Citation

Söderström, Hultman AL. Early Years (Stoke-on-Trent) 2017; 37(3): 300-312.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Informa - Taylor and Francis)

DOI

10.1080/09575146.2016.1194374

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article deals with experiences from an action learning project against bullying and degrading treatment among nine Swedish preschools. Even though definitions of bullying and degrading treatment tend to lead to thoughts of school-age children rather than preschoolers, previous research shows that bullying occurs in preschool as well. Our data consist of documentation of improvement work carried out in the preschools that were analysed from both a peer culture perspective and a school improvement perspective. Our main results show that the preschools, by identifying challenges and actions anchored in the local context, 'hit the target' in their work against bullying and degrading treatment in the preschools. However, the children and their perspectives were rarely taken into account in the improvement work, which we consider as 'missing the point'. Didactic implications for further preschool action learning projects are discussed.

Language: en

Keywords

action learning; bullying and degrading treatment; Preschool; school improvement