Children's Participation in Ritualized Circle Time - Ritual in music sessions in the multicultural kindergarten: How does it comply with children's right to participation?

Nora Bilalovic Kulset

doi:10.7577/nbf.1745

Abstract

This article addresses the possibly contradictory relationship between children's right to participate and ritualized circle time. It presents an analysis from an arts-based research inquiry within self-study, conducted during circle times in multicultural kindergartens (children aged three to six). The focus of the analysis is aspects of the ritualized song circle time that might enhance or undermine children's right to participation. Examples from videotaped material and interviews with kindergarten teachers are presented in the context of Small's (1998) and Dissanayake's (2008, 2014) notions of ritual, and of Bae's (2009) and Eide et al.'s (2012) understandings of children's participation. Results indicate that a structured and ritualized song circle time enhances children's participation in a multicultural kindergarten.

Highlights

Active and widespread use of music activities in the multicultural kindergarten, such as singing in circle time, might be advantageous on several levels, e.g. minority-language children might break into the majority language at an earlier stage (Kulset, 2015a)
I address some of the differences between the ritualized and the un-ritualized music sessions in the context of children's participation
I turn to the kindergarten teachers' reflections upon a felt positive atmosphere in the ritualized music session and how this might enhance or undermine children's participation

Summary

Introduction

Active and widespread use of music activities in the multicultural kindergarten, such as singing in circle time, might be advantageous on several levels, e.g. minority-language children might break into the majority language at an earlier stage (Kulset, 2015a). This article presents findings based on Hamilton's (1998) method for self-study in arts-based research inquiry and seeks to shed light upon aspects in the ritualized song circle time that might enhance or undermine children's right to participation. The study was inspired by discussions with kindergarten staff who claim that I undermine children's right to participation when I conduct circle time with a structured, ritualized form. The circle-time situations that comprise this inquiry consisted exclusively of music (which I will elaborate later in the article). In the following, I refer to the situations as music sessions

Methods

Results

Conclusion