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The child in the Swedish preschool photograph versus the child in the curriculum: a comparison of contemporary notions
Uppsala universitet, Centrum för genusvetenskap.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-2614-6724
Uppsala universitet, Centrum för genusvetenskap.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-1333-0004
2024 (English)In: International Journal of Early Years Education, ISSN 0966-9760, E-ISSN 1469-8463, Vol. 32, no 2, p. 374-388Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Photographs constitute an important visual language in contemporary Swedish preschool, as they are legible to young children themselves. This article aims to examine which notions of the child are represented in preschool photographs, and how these notions correlate to notions of the child expressed in Swedish preschool curriculum. The analysis uses Fairclough's critical discourse analyses and the critical concepts of performativity and celebrated subject positions. First, the curriculum's descriptions of the child and modes of learning in preschool are analysed. Second, photographs from four preschools are thematised, analysed and theorized, with a focus on the performances and subject positions repeatedly displayed. Results show that while the curriculum promotes holistic performances where play and care are interwoven with education, the photographs celebrate performances within teacher-led educational situations, and invisibilize care as well as play. The focus on education in the photographs corresponds with international trends regarding the professionalization and "schoolification" of early childhood education. Crucially this is connected to gendered meanings linked to care and education, respectively.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Taylor & Francis , 2024. Vol. 32, no 2, p. 374-388
Keywords [en]
curriculum, documentation, gender equality, performativity, preschool
National Category
Gender Studies
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hig:diva-42889DOI: 10.1080/09669760.2022.2061924ISI: 000780943900001OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hig-42889DiVA, id: diva2:1791432
Available from: 2023-08-25 Created: 2023-08-25 Last updated: 2024-05-02Bibliographically approved
In thesis
1. En bild säger mer än tusen ord: Barns perspektiv, positioner och påverkansmöjligheter i förskolans dokumentationspraktik
Open this publication in new window or tab >>En bild säger mer än tusen ord: Barns perspektiv, positioner och påverkansmöjligheter i förskolans dokumentationspraktik
2023 (Swedish)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

The overall aim of this thesis is to examine children's perspectives, positions and possibilities for participation in Swedish preschool documentation practice. The empirical data consists of 1575 photographs from six preschool classes located in different suburban areas. The thesis includes four articles that examine different aspects of the practice of pedagogical documentation. In the first article the children's own stories about the photographs are analysed. In the second article, notions of the child from photographs presented on the preschool walls and from the Swedish Curriculum for the Preschool are compared. The third article examines the content and circulation of digital photographs. Finally, the fourth article explores how children are portrayed in photographs of outdoor activities. All articles are grounded in theories about power and knowledge production, such as discourse theory, and discuss intersections between age, gender, ethnicity and class.

The results show that children are capable of creating their own stories in interaction with photographs. However, their stories tend to be gender specific although the photographs mediate gender neutrality. The children mainly described their mutual relationships and, to a lesser extent, the displayed activities. The photographs align with trends of schoolification and masculine-coded production and accomplishment, while care and play are made invisible in the photographs. However, the outdoor photographs, stand out in the sample as they make children visible as sensitive and closely attached to nature. Unlike indoors photographs, outdoor photographs visibilized feminine-coded values as desirable. Outdoor and digitally circulated photographs often displayed children as anonymous, and as neutral in terms of gender and ethnicity. This could be positive since children were able to include themselves in activities represented in the photographs. At the same time, the photographs became impersonal and sometimes insipid; as the anonymisation made children's experiences and knowledge production invisible.

The thesis concludes that notions of the child, communicated in preschool photographs, are conform and make competence appear as production and accomplishment, while alternative ways of being a preschool child are made invisible. Therefore, a feminist definition of professionalisation is suggested in order to increase children's participation and incorporate alternative stories in preschool knowledge production, which, in turn, can challenge the notion of the competent child. 

Abstract [sv]

Det övergripande syftet med denna avhandling är att undersöka barns perspektiv, positioner och påverkansmöjligheter i den svenska förskolans dokumentationspraktik. Empirin består av 1575 fotografier från sex förskoleavdelningar på fyra olika förskolor, belägna i olika områden runt Stockholm. Avhandlingen innehåller fyra artiklar som undersöker olika aspekter av den pedagogiska dokumentationspraktiken. I den första artikeln analyseras barnens egna berättelser om fotografierna. I den andra artikeln jämförs föreställningar om barnet från fotografier på förskolans väggar med hur barnet skrivs fram i förskolans läroplan. Den tredje artikeln undersöker innehållet och cirkueringen av digitala fotografier i olika forum och hur detta förhåller sig till barns möjligheter till delaktighet. Avslutningsvis undersöker den fjärde artikeln hur barn porträtteras i fotografier av utomhusaktiviteter. Alla artiklar är förankrade i teorier om makt och kunskapsproduktion, däribland diskursteori och diskuterar skärningspunkter mellan ålder, kön, etnicitet och klass.

Resultaten visar att barn är kapabla att skapa sina egna berättelser i interaktion med fotografierna. Deras berättelser tenderade att reproducera stereotypa könsmönster även om fotografierna förmedlade könsneutralitet. Barnen beskrev främst sina inbördes relationer och i mindre utsträckning de uppvisade aktiviteterna. Å ena sidan överensstämde fotografiernas innehåll med nyliberala trender gällande skolifiering och professionalisering av förskoleutbildningen genom att fokusera på traditionellt maskulint kodade aspekter som produktion och prestation, medan omsorg och lek osynliggjordes i fotografierna. Å andra sidan upphöjde utomhusfotografierna feminina värden genom att synliggöra barn som känsliga med samhörighet med naturen. Utomhus- och digitalt cirkulerade fotografier framställde ofta barnen som anonyma och neutrala vad gäller kön och etnicitet. Detta kan vara positivt eftersom barnen gavs möjlighet att inkludera sig själva i de framställda aktiviteterna. Samtidigt blev fotografierna opersonliga och ibland intetsägande då anonymiseringen gjorde barns situerade erfarenheter och kunskapsproduktion osynlig.

Avhandlingens slutsatser är att de föreställningar om barnet som förmedlas i fotografierna, är konforma och likställer kompetens med produktion och prestation, samtidigt som alternativa sätt att vara förskolebarn osynliggörs. För att öka barns delaktighet och införliva alternativa berättelser i förskolans kunskapsproduktion, föreslås en feministisk definition av professionalisering, vilket i sin tur kan utmana föreställningen om det kompetenta barnet.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, 2023. p. 153
Keywords
barns perspektiv, delaktighet, dokumentation, förskola, jämställdhet, läroplan
National Category
Gender Studies Educational Sciences
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:hig:diva-42886 (URN)978-91-513-1713-7 (ISBN)
Public defence
2023-03-31, Humanistiska teatern, Thunbergsvägen 3C, Uppsala, 09:15 (Swedish)
Opponent
Supervisors
Available from: 2023-08-25 Created: 2023-08-25 Last updated: 2023-12-20Bibliographically approved

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Wahlgren, CatarinaAndersson, Kristina

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