Valuable everyday encounters in early childhood education: narratives from professionals

Figures & data

Figure 1. Emotions and values as part of teachers’ narratived of valuable educational meetings.

(Developed from Manni, Sporre, and Ottander 2017)

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Box 1 ‘A meeting with a child becomes valuable when the teacher and child meet and interact on equal terms.’ ‘A situation when I and the child meet in concert.’ ‘A meeting where I can give the children time to be seen and listened to. Where there is a reciprocal value in the meeting, a reciprocal interaction.’ ‘A meeting where a relationship is built.’ ‘The meetings where you meet together, in communication about something. Community. Develop new insights – development. You get a mutual exchange from each other’

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Box 2 ‘When I know that I’m somehow contributing by being a role model and can do things that give the child a feeling of being safe and seen.’ ‘To shape emotions of safety and an opportunity to learn.’ ‘I think all meetings with children are important. I try to be responsive and interpret what the child has to say. I can be super-valuable in most of the meetings, whether the child needs to tell me something, if the child “only” needs a secure adult or if they need a role model.’ ‘A valuable meeting can be when children feel that they’re welcome and longed for by us teachers and/or by other children. And that they get to experience that we’re interested in what they have to say, in their opinions.’

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Box 3 ‘It can be when you sit down and play a game with a person and ask a little about how things are, what happened at the weekend and so on. It can be when you see the happiness and laughter in the sports arena or at the football/floorball ground.’ ‘To be present as a teacher, eye contact, listening to what the children say or showing with your body language that there is no disturbance around. That both I as a teacher and the child/children are showing interest in each other and in the content if we meet around something, that it’s positive.’ ‘Today it was a meeting with a child who is usually very defiant. There’s a lot of fuss. Today I had the opportunity to eat together with that child.’

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Box 4 A short little meeting that I thought was valuable … Sometimes it is short, small moments that make you get in contact with the children. Where they can experience that you’re there, you know. Yes, it was a boy I walked back with from the canteen. And it’s for a short while, and then they can tell you about small things kind of spontaneously. And then today he caught up with me and said: ‘Do you know J? I have a little cousin who’s a baby who’s just a few weeks old.’ And then we just exchanged a few words and then he strutted about in front of me. But it’s like, they want to tell you things, a little reflection. That is also a meeting that you can appreciate. (Teacher J)

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Box 5 Now the focus has been on names and they’ve been interested in writing. So, this very day they should write the first and last name of the stone man [a fictional stone figure at the preschool]. And this particular [child] was also a boy […] and my experience is that he has barely held a pen before, been very uninterested. So, I thought, well, we’ll see how he approaches this task then. But, yes with a little support, he succeeded in writing that whole name. And I felt he was very pleased that he’d managed to write the name with all those letters. […] Yes, and this was that I, kind of, thought it was valuable because he was able to succeed. Yes, that was the positive thing with this meeting. Yes, that he was able to succeed, to see that, with some support and encouragement, he can achieve more than he thought […] I had chosen to just take one child at a time because I wanted to give them the support they needed. (Teacher L)

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Box 6 The children arrive in the morning and it’s like ‘ah, you’ve been to the medical centre?’ you know. Taking a blood test. Then it’s, obviously, very important that I meet her in that. And that she gets the opportunity to tell me about what she has experienced, her experience. And that she got a plaster. So, all these situations become important meetings. […] She’s, it’s very dramatic for her. All wounds and such are very dramatic for her. So, it was huge that she’d dared to take a blood-test. […] So when she arrives, so happy, running. And that she, that I noticed it. That I confirm her in that and, kind of: ‘Can I see your plaster?’ so she can tell me. She was happy to show me the [toy] lizard she got. […] Yes, it became very important for her […] that we saw it […] and that she saw that I saw and, like, lifted her in that. (Teacher W)

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Box 7 Two children were playing with ‘nopper’ [Stickle Bricks], a material with spiky building blocks. It’s a new material that the children really like. And two children were sitting down building and I sat down beside and asked: ‘What are you building?’ Yes, they were building boats with something special, it was boats that drove fast. And then I got the opportunity to talk to them, whether it was small or big boats, who was allowed to ride with them and so on. And they told me, so I could build on what they said. So, we had a nice moment together […] just to sit together and talk a little … yes, but I thought about it. It’s not very long moments with the small ones, but still you achieve a lot in just a few minutes. And then they continued to build by themselves, they were very satisfied. When I saw them, I thought that I would try to get involved in their playing and reflect together with them, but you don’t get invited every time so you have to take the opportunity if they want to. (Teacher K)

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Box 8 Yes, the first meeting I’ve selected was an early morning when I was opening [the school]. The first child who arrived, he’s always very early, right after 6 o’clock. And this is a pupil who’s involved in a lot of stuff during the ordinary school day. He has some special needs and so on. Yes, and then, this particular morning he was alone before any other children came. And we were sitting and reading a tale about Lasse-Majas detective agency and we found time to read several chapters and so, yes, that became a good start to the day for him. It was calm and nice and we found time to talk about a lot of things with each other. It was a calm start for both him and for me, and I got to know him a little better. I’ve known him since preschool class and now he’s in first grade. (Teacher A)

Manni, A., K. Sporre, and C. Ottander. 2017. “Emotions and Values: A Case Study of Meaning-making in ESE.” Environmental Education Research 23 (4): 451–464. doi:10.1080/13504622.2016.1175549.

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