Barns subjektivitet og likeverd: Et bidrag til en diskusjon om barnehagens pedagogiske innhold og etiske forankring.

The study deals with the question of how society can promote children's subjectivity and uphold children's fundamental right to participate. The study focuses on kindergarten as a societal institution and learning arena. The study involves theories about the self by Charles Taylor and Seyla Benhabib, as well as Michel Foucault's discourse theory.

The author of the study concludes that there is an analytical basis for considering kindergarten as a learning arena. From an ethical perspective, this conclusion has implications for how questions concerning kindergarten are answered and worded. The question concerning kindergarten as an institution becomes a question of whether society can create an arena for the implementation of the idea of the child’s participation in an historical and social context. Furthermore, the question regarding the learning of children is a matter of how we as a society - and adults - can help children find their way into their complex existence and reach a meaningful interpretation of their experience.

The design of the study is characterised as ethnographic, document-based and methodological. The applied research method is document analysis as well as observation in a kindergarten.

Østrem, S. (2008). Barns subjektivitet og likeverd: Et bidrag til en diskusjon om barnehagens pedagogiske innhold og etiske forankring. Oslo: Universitetet i Oslo.