Hallmarks of participation – children’s conceptions of how to get access to communities in Norwegian Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC)

The study investigates how children describe the opportunity to actively participate in their everyday kindergarten life by being included, accepted and engaged in a community with other children. The research question is: What characteristics do children themselves believe influence the opportunity to participate in a kindergarten community?

The children in the study believed that five elements were important prerequisites for participating in the kindergarten community: To be able to trust others, to feel responsible for others, to have the freedom both to choose and reject the community, to share values and interests and to be able to adapt to the kindergarten’s rules. The researchers believe that it is important to include children’s perspectives in the planning and execution of everyday activities in kindergartens in order to strengthen the feeling of participation in the community.

The study is based on semi-structured interviews with twelve four-year-olds (seven girls and five boys) from three Norwegian kindergartens. All kindergartens were part of the BePro project and were strategically selected to ensure broad and rich source data. The children were selected based on interest and volunteering and were interviewed in groups of four. The interviews were audio recorded and transcribed.

Ree, M., Alvestad, M. & Johansson, E. (2019). “Hallmarks of participation – children’s conceptions of how to get access to communities in Norwegian Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC)”. International Journal of Early Years Education, 27(2):200-215.