Browsing by Author "Väisänen, Senja"

The division of work has been a subject of discussion in work communities, but these discussions have often led to altercations between professions (Kinos, 1997). The concept of responsibility has been attached to the kindergarten teacher within the division of work (Karila, 1997). The aim of this research was to form a point of view on what the educational staff thought about the division of work within work teams in kindergartens. The research examined the grounds behind the division of work within the work teams in kindergartens. The research also examined how the division differed between kindergarten teachers and kindergarten nurses and what kind of similarities the two professions had concerning the division of work. The material was gathered by using an electronic form, which was sent to four different kin-dergartens in a certain town in Southern Finland. The research was answered by 25 res-pondents, of whom three were kindergarten managers, one was a special early childhood education teacher, 10 were kindergarten teachers and 11 were kindergarten nurses. The electronic form consisted of a background information part and 13 open questions in which the respondents were supposed to answer in their own words. The material was analyzed by dividing the answers into themes supporting the research questions. All of the questions in the e-form presented answers to all of the three research questions, depending on the way the respondent narrated his/her views. The grounds of the division of work within the work teams included: job title and educational background -based, know-how and interest -based , areas of responsibility -based, shift -based, “everyone does everything”-based and division based on circumstances. Conversations, paper work and planning were usually the tasks of a kindergarten teacher, while the kindergarten nurses were seen to be in charge of the children during these out-of-child group tasks of the teacher. The main responsibility of the planning and execution of pedagogical activity was the task of the teacher, while the nurses had a supporting role. The kindergarten teachers’ work burden was seen to be increasing by time and the amount of work to be superior to the amount of time the teachers had to use. The division of work was seen to be alike between the staff while executing small group activities and during shared planning.