Responsibility for teaching: a missed opportunity?

Abstract

In recent years the concept of teaching has been introduced in the Swedish preschool curriculum. A specific responsibility for teaching has been appointed to preschool teachers. This study aims to increase the knowledge of how responsibility for teaching can be understood in a preschool context. The empirical data consist of audio recordings of seventeen staff meetings. One of the meetings´ explicit goals was to strengthen the role of preschool teachers as responsible pedagogical leaders for teaching in preschool. The audio recordings were transcribed and analysed through some of the key concepts of Bernstein´s theory of the pedagogical practice: classification, framing, horizontal and vertical discourse. The results show that preschool teachers in this study more often address responsibility for leading preschool as a pedagogical practice rather than a specific responsibility for teaching. The collective responsibility of the work team is seen as auspicious although different understandings of the educational mission are addressed as problematic. When responsibility for teaching is more clearly addressed, feelings of pressure and uncertainty are expressed as well as the need for more support.

Keywords

• preschool teachers
• responsibility for teaching
• pedagogical discourse
• Bernstein