”Barnefellesskap som demokratisk danningsarena. Kva kan gje høve til medverknad i leik i barnehagen?”.

The study focuses on communities among children in a democratic perspective. The purpose of this study is to examine the problematic and different ways in which children construct communities and become constructed in communities with children of the same age.

On the basis of the analysis, the author has formulated four different patterns for how children negotiate about taking part in communities with children of the same age. The first pattern is friendships and initiated play which can be considered as a negotiation position. The other pattern is age, in which children can negotiate about a certain position in the game based on their age. The third pattern is the children’s age and seniority at the daycare centre, while the fourth pattern is the approach to toys which is seen as a pattern for how negotiations take place within the children’s communities. The author shows how children place themselves in hierarchies in relation to each other using these patterns. For instance, initiated play is an example of how children who are already part of the game can position themselves to children who want to take part in the game. Another example is how children use toys brought from home as negotiating tools in the game.

A total of 18 children aged three to six years took part in the study. Data was collected using observations and field notes of conversations between children, conversations between children and child carers and conversations between children and the author. The author focuses mainly on the relationships between children and children. Four observations in which children negotiate about taking part in the community formed the basis for the analysis.

Grindheim, L.T. (2011). ”Barnefellesskap som demokratisk danningsarena. Kva kan gje høve til medverknad i leik i barnehagen?”. Nordisk Barnehageforskning, 4(2), 91-102.