Norwegian ECEC staff’s thinking on quality of interaction

ABSTRACT

This study presents Norwegian ECEC staff members’ thinking on quality of interaction. Open-ended interviews were analyzed using qualitative thematic analysis based on the Caregiver Interaction Profile scales. Findings are that ECEC staff members include both basic care aspects of interaction and educational aspects of interaction in their thinking, but weigh them differently. Immediate responses focussed mainly on seeing, meeting, supporting and communicating with children, characterized as sensitive responsiveness, and an aspect of basic care interaction. After prompts, the focus was still on the above-mentioned aspects, but thoughts characterized as educational aspects of interaction also featured. They focused on verbal communication, mainly as a social tool, linked to sensitive responsiveness and rarely expressed thoughts about child development theories or objectives in the Norwegian framework plan. Their own role beyond basic care aspects was seldom mentioned, and they seemed to hold a ‘taken for granted attitude’ to children’s learning and development.

KEYWORDS:

• Norwegian ECEC
• ECEC staff’s thinking
• quality of interaction
• basic care and educational interaction
• the CIP scales

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Research Council of Norway under Grant number 220570.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Anne Grethe Baustad is a PhD candidate at Faculty of Education and Arts, Nord University. She has worked as an ECEC teacher and head teacher for more than 20 years before she started to teach at the university and later started on her PhD. Current research interests are quality in ECEC, aspects of interactional quality, staffs thinking and behaviour, and professional development in ECEC.

Wenche Rønning is an Associate Professor in pedagogy at Faculty of Education and Arts, Nord University. Rønning’s research focusses on teachers’ thinking and pupils’ learning processes, in particular active learning approaches and place-based learning, but she has published within a number of different research areas, including Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). Since 2007, much of her research has focussed on using video recordings to study practices in different educational settings.

Elisabeth Bjørnestad is an Associate professor in pedagogy at Faculty of Teacher education and International studies, Oslo Metropolitan University. She has a background as an ECEC teacher and here research interests are quality in ECEC, longitudinal studies, assessment and transition from Preschool to Primary school. Bjørnestad currently leading the ongoing longitudinal study ‘Better Provision for Norway’s children in ECEC’ (GoBaN).

Notes

1 Studies including ECEC staffs’ articulation of personal theories, beliefs, views and perspectives on quality of interaction.

2 Barnehage = Kindergarten.

3 Including ECEC teachers, childcare- and youth workers and/or assistant.

4 Holding a bachelor degree in ECEC.

5 Have no educational background in ECEC.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Research Council of Norway under [Grant number 220570].