This article discusses how preschool teachers, who include a scientific content in their practice, describe their practice and their view of science in preschool. The study is based on 20 interviews ...in 9 Swedish preschools. The theoretical and analytical framework combine "communities of practice"(Lave & Wenger) and "positioning theory" (Harré & Langehove). The stories reveal a strong position for the pre-school curriculum and traditions. A prominent storyline is that Science in preschool is something different from science in school. This includes an anti-authoritarian view with a focus on "the competent child". The preschool teachers affirm fantasy, creativity and intuition as a part of science and they position science as easy to access. They also position themselves as pedagogues competent to manage science in preschool. One of the dilemmas is about letting children’s interests and initiatives drive the activities while educators curriculum- based goals have certain intentions to fulfill.
This article presents a longitudinal study of three students’ experiences with learning to write academic texts in preschool teacher education. Through in-depth interviews and drawing on an academic ...literacy approach combined with a “before, within and after education” perspective, their different struggles with learning academic writing are identified. A significant finding is that students experience different ways of being in and out of control. Another finding is that the institutionalized framing represents a control from above that helps two but not the third. The result indicates preschool teacher educators should pay close attention to the variation in students’ resources in writing.
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