Val – omröstning – styrning. En etnografisk studie om intentioner med, villkor för och iscensättande av barns inflytande i förskolan

The study investigates and analyses discourses around children’s influence in policy documents, and how these discourses are recontextualised and realised in kindergarten activities. In addition, the researcher investigates how this pedagogical practice affects the staging of children’s influence.

In the policy documents, children’s participation is related to them being active, autonomous and responsible. The results of the field studies show that adult-led organisation of children’s participation involves a lot of regulation. In activities where the children were allowed to choose for themselves, the choices were governed by certain options as well as the children’s behaviour. When the children were given the opportunity to participate through voting, this was difficult for the children to understand. The researchers believe this is due to the kindergarten teachers’ inability to explain the principles of voting. For example, the children did not understand that they only had one vote each and what the consequences of a majority vote were.

The data material consists of observations in two Swedish kindergartens involving children between two and five years of age over a period of one year. In addition, the researcher has analysed policy documents at both national and transnational levels.

Peterson, C. (2020). «Val – omröstning – styrning. En etnografisk studie om intentioner med, villkor för och iscensättande av barns inflytande i förskolan». Akademisk avhandling. Göteborgs universitet.