Spaces of Participation in Pre-School: Arenas for Establishing Power Orders.

The purpose of this study is to examine arenas for participation at kindergartens. The study focuses on how kindergarten children share knowledge about ongoing constructions of social patterns. The study examines children's social patterns at times when they sit in a circle at kindergarten and what social patterns appear when children are to choose a friend.

The study shows how children's shared knowledge about social status and social differentiation in their group was enhanced and confirmed, when they were sitting in a circle and playing under traditional teacher supervision and were asked to take turns to choose a friend.

The study is an ethnographic, qualitative study. The study is based on observations of a group of children, aged three to five years, sitting in a circle playing at a kindergarten.

Löfdahl, A.; Hägglund, S. (2007). Spaces of Participation in Pre-School: Arenas for Establishing Power Orders: Children & Society, 21 (5), S. 328-338.