Promoting Diversity and Belonging: Preschool Staff’s Perspective on Inclusive Factors in the Swedish Preschool

Abstract

This article reports the Swedish results and experiences from the survey study “Educators’ perspectives of belonging in early years education,” which was part of the research project “Politics of belonging: Promoting children’s inclusion in educational settings across borders”. The purpose of the survey study was to gain knowledge about the preschool staff’s perspective on factors and pedagogical approaches that promote diversity and belonging. The research questions and study instruments were co-produced by researchers from Finland, Iceland, Norway, the Netherlands and Sweden. This Swedish part reports the answers from 180 respondents/staff from preschools. The experiences and the way the results are analysed and discussed are entirely from the investigation conducted in Sweden. The results show that the staff’s work environment, values and working methods are important for an inclusive programme. Preschool children are a source of strength for building a sense of belonging for all children, and increased confidence in their ability provides better conditions for creating an inclusive preschool; that is, giving children more influence and trust promotes the sense of belonging. In addition to these results, the survey has provided important methodological experience and initiated a discussion on how the contact between academia and preschool programmes can be improved.