Exploring Military Artefacts in Early Childhood Education: Conflicting Perspectives on Cultural Sustainability, Belonging and Protection

Abstract

Social and cultural sustainability is outlined as creating surroundings that include and stimulate positive interactions, such as promoting a sense of community and a feeling of belonging to a community, by being safe and attached to the local area. Artefacts chosen in early childhood education (ECE) institutions are integrated parts of the culture in which the ECE institutions are embedded; artefacts, thus, are understood as serving belonging and cultural sustainability. The study examined what insight into cultural sustainability could be surfaced in conflicting perspectives about military artefacts in ECE. Focus group interviews were conducted with Chinese and Norwegian graduate students and ECE researchers, during which photographs of a Chinese kindergarten where military artefacts and toys were highly represented. Conflicting perspectives on military artefacts among the participant surfaced how belonging are closely intertwined with protection and where to belong: locally, nationally or internationally. The skeptical approach to military artefacts is challenged by awareness of different ways to promote national pride and entanglement among generations. The findings indicate a need for more research on conditions for belonging and the normative complexities of artefacts in cultural sustainability.

Photo-Elicitation Interviews—a Possibility for Collaborative Provocation of Preconceptions

“…According to Collier and Collier (1986), an image can be a reference point that offers a language that transcends cultural differences for discussions of the familiar or the unknown. Thus, we observed a rich exchange of information (Birkeland & Grindheim, 2021) but excluded the discussion of how the pei involving provocative photos also challenged and widened our methodological understanding. We were concerned about the verbal interpretations without really discussing the images.…”

“…During our visit to a kindergarten, we produced approximately 150 photos of the educational environment, artifacts, and activities. After returning to Norway, the photos (15) from this classroom caught our attention and awakened our interest in taken-for-granted approaches toward military artifacts introduced in kindergartens (Birkeland & Grindheim, 2021).…”

“…Piper and Frankham (2007, p. 375) urged researchers to engage critically with visual texts and to "problematize the production, distribution, reception, and consumption" of visual images as part of the research process. In this article, we assume this challenge to critically examine the photos used in pei in a project investigating Chinese and Norwegian early childhood education (ece) master students' and teacher educators'/researchers' values and beliefs about proper artifacts for local and national belonging (Birkeland & Grindheim, 2021). We aim to adopt a "defamiliarizing mode" for our interpretations (Mannay, 2010) using provocative photos to prompt the discussion while emphasizing conflicting perspectives among the interviewees in the research material.…”

Social Sustainable Education in a Refugee Camp

“…Since nature is so diverse and rich in affordances [57], the environment offers challenges and possibilities for all the children regardless of their age, gender, and cultural background. Birkeland and Grindheim [27] (p. 9) also aim at providing surroundings that stimulate positive interactions. According to the educators, the children use their creativity to explore nature on their own terms, creating dynamic and inclusive play: "The oldest children can, for example, climb over obstacles, and the youngest one can crawl under.…”

“…Boldermo and Ødegaard [26] (p. 3) discuss the differences and tensions in how the term Education for Sustainability (EFS) is perceived and argue for a turn toward typically human needs such as human rights, democracy, and social issues. Several researchers suggest that education for sustainability can be understood as a process of social and cultural learning that develops new understandings and practices [27][28][29]. This perspective could also provide better conditions for all children through a value-based approach [26].…”