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Henckel, Boel. Förskollärare i tanke och i handling. En studie kring begreppenarbete, lek och inlärning. (Pre-school Teachers - Notions and Pratices. A Study ofKey Concepts in Pre-school Pedagogy.) Dissertation of the Faculty of SocialSciences, University of Umeå, 1990. (In Swedish with a summary in English).ISBN 91-7174-521-1, ISSN 0281-6768ABSTRACTThe purpose of this dissertation is to acquire greater knowledge of some of theconditions of the educational activities of pre-school as well as of what is actuallygoing on in pre-school. The study examines twelve pre-school teachers' notions ofpre-school and conceptions of work, play and learning and how they interact withchildren with respect to these concepts. The notions and conceptions of a group oftwenty-one trainee teachers have also been studied at the beginning and at the endof their training. In 1981 a new plan for pre-schooling was presented by TheNational Board of Health and Welfare which can be regarded as an attempt atsolving pre-school problems arisen the last ten year period. Work, play andlearning were the central concepts in the plan, providing pre-school, day-nurseriesand part-time-groups, with structure and content. In the study, notions andconceptions are key-words. They can be defined as structuring and integrating,comprehensive principles determining how an individual interprets and evaluatesthe surrounding world. Notions and conceptions are examined through interviewanalyses. A special classification item was designed and administered in connectionwith the interviews. The pre-school teachers were also observed interacting withthe group of children for fifteen hours.The results show that some of the pre-school teachers had notions of pre-schoolas "an institution for compensation" or as "an institution for development". Mostof them regarded pre-school as "an institution for adjustment". They also haddifferent conceptions of work, play and learning. The categories of conceptionsexpress a more or less "educationalized" or "psychologized" attitude, an "adultreferenced"or "child-referenced" attitude. Regarding the conceptions of activities itis maintained that the trainee teachers have become "educationalized" in the courseof their training. They expressed fewer notions that can be described as "childreferenced"or " psychologized". The observations show that the pre-schoolteachers did not act quite in accordance with the view they expressed in theinterviews. They acted more uniformly than could be expected. The practices ofmost pre-school teachers indicated pre-school as "an institution for adjustment",only rarely "development", never "compensation". The most frequent conceptionsexpressed in their practices were that work is "assigned tasks", play is a"therapeutic necessity" and learning is "social training". The results are dicussed inthe light of the development of pre-school in Sweden during the 1970s.Professionally, frame-factors, tradition in pre-school are important concepts forthe understanding of the results.Key words: Pre-school teachers, trainee pre-school teachers, work, play,learning, day care nursery, part-time group, notions of pre-school, conceptions inpre-school.