The aim of this study is to examine how preschools contribute to the forming of identity in children, with a specific focus on the quiet and socially withdrawn child. How do the teachers describe the quiet child and the socially withdrawn child? Are there any opportunities for children to be quiet/withdrawn in preschools? These questions have also been analysed from a gender perspective. The method chosen is qualitative method. Nine preschool teachers from two Swedish preschools have been interviewed. Two theories are presented, social constructionism and a theory of personality traits in order to compare different views on identity and personality. The analysis was conducted by using the concepts of positioning and "the constructions of situations" have been analysed. The preschool teachers place quiet children in passive positions like calm, listener etc. Social interactions are very important in a preschool context and children are expected to play and interact with others. If they don’t participate, they are invited to join other children’s play. If a child wants to be left alone, without being invited to play, they have to choose a specific place or activity, like a sofa, a window or reading a book. By choosing those places and activities the child signals their desire to be alone. The teachers' descriptions of the quiet child as passive and the outgoing child as active, is similar to the traditional belief of girls being passive and boys being active. They are not, however, saying that it is only negative to be quiet or socially withdrawn, but there seem to be difficulties not being outgoing and active in the preschool.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:umu-100683 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Sundström, Johanna |
| Publisher | Umeå universitet, Institutionen för tillämpad utbildningsvetenskap |
| 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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