...last fall you went to Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia, on an ERASMUS exchange. During the visit, you were also invited to, and met with, a commission in the Australian government that had initiated a major effort to review the country's preschool system. How did it go?
”We met with the Australian government during our visit to Melbourne and talked about the Swedish preschool system and how we train preschool teachers, says Anna Sonesson. They have looked at preschool systems in countries like Ireland, the Netherlands, British Columbia in Canada, New Zealand, and Sweden, as these are seen as exemplary. We hoped to contribute to a statement in the extensive report that came out this summer.”
And what is their conclusion?
”The systems are very different, but we have similar challenges and can draw some parallels, says Jessica Ekberg. Swedish municipalities are obliged to offer preschool places for children, even in rural areas, and they do, which is something the Australian government is very impressed by. Australia has large rural areas where the indigenous population often has limited access to education and income, and where different languages are spoken from village to village.”
”One challenge the government has within the preschool system is that it is mostly private, which in itself leads to high fees for families. This, in turn, leads families to opt out of preschool and instead stay home with their children. However, it would be beneficial for the whole society to prepare children for school both pedagogically and socially before starting school, and for parents to go out to work. And it is often women who stay home with the children.”
Universal high-quality system
In the report made by the Australian government, they call for a universal high-quality preschool system that is inclusive, fair, and accessible to all children regardless of the family's resources. Both the federal government and the state and territory governments should sign a new national agreement on preschool that describes their respective roles and responsibilities and the goals they strive for. By 2030, governments should work to expand access to preschool in disadvantaged communities, particularly remote and regional areas, as well as in rural areas. By then, the proportion of children who are developmentally on track when starting school should have increased by five percentage points due to increased access to preschool, and parents' participation in the workforce should have increased. The goal is that by 2036, all children aged 0–5 years should have access to high-quality preschool education for at least 30 hours or three days a week for 48 weeks a year.
“The report's recommendations are based on discussions with hundreds of people from the preschool sector, academia, interest organizations, and the broader public in Australia, says Anna Sonesson. Children, including those from the indigenous population and those living in rural areas, are underrepresented in preschool. Here, the government needs to invest both in new preschools and in staff to establish and meet children with different cultural backgrounds. However, this must not come at the expense of quality, which means that they also want to introduce a school inspection to ensure and invest in quality through increased support for the supervision system and better information for staff and parents. This means improved conditions for preschool teachers both in terms of salaries and conditions, as well as improvement of career and qualification paths within preschool. A lesson learned is that preschool systems look very different in different countries with regard to culture, geography, economy, etc., which makes it impossible to copy a system directly from another country."
Journey for the future, inspiration, and educational purposes
The program for the visit to Australia was otherwise well-filled. Anna Sonesson and Jessica Ekberg visited Victoria University and its campuses in Melbourne and Sydney.
“It was a very exciting trip, says Jessica Ekberg. The visit was part of Karlstad University's internationalization and especially for the Preschool Teacher Program. We gave lectures about our preschool teacher education and the preschool teacher profession in Sweden. It was about sustainable development, the democracy mission, information and communication technology, and the view of children in Sweden now and then. We also participated in a film where we talk about what preschool looks like in Sweden compared to other countries from a global perspective. The film is about the Swedish school law, curriculum, our culture, and how we view children, and so on. It will be used for educational purposes for future preschool teachers at Victoria University.”
Another purpose of the visit was to initiate a digital exchange between students for those who do not have the opportunity to physically go on an exchange.
“We are course leaders for semester 2 of the Preschool Teacher Program and would like to plant a seed early for the opportunity to go on an exchange, says Anna Sonesson. The main purpose of our digital exchange is for students to encounter internationalization and become interculturally aware in their profession as preschool teachers.”
