Sonja Sheridan

• Professor
• University of Gothenburg

This article aims to explore the conditions for children?s language and literacy learning in 153 Swedish preschools with children one to five years. The Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS-3) is used to evaluate preschool quality, focusing on the subscale of Language and literacy activities. The study draws on Bronfenbrenner?s ecologica...

The purpose of this chapter is to investigate some aspects that influence the quality of Swedish preschools via reviewing studies on preschool quality in Sweden. According to the Swedish school law, which entered into force on 1 July 2011, preschool is a separate school form and is part of the educational school system. In recent years, there has b...

Child-centred and teacher-directed curricula have long been presented as mutually exclusive approaches to early education. Interestingly, recent research suggests a ‘balance’ of the two yields the best child outcomes, yet how this balance is struck varies considerably across contexts and even studies. In this paper, we use the writings of Russian c...

Swedish preschool teacher profession has changed. In the preschool teacher education, students must develop professional identities and know how to independently take responsibility for pedagogical activities, teaching and providing for children’s right to care, play, development and learning. The aim of this study is twofold: to investigate how st...

Largely as a result of social policies and cultural factors, the Nordic countries continually score high in lifestyle measures, quality of life and children’s outcomes. This book brings together authors from the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden) to share knowledge and understanding regarding families, children, primary...

The Nordic countries continually score high in lifestyle measures, quality of life and children’s outcomes. With a combined population of over 26 million people, innovative policy is often implemented to deal with a small but spread-out population. For over 200 years the countries have kept peace with each other and have substantial cooperation acr...

Syftet är att analysera undervisning i förskolan. Analyserna utgår från kvalitetsbedömningar med Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale-3 (ECERS-3) (Harms, Clifford och Cryer 2014). Hög kvalitet i förskolan främjar barns lärande inom läroplanens målområden. Artikelns teoretiska ram utgörs av interaktionistiska och ekologiska teorier som innebär a...

This study explores how group size influences children’s conditions for wellbeing, learning and development in preschool in relation to the intentions in the revised (2010) Swedish preschool curriculum. The study is based on qualitative methods generated from interviews and open-ended questions in a questionnaire. Group size is dependent on three d...

Drawing upon in-depth analyses of Lev Vygotsky’s theories of early childhood and investigating the ways in which his ideas are reflected in contemporary educational settings, this book brings into sharp relief the numerous opportunities for preschool learning and development afforded by Vygotskian approaches. Discussion of recent developments in th...

Increasingly, researchers believe that reflection is a vital process for all professionals to develop competence and understanding of their field (Miller et al., Developing early years practice. David Fulton, London, 2005). It is, therefore, important that early childhood educators are equipped with the capabilities to engage in reflective practice...

Quality in early childhood education is an important topic in many countries. Research suggests that high-quality preschool provides many long-term benefits for young children and society. How to measure early childhood quality however can be problematic. One approach has been the use of the Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale (ECERS), an ob...

This article explores preschool teachers’ professional profiles in Sweden. Considering various educational policy reforms in Sweden the last decades, this study is grounded in interactionist perspectives and Bronfenbrenner’s bio-ecological model. A set of multiple professional indicators related to preschool teachers’ educational background, person...

The most important benefits of international comparisons are the indications that make hidden national characteristics visible and shed new light on the system in each country. From a comparative perspective, this article explores what Swedish and Norwegian preschool teachers emphasise as important to preschool student teachers about preschool as a...

There is increasing activity in the area of quality issues in education in Europe. Diverse discourses of policy for quality are encountered in daily practice. This article explores systematic quality development work in a Swedish educational setting: the leisure-time centre. By following 2 teachers’ enactments of policy in planning, organising, doc...

Since the turn of the century, politicians in the Scandinavian countries have placed great emphasis on early childhood education and care. They have been especially concerned with lifelong learning in the field of language learning, early literacy, and numeracy. Almost all children between the ages of 1 and 6 years attend a preschool, and the qua l...

This article aims to examine dominant discourses and changing paradigmatic views on children's learning and well-being in preschool in relation to theories on learning and research on quality and policy in Sweden. The key question: what are the main changes in policy, pedagogy and views of children's learning? The article builds on research that ha...

