Kindergarten teachers’ cultural formation processes

Project summary

To generate knowledge about and new insights into how kindergarten teachers shape their professional identity, what they identify as critical episodes or dilemmas in their own practice, what is important to them in the execution of their profession, and how they justify their practice

This research project seeks to answer the following research question: How can kindergartenteachers’ cultural formation processes and conditions be described and understood?

The study identifies elements in the complexity that makes up educational practice, provides insights into the cultural formation ideals embedded in political texts, and examines how personal experiences relate to social, cultural and historical components.

The research project studies the relationship between various conditions for kindergarten teachers’ cultural formation by illuminating the complex dynamic between practice and policy.

The project has two groups of interviewees: kindergarten teachers with many years’ experience and student kindergarten teachers. The political texts consist of Report no. 24 to the Storting on the kindergarten of the future and the new national curriculum for kindergarten teacher education.

Supervisors:

• Main supervisor: Kjetil Steinsholt, professor of education at the Department of Education at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
• Co-supervisor: Elin Eriksen Ødegaard, fil.dr., professor of education at Bergen University College (HVL)