In 2014, a newly formed group of teachers graduated from Swedish universities. In addition to their qualification as leisure-time pedagogues, their degree includes teaching practical/aesthetical subjects in compulsory school. This group of teachers thus has to relate to dual professional identities and to maintain a balance between the socially oriented leisure-time centres and a goal- and results-driven school. In this article we describe their first two years after graduation, trying to get hold of their negotiation of professional identities and orientation in the professional landscape. Results shows that the graduates try to balance own ideals and hybrid professional intentions against traditional professional identities and labour market conditions and that position in a liminal phase might be crucial for the outcome.

I denna essä diskuteras lärarprofessionens gränser. Bakgrunden hämtas ifrån att allt fler larmrapporter om sjukskrivna lärare, den hotande lärarbristen och lärares upplevt minskade  handlingsutrymme  når  oss.  Lärare  har  fått  ett  utsträckt  uppdrag  och  diskussioner förs om hur professionen kan avlastas. I essän jämförs exempel från den svenska  skolan  med  exempel  från  den  franska.  Avsikten  är  föra  en  kontrasterande  och  teoretisk  diskussion  om  lärarprofessionens  gränser.  I  beskrivningarna  används  teorier  om  communitas  och  structure  som  förklaringsmodeller  för  skolan  som  system. Inom communitas betraktas alla individer för vilka de är; här faller rang, titlar och formalia bort. Communitas baseras istället på närhet, intimitet och känslor. Alla har huvudrollen och är lika viktiga. Inom structure är förhållandet det motsatta. Här uppträder människorna i förhållande till och i enlighet med regler och rutiner på en spelplan.  Inom  structure  synliggörs  skillnader  och  hierarkier  och  man  uppträder  formellt och i överensstämmelse med olika roller, vilka har väldefinierade positioner på spelplanen. Det är värt att reflektera över hur de olika teoretiska strukturerna kan inspireras  av  varandra  i  syfte  att  avlasta  lärarna  en  del  av  det  utsträckta  uppdraget.  Vad händer om man tydligare skiljer på spelplanerna hem och skola samt rollerna elev, lärare  och vårdnadshavare?  Avslutningsvis  förs  en  diskussion  om  ifall  stärkta  gränser  skulle kunna leda till avlastning av lärare, och möjligen också till ökad auktoritet och professionalitet.

2016 tillkom ett nytt läroplanskapitel för förskoleklassen. 2018 blev förskoleklassen obligatorisk när skolstartsåldern sänktes och skolplikt för sexåringarna infördes. 2019 införs en åtgärdsgaranti för tidiga insatser, vilket bland annat innebär obligatorisk kartläggning av alla sexåringars kunskaper. Förändringarna i läroplanen indikerar att förskoleklassen befinner sig i en brytningstid - en tid av positionsförskjutning i det svenska utbildningslandskapet från en tydligt lek- och förskoleorienterad till en mer kunskapsorienterad och skolförberedande verksamhet.

I projektet undersöker vi betydelsen av denna positionsförskjutning och vilka konsekvenser förändringarna får för lärares och skolledares förståelse av uppdraget samt för den pedagogiska praktiken och undervisningen. Teoretiskt belyser projektet konsekvenserna av positionsförskjutningen genom att analysera aspekter av och förändringar i undervisningen som policyhändelser. Mer specifikt ställer vi teoretiska frågor om hur policy blir pedagogisk praktik, samtidigt som den pedagogiska praktiken formerar nya innebörder av policy.

Betydelsen av att söka kunskap om konsekvenser av förskoleklassens positionsförskjutning i det svenska utbildningsväsendet är både empirisk och teoretisk. Empiriskt behövs ny kunskap om en delvis marginaliserad skolforms verksamhet i ett utbildningspolitiskt gränsland under stark förändring. Teoretiskt behöver vi förstå hur policy och pedagogisk praktik påverkar varandra ömsesidigt som en del av en historisk utbildningspolitik process. Projektet baseras på policyetnografi vilket innebär en bred ansats med flera olika metoder; bland annat intervjuer, observationer och dokumentanalys.

