Artikeln undersöker förskolans beredskap för krissituationer, som skjutningar, sprängningar, bilbränder och pandemier, genom intervjuer med elva rektorer i särskilt utsatta områden. Med stöd i det multiteoretiska ramverket Cynefin analyseras ledarskapshandlingar som används i olika typer av krissituationer, som inkluderar gängvåld och rykten och deras påverkan på förskolans beredskap. Studien visar att närvaron i förskolor i särskilt utsatta områden kan sjunka till så låga nivåer som 10–15% under krissituationer, vilket förstärker de långsiktiga negativa konsekvenserna för barns utveckling och lärande. Rektorernas förmåga att anpassa sig till olika sammanhang lyfts, där kriser innebär ökad arbetsbelastning och brist på tid för reflektion. Analysen visar att specifika ledarskapshandlingar och verktyg behövs för att få barn att komma tillbaka till förskolan efter en kris, hantera misstänksamhet mot samhället och spridning av rykten. Långsiktig och hållbar beredskap betonas. Slutsatsen är att mångfacetterade ledarskapshandlingar krävs för att hantera krisartade sammanhang inom förskolor i särskilt utsatta områden, som flexibla ledarskapshandlingar, samarbete och anpassad kommunikation för olika målgrupper.

This study explores preschool crisis preparedness, focusing on how preschool managers in particularly vulnerable areas describe handle crises such as gang violence, pandemics, and other community disruptions. Using the Cynefin framework, which integrates knowledge management and complexity science, the article examines the leadership strategies used in simple, complicated, complex, and chaotic situations. Through interviews with eleven preschool managers in Sweden, the study highlights the significant challenges posed by crises in vulnerable areas, where decreased child attendance during such events threatens support for language and other developmental skills crucial for children most in need. The findings emphasize the importance of adaptive leadership, including the ability to make rapid decisions, manage communication with parents who have varying levels of language proficiency and literacy, and address mistrust and rumors within the community. The study concludes that effective crisis management in preschools requires collaboration, flexibility, and context-specific strategies to ensure long-term crisis preparedness. The role of preschools in maintaining safety and community cohesion during crises is critical, especially in preventing the escalation of societal divides and ensuring that preschools continue to serve as safe havens for children in vulnerable areas.

Research topic/aim

In recent years, preschools in so-called ‘particularly vulnerable areas’ near large cities in Sweden have been hit hard by several crises, mainly the pandemic and its aftermath, but also by shootings and car fires due to gang crimes and other violent events in their vicinity. False information spread through the media, conspiracy theories and distrust of authorities has also become more prevalent and affects the trust in early childhood education and care (ECEC) and in the preschools. Leading and maintaining the preschool as a safe and secure place for all children during societal crises is part of the leadership role of the preschool manager. This entails vulnerable positions, rapid and difficult decision-making involving both the children and the staff, and a striving to maintain the preschool as a well-established social function. The purpose of the paper-presentation is to examine and discuss the vulnerability experienced by preschool managers when dealing with social crises in particularly vulnerable areas.

Theoretical framework

We are interested in how the managers, through their leadership, involve emotions and social engagement to build relations, trust, security and collaborations with the teachers, children and their families. Inspired by Judith Butler (2016), we examine how the philosophical concept of precarity, as a social condition characterised by simultaneous maintenance and resistance to social norms and strong power structures, can be understood in relation to preschool managers’ leadership in crisis situations.

Methodological design

The empirical data consists of 11 in-depth-interviews with preschool managers working in particularly vulnerable areas near Stockholm, Malmö and Gothenburg in Sweden. The interviews show examples of the managers’ leadership in national and local crises, their long-term preparedness for the future and how they have connected and cooperated with local collaborators in the municipality. In the analysis of the interviews, we investigate how precarity is folded into the preschool managers’ narratives about their everyday relational work, in accordance with the norms that operate in the managers’ everyday lives and in their different leadership positions.

Expected conclusions/findings

With the support of previous research on leadership in crisis, and Butler’s philosophical thinking, we explore how vulnerability can be understood as an aspect of leadership and as a way of creating strong interpersonal relationships and sustainable collectives within and around the preschool.

Relevance to Nordic educational research

Preschool services constitute an important part of national emergency preparations for social crises. The preschool should be a safe place for children during a crisis or war, when guardians are obliged to do their civil duties. The contribution of this paper is knowledge about crisis-leadership in the context of preschool which can impact Nordic educational reserch, the management education and municipal praxis.

