Stunder av ingenting, der alt kan skje – en innkjenning av og samtale om kroppslig kunnskap i barnehagen

The study investigates kindergarten teachers’ bodily communication when encountering the youngest children (1–3 years old). The research question is: How is bodily knowledge exercised in kindergarten employees’ encounters with the youngest children in kindergarten?

Moments when nothing needs to happen, i.e. moments when nothing is planned, are highlighted by kindergarten teachers as moments of importance because the uneven balance of power between child and adult that characterises planned activities is abolished. This provides opportunities for a different bodily interaction between child and adult than planned activities allow for. Among other things, the kindergarten teachers say that they use such moments of nothing to create warmth, trust and assurance. The authors argue that kindergarten teacher education should equip kindergarten teachers with a language for bodily interaction with children.

The study is theoretically rooted in phenomenology of the body and has been conducted as a sensory ethnographic field study. The data material was obtained through observations of the ‘educator body’ and site-sensitive interviews with kindergarten teachers.

Pedersen, I. P. & Orset, A. K. (2020). “Stunder av ingenting, der alt kan skje – en innkjenning av og samtale om kroppslig kunnskap i barnehagen”. Tidsskrift for professionsstudier, 16(31):52-61.