Over the last decade the number of children in Swedish preschool has increased in all age groups. Meanwhile, the preschool curriculum has been revised with higher requirements for pedagogical activities. This article aims to problematize preschool teachers expressions on opportunities and obstacles to work with the intentions of the curriculum, in...

In Sweden, preschool has been noted as being of a high quality compared to many other countries. However, dramatic changes in the preschool sector are taking place. A recent law states that it is a child’s right to get a preschool place within a few months. As a consequence, the number of children in preschool has increased, which could influence g...

This article is based on a research project focusing on Norwegian teachers' planning and documentation of children's learning in preschool. Norwegian preschools follow a national curriculum and teachers are obliged to document both professional practice and learning outcomes. The aim of the article is to investigate teachers' experiences of challen...

In recent years there has been a debate in the Nordic countries about group size in preschool and how it affects preschool teachers' work and children's wellbeing and learning. The aim of this article is to analyse and discuss how preschool teachers' working with child groups of different sizes view the conditions for children's learning and develo...

Background: There is a limited amount of research about group size in preschool, and how it impacts on teachers’ working conditions and their ability to support children’s learning and knowledge development in line with curriculum intentions.Purpose: From a perspective on quality, this article examines the organisational conditions for children’s l...

The aim is to investigate Swedish preschool teachers’ accounts of children’s learning in relation to the goals in the Swedish preschool curriculum. The research question is: “What do preschool teachers see as fundamental aspects of learning in preschool practice?” The study is based on interactionist perspectives founded in Urie Bronfenbrenner’s ec...

In this article, contemporary issues in early childhood teacher education in Sweden are situated. The aim of the study was to explore dimensions of the construct of preschool teachers competence as reported by 810 students enrolled in early childhood teacher education at 15 Swedish universities. The results showed that student’s definitions of pres...

The purpose of this article is to analyse and discuss preschool teachers' views regarding competence within their profession in the context of home and preschool collaboration. The question addressed is as follows: In what situations do preschool teachers perceive that their competence becomes visible for parents? The results, based on interviews w...

This article aims to examine dominant discourses and changing paradigmatic views on children's learning and well-being in preschool in relation to theories on learning and research on quality and policy in Sweden. The key question: what are the main changes in policy, pedagogy and views of children's learning? The article builds on research that ha...

This article aims to investigate young children’s experience of aesthetic activities in preschool. The result is based on preschool teachers’ mapping during a two-week period of what toddlers (1.5 to 3.4 years) are offered or take initiatives themselves to, within the area of aesthetics. The 24 preschools where the mapping was done have been partic...

The aim of this study is to investigate preschool teachers’ perceptions of good practice in play, their skills, and perceptions of play competence. The theoretical framework is based on interactionist theories, which congregate theories of learning, in which individuals and the environment influence and are influenced by one another in a continuous...

The purpose of this study was to investigate the meaning that Swedish preschool teachers ascribe to systematic quality work. In Sweden, all preschools are required to work systematically with quality issues. This involves several interdependent steps that follow each other in a specific order. Although the concept of systematic quality work might b...

Background: Historically, the meaning of teacher competence has changed and is continuously being re-constructed along with changes in society as well as with shifting values and intentions in preschool guidelines and curricula. Over the past decade, Swedish preschool has been incorporated as a part of the educational system, and has received its o...

From the perspective of didactics and pedagogical quality, and in a review of the studies collected together in this book, the aim of this chapter is to discuss the conditions for children’s learning in preschool. This involves a reanalysis of central aspects in the content and the object of learning, the teacher’s approach, children’s learning and...

The aim is to describe and define constructive competition as an educational phenomenon in different learning contexts. The study involved a total of 78 children aged between 5 and 18, and 29 teachers from pre‐schools, compulsory school, and upper secondary programs. Data were generated in individual interviews and use was made of critical incident...

Background: Teacher-organised group work, in which pupils work together in groups or pairs, is one of many learning situations pupils may encounter at school. Research (Williams, P. and Sheridan, S., Collaboration as one aspect of quality: a perspective of collaboration and pedagogical quality in educational settings. Scandinavian Journal of Educat...

