Abstract
Firmly planted in the Nordic tradition, policies that guide practice in Norwegian kindergartens emphasize a holistic approach that integrates care, play and learning and promotes well-being and development through relationships and experiences in the natural environment. While the holistic approach enjoys support both politically and within the profession, a political call for increased learning has resulted in a number of programs embracing school-based methods of learning infusing the field. The aim to increase learning has increasingly relied on a concept of learning that is the result of intentional pedagogic practice and high quality engagement between educators and children. This understanding of learning does not embrace learning related to children as biological beings in a vital phase of growth; that occurs outside of situations crafted to be learning situations. In this article, we address learning as a biological and social phenomenon, and consider how schoolchildren’s recollections of life in kindergarten can shed light on how and what children learn in the unique learning environments of Norwegian kindergartens. Our approach offers an opportunity to understand what holistic learning in ECEC can mean for children as biosocial beings.
Highlights
Poor kids, they only want to sit inside playing games If it’s not game, it’s a movie No, they won’t go out, climb high up in a tree And I never have to worry about them falling downNo more stealing apples, no more ring and run No more hitting balls, no more broken windowpanes No more moms and dads hollering “come in!” Come in and have dinner, just to run out again No kids are out today (Lillo-Stenberg, 2016, side A)The parameters of leisure and educational institutions increasingly regulate chil dren’s lives in the Nordic countries
What is it possible for children to learn from the here and approach of Norwegian kindergartens that perhaps would not be possible in a format permeated by a more result-oriented con cept of learning and ECE? We argue that a move toward a ‘more intentional’ pedagogy in Norwegian ECEC (Børhaug et al, 2018) runs the risk of overlooking the intention of holistic pedagogy and neglecting the largely unexamined learning mechanisms holis tic pedagogy offers that relate to foundational learning involved in the biosocial act of growing and living during the first five years of life
We found that children learned through engaging with physical limits, ethical limits, and personality limits via child-initiated play with peers and a loosely structured pedagogical learning environment that offered ethical guidelines and afforded experiences of autonomy
Summary
They only want to sit inside playing games If it’s not game, it’s a movie No, they won’t go out, climb high up in a tree And I never have to worry about them falling downNo more stealing apples, no more ring and run No more hitting balls, no more broken windowpanes No more moms and dads hollering “come in!” Come in and have dinner, just to run out again No kids are out today (our translation) (Lillo-Stenberg, 2016, side A)The parameters of leisure and educational institutions increasingly regulate chil dren’s lives in the Nordic countries. The popular song above written by the Norwegian group de Lillos, whose members were born in the 1960’s, laments changes in the lives of young children in today’s Norway. NOKUT (2010) emphasized that ECEC institutions in Norway have taken over functions which previously took place in the home and community, necessitating an education that provides “another and more comprehensive competence” (our translation) for ECTE students. We suggest it has something to do with the broad learning opportunities that home and community have traditionally provided, in indoor (Poikolainen & Honkanen, 2019) and outdoor environments (Beery & Jørgensen, 2018). We will consider in this article how holistic learning environments provide opportunities for experiential learning that previously took place in the home and community. We hope to initiate a discussion on what ‘another and more comprehensive competence’ may look like and how it can support children’s learning
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