Bookstart Around the World 1
Bookstart Around the World collaboration is the i
mportance of structural circumstances, for employees in the organisations to have leeway for working together (see, e.g., Rydsjö, 2012; Hampson Lundh & Michnik, 2014). In the ongoing evaluation of Språkstegen – a Bokstart project in the Kronoberg and Blekinge regions, it is described how employees in some cases feel that a mandate for collaboration efforts is lacking. They feel that these efforts do not come ‘from above’ but instead emerge at the grassroots level (Hultgren & Johansson, 2020). This can be a considerable challenge, as is also highlighted elsewhere in the country (the Swedish Arts Council, 2020). Shortcomings in collaboration structures are also identified, and forums for meetings and networking also tend to be in short supply, even though child healthcare services and libraries have collaborated for an extended length of time (Lundh & Michnik, 2014). Hultgren and Johansson (2020) describe how having common objectives can promote and facilitate collaboration between different organisations. By taking advantage of one another’s knowledge and complementing each other, paediatric healthcare services, libraries, speech pathologists and preschools can collaborate in supporting families and children in their language development. This also reflects how other Bokstart practitioners around the country described the benefits of collaboration. The fact that professions can increase their understanding of each other’s skills, conditions and situations appears to be an important aspect of getting collaboration to work. Most of the interviews and literature indicate that collaboration is described as a prerequisite for the successful implementation of bookgifting programmes. There is no panacea for collaboration, although mandates and structures for meetings and exchange appear to be important prerequisites. Another important aspect of collaboration is that skills from different professions can complement each other in efforts relating to children. As Hultgren and Johansson (2020) describe regarding the core of knowledge amongst Språkstegen employees, there is considerable expertise amongst those who work with book giveaways. For example, they are well aware of the meaning of early literacy as a social process and the underlying research that Bokstart is based on, they also know how to arrange literacy activities such as reading aloud, theatre, singing time etc. They also highlight some aspects that employees would like to know more about, which they identify primarily as skills they already have but that they wish to expand upon or deepen. This includes increased knowledge in the professional role and work methods of the other entities, the concept of Bokstart and Språkstegen, organisational sustainability, didactics; how effects and differences can be measured after various interventions, and how to formulate and request skills for the organisation, which in essence can be understood as how they can establish and argue for the organisation on a political level (2020, p.18f.). The fact that bookgifting programmes have largely grown organically from the grassroots level is an important aspect. The studies of policy dissemination regarding Taiwan’s Bookstart programme highlight some interesting perspectives, although they are highly theoretical explorations. They describe how the expansion of Bookstart in Taiwan has gone from ‘bottomup’ to ‘topdown’; that is, that Bookstart was initially spread by local entities and expanded within and between regions, but that policy decisions on the national level were later the most important factor regarding the growth of Bookstart (Lin & Chang, 2014). This expansion was mostly affected by decisions on the governmental level, since Taiwan is a centralised state; however, they found some indications that the dissemination and generation of information about the programme by local interested parties could also affect growth (Hsu & Sun, 2014). One study of Bookstart in Taiwan emphasises that the dissemination and use of information can have a considerable impact on the spread of Bookstart (Ke & Huang, 2014). One theoretically oriented article highlights some of the main influencing factors that may affect the expansion of Bookstart. Amongst other things, they emphasise the organisational circumstances of local entities, such as available resources and a culture of change within the organisation (Sun et al., 2013). Studies that research distribution patterns for Bookstart appear to be quite limited, apart from those in the Taiwanese context. 4.4.3 Preschool and participation According to the interviews that have been conducted and materials that have been collected in this 32/52