In search of didactics in school-age educare centres: To conceptualise what exists, but has not yet been found

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to focus on approaches that could build a didactic framework for school-age educare centres (SAECs). As a theoretical basis and a research field, didactics exists within many disciplines (e.g., education in natural sciences and preschool). This is not the case within the SAEC. While a lot of research has been devoted to subject didactics, there is a lack of research on didactics in SAECs, and the marginal research that exists shows a fragmented picture of what it could consist of. However, researchers in the field agree that didactics in SAECs is something else than subject didactics and differs from general didactics. Our aim in this paper is to suggest and discuss how a didactic framework in SAECs could be conceptualised with an intention in the near future to find the specific didactics that distinguishes the work in SAECs. The proposed design involves theory building/testing with a bottom-up perspective and various data collection methods. Because building a didactic theory for SAECs is the intention, the research process will take informed grounded theory (GT) as its methodological starting point. The empirical material will be related to the two dominant didactic frameworks: the German and the Anglo-Saxon. These frameworks will also be critically reviewed in relation to the activities in SAECs. The results will contribute important knowledge to the development of a relevant and useful didactic theory for SAECs. The practical implications are directly relevant to every stakeholder affected by the SAECs’ activities: policy actors, staff, students, and researchers. In the long term, we will be able to find a legitimate platform for didactics in SAECs, which will have concrete importance for professionals and researchers in particular.

Keywords

• didactics
• didactic framework
• leisure-time-pedagogy
• school-age educare centres