Coping of Pre-school Teacher Role in a Field Coloured by Laymen, 2009

Full day care is not just a question of providing care for everyone who wants it. It is also about ensuring kindergartens supply of motivated and qualified personnel. Kindergarten teachers are central in this context , but there are also assistants that are a majority among the employees in kindergartens. The offers and services provided for children in kindergartens are not only influenced by how the employees perceive the purpose of kindergarten. It is also influenced by the skills staff possesses. The main objective with this project is to gain insight into how kindergarten teachers understand and master their role.

The overriding issue is the following :

- How to understand and master the kindergarten teacher profession? We will study this partly in light of basic education and qualifications of the profession, and partly in the light of the division of labor with assistance.

- What content and working methods we find in the nursery?

The starting point for this project is that qualifications to pre-school profession happens through life experience, through pre-school education and the work of the nursery. For kindergarten teachers to master their profession, it is essential that there is a connection between education and the challenges that kindergarten teachers face in everyday life. We ask if colleges educate in everyday life in kindergarten. We also ask if the work in the nursery complies with the ideals set down by the government guidance document. The study will make use of a survey of teachers in primary schools ( LuData ) and a longitudinal questionnaire-based data set where students were followed from the start of their studies until they where well established in the professional field ( StudData ). We will, through a nationwide questionnaire of kindergarten teachers in kindergarten develop FluData . In addition to the quantitative data, we supplement with qualitative data, partly taken from observation in a sample of kindergartens, partly from interviews with a sample of kindergarten teachers.