Browsing by Author "Kruskopf, Sofia"

The purpose of this thesis is to get an insight in kindergarten teachers’ thoughts about children’s participation and how children can influence in kindergartens and pre-schools. The focus on this study is kindergarten teachers’ thoughts and experiences on children’s participation. The theoretical background discusses children’s participation and what it means to take a child’s perspective. National regulatory documents and previous research is also discussed. This study is a qualitative study with interviews as method. Five kindergarten teachers were interviewed, three of which work with 3 to 5-year-olds and two at pre-schools. The interviews were recorded and transcribed. The results indicate that the kindergarten teachers consider children’s participation to be important and are encouraging children to influence in kindergarten and pre-school. The age of a child is not an obstacle for them to influence, but the age affects on how they can influence. All interviewed kindergarten teachers work with projects where the theme is decided by the children. Furthermore, children’s participation can be seen in daily routines and spontaneous situations. The kindergarten teachers experience difficulties within both the child group and amongst staff when it comes to children’s participation.