Improving relevance in the education of early childhood teacher education through co-creation based partnership

The Ministry of Education and Research has initiated a program for enhancing and improving the quality and relevance of education for teacher students at universities and in colleges in Norway through organized partnership with colleges and kindergartens where the educational institutions will draw upon the practices and experience from the kindergarten sector.

Queen Maud University College (QMUC)has during 2021 entered partnerships with two kindergartens in Trondheim to collaborate and co-create to enhance and develop the education of early childhood teachers. The cooperation will have a particular focus on the core tasks and societal mandate of the teaching profession. The role of the practitioners may result in a substantial influence on the development of the didactics and curriculum at QMUC.  The overall aim of the partnership is to improve the didactics and teaching as well as practise in the field, leading to tighter and improved relations with the students (Goal 1).

The partnership will comprise of (regular) research and development collaboration between QMUC and kindergarten sector with systematic cooperation regarding the students’ bachelor and master theses, within structures and arenas for long-term cooperation on all levels. The partnership is based on a mutual commitment and respect for each other’s contributions to the partnerships.

The process of co-creation started with a workshop to establish the different topics and areas of collaboration. The process will result in identifying key topics that will be subject to further co-creation and research.

In this proposal, we are aiming at evaluating the initial phase, and subsequent phases as they progress,  starting off with a focus group session with the collaborating participants from the kindergartens and QMUC. Our research is inspired partly by Biesta’s (2004) “Mind the gap!”, and Stein Bråthen’s Model Monopoly (1973).