You Can Learn Something Every Day! Children Talk About Learning in Kindergarten—Traces of Learning Cultures

摘要

Discussion of learning in the kindergarten context is growing both in Norway and internationally. This article focuses on some central aspects of learning described by groups of children aged 4–6 years, in three Norwegian kindergartens. The research concerns children’s descriptions of aspects of learning experienced in their everyday life in kindergartens and what this tells us about learning cultures in these contexts. This study is an independent part of a small-scale study focusing on various aspects of learning and play from the perspective of children and preschool teachers. It is based on videotaped interviews with three small groups of children conducted by the teachers, who also were interviewed. Theoretically, the study is built on socio-cultural perspectives together with some critical dimensions from the theory of learning cultures and activity theory. The study is based on a phenomenological and hermeneutic epistemology. The analyses resulted in three broad descriptive categories: learning contexts, ways of learning and the value of learning, which are discussed in relation to the learning cultures.