Teachers’ Interpretation of Mathematics Goals in Swedish Preschools

The purpose of this chapter is to investigate how two preschool teachers interpret mathematics goals in the Swedish preschool curriculum. The ways in which these preschool teachers transform, clarify and concretise the mathematics goals are analysed. The data indicates a tendency towards two different approaches of interpreting and implementing mathematics: a comprehensive approach and an academic approach. Based on these preschool teachers’ interpretation and implementation of the mathematics goals, the consequences in the form of qualification, socialisation and subjectification will be discussed

Being a tour guide or travel companion on the children's knowledge journey

The purpose is to discuss two competing theories of learning in preschool based on preschool teachers' views of knowledge and learning. The focus is mathematical learning but the discussion is applicable to all early childhood learning contexts. Preschool teachers' views on children's learning and development is important for the pedagogy they use and affects how they structure everyday life in the preschool and could lead to consequences for toddlers' knowledge development. In Swedish research on learning, we can identify two dominant, competing perspectives, one based on a predetermined linear course that can be understood as adults defining what is important for children to learn, and a multidimensional perspective, starting with children's knowledge - what they already know and express with spoken or unspoken language. I advocate the broader view of learning since the linear view gives children little opportunity to influence what is to be learned and in what way. Children's initiatives are overlooked in favour of teachers' perceptions of what is important to learn.</p

Teachers’ Pedagogical Mathematical Awareness in Swedish Early Childhood Education

Revised guidelines for Swedish early childhood education that emphasize mathematics content and competencies in more detail than before raise the question of the status of pedagogical mathematical awareness among Swedish early childhood teachers. The purpose of this study is to give an overview of teachers’ current pedagogical mathematical awareness. A questionnaire was distributed to 147 teachers, asking them to respond to their habits of working with mathematics. The survey is based on theoretical conjectures of teacher professionality (pedagogical content knowledge), integrated with the idea of developmental pedagogy. Results from the questionnaire show that teachers account for mathematics as learning content but limitations are discerned concerning teachers’ awareness of spatial aspects of mathematics and problematization of mathematical content in goal-oriented manners. The results also point out areas for further stimulation in teacher training

Stories Neglected About Children’s Mathematics Learning in Play

In this paper we describe stories of mathematics learning in play that are often neglected in this era of schoolification and discussions of what counts as learning in early childhood. Drawing on theories of early childhood teaching and learning that emphasize the importance of teachers’ (a) content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and knowledge of children’s development, (b) action competencies, and (c) attitudes and beliefs, we explore three stories of child-teacher interactions in play. We found that, despite different political and public perceptions of what counts as learning in three different countries, preschool teachers evidenced competencies in similar ways – each illustrating a neglected story of children’s mathematics learning.</p