Socialisation Tensions in the Swedish Preschool Curriculum ‒ The Case of Mathematics

Abstract

In Sweden, where almost all children attend preschool, preschools are significant sites of socialisation. Therefore, there is a need to investigate how this socialisation may be affected by implementation of a revised curriculum. Changes in preschool curriculum are an indication of how schoolification is influencing Early Years Education. This is because preschool teachers and work teams use the curriculum to plan activities for children who will be socialised by participating in these activities. This article investigates the goals and guidelines in the revised preschool curriculum and considers how an increased emphasis in those related to mathematics may affect the kind of socialisation children could gain. The goals and guidelines support teachers’ pedagogical practices and hence are worth investigating. The concepts of being and becoming are used to consider how the goals and guidelines position children as having or needing to gain norms and values, skills and knowledge. Consequently, they are considered to need to acquire the skills to perform as members of their society or as knowledgeable participants when constructing their everyday lives in preschool. The goals and guidelines related to mathematics emphasise children’s becoming, and thus their incompleteness. This results in less opportunity for teachers to perceive children as having relevant experience and skills to contribute to activities and to produce creative cultural understanding. Consequently, the schoolification of the preschool curriculum through the increased emphasis in the goals and guidelines for school subjects is likely to affect the kinds of activities that preschool teachers plan and provide to children, and thus the kind of socialisation they receive in preschool.