‘They need to … ’: Exploring practitioners’ attitudes in relation to newcomer migrant children’s needs in Norwegian day care

Abstract

Taking a critical stance on day care as a social site for democratic practice, this article focusses on practitioners' attitudes regarding including newcomer migrant children in the assessment of their needs and decision-making processes in Norwegian day care. Considering the needs-discourse as a way of conveying both policy makers' and practitioners' conclusions about the requirements of migrant children's childhoods, we reveal how the individual agency of practitioners is captured by developmental culture-bound norms regarding what an ideal childhood should be. Keywords: migrant children, day care, needs, participation, agency policyWhen newcomer migrant children enter day care, it can become apparent that cultural norms related to childhood as well as practitioners' ideas about what constitutes a healthy childhood diverge considerably across both time and space (Christensen & James, 2008;James, Jenks, & Prout, 1998). Adults, both parents and caregivers, and children alike are required to make considerable psychosocial and cultural adjustments involving cognitive, social and emotional dimensions (Vogler, Crivello, & Woodhead, 2008). The adult-child relation is highly structural and powerful (Alanen, 2001;Mayall, 2015), and in this article, we are interested in exploring how practitioners govern newcomer migrant children's lives with rules, regulations and permission seeking (Thomas, In view of how needs-statements (see Berg et al., 2015;Kunnskapsdepartementet, 2010aKunnskapsdepartementet, , 2010bKunnskapsdepartementet, , 2011 are The purpose of this article is twofold. First, we explore needs-discourse as a practical and efficient approach to convey both policy makers' and practitioners' conclusions about the requirements of migrant children's childhoods (Woodhead, 1997). Second, exploring how practitioners' agency policies and relational attitudes affect when and how migrant children can participate in decision-making processes, we take a critical stance on day care as a social site for democratic practice that gives children the right to participate at its foundations. 3Drawing from the above-mentioned perspectives, the following interrelated research questions are explored in the article: How do needs-statements relate to practitioners' agency policies? How do practitioners' agency policies and relational attitudes affect when and how migrant children can participate in decision-making processes?This research is based on an ethnographic study investigating the everyday social reality of two newcomer migrant girls in a Norwegian day care institution. Throughout the course of nine months, participatory observation in both formal and informal settings was combined with participatory methods (see Kalkman, Hopperstad & Valenta 2015, 2017. This supported the participants in reflecting and acting upon important aspects in relation to their immediate lives (Hart, 1992). The goal of this article is to draw attention to practitioners' viewpoints and practices. It draws on data from two individual semi-struc...

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