In UNESCO’s recent publication Education for Sustainable Development: A Roadmap the idea of community is described as playing an important role in the organization of education for sustainable development as a means of supporting transformations towards sustainability. In the present study we examine the relationship between community and the organization of Early Childhood Education and Care for Sustainability (ECECfS). This examination is based on case studies of Swedish preschool teachers’ perspectives and practices in relation to ECECfS. Drawing on Cultural Historical Activity Theory and the concept of ontological Communities of Learners, we describe ways in which community-based characteristics of the preschools shape and are shaped by cultural tools used to pursue ECECfS. Themed-Project Work (TPW), a common means in Swedish preschools of organizing day-to-day activities, emerged as an important practice through which to examine questions of community within and across preschools. We describe organizational tensions concerning how pedagogical practices like TPW change from being tools to support a preschool’s activities, to being objects toward which these activities are oriented. Such changes can enable or constrain a preschool’s possibilities for building pluralistic and democratic ECEC environments. We also discuss how the said organizational tensions are rooted in how community is conceived of in preschool provision. Community is constituted not only through the relationships among members of individual preschools but also through the relationships that preschools have with other preschools in their administrative networks. We discuss contradictions that emerge in this matrix of relationships that shape how preschools enact good governance in the pursuit of ECECfS.

Gunilla Lindqvist argued that in playworlds teachers “step(ping) out of their ‘teacher roles’” and “dare(d) to try new attitudes and ways of acting” (1995, pp. 210-211).  This paper presents cases of adult playworld participants’, ie. teachers and researchers’, ways of being in five playworlds in a variety of institutional settings in four nations: We believe that the quality of children’s experiences in these playworls depends on the quality of the experiences of the teachers, and also of the researchers participating in the projects.  Teacher and researcher descriptions of their own and other participating adults’ ways of being in these playworlds was collected from completed and ongoing playworld studies, and from interviews conducted specifically for this study.  Data was, thus, derived from various research projects, each at their own research sites.  Different methods of analysis were used at each research site, although some forms of participatory observation, focused on the theme, narrative and process of artwork production, were common across all sites.  Also allowing for the necessary coordination, while taking difference as a starting point for understanding human development, the playworlds examined in this paper were created in Sweden, Finland, Japan and the United States but were all inspired by the work of Pentti Hakkarainen; and all developed, over the past 17 years, within the International Playworld Network (IPWNW), which originated at the Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition at the University of California, San Diego.  Analysis took place using an intentionally diverse collection of theories, which reflect the diversity of perspectives that makes the IPWNW productive: Gadamer’s theories of play to describe the playworlds “playing” the teachers and researchers as play “plays” the child; Hadley’s theories of adult participation in play to understand experiences of adults playing “inside the flow” of playworlds; Miyazaki’s theory, drawing on the work of Bakhtin, of the triadic relationship between an imaginative world, children and adults; Rainio’s theorizing of dialectics of agency in adult-child interaction in playworlds; and recent developments of Participant Design Experiments.

This paper discusses the playworlds of the Playworld of Creative Research (PWCR) research group. Play- worlds are created from a relatively new form of play that can be described as a combination of adult forms of creative imagination (art, science, etc.), which require extensive real life experience, and children’s forms of creative imagination (play), which require the embodiment of ideas and emotions in the material world. In playworlds, adults and children (or teenagers or seniors) enter into a common fantasy that is designed to support the development of both adults and children (or teenagers or seniors). The PWCR understands play- worlds and the study of playworlds as ways of being. In this paper we present unique, individual playworlds that we truly love from the perspective of researchers, artists, teachers, children, administrators, and imagi- nary characters, who participate in playworlds. We use a master fiction writer’s words on the love of literature to frame our discussion of playworlds, focusing on truth, time, human magic, infinite possibilities, fun, and the enriching and intensifying (and so, creating) of the real in playworlds in Japan, Finland, Sweden and the US.

