The standard school-ready child: the social organization of ‘school-readiness’

The study investigates key characteristics of ready-for-school children in kindergarten and the implications this has when kindergarten teachers assess and prepare minority language children for the transition to school. The research questions are: 1) What is a “’ready-for-school child’? 2) How do these perceptions shape Danish kindergarten teachers’ assessments of children with minority-language backgrounds and their ‘school readiness’ in kindergarten?

The study points to three key characteristics of a ready-for-school child in kindergarten. It is a child who masters the majority culture, has strong language skills and who passes the language test for admission to primary school. The results also show an unfortunate consequence of the integration policy that is intended to reduce segregation between minority and majority groups. Paradoxically, the policy can contribute to increased social differences by placing minority-language children in a position where there is significantly greater risk of failure.

The researcher uses institutional ethnography as the methodical starting point for the study, and the analyses are based on interviews with eleven kindergarten teachers from seven public and private kindergartens in Copenhagen Municipality in Denmark. The kindergartens are located near areas that are categorised as ‘ghetto areas’ where children must pass a language test in order to be admitted to Year 1 of primary school. The researcher conducted group interviews and four individual interviews that had an exploratory structure. Audio recordings of the interviews were made and then encoded for further analysis with the aim of uncovering meaning and identifying institutional processes that contribute to defining what a ready-for-school’ child is.

Jahreie, J. (2022). The standard school-ready child: the social organization of ‘school-readiness.’ British Journal of Sociology of Education, 43(5), 661–679.