Learning and participation: two interrelated keyconcepts in the preschool

At the European Early Childhood Education Research Association (EECERA) conference in Prague in autumn 2007, an international network of teacher trainers and researchers was formed to discuss and investigate what learning and participation meant for preschool teacher students and staff who work with young children. In Sweden, the first of these exploratory studies was conducted at Malardalen University and Stockholm University, and 56 preschool teachers and 56 preschool teacher students participated. The study was carried out with the critical-incident method. The participants were asked in a critical-incident questionnaire about how they understood the concepts of and relationship between learning and participation. Questions also were constructed so that the participants had the opportunity to link the concepts of learning and participation in a real situation in preschool. The results show that preschool teachers and preschool teacher students define the meaning of learning and participation in a similar way. It also showed that learning and participation are clearly related to each other. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]