Personlige utfordringer i samtale med barn

Abstract

This is a paper where the focus of the research has changed along the way, and there has therefore been conducted two methods of data gathering. A total of four philosophically inspired conversations with children, and five interviews with professionals have been conducted, and a twofold analysis has been performed. The purpose of this examination, is to investigate which personal challenges that can arise in conversations with children, and how these can be handled. Using a hermenautical interpretation, my role as a researcher is analysed in an excerpt from the philosophically inspired conversations, while a thematic analysis is used to analyse the content of the data material from the interviews. These challenges are directed against us adults as professionals, and not at the children. Another purpose of the examination, is to investigate if the kindergarten field can benefit from the findings in this paper, since the interviews have been conducted with professionals from different disciplines. At the core of this paper, is my inspiration from the perspective of knowledge used in hermeneutics. All the choices I have made, relating to theory, methodology, analysis and discussion, is therefore built on the material on epistemology presented in chapter 3. A short summary of my findings as an interpreter, is that the personal challenges in professionals, that can arise in conversations with children, often stem from emotions and/or blind spots. Emotions is then something that can have consequences for the communication through the non-verbal, as it is here the eventual emotion of the personal is conveyed. Here, it is up to the children to interpret. Since the findings on blind spots show that we can be blind regarding to our own reactions, by having unresolved conditions, these blind spots can also make us unaware our signaling of personal challenges. This is then signaled through nonverbal communication, and is something that can impact the self-esteem of the children. Furthermore, I view that which is said on self-development in the interviews with the professionals, as especially interesting. This relating to the fact that in Rammeplan for barnehagens innhold og oppgaver (2011), and the new revised plan (due in 2016), I interpret actual references that point to how kindergarten teachers have to be capable of self-development.