Competence in Transition: Swedish Early Childhood Education and Care in the Light of Policy Reforms and International Literature (1994–2023)

Abstract Since the 1980s, the term competence has become increasingly common across sectors, including Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). In Sweden, reforms aimed at strengthening school readiness reshape interpretations of competence, with implications for the notion of the competent child , prevailing in Swedish ECEC since the 1990s. Competence is here understood as context-bound knowledge, experience, and ability. This study examines how competence is positioned in Swedish ECEC research in relation to international work, to show how shifting approaches to competence influence understandings of young children’s agency, learning conditions, and ongoing policy development. Using a scoping review, patterns are analysed in Swedish and international publications from 1994 to 2023. The corpus comprises over 4,000 studies, including 95 single-country studies and 148 mixed-country collaborations. Nearly half of the studies stem from the United States, with Sweden ranking among the top ten worldwide. Compared with the international field, Swedish studies more strongly emphasise teachers’ competencies and teacher–child relationship quality, alongside a clearer focus on children’s agency and competence to participate in ECEC. The contribution is threefold: (1) it maps how competence has been conceptualized in Swedish ECEC research over three decades; (2) it shows convergences with international work while identifying Sweden’s distinctive relational and agency-oriented emphases; and (3) it situates these findings within current reforms, including proposals to lower the age for compulsory schooling. The study demonstrates how competence as a concept travels across contexts and themes, clarifying how research emphases inform policy and practice for the youngest children.