På vei mot barns medvirkning : en retrospektiv studie om å nærme seg barns rett til medvirkning i barnehagen gjennom endringsarbeid og pedagogisk refleksjon

Abstract

The work of this master thesis started out from “The United Nations 12. Child Convention about children’s right to express his or her opinion freely and to have that opinion taken into account in any matter or procedure affecting the child. The Framework for Norwegian Kindergartens` Contents and Duties (Rammeplan for barnehagens innhold og oppgaver) (Kunnskapsdepartementet 2006) presents guidelines about caring, acknowledgment, equality and participation. In this thesis I have focused on how these factors are treated in Norwegian child care centers and conditions that promote these factors in real practice. I have had a special focus on what this means to the adults role in the child care centers. The theoretical part of the thesis is inspired by post-structural theory. I have used this theory to find an approach to define a model of an adult role compatible with focus on children’s right to participate in Early Childhood Education. I have specially been inspired by Moss (2006) and his perspective on the important of curious, active listening and exploratory educationists. A teacher like this seems capable to realize children´s participation and make the child care center an arena for development of democratic practices. To examine what kind of adult behavior that contribute to give children a real chance to participation, I have carried out a retrospective study designed as a “focusgroupinterview” with experienced educationists. The result of this literature study and “focusgroupinterview” can be present as followed: The informants in this focus group had experienced that workers in their kindergarten had a low level of knowledge about pedagogy. This low level of knowledge had consequences for their attitude towards the children and their rights to participate. During the interview they enlightened how they worked for change through pedagogic reflection and systematically project works. This process created change of attitudes and they managed to develop forms of communication and relation between workers and children that promote children´s right to participate.