Toddlers with the Doll Carriage: Children Doing Space of Participation in Early Childhood Education

Abstract

This article focuses on child participation in early childhood education (ECE). The theoretical basis for this study is a relational approach that highlights the significance of spatiality and materiality. Drawing from these theoretical perspectives, child participation is understood as a space that children actively do in various combinations of social, material and cultural relationships. The study relies on a relational understanding of the child as not only being, but also becoming by doing space within one’s environment. The methodological framework draws on narrative childhood studies that emphasize the multimodality of children’s narration. The research material consists of small stories from a Finnish ECE centre. The analysis focused on children under 3 years of age doing space of participation with material items in ECE. The study shows that space of child participation is dynamic in the everyday relationships. The findings illustrate children’s doing space of participation as a tension-filled phenomenon which requires children to balance between the active agency and adapting to the expectations of the environment. The findings uncover the three-fold nature of the space—namely, the social, material and cultural dimensions—that is meaningful for child participation. The doll carriage as a material item played a crucial role in children’s doing space of participation: it provided opportunities for children to formulate the ownership of the space, to construct peer relationships, and to shape and defend the borders of one’s space. The study contributes theoretically and methodologically to ECE research by opening new perspectives on the participation of young children.

Children Under Two As Co-constructors of Their Transition From Home Care to Early Childhood Education and Care

“…Given that opportunities are only meaningful when actualized (Larsen & Stanek, 2015;Pairman & Dalli, 2017), deeming crying as detrimental may impede the emergence of new opportunities. Resonating with the current research on childhood studies (Busch et al, 2023;Yates et al, 2022;Ylikörkkö et al, 2023), this study proposes that efforts should be directed toward observing children's practices as their way of participating (Bae, 2009;Raittila, 2011;Rutanen, 2012). As Øygardslia (2018) suggests, it is important for teachers to utilize the possibilities that the space offers to promote children's own practices and ways of approaching it.…”

“…However, institutional spaces, such as ECEC settings, precede and extend beyond actors, through the goals and practices inherent to the institution (Löw, 2016;Massey, 2005). In this way, the ECEC space is constantly under (re)production by its actors' practices and interactions (Pairman & Dalli, 2017;Raittila & Vuorisalo, 2021;Rutanen, 2012;Vuorisalo et al, 2015;Ylikörkkö et al, 2023), which both draw on the space and (re)produce it simultaneously (Massey, 2005). Therefore, during transitions, children's and teachers' practices are constructed by the transition space, and co-construct it at the same time (Lucas Revilla et al, 2022).…”

“…In this way, the ECEC transition space emerges in the interplay of interpersonal, material, and symbolic aspects inherent to the actors, ECEC, and the transition period (Lucas Revilla et al, 2022;Ylikörkkö et al, 2023). These socio-spatial aspects are connected to the ECEC pedagogical environment, the overall ECEC goals, the organization of activities, and the provision of care and education, such as child-adult ratios (Duhn, 2012;Hostettler Schärer, 2018;Øygardslia, 2018;Rutanen, 2011;Vuorisalo et al, 2015).…”