This dissertation examines how technology learning is made possible through teacher-led construction activities in preschool. The dissertation also examines how the preschool teachers’ role and the design of the construction activities were affected by different historical and societal structures as well as the collaboration between research and practice.

The dissertation is based on an action research study that was carried out with a group of preschool teachers in two preschool units. In order to develop the preschool practice, the group carried out three different construction activities that were videotaped and analyzed.

The results of the dissertation indicate that the preschool teachers used a number of different technology didactic tools to support the children in their technology learning. At the same time, the results show that some children were given much more input in the problem-solving process that took place during the activities, while other children did not have that much of an opportunity for such influence. Both the children's ability to come up with suggestions for solutions and the preschool teachers' confirmation of the children played an important role in this process. The results also indicate that the preschool teachers' assumptions about technology, about the children, about the preschool and about their own role in the activities influenced their actions. The study shows that the design of the activities may be influenced by the history of construction activities in preschool, as well as the gender coding of the technology.

In summary, this study indicates that taking on the role of the active and guiding adult in a construction activity is just the first step in creating activities that are as inclusive as possible. The preschool teacher also needs to reflect on how the staging of these activities facilitates or limits children's different actions. It is also important to understand how different choices (e.g., activities, tools, materials) affect the activities that are staged.

The dissertation also shows that there may be tension between the researcher and the participants in an action research project in preschool. There may be power structures between researchers and participants that are not entirely easy to handle.

Den här avhandlingen undersöker hur tekniklärande möjliggörs genom lärarledda konstruktionsaktiviteter i förskolan. Avhandlingen undersöker också hur förskollärarrollen och konstruktionsaktiviteternas utformning påverkades av olika historiska och samhälleliga strukturer samt i mötet mellan forskning och praktik.

Avhandlingen bygger på en aktionsforskningsstudie som genomfördes tillsammans med en grupp förskollärare på två förskoleenheter. I syfte att utveckla den egna verksamheten genomförde gruppen tre olika konstruktionsaktiviteter som videofilmades och analyserades.

Avhandlingens resultat pekar på att förskollärarna använde en rad olika teknikdidaktiska verktyg för att stötta barnen i sitt tekniklärande. Samtidigt visar resultatet att vissa barn fick betydligt större utrymme att påverka den problemlösning som skedde under aktiviteterna, medan andra barn inte hade lika stor möjlighet till en sådan påverkan. I denna process spelade både barnens snabbhet i att komma med förslag på lösningar och förskollärarnas bekräftelse av barnen en viktig roll. Resultatet pekar också på att förskollärarnas förgivettaganden om teknik, om barnen, om förskolan och om sin egen roll i aktiviteterna påverkade deras agerande. Studien visar även att utformningen av förskolans konstruktionsaktiviteter kan påverkas av både konstruktionsaktiviteternas förskolehistoria och teknikens genuskodning.

Sammanfattningsvis pekar den här studien på att inta rollen som den aktive och guidande förskolläraren endast är det första steget om målet är att skapa konstruktionsaktiviteter som är så inkluderande som möjligt. Det gäller i förlängningen att som förskollärare reflektera över hur iscensättandet av dessa aktiviteter underlättar respektive begränsar barns olika handlingsutrymmen. Det handlar även om att förstå hur olika val påverkar de aktiviteter som iscensätts.

Avhandlingen visar också att det kan finnas spänningsfält mellan forskaren och deltagarna i ett aktionsforskningsprojekt i förskolan. Det kan finnas maktstrukturer i mötet mellan forskare och deltagare som inte är helt enkla att hantera.

Even though construction tasks have a long history as an activity in the Swedish preschool, technology as a content matter (e.g., construction) is relatively new. Hence, preschool teachers are generally unsure of the content of technology and how to handle it from a teaching perspective. Thus, there is need for deeper understanding of how construction tasks in preschool can be enacted and what kind of premises are offered to the children. To investigate this, we took our stance in activity theory and the concepts of mediating artifacts, rules and division of labour. This helped us discern what type of instructional practices that were enacted by preschool teachers when working with construction tasks. Activity theory in combination with thematic analysis helped us distinguish four general didactic actions that the teachers used to bring about the construction task-to engage, to guide, to coordinate, to show. These four strategies were then formulated into specific technology didactic actions through the perspectives of technology as product, process and concepts.

Technology is a field with strong connections to the female/male dichotomy. Children start to stereotype everyday life regarding this dichotomy as early as the age of two. The preschool, through its activities—among them reading aloud from picture books—is an arena where societal norms can be either preserved or challenged. Books about different artefacts, e.g. cars, airplanes and boats, often serve as an introduction for children about the human application of technology and may influence how they identify and categorise the technology they encounter in everyday life. The aim of this study was to investigate the technological content in a selection of picture books from a gender perspective. Since preschools in Sweden often use books from libraries in their daily activities, the empirical material was derived from the library sections Facts for youngsters and Technology for youngsters, aimed at children aged 1–3 and 3–6. A thematic analysis was used to discover the dominant themes within the books. The results show that there is a focus on how separate artefacts function but no detailed explanation of how these artefacts are connected or what kind of implications they have in a societal context. There also seems to be an emphasis on traditionally masculine coded technology.

This study shows that developing a gender sensitive technology education in apreschool setting is a very complex and multifaceted task. The preschool, andthe preschool teachers, are expected to help the children develop their technologicalawareness and interest in technology without being limited by traditionalperspectives on gender. However, as research has shown, teachers’ expectationsof children’s behaviour and interest in leisure time activities aregendered and reflect historically developed gendered roles in relation to technology.As this study shows there is a palpable risk of the preschool teacherson one hand focusing on girls and boys as homogenous groups, where a singleindividual gets to represent the group as a whole; and on the other hand, missinggender structures if the mindset is that gender does not factor into theirtreatment of the children at all – that they, automatically in their role astechers, act gender neutral. In this study, the pedagogical conversation wasimportant for the teachers possibility to reflect about their own preconceptions.However, the conversation did not seem to be enough, it was also importantfor the teachers to get to see and reflect on how they actually interactedwith the children in the technological activities. Only then did the teachersactually start to question their preconceptions and began to discuss new waysof acting.