Making the Open Preschool: A Place for Language and Integration

Abstract in English

Although it has been in existence since the early 1970s, the Swedish open preschool is significantly underrepresented in research. Described in law as a pedagogical group setting for children without a place in the regular preschool, and a place for social contact and community for their accompanying parents, the open preschool has since 2018 also been identified by the Swedish government as a setting for immigrant parents to learn language and civic orientation content. The primary aim of this thesis is to contribute with knowledge about conditions for adult immigrants’ learning in the open preschool, an educational setting with an explicit child educational purpose. Taking as its starting point the apparent contradiction inherent in adults being positioned as learners in such a setting, the thesis addresses questions from four research areas; didactic characteristics of the open preschool in the period 1972 – 2024; didactic characteristics of activities for immigrant families in the open preschool since 1972; contemporary accounts of educational activities with immigrant families in the open preschool; and discourses about language, immigration and integration as a factor in the organisation of educational activities in the open preschool.The main theoretical frameworks used come from Swedish didaktik and from Curriculum Theory, supported by discourse theory, and a critical care theoretical approach to education in migration and multilingual contexts. The empirical material analysed consists of 77 texts ‘for and about’ the open preschool, and 20 semi-structured interviews open preschool educators in five urban locations. Discourse Trace Analysis and a content analysis method based on Curriculum Making Activity theory are used to address research areas one and two, examining whether there is historical precedent for the open preschool as a place for adult education, and specifically for education of adult immigrants. To address research areas three and four, a critical care lens is applied to thematic and didactic content analyses of contemporary educator accounts of their didactic decision making in relation to learner, content and methods for educational work with foreign born parents. The thesis’ primary finding is that adult education has been a function of the open preschool’s practice since its inception, but that it has been discursively backgrounded in formal documents. Results show, however, that the adult pedagogical function has recently become foregrounded in government discourses, with Swedish and Civic Orientation in open preschool identified as prioritised tools in meeting the dual political goals of expediting labour market entry among foreign born mothers, and rates of preschool enrolment among their children. Despite this marked discursive shift in the way that the open preschool is described at macro sites, the results further show that educators in the open preschool describe their practice as oriented primarily towards a parent support purpose. Adult visitors are understood first and foremost as parents, not learners, and teaching and learning takes place within the context of parent support. A critical care pedagogical approach appears to be instrumental in educators’ work to maintain parent support as the open preschool’s dominant function.