Pedagogisk dokumentation i förskolan syftar bland annat till att främja barns delaktighet. Forskning visar dock att dokumentationen tenderar att snarare bidra till att uppfylla förskollärarnas intentioner än att lyssna till barns tankar och idéer. Artikeln bygger på teorier om dokumentationen som en normaliserande makt i interaktion med enskilda subjekts egna agens. Genom att lyssna till hur 19 förskolebarn mellan 4–6 år interagerar med pedagogisk fotodokumentation eftersträvas i studien att fånga barnens egna perspektiv. Barnen fick prata fritt utifrån fotografierna i grupper om 2–3 barn. Resultaten visar på två samexisterande kamratdiskurser som barnen använde för att förhandla relationer; en kollektiv kamratdiskurs där berättelserna befann sig i den gemensamma förskoleverksamheten och en individcentrerad kamratdiskurs där berättelserna fokuserade på jaget och materiella ting. Barnen förhandlade relationer genom att skapa tillhörighet och åtskillnad, ofta genom att använda könsstereotypa uttryck och beteenden. Studien visar att barns stora intresse för sig själva och sina kamrater gör att fotodokumentationen, i kombination med förskollärarnas aktiva utmanande av stereotypa uttryck och beteenden, kan utgöra en viktig bas för barns delaktighet i förskolans relationsarbete. 

The chapter introduces the concepts of interstitial spaces and transgressive identities to examine the boundaries of gender and feminist studies, science, and education and discuss our research practices and positions. We use a metalogue as the vehicle for analyzing our autobiographies to provide examples when we have operated in interstitial spaces and engaged transgressive identities. Interstitial spaces exist between and within boundaries. These spaces are possible sites within a defined context (a discipline, a practice, a culture) that may be occupied by an actor/agent working as a “carrier” of different cultural practices, knowledge, and theories. A “carrier” can use the interstitial space to influence and challenge a “new” context and thus loosen up boundaries but can also by experiencing new cultures and developing new knowledge return to the “old” culture to integrate these new practices. Thus, interstitial spaces establish a context for transgressive identities to emerge so one can act in ways to transform and change the cultures of disciplines. We usetransgressive identities as a theoretical description and understanding of our research practices and positions.

In this article we problematize the purpose of teaching science in preschool and what competences preschool teachers need in order to conduct science activities in the classroom. The empirical data were collected through an action research project with five preschool and primary school teachers (K-6). In the first section we have used one situation, a floating-sinking experiment, as an illustration of how two different epistemological perspectives generate different foci on which kind of science teaching competences that are fruitful in preschool. In the first perspective, the central goal of science teaching is the development of the children’s conceptual understanding. With this perspective, we found that the science activities with the children were unsuccessful, because the children’s thoughts about concepts did not develop but even the situation enhanced a misconception concerning density. Moreover, the teacher was unsuccessful in supporting the children’s conceptual learning. The second perspective uses a feminist approach that scrutinizes science, where we investigate if the floating-sinking activity contributes to a feeling of participation in a scientific context for the children and if so how the teacher promotes this inclusion. This second perspective showed that the children’s scientific proficiency benefited from the situation; they had acquired a positive experience of the density concept that they could build upon which was reinforced by the teacher. The children discovered that they had power over their own learning by using an experimental approach. On the basis of these findings, we conclude that there are competences other than subject matter knowledge that are also important when preschool teachers engage children in scientific activities. Through process-oriented work with the teacher group, we identified four concrete skills: paying attention to and using children’s previous experiences; capturing unexpected things that happen at the moment they occur; asking questions that challenge the children and that stimulate further investigation; situated presence, that is, “remaining” in the situation and listening to the children and their explanations. We discuss possible ways to move preschool teachers away from their feelings of inadequacy and poor self-confidence in teaching science by reinforcing this kind of pedagogical content knowledge.

A Chinese proverb observes that women “hold up half the sky”, yet often in science education we have ignored the knowledge generated by feminist researchers about how females engage and participate in science. Further, science education has often failed to consider the implications from feminist critiques of science on science education. This chapter will provide a feminist perspective on who generates knowledge in science education and what knowledge is acceptable as ‘scientific’ by the field. Second, we will discuss the culture of science education and discuss whether science educators value the knowledge produced by gender and feminist researchers. In particular, we will examine the integration (or lack thereof) of gender issues into the dominant areas in science education research, such as teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge, the development of students’ science knowledge through inquiry, the role of conceptual change, and teachers’ preparation and professional development programs. Third, we will provide examples of how gender theory and feminist perspectives in science education could generate new knowledge about gender and science education.

This paper reports from a study exploring how an increased knowledge about gender issues can affect pre-school student teachers’ reflections and actions concerning science and technology activities. We have analysed written assignments given to student enrolled in a teacher education programme as well as group discussions that were part of their science and technology courses. One assignment was focused on describing situations during their pre-school placements where the students themselves judged gender to be important. The analysis identifies a reoccurring argumentation among the students that draws on an idea that children need to ‘be who they are’, thus portraying them as having a stable core identity. In this paper we ask what it means to let the children ‘be who they are’ and what the consequences of this view for developing the pre-school according to the curriculum and the education act can be. In doing so, we discuss issues that respectively may promote and hinder pre-school teachers to develop strategies that challenges stereotypical gender patterns. Furthermore, we problematize what consequences this might have for science teaching.