Summing up the Articles, Presentation of Main Findings

The study’s main research question covers three sub-studies described in three articles that are being presented in the order by which they are written and published. The three articles are based on data material from one literature review, and two field works carried out in two different multicultural kindergartens. The first article is the literature review, written together with my supervisor Elin Eriksen Ødegaard, and published in the journal Sustainability (Boldermo & Ødegaard, 2019). The second article, which is based on the findings from the first field work, is published as a chapter in the book Nordic Families, Children and Early Childhood Education by Palgrave McMillan (Boldermo, 2019), and finally, the third article, based on the findings from the second field work, is published in the special issue Young Children on the Move in International Journal of Early Years Education (Boldermo, 2020).

Article I. What about the migrant children? The state-of-the-art in research claiming social sustainability

The main interest in this article was to scrutinise the research on social sustainability in early childhood education, investigate how social sustainability was conceptualised, and examine whether perspectives on migrant children’s situations had been researched in the context of social sustainability.

Answering the research question: What is the state-of-the-art in early childhood

research on social sustainability and migrant children’s situations?, the findings revealed that

9 This section also presents an illustrated overview of the articles and the study (figure 1). This overview is inspired by Anette Emilson (2008.p 63).

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although researchers within the field of early childhood education for sustainability to a large extent applied a ‘holistic’ perspective on sustainability, a variety of conceptualisations of

‘holistic’ were identified. Social sustainability was conceptualised as issues of citizenship, social justice, social responsibility, and also as children as problem-solvers. Very few articles investigated diversity, multicultural perspectives, or belonging; however, some of the articles mentioned these terms in the context of social sustainability. None of the reviewed articles researched migrant children’s situations in the context of social sustainability. As issues of citizenship, participation, and children as active citizens were well researched, we, the authors, perceived it an especially interesting finding that migrant children’s situations seemed to be invisible in this context.

Article II. Practicing belonging in kindergarten: Children’s use of places and artifacts The main interest in the second article was to explore how children from different backgrounds and upbringings experienced, negotiated, and practised belonging in a

multicultural kindergarten. The data material that formed the basis for this article stemmed from the PhD project’s first field work that was carried out in a multicultural kindergarten.

This particular field work was conducted in two periods: three weeks in autumn and five weeks the following spring. The strategy for collecting the data was initially inspired by Eva Gulløv and Susanne Højlund (2003). However, eventually, a strategy described by Sarah Powell and Margaret Somerville (2018) called ‘Deep hanging out’ was followed. The data material consisted of photos, video recordings, and field notes, and specifically, the research question for the article was How can children’s use of places and artefacts in kindergarten be understood as materially mediated practices of belonging?

The findings concerned a boy with migrant background, in particular. The boy’s meaning making of the football pitch as a place and the football as an artefact was analysed through a cultural-historical framework. Drawing on Ditte Winther-Lindqvist’s (2011) research on how children’s motive developments are connected to social identity processes, the boy’s actions, his motivation in terms of his attitudes, and his change in attitude were interpreted from individual and societal perspectives. The findings revealed that even if no socially exclusionary patterns or practices were observed as directed towards this boy, he spent a lot of time on his own. Expressing to be alone without friends, his attitude was

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characterised by disengagement. As a change in attitude from disengagement to enthusiasm was observed, the findings suggested that the boy’s football, an artefact that he brought to the kindergarten on almost a daily basis, and the football pitch as a place that was part of the kindergarten’s materiality, mediated new possibilities for the boy to negotiate belonging.

Specifically, the findings suggested that through the use of the football and the football pitch, the boy negotiated a social identity as a future footballer and a proper supporter to both local and global football teams. Thus, he created spaces for practising his belonging to a wanted community.

Article III.Fleeting moments: Young children’s negotiations of belonging and togetherness Based on the findings from the two previous articles, as well as a limited literature review on the current research on the concept of ‘belonging’ in early childhood, the main interest in the third article was to explore younger children’s meaning making of belonging and togetherness in a multicultural kindergarten.

The article’s research question, What characterises young children’s negotiations of belonging and togetherness in a diverse peer group in kindergarten? was examined through the findings from the second field work, also in a multicultural kindergarten. This field work involved a systematic approach to the collecting of data by observations of recurring activity settings, writing of extensive field notes, and taking photos of artefacts and surroundings, as well as of children. The analysis of the data material was conducted within a

cultural-historical framework, focusing on institutional and individual perspectives on elements in children’s sense of community, such as membership and shared emotional connection, as identified by David McMillan and Davis Chavis (1986) and developed by Merja Koivula and Maritta Hännikäinen (2017).

The findings that concerned a group of two-year-olds suggested that, highly influenced by features in the peer culture, the two-year-old children’s everyday institutional lives were characterised by ongoing social manoeuvres in order to negotiate togetherness and shared joint experiences. There were observed no recurring patterns of exclusion among the children.

Nonetheless, the children’s negotiations of membership and being part included the

application of social categories such as age and size, symbol systems such as having access to

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particular artefacts or wearing particular colours on clothes, and rituals such as birthday invitations, in order to display membership, reinforcing one’s place in the group, and drawing boundaries of being part – or not. Further, the findings revealed that the peer culture in this particular group of two-year olds were characterised by patterns of caring and sharing,

togetherness and physical closeness, and emphasis on mutual bonds and experiences. Finally, the article concluded that as the features of the peer culture appeared to have a significant influence on the two-year-olds’ negotiations of belonging and togetherness in the group, and thus the individual child’s possibilities to practise and experience belonging, it was the institutional practices that laid the foundation for such features. Thus, the findings suggested an awareness among practitioners to be aware of such institutional practices in order to safeguard children’s experiences of belonging and togetherness.

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Figure 1 Overview

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