Kroppens tilblivelse i tid og rom: analyser av materielle-diskursive hendelser i barnehagen.

The purpose of this study is to analyse the realisation of the body at the daycare facility, i.e. the study investigates how the body constructs and constitutes itself as a material subject in time and space in different places of the daycare facility. On the basis of a material, post-structuralist perspective inspired by e.g. Michel Foucault, attention is targeted at realisation of the body in the space and time of the daycare facility.

The study finds that the body as an object for learning is related to how we produce knowledge about children at daycare facilities. The body learns through rites and repetitions such as the social categories ‘girl’ and ‘boy’ in which the boy body is associated with using the body more violently than the social category ‘girl’ seems to do. Moreover, the study finds that the child learns through the body, particularly the gendered body. Whether you are a boy or a girl has an impact on what positions you can adopt. The study stresses that it is important that the pedagogical staff take a critical position on categories such as gender, age and ethnicity and work towards other, explorative discourses about the body.

Data was collected in three daycare centres in the period 2004-2007 and is primarily targeted at the youngest children. Data collection consisted of participating observations and conversations with the staff. The data collected was analysed as texts regarding movement in and between bodies and between bodies and objects, both outside and inside the daycare facility.

Rossholt, N. (2012). Kroppens tilblivelse i tid og rom: analyser av materielle-diskursive hendelser i barnehagen. Ph.d.-afhandling. Trondheim: Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet.