Samarbeid i barnehagen – «Like barn leker best»? Perspektiver på samarbeid fra foreldre med ulik bakgrunn

The topic of the article focuses on parents’ perceptions of good collaboration and their experiences of collaboration with kindergarten staff.

Thesis statement: What type of perceptions do parents with different backgrounds have of good collaboration with the kindergarten, and how do parents experience the daily collaboration with the staff?

The results indicate that parents value staff competencies such as closeness, cordiality and hospitality through good collaboration. However, their experiences of collaboration vary. Parents’ experiences are related to their social and cultural capital. Not all parents experience being seen and accommodated. The professional responsibility for home-kindergarten collaboration is problematised when the social encounters between parents and staff involve symbolic power, where parents who have similar social and cultural capital to the staff experience more balanced collaboration compared to parents with a different social and cultural background.

The discussion is based on analyses of semi-structured research interviews with 23 parents from different social and cultural backgrounds, whose children attended nine different Norwegian kindergartens.

Selection criteria regarding the choice of kindergartens: 1) urban and rural surroundings; 2) size (over 150 children/ between 50 and 150 children/up to 50 children); 3) organisation (departments and flexible); 4) form of ownership (municipal and private), 5) linguistic and cultural diversity.

Wolf, K. D. (2019). “Samarbeid i barnehagen – «Like barn leker best»? Perspektiver på samarbeid fra foreldre med ulik bakgrunn”. Norsk pedagogisk tidsskrift, 103(02–03):272-283.