This thesis aims to examine children’s perspectives about their agency and influence in the Swedish preschool context and what can be seen as hindrances by them that can challenge their agency and influence at the preschool. According to the United Nations Rights of the Child and specifically paragraph 1 in Article 12, children should be heard in every matter that affects them. Therefore, this research has been motivated by children’s right to influence and perform their agency on matters that affect them, especially at preschool, as it is a significant part of their everyday lives. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with four 6-year-old children at a preschool located in Sweden. This qualitative work draws on a constructionist ontological position to examine how children construct social reality. Using thematic analysis, two main themes emerged: “children as agentic” and “children as non-agentic”. Moreover, from the first theme, two subthemes arose: “free play” and “agency in preschool everyday life” identified in which children perceive that they can perform agency and influence/participate at the preschool. The three subthemes that arose from the second theme were: "the teachers decide", “routines that hinder children’s agency” and "Learning activities" that present children's perceptions on what can hinder their agency and influence/participation at the preschool. The results showed that children perceive their agency as limited with mainly free play their area of performing agency. They perceive their pedagogues as the main decision-makers at the preschool and rigidly planned routines as hindrances of their agency.

Abstract The purpose of this study was to contribute knowledge about the perceptions that pre-school teachers have of children’s influence, participation and democratic work in pre-school, and whether and if so how they work for the children to be able to have influence and to be involved in their daily lives at pre-school. To achieve this, I have done five interviews with five educated pre-school teachers. The results revealed that pre-school teachers think that democracy, influence and participation are concepts that are difficult to define. But it appears that the children can participate and influence their daily lives at the pre-school and also be involved in making decisions. To work with children's influence means that children get to choose what they want to play with and who they want to play with. They also come up with ideas and wishes for things they want to do, which the pre-school teachers then must try to meet. Pre-school teachers are trying to be sensitive and observant as they work to fulfill children's wishes and choices of activities. It was also revealed that children perspective is a large and important part of children's influence and participation in preschool. If you see children as small and ignorant, it becomes easy that they not get the chance to influence because they think they can’t do some things or that they are too small for various activities. It also appears that it is the adults who often set up the few barriers to children’s influence and participation. Key word: pre-school teacher, influence, participation, democracy / Sammanfattning Syftet med detta arbete är att bidra med kunskaper om vilka uppfattningar pedagoger har om barns inflytande, delaktighet och demokratiskt arbete i förskolan, och hur de beskriver att de arbetar för att barnen ska ges möjlighet till inflytande och delaktighet i sin vardag på förskolan. För att uppnå detta har jag gjort fem kvalitativa intervjuer med fem utbildade förskollärare. I resultatet framkom det att förskollärarna tycker att demokrati, inflytande och delaktighet är begrepp som är svåra att definiera, men det framkommer att barnen ska få vara med och påverka sin vardag på förskolan och få vara delaktiga i beslutsfattande.  Arbetet med barns inflytande kan handla om att barnen får välja vad de vill leka med och vem de vill leka tillsammans med. De får också komma med idéer och önskningar om saker de vill göra, som pedagogerna sen får försöka uppfylla. Genom att pedagogerna försöker vara lyhörda och observanta så arbetar de efter att uppfylla barns önskningar och val av aktiviteter. Det framkom också att barnsynen är en stor och viktig del i arbetet med barns inflytande och delaktighet på förskolan. Om man ser barn som små och okunniga så blir det lätt att de inte får chansen till eget inflytande eftersom man tror att de inte kan eller att de är för små för olika aktiviteter. Det framkommer också att vi vuxna ofta sätter upp de hinder som finns för inflytande och delaktighet. Nyckelord: förskollärare, inflytande, delaktighet, demokrati