In this thesis, I explored children’s experiences of role-play in relation to notions of self. The research took place in two pack-away settings in the Private, Voluntary and Independent (PVI) sector of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). The experiences of eight children, aged between three-year-three months and four-years one month, were investigated over a period of seven months. I used an adaptation of The Mosaic Approach (Clark and Moss 2001) combined with a reflective lenses approach (Brookfield 1995) to create a three-dimensional view of the children’s experiences. The children and I used a range of tools to gather data including digital cameras, conferencing, drawing and map-making. Children were conceptualised as agentic and capable of commenting on their lives and experiences (James et al 1998, Qvortrup 2004, Cosaro 2010). The findings revealed that children engage in Wave Play, a fluid form of role-play in which they move both props and ideas from space to space. Practitioners support the children in finding the necessary props and allowing them to move from one area of the setting to another. The children displayed positive self-esteem and effective social behaviours showing an awareness of themselves as social beings. They were confident that their needs will be met when they request support. In their role-play activities, they showed their understanding of themselves as integrated selves; beings, becomings and having beens (Cross 2011). Adults in pack-away settings can support children effectively by adopting a flexible pedagogical approach.

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The purpose of the study is to examine how pedagogues practice their authority over children in conflict situations at preschools. How are children treated based solely on them being children? And how do preschool teachers validate children’s experiences of conflicts? To get answers I proceeded by using a qualitative data collection method and a hermeneutical analysis. I collected the material for the study by observing and interviewing pedagogues to both get an idea of ​​how they act in practice and how they reason about conflict situations in the preschool. The essay is based on a childhood sociological theoretical perspective that recognizes the importance of social and cultural context. The study’s results show that pedagogues practice their authority over children in conflict situations, but that it is done in different ways. How they practice authority, treat and validate children’s experiences depend on the pedagogues’ child perspective. Even though all the pedagogues in the study want what’s best for the children, the various conflict situations have completely different outcomes, since the pedagogues interpret children and their actions in very different ways, resulting in different responses and attitudes towards the children. The consequences of these different ways to respond need to be questioned and reflected upon. It’s time that the way pedagogues practice their authority and the way they see children is brought up for discussions within the world of preschool education.

By exploring how my/a tattooed body functions as becoming through the concept of bodies without organs (BwO), this work pushes the edges of qualitative inquiry. Following St. Pierre’s call to deconstruct the concepts on which qualitative research is built, this inquiry troubles the I/we of authorship and linear meaning making as it examines the tattooed body functioning as becoming a BwO. The nodal ethnography is a Deleuzo-Guattarian-based methodological inquiry in which interruptions and layers of narrative are used to create spaces for conversation between my multinodes. The tattoos on my semipermeable corporeal flesh tell multilayered stories that are constantly moving and shifting, and I (re)make meaning of these stories within, amongst, and between the nodes that constitute this disorganized body while approaching the limits of a BwO, always in progress, becoming. There is no beginning or end, only a middle, made up of lines that can be read in any order, as linearity does not live here. The Laminar Express iPhone/iPad photography application allowed for the layering of images, text, and color to rupture and even to distort the lines of ink on my body as a plane of representation adds yet another collaborative space to have dialogue(s); thus offering endless possibilities for the nodes of my ethnography to be (re)connected and (re)produced. My tattooed body evokes response from my multiselves as well as from others; ergo, I invite the reader to become a co-collaborator of this nodal ethnography, and to take lines of flight with/in this experimental space of what may appear when tattoos/images/multinodes/selves and storied lines of inked/textured text collide with Deleuzo-Guattarian theory in exploring my tattooed skin as becoming a BwO.