Thirty years or more of striving for a coherent theme in the educational system from preschool to gymnasium might now be at an end. Millions of Swedish kronor have been spent on projects concerning cooperation between pre‐ and primary school. The curricula for preschool and the gymnasium are similar in structure, and they are connected with each ot...

The aim of this article is to initiate a change of view on quality that goes beyond assumed dichotomies of subjectivity and objectivity. In the view presented here, pedagogical quality is seen as an educational phenomenon of “sustainable dynamism,” that is a phenomenon that has structural characteristics and is culturally sensitive. The underlying...

The aim of the study is to explore cross-cultural similarities and differences in preschool quality in South Korean and Swedish preschools as measured by two national adaptations of the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS). The approach adopted is that cross-cultural comparisons of preschool quality are both achievable and of great impo...

Sweden is a growing nation with a diverse population of 9 million inhabitants. Contemporary Swedish society is made up of people from many different continents and ethnic backgrounds. Every fifth child has at least one parent of non-Swedish origin. In the largest cities, about one third of the population are immigrants. For most of the last 60 year...

Four dimensions of pedagogical quality focusing on children's opportunities for learning and development in preschool are suggested. This article explores how they are constituted and how they can be used for evaluation to discern pedagogical quality as a whole and part of a whole and to understand how quality is experienced and valued from differe...

The purpose of this article is to draw attention to competition as a multidimensional phenomenon in preschool. Theories of competition are outlined here in relation to an empirical study of how preschool children compete constructively and how they themselves express and conceive competition in different situations. The data consist of video observ...

In recent years the OECD has undertaken the evaluation of early childhood education and care (ECEC) on behalf of ministers of education in a number of countries in order to support quality improvement in this field. This article is based on a workshop for the national coordinators of early childhood policy in Sweden, 2003, which dealt with Curricul...

The aim of this article is to problematise and discuss collaboration between children as a means of learning and as an essential aspect of pedagogical quality in educational settings. In theories of learning, children's social interaction and collaboration are highlighted as fundamental to their learning. This implies that children's opportunities...

In the European context the continuing training of early childhood educators in terms of information and communications technology (ICT) remains limited and is in need of development. The KINDERET project has been funded through the European Commission’s Leonardo da Vinci programme aimed to identify and understand the theoretical and practical need...

In Sweden most of the young children are in preschool from early years. The government has taken responsibility by introducing different reforms such as child allowance, maternity leave, access to preschool for all children etc. Preschool (in Sweden for children aged 1–5 years and preschool class for 6 years old) is, since 1998, the first step in t...

Sammanfattning: Syftet är att problematisera och diskutera barns rätt och möjlighet till delaktighet som ett grundläggande värde och som en pedagogisk fråga utifrån såväl forskning som pedagogisk praxis. Dimensionerna »delaktighet som värde» respektive »pedagogik» är ömsesidigt beroende av varandra och vilar på etiska ställningstaganden. Delaktighe...

In a comparative study between Germany and Sweden, observers from different countries and cultures make parallel and independent observations of the quality in early childhood education. For evaluation of quality, the observers use the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS), combined with a documentation of the perceptual process underlyi...

The United Nations Convention and the Swedish curriculum for pre-school clearly state the right of children to express their views in all matters of concern to them. It is imperative, therefore, that an evaluation of the quality of early childhood education includes the voices of children. Without these, an essential part of how children experience...

Can quality in preschool be enhanced through competence development simultaneously to organisational changes and financial cutbacks? The aim of this study is to develop a "Model of Competence Development” to enhance quality in preschool. The Model of Competence Development takes it's point of departure in evaluations of quality, as evaluated by the...

The aim of the study is to compare how the pedagogues in preschool units evaluate the quality of their own work in relation to an external evaluator. The study is part of a project whose aim was to develop a Model of Competence Development. In this project the quality of 20 preschool units were evaluated by an external evaluator using the Early Chi...

The Lerum Competence Development Project seeks to develop a model for educator inservice training to improve the quality of day care. Lerum is a small community outside Goteborg, Sweden, with approximately 35,000 inhabitants. The expansion of childcare provision within the community necessitates support of the teachers because of economic and organ...