Abstract
The transition to school marks a significant change in the lives of today’s children and their families. In the Nordic countries, almost all children attend preschool for several years before they start primary school, and in Iceland, preschool is the first level of schooling. Although preschool attendance is nearly universal today, there is a considerable difference between preschool and primary school levels. They have very different histories, traditions, and organization, and the laws and national curricula governing them have different emphases. Starting primary school in Iceland is still a major event in the lives of children and their families. This chapter gives an account of a recent study on how starting primary school is presented in the Icelandic media. A special emphasis is placed on how theory influences the study, in terms of the design, selection of the research questions, and interpretation of the findings of the study. This chapter starts by discussing the role of theory in educational research and how different theories can be applied when analyzing the same data.
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Einarsdóttir, J. (2014). Readings of Media Accounts of Transition to School in Iceland. In: Perry, B., Dockett, S., Petriwskyj, A. (eds) Transitions to School - International Research, Policy and Practice. International perspectives on early childhood education and development, vol 9. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7350-9_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7350-9_2
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