In Sweden as in other Nordic countries preschool now includes the vast majority of children between 1-5 years. In state policy documents this voluminous population of children is related to the issue of equity, i.e., how equivalent conditions can support the development of the child based on their (intended) needs. The subject of an equivalent preschool has also been addressed in Nordic research (e.g., Fjällström et al. 2020; Paananen et al. 2019; Persson 2015). However, the meaning of equivalent preschool is not stable, nor in its application, nor in its development over time. In this contribution we focus on the development of how an equivalent preschool has been presented in Swedish state policy for the preschool with an interest to examinate the meaning of the concept, and its possible consequences for preschool practice. In light of this interest our research question reads: How has the aims concerning an equivalent preschool developed from early 70thies until today?
Since policy documents are linked to educational practices, we approach our study from the perspective of curriculum theory (Wahlström 2020), to conceptualize the underlying presumption that limit curriculum content. We have traced policy texts, semantically addressing equivalent issues, through a snowball procedure. That means, we started to read actual documents noticing references to earlier documents. Since policy texts regularly refer backwards, such a sampling of documents was a fruitful approach to fulfil our aim.
The policy talk about equivalent preschool is visible in two periods: (a) from 1972-1996 when Swedish preschool had its affiliation within the social welfare sector and (b) 1996-and forward when preschool changed its affiliation to the department of education together with the school sector. This shift is also visible in the implication of what an equivalent preschool means. During the first period, the child is depicted as member in society, taking part of welfare services and society’s “democratic” development. During the second period an equivalent preschool mainly implies a right for the child to be prepared for school, i.e., a forthcoming state, in need of preparation. In our presentation we discuss possible consequences of this focus shift. Our study is of relevance for Nordic educational research regarding how ideals of institutionalized childhood is related to projected needs of society and indirectly, to the needs of the child in order to become part of such society. Such expectations also come with expectations on the preschool teachers as enactors of national preschool curriculum.
2024.