Tilgang til fellesskap i den flerkulturelle barnehagen

The study investigates minority language and minority culture children’s opportunities to contribute and participate in multicultural kindergarten communities. The study is based on Bakhtin’s theories about communication spheres and speech genres in his analyses of dialogues in a multicultural kindergarten in Norway. The research question was: How is culturally rooted knowledge among children and staff expressed in the kindergarten’s daily interaction and dialogues?

The study suggests that it is the children’s ability to meet cultural expectations rather than their verbal language skills that determines their position. Children who are rooted in Norwegian culture confirm and maintain a common foundation that can make it difficult for minority culture children to contribute their perspectives, unless the staff manage to identify what it is that seems inclusive and exclusionary for the individual children in the group, which will be very difficult. Increased awareness among staff of this issue seems to be the best solution in terms of broadening the kindergarten’s cultural base, so that more children can find enough response and assurance to introduce their perspectives and experiences to the kindergarten’s culture.

The researcher conducted participatory observation two mornings a week over a period of six months in three different departments in three multicultural kindergartens in a multicultural area in Norway. All the children grew up in Norway; the majority with at least one parent from a foreign culture who spoke a foreign language. Field notes were taken during the observations of the children and kindergarten staff. In addition, the staff was interviewed. The observations were later thematically categorised and analysed.

Giæver, K. (2020). “Tilgang til fellesskap i den flerkulturelle barnehagen”. Barn, 2020(2):2535-5449.