Pedagogical identities in Norwegian kindergarten politics from 1970 until today

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to illuminate various pedagogic identities in Norwegian White Papers directed to Early Childhood Education and Care institutions. In this article, I present a study of eight White Papers concerning ECEC in Norway. I place emphasis on political efforts related to learning in ECEC institutions and further on, identify various learning discourses. I have chosen to place emphasis on a period of 40 years to identify if and in what way the learning discourses have changed. Further, I discuss various learning discourses based on Bernstein’s theory of pedagogic identities and shed light on various ideologies in ECEC policy. Bernstein’s theoretical framework is fundamental in this article.