Belonging in preschool: The perspectives of children and educators

Icelandic society has changed rapidly in recent decades. Immigration to Iceland has been growing steadily, and the country has evolved to become a relatively diverse society. In 1998, only 3.8% of preschool children had a mother tongue other than Icelandic. By 2018, this had increased to almost 14% (Hagstofa Islands, 2019 (Statistics Iceland)). In the city of Reykjavik, where the present study was conducted, this number is much higher. Preschools have a significant role to play for young children and their families in Iceland as preschools are where children spend most of their day. Preschools are often the first place where immigrant families meet other children and families. Among other things, children can learn about democracy, solidarity, equality and diversity (Evropuraoio, 2019 (European Commission)). The present study examines how this is put into practice and experienced by a diverse group of children and their educators in one preschool setting in Iceland. The study is grounded in the fields of Childhood Studies and the Children's Rights Movement. The study makes use of a model created by Lundy (2007) for the implementation of Article 12 of the UNCRC. The model has four features. The first is space, which means that children must be given a safe space and an opportunity to express their views. The second, voice, indicates that children must be provided with appropriate information and assisted in expressing their views. The third, audience, means that their views must be communicated to someone with the responsibility to listen. And the last is influence, which requires that children's views be taken seriously and acted upon appropriately. The study is also informed by the concept of `belonging' (Yuval-Davis, 2006; Juutinen, 2018). We regard belonging as a fundamental need of all people, one which is closely related to relationships and interconnections with people, social inclusion, and participation. The study also used the lens of multicultural education to analyse the preschool pedagogy. Nine children and four educators participated in the study. Data construction was twofold. First, interviews were conducted with the children using pictures they took on computer tablets. The children walked around the preschool with the researcher and took pictures on the tablets that became the stimulus for conversations that followed. The findings from the study with the children were then introduced to the educators, who reflected on the children's experiences. The findings inform the two themes; friendship and play, independence and self-dependence. In the minds of the children, belonging mainly meant friendship with other children in the preschool community. They connected friendship with play. They played mainly with children with similar cultural and language backgrounds. Children with non-Icelandic backgrounds seemed to have less choice of playmates and were more frequently excluded from play than their Icelandic peers. The children with Icelandic background also had more resources when they were excluded from play than children with foreign background. They were able to use Icelandic to express their feelings. The participating children were independent in terms of the daily activities of the preschool and they did not seek the educators' assistance if something came up, but rather retired. The educators reflected on their practices from the perspectives of the children and they had various ideas about how to support their belonging. Such ideas included finding ways to help the children adapt to the school culture and assist them with the Icelandic language. The educators did not seem conscious of the multicultural policy of the city of Reykjavik (Reykja-vikurborg, skola og fristundasvio, 2014) nor the emphasis on multicultural education and pedagogy that Icelandic educational authorities have expressed their will to move towards (mennta- og menningarmalaraouneytio, 2020). From the findings of the study we can assume that the discourse about how to support the belonging of children with diverse background is in its beginning phase in the Icelandic preschool community.