Policy enactment in Swedish preschools: preschool principals’ perspectives on the new curriculum and municipal support structures

Principals are important actors in enacting national educational policy, so it is important to elicit their views of curricular change. Thus, this study explores Early childhood education and care (ECEC) principals’ perspectives of a new ECEC curriculum and its interpretation in a Swedish municipality. Using a contextual lens with cultural, structural and material filters, I examine the principals’ views of the reformulated curriculum and an Implementation Project that the municipality organized to provide support. Empirically, it is based on non-participant observations of group discussions and activities that were parts of the implementation project and in-depth interviews with 16 principals who participated in the project. The findings reveal a positive set of attitudes towards the new curriculum and the concept of ‘teaching’ it has introduced, both as highly valued ideas and for the increase in status it will bring to preschools. At the same time, the principals recognize that it also introduces challenges for preschool education and professional staff associated with complex webs of interactions between actors, activities, contextual factors and new concepts. Although the principals view the municipality’s support very positively, they raise concerns about its organization and timing. The findings have important implications for future support initiatives of municipalities.