Swedish preschool staff’s descriptions of technology

Abstract

With regards to previous research results on how the teacher’s/preschool teacher’s understanding of a subject effects children’s learning and apprehending of the subject combined with the difficulties for the technology subject to take place in preschool this study aims at investigating how preschool staff (including preschool teachers and day care attendants) describe technology. A qualitatively designed questionnaire was sent out to 139 preschool teachers and day care attendants in a Swedish municipality, whereof 102 answered. The open question about what technology is thought to be was analyzed using a conventional content analysis resulting in nine categories, of which six interrelated hierarchically and one contained answers witch could not be categorized. Thus the result shows eight different ways in which technology is described, from a simple and naive description to a more complex description that implicates a deeper understanding of technology. A majority describes technology according to the latter. The result also shows that it is mainly the preschool teachers who describe technology in a more complex way. Many of the respondents have trouble separating technology from science, and quite a few describes technology as technique, which is another meaning for the word in the Swedish language. FULL TEXT IN SWEDISH.