This qualitative study focuses on how new teacher candidates reflect on teacher tasks such as moral education, care, and teaching. The candidates reflected on these experiences after being put in charge of starting a school day in front of the pupils, but also after having observed how mentor teachers started a school day. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the written reflections of the candidates. Our findings reveal that the candidates noted how micro rituals and school artefacts could support the way teachers work, but also how emotionally challenging it could be to handle such tasks as a novice. These findings are discussed in relation to how teacher education programs can promote openness and honesty when facing challenges and difficulties.

In this essay, the compensatory mission of the Swedish school-age educare is discussed, focusing specifically on school-age educare centers in areas with socio-economic challenges. This is made in the light of narratives of principals and school-age educare staff and in relation to the Official Reports of the Swedish Government (SOU 2020:34; SOU 2022:61), which proposes a free of charge school-age educare for all children aged 6–9 years. Both the official reports and the narratives contain several examples of how school-age educare centers can be valuable in a variety of ways for the children growing up in areas with socio-economic challenges. On the one hand, the potential of a traditional school-age educare pedagogy, where children can develop the fundamental democratic values on which the Swedish society is based, is described. On the other hand, it becomes clear that free school-age educare for all children also could lead to negative consequences. If resources aren’t provided, in form of better premises and more staff, the centers can only in the best-case scenario provide child minding. Overall, a picture of the school-age educare centers’ potential emerges, but also what kind of resources that might be required for this potential to be realized. In conclusion, the essay reflects upon how the compensatory mission can be understood in a time where children’s free time is described as more and more problematic. 

I detta kapitel diskuteras den sortens samverkan mellan forskare och lärare som explicit syftar till att utveckla lärarnas praktik eller skolans kvalitet. Ett antagande görs att sådan samverkan kan innefatta viktiga utifrånperspektiv, inom ramen för ett ständigt pågående kvalitetsarbete. En huvudambition med kapitlet är dock att bidra med en kritisk diskussion av vad en sådan extern belysning av en verksamhet kan resultera i. I det avseendet introduceras ett antal ”f-ord”, där särskilt ordet förändring utsätts för en kritisk analys, medan möjligheterna med förädling lyfts fram på olika sätt. Därutöver diskuteras orden förbättring och förvaltning, följt av en konklusion och sammanfattning där ett avslutande f-ord lyfts fram: förståelse. Då två olika praktiker möts – forskarnas och lärarnas – kan det bli utmanande att uppnå just gemensam förståelse. I ett slutord föreslås därmed att en formulering likt ”vetenskaplig grund i dialog med beprövad erfarenhet” kan bana väg för ett mer reflekterande möte där respektive part får möjlighet att uppfatta en betydelse och innebörd av den andres samverkansbidrag.

In this study student teachers (n=74) make some initial visits in practice schools, during their very first teacher education course. The student teachers observed how their mentor teachers handled a school day start (during day 1), followed by reflections after having managed a school day start by themselves (during day 2).

Theoretically, a school day start can be seen as a “baseline condition” were minor details can lead to ”major turbulence and unpredictability later on” (Koopmans, 2014, p. 31-32). For example, a teacher´s unexpected absence in the morning may involve rescheduling available staff, or asking teachers to forgo their preparation period, dividing the class into smaller groups and so forth.

During a school day start important role transitions are also being made (Ashfort, Kreiner & Fugate, 2000), while adults and children start to approach the school yard and the school building, and dynamic social processes are starting. Different situations in school corridors or elsewhere can demand micro role transitions, when teachers enter a caring role in front of a sad pupil, or a discipline role in front of pupils who break some rule. In total, complexity theory suggest that ”small events/actions can have big effects” (Ell et.al., 2017, p. 329), not least during initial conditions such as a school day start when time is approaching for the first lesson of the day, and for the teacher to enter the teaching role in front of the pupils.

The first research question (1ab) is about the student teachers´ observation day one, and the second research question (2) is about how the student teachers reflect after having managed a school day start by themselves:

1a)What examples of care (i) and discipline/moral education (ii) do the student teachers note while observing the school day start?

1b)How do the mentor teachers enter the teaching role in front of the pupils, according to the student teachers?

2)What experiences do the student teachers describe, after being responsible for starting a school day in front of the pupils?

Qualitative content analysis was used to analyze students´ written reflections. The concepts care, discipline/moral education and teaching was used in a deductive coding phase (Xu & Sammit, 2020), followed by inductive coding which led to subthemes. Findings reveal how the student teachers noticed mentor teachers´ micro rituals together with the pupils, how different artefacts in the schools facilitated teachers work, and how the student teachers´ own attempts were emotionally challenging. The students´ emotions and doubt are discussed in relation to how teacher education programs can involve regular meetings with practice schools where it is possible to be open and honest without grades, performances or assessment being in focus.

The study was a part of the Swedish national pilot project ULF (Swedish acronym which stands for Development, Learning and Research). The aim of the project ULF is to develop and test sustainable collaboration models between academia and the school or school system regarding research, school activities and teacher education. 

School-age educare (fritidshem) was included in the Swedish education act in 2010 and received its own section in the national curriculum in 2016. From that point on, teaching in school-age educare was also linked to predefined core contents and abilities that the pupils are supposed to develop. At the same time, the curriculum states that teaching in school-age educare is to be based on “the pupils’ needs, interests and experiences”. In the article, this duality is discussed in relation to empirical findings from school-age educare teachers. The teachers describe situations when they pay attention to pupils’ doing and saying, and how this is transformed into teaching purposes. The findings are related to the concept of “phronesis”, while the teachers’ attention gets a significant meaning through that concept. Moreover, the findings indicate that “episteme knowledge” also needs to be emphasized in this form of student-centered education, as something necessary for school-age educare teachers to know.

I denna essä diskuteras undervisning som begrepp och fenomen, med ett särskilt fokus på fritidshemmet. Utifrån ett handlingsteoretiskt perspektiv riktas analysen mot den konkreta interaktionen mellan pedagog och elev, där kvaliteten på pedagogens handlingar blir konstitutiva för undervisning som fenomen. Intentionen, avsikten att lära eleven något, blir ur detta perspektiv möjlig att observera under dynamiska situationer inom exempelvis fritids-hemmets verksamhet. Detta kan ställas i relation till en konventionell förståelse av undervisning då intentioner och avsikter istället antas vara inbäddade och avgränsade i tid och rum, med rubriker som ”lektion” eller ”undervisningspass”. Det handlingsteoretiska perspektivet föreslås inte ersätta en sådan förståelse, men däremot komplettera den och framför allt bidra till att uppmärksamheten riktas mot dimensioner av verksamheten där kvalitet rimligen kan bedömas.