The ‘grey eminence’ of quality: How a software application enacts teaching and governance in Swedish preschool education

Preschool education is increasingly governed by systems of quality assurance, documentation and digital technologies. While previous research has demonstrated how documentation functions as a technology of governance, less attention has been paid to how software applications participate in shaping what becomes recognised as teaching and quality. This study examines how a quality assurance software application participates in the enactment of teaching and quality in Swedish preschool education. Drawing on policy enactment and performativity, the study conceptualises the software application as an active participant in policy processes rather than as a neutral documentation tool. A qualitative single-case study was conducted across three Swedish preschools. The empirical material consists of observations of 12 preschool activities and 72 pages of digital documentation generated through a quality assurance software application. By following activities across situated practice and digital documentation, the study examines how everyday preschool activities are translated into curriculum-aligned representations of teaching and quality. The findings demonstrate that the application does more than document preschool practice. Using categories, subcategories, visualisations and reporting structures, the software application participates by translating the activities into measurable representations of teaching and quality. In this context, the software is perceived as being better suited to documenting structured curriculum activities than relational teacher-child interactions. The application thereby contributes to shaping professional priorities and understandings of what counts as quality in preschool education.