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Parents’ - as well as children’s - participation is highly stressed in every policy document concerning pre-school and school, on local, national and international level. In this article parents’ participation in pre-school and school is regarded as an element of tension between policy and professional practice. Based on empirical data from three different studies, teachers’ professional attitudes and their conceptions of parental participation in school are presented. Contradictions between policy ambitions and professional practices are discussed in an historical perspective, and related to earlier emphasised equality in relation to the school. Changes are shown, especially in the policy discourse about parents’ participation: from the earlier objective of enhanced democracy, which was seen as an important, basic value, to the present goal of enhanced democracy and inclusion as a strategy for better learning outcomes and school efficiency.

This article starts with a question made by a student: Are there any preschools in Scania that are noted for having a marked policy of gender equality? The answer to the question is a resounding “Yes there are”, within the context that the common open-door preschool policy represents one of the most extensive gender equality projects in Sweden. The meaning of motherhood and fatherhood has slowly been changed by the parents’ dual participation in employment, as well as in household and parental responsibilities. The relationships between the state and the family, the parent and the child, and the mother and father have been deeply influenced by the development and expansion of readily available preschool services. However, although gender patterns have changed, gender regimes, such as gender segregation and hierarchisation, characterise even the new social arenas. The question made by the student was directed at the special kind of pedagogical equality projects in preschools of today. These projects are discussed critically in the article, wherein the Swedish concept of gender equality (“jämställdhet”) is problematised as a marker for both nationality and class. It is of special concern today to discuss the effect of preschools on childhood and gender structure. In a time of restructuring and reorganisation of the welfare state and of European harmonisation, it is of special importance to focus on preschool and equality from a historical and international comparative perspective. The general, highly qualitative and accessible preschool represents more than just childcare - it is a pedagogical and gender political project with an embedded possibility to change social order.