In search of didactics in School Age Educare Centers

Abstract

Didactics as a theoretical basis and as a research field in relation to teaching exists within many disciplines (e.g., natural sciences and preschool education) but not for leisure-time pedagogy. Despite this, teacher students in School Age Educare Centers (SAEC) must fulfil one of the nationally established goals which explicitly demands knowledge in didactics and subject didactics within the field of leisure-time pedagogy. In addition, the research is quite invisible. This study highlights how didactics has been explicitly dealt with in both scientific articles and research-based literature aimed at SAEC. The purpose of the literature review is as follows: a) identify and describe focus and orien­tation (both subject-wise and didactically) in the years 2000–2021, b) compare, discuss and problematize the results, and furthermore, c) point out future research orientations. The method is a systematic literature review (SLR) with a qualitative and quantitative content analysis. The results show that the interest in and awareness of the concept of didactics have developed over the past ten years, and that the vast majority of texts are based on a qualitative approach with discussing, argumentative and reflective analyses. A small number of studies are based on empirical data. In terms of content, the studies capture some of the traditional didactic concepts such as the teacher, leadership, and subject didactics, but also different theoretical points of departure. The use of the concept of didactics in the SAEC indicates that the area needs to be developed, that the concept of didactics is used in relation to activities in SAEC, and that it is used as an interpretive framework for empirical material. The study certainly demonstrates the awareness of various didactic aspects, but there is a lack of studies that incorporate the didactic complexity.