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In this article, we explore the reality of Icelandic preschool teachers who are, as in most other countries, predominantly female. The gendered nature of the role and the current identity adopted by preschool teachers appear to impact on their perceived status and professionalism. In this process, stakeholders in early childhood education (ECE), as well as the preschool teachers themselves, play important parts. The question that underlies the paper is: 'How do the views of preschool teachers and stakeholders in ECE affect the preschool teachers' professional identity?' The data used to answer the question are from focus group research carried out with preschool teachers and stakeholders in ECE in one community in Iceland. These stakeholders, besides preschool teachers and staff within the preschools, were parents, professionals at the municipal preschool office and politicians. The theoretical perspective informing the methodology of the research was 'symbolic interactionism' and the concept of 'democratic professionalism' was used as an aspirational framework to analyse the data. The findings reveal connections between the ideology relating to the preschool teachers' educational role, their limited leadership and the gendered views of stakeholders. At the end of the paper, implications and recommendations for preschool teachers are suggested.

This study aims to examine the meaning-making of parents in five Icelandic preschools concerning the collaboration between preschools and families. Further, the perspectives of educators on the views of the parents were also sought. The theoretical background was Moss's ideas of democratic early childhood education and MacNaughton's ideas of power relationships between parents and educators. Data were gathered in two steps: first, focusgroup interviews were conducted with parents; and second, focus group interviews were conducted with a group of preschool educators who reflected upon the parent interviews. The parents and educators seemed to have similar experiences and views of the parentprofessional collaboration, and of the division of power and knowledge between the two groups. The type of collaboration the parents and the educators described is not in line with democratic preschool pedagogy as explained by Moss (2007). They did not seem to believe that parents should be involved in decision making concerning the purposes, practices, and environment of the preschool. The parents from other cultures who participated in the study were in a marginalized position, and the educators seemed to be unsure about how to communicate with and accommodate families from cultures different from their own. The study reveals power relationships on many levels in the preschool community.

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