'Children's clans'; social organisation and interpretive reconstruction as aspects on development of peer-groups in outdoor play. Issue 4 (2nd October 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Jørgensen, Kari-Anne
• Is Part Of: Ethnography and education. Volume 13:Issue 4(2018)
• Page Start: 490
• Page End: 507
• Publication Date: 2018-10-02
• Subjects: Outdoor play -- social interaction -- early childhood -- ethnography -- narrative inquiry; Educational anthropology -- Periodicals; Ethnology -- Research -- Periodicals; 306.43
• DOI: 10.1080/17457823.2017.1348904
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1745-7823

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The focus of this article is children's self-organisation of peer-groups through play. The play was initiated by encounters with the environment. The use of ethnographic methods in early childhood research has proved helpful to elucidate, interpret, and understand children's experiences and the creation of meaning in their everyday lives. This inquiry draws on field notes, informal conversations with the children, and photos from a study of kindergarten children's experiences of outdoor places and landscapes in Norway. Going out of doors together with the children regularly over a period of 10 months revealed aspects of how children's interactions in play connect to their use of natural landscapes and its place in peer-group social organisation. The data are presented as 'narrative maps' and episodes written as 'emplotted' narratives.