Teaching in preschool: heads of preschools governance throughout the systematic quality work

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate how the heads of preschool govern teaching in practice through systematic quality work. In the new Swedish Education Act, which came into force on 1 July 2011, the mission of preschools changed because teaching was introduced as a new concept, and preschool teachers were now responsible for teaching. Swedish National Agency for Inspection report that there is a lack of how the concept of teaching is used in preschools. Heads of preschool are crucial for implementing teaching, and a valuable tool for their governing is the systematic quality work which they also are responsible for. This study collected data comprising 120 systematic quality reports from preschools in Sweden, and by text analysis, we explored how the heads of preschool used the concept of teaching. The results showed an absence of governance and management among the heads of preschool concerning teaching and when teaching is used, it was mainly according to the development of all staff competencies and to the concept of variation in teaching. This indicates that the heads of preschool govern the practice in a way that made preschool teachers responsible for teaching invisible.

Keywords

• Preschool
• teaching
• heads of preschool
• systematic quality work
• preschool teacher
• governance
• management