В статье обсуждаются игровые миры исследовательской группы Playworld of Creative Research (PWCR). Игровые миры конструируются на основе относительно новой формы игры, которую можно охарактеризовать как сочетание взрослых форм творческого воображения (искусства, науки и т. д.), тре¬бующих обширного жизненного опыта, и детских форм творческого воображения (игры), предполагаю¬щих телесное проживание (embodiment) идей и эмоций в материальном мире. В игровых мирах взрослые и дети/подростки/люди старшего возраста оказываются в едином фантазийном пространстве, спроекти¬рованном для их совместного развития. С точки зрения PWCR, игровые миры и их изучение — это спо¬собы бытия. В данной статье мы описываем уникальные, ни на что не похожие игровые миры, которые мы искренне любим, с позиций исследователей, художников, учителей, детей, администраторов, а также выдуманных персонажей, участвующих в игровых мирах. Опираясь на слова великого писателя о любви к литературе, мы строим обсуждение игровых миров вокруг истины, времени, человеческого волшебства, бесконечных возможностей, веселья, а также рассуждаем об обогащении и укреплении (а значит, и о со-творении) реального в игровых мирах в Японии, Финляндии, Швеции и Соединенных Штатах.

The research presented in this paper explores how preschool teachers in Sweden negotiate tensions stemming from perceived cultural dilemmas among themselves, the children they work with, and the children´s parents or guardians. The aim in characterising this process of negotiation is to expand knowledge about how to adapt pedagogically to the increasing diversity of the preschool sector in Sweden. The study is based on focus group interviews with preschool teachers who work in schools where nearly 70% of the children are newly arrived immigrants or have parents or guardians who were born in a country other than Sweden. The interview data were subjected to a thematic analysis. Three themes emerged: Circumventing conflicts by keeping preschool peaceful; Culture as a barrier and opportunity for dealing with dilemmas; and engaging with conflicts as a means of developing the preschool profession. The themes are discussed in relation to Gert Biesta’s concepts of the rational community and the community of those who have nothing in common. 

Swedish preschool pedagogues have recently been coping with increased expectations to engage in “adult-led, goal oriented” teaching, and work with sustainability-related issues. In Swedish preschool provision, teaching and sustainability are contested concepts that embody pedagogical tensions (e.g. teaching as a school-like vs. a holistic activity; sustainability as an environmental and/or social concern). Some pedagogues have thus responded with ambivalence to this teaching/sustainability assignment. The present study explores how Swedish preschool pedagogues, experienced in Early Childhood Education and Care for Sustainability (ECECfS) research and practice, engage in teaching. Qualitative case studies were conducted of teacher teams from three preschools. The teams participated in a series of government-sponsored workshops for designing outdoor spaces in preschools as sustainable, multifunctional environments. Case studies were based on group interviews, surveys, and field observations. Drawing on concepts from cultural-historical activity theory, thematic analyses were conducted to characterize practitioner conceptions and practices of ECECfS and teaching in preschool. The study met all criteria for ethical conduct. Teachers described ECECfS in terms of what is learned and how. What: environmental knowledge; attitudes, feelings toward the environment, and toward others; self-confidence. How: arrangements for time “in nature”; systematic observation; pretend play; themed project work. Pedagogical tensions were identified which linked these descriptions thematically: ECECfS as teaching content vs. “teaching” values; approach vs. sensitivity to the environment; ECECfS as environmentally vs. socially focused. Implications are discussed for developing pedagogies that advance the ECECfS ethos of adult-child coparticipation in and co-determination of preschool activities. 

One of the productive challenges of working in early childhood education and care is combining researchers’ and teachers’ knowledge and ways of knowing. This chapter presents findings from studies that combine researchers’ perspectives and teacher’s insights. We suggest that a certain type of adult–child joint play, called playworld, (Lindqvist, 1995), can be a means for preschool teachers to bring their personal selves, not just their professional, teacher selves, into their work with young children (Ferholt & Schuck, forthcoming; Nilsson et al., 2018). We begin from a relational pedagogical perspective (Aspelin & Persson, 2011) where concepts of co-existence and co-operation are central. This conceptual framework is applied in a case study using observations from a two-year ethnographic investigation of three Swedish preschool teachers implementing playworld pedagogy for the first time. Their work was influenced by a pedagogy of listening and exploratory learning, originating from the municipal preschools of Reggio Emilia.

