Kvalitet i barnehager

Abstract

This study primarily targets the structural aspects of day care centre quality. Quality assessments will normally both be dependent on, and influenced by, the specific group that carries out the assessment. In this study we analyse the answers given by the day care centre managers. It is also a study of change, as we have tracked development from 2002 and 2008, respectively. The size of the day care centres, as measured by number of enrolled children, is information we do not find in official statistics on day care centres. Between 2002 and 2008 the centres showed a considerable growth. Newly established centres were primarily bigger than centres established earlier, but also centres established before 2004 had more children enrolled in 2008 than they had in 2004. Between 2004 and 2008 the median value of children enrolled increased from 37 to 46 children. In 2012, the median value has increased to 47 children. Both the smallest and the largest centres have more children enrolled in 2012 than they had in 2008. This 2012 study shows a strong stability among child care staff. Compared to 2008, a higher frequency of day care centre managers have been employed in the same centre for at least five years than found earlier. In more than a third of the centres, none of the staff had quit their job during the last year (between August, 2011 and June, 2012). Turnover rates were slightly lower in 2011-2012 than in 2007-2008. Staff stability is now slightly higher among pre-school teachers compared to staff without such education. Despite seeing an increase in exemptions from the educational requirements, we find a higher proportion of preschool teachers in 2012 than in 2008. The strongest increase is found in the smallest centres. Although the increase in proportion of male day care workers is unsubstantial, the distribution of men working within child care has increased. From 2008 to 2012, the proportion of centres with at least one male kindergarten teacher increased from 16 to 22 per cent. The percentage of centres with at least one male assistant increased from 34 to 40 per cent, while centres with at least one male employee within the group labelled as ‘other staff’ increased from 16 to 30 per cent. In 2002, 33 per cent of the centres employed at least one male employee. In 2012, this percentage has increased to 57 per cent. With the exception of the thematic field «day care centres as a cultural arena», we see in 2012 a higher proportion of the centres reporting that they are focusing considerably on the five other thematic fields from the chapter "Care, play and learning» in the national Curriculum. At the same time, we find a smaller increase in pedagogical work related to ‘linguistic competence’ and ‘learning’ compared to the areas of ‘play’ and ‘social competence’. This shows that the traditional values within the Norwegian kindergarten tradition remain consistent, and we do not find any shift towards values more prevalent in schools. But at the same time, the subject area «Communication, language and text « is the subject area among six others in the Curriculum which is given the most attention. This represents a strong increase since 2002. In 2012, the centres have worked with all subject areas in the Curriculum more often than they did in 2008. If such a broad use of the Curriculum is a structural condition for content quality, then there has indeed been an improvement in the period from 2008 to 2012. In 2012 almost all centres have formalised the exchange of information between the parents and the centre. All surveys until 2008 showed that the occurrence of formalised information measures depended on the size and the ownership of the centres. This is no longer the case in 2012. The occurrence of such measures has most strongly been increased within the private centres. The mapping of children’s well-being and development is still most often done by observation. We find increased use of child interviews, praxis stories and systematic dialogues. Nevertheless, these methods still remain utilised less frequently compared to the use of observation. Since 2002, an even greater part of the centre owners have established a common system for quality assurance of their centres. There has also been an increase of the measures of training and further education initiated at the local centres. This is primarily the case for the private centres, and also most common among the biggest centres. However, the difference between the small and the large centres has decreased over time, making the centres more alike. In 2008, we concluded with regard to collaboration between the centres and the municipality in the role as local day care centre authority, that we did not find the same improvement here as in the other investigated areas. This was the case both for inspection visits and for contact between the centres and the municipality. Centres owned by the municipality reported more frequent contact than private centres. However, almost all municipalities offered their employees in all centres extra training. Compared to 2008, the declining tendency in the occurrence of inspection visits has stopped, and the differences in amount of contact between municipally owned centres and the municipality, versus privately owned centres and the municipality, have been reduced. According to the managers, the presence of bullying is approximately at the same level as reported in earlier surveys. The most frequent method to prevent bullying is still the programme «You and I and the two of us,» developed by Kari Lamer. However, the programme "Step by step» has been growing in popularity and is now used almost as often as Lamer’s programme. We also take note of an increased use of custom programmes initiated and developed at the local level. This could be an indication of conscious effort to tackle the problems related to bullying by tailoring programmes to their own specific needs. Day care centres are most commonly organised in sections or units. 79 per cent of the centres are organised this way, while 13 per cent report that their centre is not divided into sections or units. These units are usually divided by age. In 2008, 60 per cent of the centres had established formal routines for assessing the children’s language development. A third had no regular routines for doing this, and only assessed children who appeared to have special needs. In 2012, this is even more prominent. However, compared to 2008, such assessments are now less likely to be performed by uneducated staff. Concerning measures related to easing the transition between day care and elementary school, we have observed important changes since 2004. In 2004, 72 per cent of the centres employed such measures for the five-year olds. In 2012, we find these measures established in nearly all centres. There has also been an increase in the establishment of routines on the municipal level for cooperation between centres and schools. The same is the case for transfer of knowledge between the centres and the schools. School preparing measures are still more common in centres owned by the municipality than in private centres, but less so compared to 2008. 55 percent of the centres report having at least one child with reduced functional ability, the same as in 2008. Still, these children are more commonly present in municipal centres than in private centres. More than 90 percent of these centres received additional funding to strengthen their staff. Nevertheless, 43 per cent of the managers still considered the services they provided for this particular group of children to be unsatisfactory, and not in accordance with these children’s needs. Almost all centres have established routines for contact between the centre and the psychological and practical pedagogical service (PP-tjenesten). Compared to 2008, a higher proportion of the centres have established routines for contact with the Child welfare and the public health centres. The vast majority of centre managers fully or partly agree that their centres are sufficiently staffed and that material standards are met. However, there is a higher degree of dissatisfaction with the financial framework conditions. Managers in private centres are more satisfied than mangers in centres owned by the municipality. This has been persistent since 2002. The vast majority also agree that their staff has the necessary training to perform their duties. In this respect, there is no significant difference between private and municipal day care centres.

Denne rapporten er en oppfølging av tre tidligere undersøkelser om kvalitet i barnehager, gjennomført i henholdsvis 2002, 2004 og 2008. Alle tre undersøkelsene la hovedvekt på de kvalitetsaspekter som vanligvis kalles strukturell kvalitet. Tema som behandles er barnehagenes bemanning, oppfølging av Rammeplanen, rutiner og arbeidsmåter, fysisk miljø, samarbeid med barnehageeier og lokal barnehagemyndighet, mobbing, overgangen fra barnehage til skole, barnehagenes organisering, språkkartlegging og språkstimulering og støtte til barn med særskilte behov. Styrere i 649 barnehager har besvart spørreundersøkelsen. I den tiårsperioden som er undersøkt, har barnehagene blitt mer like, og tilbudet dermed også mer likeverdig. Undersøkelsen er utført på oppdrag fra Kunnskapsdepartementet.