Uppeldi og menntun - 01.07.2011, Page 92

Uppeldi og menntUn/icelandic JoUrnal of edUcation 20 (2) 201192
horft Um öxl
Looking back
Primary school children’s accounts of preschool
abstraCt
The aim of the study was to increase knowledge of first grade children’s views and
experiences of their playschool education. The participants were 40 first grade children
in two primary schools in Reykjavik. The study is based on a view of childhood as
a social construction, and children as strong and active participants constructing
their own learning. Young children are viewed as competent and capable of not only
participating and expressing their views, but also influencing their own lives and
environment. The initiative of providing children with the opportunity to participate
and be heard is significantly due to the mandates of the Convention on the Rights of
the Child (United Nations, 1989), which emphasizes taking children seriously as well
as their rights to express their own beliefs. More recently, an additional statement
to the convention, issued in General Comment No. 7, draws special attention to the
rights of young children under the age of eight to participate in decision-making that
affects their lives, and to be empowered to communicate their own views (United
Nations, 2005).
The study that was conducted by the end of the children’s first year of primary
school used qualitative methods that built on children’s competencies and individual
differences. These methods included semi-structured group interviews and children’s
drawings. In the interviews, the children were asked to recollect and talk about their
playschool experiences. They were asked what they found to be the most memorable,
what they found the most fun and the most boring in playschool, when they were safe,
happy, or excited, and when they were unhappy or sad. They were also asked what
they felt was most useful from playschool when they started primary school. The
interview questions were semi-structured and the interviews were conducted more
like conversations or discussions. Following the interviews, the children were invited
to draw pictures about their playschool experiences. Emphasis was placed on the
drawing as a process rather than a product, and on listening to the children while they
drew, instead of trying to analyze their drawings. The children’s playschool teachers
were co-researchers participating in the data generation; they were, at the same time
participants in the study. The teachers were interviewed and their views on their
encounters with the children during the research and on how the children recollected
their playschool lives were recorded.
The findings of the study show that the participating children saw playschool as
an important place for participation and practicing interaction with other children.
Relations with other children were the main sources of happiness and sorrow. The
children had memories of good physical spaces in playschool where they could move
around and engage in various activities of their own choosing. Social relationships