This thesis explores how writing is made in two Swedish early childhood classrooms with a focus on how processes of writing are constituted in the writing event and what writings and writers the event offers potentials for. Theoretically, the research project takes its starting point in the assumption that processes of writing are an effect of relations between different elements, where the young writer is only one part of many human and non-human matters that make way for multiple becomings of writing and writers. In this context, the figuration of the nomad thought of Deleuze and Guattari is particularly applicable as it builds on the assumption that everything is always connected, continuously moving. The questions addressed are how the processes of writers, text-like writings and educational writing processes emerge, continue and transform in the writing event, and what writers, text-like writings and educational writing processes the event offers potentials for. The thesis consists of three research articles based on different empirical data. The first article builds on data from the thinking and talking about writing and the writing child in scholarly literature since the 19th century. The second and third articles are based on analyses of ethnographic documentation of six- to seven-year-olds’ writing activities in two early childhood classrooms. The ethnographic strategies of the audio and video recordings, field notes, informal interviews and the collection of children’s text-like writings were carried out over a period of one and a half year during which the children moved from preschool class to their first year of school. The findings of the first article suggest that the image of the ideal writing and the ideal writer has changed over time. However, the image of the young writer training for adult life predominates over time. The main result of the second article shows in specific ways that the mutual production of stabilizing processes of writing and processes of experimentation are vital components for becomings of writers and writing, irrespective of pedagogical framings. The finding of the third article illustrates how the teaching method of creative writing produced over time creates multiple pedagogical trajectories of “doing method” and “doing creativity”. The thesis posits nomadic writing as a way to account for the movement, the connectivity and change in the processes of writing, thus contributing to an understanding of how the processes of writing create potentialities for multiple becomings of writers and writing. / Baksidestext/Blurb How is writing made? How do processes of writing emerge, continue and change in educational writing events? And what kinds of writers and writings can potentially emerge from the writing event? In this thesis Carina Hermansson explores how writing is produced in early childhood education, partly through analyses of the thinking and talking about writing and the writing child provided in scholarly literature since the 19th century, and partly through analyses of ethnographic documentation of six- to seven-year-olds’ writing activities in two early childhood classrooms. The research identifies how the processes of writing are an effect of many elements assembled in the writing event, such as computers, learning outcomes, bodily movements, children and teachers, and experiences based on children’s popular cultures. Hermansson posits nomadic writing as a way to account for the connectivity, the movement and change in the processes of writing, thus contributing to an understanding of how the processes of writing create potentialities for multiple becomings of writers and writing. The findings show that the mutual production of stabilizing processes of writing and processes of experimentation are vital components for becomings of writers and writing, thus offering a way to view early childhood writing classrooms as sites of experimentation. Nomadic Writing: Exploring processes of writing in early childhood education is a book about children’s writing and writing development in a society where media, digital technology and new forms of communication and literacy are conceptualized as important in education. It provides researchers and teachers with a conceptual framework for understanding the dynamic processes of writing. / <p>The online version of the thesis differs slightly from the printed version as research articles have been removed for copyright reasons.</p>

This thesis explores how writing is made in two Swedish early childhood classrooms with a focus on how processes of writing are constituted in the writing event and what writings and writers the event offers potentials for. Theoretically, the research project takes its starting point in the assumption that processes of writing are an effect of relations between different elements, where the young writer is only one part of many human and non-human matters that make way for multiple becomings of writing and writers. In this context, the figuration of the nomad thought of Deleuze and Guattari is particularly applicable as it builds on the assumption that everything is always connected, continuously moving. The questions addressed are how the processes of writers, text-like writings and educational writing processes emerge, continue and transform in the writing event, and what writers, text-like writings and educational writing processes the event offers potentials for. The thesis consists of three research articles based on different empirical data. The first article builds on data from the thinking and talking about writing and the writing child in scholarly literature since the 19th century. The second and third articles are based on analyses of ethnographic documentation of six- to seven-year-olds’ writing activities in two early childhood classrooms. The ethnographic strategies of the audio and video recordings, field notes, informal interviews and the collection of children’s text-like writings were carried out over a period of one and a half year during which the children moved from preschool class to their first year of school. The findings of the first article suggest that the image of the ideal writing and the ideal writer has changed over time. However, the image of the young writer training for adult life predominates over time. The main result of the second article shows in specific ways that the mutual production of stabilizing processes of writing and processes of experimentation are vital components for becomings of writers and writing, irrespective of pedagogical framings. The finding of the third article illustrates how the teaching method of creative writing produced over time creates multiple pedagogical trajectories of “doing method” and “doing creativity”. The thesis posits nomadic writing as a way to account for the movement, the connectivity and change in the processes of writing, thus contributing to an understanding of how the processes of writing create potentialities for multiple becomings of writers and writing.

