Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Who Am I? Shaping Young Children’s Identities Through Everyday Narratives

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Story in Children’s Lives: Contributions of the Narrative Mode to Early Childhood Development, Literacy, and Learning

Part of the book series: Educating the Young Child ((EDYC,volume 16))

Abstract

Young children have largely been neglected in narrative identity research. This chapter is based on the premise that identity construction is a process that begins in the early years and is formed through the everyday narratives that comprise the daily interactions through which identities are constructed, negotiated, and performed. These everyday narratives provide children with the sense of who they are, who they will become, what kind of children they are expected to be, and the nature of the world in which they live. The chapter is based on research into everyday narratives produced in early education settings. I suggest that four themes frame the construction of children’s narrative identities: the possession of material items; skills and competences; peer relationships; and the child’s relation to the rules and conventions of the child care center.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 139.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 179.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 179.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Ahn, J. (2011). Review of children’s identity construction via narratives. Creative Education, 2(5), 415–417.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ahn, J., & Filipenko, M. (2007). Narrative, imaginary play, art, and self: Intersecting worlds. Early Childhood Education Journal, 34(4), 279–289.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Børve, H. E., & Børve, E. (2017). Rooms with gender: Physical environment and play culture in kindergarten. Early Child Development and Care, 187(5–6), 1069–1081.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown, S. (2011). Looking across curricular structures. Early Childhood Education Journal, 39(4), 257–265.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Caine, V., Estefan, A., & Clandinin, D. J. (2013). A return to methodological commitment: Reflections on narrative inquiry. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 57(6), 574–586.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clandinin, D. J., Caine, V., Lessard, S., & Huber, J. (2016). Engaging in narrative inquiries with children and youth. New York/London: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Claxton, G., & Carr, M. (2004). A framework for teaching learning: The dynamics of disposition. Early Years, 24(1), 87–97.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dittmar, H. (2008). To have is to be? Psychological functions of material possession. In H. Dittmar (Ed.), Consumer culture, identity and well-being. The search for the ‘good life’ and the ‘body perfect’ (pp. 25–48). Hove: Psychology Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Edmiston, B. (2010). Playing with children, answering with our lives: A Bakhtinian approach to coauthoring ethical identities in early childhood. British Journal of Educational Studies, 58(2), 197–211.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Engel, S. (2006). Narrative analysis of children’s experience. In S. Greene & D. Hogan (Eds.), Researching children’s experience. Approaches and methods (pp. 199–216). London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Farquhar, S. (2012). Narrative identity and early childhood education. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 44(3), 289–301.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gubrium, J. F., & Holstein, J. A. (2008). Narrative ethnography. In S. N. Hesse-Biber & P. Leavy (Eds.), Handbook of emergent methods (pp. 241–264). New York: The Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hedges, H., & Cullen, J. (2012). Participatory learning theories: A framework for early childhood pedagogy. Early Child Development and Care, 182(7), 921–940.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hermans, H. J. M. (2012). Dialogical self theory and the increasing multiplicity of I-positions in a globalizing society: An introduction. In H. J. M. Hermans (Ed.), Applications of dialogical self theory. New directions for child and adolescent development, number 137 (pp. 1–21). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hyry-Beihammer, E.-K., Estola, E., & Syrjälä, L. (2012). Issues of responsibility when conducting research in a northern rural school. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 26(8), 1062–1078.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hyvärinen, M. (2008). Narrative form and narrative content. In I. Järventie & M. Lähde (Eds.), Methodological challenges in childhood and family research (pp. 43–63). Tampere: Tampere University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Konstantoni, K. (2012). Children’s peer relationships and social identities: Exploring cases of young children’s agency and complex interdependencies from the Minority World. Children’s Geographies, 10(3), 337–346.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kumpulainen, K., Lipponen, L., Hilppö, J., & Mikkola, A. (2014). Building on the positive in children’s lives: A co-participatory study on the social construction of children’s sense of agency. Early Child Development and Care, 184(2), 211–229.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lannamann, J. W., & McNamee, S. (2011). Narratives of the interactive moment. Narrative Inquiry, 21(2), 382–390.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lieblich, A. (2014). About Amos: Reading with our heart. Special issue: Multiplicity and commonality in narrative interpretation. Narrative Works: Issues, Investigations, & Interventions, 4(1), 114–124.

