"Om nån säger stopp så är det stopp på en gång" : En kvalitativ intervjustudie om makt, motstånd och möjligheter i förskolans arbete med barns rätt till kroppslig integritet

The aim of this study is to examine preschool teachers’ ideas of children’s right to bodily integrity and the preschools’ work on this. Furthermore, by using theories of power and resistance, the study aims to discuss how these ideas can affect children’s ability to discover and express their own integrity boundaries, to have them respected and to discover and respect the boundaries of others. The empirical material is based on interviews with six preschool teachers. The results show that the teachers’ ideas can lead to both limiting and productive exercise of power, which can affect the children's opportunities to express their own, and to discover the integrity boundaries of others. In order to protect the bodily integrity of the children, rules are formulated that can limit the children's ability to discover their own and others' boundaries and also can lead to control of the children. Rather than using rules, the teachers guide children's actions according to prevailing behavioural norms through what is interpreted as hidden, or friendly exercise of power. The teachers describe how they support and interpret children's actions and, provided that the teachers interpret the children correctly, this can create opportunities for the children to both express their boundaries and to discover those of others in order to respect them. The teachers show awareness of children’s different ways of expressing resistance and intend to help children to pay attention to subtle kinds of these actions. In that way, even children who express their integrity boundaries in a more implicit way can be respected by the others. However, the analysis shows that certain forms of acts of resistance increase opportunities for respect. These acts of resistance are explicit and consist of a clearly expressed "Stop!” or by using the ”Stop hand”. The empirical material also shows that the teachers work towards a culture of consent in the preschool by using themselves as role models and by encouraging children to ask each other for permission when, for example, they want to give someone a hug.