’Hva ser vi?’ Om betydningen av den reflekterte observatør

The study investigates how and why observation is conducted in kindergartens. The researcher investigates how kindergarten teachers are characterised by their prior knowledge, values, attitudes and opinions in their observation work. The research question is: What consequences can an unreflective observation practice have for the kindergarten teacher’s understanding of their own observational work?

The results show that kindergarten teachers have had an unreflective observation practice, which in turn leads to children not being seen and understood in the everyday life in which they participate. The findings indicate that kindergarten teachers apparently don’t have enough knowledge about how and why they observe, and reflections are largely lacking. In the second round of interviews, this changed. The informants then talked about an observation practice in which they used their gaze in a different way, and they reflected on what they saw and experienced. The researcher believes that these results underline the importance of observation being raised as a more important topic in kindergarten teacher education.

The data material consists of two rounds of interviews with three experienced kindergarten teachers in municipal kindergartens. Between the first and second interviews, the informants were asked to work more systematically on their observational practice. The second round of interviews was based on the experiences from the first interview and the intermediate work conducted in their own kindergartens. In addition, the kindergarten teachers talked about how they experienced changes in their observation work.

Frønes, M. H. (2020). «’Hva ser vi?’ Om betydningen av den reflekterte observatør». Barn, 38(3):51-64.