This article is based on a meta-approach to the results of two separate studies and concerns the areas of STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) and STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics) in early childhood education. One of the studies focuses on how preschool teachers understand STEM and how it is taught in the preschool. The other concerns children?s perspectives and strategies in their use of digital technology as part of the preschool?s arts activities. Methodologically, the researchers have developed the idea of reading one study through the other using a meta-approach design. The results from this analytical approach show how different aspects of children?s agency in play and aesthetic activity in the art room (i.e. atelier) can develop and inspire the teachers? pedagogical content knowledge in the subjects of mathematics and science. The results of following children and their processes and actions in the atelier can also influence teachers? knowledge and didactic choices in selecting teaching content and strategies. The findings are considered useful for educators and researchers in the field of early childhood education.

Internationally, there has been an ongoing focus by governments through their educational policies to address declining interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). This increasing need for knowledge and understanding of STEM provides an impetus for all educational systems to re-visit their actions around STEM learning and engagement. A more comprehensive understanding of early childhood STEM education provision is needed so that an informed, effective, and appropriate development of early childhood STEM pedagogical standards and resources occurs. This chapter provides research to understand what cultural influences are brought into play as teachers work in STEM education, what they do when teaching STEM and the factors which influence their decision making. Examples from three countries, Sweden, Australia, and Belgium, are explored using document analysis and qualitative data to formulate their cases. The three cases studies were considered from the perspective of education policy, provision of teacher education, and teaching practice. Examination of the practices that are currently in place in Sweden, Australia and Belgium provide information that the policy and cultural background of each country contribute to strong similarities and but also relatively small differences in teacher pedagogy.

The study presented in this article investigates how the curriculum is implemented and transformed by teachers in mixed-age and age-homogeneous groups, the most common age-constellations in the Swedish preschool. The data was collected through group interviews with preschool teachers. The interviews were transcribed and analysed with the support of thematic analysis and connected to a sociocultural perspective on learning. The findings show that the teachers in the different age formations use both the same and different teaching strategies, which means that the curriculum is implemented and transformed in different ways. The teaching and learning events in the age-homogenous groups appear to be more structured and planned, whereas in the mixed-aged groups the teaching is more spontaneous and embedded in the everyday activities.

Syftet med artikeln är att bredda och fördjupa förståelsen för hur dokumentation gestaltas i de finländska och svenska styrdokumenten i relation till förskolläraruppdraget. En kvalitativ summerande innehållsanalys har använts i syfte att förstå den kontextuella användningen av dokumentation i förskolans styrdokument. I resultatet presenteras de nyckelord och teman som framkommit i analysarbetet av styrdokumentens skrivningar om dokumentation. Temapresentationerna visar hur dokumentation kan förstås i relation till läraruppdraget. En slutsats som dras av denna studie är att dokumentationsarbetet påverkas av förståelsen av förskollärares uppdrag och professionskunskaper. Detta innefattar medvetenhet om formuleringar i styrdokumenten och de båda perspektiven av professionalism ”utifrån och in” samt ”inifrån och ut”, i relation till dokumentation och läraruppdraget. 

This article aims to broaden and deepen the understanding of how Finnish and Swedish governing documents for preschool highlight documentation in relation to the teaching assignment. A qualitative summative content analysis was used in order to understand the contextual use of documentation. The results show keywords and themes on documentation in the analyzed documents and the presentation of themes show how documentation can be understood in relation to the teaching assignment. One conclusion drawn from the present study is that the understanding of the teaching assignment and the teachers’ professional knowledge affect the documentation work. This includes awareness of formulations in governing documents and the ability to relate to the two perspectives of professionalism “outside in” and “inside out” in relation to the documentation and teaching assignment.

I denna rapport redovisas resultat från en studie som påbörjades 2016 och som handlar om pro-fessionskunskaper i förskolans undervisning. Studien är praktiknära och undersöker förskollärares uttryckta ämneskunskaper och pedagogiska ämneskunskaper och hur de uppfattar och genomför undervisning av matematik, naturvetenskap och teknik i förskolan. En teoretisk utgångspunkt är Shulmans (1986, 2015) teori om pedagogiska ämneskunskaper (PCK) och andra teoretiska utgångspunkter härrör från Osgood (2010) och handlar om hur professionalism utvecklas i undervisning samt hur styrning påverkar professionalism (Stanley & Stronach, 2013). Datainsamlingen består av en enkätundersökning med 300 deltagare och intervjuer med 10 förskollärare. Analyserna visar att förskollärarna skattar sin förmåga att omsätta pedagogiska ämneskunskaper som god.  Barns intresse är en styrande princip i såväl läroplansmålen som när förskollärare planerar undervisning och utformar miljöer som kan skapa intresse för matematik, naturvetenskap och teknik.  Resultatet visar att förskollärarna anser att undervisning ofta sker i lekens form och är en interaktiv och kommunikativ process. Det är lättare att planera, intressera barn för, kommunicera och använda relevanta begrepp inom ämnesområdena matematik och biologi gentemot ämnesområdena kemi, fysik och teknik.

Background: Education in mathematics and science is important at all school levels and should ideally start in the preschool, which implies that preschool teachers should have an adequate knowledge base in these subjects.

Aim: This study aimed to investigate preschool teachers’ knowledge bases, including their subject matter knowledge (SMK) and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) in mathematics and science.

Setting: The study presents an account of preschool teachers’ knowledge bases in mathematics and science in Botswana and Sweden and how they influence their teaching choices and strategies.

Methods: A pragmatic paradigm with a survey design and a mixed-methods mode with quantitative and qualitative approaches was used. Using a purposive sampling procedure, 64 preschool teachers from Botswana and 67 from Sweden participated in the study. Questionnaires and observation schedules were used to collect the data.

Results: The findings showed that the Swedish preschool teachers had SMK and PCK in the two subjects. The Botswana teachers had SMK but lacked PCK. The early childhood educated preschool teachers from Sweden with developed PCK highlighted the daily routine situations as teaching or learning situations, whereas the primary school teachers from Botswana had SMK but found it difficult to teach at the preschool level.

Conclusion: The preschool teachers’ knowledge bases included a play-based approach and knowledge about didactic considerations in spontaneous situations that made them teachable. The findings also showed the importance of a framework for specialised and professional early childhood education (ECE) training and acquiring SMK and PCK that contributed to the preschool teachers’ knowledge bases and practices in their teaching of mathematics and science. Early childhood education teachers’ educational experiences, their specialised and professional training profiles and the knowledge they acquired determined their knowledge bases and the SMK and PCK that minimised the constraints and challenges faced by them in the teaching of mathematics and science in ECE classrooms.