Constructions of Children In-Between Normality and Deviance in Norwegian Day-care Centres.

The overall purpose of this dissertation is to contribute knowledge about preschool staff's understandings and perspectives regarding children who have not actually been diagnosed as having special needs or possible mental disabilities, although the staff suspect that they may have such problems (in the dissertation referred to as in-between children). More specifically, the study aims to ascertain: 1) the way in which in-between children are constructed as having a deviant behaviour or as being possibly disabled at preschools, 2) how evaluations, descriptions and practices by staff regarding in-between children are related to discourses and understandings of children and childhood, 3) how the boundaries are defined between children who are perceived as having a deviant behaviour, and children who are viewed as normal, and 4) what characterises staff expectations regarding normality.

The dissertation comprises three articles which answer the four research questions of the study.

The dissertation shows that the children are constructed through different discourses. The preschool staff's explanations as to why a child is considered as being an in-between child is linked to different understandings of children and childhood. Construction of the child as having a deviant behaviour is linked to a development discourse, in which the child's behaviour and actions are assessed and understood as deviant with reference to what is considered normal, age-appropriate development. This understanding is also linked to the use of standardised evaluation tools widely used at Norwegian preschools. However, the study also finds that the staff relate critically to this use of standardised evaluation tools and reflect critically on understandings of "normality". The staff put emphasis on diversity and express resistance towards fixed standards about age and development.

The dissertation shows that the staff's descriptions and practices relate to the discourse about "the competent child", and the way in which the child is constructed as having a deviant behaviour in the preschool setting is linked to teachers' subjective positioning of the child as incompetent. The staff's explanations as to why a child is perceived as an in-between child thus describe the deviant behaviour as a lack of competences with regard to being part of everyday life at the preschool and the specific activities at the school. The staff's expectations and assessments of the children are thereby explicitly linked to specific everyday situations and to the institutional context. This stresses how assessments of the children are entwined in context-specific expectations and institutional practices.

The dissertation shows that the staff's descriptions of in-between children are particularly related to whether the child's behaviour and actions differ from the staff's expectations of a "normal" competent child. For example, by being social, active, independent and flexible in "the right way". The children thereby risk being positioned as being different if they do not live up to the staff's expectations of normal behaviour in everyday situations at preschool. Moreover, the children risk being positioned somewhere in between normal and deviant.

The study was conducted at four preschool departments in two Norwegian municipalities. Two of the departments had 1-3-year-old children and the other two had 3-5-year-old children. In connection with the selection of preschools, emphasis was placed on the fact that they were located in different urban areas and did not have a special profile, e.g. a special culture or disability profile. Data consists of three weeks of ethnographically inspired observations of participants in each of the departments (a total of three months) as well as interviews with a total of 16 employees (14 women and two men) from the departments. Interviews were carried out in 2009 and were all saved as audio files. The observations of participants were carried out in 2011 and were documented as field notes. The observations were carried out three to four times a week in order to experience the daily life of employees and children. The interviews constitute the primary data source of the study, whereas the observations serve as a supplement in the form of specific descriptions of situations and different perspectives outside the interview context. Moreover, to a lesser extent, the study includes local management documents and evaluation tools used by the preschools to assess the development of the children, for example. The dissertation has a social constructionist framework of understanding, in which the goal is to produce knowledge that can challenge norms or practices usually taken for granted, and promote reflectivity within preschools.

Franck, K. (2014). “Constructions of Children In-Between Normality and Deviance in Norwegian Day-care Centres”. Doctoral theses at NTNU, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim.