’Jeg savner barnet mitt’. Møter mellom somaliske mødre og barnehagen

The article focuses on the establishment and development of trust between Somali mothers and kindergarten teachers in Norwegian kindergartens. The main focus is placed on the negotiation and change processes that take place in the establishment and development of a relationship of trust between the mothers and the kindergarten. The research question is: How do Somali mothers establish and develop trust in Norwegian kindergartens and how do they experience their collaboration with kindergarten employees?

The study shows that a negotiation process takes place between the mothers and the kindergarten teachers where sharing, adaptation and belonging are important elements for establishing and developing a relationship of trust. The mothers went through a process where they adapted to the Norwegian kindergarten. The author argues that the kindergarten teachers should focus more on mutual dialogue rather than informative monologues when communicating with parents, and that both sides must be open to mutual change.

Five Somali mothers and four kindergarten teachers were interviewed separately with the aim of raising educators’ awareness in relation to what is important in the process of establishing and developing a relationship of trust with these mothers. The data collection was conducted using semi-structured interviews with educators and Somali mothers in three similarly sized, rural municipalities in Western Norway. State-authorised telephone interpreters were used in the interviews with the mothers and the interviews were audio recorded.

Sønsthagen, A. G. (2018). «’Jeg savner barnet mitt’. Møter mellom somaliske mødre og barnehagen». Nordic Journal of Comparative and International Education (NJCIE), 2(1):55-71.