Att se eller övervaka : Fritidslärares tankar kring barngruppens storlek i fritidshem

Sammanfattning: The aim of this study is to illustrate the experiences of school age educare teachers when it comes to group sizes in Swedish school age educare. The quality of the Swedish school age educare has decreased and one of many factors seem to be essential to this development – big groups.  There are not many studies in this field, only a few related to preschool and compulsory school as in class sizes. That is why it is of interest to study this area. The research questions bring up the teachers’ possibilities and restraints in relation to the size of the groups of children in school age educare.  The empirical data consists of both a qualitative survey and qualitative interviews. The data has been processed by using hermeneutic perspectives and categorized and divided into themes. To analyze and discuss the results I’ve approached theories about the ecological systems theory by Bronfenbrenner and Dahllöf’s frame factor theory.  The conclusion is that in school age educare managing large groups, the staff experience difficulties to create relations to the children and because of the lack of space they need to structure the time, spaces, and activities. Hence, a bigger group and narrow spaces can have negative effects on the social relations and the spare time of the children which are two important aspects within Swedish school age educare. The teachers believe that a smaller group of children is preferable as well as appropriate locals and enough space to be able to fulfill the curriculum and to increase the quality.