‘Children’s clans’; social organisation and interpretive reconstruction as aspects on development of peer-groups in outdoor play

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.

KEYWORDS:

• Outdoor play
• social interaction
• early childhood
• ethnography
• narrative inquiry

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Kari-Anne Jørgensen http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5774-0419

Notes

1 The Norwegian concept of ‘friluftsliv’ is also used in international literature, as the idea of ‘friluftsliv’ not only represents being out in nature, but also includes a close relation between people and nature, and the feeling Norwegians have for outdoor activities. This concept also concerns humans being close to and taking care of nature and being at home in nature (Henderson and Vikander 2007).