Introduction

For decades, care has been a central value within Swedish school-age educare (SAEC). Nevertheless, maintaining the responsibilities of care is complex and multi-faceted. Previous research shows that wellbeing among children in SAEC age has decreased (Udsathed Center for Ungdomsforskning, 2022). Further, the occurrence of violence among children in SAECs can be understood as a lack of care (Borg, 2024).

These studies point to a care under pressure where the development and wellbeing of children become affected. Theoretical framework The theoretical framework emanates from Joan Tronto’s (1998) Ethic of care, and more specifically from concepts covering two phases of care; caring about and caring for. Caring about is a general and abstract aspect of care work and concerns paying attention to the need of caring. Caring for requires listening to needs, recognizing unspoken needs and deciding which needs to care for. Caring for is in turn related to the actual work performed by the caregiver. It concerns taking responsibility for meet an identified need. Research questions or hypotheses The aim with this study is to explore how SAEC teachers reflect on care and how they perceive their possibilities to provide care.

Methodology

Data consists of 14 qualitative interviews with SAEC teachers (female 11; male 3). Semi-structured interviews related to vignettes and explored teachers’ reflections on care. The ongoing analysis is inspired by thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2019). Tentative findings are presented by way of three themes related to the concepts within the theoretical framework, caring about, caring for and challenges. The study has been conducted in line with the Swedish Research Council’s ethical principles.

Results

Within the theme Caring about, reflections concern care as a natural way of acting, something that is inside the person. It is described as implicit knowledge because of its intuitive character. Within the theme Caring for, reflections concern how the teachers see the child and meets the individual child in its needs. Also, this includes how they interpret signals from the child. Within the theme challenges, reflections evolve around structural challenges, such as group sizes, number of teachers, organization, available and suitable rooms and environments. Additionally, challenges are described between policy and the needs of the child from a child perspective.

Discussion

The tentative findings highlight the complexity of care related to SAEC. The SAEC context is described in some interviews as an arena for doing care, but in other interviews, as having poor conditions which also risk leading to no care or instrumental care because of the feeling of emotional exhaustion, according to the teachers