This thesis deals with professionalism in early childhood education in relation to «race» and whiteness in primarily a Norwegian landscape. The overall aim of the study is to investigate how sociomaterial «race»-events can be understood as constitutive of preschool teachers’ subjectivity. The thesis is a theoretical experimentation with strong ties to a real social landscape. One of the main problems that the study evolves around is how «race» is silenced in the dominant discourse contributing to how preschool teachers can create socially just and indiscriminating pedagogical practices in a current «multicultural society». Hence, there seem to be a lack of tools for preschool teachers to think through how «race» might be part of their pedagogical practice in preschools, and how «race» is an important issue to address when working with how to perform pedagogy ethically and politically. More specifically and in a philosophical-theoretical manner, the study explores «white» preschool teachers’ relation to «race». The philosophical-theoretical-methodological conceptual toolbox for the study is mainly constructed from the philosophical work of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari (1977, 1987). E.g. machinic assemblage, stratification, Body without Organs, nomadic subject, affect, individuation, micropolitics, becoming, actual/virtual and event. The methodological approach is highly inspired by decolonizing-, feminist poststructural- and critical methodologies. However, immersed with Deleuze and Guattaris philosophy of desire, what started out as a poststructural autoethnography transformed into a cartography of «my own» racial becomings in/with an early childhood landscape. The study shows how subjectivity, when understood as produced through sociomaterial «race»-events, offers another understanding of doing professionalism. Further, it offers an alternative understanding of how to create more socially just pedagogical practices in early childhood education.

Universidade do Estado do Rio Grande do Norte / nÃo hà / TraÃando linhas de fuga frente aos sistemas modelizantes da subjetividade capitalÃstica (GUATTARI), pessoas e grupos libertÃrios, saturados de relaÃÃes sociais heterogestoras, constroem espaÃos e situaÃÃes de convÃvio coletivo em que suas vidas possam de fato ser autogeridas. Os movimentos autogestionÃrios contemporÃneos reinventam revoluÃÃes, operando no domÃnio do molecular, de sorte a questionarem o sistema em sua dimensÃo de produÃÃo da subjetividade e a construÃrem, no cotidiano, formas diferenciadas de estar no mundo. A autogestÃo, nestas prÃticas dos coletivos libertÃrios atuais, à um corpo movediÃo reinventando-se ao sabor das experiÃncias particulares; entretanto, estes coletivos libertÃrios nÃo estÃo isentos de serem atravessados por situaÃÃes de centralizaÃÃo de poder, pela emergÃncia de prÃticas autoritÃrias, por momentos heterogestores, pela eclosÃo de armadilhas da representatividade e pela instalaÃÃo de microfascismos (FOUCAULT). Esta pesquisa trata dos conceitos de autogestÃo produzidos por pessoas vinculadas a grupos libertÃrios contemporÃneos, dentro da cena anarquista de Fortaleza, CearÃ; e aponta para a emergÃncia de conceitos diferenciados e singulares sobre a autogestÃo que tracem linhas de fuga (DELEUZE; GUATTARI) frente Ãs concepÃÃes instituÃdas. A pesquisa foi realizada a partir de duas abordagens metodolÃgicas: a SociopoÃtica (GAUTHIER) e o DiÃrio de ItinerÃncia (BARBIER). O DiÃrio de ItinerÃncia, de carÃter etnogrÃfico, à o registro escrito dos processos de produÃÃo e anÃlises dos dados, e das situaÃÃes existenciais experimentadas pelo pesquisador institucional, vinculadas ao tema proposto. A SociopoÃtica institui o grupo-pesquisador, corpo coletivo da pesquisa; à o grupo-pesquisador sociopoÃtico, enquanto filÃsofo coletivo, que produz novos saberes sob a forma de confetos â expressÃo hÃbrida entre conceito e afeto (PETIT; ADAD). A produÃÃo de dados da pesquisa ocorreu a partir de duas vivÃncias de imersÃo na natureza (Mangue do rio Cocà â Fortaleza/CE; e serra da Pacatuba â Pacatuba, CE). A pesquisa apontou uma polissemia de conceitos sobre autogestÃo, produzidos pelo grupo-pesquisador, que a percebem nÃo como um modelo idealizado nas experiÃncias libertÃrias do passado; ao contrÃrio, ela amplia as possibilidades conceituais da autogestÃo, para alÃm de uma matriz cristalizada do conceito; os confetos e os devires produzidos pelo corpo-coletivo refletem um desejo de experimentaÃÃo de conceitos singulares sobre prÃticas autogestionÃrias contemporÃnea / Charting lines of flight in face of the modeling systems of capitalistic subjectivity (GUATTARI), people and libertarian groups, saturated of straight-managing social relations, construct spaces and collective living situations for their lives to actually be self-managed. The self-management movements reinvent contemporary revolutions, operating in the field of the molecular, so as to question the system in its scale of production of subjectivity and to build in daily life, different ways of being in the world. The self-management practices of these libertarian collectives today, they is a collective body reinventing itself at the mercy of private experiences; however, they are not exempt from being crossed by the centralization of power situations, the emergence of authoritarian practices, at times straight-managers, the traps of representation and the installation of microfascisms (FOUCAULT). This research addresses the concepts of self-management produced by people linked to the contemporary libertarian groups within the anarchist scene in Fortaleza, CearÃ; and points to the emergence of distinct and unique concepts about self-management which research to plot lines of flight (DELEUZE; GUATTARI) against the instituted concepts. The research was conducted with two methodological approaches: the Sociopoetics (GAUTHIER) and Itinerating Diary (BARBIER). The Itinerating Diary, of the ethnographic character, is the written record of the production processes and data analysis, and of the existential situations experienced by the institutional researcher, related to the proposed theme. The Sociopoetics institutes the researcher group, the collective body of research, it is the sociopoetical researcher group, as a collective philosopher that produces new knowledge in the form of confetti - hybrid expression between concept and affect (PETIT, ADAD). The research data was produced through two experiences of immersion in nature (River Coco Mangrove - Fortaleza/CE, and Pacatuba hills - Pacatuba/CE). The research showed a polysemy of concepts about self-management, produced by the researcher group, who perceive it not as an model idealized by experiments in libertarian past: rather, it broadens the conceptual possibilities of self-management, beyond a crystallized concept; the confetos and becomings produced by the collective body, reflect a desire to experiment unique concepts about self-management practices contemporary.

