Studiens syfte är att studera lärare i fritidshems undervisningshandlingar för att förstå deras undervisningskunskap. I analysen av lärare i fritidshems undervisningshandlingar studeras hur undervisningssituationer kan initieras och hur lärare transformerar ämneskunskap, pedagogisk kunskap och kontextuell kunskap till undervisningshandlingar. Genom analysen av undervisningshandlingarna kan undervisningskunskap förstås.

För att kunna identifiera lärare i fritidshems undervisningshandlingar används det teoretiska ramverket och analysverktyget Pedagogical Content Knowledge i studien (Shulman, 1986; 1987). När lärare i fritidshems handlingar innehåller kunskapskategorierna ämneskunskap, pedagogisk kunskap och kontextuell kunskap, analyseras de som undervisningshandlingar. Analysen av undervisningshandlingarna visar lärares undervisningskunskap.

Observationer har varit den huvudsakliga materialinsamlingsmetoden i studien, både observationer dokumenterade via fältanteckningar och video. Tre lärare i fritidshem från tre olika fritidshem och skolor har deltagit i observationerna.

Analysen av resultaten visar att lärarna i fritidshem i de utvalda observerade sekvenserna använder undervisningshandlingarna talhandlingar, praktiska och utforskande handlingar, demonstrationer och medskapande handlingar. Den undervisningskunskap som analysen synliggör påvisar att lärarna i fritidshem har kunskap om att bedriva undervisning som är förplanerad, lärarinitierad och barninitierad samt att undervisningssituationer som påbörjas med en initieringsform kan förändras till en annan. Lärare i fritidshem kan ses möjliggöra för barns delaktighet och aktörskap i sin undervisning eller styra undervisningen utifrån sin planering där barns delaktighet blir begränsad i undervisningssituationen.

Lärare i fritidshems undervisningskunskap kan utifrån analysen även ses innehålla: en handlingsberedskap att se undervisningsmöjligheter i den omedelbara situationen i interaktion med barn, en anpassning av undervisning utifrån barns förståelse av den, en samtidighet att använda flera olika undervisningshandlingar samtidigt och en kunskap om organisering av undervisning för barns delaktighet och aktörskap där läraren intar olika positioner genom att styra, lyssna och agera på barns handlingar samt vara medskapare i undervisningen.

The aim of this study is to investigate school-age educare teachers’ teaching actions with the purpose of understanding their pedagogical content knowledge. The analysis looks at how teaching situations can be initiated and how teachers transform subject matter knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and contextual knowledge into teaching actions. Through the analysis of the teaching actions, pedagogical content knowledge can be understood.

Pedagogical Content Knowledge is the theoretical framework and tool used for the identification and analysis of teaching actions (Shulman, 1986; 1987). A teaching action is defined as an action in which all three knowledge categories, namely subject matter knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and contextual knowledge, are identified. These teaching actions are then analyzed to show the teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge.

Observations through both video and field notes have been the main method for producing data in the study. In the observations, three teachers from three different school-age educare settings have participated.

The results show that the teachers in the selected settings use speech acts, activity-driven teaching, discovery, demonstration, and co-creation representations in their teaching. The analysis demonstrates that school-age educare teachers’ teaching could be preplanned by the teachers, initiated by the teachers, or initiated by the children. The teaching initiative can also shift during the teaching situation, and the teachers position the children in different ways in their teaching. They can enable the children to be actors in the teaching situation where the teachers assume a position of an amplifier and act as a support to the children’s participation or they can take control over the teaching situation and only give the children limited agency.

In the results, the pedagogical content knowledge of teachers is analyzed resulting in the themes of readiness for action where the teachers can see opportunities for teaching in the immediate situation in their interaction with children, an adaptation of teaching to every child’s understanding, and a simultaneity of using different teaching representations at the same time. In the analysis, the teachers also show a pedagogical content knowledge of how to organize their teaching in order to enable the children to be participants and actors. The teachers use different teacher positions that allow them to control the teaching and to decide how much control to give to the children in teaching situations in which the school-age educare teacher assumes the position of a co-creator. 

Teachers’ knowledge about children is a part of teachers’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK). With this in mind, the purpose of this study is to generate knowledge about how children are presented in PCK research. This is carried out by examining both the existence and the nature of descriptions related to presentations of children in selected PCK research articles. The method used in this qualitative study is inspired by document analysis and the analysis is a combination of content analysis and thematic analysis. In the analysis, articles presenting results from studies conducted in primary schools and in preschools were used. The focus of the analysis is on whether or not children are presented in the texts as active participants in teaching situations. The findings were divided into three themes: Presentations of children through the construct of PCK, Presentations of children’s thinking and motivation, and Presentations of children in play-based situations. The results show children as active participants with materials and in informal learning spaces, and that children can influence teaching situations through the teachers’ knowledge of children. One theme stands out in the analysis of the texts where children are presented as active participants: Presentations of children in play-based situations where children are described as being in control of their play, to which the teachers then adapt their teaching. It is in these presentations that children’s active participation and agency is most clearly defined.

This study focuses on written educational plans in the school-age educare (SAEC)setting. The purpose of the study is to add to knowledge about planning in the SAEC setting.The study also focuses on how SAEC teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge could beunderstood through written educational plans. The material in the study includes written plansfrom four different SAEC centres. The plans are analysed using concepts from the theoreticalframework in the study; pedagogical content knowledge. The results show how curricularknowledge, subject matter knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and contextual knowledge areidentified in the written educational plans in two themes: from content to activity plans andchildren’s influence plans. The results show descriptions in the written educational plans ofhow content is transformed into teaching situations and activities. It also shows how children’sinfluence is identified as both content of the plan and as a teaching strategy within the plan.Teaching in the SAEC setting is a complex issue involving goal-oriented activities, activitieswith children’s influence as a starting point, and teaching in the informal open space.