Organizing for quality Evaluation of the preschool quality - a municipality perspective Ph.D. student and lecturer Karin Lager, University of Gothenburg Moscow, May, 2014 PROGRAM OF SWEDISH-RUSSIAN SEMINAR EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION: ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT

The child Development and outcomes The child Development and outcomes The teacher – child interaction Group size The teacher – child interaction Group size Curriculum implementation Curriculum implementation–municipality perspective The quality of the preschool environment

Preschool arenas in Sweden Society: The Ministry of Education and Science The National Agency for Education The National Agency for School-inspection Policy, curriculum and guidelines, quality Policy to evaluate the quality of the learning environment/preschool Municipality: Municipalities are responsible on a local level. They organize, lead and evaluate without any national given methods. For good and for bad. Conflicting perspectives and non science based models. Preschool: Preschool teachers responsibility create conditions for children’s learning Preschool Society Municipality

Municipality diversity - Lack of national equivalence Educational reforms – decentralisation Restructuring New governance Quality and control National in service training to educate key-persons in municipalities to lead the systematic quality development work. This national in service training was followed and evaluated by Sonja Sheridan and Karin Lager

The evaluation study 28 key persons with different professions were followed under one years in service training (two persons from each municipality) Interviews Observations Text document produced by the key persons Those key-persons were supposed to lead and organize the systematic quality development work in their municipality after the in service training year. Key-persons: preschool heads, preschool-teachers, development leaders, quality coordinators, teachers for special needs education

Theoretical perspective - translating policy through different contexts Organising for quality Translating – through contexts Translators – key persons Legitimacy Homogenisation Institutionalisation Preschool Municipality Society

Aim To explore organising of systematic quality work in municipalities. To gain knowledge of the participating key-persons, how they organize for quality, how they legitimate and how they work to stabilize their municipalities work with quality.

Research questions Who are these key-persons and what possibilities do they have to act like key-persons? What's important for them to talk about in relation to quality work? Which tensions can be seen in the key persons expressions? Which strategies do they use to stabilize quality work?

Key-persons as translators When key-persons with different profession in the same municipality work together they create better possibilities to translate the work with quality and finds more arenas for translating. Their cooperation is more valuable than their type of profession.

Barriers to stabilise quality work Achievement of objectives Different professions in pre-school Lack of influence and participation Lack of time and place for discussions Lack of distribution of responsibility Rational models

Challenging tensions School vs. Pre-school Measurable quality vs. Experienced quality Profession vs. Politics Rational chain for control vs. Dialogue, interplay and encounters for development

Strategies to stabilize work with quality Creating tools Further education Crossing borders Pedagogical discussions Visualising their work in writing

Conclusions The key-persons competence, legitimacy and contextual knowledge of pre-school was significant in organising for quality Boundary objects united people in informal contexts that helped to stabilize the work with quality The direction of legitimacy was towards other contexts, they searched for new contexts with other agents When they homogenise it was by creating new arenas for translating The key-persons work wasn't foremost depended on profession but on conditions.