Abstract
This article presents Norwegian and Croatian students’ perspectives on conditions for their professional growth during undergraduate kindergarten teacher education. The data gathered through focus group interviews are theorized using the cultural-historical wholeness approach that identifies institutional conditions for the development of certain motivations and acts. Since the students from the two countries generally perceive the institutional conditions for their learning as insufficient, the conclusions refer to certain institutional practices that could strengthen the development of competences that students recognize as the most relevant. These competences to act grow at the intersection of theory and practice.
Highlights
This paper uses the cultural-historical wholeness approach [1, 2] to analyze students’ own perceptions of conditions for their professional development provided by higher education institutions
The students analyzed in this paper attend two higher education institutions providing kindergarten teacher education programs in two different countries—Norway and Croatia
Situations with children were mentioned as requiring the competence to act in the right way often through saying the right things that are anchored in current theoretical knowledge: But we cannot limit this only to meetings with other adults that we are, in a way, dependent on
Summary
This paper uses the cultural-historical wholeness approach [1, 2] to analyze students’ own perceptions of conditions for their professional development provided by higher education institutions. Kindergarten teacher education is strongly related to the cultural and social values connected to a good childhood and good (child)care, the models of kindergarten teacher education programs are first presented in their socio-cultural contexts in which the legislative apparatuses forming the national guidelines for teacher education and Marianne Hedegaard [1,3,4] analyzes individual’s motives for actions and actions in relation to the conditions created at the levels of institutions in which individuals participate and at cultural and societal levels at which the institutions are established She developed a model of societal conditions for cultural practice that includes the perspectives of the state, the institution, and the individual, which is applied in this paper to examine students’ perceptions of institutional conditions supporting their professional development. They respond to them in various ways by developing diverse arrays of motivations (which are not always in line with expectations) and activities
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