Individuella utvecklingsplaner f r yngre barn i Sverige; Ett kritiskt mnesdidaktiskt perspektiv

Individual development plans for younger children from a critical subject didactics perspective. The pa- per aims to describe and problematize the content of individual development plans (IDP) for preschool and pre- school class (age six) pupils from a critical subject didactics perspective. The didactical ‘what question’ pertaining to content (the object of learning) is central to the analysis. Subject refers to the construction of content and not only in the narrow sense of academic subject, but also thematically and pragmatically connected across subject lines to the content of child care, upbringing and children’s possible questions. Critical didactics are applied to shed light on the relationships between the actors (children and teacher) and their co-determination and agency. The critical approach also encompasses study of the content in relation to the power dimensions of place, age, gender and ethnicity. IDP material was collected in October 2006 in four municipalities in southern Sweden, three urban and one rural. Both relatively ethnically homogeneous and heterogeneous districts were included in the three urban municipalities. The material comprised 82 randomly selected plans. The analysis can be summed up in three distinguishing main tracks or normalities: Academic subject-regulated normal children – in a relatively homogeneous urban district; Socially and monolingually regulated multicultural children – in a relatively hetero- geneous urban district; Primarily needs-regulated monocultural children – in a rural municipality