The primary purpose of this study is to investigate the tension between children’s spontaneous exploration and the preschool's scheduled routines. A day in preschool is on one hand signified by interpersonal meetings, the preschool pedagogues are highly aware in their encounter with the children, the interaction is both warm and professional. On the other hand, a day in preschool is also signified by scheduled routines and time frames that cannot be broken. If they are broken a domino effect can occur which will result in consequences that affect the rest of the day. Because of this, pedagogues must interrupt children’s spontaneous exploration on a daily basis to maintain the time frames. Michel Foucault's thoughts of power are our theoretical perspective, our aim is to explore the hidden power structures. The research questions are: How do schedules and routines discipline children and pedagogues in preschool? What space is there for children’s spontaneous exploration in preschools scheduled routines? What does the children’s eventual resilience against routines and set time frames look like? We have used a qualitative method in our study, using interviews and observations. We have interviewed three preschool teachers and two childcare workers. The interviews gave us insight of what the pedagogues thought about children’s spontaneous exploration and routines while the observations gave us insight on what the pedagogues and children were actually doing. The observations took place at two different preschools on four different occasions. The result of our study shows that routines and time frames do discipline children and pedagogues in preschool, but the discipline is usually welcomed. Children's spontaneous exploration is viewed as important and as an essential clue to children's inner life, but it gets interrupted daily to not disturb the routines. To compromise for the interruptions the pedagogues use various coping strategies, one being implementing children’s interests in preschools scheduled activities. Thus, creating possibilities for democracy to be practiced but also at the risk of leading children towards normative goals.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:sh-49184 |
| Date | January 2022 |
| Creators | Aldensten, My, Slavotic, Sejla |
| Publisher | Södertörns högskola, Lärarutbildningen |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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