Didactics in School Age Educare centers from the perspective of Swedish principals: distinctive perceptions meet a pedagogical practice

Abstract

Teachers in primary schools and in School Age Educare Centers (SAEC) work with the same children during the school day, but in different contexts and sometimes in different premises. The principal leads and distributes the work and has the ultimate responsibility for both activities. To lead an, in many ways different, educational activity as the SAEC, that at the same time is intended to complement the compulsory school doesn't seem to be easy. SAEC and schools are different educational practices, representing partially different educational cultures and traditions. In addition, there are different, but in some cases overlapping, governing documents to deal with. A previous study has shown distinctive perceptions of principals in relation to other professions (cf. SAEC-teachers, leisure pedagogues, child minders and researchers) within the SAEC sphere. The analysis of the principals' answers show that they do not differentiate between after-school didactics and regular school didactics, and that they see a clearer connection to the school, compared to the other professional groups.  This discrepancy between principals' and other respondent groups' view of the activities of the SAEC is thus the starting point for the present text, and the study therefore provides new and in-depth knowledge of principals' perceptions of the didactic concept in this respect.

The purpose of this study was thus to contribute to knowledge about Swedish principals' perceptions of the meaning of the concept of didactics in SAEC. The empirical material consists of a web survey answered by 51 principals comprising open and closed answer options. It has been analyzed with inferential and descriptive statistics as well as content analysis.

The results make principals’ perceptions visible regarding the content of the concept of didactics in SAEC. Principals generally consider themselves to have good knowledge of the concept, but their descriptions of the concept are relatively terse. There are no clear connections between the principals' answers and their age or years in the profession. Furthermore, the results show few differences between those who consider themselves to have good knowledge in the field and those who consider themselves to have less knowledge. The qualitative analysis of the answers generated some different themes about didactics and teaching with some connection to didactic theory building. The conclusion is, however, that the principals do not describe the concept of didactics in detail or multifaceted, but that it is linked to a certain extent with teaching, especially in the school environment. Regarding the concept of teaching, the principals make more explicit statements, but these can be interpreted as more clearly linked to the principal's role in primary schools than to teaching in SAEC.

The answers given by the principals in this study about the didactic concept in SAEC possibly testify to their affiliation to other forms of school and that the concept is therefore associated more with, for example, primary school.  No specific traces of didactics in relation to the SAEC perspective can be discerned. An important and distinguishing perspective between the SAEC and the school is the SAEC commitment to care. In the answers from the principals, no didactic ideas about this can be discerned. It is problematic since the didactics of care should, in line with the SAEC curriculum, be given a considerable scope in the activity.

An important conclusion of our study is that if principals are to lead the activities in the SAEC in a successful way, a consensus is required between them and the staff on how the tasks should be understood and carried out. There, didactics play a decisive role. Results like this, and from other studies on principals' perceptions of and understanding of the core concept of the SAEC, show a reality that is not completely in line with the legislation's requirement that principals need to have pedagogical insight in all parts of the school activities. For these reasons, we see the need for intensified research in the field as great.