    Google Scholar 

  • McAdams, D. (2011). Narrative identity. In S. J. Schwartz, K. Luyckx, & V. L. Vignoles (Eds.), Handbook of identity theory and research (pp. 99–115). New York: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Nicolopoulou, A. (2008). The elementary forms of narrative coherence in young children’s storytelling. Narrative Inquiry, 18(2), 299–325.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nordtømme, S. (2012). Place, space and materiality for pedagogy in a kindergarten. Education Inquiry, 3(3), 317–333.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Olwig, K. F. (2011). Children’s sociality. The civilizing project in the Danish kindergarten. Social Analysis, 55(2), 121–141.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Over, H. (2016). The origins of belonging: Social motivation in infants and young children. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 371, 20150072. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2015.0072.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peterson, E. E., & Langellier, K. M. (2006). The performance turn in narrative studies. Narrative Inquiry, 16(1), 173–180.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Puroila, A.-M. (2002). The multiple faces of everyday life: Frame analysis of early childhood practices. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 10(2), 31–47.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Puroila, A.-M. (2013). Young children on the stages: Small stories performed in day care centers. Narrative Inquiry, 23(2), 323–343.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Puroila, A.-M., & Estola, E. (2014). Not babies anymore: Young children’s narrative identities in Finnish day care centres. International Journal of Early Childhood, 46(2), 187–203.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Puroila, A.-M., Estola, E., & Syrjälä, L. (2012a). Does Santa exist? Children’s everyday narratives as dynamic meeting places in a day care centre context. Early Child Development and Care, 182(2), 191–206.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Puroila, A.-M., Estola, E., & Syrjälä, L. (2012b). Having, loving, and being: Children’s narrated well-being in Finnish day care centres. Special issue: Early Child Care and Education in Finland. Early Child Development and Care, 182(3–4), 345–362.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reese, E., Chen, Y., Jack, F., & Hayne, H. (2010). Emerging identities: Narrative and self from early childhood to early adolescence. In K. C. McLean & M. Pasupathi (Eds.), Narrative development in adolescence (pp. 23–43). New York: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Ruckenstein, M. (2010). Time scales of consumption: Children, money and transactional orders. Journal of Consumer Culture, 10(3), 383–404.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, B., & Sparkes, A. C. (2008). Contrasting perspectives on narrating selves and identities: An invitation to dialogue. Qualitative Research, 8(1), 5–35.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spector-Mersel, G. (2010). Narrative research. Time for a paradigm. Narrative Inquiry, 20(1), 204–224.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Striano, M. (2012). Reconstructing narrative. A new paradigm for narrative research and practice. Narrative Inquiry, 22(1), 147–154.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sumsion, J., & Wong, S. (2011). Interrogating ‘belonging’ in belonging, being, and becoming: The early years learning framework for Australia. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 12(1), 28–45.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tracy, K., & Robles, J. S. (2013). Everyday talk: Building and reflecting identities. New York: The Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tuval-Mashiach, R. (2014). Life stories in context: Using the three-sphere context model to analyze Amos’s narrative. Special issue: Multiplicity and commonality in narrative interpretation. Narrative Works: Issues, Investigations, & Interventions, 4(1), 125–145.

    Google Scholar 

  • Urban, M. (2012). Researching early childhood policy and practice. A critical ecology. European Journal of Education, 47(4), 494–507.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Oers, B. (2003). Multiple narratives of childhood: Tools for the improvement of early childhood education. In B. van Oers (Ed.), Narratives of childhood: Theoretical and practical explorations for the innovation of early childhood education (pp. 9–26). Amsterdam: VU University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Viljamaa, E. (2012). Lasten tiedon äärellä. In Äidin ja lasten kerronnallisia kohtaamisia kotona. [With children’s knowledge. Narrative encounters of a mother and children at home]. Oulu: University of Oulu.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wohlwend, K. E. (2017). Who gets to play? Access, popular media and participatory literacies. Early Years, 37(1), 62–76.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wood, E. A. (2014). Free choice and free play in early childhood education: Troubling the discourse. International Journal of Early Years Education, 22(1), 4–18.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland

    Anna-Maija Puroila

Authors
  1. Anna-Maija Puroila
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anna-Maija Puroila .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

    Kelli Jo Kerry-Moran

  2. University of Turku, Rauma, Finland

    Juli-Anna Aerila

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Puroila, AM. (2019). Who Am I? Shaping Young Children’s Identities Through Everyday Narratives. In: Kerry-Moran, K.J., Aerila, JA. (eds) Story in Children’s Lives: Contributions of the Narrative Mode to Early Childhood Development, Literacy, and Learning. Educating the Young Child, vol 16. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19266-2_4

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19266-2_4

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-19265-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-19266-2

  • eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation