Browsing by Author "Kronlund, Julia"

The aim of this study is to get an insight in which roles occur in children’s free play. How are these roles displayed, and how does children negotiate these roles? This study process how children interact in situations of free play. The main concepts that are discussed in the theoretical part are roles, role negotiation, play, and roleplay. The concepts are explained more profoundly in the theoretical part, which also establishes the theoretical basis of this study. This study is completed as a qualitative study with both case study and observational study as methods. As data collecting method I have been using video observation. The material for my study was collected in a Swedish speaking preschool in southern Finland. The video observations were made during two mornings in this preschool. The aim was to capture free play amongst children. Five preschoolers in total participated in the study. The results of this study indicates that role negotiations as a phenomenon is something that is not that commonly occurring in children’s free play. All of the children participated in choosing roles, but they mostly just announced which role they wanted themselves, without any further negotiation. The roles that occurred in these plays were quite ordinary and mostly permanent. No one chose a role that automatically would have indicated strong leadership, which means that all of the children were somewhat equal in status. The children also had thoughts about what characteristics their own role should have and how the other role characters should act. This could be explained as how the roles were displayed. In my study I found two main categories in how children expressed their own roles and their expectations of the other role characters. These main categories were verbally, and through action.