"Vad ska vi föra över till barnen?" : En kvalitativ studie om uppmärksammandet av tradition, kultur och kulturarv i förskolan

Sammanfattning: The purpose of our study is to present preschool teachers’ understandings, perceptions, and experiences of how and which cultures, traditions and holidays are noticed and celebrated, as well as what is included in the cultural heritage that the preschool shall pass on to the next generation. This is based on the preschool curriculum (Skolverket, 2018) formulations that describes the preschool teacher' assignation to pass on a cultural heritage in the form of values, traditions, and knowledge and that they in the education should make diverse cultures visible. With the enlarged internationalization in Swedish society, there are increasingly high demands for people to live in and understand the value of being a part of a society characterized by cultural diversity. In addition, education should be non-confessional and not influence the children in a particular religious direction. In order to get as detailed and comprehensive answers as possible about preschool teachers' perceptions, we have conducted semi-structured interviews as a data collection method. The result shows that there is no doubt that there is lack of knowledge and strategies for this part of the curriculum and that it is perceived to be a dilemma, characterized by uncertainty and fear in preschool as the traditions that are usually present in preschool have a Christian origin while there is an increasingly multireligious variation among the children in preschool. The thinkable conclusions we make based on our study and previous research it is based on, is that there occurs an uncertainty and lack of knowledge among preschool teachers in their mission to pass on a cultural heritage containing, among other things, traditions, values, and history. This is partly because the statements about culture, cultural heritage, and traditions in the preschool curriculum; are unclear and do not provide any major guidelines for preschool to relate to. Another conclusion we have reached is that preschool teachers in our study, similar to what has emerged in previous research find it difficult to strike a balance between non-confessional education and teaching about culture, traditions and cultural heritage that are often considered strongly linked to religion.