Project: The knowledge mission of the Swedish pre-school

Pre-school has an important mission to lay the foundation for all children’s lifelong development of knowledge – a mission that has increasingly come to be emphasized in recent years. The project investigates how the preschool’s knowledge mission can be explained, understood and conceptualized.

Project information

Project manager
Bettina Vogt
Participating organizations
Linnaeus University
Financier
The Board of teacher education, Linnaeus University
Timetable
Jan 2026–Jan 2028
Subject
Education (Department of Education, Faculty of Social Sciences)
Website
Studies in Teaching and Education (SITE)

More about the project

Preschools have an important mission in laying an equitable foundation for all children’s lifelong knowledge development. In the Swedish preschool curriculum, the knowledge mission has in recent years become increasingly emphasised. For example, mathematics, science and language are highlighted as key areas of knowledge for preschool teachers to focus on in their teaching.

Although significant research efforts have been made over the past decade regarding the role and meaning of teaching in preschool in Sweden, the knowledge question itself still lacks more coherent and systematic analyses. The overarching question that the projects purposes to answer is: How can the knowledge mission of preschool be explained, understood and conceptualised, and how has it changed over time?

This project examines these questions through context-sensitive empirical multi-level analyses – of the knowledge mission’s concrete local, national and international contexts– which include, among other things, policy analyses and studies involving practising preschool teachers. The project aims to develop profession-relevant tools for understanding and conceptualising the knowledge mission in today’s preschool, thereby contributing to strengthening the research-based foundation of preschool teachers’ education and professional practice.