Omsorg i svenska fritidshem: fritidspedagogers etiska förmåga och konsekvenser för barn

Abstract

This article aims to explore how leisure-time teachers understand and interpret aspects on care in their
tasks and work, and what consequences this might have for the children enrolled. The empirical data
consists of interviews with and diary notes written by leisure-time teachers. The results show the
leisure-time teachers ethical skill to work with care. This ethical skill can be described as an overall
skill consisting of knowledge about values related to ‘ethics of care’, the ability to meet the requirements
for care in the leisure-time centres and their ethical approach. Results have been analyzed by theories
on sociology of childhood and show that leisure-time centres might be understood as an arena for care
where children might develop their own caring skills, and where children are given the opportunity, as
individuals and as a group, to be part of a sustainable caring environment where children's own caring
actions are considered important, both here-and-now and in a future perspective.