The Contribution of Different Patterns of Teachers’ Interactions to Young Children’s Experiences of Democratic Values During Play

Abstract

Developing a sense of belonging and experiences about the value of community are important democratic values that children may learn during play in preschool. Through the different ways that teachers’ interact with children during play, children can learn about democratic values. This study is part of a Nordic project on values education in early childhood education and care settings and data from this project are used in the analyses. The data consisted of video observations from informal play situations in seven Norwegian preschools, with children aged from 18 to 36 months. The nature of practitioners’ interactions with the children was explored in the analyses. There were different ways that practitioners interacted during dyadic and group interactions, and they communicated different values about belonging and community. The findings showed that group interactions can safeguard children’s opportunities to experience democratic practices in a more comprehensive manner than are available to children in dyadic interactions. It is important that practitioners are aware how different ways of interacting with children in play situations, either in dyadic interactions or group interactions, may result in different values being conveyed to children about democracy.