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The aim of this study was to analyse how a model for practitioner-oriented research can be used as a tool for professional development in the preschool. The focus of interest is the type of knowledge that is formed when researchers and preschool staff cooperate on local projects, and what this new knowledge means for the images of professional competence among staff and their regard to the research concept. The intention was to gain useful knowledge from experiences critically reflected in a team, related to theory and tested in local practice. The participants consisted of fifteen working-teams from preschools in two Swedish cities, together with three university-based researchers. After an introduction from the researchers, each team chose a theme. This was grounded in their local practice and was done over a period of eight months. During this period, the staff regularly met with each other in mixed groups and had supervision from the researchers. The results from the projects were documented and presented for all participants. The researchers further analysed these documents. Before and after the project, participants were asked to complete a questionnaire and were interviewed once. The results showed that the staff generally had a positive picture of the relevance of research-based knowledge for their developmental work, and increased their ability to use the group for constructive critical reflection on their professional work in preschool. The results are also discussed in relation to theories of group learning and situated learning.

The purpose of this article is to describe and analyse play through a contemporary historical perspective, based upon pre-school teachers’, studentsmajoring in education, and teacher education students’ descriptions of memories from their childhood regarding play and toys. The overall method is retrospective. The data consists of 111 interviews with pre-school teachers andstudents. When comparing younger and older participants’ memories of play, the increased welfare, women’s entry into working life, urbanisation, secularisation and an increased range of media, all stand out as differentiating factors. These changes in society are partly reflected in the external conditions of play, but also in play content.

The purpose of this study is to bring forth preschool teachers’ and parents’ views on both established and future forms of cooperation between the preschool and home. The empirical sample is based on both individual and focus-group interviews. Results show that cooperation mainly revolves around the individual child. The form of cooperation that is the least established among both preschool teachers and parents tends to be the parent council. It is concluded that it is important for preschool teachers to provide varied and rich forms of cooperation, as different forms of cooperation appeal to different parents. With a wide range, there is a possibility to reach all parents.

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 own national curriculum, which recently, has been revised. A new preschool teacher education has been initiated. All these changes influence preschool practice, conditions for teachers' pedagogical work and children's learning, and as a consequence, the meaning that teachers ascribe to teacher competence.

Purpose: The aim of this study is to investigate the meaning given to preschool teacher competence by Swedish preschool teachers. Focus is directed towards teachers' descriptions of their approach and their communication and interaction with children in relation to the overall goals of the preschool curriculum.

Sample: The study was carried out in Sweden and the sample consist of 15 preschools in the country's two major cities, Stockholm and Gothenburg, and 15 preschools from the rural area of Mälardalen in mid-Sweden. Both of the urban regions and the rural area are stratified to represent districts that differ geographically, demographically, ethnically, and which include varied socio-economic structures. From each of the 30 preschools, one preschool class/group and one preschool teacher were recruited as participants. All except one of the teachers were women.

Design and method: The study is based on interactionist perspectives and draws on Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory and a critical ecology of the early childhood profession. To study teacher competence, the method chosen was individual, and semi-structured interviews that lasted 60–120 minutes were recorded and transcribed verbatim. The analysis is qualitative and focuses on key questions that were asked of all participants. The analyses aimed to discern similarities and differences, and distinguished between competences teachers said that they have and competences they wanted to develop, such as knowledge, skills and attitudes and whether these competences were understood as static, situational and/or dynamic.

Result: Three intertwined dimensions of teacher competences emerged. These dimensions are mutually interdependent, inseparable and constitute the meaning given by the teachers to teacher competence as a whole. These are: Competence of knowing what and why, Competence of know-how, and Interactive, relational and transactional competence. These dimensions highlight teacher competence as a complex, multidimensional and relational phenomenon, constituted from interacting abilities. The participating teachers have a broad multidisciplinary knowledge, which needs to be deepened within specific areas such as, mathematics, ICT, science etc.

Conclusion: Being a part of complex ecological system with increasingly global dimensions, preschool teaching is a profession in change. Preschool teacher competence is constituted in the intersection of values, knowledge and ideologies on different system levels. In line with changing policy and curriculum intentions teachers create shared understandings of the meaning of teacher competence both for today and tomorrow. Based on these beliefs teachers create conditions for children's learning in preschool practice.

This article aims to explore parents’ perspectives on, and experiences of, home and preschool collaboration in a Swedish context. The research question is: How do parents perceive the process of building good relationships with preschool practitioners? The data consist of interviews with 10 parents with one or more children attending preschool. The research process follows the procedures significant to constructivist grounded theory. In the results, parents stress the necessity of continuity in building trusting and authentic relationships with preschool practitioners in order to shoulder parental responsibilities from afar and facilitate children’s well-being, development and learning at preschool. Parents attempt to create prerequisites for collaboration when choosing a preschool. The relationship-building process is described in different ways; some see it as effortless, while others see it as a struggle.

