En sammenhængende overgang? Om legens fleksible deltagelsesrum i overgangen fra dagtilbud til skole.

The study investigates how children’s transition from kindergarten to school can be supported through play experiments that provide flexible opportunities to participate. The study is based on a pilot project in Denmark in which kindergarten children and school children participated in pedagogically structured play experiments. The research addresses how this form of activity can create a continuity during transition and what demands it places on the staff. The research questions are:

• How do children participate in the play experiments, and how can we understand the transition from kindergarten to school based on this participation?
• How can this understanding help the adults working on the transition between kindergarten and school?

The results show that the play experiments created flexible spaces for participation, which contributed to a more seamless transition between kindergarten and school. The children’s participation evolved from structured to more initiative-driven, illustrating how children can co-create continuity in the transition through play. Kindergarten staff had to adapt their roles and actively facilitate children’s participation in a way that not only focuses on school preparation but also supports children in their natural development and transition.

The study used observational data from a pilot project in which the researchers participated in and observed various play experiments. In the project, 95 kindergarten children, 20 school children and several educators from both kindergarten and school were involved. Through the experiments, the children’s participation and interaction were observed. The observations were analysed to understand how play creates continuity in the transition from kindergarten to school and flexible participation opportunities for the children.

Odgaard, A. B., Koch, A. B., & Skovbjerg, H. M. (2023). En sammenhængende overgang? Om legens fleksible deltagelsesrum i overgangen fra dagtilbud til skole. Tidsskrift for professionsstudier, 19(36), 142–151.