“Then you can’t come to my birthday party!” : How power finds expression in children's relationship building

The aim of the study is to broaden the existing research that touches how power expresses itself and distributes in childrens relationship building. The purpose is to study childrens relationship building and how power and gender affects one another. The reason is to locate possible patterns that excel during an ongoing construction and development of a relationship. To understand what has been observed a sociological perspective has been used. The chosen method is a qualitative study. Observations of groups of children at two different preschools have been done. Semi-structured interviews with educators from the different preschools have also been conducted. The result of the study is that children constantly are trying to get control over their surroundings. In this process when children try to regain control, power may become a big part. Further results of the study is that the preschool and everyone who operates within it holds a major role when it comes to guiding the children and showing appropriate actions individually as well as together with other social human beings. Next the results of the study will be connected to previous research, the preschool’s curriculum and the Convention on the Rights of the Child will be presented. Lastly the conclusions of the study are put in relation to the professional role as a preschool-teacher which will be embraced in a few months.