Abstract
This chapter discusses the everyday life of toddlers in a Finnish day care centre from a spatial perspective. It is based on a research project that aims to investigate toddler group care by applying a spatial perspective to the analysis of everyday practices. The intent of this chapter is to illustrate how the ideas of Henri Lefebvre (1901–1991), a French philosopher, sociologist and Marxist intellectual, can be useful in thinking about institutional practices, and children’s everyday life in early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings. The chapter begins with an introduction to Lefebvre’s (The production of space (trans: Nicholson-Smith D). Blackwell Publishing, Malden, 1991) ideas on the social production of space. His spatial triad of conceived, perceived and lived space is presented as a starting point for the analysis of everyday life. To illustrate the relevance of these ideas to ECEC contexts, the chapter then draws on data from an empirical case study. Three episodes are discussed as snapshots to illustrate the social production of space in free play events among one- to three-year-olds, with a particular focus on the lived spaces of toddlers. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the wider applications of Lefebvre’s spatial perspective to toddler group care, and the implications of this perspective for understanding young children’s everyday lives.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
The project is led by Niina Rutanen. Kaisa-Reeta Laitila and Elisa Tanner have been working on their Master’s thesis as part of the project. The project includes collaboration with the Brazilian Research Center on Human Development and Early Childhood Education (CINDEDI), at the University of São Paulo. For more information, see https://invisibletoddlerhood.wordpress.com
- 2.
Children’s names are pseudonyms.
- 3.
Transcriptions from the video recordings are marked in the following way, e.g., 05102010_1/8_03.00–04.30; 05102010 = day, month, and year of the recordings; 1/8 = the number of the recording(s) in total on that day; 03.00–04.30 = time log.
References
Branco, A. U., Pessina, L., Flores, A., & Salomão, S. (2004). A sociocultural constructivist approach to metacommunication in child development. In A. U. Branco & J. Valsiner (Eds.), Communication and metacommunication in human development (pp. 2–33). Greenwich: Information Age Publishing.
Brembeck, H., Johansson, B., & Kampmann, J. (Eds.). (2004). Beyond the competent child. Exploring contemporary childhoods in the Nordic welfare societies. Roskilde: Roskilde University Press.
Brownlee, J., Berthelsen, D., & Boulton-Lewis, G. (2004). Working with toddlers in child care: Personal epistemologies and practice. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 12(1), 55–70.
Elden, S. (2004). Understanding Henri Lefebvre: Theory and the possible. London: Continuum.
Gulløv, E. (2003). Creating a natural place for children: An ethnographic study of Danish kindergartens. In K. Olwig & E. Gulløv (Eds.), Children’s places: Cross-cultural perspectives (pp. 23–38). London: Routledge.
Kernan, M., & Devine, D. (2010). Being confined within? Constructions of the good childhood and outdoor play in early childhood education and care settings in Ireland. Children & Society, 24(5), 371–385.
Lefebvre, H. (1991). The production of space (D. Nicholson-Smith, Trans.). Malden: Blackwell Publishing.
Lefebvre, H. (2004). Rhythmanalysis: Space, time and everyday life. London: Continuum International Publishing.
Markström A.-M. (2005). Förskolan som normaliseringspraktik. En etnografisk studie [Preschool as a normalizing practice: An ethnographic study]. Doctoral dissertation, Linköping Studies in Pedagogic Practices.
Markström, A.-M. (2010). Talking about children’s resistance to the institutional order and teachers is preschool. Journal of Early Childhood Research, 8(3), 303–314.
Markström, A.-M., & Halldén, G. (2009). Children’s strategies for agency in preschool. Children & Society, 23, 112–122.
Monaco, C., & Pontecorvo, C. (2010). The interaction between young toddlers: Constructing and organizing participation frameworks. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 18(3), 341–371.
Musatti, T., & Mayer, S. (2011). Sharing attention and activities among toddlers: The spatial dimension of the setting and the educator’s role. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 19(2), 207–221.
Musatti, T., & Panni, S. (1981). Social behavior and interaction among day-care center toddlers. Early Child Development and Care, 7(1), 5–27.
Pedrosa, M. I., & Carvalho, A. M. A. (2006). Construction of communication during young children’s play. Revista de Etologia, 8(1), 1–11.
Rossetti-Ferreira, M. C., Amorim, K. S., Soares da Silva, A. P., & Carvalho, A. M. A. (Eds.). (2004). Rede de significações e o estudo do desenvolvimento humano. Porto Alegre: Artmed.
Rutanen, N. (2011). Space for toddlers in the guidelines and curricula for early childhood education and care in Finland. Childhood, 18(4), 523–536.
Rutanen, N. (2012). Socio-spatial practices in a Finnish daycare group for 1 to 3-year-olds. Early Years: An International Journal of Research and Development. Special Issue on Working with Under-Threes, 32(2), 201–214.
Schmidt, S. (2011). Theorizing place: Students’ navigation of place outside the classroom. Journal of Curriculum Theorizing, 27(1), 20–34.
Shin, M. (2010). Peeking at the relationship world of infant friends and caregivers. Journal of Early Childhood Research, 8(3), 294–302.
Watkins, C. (2005). Representations of space, spatial practices and spaces of representation: An application of Lefebvre’s spatial triad. Culture and Organization, 11(3), 209–220.
Zhang, Z. (2006). What is lived space? Ephemera, 6(2), 219–223. Retrieved from http://www.ephemeraweb.org/journal/6-2/6-2zhang.pdf
Zhang, Z., & Beyes, T. (2011, July 11–13). A different Lefebvre: The everyday production of organizational space. In Proceedings of the seventh international Critical Management Studies (CMS) conference, University of Naples Federico II. Retrieved from http://www.organizzazione.unina.it/cms7/proceedings/proceedings_stream_19/zhang_and_beyes.pdf
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Academy of Finland project, (In)visible Toddlerhood? Global and Local Constructions of Toddlers’ Places in Institutions (2010–12, Project 133345). I am grateful to Jennifer Sumsion, Linda Harrison and Anne Kultti as well as others in the Infant-Toddler symposium at Charles Sturt University (November 2011) for helpful comments on the chapter and to Kaisa-Reeta Laitila for her assistance in the data transcription.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Rutanen, N. (2014). Lived Spaces in a Toddler Group: Application of Lefebvre’s Spatial Triad. In: Harrison, L., Sumsion, J. (eds) Lived Spaces of Infant-Toddler Education and Care. International perspectives on early childhood education and development, vol 11. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8838-0_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8838-0_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-017-8837-3
Online ISBN: 978-94-017-8838-0
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawEducation (R0)