Kindergarten Quality: Discourses on Digitalisation in two Norwegian Kindergartens

Abstract

The Norwegian kindergarten sector is part of the welfare stateʼs apparatus aimed at democratic values and social cohesion. Framed as ‘quality improvement strategiesʼ, communication with parents has been increasingly digitalised in both private and public sectors. There are, however, conflicting discourses on digitalisation. Based on semi-structured one-to-one interviews, this article explores parental roles and reflections of staff and owners on Commercial Communication Apps (CCAs) in two kindergartens with different communication routines. The discourses that emerge reveal complex contemporary tensions within the kindergarten sector. Laclau and Mouffeʼs analytical discourse model is well suited to bring out these tensions. Their term nodal point is central. It refers to concepts that gather other points into a discourse. A central concept in the kindergarten discourse is ‘professional kindergarten qualityʼ. This is linked to different nodal points in a traditionalist and a neoliberal discourse. The actorsʼ arguments on rejecting or introducing CCAs reveal conflicting interpretations of the concept. The respondents in the ‘no-CCA kindergartenʼ conceptualise professional kindergarten quality as close, personalised parental relations and care, and see CCAs as a hindrance to this. Care is the nodal point in this discourse. The ‘CCA kindergartenʼ respondents present digitalisation as future-oriented and self-evidently positive. Parents are perceived as customers, and interviewees justify CCAs as modernisation and professional information, centred around the nodal point of quality-assured communication.

Keywords

• Kindergarten quality
• parental roles
• digitalisation