Barns berättelser–kamratkulturer skapas kring förskolans fotodokumentation

The study investigates how educational photo documentation in Swedish kindergartens affects children’s relationship building and participation. The aim is to understand how children perceive documentation and in what ways they engage themselves in this work. The study focuses on children’s own perspectives. The research questions are:

1) How do children express themselves in relation to photo documentation in kindergarten?

2) What identity positions are negotiated through children’s interaction with the documentation?

The study uncovers two main discourses that children use to negotiate relationships: a collective peer discourse focusing on community and group activities, and an individual-oriented peer discourse emphasising personal identity and individual relationships. The children use the documentation to position themselves and express belonging and distance, often through stereotypical gender expressions. The results show that the combination of the children’s interest in their own identity and kindergarten teachers’ facilitation can strengthen children’s relationship work and participation in kindergarten.

Data were collected through observations and semi-structured group interviews with 19 children aged 4-6 years. The conversations were based on kindergarten documentation photographs, where the children reflected on the pictures in groups of 2 to 3. The data were analysed using thematic analysis focusing on language use and interaction.

Wahlgren, C., Andersson, K., Björklund, E., & Henriksson, H. W. (2022). Barns berättelser–kamratkulturer skapas kring förskolans fotodokumentation. Barn–forskning om barn og barndom i Norden, 40(1).