No abstract

The article attempts to answer the question: What is the nature of children's everyday narratives in a day care centre context? The theoretical framework of this study is based on a narrative approach. The research material was gathered through applying the methodology of narrative ethnography. The article is based on observational material collected from three groups of children within day care centres over the course of one year. The material was analysed through dialogic analysis of narratives. For the purpose of the article, one narrative is used as an evocative anecdote to illustrate research findings revealing the emerging nature of children's narratives characterised by fragmentariness, multimodality, collaboration and a complex relationship between narrative and context. The article challenges the predominant formalist discourse on children's narratives, and suggests utilising the pedagogical potential of young children's narratives in the day care centre context.

No abstract

The aim of this study is to answer the following question: what do children tell about their well-being in Finnish day care centres? The theoretical and methodological framework of this study is based on a narrative approach. The research material was collected by participating in the everyday life of three groups of children and listening to their narratives. The research material, consisting of observations and tape-recorded conversations, is reflected in a model of well-being developed by a Finnish sociologist, Erik Allardt. This model consists of three dimensions: having, loving, and being. With the intention of understanding children's well-being, the meanings of having, loving, and being are explored. Instead of arguing for one objective truth, this study offers diverse narratives, conveying both positive and negative experiences of children's well-being. The most positive experiences deal with inspiring and enabling material environment, responsive adults, good friends, and opportunities for meaningful activities. Darker shades permeate the narratives characterised by unyielding institutional structures, children's separateness from adults, the exclusion from peer relationships, and not being respected as a subject. This study demonstrates both potentials and limitations involved in narrative methodology when exploring young children's experienced well-being.

This article focuses on teacher identity. Based on two small stories told in a peer group by a beginning teacher, we ask: How does a beginning teacher tell about her identity as part of the micropolitical context of school? Theoretically and methodologically, the research is committed to a narrative approach in understanding teacher identity. The material consists of small stories based on videotaped peer group discussions of 11 Finnish teachers. The results of the research illustrate the micropolitical context at the heart of how a beginning teacher's identity is constructed through diverse emotionally significant relationships. Narrative ways of working, such as group discussions, can offer teachers an opportunity to recognize different dimensions of their identity.