”Som jag gör nu får man inte göra.” : En kvalitativ undersökning om hur pedagoger i förskolan utövar sin makt över barn i konfliktsituationer

The purpose of the study is to examine how pedagogues practice their authority over children in conflict situations at preschools. How are children treated based solely on them being children? And how do preschool teachers validate children’s experiences of conflicts? To get answers I proceeded by using a qualitative data collection method and a hermeneutical analysis. I collected the material for the study by observing and interviewing pedagogues to both get an idea of ​​how they act in practice and how they reason about conflict situations in the preschool. The essay is based on a childhood sociological theoretical perspective that recognizes the importance of social and cultural context. The study’s results show that pedagogues practice their authority over children in conflict situations, but that it is done in different ways. How they practice authority, treat and validate children’s experiences depend on the pedagogues’ child perspective. Even though all the pedagogues in the study want what’s best for the children, the various conflict situations have completely different outcomes, since the pedagogues interpret children and their actions in very different ways, resulting in different responses and attitudes towards the children. The consequences of these different ways to respond need to be questioned and reflected upon. It’s time that the way pedagogues practice their authority and the way they see children is brought up for discussions within the world of preschool education