When Anger Arises in the Interaction with Children in kindergartens –The staff’s reactions to children’s resistance.

The study explores emotions that can arise when kindergarten staff interact with the children. The aim is to shed light on the staff's view of situations where they experience strong emotions such as anger and frustration when encountering children's resistance, and discuss how shared reflections on such experiences can contribute to the development of professional judgement. The research questions are: 1) How do kindergarten staff experience emotions such as anger and frustration when encountering children's resistance? 2) How do they explain the causes of these emotions? 3) How can actions involving challenging emotions help develop the professional judgment of kindergarten staff?

The results show that when emotions lead to the use of physical force against children, staff feel that they have violated the children. This is also about feeling inadequate in their professional work. Staff describe structural factors, such as lack of time and staff, as reasons for the challenging emotions. The researchers emphasise the importance of staff reflecting collectively on such incidents in order to develop their professional judgement.

Four Norwegian kindergartens participated in the project. Two kindergartens had four mixed age groups (approximately 60 children and 12-15 employees), while two had six separate age groups (approximately 80-100 children and 20 employees). One researcher observed each kindergarten for a week and wrote field notes. In addition, staff recorded incidents where they had been involved in a conflict with one or more children. Based on these accounts, focus group interviews were conducted with the same staff.

Skoglund, R. I. & Åmot, I. (2021). "When Anger Arises in the Interaction with Children in kindergartens –The staff’s reactions to children’s resistance". Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 65(4):710-721.