‘It is not that we decide that now we do that’: A case study on preschool teachers´ didactical leadership as expressed during collegial meetings

ABSTRACT

During the last few years, the Swedish preschool curriculum has undergone several changes. Among those changes is the introduction of the concept of teaching as a goal-oriented activity. Preschool teachers have been given a specific responsibility for leading the teaching in preschool. This study aims to explore how preschool teachers’ didactical leadership can be understood in relation to the didactical questions expressed during collegial meetings. The empirical data consist of audio recordings of 17 meetings. The participants were five qualified preschool teachers, a pre-service preschool teacher and an unqualified preschool teacher. The audio recordings were transcribed and analysed using some of the key concepts of Bernstein’s theory of pedagogical practice. The results show that preschool teachers’ didactical leadership is established in a pedagogical discourse where children’s social development and learning is at the foreground while content knowledge is often implicit. Furthermore, the child as a guide is expressed as a core idea, whilst preschool teachers position themselves mostly in the background. The results of the study point to a didactical leadership embedded in an invisible pedagogy.

KEYWORDS:

• Preschool teachers
• didactical leadership
• teaching
• pedagogical discourse
• bernstein

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).