Abstract
ABSTRACTWhen the responsibility for ECEC institutions was placed under Ministry of Education and Research in 2006, the ECEC institution as a learning area was brought in to the foreground in early education and care policy. Norwegian ECEC institutions have been subject to a greater degree of state control, and we can ask if the state is trying to undermine the profession’s autonomy through a strong degree of control over the content in education. This article is based on interviews with eight preschool teachers with long experience working in ECEC institutions. I will illuminate their subjective experiences of the ECEC institution as a learning arena for children, and discuss how they position themselves as agents due to a greater degree of state control. Thus, the relation between the pedagogic and the official recontextualising field will be discussed. Autonomy and the concept of framing will be central.
Highlights
The Norwegian Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) institutions have undergone significant changes over the last 10 years
Norwegian ECEC institutions have been subject to a greater degree of state control, and we can ask if the state is trying to undermine the profession’s autonomy through a strong degree of control over the content in education
I will illuminate their subjective experiences of the ECEC institution as a learning arena for children, and discuss how they position themselves as agents due to a greater degree of state control
Summary
The Norwegian Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) institutions have undergone significant changes over the last 10 years. Norwegian ECEC policy builds on complex and at times contradicting learning discourses (Nygård, 2015, 2016), and different agents will be interested in establishing premises for the type of knowledge that should be assigned societal legitimacy (Bernstein, 2000/1995). The research question for the article is: In what way do preschool teachers position themselves as agents viewed in the light of the increase in state control of the content in ECEC institutions? As ECEC institutions have become part of the national education strategy and more closely linked to the knowledge economy, this may have contributed to changing the conditions relating to the performance of the profession for preschool teachers. I categorised the material into various topics, like state control, children’s learning, content, the ECEC institution in relation to school, how to work with the subject areas in the Framework Plan, municipal priorities, and so on. Important findings from the study will be presented and discussed according to Bernstein’s framing theory
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