Temporal settings in kindergarten: a lens to trace historical and current cultural formation ideals?

The article investigates how ideas about childhood and children’s cultural formation are embedded in the organisation of time in everyday kindergarten life. The researcher compares two kindergartens, one in Norway and one in China, and investigates which formation ideals can be traced based on how the two kindergartens organise their time. The research questions are: 1) How is time regulated and organised in a kindergarten in two different countries? 2) What are the intentions and objectives of the specific structuring of time in the everyday life of these kindergartens? 3) What societal and institutionalised expectations and requirements are embedded in the way time is regulated? 4) What type of contradictions are embedded in the daily time regulation in Norwegian and Chinese kindergartens?

The results indicate that the time organisation in the Chinese kindergarten is synchronous and effective, while the time in the Norwegian kindergarten is more flexible and individually organised. According to the researcher, there are traces of cultural formation ideals in the schedules in both countries. In the Chinese kindergarten, traces of the self-cultivating and interdependent child were identified, as well as the competitive and individualised child. The schedule is predictable, with clear expectations of what the children should do between the organised activities. There are expectations that the children should be part of a group and of how they should behave in the group. Researchers believe these ideals are an expression of an attitude where one wants children to learn how to live and survive in a society with a large population. The study shows that the ideal of self-discipline and interdependence contradicts the requirements for children to be effective, focused and competitive, requirements that are also prominent in the Chinese kindergarten. The ideal of an effective utilisation of time is not only about interdependence, but also about surviving in a competitive society.

The researcher describes the organisation of time in the Norwegian kindergarten as flexible and individualised; a time organisation that is based on an image of the child as independent, but at the same time vulnerable. The children are expected to fill the time between organised activities on their own, and they are seen as competent, autonomous and responsible for making their own choices. At the same time, the researcher find traces of the vulnerable child in Norwegian kindergartens. The child should be protected from all the difficulties and requirements of the outside world, and the kindergarten should serve as a protective garden.

The data material consists of observations of the time organisation in two kindergartens, one Norwegian and one Chinese, in addition to focus group interviews with the kindergarten staff. The researcher studied the kindergarten schedule before observing how it was practiced in everyday kindergarten life. The observations took place over the course of ten days in each kindergarten. In addition, eight focus group interviews were conducted, four in each kindergarten, where the staff got to see and discuss video recordings and photographs from both kindergartens, and discuss how they interpreted and used the schedules.  

Birkeland, Å. (2019). “Temporal settings in kindergarten: a lens to trace historical and current cultural formation ideals?”. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 27(1):53-67.