Creating teacher capacity in Early Childhood Education and Care institutions implementing an authoritative adult style

The being together intervention intends to raise teacher capacity in Norwegian Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) institutions and promote social and emotional development in preschoolers by implementing an authoritative (warm and predictable) adult style in the institution. An authoritative adult balances between building up high quality interactions with children, while at the same time having a predictable structure with clear norms and social expectations in the learning environment. The purpose of this study was to investigate what helped the ECEC institutions to successfully implement the program principles and core components, and what were the challenges. The staff groups of …

Tackling selective mutism: a guide for professionals and parents

The book Tackling Selective Mutism: A Guide for Professionals and Parents is divided into four main parts and 17 chapters with 22 different contributors. The introduction and part I give an overvie...

Possibilities and challenges in sustained capacity-building in early childhood education and care (ECEC) institutions: ECEC leaders’ perspectives

This paper investigates early childhood education and care (ECEC) institutions’ opportunities to build a learning organization and master future innovations by focusing on core components, implementation drivers, leadership, and collective collaborative systems. The paper is based on results from semi-structured interviews with ten ECEC leaders from three different municipalities in Norway that had taken part in the Being Together (BT) innovation five years earlier. Three areas were identified as crucial for the continuation of ECEC teachers’ capacity building: (1) a strong focus on implementation processes and sustainability; (2) transformational leadership; and (3) developing professional…

Learning Environment in Light of Positional, Institutional, and Cultural Interpretations: An Empirically-Based Conceptual Analysis

This study explores the possibility that the concept of learning environment (LE) is understood and interpreted differently by various users, depending on their relative positions in the educational system, institutional affiliation, and cultural heritage. The study employs a qualitative approach and is based on 14 semistructured separate interviews with professionals in the field of education. The participants in the study have been chosen from 3 different levels in the educational system (assistants, kindergarten and school teachers, and principals/county government representatives) and across different institutions (kindergartens and schools). The data reveal a clear pattern in which the…

Være sammen : kompetanseløft i barnehagen : Rapport fra evalueringen av deltakernes vurderinger, opplevelser og erfaringer med kompetanseheving og kvalitetsutvikling i pilotbarnehagene i Være Sammen implementeringsåret 2011-2012

Directional motion: An empirically based model of development in educational institutions

Although the quantity of literature on organizational sustainability in the realm of education represents a well-developed research area, the literature in this field does not sufficiently emphasize the notion of directional motion as important to institutional change. The aim of this work is the attempt to propose an empirically based model of ‘directional motion’ that is based on the intrinsically motivating process of experiencing movement. The study draws upon empirical material from six different educational institutions. The model systematically maps representations of the various stakeholders in terms of experienced motion in the participating institutions. The main elements in the …