"Att ha sin egen vilja, sina egna tankar om sin kropp, det man vill, det man inte vill och att det respekteras av alla runt omkrin" : En studie om förskollärares tankar och förhållningssätt till barns integritet under sovvilan på förskolan

This year, 2019 a new curriculum will be implemented in Swedish preschools. One of the most important changes is that the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child has been given a much larger part in the preschool curriculum. In response to this our study deals with children’s right to integrity during naptime in preschools. The purpose of this study is to contribute to the knowledge about preschool teachers’ approach to children’s physical and personal integrity. The aim is to research and analyse the preschool teachers’ descriptions of their understanding and methods that they use during naptime to acknowledge the children’s right to physical and personal integrity. This study has been conducted with a qualitative research approach method where six interviews with preschool teachers have been analysed. The result has been analysed based upon selected parts through Michel Foucault’s theory about power knowledge, and the John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth attachment theory. Our results indicate that there are both similarities and differences in the interviewed teachers’ approaches and methods in considering the children’s right to integrity during naptime. One interesting conclusion that was noted based on our interviews, was that the interviewed preschool teachers had difficulty expressing their understanding of the concept of the children’s right to integrity during naptime. However, when they described their methods and procedures they used during naptime, to get the children to fall asleep, we observed that in their descriptions they did in fact consider the children’s right to physical and personal integrity during their routines, for example, listening to the individual child’s wants and needs. These descriptions have similarities with Johnsson (2005, s. 4) definition of integrity and identity as a socially and culturally defined phenomenon. "Integrity, like identity, is experienced, emerges and is negotiated in interaction with others." (Johnsson, 2005, s. 4)