Conference Agenda

There is solid biological, psychosocial, and economic arguments to promote children’s development as early as possible (Richter et al., 2017), and the evidence to support the immense importance of children’s experiences in the early childhood years (0–5 years) is clear and convincing (Britto et al., 2017; WHO, 2019). The early childhood years is a foundational period for holistic child development, and fundamental aspects of health and wellbeing–with lifelong effects–are laid during this period (Marmot, 2010). For instance, this period is vital for mental and physical health (Irwin et al., 2007) and have been referred to as a “window of opportunity” for promoting life-long healthy habits such as sound physical activity behaviors (Fernandez-Jimenez et al., 2018; WHO, 2019). Early childhood education and care (ECEC) have a central role in children’s early development (Foundation for Child Development, 2020; Irwin et al., 2007) and the quality of these environments is dependent on how practitioners orchestrate and navigate the specific environment in which children’s learning and development take place. For instance, children’s movement and play activities are largely afforded or constrained by the physical and pedagogical environment they are situated in. Besides the basic necessary institutional resources and structures, much of this work rely on how teachers make choices and balance social, psychological and physical aspects of these learning environments. Due to the societal significance of ECEC there is substantial interest in assessing it and its environmental quality on child outcomes. To assess this type of quality, a set of observational tools called Environment Rating Scales (ERS) are commonly used.

ERS have a long history of international use and are frequently used in research, self-assessment, and high-stake settings that help direct the distribution of funding (Brunsek et al., 2017). Leading ERS view quality in ECEC from the children’s perspective (Clifford et al., 2020) whilst increasing observation objectivity, being recognized for their standardization process and ability to measure important environmental characteristics that influence child outcomes (Howard et al., 2018). Still, despite the importance of quality in these early childhood settings, the concept of quality itself is elusive and established tools (like ERS) used to capture this elusive concept have limitations. What we define important to measure (e.g., physical activity, movement, play or other type of activities) and in what way these activities are measured and assessed is of importance for policy creation and ultimately for how institutional settings for young children are organized.

Guiding interventions, targeting educational goals, and child development, quantitative studies and evaluation tools (like ERS) have developed into a distinct research field. These tools are widely heterogenic, at time confusing, and collectively embrace an extensive array of aspects of the ECEC environment. Against this background, this study aims to review the existing literature to identify the relevant characteristics of the most commonly utilized ERS in ECEC. This may serve as a guide for ECEC researchers, practitioners, and stakeholders to make more informed decisions when aiming to evaluate the quality of ECEC settings and for instance organize settings to improve and strengthen children’s opportunities for movement and physical activity.

Extended education is one of the fastest-growing fields within education systems worldwide (Bae, 2019). This development has also generated increasing scholarly interest in after-school activities and the opportunities they offer for children’s learning and social development. For example, the European Commission’s EPIC (European Platform for Investing in Children) has published a report highlighting the positive impact of extracurricular activities on academic achievement, social skills, and inclusion. The report concludes that ensuring equal access to extracurricular activities for all children is central (European Commission, 2021).

Extended education can be organised in a variety of ways and encompasses a wide range of content, including academic support, prosocial activities, arts and music, and sports and movement practices. Movement can play an important role in creating meaningful leisure time. Movement has been described as identity-forming and joyful, fostering the freedom to express, explore, discover, invent, and create (Scott Kretchmar, 2006). In relation to after-school activities, research has shown that movement constitutes a central and meaningful aspect of children’s lives in after-school centers, promoting learning, social interaction, and joy (Ferrari et al., 2022; Løndal, 2010; Riiser et al., 2019).

Extended education carries different meanings, purposes, and organisational forms across national contexts (Bae & Stecher, 2020). In Sweden, the school-age educare (literally “leisure-time home”) is an integral part of the public school system. It is regulated by the Education Act and governed by a designated section of the national curriculum, and conducted in close collaboration with compulsory schooling (European Commission, 2023; SNAE, 2024). School-age educare is a natural part of many children’s everyday lives: 84 % of children aged 6–9 in Sweden are enrolled in school-age educare (Skolverket, 2025).

Movement occupies a central position in the Swedish curriculum for school-age educare: “games, physical activities, and outdoor activities” represent one of the four core content areas (SNAE, 2024). In a recent interview study with educators, school-age educare is described as a “movement sanctuary” (Johansson & Söderman, 2023), offering a contrast to the more sedentary school and home life. The educators perceive themselves as compensatory actors and sources of inspiration. School-age educare has an explicit compensatory mission; it should counterbalance children’s differing life conditions and prerequisites (SFS 2010:800). Johansson (2025) emphasises that teachers in school-age educare form a professional group with both the competence and experience required to work with children’s movement within an educational context, and who traditionally organise activities based on children’s participation, influence, interests, and needs.

Against the backdrop of (a) extended education as a significant aspect of children’s lives, (b) the role of movement in creating a meaningful leisure time, and (c) the compensatory mission of school-age educare and the notion of educators as compensatory actors, it becomes relevant to examine how educators relate to movement in the everyday practices of school-age educare.

The study presented forms part of a doctoral thesis project that explores how movement is constructed in school-age educare. This paper addresses the following research question: How do educators enact movement in school-age educare?

The study is grounded in a critical ethnographic approach, aiming to question dominant narratives and taken-for-granted assumptions regarding knowledge and power. It explores which movement discourses govern ways of moving in school-age educare settings. This involves examining how discursive practices – such as rules and routines, physical environments, verbal articulations of movement, and the ensemble of movements taking place – produce different discursive patterns of movement. The analysis draws on Foucault’s notion of discourse as “the ensemble of more or less regulated, more or less deliberate, more or less finalized ways of doing things” (Foucault, 1998, p. 463).

