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.

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.

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.

Swedish preschool class got its first specific curriculum in 2016. Because of this,

the preschool class can be said to face change where existing practice meets

new policy. This study aims to analyse how teachers in preschool classes do

policy during this time of change by studying how teachers in preschool class

relate the new curriculum to existing practice. New institutionalism, theory of

professionalism and policy enactment theory are used to understand this. The

data used are conversations with teachers at three different schools. The re

sults show that parallel processes of recontextualisation are initiated when

new curriculum is confronted with the teachers interpretations of their as

signment, i.e. a simultaneous process of adaptation and change of existing

pedagogical practice take place. Teachers interpret the new curriculum and

relate to it as a whole. They express a recognition in terms of a societal trust in

the teaching they conduct. Even though the teachers express that the new

curriculum gives them trust, professional exclusivity and legitimacy, they also

interpret it as a recognition of things they want to change in the educational

practice. It is through this recognition that the teachers interpret and do policy.

The article discusses a shift of the position of the preschool class in the educa

tional system.

I denna text diskuteras svenska vårdnadshavares förväntningar på sina barns kommande övergång från förskola till förskoleklass. Empirin består av 176 enkäter besvarade av vårdnadshavare vars barn var på väg att göra denna övergång. Resul-taten visar att många vårdnadshavare beskriver sina barn som ”redo för skolan” medan andra ger uttryck för att det snarare är skolan som måste vara redo för deras barn. Resultaten visar att övergångar mellan skolformer måste betraktas ur ett sociokulturellt perspektiv baserat på dialog mellan individ, hem och de olika institutionerna i skolsystemet. Först då kan ”school readiness”-begreppet utgöra en rättighetsdiskurs – dvs. barns rätt till anpassad fortsatt skolgång.

Förskoleklassen blir obligatorisk och erkänns som en viktig skolform med ett eget innehåll vilket ökar möjligheten till en nationell likvärdighet för alla elever. Läroplanens skrivningar gör uppdraget tydligare och det blir också tydligt för lärarna vilka förmågor eleverna ska utveckla under året.

In this article, the play used in preschool class education is discussed. On the one hand, research has shown that there seems to be a positional shift towards a more academic and schoolpreparatory positioning of the preschool class education. On the other hand, this is still a voluntary school form that shall be based on preschool traditions and play. In addition, research has shown that there actually is a weak emphasis on care provision and play in this educational practice. There is also a lack of knowledge about how play is used and conditioned. The purpose for this study is therefore to analyze the play used in preschool class education. Data for the study is extracted from an 11 months ethnographic case study and the original empirical material consists of 1013 minutes of recorded film in addition to 224 A4-pages of field notes constructed during one year in one preschool class. Examples of common, ordinary and recurring play situations during the school year were selected from this material. Inspired by qualitative content analysis the selected play situations were joined together in three different categories: 1) The optional play, 1) The cultural play, and 3) The educational play. In line with previous research, the results show that play in preschool classes never is “free”. Rather, it is conditioned and framed by the teachers (present or not present); children are committed to play in a certain way and a certain time. In addition, there is a future perspective in the use of play. Playing activities seems often to be closely linked to educational goals.