Resultatet visar att flickorna agerar utifrån en pedagogisk position inom ramen för de förväntningar som finns om att agera som lärarens stöd (se även Johans-sons, 2007). Mina resultat visar att flickorna inte alltid får gehör för sin pedago-giska position utan att de tar stöd av lärarens formella maktposition. Vilken be-tydelse har flickornas ibland skenbara ställning som lärarens pedagogiska stöd för hur könsåtskillnadens etiska gestaltning av demokratiska värden sker? Tyder det på att det finns en respektlöshet i pojkarnas samspel med flickorna och handlar det i så fall om moralisk kränkning36 så som undanhållet erkännande i betydelsen av förbisedd position? Däremot finns i mina resultat exempel där pojkarna får lärarens erkännande att handla i strid mot gällande normer, samtidigt som flick-ornas påpekanden om att pojkarna agerar mot gällande normer blir förbisedda.
Könsåtskillnadens etiska gestaltning är väsentligt att problematisera med fokus såväl på flickors handlingar som på pojkars. Intressant är att pojkars omsorgs-handlingar kan ske på ett undanskymt sätt. Däremot visas i min studie att poj-karnas personliga preferenser och intressen kommer till uttryck och inverkar på det meningsskapande som sker på ett annat sätt än flickornas då de tar ansvar för institutionella regler. Vad innebär det i ett jämställdhetsperspektiv att pojkar-na tar ansvar för sig själva och sipojkar-na intressen som individer och flickorpojkar-na tar an-svar för andra och gemensamma intressen? Resultatet visar också att i barnens gemensamma lek utgör könsskillnad ett väsentligt redskap för att organisera och utveckla lekens form och innehåll. Vilken betydelse har barnens olika sätt att leka på då konflikter uppstår? Om deras olika lekpreferenser är i konflikt, vad innebär konflikterna? Resultatet väcker intresse att ytterligare studera den sociala praktik som tar stöd i könsåtskillnad på ett generationellt sätt. Mot bakgrund av att bar-nens perspektiv och deras agens anses innehålla information om hur vardagliga strukturer överlever och fortplantar sig. Utifrån detta är mitt intresse också att undersöka könsåtskillnadens etiska gestaltning i andra typer av skolpraktiker.
SUMMARY
Introduction
Inspired by the idea of life-long learning, public pre-schools were introduced in Swe-den on January 1st, 2003 (The Swedish National Agency for Education, 2003). From July 1st, 2009, public pre-schools will comprise all children from the age of three years (Dept. series 2008:56). This means that nowadays most children in Sweden will take part in pre-school activities. According to a list drawn up by OECD (2006), 86% of the 2-3-year-olds, 91% of the 3-4-year-olds and 96% of the 5-6-year-olds were already participating in pre-school activities by the year 2004. The introduction of public pre-schools for 4-5-year-olds was, in other words, based on the idea of creating equal conditions for continual learning, which is described as a right for all children irrespective of social factors (Parlia-mentary Bill. 2004/05:11).
There have been both curricula and steering instruments for Swedish pre-schools as well as pre-schools and pre-school classes since 1998. The steering in-struments are designed to be linked together, even though pre-school classes and compulsory schools have a common curriculum and pre-schools have a curricu-lum of their own. The construction of curricula is founded on democratic values and principles. This is one of the reasons why it is both important and interest-ing to study what form the activities in the public pre-schools may take from the perspective of the children.
The starting-point for the study is that everything the children do in their every-day actions and activities in pre-school, their interaction, interplay and commu-nication, has an impact in social patterns that are created and recreated (Prout, 2005). The approach is that the children’s relations in the everyday life of pre-school contribute to the creation and recreation of social structures. By means of the institutions established, the children have a connecting function and agency between one generation and another (Alanen och Mayall, 2001). This also means that democracy, democratic values and sets of values exist in the children’s eve-ryday life and affect their learning and development in pre-school, and that the fundamental values to be striven for, the value base, are formed in everyday life – for better or worse. Whether what appears is regarded as good or less good for
their learning and development in pre-school depends on what approach to chil-dren and knowledge has been chosen.
The study’s research questions have been delineated with the help of the pre-school curriculum and the text related to the values on which it is based (Na-tional Agency for Education, 2006) and explore how democratic values are ex-pressed among children aged 3-6 years. The value base as formulated in the cur-riculum for pre-school is multifaceted and rests on the fundamental democratic values of society:
An important task of the pre-school is to establish and help children acquire the values on which our society is based. The inviolability of human life, in-dividual freedom and integrity, the equal value of all people, equality be-tween the genders as well as solidarity with the weak and vulnerable are all values that the school shall actively promote in its work with children. (Swedish National Agency for Education, 2006, p. 3)
The quotation above describes the values to be applied in pre-school activities, and thus those that should form the basis of the work. The different values that are stated to be good and worth striving for may be seen as intertwined with the ideological base that they form. In the study, some of these aspects are separated so that they may be explored more easily. The value base text, which provides room for different interpretations according to the meaning attached to the ferent values, is not unproblematic. Different concepts and meanings can be dif-ficult to separate and, at the same time, difdif-ficult to combine. For example, how can we attain equality between the genders when the freedom and integrity of the individual have to be considered? Who can be made equal to whom? Whose freedom and integrity really form the basis for equality? Equality in combination with the individual’s freedom and integrity therefore presumes that girls and boys are ascribed equal value. But what is ‘equal value’? In the ideological inter-twining of the value base, moral values such as responsibility, care and respect are of utmost importance and are emphasised as the values that should charac-terise the pedagogical work in pre-school.
Aim
The general aim of this thesis is to investigate how democratic values such as responsibility, care and respect are expressed in the children’s relations in the everyday life of pre-school. A subsidiary aim is to try to answer questions about
what form is given to the individual’s freedom and integrity and equality between the genders. This thesis is based on questions that have evolved from an interest in whether democratic ways of thinking and behaving emerge in the processes by which children create meaning in pre-school.
x How do the children handle values and value judgements in everyday in-terplay?
x What values do the children handle in different situations with the help of the relations amongst themselves and in interaction with the teacher?