The overall goal of this project is to gain a broad picture of belonging and the politics of belonging in early education settings (In Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland the children attend school from 6 or 7 years. In the Netherlands children attend compulsory school at 4 years of age. Using the terms early education settings and (pre)schools with parenthesis we refer to educational institutions (preschool, day-care, compulsory school) involving children between 4 and 6 years) in five European countries: Finland, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden. By 'belonging' we refer to children<acute accent>s sense of feeling safe and 'at home'. By 'politics of belonging' we refer to societal structures and processes of safeguarding communities and their borders among children (and educators) in their early education settings. Educators (n = 648) and parents (n = 1,598) were surveyed about their perspectives about, and pedagogies for, belonging. Results indicated that, in general, parents and educators felt positively about belonging in their (pre)schools. Even so the study shows that experiences of belonging cannot be taken for granted, and a number of parents and educators worry about children being excluded and alienated. The study also revealed a relation between the educational level of educators and the complexity of pedagogic methods educators used to support children<acute accent>s belonging in early education settings. L'objectif global de ce projet est d'obtenir une vue d'ensemble de l'appartenance et des politiques d'appartenance dans les contextes d'& eacute;ducation pr & eacute;scolaire de cinq pays europ & eacute;ens : la Finlande, l'Islande, les Pays-Bas, la Norv & egrave;ge et la Su & egrave;de. Par << appartenance >>, nous faisons r & eacute;f & eacute;rence au sentiment de s & eacute;curit & eacute; et de << chez soi >> des enfants. Par << politique d'appartenance >>, nous faisons r & eacute;f & eacute;rence aux structures et processus soci & eacute;taux de sauvegarde des communaut & eacute;s et de leurs fronti & egrave;res parmi les enfants (et les & eacute;ducateurs) dans leurs contextes d'& eacute;ducation pr & eacute;scolaire. Les & eacute;ducateurs (n = 648) et les parents (n = 1 598) ont & eacute;t & eacute; interrog & eacute;s sur leurs perspectives et leurs p & eacute;dagogies concernant l'appartenance. Les r & eacute;sultats ont indiqu & eacute; qu'en g & eacute;n & eacute;ral, les parents et les & eacute;ducateurs ressentaient positivement leur appartenance & agrave; leur (pr & eacute;)& eacute;cole. L'& eacute;tude montre n & eacute;anmoins que les exp & eacute;riences d'appartenance ne peuvent pas & ecirc;tre consid & eacute;r & eacute;es comme acquises et qu'un certain nombre de parents et d'& eacute;ducateurs s'inqui & egrave;tent du fait que les enfants soient exclus et ali & eacute;n & eacute;s. L'& eacute;tude a & eacute;galement r & eacute;v & eacute;l & eacute; une relation entre le niveau d'& eacute;ducation des & eacute;ducateurs et la complexit & eacute; des m & eacute;thodes p & eacute;dagogiques utilis & eacute;es par ceux-ci pour soutenir l'appartenance des enfants dans les milieux d'& eacute;ducation pr & eacute;scolaire. El objetivo general de este proyecto es obtener una imagen amplia de la pertenencia y las pol & iacute;ticas de pertenencia en entornos de educaci & oacute;n temprana en cinco pa & iacute;ses europeos: Finlandia, Islandia, Pa & iacute;ses Bajos, Noruega y Suecia. Por "pertenencia" nos referimos a la sensaci & oacute;n que tienen los ni & ntilde;os de sentirse seguros y "en casa". Por "pol & iacute;ticas de pertenencia" nos referimos a las estructuras sociales y a los procesos de salvaguardia de las comunidades y sus fronteras entre los ni & ntilde;os (y los educadores) en sus entornos de educaci & oacute;n temprana. Se encuest & oacute; a educadores (n = 648) y padres (n = 1.598) sobre sus perspectivas y pedagog & iacute;as sobre la pertenencia. Los resultados indicaron que, en general, los padres y educadores se sent & iacute;an positivos acerca de pertenecer a sus escuelas (pre)escolares. Aun as & iacute;, el estudio muestra que las experiencias de pertenencia no pueden darse por sentadas, y a varios padres y educadores les preocupa que los ni & ntilde;os sean excluidos y alienados. El estudio tambi & eacute;n revel & oacute; una relaci & oacute;n entre el nivel educativo de los educadores y la complejidad de los m & eacute;todos pedag & oacute;gicos que los educadores utilizaron para apoyar la pertenencia de los ni & ntilde;os a entornos de educaci & oacute;n temprana.

