This qualitative study is based on interviews with ten preschool teachers. The theoretical viewpoint is based on social constructivism. It means that we all become in interaction with others. Meaning that we all are depended of each other to be able to construct ourselves as individuals. The intention was to analyze how ten preschool teachers from five different cities in Sweden describes their experience, of being a part of a large work team. We also wanted to see if there were any underlying ideas and constructions about children in the choice of organizing themselves as a large work team.
The main questions in this study were:
This study has shown several positive aspects as well as negative through the children´s and the preschool teachers point of view. The positive aspects is that children gets more influence and the preschools can become more flexible. The negative aspects is that everything depends on how the organization works. The organization requires a persistent structure to make everything work. The structure of a large work team is build on the idea of children as competent and independent. The result of the study also points out that the preschool teachers have different ideas about children and their abilities. They see them as dependent and fragile as well as independent and competent. The preschool teachers perspective on children effects how they treat them and they transfer unaware expectations on to the children. Our conclusion is that the idea and vision works well in reality if the preschool teachers have been involved and motivated through the whole process. The foundation must be solid enough to hold up an organization of this size otherwise it can lead to great chaos.