Fragmented boundary zones between theory and practice in preschool teacher education in Sweden

Abstract

Research dealing with preschool teacher education has been, for a long time, criticalof a binary divide between theory and practice. Based on that issue, this studyinvestigates a preschool teacher education programme in Sweden. It focusses onreflection upon theory and practice as an affordance offered to students in studies andwork. The study used a questionnaire with two groups: campus studentsfollowing the regular programme and students who were nurses already working atpreschools. Analysis shows a fragmented education where the groups faced differentproblems, but also that neither of them could connect reflections on theory andpractice at the workplace to their own learning approaches in either studies orworking matters. How the students experienced affordances depended on theireducational skills and knowledge, and the programme relied mostly on individualreflection as the solution to the binary divide. This reliance seemed to work better forcampus students, who were challenged by the new environmental affordances. Thestudents in the field-based programme were close to the preschools’ pedagogicalmicro-practice, which limited the possibility for critical reflection on theory andpractice and its contextual conditions, especially for students who were nurses.Workplace routines seem to structure the students’ learning instead.