The aim of the research is to highlight discourses about professional development in preschool, visible as knowledge movements in meta-conversations about peer counseling. A changing society needs preschool teachers who are critical, who challenge existing actions and understandings, and who continuously develop their knowledge. Professional competence is collective knowledge, and changes in collective knowledge can be expressed as «knowledge movements» which describe processes that build bridges between everyday life and the system. Tensions between the inner life and external demands appear in conversations about peer counseling in groups, in this text called «meta-conversations». The aim is to investigate peer counseling as a transformative learning activity in the preschool and this text discusses preschool teachers’ professionalization in what way peer counseling as a transformative learning activity can support professionalization in preschool. The research question is: To what extent are central discourses on professional development visible as knowledge movements in meta-conversations about peer counseling?

Reflection on one's own practice together with colleagues is emphasized as a valuable part of a professional community (Healy, 2012; Irvine & Price, 2014; Postholm, 2018). The study by Langelotz (2013) on a teaching team that has been "forced" to participate in a peer counseling group, supports that peer counseling nurture new, complex processes, both delimiting and liberating. Lazzari (2012) examines preschool teachers' professionalism based on discussions in focus groups and finds the value of collective discussions as an arena for professional development in dialogue with society. A literature review on transformative learning in teacher education (Hatlevik, 2018), shows that such learning activities can contribute to promoting critical reflection on one's own and others' professional practice and can promote the development of profession-related wisdom.

Habermas' (1984; et.al. 1999) theory of communicative action is this study's theoretical underpinning for analyzing preschool teachers' statements in conversations about peer counseling. Habermas' theory combines communication, action, and interaction. He uses the term «communicative action» to describe a type of interaction that is coordinated by means of speech acts (p. 66). Speech acts are, in Habermas' terminology, linked to various types of social action.Speech acts are integral parts of language and serve many functions. It is assumed here that speech acts can facilitate the understanding of what happens in conversations about counseling situations.  

The concept of the lifeworld is taken from phenomenology, while the systems concept has its roots in Parsons and Luhman's systems theory (Habermas, 1999). This lifeworld includes cultural, personal, and social traditions, while society as a system in many contexts can be experienced as a contrast to this lifeworld. This lifeworld includes «the non-thematic functions», the background, what we always take for granted» (Hellesnes, 1988). 

This study's main assumption is that so-called "knowledge movements" combine everyday values and external systems. This is operationalized more closely through the concept of transformative learning, which contributes to the development of professional practical wisdom and identity (Mezirow, 2009). Mezirow was influenced by Habermas, who proposed that meaning external to the individual is created via communication. Through critical reflection on one's own and others' arguments, one assesses the content, sources, causes, premises, and consequences of actions with the aim of understanding and justifying such actions (Mezirow, 1995; 1998).

Transformative learning contributes to the foundation for the development of practical wisdom. This study follows a tradition where individual knowledge development is seen as potentially enhanced in social contexts, and also selectively linked to existing, organizational knowledge (Brix, 2017). Peer counseling can thus support continuous professional development in an organization (Lauvås et al., 2016). Group peer counseling will facilitate insight into the participants' professional assumptions, theoretical standpoints, experiences, and ethical reflections.

This study is based on qualitative data from one preschool. The information comes from the preschool teachers, but the analysis is based on the preschool teachers' views and opinions, not aspects of the individuals themselves. Empirically, this study is based on a case study with qualitative data from audio recordings of two focus group conversations about peer counseling. The conversations are between preschool teachers, and the analysis is based on their statements and opinions, not the acts. The content of the conversations was mainly issues prepared by the preschool teachers themselves, with the aim of developing deeper knowledge about systematic peer counseling as a learning activity in their professional community. Understanding takes place in a dialogical process, in which different points of view arise in a community (Gergen, 2010). The conversations lasted 90 minutes each. The data material is gathered from the preschool teachers' conversations about peer counseling. The goal of the preschool teachers' conversations is to develop more accurate knowledge of peer counseling as a peer learning activity. Both conversations are based on six anonymized cases prepared by the preschool teachers, which were used in both conversations. These cases thematize different aspects of peer counseling in this community. The purpose of this study is to identify the preschool teachers' views as closely as possible to formulate a coherent and theoretical third-person perspective (Brinkmann & Tanggard, 2020). The researchers prepared vignettes for the group discussions to have the researchers' voices represented. Vignettes are short descriptions of situations that reference what it is important to solicit responses to (Alexander & Becker, 1978). Participants can use their own knowledge and experience in the interpretation of complex situations without these situations becoming personal and delimiting (Finch, 2016). Data reduction and content analysis were used in the evaluation of the data. This analysis operationalizes Habermas' (1999) categories, using these as analytical concepts in what Brinkmann and Tanggard (2020) refer to as theory-driven coding. In addition, this study includes the dimension «individual collective» and "everyday world and system" The analysis is based on Habermas' various speech acts and categories as markers for key discourses in the preschool related to the individual and the collective, everyday-world, and system. Preschool as a collective system dominates the meta-conversations. Individuals are clearly present, but first and foremost within the framework of the preschool as a social and formal system.

By seeing the speech acts in the light of the theoretically defined categories, we identify different movements and discourses in the preschool, between the individual and the collective, and between everyday value and system. The preschool teachers need to discuss and relate these movements and discourses to their professional practice; knowledge movements about learning and becoming part of the community, knowledge movements that challenge professional growth, and the movement between everyday life and system. The categories used can function as concepts when analyzing how meta-conversations include knowledge about the development of professional practice in preschools. By analyzing these categories, an overarching discourse emerges, namely system contra everyday lives. The pattern is that the system is pushing, resulting in leaders, mentors, and preschool teachers tending to display resistance via so-called dramaturgical speech acts. The two dominant speech act types are, however, normative, and declarative, which must be interpreted as positive. This study is a contribution to research on preschool teachers’ professional development, and how external support can contribute to facilitating meta-conversations. Even if this is a study in one preschool, the concepts still can provide deeper knowledge about central discourses and knowledge movements in preschools in general. The value can be recognition of the everyday world in meeting the system for all employees across preschools and educational levels. This study contributes to research on preschool teachers' professional practice development. A practical implication of this study is that external aspects can contribute to facilitating preschool teachers' self-development through systematic meta-conversations. In this context, peer counseling in groups appears to be a fundamentally important learning activity for preschool teachers and should be included in the education of preschool teachers. Hence, this study is relevant for the education of future preschool teachers.

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