A Swedish preschool must be adapted to all children, regardless of ethnicity, religion or disability. Inclusion and the children’s sense of participation are essential keywords in this work. The present analysis was based on two studies in which the staff’s and parents’ perceptions of significant factors and goal fulfilment for inclusive preschools in Sweden were analysed. The results of this comparison showed, among other things, that there was an engaging and open-minded discussion climate among the staff and parents regarding inclusion. The staff and parents highly valued the quality of the inclusion work; the parents more so than the staff. Most of the staff and parents thought it was possible to create a sense of belonging among the children in preschool.

The guiding principle for after-school care is to avoid segregation and specialist solutions. However, a tendency to segregate children needing special support in Swedish after-school care is a reality. A significant problem that after-school care faces is maintaining inclusive activities. This study aims to map the problem and find methods to reduce segregating processes in after-school care. Based on interviews with after-school teachers and student teachers focusing on work in after-school centres, the aim is to paint a picture of the centres&rsquo; current perspectives and efforts to create a sense of belonging for all children. In the analysis, a division of special pedagogy is used based on three discourses present in previous studies. As the results show, the interviewees advocated for an inclusive pedagogy. The scope, ambition, and prerequisites for this work varied between the different after-school centres, but all those interviewed agree that working with participation is the key to inclusion. The staff had a range of strategies and methods to ensure that all children in the organisation experienced a sense of belonging. The interviewees agreed that after-school centres should receive more resources and space for their after-school pedagogies to maintain an inclusive function.

This article is based on studies carried out within the Young children’s learning research education programme. This undertaking involved five graduate students, all recruited from the Swedish preschool system. The licentiate thesis makes up the final product of their education programme, and the focus of each candidate’s licentiate thesis was preschool-level documentation. Using the results of all five theses, a re-analysis was conducted with the concept of normality as the common starting point. The purpose was to investigate whether documentation and assessment can change the view of normality in preschools, and furthermore, what consequences there may be for preschool activity. ‘The narrow preschool and the wide preschool’ is the model used to support the analysis, which is a model used in previous studies to review and discuss educational choices and conditions in the school system. Results of the present investigation show that the documents and assessments performed in preschool have a strong focus on the individual child and a traditional, school-oriented learning is highly valued. The documentation and assessment practices that take place now in our preschools, therefore, most likely influence the preschool view of normality and restrict the acceptance of differences.

The present study examines how teachers in school-age educare view their profession in terms of job tasks and work situation as well as their need for and attitude towards teaching assistants. The study was conducted in two stages. The first part consisted of an online survey answered by 61 school-age educare teachers. Based on the results of the survey, eight employment advertisements were constructed with different job descriptions. During a staff development day, 44 school-age educare teachers prioritized the various announcements based on their needs for an additional resource. The priorities were then discussed in seminar form. The results show that there is large variation in all the tasks performed within the framework of the school-age educare teachers professional practice which is reflected and discussed from a professional theoretical perspective. The profession’s area of responsibility is extensive, ranging from certified teaching duties to simple practical tasks that are often time-consuming. The work is, therefore, often experienced as stressful and fragmented. Clearly there are different directions of will in regards to the professional development and positioning. From the data, three types of school-age educare teachers were formed. Common to the three types that have been presented is that the task as a substitute in the school is not desirable.

I föreliggande undersökning studeras hur lärare i fritidshem ser på sin profession i termer av arbetsuppgifter och arbetssituation samt deras behov av och inställning till lärarassistenter. Undersökningen utfördes i två steg. Den första delen bestod av en webbenkät som besvarades av 61 fritidshemslärare. Utifrån resultatet av enkäten konstruerades åtta platsannonser med olikartade arbetsbeskrivningar. Vid en studiedag prioriterade 44 fritidshemslärare de olika utlysningarna utifrån sina behov av en extra resurs. Därefter diskuterades prioriteringarna i seminarieform. Resultatet visar att det är en stor variation på alla de arbetsuppgifter som utförs inom ramen för fritidshemslärares yrkesutövning vilket speglas och diskuteras ur ett professionsteoretiskt perspektiv. Professionens ansvarsområde är vidsträckt och rör sig mellan kvalificerade undervisningsuppdrag och enkla praktiska göromål, som inte sällan är tidskrävande. Arbetet upplevs därför många gånger som stressigt och splittrat. Att det finns olika viljeinriktningar när det gäller den professionella utvecklingen och positioneringen är tydligt. Ur undersökningens data formerades tre typer av fritidshemslärare där inställningen till fritidshemslärarens profession och lärarassistenter varierade. Gemensamt för de tre typer av fritidshemslärare som presenterats är att uppgiften som avlösare eller vikarie i skolan inte är önskvärd. Här kräver fritidshemslärarna möjligheten till tid för att planera sin undervisningsinsats i fritidshemmet.

