Purpose
On the inspirational basis of life history research, this study describes the children's own perspective on play and on their time at daycare centres.
Result
Children regard themselves as playing when they feel that they are in charge of their actions. Activities that are initiated or controlled by adults, are not often regarded as play. Three existential themes appeared in the data material, which children relate to continually when they play and in their social relations: 1. a sense of belonging and friendship; 2. power and exclusion; 3. biological and social gender. Children act on the basis of what is relevant to them in their own universe. Thus, children have a constructing (unlike a passive, purely recipient) relationship to the cultural aspects that adults consciously or unconsciously present to them.
Design
The design of the study is ethnographic and includes interviews and observations.
References
Öman, M. (2007). Barns perspektiv på sin lek och tillvaro i förskolan. I: Banér. A., Schousboe, I. & Lindgren, B. Barns lek – makt och möjligheter (S.33-44). Stockholm: Stockholms Universitet.
Financed by
Not disclosed