This article explores how a bilingual preschool teacher creates mathematical preconditions and socio–psychological premises that advance children’s understanding of mathematical concepts, and considers factors such as language and materiality that influence mathematical activities in a multilingual Swedish preschool. Elements of situation theory (devolution processes) and of actor-network theory (materiality as mediator) interact. This article highlights whether some didactic contracts promote interactions between materiality and multilingual children in two mathematical activities, one planned and controlled by the teacher to introduce the concept of shapes and the other spontaneous, in which the teacher follows the children’s desires.

Preschool teachers have the important task of stimulating children in their development and preparing them for future schooling and lifelong learning. Many Swedish preschools today are characterized by great linguistic diversity among children and teachers. Many studies highlight the great benefits that multilingual children can gain from being able to use their native languages as resources when they learn other subjects, such as mathematics. This makes multilingual preschool teachers key players in today's education policy. For this research, I interviewed and followed a multilingual preschool teacher of immigrant background, anonymised as “Kajal”. I analysed Kajal's talk about and work with mathematics to understand what she was able to do and how she shaped her subjectivity as she navigated the expectations of various actors and prevailing norms in society.

Swedish early years mathematics education is currently under discussion, as it is experiencing transformation on several levels. A few years ago PISA results showed that Sweden ranks below certain highly developed countries. The importance of mathematics has consequently become a prevailing discourse, with the aim of safeguarding a top ranking for Sweden. At the same time, increased population mobility towards Sweden over past decades has resulted in the contemporary school setting being characterised by cultural and linguistic diversity. Based on a series of interviews and observations, this paper analyses how preschool teachers tend to fabricate mathematics education and the desired child in a context where conflicting discourses of school mathematics and early childhood education circulate. This study also explores whether certain children run the risk of being excluded as “other”.

Mathematics education in Swedish preschool can be considered as a discourse produced through educational public policies, classroom practice, curriculum, research, teacher’s education, and literatures. This different spheres interact with one another in the production of a “truth” according to Valero and Knijnik (2015). Using Foucault’s concept of governmentality, and Popkevitz concept of construction, I focus in this article on what kind of “truth” are produced when preschool teachers talk about mathematics. This article is a part of a doctoral thesis.

The purpose of this article is to study and analyse how a teacher implements an outdoor realistic problem situation for children aged 4–5 in a Swedish preschool. By an ‘outdoor realistic problem situation’, I mean a situation initiated by a teacher in which children come into contact with mathematical concepts and in which the outside environment is used to encourage learning. The analysis and interpretation of the data has been influenced by the didactical situation theory and didactic contract is a key concept. The term didactic contract is seen as a metaphor, consequently a broader definition of the didactic contract is used to illustrate how the implicit and the explicit rules of a didactic contract affect the communication of mathematics between a preschool teacher and a children’s group.

The purpose of this chapter is to investigate how two preschool teachers interpret mathematics goals in the Swedish preschool curriculum. The ways in which these preschool teachers transform, clarify and concretise the mathematics goals are analysed. The data indicates a tendency towards two different approaches of interpreting and implementing mathematics: a comprehensive approach and an academic approach. Based on these preschool teachers’ interpretation and implementation of the mathematics goals, the consequences in the form of qualification, socialisation and subjectification will be discussed.

The purpose of this article is to study and analyse how two te achers implement an outdoor situation for children aged 4-5 in a Swedish preschool. The analysis and interpretation of the data in this paper has been influenced by situation theory and by the use of the didactic contract as a key concept. The term didactic contract is seen as a metaphor; consequently, I use a broader definition of the didactic contract to illustrate how the role of the teacher aff ects the communication of mathematics with children. Most of the text in this paper is adapted from my thesis (Delacour, 2013) and articles (Delacour, 2014a, b).

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how preschool teachers interpret the revised mathematics goals in the Swedish preschool curriculum. I analyze how some preschool teachers transform, clarify, and concretize those mathematical goals, with a focus on didactic questions related to content: What is preschool mathematics according to the teacher? How can mathematics be communicated? And why is mathematics communicated? I place the study within a curriculum didactic perspective. The key concept is Linde’s (2006) classification of teachers’ ways of approaching a subject. Most of the text is adapted from my thesis (Delacour, 2013).

National and international comparisons have emphasized mathematics in recent years. For example, several studies (OCED, 2012) show that students in both Europe and the United States, have difficulty achieving in mathematics. Consequently, attention has turned to preschools. The Swedish government believes that the preschool has not made full use of children’s desire to learn (Cabinet Office, 2010). According to Tallberg-Broman (2012), there is a paradigm shift today in Sweden. A new vision of children, parenting and the school’s mission is emerging. Preschool teachers have to help children meet an increasingly complex reality now and in the future so the requirements of preschool teachers’ professional skills have likewise increased (Persson & Tallberg-Broman, 2002). In my study, I intend to focus on preschool teachers’ transformation of the mathematical goals specified in the revised curriculum for preschool. By analyzing how preschool teachers talk about the revised mathematics objectives and how they are transformed into practice can provide, this study can provide valuable information about how mathematics is visible in the preschool.

Syftet med den artikeln är att belysa hur en vidgad matematikdidaktik kan ta form på några svenska förskolor. För att analysera hur några förskollärare omformar, preciserar och konkretiserar de matematiska målen i förskolans läroplan, med fokus på de didaktiska frågor rörande innehåll - vad är matematik för yngre barn? och form - hur kan matematik kommuniceras, placerar jag min studie inom ramen för ett läroplansdidaktiskt perspektiv. Matematikdidaktiskt influeras jag av situationsteori och didaktiskt kontrakt är ett huvudbegrepp i analysen. Termen didaktiskt kontrakt ses som en metafor för uppsättningen av implicita och explicita regler för social och matematisk interaktion i en barngrupp. Jag använder en vidgad definition av det didaktiska kontraktet för att belysa hur förväntningar på relationen mellan lärare, barn och matematik framträder i talet om och transformeringen av de matematiska målen, med fokus på de didaktiska frågorna vad och hur. Sammantaget samspelar huvudbegreppen transformera och matematikdidaktiska kontrakt i min studie. Analysen är då inriktad på hur samhälleliga förväntningar som uttrycks i nationella matematiska mål transformeras och framträder i form av didaktiska kontrakt i några förskolepraktiker.

The aim of this paper is to show how preschool teachers interpret the goals set for mathematics in the Swedish curriculum. A didactic perspective has been used to understand what mathematics for young children is according to preschool teachers’ interpretations and how the goals are transformed according to the examples preschool teachers use to illustrate their points. In relation to the interpretation of the curriculum and the didactical questions, I will try to highlight the expectations that preschool teachers have of children and mathematics. To define and understand what these expectations are, I will introduce to my study the concept of didactic contract as a metaphor. My use of a didactic contract does not imply that I am importing the general theoretical framework of the theory of didactical situations. Instead I use some of the elements of the didactic contract in order to focus on expectations.