Tímarit um menntarannsóknir - 01.06.2012, Blaðsíða 126

126
Guðrún Alda Harðardóttir og Baldur Kristjánsson
borð við Habermas og Heider, en afar
lítið hefur farið fyrir slíkum rannsóknum
á sviði leikskólamála hér á landi. Það ætti
því að vera fengur í frekari rannsóknum
af þessum toga hérlendis og þá um leið
að geta tengt þær við erlendar rannsóknir.
Sem fyrr segir felst þó gildi rannsóknar-
innar ekki síður í því að fyrrgreindar hug-
myndir eru mátaðar við greiningarlíkan
Sigrúnar Aðalbjarnardóttur og Roberts L.
Selman um uppeldis- og menntunarsýn
kennara.
Abstract
Attitudes of two pre-school teachers and methods
of empowerment of pre-school children
This article aims at answering the follow-
ing two research questions:
How are their beliefs expressed by two preschool
teachers interviewed about preschool activities
and the empowerment of preschool children?
How can the analytical model of pedagogical
observations, developed by Sigrún Aðalbjarnar-
dóttir and Robert L. Selman, be used for the ana-
lysis and categorization of the attitudes of two
preschool teachers towards the activities and
empowerment of preschool children?
A preschool in the capital area in Ice-
land was observed for one school year.
The preschool had 60 children, aged 18
months to five years, and 20 employees,
of which eight were teachers. The first au-
thor visited this preschool twice a week
on average for one winter, and collected
data via participant observations. The
practice of two preschool teachers was
observed and the teachers were inter-
viewed individually, allowing them to
explain their work in detail. This article
analyzes two observations and two inter-
views with two preschool teachers.
The preschool teachers’ beliefs and
practices were viewed from the perspec-
tive of: a) Heider’s (1988) attribution
theory, which assumes that people apply
their beliefs as criteria for understand-
ing and interacting with their environ-
ment; b) Habermas’ (2007) critical theory
which claims that attitudes displayed in
human relations influence people’s ap-
proach to work and practice, including
– it is assumed here – preschool-teachers’
approaches towards enhancing children’s
empowerment; and c) stimulating to-
wards studies of empowerment.
For analytical purposes the model of
Sigrún Adalbjarnardóttir and Robert L.
Selman on pedagogy and views on edu-
cation was used. This model is divided
into the following three belief categories:
(a) local attitudes, which means that the
teacher’s vision and working practices
are related to the currently present popu-