As the population becomes less active, there is growing interest in promoting movement and physical activity. In this context, joy of movement is presented as an important factor that will ensure people’s interest in being active (McLennan & Thompson, 2015; World health organisation, 2018). Policy makers and researchers have had different views on the joy of movement. From an instrumental perspective, it is seen to support the development of capacities important for school readiness (World health organisation, 2018). Others have argued that it is valuable from an existential perspective (Jensen, 2020) and that movement is valuable in itself. Instrumental reasons for movement are more common although some scholars have suggested that existential dimensions can contribute to children moving because they want to, rather than because they feel compelled to (Scott Kretchmar, 2006).

In Sweden the joy of movement has been addressed differently over time in curriculum documents for preschools. Earlier documents framed children’s joy of movement as something that could arise spontaneously and that preschool staff should notice and ’make use of’ when it arises. Documents in 2026 in contrast state that children who attend preschool education should experience the joy of movement and thereby develop their interest for physical activity (Mrak, forthcoming). This shift means that preschool staff now have more responsibility to plan and shape situations that enable children to experience the joy of movement. At the same time, research points to the complexity of planning for joy (Karjalainen et al., 2019). Research also indicates that the joy of movement is not fixed or constant, but rather something that emerges, changes, lies latent and can depend on the situation, the environment and the individual (Ingulfsvann et al., 2021).

The complexity with joy of movement is highlighted by Jensen. He emphasizes the importance of conceptual clarity when working with the promotion of the joy of movement (Jensen, 2019). From our perspective, this need for conceptual clarity becomes particularly important in contexts where policy documents specify what should be achieved but leave how this should be done to the individual teacher. Building on Jensen’s argument, we propose that conceptual clarity is not neutral but depends on the theoretical perspective adopted and on the context in which joy of movement occurs. Different theoretical perspectives thus shape how teachers understand their mission and how the promotion of joy of movement is operationalized into pedagogical practice.

Against this background, the present study aims to investigate how theoretical concepts can be used analytically to examine the joy of movement in preschool. One research question guides the investigation: How does the joy of movement arise in a preschool department for children aged 1–3 years? To answer this question, the theoretical concepts of being touched and the circulation of affect (Ahmed, 2014) are used as sensitizing concepts (Willis & Trondman, 2000), making it possible to observe how the joy of movement arises in everyday preschool situations. Through this experimental exploration of theoretical concepts, the article contributes to educational research with concepts for analytically investigating the joy of movement in preschool. These concepts may also be useful for teachers in educational practice.

Young people today face a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) world marked by inequality, climate change, and interconnected crises. Critical researchers argue teachers must respond with pedagogical justice, particularly through critical relational pedagogies that emphasize in-the-moment engagement and creative inquiry at the heart of teaching encounters (e.g. Merma- Molina et al., 2023; Peters, 2025. Ridlle, et al., 2025.) One approach of relational pedagogies is rhizomatic teaching (Clarke & Parsons, 2013).

Rhizomatic teaching embraces agency by rejecting binary thinking and opening multiple educational pathways through three key dimensions. Nomadic teaching (1) creates space for improvisation, attending to emerging situations while embracing trust, messiness, and uncertainty (Andersson et al., 2023). Assemblages (2) shift focus from dualistic categories toward co-existence, with teachers deliberately listening and noticing what unfolds in the moment (Van Doodewaard et al., 2025). Multiplicity (3) emphasizes becoming rather than copying, allowing teachers to develop in-the-moment pedagogies that give room for emerging concepts.

In this presentation we propose that preservice teachers (PTs) in physical education (PE) might practice rhizomatic teaching through a school-based outdoor cycling project embedded in play-responsive teaching. By examining their experiences, we explore their development of rhizomatic teaching within Early Childhood Education (ECE).

Early Childhood Education and pedagogical dilemmas

The European Union is committed to ensuring that every child, regardless of background, has access to affordable, high quality early childhood education (ECE) and care (European Commission, 2025). In most European countries, children transition from care settings to education type settings around the age of 3. In the Netherlands this is at age 4.

One of the pressing challenges facing ECE in Europe is the push down of academic curricula and the pressure on schoolification of play-based settings (Pramling et al., 2019). Traditionally, ECE emphasized materially rich methods, pedagogies that focus on explorative play, and teacher’s sensitivity to children's interests and agency. Yet with current schoolification in ECE, the problematization that has emerged internationally, and specifically in Europe is the relationship between play and learning. The role teachers take in children’s play has become contested, theoretically, empirically and ideologically (Pramling et al., 2019). We wonder how PTs in physical education navigate these discursive complexities.

PTs in PE face particular tensions when transitioning to ECE (Randall & Fleet, 2020). Their training—rooted in primary and secondary education—has disciplined them to understand PE as skill development and structured instruction. However, early childhood pedagogy demands playfulness, spontaneity, and child-initiated learning. This might lead to fundamental dilemmas between relational pedagogy requirements and the epistemological framework of PTs in PE.

This study examines these dilemmas within a school-based outdoor cycling project.

Drawing on Foucault's concept of disciplinary power and 'dressage' the research question is: What regimes of truth about physical education become visible when PE preservice teachers work with young children, and how do these discursive truths influence their capacity for relational pedagogy and playfulness?

Understanding these disciplinary mechanisms reveals how professional formation creates tensions between established teaching identities and the relational, rhizomatic pedagogies required in early childhood settings