Det moderne barn og den fleksible barnehagen en etnografisk studie av barnehagens hverdagsliv i lys av nyere diskurser og kommunal virkelighet.

The objective of this study is to examine what consequences more recent discourses about children and kindergarten can have on professional practice and children’s opportunities for participation and learning at kindergarten, when the understandings are to be developed and materialised within a municipal context.

This study shows a complex picture of how neo-liberal views of the individual and New Public Management influence daily life at kindergarten. For instance, by pointing at what should be a ‘free kindergarten’ where children can navigate as they want, turns out to be perceived as constrictive and leaves some children ‘floating’, while the increasing administrative requirements for social pedagogues result in the childcare assistants taking over day-to-day operation of the kindergarten division. The issue identified is that parent satisfaction is rendered higher priority than the quality requirements kindergarten staff could be expected to demand on the basis of their experience and competences.

This study is an ethnographic field study, in which the researcher has narrowed the field around the kindergarten using discourse analyses. Data consist of a document from Trondheim municipality, observations of personnel and children from three-five years old in
two divisions of a kindergarten, as well as interviews with children and personnel.

Seland, M. (2009). Det moderne barn og den fleksible barnehagen en etnografisk studie av barnehagens hverdagsliv i lys av nyere diskurser og kommunal virkelighet. Trondheim: Norsk senter for barneforskning, NTNU.