'Minority children' experience a lot of shifts in their cultural contexts. The author's work as a professional teacher in multicultural classes enabled her to focus on the research questions presented in this article. These questions concern the need for some minority children to achieve equal opportunities in the Norwegian educational system. The author uses her teaching practice and ethnographic notes to put forward two particular cases that illustrate the issues of her concern. Informant interviews with teachers in the same school inform the methodology. Positions outlined by Stephen May discussing degrees of essentialism in theory and practical work with children are used when discussing the cultural challenges involved in these cases. Following this, critical multiculturalism raises the question of cultural differences and of how to theorise and do research without creating culturally essentialising categories. This article alerts readers to the plight of children in shifting cultural contexts, to the challenges they are facing, and to the skills and competencies they are developing. It seeks to contribute to two current areas of debate, namely inclusive education and internationalisation.
This article discusses the intentions and experiences from architects and pedagogues involved in planning and establishing kindergartens with new building topologies in Oslo. The National Kindergarten effort (St.meld.nr. 24 2002-2003) with the political aim that all children between one and six years should have the right to attend kindergarten, led to a huge development of kindergarten buildings all over Norway. Many of the buildings were designed as new typologies named base and zone kindergartens. There are barely research on processes and consequences of the changes in physical structures in educational institutions. The results of the research presented here are based on a case study of processes in four municipalities in Oslo. It shows that the staff working in the new buildings had scarcely any knowledge of the intentions behind the new design, and the support in establishing pedagogical work in new physical frames was limited. The aim of the article is to expand the knowledge about connections between architecture and pedagogic, and point to the importance of involving the staff/professionals in educational changes where the physical environment is at stake. These findings may be relevant to other transformations involving organizational and architectural changes. Sammendrag: Artikkelen drøfter intensjoner og erfaringer hos arkitekter og pedagoger involvert i planlegging og etablering av barnehager med nye bygningstypologier i Oslo. Barnehageforliket (St.meld.nr.24 2002-2003) innebar et politisk vedtak om barnehageplass for alle og førte til en massiv utbygging av barnehager over hele landet. Mange av de nye byggene ble oppført med nye typer planløsninger (base- og sonebarnehager). Det finnes lite forskning om prosesser og konsekvenser knyttet til endring av fysiske strukturer i pedagogiske institusjoner. Forskningsresultatene som presenteres i artikkelen er basert på en casestudie av prosesser i fire bydeler i Oslo, og viser at personalet i de nye byggene hadde lite kjennskap til intensjoner bak byggenes utforming og opplevde lite støtte i etableringsprosessen. Artikkelens formål er å bidra til kunnskap om betydningen av å involvere personalet i pedagogiske reformer og i utvikling av det fysiske miljøet. Funnene kan ha overføringsverdi til andre reformer som innebærer organisatoriske og arkitektoniske endringer.
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