Snow Queen Elsa Goes Won’t Go to Kindergarten. Children’s Negotiations of Belonging in Formal Educational Contexts

Authors

    Jaeger Ursina Institute for Educational Science, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Germany

Keywords:

Ethnography, Kindergarten, Agency, Belonging, Social differentiation

Abstract

Against the background of long-term child-centered ethnographic research, this article looks at children’s negotiations of belonging in a Swiss kindergarten. Borrowing from (childhood) theoretical figures of agency and belonging, it reveals the interdependence of children’s perspectives and pedagogical order, and how cartoon characters like Spiderman or Snow Queen Elsa help us to explore children’s perspectives in formal educational contexts.

References

Gulløv E, 2021, Exploring divisions: What to be learned from observing young children’s social preferences. Ethnography and Education, 16(3): 311–326.

Jaeger U, 2024, Children as Social Butterflies: Navigating Belonging in a Diverse Swiss Kindergarten (Rutgers Series in Childhood Studies). Rutgers University Press, New Jersey.

Rabenstein K, Reh S, Ricken N, et al., 2013, Ethnography of Pedagogical Orders of Difference. Journal of Pedagogy, 59(5): 668–680.

Betz T, Eßer F, 2016, Children as Actors – Research-Related Implications of the Successful Agency Concept. Discourse on Childhood and Youth Research, 11(3): 301–314.

Breidenstein G, Hirschauer S, Kalthoff H, et al., 2021, Ethnography: The Practice of Field Research. UVK, Munich.

Breidenstein G, 2017, Interdisciplinary Tradition and Disciplinary Convention in Educational Ethnography. Journal of Qualitative Research, 18(1): 9–20.

Alanen L, 2001, Explorations in Generational Analysis. Conceptualising Child-Adult Relations, London and New York, Routledge, 11–22.

Kelle H, 2019, Childhood as an Anthropological and Social Category. Handbook of the Philosophy of Childhood, J.B. Metzler, Stuttgart, 18–25.

Neumann S, 2017, The Other Side of the Distinction. Attempt at an Empirical Revision of the Adult/Child Distinction. Childhood and Adulthood in Social Science Research and Theorising, Weinheim, 159–176.

Honig MS, 1999, Research ‘From the Child’? Perspectivity in Childhood Research. From the Perspective of Children? On the Methodology of Childhood Research, Munich, 33–50.

Gammeltoft T, 2018, Belonging. Social Analysis, 62(1): 76–95.

Feldman-Savelsberg P, 2016, Migrants, Law and Identity: African Mothers and the Struggle for Belonging in Berlin, Bielefeld.

Hirschauer S, 2017, Human Differentiation. Modes and Degrees of Social Belonging. Un/Doing Differences: Practices of Human Differentiation, Weilerswist, 29–54.

Eßer F, Baader MS, Betz T, et al., 2016, Reconceptualising Agency and Childhood: New Perspectives in Childhood Studies, Routledge.

Heinzel F, 2012a, Methods of Childhood Research. An Overview of Research Approaches to the Child’s Perspective, Weinheim.

Spyrou S, 2011, The Limits of Children’s Voices. From Authenticity to Critical, Reflexive Representation. Childhood, 18(2): 151–165.

Lancy D, 2012, Unmasking Children’s Agency. AnthropoChildren, 1(2): 1–19.

Cloos P, 2008, ‘Well, Mr Researcher, I’m Sure You’re Taking Part Too.’ Ethnographers as Co-Actors in the Pedagogical Process. Ethnography and Educational Science: Methodological Reflections and Empirical Approaches, Weinheim, 207–219.

Zeitlyn B, Mand K, 2012, Researching Transnational Childhoods. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 38(6): 987–1006.

Prout A, James A, 1997, Constructing and Reconstructing Childhood. Contemporary Issues in the Sociological Study of Childhood, London, 1–248.

Holmes RM, 1998, Fieldwork with Children. Sage Publications, New York, 1–58.

Mandell N, 1988, The Least-Adult Role in Studying Children. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 16(4): 433–467.

Corsaro WA, 1993, Friendship and Peer Culture in the Early Years. Norwood, 16(4): 567.

Kromidas M, 2016, City Kids. Transforming Racial Baggage. Rutgers University Press, New Jersey.

Notermans C, 2008, The Emotional World of Kinship. Children’s Experiences of Fosterage in East Cameroon. Childhood, 15(3): 355–377.

Butschi C, Hedderich I, 2021, Child-Orientated Research: An Overview. Perspectives on Diversity in Early Childhood: Exploring Diversity with Children, Bad Heilbrunn: Julius Klinkhardt, 101–119.

Cloos P, Thole W, 2006, Ethnographic Approaches: Profession- and Addressee-Related Research in the Context of Pedagogy, VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden.

Jacob MA, 2007, Form-Made Persons: Consent Forms as Consent’s Blind Spot. Political and Legal Anthropology Review, 30(2): 249–268.

Perrin J, Bühler N, Berthod MA, et al., 2018, Searching for Ethics. Legal Requirements and Empirical Issues for Anthropology. Tsantsa, 23: 138–153.

Davies H, 2008, Reflexivity in Research Practice: Informed Consent with Children at School and at Home. Sociological Research Online, 13(4): 1–16.

Christensen P, Prout A, 2002, Working with Ethical Symmetry in Social Research with Children. Childhood, 9(4): 477–497.

Khoja N, 2016, Situating Children’s Voices: Considering the Context When Conducting Research with Young Children. Children & Society, 30(4): 314–323.

Kromidas M, 2012, Affiliation or Appropriation? Crossing and the Politics of Race Among Children in New York City. Childhood, 19(3): 317–331.

Jergus K, Thompson C, 2017, Authorisations of the Pedagogical Self. Studies on Addressing Educational Childhood, Springer VS, Wiesbaden.

Reh S, Ricken N, 2012, The Concept of Addressing. On the Methodology of Qualitative-Empirical Research into Subjectivation. Qualitative Educational Research and Educational Theory, Barbara Budrich, Opladen, 35–56.

Vincenti A, Grube N, 2020, Pedagogisation of the ‘Good Life’. Educational-Historical Perspectives on Ambitions and Dynamics in the 20th Century, Library at Guisanplatz, Bern, 38–42.

Heinzel F, 2012b, The View of Children. Observation in School – Learning to Observe, VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden, 173–188.

Willis P, 1981, Learning to Labor: How Working Class Kids Get Working Class Jobs. Columbia University Press, New York.

Downloads

Published

2025-03-03