Å bevare makt: Strategier med barns fellesskap i barnehagen

The study investigates how kindergarten teachers in multicultural kindergartens work to create and maintain communities among the children. The study focuses specifically on children’s voluntary participation in communities, with a critical perspective on the inclusion of minoritised children. The study uses Hannah Arendt’s concept of power as an analytical framework to identify various strategies kindergarten teachers use to promote children’s social communities. The research questions are: What strategies do kindergarten teachers use to create and maintain communities between children, especially in groups of children with minoritised children?

The results show that kindergarten teachers use three main strategies: 1) active participation in children’s play to promote inclusion, 2) teaching children to increase their ability to participate, and 3) adapting the community to include all children, especially those at risk of exclusion. The results emphasise the importance of facilitating children’s voluntary participation, and how kindergarten teachers can deliberately adjust structures in kindergarten to counteract exclusion.

The study is based on semi-structured interviews with nine kindergarten teachers from three kindergartens in Norway, all of which have multicultural groups of children. Interviews were conducted via the internet or telephone due to COVID-19 restrictions. The data were analysed through a hermeneutic interpretation of meaning, where the researcher sought to uncover the teachers’ strategies for promoting children’s participation in communities.

Østrem, A. J. (2022). Å bevare makt: Strategier med barns fellesskap i barnehagen. Barn–forskning om barn og barndom i Norden, 40(4).