Toddlers’ Life in Swedish Preschool

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to point to some patterns dealt with in Swedish research with 1 to 3-year-old children in preschool. The analyses focus on questions posed, theoretical perspectives, methods and results. The results give a unique picture of how toddlers participate, interact and communicate while engaged in how to master various content issues and intersubjective life in the preschool context. The studies represent different approaches, although there seems to be a common interest in basing research on children’s premises and gaining access to the child’s perspective. This raise issues concerning the responsibility of research: How far can we go when talking in terms of children’s perspectives and how active and competent can a child be? The child is both vulnerable and competent, which is an issue that needs to be addressed by researchers. If not, we risk turning research on young children into ideology.