Children’s particpation: focus on
dialogical patterns in early
childhood education/kindergartens
Dr. Philos Berit Bae
Oslo University College, Oslo, Norway
Email: [email protected]
Høgskolen i Oslo
Introduction-overview
Societal context:changes on the political level,
Research context: Different approaches
My focus: aspects in dialogical patterns
based on findings from empirical research
Questions :
1)What are salient aspects in dialogical patterns
which differ in quality ?
2)How does children’s participation differ in
dialogical patterns of varying quality?
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Norwegian-political context
Kindergarten Act, Section 3:
Children in kindergartens shall have the right to
express their views on the day-to-day activities of
the kindergarten.
Children shall regularly be given the opportunity to
take active part in planning and assessing the
activities of the kindergarten.
The children’s views shall be given due weight
according to their age and maturity.
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Framework Plan for the Content
and Tasks of Kindergartens(2006)
“ Staff must listen to and attempt to interpret their body
language, and must be observant in relation to their actions,
aesthetic expressions and eventually their verbal
communications.
Kindergartens must allow for the different perspectives of
different children, and must respect their intentions and
realms of experience.
Children’s right to freedom of expression shall be ensured, and
their participation must be integrated in work on the content
of kindergartens”.
(The Norwegian Ministry of Education and rRsearch
2006,page 9.)
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A research context
Theoretical views:
Implementing article 12,13, and 14 in the UN Convention
in practical situations, challenges familiar views on
adult-child relationships and requires a new adult role
Empirical approaches:
interviewing children
observing decisionmaking routines and childrens’ choices
various forms of documentation ,
observing interactions in pedagogical activities
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My research focus
Theoretical perspectives:
a critical stance towards the one-sidedness and
reductionism
Dunne(2006: 13) “ .. argue that in early childhood education
the need now is to move beyond deconstruction towards
reconstruction”
descriptive and interpretive research that
aims at identifying salient processes and communicational
aspects
inspired from different fields, notably micro-ethnography
and clinical psychology.
concepts like mutual recognition and intersubjectivity have
proved to be important theoretical tools
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methodology
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micrcroanalytic design
2 teachers in interaction and their groups
of children(3-6years),
everyday interactions between teachers
and children were video-filmed from Sept.
to May
in three different situations: mealtime,
circle-time and free play period
730 secquences analyzed
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Findings: relationship themes
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Relationship themes that oserved in all 3
contexts(mealtime, circletime,freeplay)
a) conversation,
b) practical co-operation,
c)play/humour
d)setting of limits.
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Analyses/findings: contrasting
patterns
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spacious dialogical patterns
narrow dialogical patterns,
both spacious and narrow patterns were
observed in all three observational
contexts ( mealtime, circletime and free
play)
and with regard to the 4 different
relationship themes
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Spacious patterns: the teacher’s
participation
an attentive and focussed presence of mind
aware of the child's metacommunicative signals
such as tone of voice, facial expressions, bodily
posture and the like,
focussed on where the children have their
attention
tolerant of mistakes or incorrect ways of
expressing things
recompose herself, self-reflexive
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Spacious patterns: children’s
participation
share thoughts/experiences/ feelings
tell stories
ask questions
invite the teacher into playful episodes
bring forth a wide range of the teacher's
communicational repertoire
come across as competent dialogue
partners,able to take turns and contribute
from their own horizon.
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Narrow patterns: the teacher’s
participation
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scattered attention, unfocussed
emotionally distant(“flat”)
responds primarily to the verbal content and
not to the metacommunicational cues
the dialogue is more controlled by the teacher’s
initiatives
serious mode, less playfulness and humour
ask many questions and especially of a closed or
rhetorical kind.
"Yes-but…” answers
evaluative comments, much praise
degrading comments when setting limits
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Narrow patterns: children’s
participation
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try to find satisfying answers
ask few questions
often rounded off by a withdrawal on
the part of the child, communicated by
looking down or away, sometimes with
an irritated or embarrassed look on the
face
predictable but not very spontaous
dialogue partners
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Individual differences-profiles
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interactional differences based on the 14
target children, across themes and over
time
mutual interest and humour
changing qualities in the interaction
troublesome interactions.
Conclusion: creating conditions for all
children’s participation is a very complex
matter.
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Conclusion
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Salient aspects promoting childrens’
participation on their own terms seem
to be:
teacher responsiveness to childrens’ initiatives,
a focussed attention combined with emphatic
responses, which support a joint involvement,
along with an opneness to playful qualities
and the teachers’ abilities to take the childres’
perspctives on what happens.
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Problematizing - deconstructing
narrow patterns
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patterns that are often found in
educational settings do not enhance
childrens participation
what is stated in national documents at
the political level, needs to be
problematized and critically discussed
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Reconstruction
emirpically based descriptions show that it is
possible to establish some kind of mutuality
between childen and adults, even though it may
only lasts for a few seconds
such moments are characterized by:
joint attention, mutuality,playfulness, and
selfreflexivity
on such grounds dialogues and adult child
relationships can be reconstructed
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