Browsing by Author "Lappalainen, Riina"

Aims. The purpose of this study was to investigate how repertoires of practices around grief construct in the daily separations between the child and the parent during the first weeks after starting in kindergarten. The aim was to accumulate knowledge of the repertoires of practices around grief that are constructed in interactions between the child and the staff members. There has been a growing number of studies addressing grief as a socially constructed phenomenon but there is a need for more research concerning grief in early childhood education and during the transition into out-of-home day care. So far it has been proven that there are certain repertoires of practices to be seen in context of separations that demonstrate how a grieving child is encountered in kindergarten. Methods. This study was conducted as a qualitative content analysis. The research data were 14 narratives describing how a 1.5-year-old Leo arrives to the kindergarten and undergoes a separation from their parent to stay with one of the staff members. These narratives were analyzed by content analysis using a specific method of dialogical thematic analysis. Results and conclusions. The kindergarten staff used repertoires of practices such as compassionate and comforting touch and speech when confronting a grieving child. They either tried to direct the child’s attention to the separation and the grief caused by it or to the surrounding environment and events. The child engaged in repertoires of practices such as expressions of grief, trying to hold on to the parent and either objecting the comforting adult or accepting the offered comfort. The repertoires of practices were connected to each other and often manifested together either consecutively or simultaneously. Based on the results it can be stated that a grieving child is not left alone with their grief and that the child is confronted in a gentle and comforting manner during the separation. Respectively, the child was able to express their grief and to either object or accept the comfort the staff member offered. The study shows different repertoires of practices around grief that can be recognized in the reoccurring daily separations and leads us to discuss how we could draw more attention to the repertoires of practices around grief in the early childhood education field, both in practice and in research.