Preschool teachers communicating values to children

ABSTRACT

This empirical study aims to find if and how preschool teachers communicate values they consider important for children to learn in preschool. The study is a part of a Nordic research project on values education in Nordic preschools. Values are understood as desirable principles that guide human actions. Theoretically, the study draws on a sociocultural perspective and Habermas’ theory of communicative action. The data consists of approximately 17 h of video observations of communication between preschool teachers and children. Two episodes were chosen for further analysis and in-depth discussion. Care, respect, and discipline had been agreed on as important values to communicate to preschool children. The preschool teachers used different approaches to communicate these values, depending on their professional and personal backgrounds. The values were communicated implicitly rather than explicitly. The study contributes to research on values education in the ECE and gives reasons for reflection on the practices of preschool teachers.

KEYWORDS:

• Preschool
• preschool teachers
• values education
• communicative action
• play
• video observation

Acknowledgments

The study is part of a Nordic research project focusing on values education in Nordic preschools (Values Education in Nordic Preschool (n.d.). The Nordic project is funded by NordForsk. In addition, this study was further funded by the City of Reykjavík and the University of Iceland.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Ingibjorg Sigurdardottir http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1426-5179

Johanna Einarsdottir http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0765-909X

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by NordForsk: [Grant Number 53581].