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The making of quality and legitimacy: imaginaries of quality work with a software application in Swedish preschools
University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Educational sciences, Educational science. Umeå universitet, Pedagogiska institutionen. (ICT4Learn)ORCID iD: 0009-0006-3075-6249
2025 (English)Conference paper, Oral presentation with published abstract (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Swedish preschool profession has come to experience political desires (Digitaliseringskomissionen, 2016) and growing demands (#skolDigiplan, 2019) on digitalizing quality work. Consequently, preschool practitioners try to interpret these desires of digitalization in changed working methods, while having limited resources and increased documentation by (imagined) support from software applications. These political desires of digitalizing preschool education, makes EdTech entrepreneurs involved in efforts to co-produce solutions for preschool education. Consequently, this study aims to explore and contribute with knowledge in how a software application intended for quality work is co-produced by an EdTech company and an attached reference group. The study uses the framework of sociotechnological imaginaries (Jasanoff & Kim, 2015) and is designed as a qualitative (Denzin & Lincoln, 2017) single case study (Simons, 2009), reporting on how a software application for quality work in preschools is designed and co-produced. Data includes seven semi-structured interviews from system representatives in an EdTech company and a reference group from a private preschool organization. Data draws on audio recordings comprised a total time of seven hours and thirty one minutes, in 67 transcribed pages (Denzin & Lincoln, 2017), using reflexive thematic analysis (Braun et al., 2019). Findings point to the Edtech company and their reference group shared interpretations of quality, emphasizing preschool education content with curriculum aims, children’s individual learning and preparing children for their future in school. Another trajectory points to quality work as legitimate both inside and outside preschool organization and becomes referred as performance. This research has relevance to Nordic educational research because it addresses political desires about digitalizing preschool education and highlights social events involving an EdTech company and a reference group which combines professional perspectives and expertise design and function in an application that subsequently makes quality.  Similar educational challenges of digitalizing early childhood education address Nordic education and comes to challenge the Nordic traditions with roots in established work of Educare (Einarsdottir et al., 2015; Löfdahl & Folke-Fichtelius, 2014).  

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2025.
National Category
Pedagogy
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hig:diva-46617OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hig-46617DiVA, id: diva2:1944288
Conference
NERA 2025: Helsinki, Finland, March 5-7, 2025
Available from: 2025-03-11 Created: 2025-03-13 Last updated: 2026-03-24Bibliographically approved

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Elm, Amelie

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CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • harvard-cite-them-right
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • sv-SE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • de-DE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf