Children, sub-headings and verbal discussions creating evaluations: acknowledging the productiveness of ambivalence

Abstract

Drawing on the empirical case of an evaluation meeting in a Stockholm preschool as well as participant observations over a period of 10 months, this paper uses an Actor-Network Theory methodology to explores the actors and relations that emerge when an evaluations are made. The principle of general symmetry is used to create knowledge of the way evaluations are made from relations among teachers, children’s games, toy guns, evaluation goals and sub-headings. The study specifically highlights the ability of verbal discussions to embrace ambivalence in relation to, for example, everyday children’s games with toy guns in the preschool. The paper argues that ambivalence is productive and influential in the evaluation process, even though it is not included in final evaluation texts.

Keywords:

• Preschool
• curriculum
• children
• evaluation
• Actor-Network Theory