes to further actions in extended ways. A transactional approach to physical experiences, with a focus on analyses of toddlers' bodily actions in nature encounters, is illustrated by a video recording of a toddler's encounter with icy and clay surfaces. This encounter was analysed using Practical Epistemological Analysis. Toddlers' inquiry processes were studied with a specific focus on functional coordination, i.e. relations between different actions and their consequences when meeting the environment. The methodological approach contributes to further research by focusing on practical and physical learning processes. It can also be seen as a contribution to Early Childhood Science Education by showing the relation between previous experiences of natural phenomena and meaning making for further actions in extended ways.

Previous research has shown that the Swedish preschool educational tradition is characterised by outdoor-oriented and democratic approaches. The purpose of this study is to empirically investigate what consequences these approaches have for preschool children's meaning-making of nature, when studied in practice, in children's spontaneous outdoor activities. The methodology is based on John Dewey's pragmatism with a specific focus on transaction, habits and customs. A transactional analysis method has been developed to fulfil the purpose of the investigation. The analysis illuminates relations between: (1) the Swedish preschool's educational tradition in terms of national customs; and (2) the local customs expressed in practice. Fifty-seven events were chosen for further analysis including play with water and sand, and sliding on snow. Consequences for children's meaning-making of nature are shown as possibilities for experience-based inquiry based on children's own choices and also for enjoying and feeling good in nature. The results show fewer possibilities for scientific concept learning. The results can thus be seen as a contribution to the early childhood educational discussion about how to arrange learning situations of natural phenomena and processes in preschools and at the same time maintain their democratic/outdoor-oriented characteristics.

Research has shown that early childhood science education is based on education and care, sometimes stressed as a dichotomy. The purpose of this study is to empirically investigate the relations between teachers' teaching and children's learning in preschool practice, both in terms of educative processes and nature-oriented content. The ambition is also to develop and present an analysis method that facilitates these investigations. Outdoor nature experiences of preschool children (aged one to three) were video-recorded, transcribed and analysed. The methodology is based on John Dewey's pragmatic philosophy. Here, epistemological move analysis (oriented towards teachers' guiding processes as moves) and substantive learning quality analysis (oriented towards multi-dimensional learning qualities) are developed and used as analysis tools. The analyses show that the relations between teaching and learning processes and nature content are intertwined and include education and care. The teachers guide towards aesthetical, moral, cognitive and physical qualities in learning by challenging, admonishing, instructional, confirming, generative, reorienting and reconstructing moves. The results contribute to nature-oriented teaching practice and nature-oriented preschool research when discussing and investigating teaching and learning processes and nature content.