This essay discusses the becomings of the character Saya in the visual novel Saya no Uta (2003), developed by Nitroplus. Being perceived as either girl or monster, Saya is trapped between these notions, within the endless becomings of her conceptualisation. Using the idea of becomings developed by Gilles Deleuze in Logic of Sense (1969) this essay aims to understand how Saya could be perceived through her becomings. Compared to the character of Alice from Alice in Wonderland, which is a prevalent subject through Logic of Sense, Saya shows many similarities with Deleuze's unofficial heroine. Donna Haraway's A Cyborg Manifesto (1985) is used to understand the underlying machinic desires of Saya, and how she becomes a productive force through consumption of the notions that try to define her. The dichotomy of girl and monster is further explained using Rosi Bradiotti's Nomadic subjects (1994), where the monster not only becomes a manifestation of the grotesque, but also a subject of the monstrosity within its discursive concept. The ambivalence of the monster is the duality between the abhorrent and the adored. The analysis shows that Saya, whether she is released to the world or not, renders the dichotomy useless in relation to the force of the materiality that somehow persists through, whatever its meaning, and what it ultimately is subjected to.

Syftet med studien är att utveckla kunskap om barns inflytande i förskolan utifrån barnperspektiv. Studien inriktar sig mer specifikt på hur barn uttrycker sitt inflytande om förskolans verksamhet och särskilt dess inomhusmiljö och material. Vi har använt oss av begreppen barnperspektiv och barns perspektiv för att ta del av barnens uttryck. Vi har även använt oss av begreppen ”human beings” och ”human becomings” för att få syn på om barnen är eller blir i sitt inflytande i förskolan. Studien är av kvalitativ karaktär och empirin är insamlad genom deltagande observationer samt samtal med barn. Analysmetoden är tematisk där studiens teman har arbetats fram utifrån analys av samtalen med barnen och de deltagande observationerna. Studiens teman har även arbetats fram genom att analysera empirin utifrån begreppen ”human beings” och ”human becomings”. Resultatet visar att barnen ges många valmöjligheter i förskolans verksamhet men att de oftast inte haft möjlighet att påverka förskolans inomhusmiljö och material. Resultatet visar också att tillgängligheten i inomhusmiljön och av materialet på förskolan varierar. Begreppet inflytande och dess innebörd är något som barnen inte har stor kunskap om därför blir en slutsats att barn måste göras mer medvetna om deras möjligheter till inflytande i förskolans verksamhet.