Syftet med artikeln är att bidra till kunskapandet om pedagogisk dokumentation med specifikt fokus på dokumentationens betydelse ur ett demokratiperspektiv. Trots många studier kring pedagogisk dokumentation finns det få studier som explicit utgår ifrån barn och vårdnadshavares perspektiv. I artikeln analyseras barns och vårdnadshavares samtal utifrån minnesbilder, vilka framträder i fokusgruppssamtal, från förskoletiden i relation till pedagogiskt dokumentationsarbete. Resultatet visar att den pedagogiska dokumentationspraktiken bidrog till skapandet av en praktikgemenskap på förskolan vilket i sin tur möjliggjorde en demokratisk undervisning.

The purpose of the article is to contribute with knowledge of pedagogical documentation with a particular focus on the importance of documentation from a democracy perspective. While there are many studies of pedagogical documentation, few studies explicit examine this practice from the perspective of children and guardians. Analyses, based on focus group data of children ́s and guardian ́s conversations from memories of the children ́s time spent in preschool in relation to educational documentation work, are presented. Pedagogical documentation practice is shown to contribute to the creation of a community of practice at the preschool, which in turn enabled democratic education.

Biesta (2006) argues that within the past two decades there has been a rise in the concept of “learning” and a decline in the concept of “education”. He calls this the “learnification” of education: “the translation of all there is to say about education in terms of learning and learners” (Biesta, 2009, p. 5). He argues that this is problematic in part because learning is basically an individual concept referring to what people as individuals do, versus education, which implies a relationship.

The field of early childhood education and care is uniquely situated to respond to “learnification”. In this paper we challenge the view that teachers teach children in preschools, in an effort to replace it with the view that preschool children and their teachers are engaged in reciprocal learning and development. We do so by analyzing that ways that teacher participation in a pedagogical practice consisting of adult-child joint play, called playworld (Lindqvist, 1995), can support the development of teachers’ relational competence.

Relational competence is “the skill of entering into and building relationships” (Aspelin, 2015, p. 35). Aspelin (2015) writes that “Questions about what teachers’ relational competence means, how it promotes students’ learning and how it can be developed in teacher education, further education of teachers and in pedagogical practices is largely unexplored.” In playworlds (Lindqvist, 1995) adults actively enter into the fantasy play of young children as a means of promoting the development and quality of life of both adults and children. Thus, in this paper we begin from a relational pedagogical perspective (Aspelin & Persson, 2011) where the concepts of co-existence and co-operation, in addition to “attitude to relationships” and “attitude in relationships” are foci. This conceptual framework is applied in the analysis of transcripts and field notes from a case study of three preschool teachers implementing the playworld pedagogy for the first time in their classroom.

This case study consists of observations from a two-year ethnographic research project that took place in three preschools, all of which followed a pedagogy of listening and exploratory learning approach originated from the municipal preschools of Reggio Emilia. The research project was originally designed to examine if and how the teachers in these three preschools adopted and adapted into their own practices the Vygotskian-inspired playworld play pedagogy. The research study data was

In Event: Putting the Teacher in the Picture: Perspectives From Early Childhood Education in Japan, Sweden, Finland, and Brooklyn

gathered through participant observation using a variety of documentation methods, e. g.: interview, field notes, audio recorded reflection- and planning meetings and teachers pedagogical documentation.

Findings include the following: Relational competence developed through the fostering of trust and authentic/honest communication, but this communication was often difficult for teachers, pushing them to challenge each other in ways that made them uncomfortable; Relational Competence developed through co-existence, in which “attitude in relationships” had a potential to emerge; “attitude in relationships” occur in playworlds, in which teachers encounter each other and the children in ways that go beyond the “rational” and encourage ethical steps in the development of subjectivity.