Preschool Teachers of Tomorrow : The trajectories, perception, and intentions of Sweden’s preschool student teachers

Abstract: This paper focuses on preschool student teachers in Sweden. Underpinned by Pierre Bourdieu’s sociological concepts, the motivations and trajectories which led them to enter the preschool teacher field, their perception of their education, and how they plan to teach once they become teachers is specifically researched in relation to social origin. Preschool teacher education has undergone many changes in recent decades which have led to higher academic demands in a field which is not traditionally theoretically based, and little research which looks into how this affects those training to become preschool teachers has been done. Through a survey of 125 respondents and seven interviews with students at two different university-colleges, the students are discussed based on their different types of capital and social origin. The life trajectories and habitus, which are shaped by their capital and social origin, is explored to describe their perception of their education and their opinions on how they plan to teach their students once they graduate. By doing so, the study reveals the pattern of trajectories which lead people to preschool teacher education occurs through either a break from their low social origin or through choices which took them further away from their high capital assets and led them to preschool teacher education as a last option. Differences in perception of preschool teacher education and the increased academic demands made on them is also seen to be characteristic based on those with a social origin with high capital assets against those who grew up with little to no capital. Finally, it is shown that regardless of social origin the high academic demands placed on preschool teachers does little to change their perception of what and how a preschool teacher should educate.