Flexible Spaces – Flexible Subjects in ’Nature’. Transcending the ’Fenced’ Childhood in Daycare Centres?

The purpose of this study is to investigate the social practices of children and staff at a daycare centre with a nature/outdoor profile (in Norwegian: naturbarnehage). The researcher wants to investigate how the flexibility in nature is connected with different understandings of children.

The study indicates that the social conditions at the daycare facility require ‘flexible’ and ‘fluid’ behaviours. On the basis of the field work, the researcher discusses the span between a modern childhood and ‘traditional’ constructions of a ‘happy’ childhood outdoors in which playing in non-fenced places in a natural environment is highly valued. The study shows that daycare facilities with a nature/outdoor profile can offer a space of changing and flexible constructions of places and different subject positions. The results show that the daycare facility studied is flexible, and that the material boundaries can be negotiated between children and staff. The staff at the daycare centre studied use the metaphor ‘nomads’ about the children and adults at the daycare centre. The spatial aspects of the daycare centre’s ‘nomadic practice’ contribute to another version of a childhood at the daycare centre, the researcher concludes.

This study is part of a larger Norwegian research project, and the data material is based on field work in a Norwegian daycare facility with a nature/outdoor profile. The field work focused on the social practices of children and staff regarding ‘nature’ and outdoor life, and one early childhood educator, one childcare assistant (untrained staff) as well as 13 children aged three to six years took part in the study. The material consists of participation observations, which were either written down as field notes or registered by video footage, as well as guided interviews with the staff. Moreover, the researcher draws on data from one of the researcher’s own previous ethnographic studies for this research project as well as data from previous field work regarding an ordinary daycare facility.

Nilsen, R.D. (2012). Flexible Spaces – Flexible Subjects in ’Nature’. Transcending the ’Fenced’ Childhood in Daycare Centres? I: Qvortrup J. & Kjørholt, A.T. (red.). The Modern Child and the Flexible Labour Market. Early Childhood Education and Care. (s. 203-221). Palgrave Macmillan.