Our aim in this article is to examine policy discourses that promote positional changes for the preschool class in the Swedish educational system. The preschool class is currently going through a watershed period, which is characterized by uncertainty regarding its position in the education system. In this article, we explore changes in the Swedish education system by analysing policy documents from 1997 to 2017 with a specific focus on the positional shift of the preschool class. The departure point for our study is that policy relates to the concepts of subjectification, qualification and socialization. In addition, we examine how these goals in education are to be achieved and the educational restructuring required to do this. The findings show that policy discourses about the preschool class have shifted from pedagogical arguments about the benefits of pedagogical integration, consensus and the move of preschool pedagogy into school education, to more school- oriented, knowledge-economy arguments about increased goal achievement. Schoolarization describes a positional shift in the education system that contains two collaborative processes: an approach towards school content, goals and forms for teaching and a distancing to the content and goals formulated for Early Education and Care.

In 2014, a newly formed group of teachers graduated from Swedish universities. In addition to their qualification as leisure-time pedagogues, their degree includes teaching practical/aesthetical subjects in compulsory school. This group of teachers thus has to relate to dual professional identities and to maintain a balance between the socially oriented leisure-time centres and a goal- and results-driven school. In this article we describe their first two years after graduation, trying to get hold of their negotiation of professional identities and orientation in the professional landscape. Results shows that the graduates try to balance own ideals and hybrid professional intentions against traditional professional identities and labour market conditions and that position in a liminal phase might be crucial for the outcome.

This article reports how teachers in Swedish school-age educare evaluate (SAEC) their practice. The study was conducted within a research- and development programme and is based on 47 teachers’ written reflections about performing evaluations. The reflections have been analysed using various neo-institutional logics. The results indicate that the teachers’ focus, regarding both the children and the practice, is directed differently when they are guided by different logics. When guided by the market logic, teachers focus on customer preferences and customer satisfaction. Guided by the professional logic, teachers focus the collective as well as the activities and the organisation around them. Guided by the bureaucratic and state logics, the teachers focus on the formal teaching, the individual child, and the school-age educare goal fulfilment. The results also show issues and contradictions concerning how to evaluate, what to evaluate, and when to evaluate. One possible claim is that the learning processes at the school-age educare are broad and complex, and thus difficult to “mould” to fit into evaluation schemes.

Transition to school represents a time of great change for all involved. Many transition to school programs have been developed to support positive transitions to school. While these programs have involved complex planning and implementation, often they have not been evaluated in rigorous or systematic ways. This book brings together Australian and international perspectives on research and practice to explore approaches to evaluating transition to school programs. For children, school is quite different from anything else they have experienced. For families and educators, there are considerable changes as they interact with new people and take on new roles. Developing effective transition to school programs is a key policy initiative around the world, based on recognition of the importance of a positive start to school and the impact of this for future school engagement and outcomes. Throughout the chapters of this book, authors from Australia, Germany, Sweden, Ireland and Jamaica share examples of evaluation practice, with the aim of encouraging educators to reflect on their own contexts and adopt evaluation practices that are relevant and appropriate for them. The book brings together the fields of evaluation research and transition to school. A wide range of examples and figures is used to relate research and practice and to illustrate possible applications of evaluation strategies. Evaluating Transition to School Programs highlights the importance of multiple perspectives of the transition to school and offers suggestions about how the perspectives of children, families, educators and community members might be included and analysed in evaluation strategies. Other themes throughout the book include the importance of collaboration, respectful and trusting relationships, practitioner-driven inquiry, strengths-based approaches and developing programs that are responsive to context. This book is written for educators and leaders in early years and primary school settings, and will also be of interest to researchers, students and policy makers in the field.