In recent years there has been an increasing focus on children's transitions from kindergarten to school in Denmark and many municipalities are launching projects with alternatives to the early start in spring through after-school centre like e.g. starting school in smaller groups according to age spread throughout the school year; new children starting school every semester or a "sliding" transition to the actual start of school in August by employing pedagogues in both kindergarten and school who then make the transition along with the children.
The goal of the research project
The goal of this research project is to examine the possibilities and challenges that the alternative models for "the good transition" from kindergarten to school hold.
- What characterizes the different municipalities' alternative experiments with creating good transitions from kindergarten to school in relation to the pedagogical approach, the model of governance and the pedagogues' function and competence?
- How can we understand "school readiness" amongst the children and "children readiness" at the schools from the perspectives of the children, the parents and the pedagogues?
Drawing on a critical psychological understanding, this project researches the practices of creating good transitions from both the children's, the parents' and the pedagogues' first-person perspectives. The focus will be on participation possibilities and challenges in the new alternative models of transitions from kindergarten to school.
The research project is divided into two parallel running parts:
Part A
This part of the research project will examine - and create an overview of - the different models of good transitions from kindergarten to school used by the Danish municipalities. It aims to clearly describe the different types of transitional arrangements that are currently used in Denmark; transitional arrangements like e.g. starting school in smaller groups according to age spread throughout the school year, known as rolling school start, delayed formation of the school classes, mutual visiting arrangements between kindergarten and schools and the pedagogues moving with the kids across from kindergarten to after-school centre and school.
The overview is created through reading the Danish municipalities´ descriptions of transition models- and projects on the homepages of the schools supplemented by requisitioned internal documents, telephone interviews with school managements and school administrations in the municipalities and requisitioning the documentation which BUPL (The National Organization of Children- and Youth Pedagogues), the OECD (The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) and others have already produced.
Part B
This part of the research project will contain in depth qualitative examinations of what children's school readiness and schools' readiness for children is and in what way pedagogues can play a central role in relation to this.
The qualitative examination in this part of the project will focus on Danish municipalities and school districts which have prioritized establishing concrete projects of collaboration across kindergartens and schools by including "co-creating pedagogy" in the transition process.
The researchers of this project will examine the school practice which is expected to show children readiness through participating observations. From April 2018 until school starts again after the summer holidays in the middle of August 2018, the researchers of the project will follow the "co-creating pedagogy" which is expected to make children develop school readiness.
While following the pedagogical work with the transition from kindergarten to school, the researchers of the project will carry out participating observations of the pedagogical practice and the children's everyday life within this. This will be supplemented by interviews with selected children, parents and professionals.
A practice research group consisting of researchers and professionals with practical experience from taking part in the co-creating pedagogical support of children's transitions will be established in the project. During the project, the researchers will discuss relevant themes, observations and initial analyses with the professionals who have gained experience from working and collaborating with others on making good transitions. In the practice research group both researchers and professionals will present and discuss the possibilities and challenges of the co-creating pedagogical practice. These discussions will lead to the final analysis of the main question of the project concerning what the possibilities and challenges of the alternative models of "the good transition" from kindergarten to school are.
Rapport
Please find the Danish version of the project rapport: Børneparat skole & Skoleparate børn? Fokus på overgangspædagogik (.pdf format).
Project Manager:
Associate Professor Anja Hvidtfeldt Stanek
Research Group: CH:LD
+45 65 50 46 23
ahstanek@health.sdu.dk
www.sdu.dk/ansat/ahstanek