Mittuniversitetet

The aim of this study was six preschool teacher´s notions towards reading, children´s literature and children´s reading experience in a preschool environment. We performed six qualitative interviews, at six different locations, in two different Swedish municipalities. The questions asked during the interviews were influenced by past research and some observations made in the preschool environment in connection with the interviews. We focused our inquiries on teachers reading with children, and here we choose our wording with care. A teacher can be said to read “with” or “to” children, and we have throughout this study found that reading with children is to prefer. When our informants described the amount and type of literature that are available in their preschools, we found that it varies, and that teachers tend to choose the literature when they want the reading to be educational, and children are allowed to influence the choice of literature when the purpose of the reading is to relax. We have seen tendencies in our interviews that reading teachers either perceive reading as educational or relaxing. We believe however that children´s experience always is educational to some extent during reading. The preschool teachers we interviewed all agree that reading at an early age is important, and that children should have a wide collection of literature to choose from. Children´s “play reading”, where they engage in reading as individuals, or in a group, is an important step in their emergent literacy (Norling, 2015). Our interviewed preschool teachers stated, and so do we believe, that the preschool arena is where children can build the foundation of their life as reading and writing individuals.