ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the history, training and role of pedagogues in Denmark from the first one-year training at the beginning of the 1900s to the present-day three-and-a-half-year bachelor-level education. It explores the four main roles that a pedagogue has in Danish early years settings: first to create a safe environment where children can thrive and develop in a creatively stimulating surrounding; second to be a role model; third to support children's social and emotional development; and fourth to work in partnership with parents. The pedagogues need to show that they are motivated and engaged when outdoors, in all weathers, every day, all year round. They need to be engaged, inquisitive and imaginative and support the same attributes in the children. Pedagogical work cannot be defined as carrying out particular actions or methods; it involves the establishment of different types of social life, educations and environments, based on and supported by specific norms and values.
