´I Believe that a Sofa can be of Great Help´: materiality in a Kindergarten Room and the Impact on Social Practices

The study investigates how the material environment in kindergartens sets frameworks for social practice and everyday life in kindergartens, as well as how changes in the material environment can affect the pedagogical practice. The study investigates how architecture, design and space/room organisation frame social practice in the everyday lives of kindergarten teachers and children. The research question is: How is the relationship between the material environment and social practice expressed through the utterances of kindergarten teachers in a large kindergarten?

The findings indicate how change in the material environment forced teachers to formulate what they thought of a thing that one takes for granted, in this case a sofa, and what it means for the pedagogical practice when traditional expectations are not met. The analyses illustrate how material changes in new physical environments can have affective consequences for influencing social practice in kindergartens.

Data collection involved an ethnographic procedure that was conducted in a large, recently established kindergarten in Norway. The analysis focuses on a conversation between two kindergarten teachers and the kindergarten coordinator where they discuss the lack of a sofa in a staff room. Critical discourse theory was chosen as a theoretical and methodological framework for investigating how changes in the material environment can support and maintain traditions, at the same time as they influence and change practice in kindergartens.

Berge, A. (2019). ”´I Believe that a Sofa can be of Great Help´: materiality in a Kindergarten Room and the Impact on Social Practices”. International Journal of Early Childhood, (2019) 51:59-72.