Könsdidaktiska mönster i förskolepedagogiska texter

The main issue of the thesis is to study the gender didactic patterns that can be found in Swedish, historical and present pre-school curricular texts. The selected period starts from around the 1850s until the middle of the 1990s. The study is based on a social and historical context, curriculum theory and gender theory.

The analysed texts are the following, (1) Handbooks for educators, during the years 1841-1947 and the Swedish magazine The Kindergarten (Barnträdgården) published by the Froebel union, during the years 1918-1968, (2) Advice and instructions for pre-school from the National Swedish Social Welfare Board, during the years 1945-1990, and (3) Pre-school educational guidelines at the community and local level, collected in 1993.

The answer to the main issue can be summarised in three concepts and code periods: a Sex-segregated common code from about 1850 to 1940, a Sex-neutral equality code from the 1950s to the middle of the 1980s, and a Pluralistic sex code from the end of the 1980s up until 1993. No support could be found in the majority of the present pre-school educational guidelines at the community and local levels for gender related issues. For the most part no gender research could be found in the documents. This can be related to the concept of Sweden as a model country for sexual equality.