Fritidshemmets uppdrag och resurser har ändrats radikalt. Möjligheterna att inkludera alla barn i den ordinarie fritidshemsverksamheten har minskat, vilket är bekymmersamt ur ett delaktighetsperspektiv. Den här texten behandlar de hinder och möjligheter för den inkluderande pedagogik som tidigare s. tydligt kännetecknat fritidshemmet som institution. Intervjuer med fritidshemslärare och studenter med inriktning mot arbete i fritidshem ger en bild av fritidshemmets nuvarande position och arbete med att skapa en känsla av tillhörighet för samtliga barn i verksamheten.

Speciallärares och specialpedagogers antal och betydelse har ökat de senaste åren och specialpedagogik som expertfält blir alltmer centralt i det svenska skolsystemet. Samtidigt sker en fortsatt selektering till särskilda skolformer och elevgrupper och den Specialpedagogiska skolmyndighetens roll och ställning stärks, vilket gör det än mer angeläget att diskutera vad special-pedagogik är och vill göra. I denna text uppmanas läsaren att i tanke och handling tydligare ta ställning till specialpedagogikens grundläggande perspektiv. Som stöd för denna process ges i artikeln argument för att precisera, nyansera eller eventuellt förnya några specialpedagogiska begrepp. 

Det svenska fritidshemmets relation till specialpedagogik har varit oklar sedan fritidshemmen inrättades. Ett specialpedagogiskt förhållningssätt har varit iakttagbart i verksamheten men svårt att härleda och definiera. Olika former av externa specialpedagogiska insatser har varit sällsynta men det senaste decenniet har efterfrågan på denna typ av aktiviteter ökat. I den här studien har tidigare forskning och fritidshemmets styrdokument granskats för att utreda hur det specialpedagogiska uppdraget över tid skrivits fram och vilka konsekvenser det fått i praktiken. I en litteratur- och dokumentstudie granskas fritidshemsverksamhet med fokus på specialpedagogik från det att den inrättades till nutida verksamhet. Styrdokument har analyserats med metoden diskursanalys. Resultatet visar att de specialpedagogiskt förankrade inslagen var och är relativt rikligt förekommande. Begreppen kompensation, differentiering och delaktighet kom att formera de mest framträdande diskurserna. Specialpedagogiken har haft och har en betydande disciplinär funktion, vilket till stora delar kan härledas till skolans verksamhet och den specialpedagogiska tradition som råder där. De specialpedagogiska inslagen på fritidshemmet har utvecklats i en normativ riktning och normbrytande mönster definieras snävare. Det finns en klar tendens till exkludering genom organisatorisk differentiering för elever som inte når upp till de krav som ställs i verksamheten. Författarnas slutsats är att det behövs en specialpedagogik som är utvecklad för fritidshemmets verksamhet och som kan stödja och försvara den pedagogik och det förhållningssätt som definieras fritidshemspedagogik. 

This article presents the results and experiences on parents’ perspectives of belonging in early years education. The study aimed to investigate how the parents assess the fulfilment of the inclusion goals that apply to the Swedish pre-school activities. Another aim was to learn about the parents’ perspectives on factors and pedagogical approaches that promote diversity and belonging. The study involves the answers from 454 parents/guardians of pre-school pupils. When the parents were asked directly if their children were excluded by others in the group, 14% stated it was true. The present study tried to find factors and connections to strengthen the pre-school’s inclusive working methods. One way to have children become more included in the group is to get the parents more involved and familiar with activities and for the staff to convey the goals that apply to activities.

Purpose: This study explored how preschool and special needs teachers in Sweden perceive their own role and the role of each other in the preschools’ documentation and assessment practices. It examines the possible consequences of this perception and of the actions based on it for children with special needs.

Method: The study took a qualitative approach. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven special needs teachers and seven preschool teachers from different schools and municipalities.

Results: The results show that the preschool and special needs teachers’ roles regarding assessment and documentation, as described and specified in the curriculum, are contradictory and difficult. Assessing an individual child’s knowledge development by observing and documenting the child group was regarded as problematic by both occupational groups, and further training in assessments was sought.

Conclusion and Implications: Clear differences were found between the way in which preschool teachers and special needs teachers performed observations and assessments and documented them. Preschool teachers mainly used participant observations at a group level, while special needs teachers were usually tasked with observing a particular child. Preschool teachers’ reluctance to document the performance of individual children might result in children’s special needs remaining hidden. It is important to find methods which endorse assessments that allow for and appreciate diversity, and that are not based on normative notions which often result in differentiating between children and dividing them into different groups of learners based on their perceived level of knowledge.

Limitations: From the interview results, it has sometimes been difficult to differentiate between the concepts of observation, documentation and assessment as they are often parts of a whole within the context of preschools. As the survey was of limited scope, the results cannot be generalised to all Swedish preschools, but the data obtained could provide important guidance for further work with inclusive preschools.