The aim of this article is to examine the ways in which curriculum goals on digitalisation are viewed in relation to the overarching democratic mission of Swedish preschools. Groups of preschool staff from three preschools located in different areas were interviewed with the focus on how they discuss democracy and the democratic aspects of digital tools and children’s digital competence, which are concepts used in the curriculum. Collective mind maps – constructed by the participants – were used as focal points in the interviews. The analysis centres on the content of these discussions, but also touches on the ways in which the groups communicated. The findings show that the groups from the three preschools expressed very different views on using digital tools and developing preschoolers’ digital competence, and that these views corresponded with their general views on democracy. The ways in which the groups expressed their views of democracy are also reflected in their discussions with each other. Preschool teachers’ and childcare workers’ own lack of digital competence is mentioned briefly as a reason for not using digital devices by the group using them the least, but this does not seem to be the main reason for their infrequent use of digital media with the children.

This article focuses on student teachers' professional development and explores how the students connect theory and practice in these processes. Data consist of 17 talks during weekly seminars with 15 preschool student teachers and a group of researchers both at campus and at the practicum placements during their first term. Initially, the researchers introduced discussions with an aim to challenge the students' views on general societal issues as well as specific issues related to the preschool practice. Eventually, the seminars changed toward student and researchers being more equal interlocutors. Experiences were discussed and relations between theory and practice were elaborated. Analyses from an ecological perspective of teacher agency show that the student teachers' agency develops from a naïve to a proactive understanding of the profession. The early practicum period in combination with regular seminars was important for the student teachers' developing profession. The practicum period provides practical challenges, and the seminar discussions with researchers provides theoretical challenges. Implications for teacher education are discussed, such as offering horizontal teacher networks where students get support to be able to develop their professional agency.

This article explores how preschool teachers, over time, collectively manage teaching as a new part of their mission. The study's empirical data consist of two related but temporally separated sets of data containing collegial discussions among preschool teachers; talks during a development process and group interviews with the same preschool teachers six months later. Through a theorydriven analysis, using the theoretical concept of teacher agency, different ways of achieving teacher agency are brought into light. When tensions appear, the preschool teachers achieve teacher agency by using professional core values in order to make adjustments, additions or changes to school policy. These professional core values consist of for example, sensitivity to the interests and needs of children, the ambition to perform a pedagogical practice for the greater good of children and the professional tradition of preschool teachers and child minders working together in teams.

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Being a teacher educator (TE) of today is often described as a complex task. TEs have to deal with internal demands from students, colleagues and leaders and with external demands from state authorities when shaping the education programme in which they teach. The present article focuses on TEs in Swedish preschool teacher education and aims to explore how commitment to and demands, inside and outside the higher education system, are handled and reflected upon, specifically the demands on considering student-centred learning. Results from interviews with 10 TEs show a perceived lack of support from the faculty board and its office and how colleagues contribute to tensions but also are perceived as supportive colleagues to learn from. Results also show the TEs’ efforts to overcome less desirable traditions. The combined results show how TEs are part of webs of commitments regarded as related fields and threads dependent on each other rather than separate parts, making the web/teacher education programme fragile. If any part breaks, the whole programme will be damaged. The discussion relates to how to overcome traditions and making actors in the programme shape a future-directed good education together.