Purpose
The study investigates how kindergarten children tell about conflicts that arise when playing with their peers. The authors investigate how the children present themselves and each other when they tell adults about these conflicts, and how the adults act in such situations. The aim is to investigate whether kindergarten children have the same understanding of events as adults, i.e. whether they think in the same cause-and-effect chains when conveying conflict situations.
Result
According to the authors, an interpretation of the practice stories shows that the children create a world narrative about kindergarten, which the kindergarten employees become part of but do not necessarily understand, and therefore cannot integrate into their actions towards the children in the situation. This (surrounding) world the children create is important, but at the same time difficult to place in relation to parameters such as fictional/factual, chronicle/history, play-cultural/sociocultural, truth/lie. The kindergarten employee’s question ‘What is going on here?’ is a question that gives different answers, depending on which children act as a police officer, lawyer and judge.
Design
The empirical material consists of ten practice stories from a kindergarten that focus on the topic of kindergarten children in conflict. The stories are taken from conflict-filled interactions in a specific kindergarten. The stories are analysed using a model for conflict escalation and narrative analysis where children’s stories are compared with the historical theory distinction between chronicle and the portrayal of history.
References
Larsen, B. S. & Toft, H. (2019). «Han slår! – børnehavebørns fortælling om konflikter». BUKS – Tidsskrift for Børne- og Ungdomskultur, 36(63).