Research topic/aim

High-quality Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) services play a pivotal role in fostering resilient societies, particularly in alignment with the Nordic ECEC values and traditions. As municipalities in the Nordic countries grapple with the challenge of governing and evaluating ECEC services effectively, a recent study underscores the need for more extensive evaluations of ECEC practices (Urban et al., 2023). In Sweden, the ECEC profession attests to the challenges in fulfilling the mission as specified in the national curriculum (Skolverket, 2018) and underscores the necessity for clarity in systematic quality assessment methods that promote the well-being, learning, and development of all children within the 1-5 years age group. The national curriculum sets the guidelines for these services, and each municipality or independent organizer, following the principles of decentralized governance, is entrusted with the responsibility of interpreting and implementing the 33 curriculum goals and 51 guidelines. This study seeks to enhance our understanding of how comprehensive evaluations of the mission of Swedish ECEC can be conducted by scrutinizing the logic inherent in the curriculum.

Theoretical framework

A program theory approach based on a dynamic relational systems perspective (Fisher et al., 2020) is employed, encompassing inputs in terms of resources, activities, outputs concerning mechanisms for change and process quality, outcomes in terms of development and learning, and long-term impacts.

Methodological design

To illustrate the opportunities and challenges of this program logic, the curriculumn text was coded and categorized accordning to content analysis. Three specific examples were analysed indepth: language development, integrity, and sustainable development.

Expected conclusions/findings

The analysis underscores how the large number of curriculum goals and the complexity of their formulations contribute to interpretive difficulties, challenges in prioritization, and evaluation, particularly in the context of available resources. These findings emphasize the critical need for a more structured and accessible approach to comprehensively evaluate the Swedish ECEC system, aligning with its core mission of fostering child well-being, learning, and development.

Relevance to Nordic educational research

By dissecting the curriculum logic, this study aims to provide insights for policymakers, educators, and stakeholders in enhancing the Swedish ECEC system. The study presents a contribution to the ongoing discourse on ECEC services, highlighting the imperative of comprehensive evaluations in meeting the educational and developmental needs of young children. The curriculum analysis offers valuable guidance for navigating the complex landscape of ECEC governance and argues for the need of further research on how preschool policy can be formulated and applied in order to support high quality education and lay the foundation for learning adventures for all.

Fisher, P. A., Barker, T. V., & Blaisdell, K. N. (2020). A Glass Half Full and Half Empty: The State of the Science in Early Childhood Prevention and Intervention Research. Annual Review of Developmental Psychology, 2(1), 269–294. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-devpsych-121318-084958

Skolverket [The Swedish National Agency for Education]. 2018. Curriculum for the Preschool Lpfö 2018. The Swedish National Agency for Education. Stockholm: Skolverket

Urban, M., Reikerås, E., Eidsvåg, G. M., Guevara, J., Saebø, J., & Semmoloni, C. (2023). Nordic approaches to evaluation and assessment in early childhood education and care. Global Studies of Childhood.

Hur förberedd är förskolan på att en mer eller mindre allvarlig kris kan uppstå? Det kan handla om virus, krig, cyberattacker, desinformation, ekonomisk regression eller att el och internet slutar fungera. Hur skulle det dagliga arbetet med förskolebarn påverkas om något allvarligt inträffar? Vad behöver förskollärare ha kunskap om? Vilket stöd behövs från förskolans rektor? Vilket stöd behöver rektor från huvudmannen? Ett antagande som det här kapitlet utgår ifrån är att det som fungerar i normalt läge inte självklart kommer fungera i kris, men att det som fungerar i kris troligen kommer att fungera även i normalt läge. Utifrån det antagandet behövs en organisation och ledning av förskolan som är väl förberedd på krissituationer.

30 år efter att lyssnandets pedagogik introducerades i Sverige erbjuder Höj hörstyrkan! Lyssnande pedagogik idag och i framtiden en breddad och fördjupad inblick i flera sätt att närma sig och praktisera lyssnande i förskolan och i förskollärarutbildningen. I boken skriver svenska och norska forskare, förskollärare, pedagoger, ateljeristor, pedagogistor, pedagogiska handledare och utvecklingsledare om sina kunskaper och erfarenheter av olika sätt att praktisera och tänka om lyssnande. Tillsammans uppmanar de förskolefältets olika aktörer att – som Filip fem år har kallat det – lyssna noga och ”höja hörstyrkan” i praktiserandet av lyssnande på flera nya sätt:

- Som en praktik som byggs upp med hjälp av flera olika teorier och didaktiska metoder för att möta både grupper av barn och varje individuellt barns lek, utveckling och lärande.- Som en nyfikenhetsdriven praktik på kognitions- och utvecklingsvetenskaplig grund.- Som ett arbetssätt med de allra yngsta barnens språk via danspraktiker.- Som en fortbildningspraktik där pedagoger själva gör det barnen förväntas göra.- Som ett arbetssätt som kräver specifika organisations- och ledningsformer.- Som ett fenomen som kan analyseras filosofiskt och praktiskt för att inspirera pedagogers arbete med miljö- och klimatfrågor och andra avgörande framtidsfrågor.