Are newly qualified preschool teachers ready for today’s mandate? Principals’ views in Sweden

Figures & data

Table 1. Demographic overview of participating principals (n = 55).

Gender	Male	4
	Female	50
	unclear	1
Age in years (average; range)	53; 29–65
Preschool teacher qualification	Yes	47
	No	8
Principal qualification	Yes	38
	Ongoing	7
	No or not indicated	8
Years of experience as a principal (average; range)	9,8; 1–22

Figure 1. Distribution grid for 44 items.

Table 2. Rotated factor loadings with flagged sorts marked in bold.

Q-sorts	Factor 1	Notes F1	Factor 1a	Factor 1b	Notes F1a/b
P41	0,8585		0,6906	0,5101	confounded
P9	0,7735		0,6032	0,4847	confounded
P29	0,7726		0,777	0,254
P10	0,7574		0,7464	0,2694
P7	0,7499		0,5612	0,5009	confounded
P26	0,7489		0,7655	0,2302
P6	0,7467		0,6457	0,3843
P44	0,7336		0,7367	0,2428
P5	0,7248		0,7813	0,1695
P39	0,7123		0,5978	0,3905	confounded
P42	0,7093		0,6769	0,2813
P17	0,7002		0,7895	0,118
P33	0,6948		0,571	0,397	confounded
P16	0,6923		0,7533	0,1526
P25	0,6879		0,7102	0,2021
P45	0,6846		0,4535	0,5349	confounded
P23	0,6562		0,3755	0,5908
P18	0,6521		0,6588	0,2106
P1	0,6479		0,7701	0,057
P30	0,6456		0,5819	0,3011
P47	0,6365		0,3035	0,6531
P13	0,6358		0,5577	0,3169
P4	0,6311		0,2796	0,6756
P40	0,6191		0,5284	0,3277
P38	0,615		0,4401	0,4373	confounded
P46	0,6142		0,3261	0,5863
P31	0,61		0,2886	0,6287
P43	0,608		0,4116	0,4635	confounded
P8	0,6077		0,5115	0,3313
P36	0,6054		0,4157	0,4536	confounded
P24	0,5996		0,5953	0,2075
P51	0,5912		0,5302	0,2793
P19	0,5887		0,4967	0,3194
P27	0,5873		0,797	−0,0787
P32	0,5812		0,6324	0,1281
P28	0,5791		0,5487	0,2349
P11	0,5584		0,4216	0,3681
P20	0,5451		0,5931	0,1202
P34	0,5451		0,4747	0,2762
P49	0,5437		0,2341	0,591
P2	0,5297		0,3327	0,4377
P55	0,5207		0,4386	0,2834
P48	0,4734		0,2081	0,5088
P14	0,4641		0,4395	0,1887
P22	0,4607		0,0624	0,6799
P53	0,4359		0,5497	−0,0032
P3	0,4219		0,1207	0,5389
P54	0,4117		−0,0116	0,6964
P35	0,4086		0,0913	0,5555
P37	0,3832		0,4648	0,0213
P52	0,3294	non-significant	0,0292	0,5065
P15	0,3209	non-significant	0,1698	0,3071	non-significant
P50	0,2658	non-significant	0,098	0,3106	non-significant
P12	0,2329	non-significant	0,085	0,2732	non-significant
P21	0,0872	non-significant	−0,24	0,4605

Table 3. Factor values for items per factor.

Table 4. Emerged themes concerning today’s preschool teacher education.

Theme	Number of responses
Relationship between theory and practice	39	11 positive responses 18 negative responses 10 ambivalent responses
Requesting more collaboration	15
Requesting increased special needs education competence	6
Differences between universities	5