This study is a part of a research project, which aims to analyse consequences of educational policy change in Sweden. The overall policy change in Sweden is related to economy (Heckman 2000), to increase quality in education and to qualify children for further studies (Riddersporre & Persson, 2010). These changes are related to a global knowledge economy that enhances education for the youngest (Persson, 2010). Policies can be seen as narratives about progress and salvation, about ‘finding the better life’ and about ‘making’ the new citizen through schooling (Lindblad & Popkewitz, 2004). The descriptions of the child in the selected policy documents has therefore been analysed from the point of view of creating a new citizen as well as good education for children using Biesta’s (2009) concepts of subjectification and qualification. In this study, focus is to examine descriptions of the child, the school start, school readiness and mandatory school attendance through analysing national policy documents from 1940-2017. Even if document analysis includes limited ethical issues, the results may implicate consequences in educational practice. The most prominent and recurring description of the child is school ready child vs the immature child. Descriptions of power and control over children and the obedient and silenced child appears in almost all policy texts. The process of learnification in an individual performative school culture is an overarching and still standing theme. Societal ideas of children and how these are expressed in policy can be assumed to influence educational practice.

Our aim in this article is to examine policy discourses that promote positional changes for the preschool class in the Swedish educational system. The preschool class is currently going through a watershed period, which is characterized by uncertainty regarding its position in the education system. In this article, we explore changes in the Swedish education system by analysing policy documents from 1997 to 2017 with a specific focus on the positional shift of the preschool class. The departure point for our study is that policy relates to the concepts of subjectification, qualification and socialization. In addition, we examine how these goals in education are to be achieved and the educational restructuring required to do this. The findings show that policy discourses about the preschool class have shifted from pedagogical arguments about the benefits of pedagogical integration, consensus and the move of preschool pedagogy into school education, to more school- oriented, knowledge-economy arguments about increased goal achievement. Schoolarization describes a positional shift in the education system that contains two collaborative processes: an approach towards school content, goals and forms for teaching and a distancing to the content and goals formulated for Early Education and Care.

The aim of the research project is to analyse policy changes concerning the Swedish preschool class. The preschool class for six years old children is described as a transition zone between preschool and school (Ackesjö and Persson, 2016. Teachers construct an educational position for the preschool class that is influenced by both the social-pedagogical and the academic school traditions (Lago, 2014). New institutionalism and policy enactment theory are used to understand how teachers adapt, interpret and transform policy to a local educational context (Czarniawska, 2005; Powell & DiMaggio, 1991). Recontextualisation is a key concept in the policy enactment theory to analyse how teachers do policy (Ball et al., 2012). Theories of professionalisation processes are used to understand the importance of professional recognition and jurisdiction. This is a longitudinal policy ethnographic study over four years (2018-2021). The main methods are document analyses and interviews with teachers and principals. All respondents are guaranteed confidentiality and anonymity. They are free to leave the project at any time. On policy level, the term ‘schoolarisation’ describes a positional shift for the preschool class in the education system. Parallel processes of re-contextualisation are initiated when new curriculum is confronted with the teachers interpretations of their assignment. Teachers express a recognition in terms of a societal trust in the teaching they conduct. The study implicates that there is no linear relation between new policy and educational practice, instead policy is re-contextualised in relation to local organisation and teachers´ beliefs.

When children make a transition to a new arena - a new school form or a new school house - they need not only adapt and adjust to the new context. The transition also involves a separation from the old. By this, a transition becomes a two-way window; a simultaneous process of adjustment and separation. This simultaneous process involves implications for practice. All teachers have a responsibility in enabling the transition process for the children, by helping them not only to adjust to the new but also to disengage from the old context. How can priming events in transition work in both directions? How can teachers be active in children’s disengagement and separation processes? These are questions this chapter address. The chapter has a practical focus and is building on children’s voices and narratives about the transition from preschool to school in Sweden. Special focus is put on children's separation processes since this is an area that seldom is in focus when discussing about or working with children’s transition.