The overall aim of this thesis is to explore the experience of parental collaboration in preschool, by addressing preschool teachers’ competence and parental responsibility as described by preschool teachers and parents. The results are based on in-depth interviews with 30 preschool teachers and 10 parents. Data were gathered and analysed by means of conventional content analysis and constructivist grounded theory (CGT). The empirical material is presented in four articles. The first article focuses on preschool teachers’ approaches when professionally supporting parents, in relation to various views of children, parents and childrearing. The second article describes and analyses preschool teachers’ views on teachers’ professional competence, in the context of home and preschool collaboration. The third article explores parents’ perspectives on, and experiences of, home and preschool collaboration. The fourth article focuses on how parents perceive the process of building good relationships with preschool practitioners. Finally, all four articles are analysed as a whole to provide a synthesis of the findings and the knowledge acquired about home and preschool collaboration in a Swedish context.

The findings demonstrate that both preschool teachers and parents value parental collaboration in the preschool. They also emphasize the importance of developing and strengthening the relationship between home and preschool. However, preschool teachers and parents approach collaboration from different starting points and perspectives. Preschool teachers endeavour to support parents in their parental role and consciously work to familiarize parents with their professional skills as regards children's learning and the content of the preschool curriculum. Parents, on the other hand, strive to shoulder their parental responsibilities by `remote parenting´, when persuading preschool practitioners to both `indivisualize´ and `individualize´ preschool practice. Time, continuity, and recognition are seen as central to building secure and authentic relationships. The results demonstrate the importance of preschool teachers critically examining the content expressed in the meeting between them and parents, as well as endeavouring to create preconditions for practical relationship building and collaboration in the preschool. Weak or non-existent relationships not only contribute to weakening parental participation and parental familiarity with the preschool, but also make it more difficult for guardians to exercise their legal parental responsibilities and support their child.

An inductive research approach, influenced by constructive grounded theory, can not only generate interesting findings and conclusions but also raise questions concerning ethics and quality during the process of gathering and analyzing data through qualitative interviews. The aim of this chapter is to describe and discuss methodological and ethical issues that arise when conducting research within a specific interpretative research tradition in settings that are highly familiar to the researcher. Such familiarity can be seen as a weakness, since norms and values can be shared with interviewees and therefore taken for granted, yet it can offer a possibility to see through rhetoric and distinguish authentic “backstage” glimpses of everyday concerns in a particular field. Interviews conducted at workplaces also include some amount of unintentional observations, for the researcher enters an environment that speaks to the visitor through its organization and through the ways staff members respond to visitors (and each other) during the visitor’s stay. Questions discussed in this chapter concern the difficulty of balancing ethical concerns with quality in qualitative research.

This article explores parents' perspectives on, and experiences of, home and preschool collaboration. The data consist of in-depth interviews with 10 parents with one or several children attending preschool. The research process of gathering and analyzing data follows the procedures of constructivist grounded theory. The results show how parents seek to practice remote parenting' in order to shoulder their parental responsibilities for their child's well-being and care while they are away from their child. Parents approach situations they find difficult at preschool in different ways, including staying in the preschool and appreciating the collaboration with practitioners, working for change, coping with the situation, or changing preschools. Parents' experiences of home and preschool collaboration differ in significant ways, and there is, therefore, a need to visualize and discuss norms and values that shape the conditions for parental collaboration. The results might be useful for stakeholders and policy-makers on different levels.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze and discuss preschool teachers’ supportive approaches when supporting parents within their profession. Questions addressed are; what kind of supporting approaches do preschool teachers practice to strengthen parents in their parental role? Which theoretical frameworks do preschool teachers use when supporting parents in their parental role? Results, based on interviews with 30 preschool teachers in Sweden, show that the participating preschool teachers share an ambition to support and strengthen parents in their parental role. To do so preschool teachers practice and use different approaches - the teambuilding-, the reflective-, the expert-, the delimited- and the personal approach. The approaches used in practice do not, however, always serve their purpose, but on the contrary, preschool teachers may weaken parents’ self-efficacy. The different approaches also show that preschool teachers not always “preach as they teach”, using different theoretical perspectives in their collaboration with parents as they do in their own practice at preschool. The results from this study are important to reach a deeper understanding for underlying factors, as e. g. different views of children, in preschool andhome collaboration.

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 with 30 preschool teachers, show that preschool teachers work consciously to draw attention to specific competencies related to children's learning and development and the preschool curriculum. The ability to establish dialogue with parents and gain their trust is seen as particularly important for establishing and maintaining collaboration between preschool and the home. Furthermore, the participants recognise that parents seek their competence in daily matters concerning the child's well-being. The competencies that preschool teachers emphasise and those they believe parents ask for do not, therefore, always coincide. The results of this study can contribute to a better understanding of the prerequisites for preschool–home collaboration.