This article examines how kindergarten-children are differentiated and segregated through vocal practices and processes. The analysis is based on empirical data, which originate from a long ethnographic fieldwork in Denmark. The author presents two different language tones: a teaching tone and an exchange tone and shows a pattern in the ways the two tones are performed. While the teaching tone is heard in the interaction between the staff and the ethnic minority children, the ethnic majority children (the Danes) are addressed in the exchange tone. Pierre Bourdieu's concepts: 'linguistic market', 'habitual inclinations' and 'feeling for the game' are used as theoretical framework. When the author interprets and explains the language pattern as unequal distribution of recognition and as continuation of reproduction of a socio-cultural hierarchy among the children she relates to this framework. The last part of the article comprises a discussion of existing structured language stimulation program's potentials for challenging the professional adults' practice and the demonstrated differentiation and segregation processes. RÉSUMÉCet article examine comment la différenciation et sélection des enfants de la maternelle sont inhérentes aux pratiques et aux processus verbaux. L'analyse se base sur les données empiriques émanant d'un long travail ethnographique sur le terrain au Danemark. L'autrice présente deux tons linguistiques : un ton d'enseignement et un ton d'échange, en outre, elle introduit un modèle relatif aux manières avec lesquelles les deux tons sont réalisés. Le ton d'enseignement s'entend dans le cadre de l'interaction entre le personnel et les enfants ethniques minoritaires tandis que le personnel s'addresse aux enfants ethniques majoritaires (les Danois) du ton d'échange.Les notions de Pierre Bourdieu : le marché linguistique, les inclinations habituelles et le sentiment du jeu, sont appliquées en tant que cadre théorique. Quand l'autrice interprète et explique le modèle de langage en tant que la distribution inégale de l'appréciation ainsi que la continuation de la reproduction de la hiérarchie parmi les enfants, elle le relie à ce cadre. La dernière partie de cet article amorce une discussion sur les possibilités relatives aux programmes structurés de stimulation du langage en ce qui concerne le défi par rapport aux pratiques des adultes professionnels et aux processus de différenciation montrés. RESUMENEste artículo examina cómo la diferenciación y selección de niños /as a la escuela maternal son inherentes a las prácticas y a los procesos verbales. El análisis se basa en los hechos empíricos emanados de un largo trabajo etnográfico realizado en terreno en Dinamarca. La clara presencia de tonos lingüísticos: un tono de enseñanza y un tono de intercambio, y por otro lado, se introduce un modelo relativo a la forma en que los dos tonos son empleados. El tono de enseñanza se escucha en los intercambios entre el personal técnico docente y los 76 infantes de etnias minoritarias en tanto que el personal docen...

In Denmark, a process of defamilising has taken place since the expansion of the Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) sector in the 1960s, in the sense that children now spend a large part of their childhood outside the family. Nevertheless, parents are still seen as key figures in children's upbringing and as having primary responsibility for the quality of childhood, implying a simultaneous process of refamilising. Based on ethnographic fieldwork we show that parents are not only held responsible for their children's lives at home, but also for ensuring that ECEC staff have the best possible opportunity to support children's development at ECEC institutions. We analyse how ECEC staff offer guidance on how to be a responsible parent who cooperates in the right ways, and on how to cultivate children's development at home. Parents willingly accept such advice because of a strong risk awareness embedded in diagnostic forms, positioning ECEC staff as parenting experts.

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In this article, the authors examine how materiality can be understood as a co-creator and significant carrier of social processes. They focus on the ways children in large sibling groups relate to bedrooms and identify the logics at play when the organizing of children's bedrooms and siblings are interwoven. Children have dreams and expectations of establishing a space by way of having their own room and stuff, and they implement this desire for ownership through specific strategies to obtain material presence and leave territorial marks, which afford them positioning and recognition within sibling relations and families. The authors' analysis clearly shows that children gain material weight across households with varying material resources and different socio-cultural views on how to allocate these resources. It also shows that processes surrounding the material constitution of siblingships are embedded in a child-focused society with strong cultural norms about what constitutes a good life for children.

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