Finns det några kompetenta barn här? Pedagogers gemensamma föreställningar om barn i pedagogisk dokumentation

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to study preschool teachers’ shared views on competent children. In a project aiming at developing systematic quality work in preschool, a working model for pedagogical documentation was developed. Some fifty educators at 18 preschools participated and empirical material for research was generated within the project. The material consisted of written pedagogical documentation and focus group conversations about the documentation, and a social representation analysis was carried out in order to capture preschool teachers' shared views of competent children. The results show that ideas about competent children can be categorized as essential, relational and ideological, and that the categories and subcategories can be linked to various theories and views on children and children’s learning.

Keywords: Competent children, pedagogical documentation, pre-school, teachers’ shared views.