Bildning mellan styrning och frihet: En explorativ studie av förskolans undervisningspraktiker ur ett kritiskt läroplansteoretiskt perspektiv

Abstract in English

The child’s bildung journey begins from the very first day of life. Early in this journey, many children encounter preschool as their initial formalized educational experience. Swedish preschool is currently undergoing a phase of transformation (Thulin & Jonsson, 2018). Historically characterized by an integrated Nordic tradition of care, play, and learning, it is increasingly shifting toward an emphasis on school readiness. This development risks reducing work with children to something less complex and more readily measurable, rather than the multifaceted and rich bildung practice that preschool can offer. The purpose of this dissertation is to understand preschool teaching as an bildung practice situated in the tension field between governance and freedom, individual and collective, and to analyze how this practical activity can be comprehended in relation to preschool as a societal institution. The empirical material comprises policy documents, field studies centered on video-stimulated recall interviews, and theoretical assumptions. The overarching theoretical framework is critical curriculum theory. An abductive approach is employed: the empirical data are initially treated inductively and practice-near, before being abstracted and theorized (Timmermans & Tavory 2024). Drawing on Schatzki’s (2002) concept of practice, a theory-driven analysis identifies five distinct teaching practices. These practices are subsequently examined through the lens of the spatial dimension of Bildung, that is, how different children’s subject positionings are materialized and take shape in concrete, everyday teaching situations. The results, structured in a three-step analysis, elucidate how preschool can be understood through the spatial dimension of Bildung[1], based on the ways in which various teaching practices prioritize different aspects of Bildung formation. Collectively, the findings constitute a contemporary snapshot of how preschool, as an institution, can be positioned and interpreted within a broader societal context. A key conclusion is that understandings of preschool teaching practices risk being reduced to unidirectional goal steering, dominated by prevailing policy and curriculum developments. The dissertation’s contribution lies in making visible the Bildung dimensions of preschool and highlighting their diverse theoretical implications for teaching practice.