Sociomaterial production of parents’ positions in the ECEC institution

Abstract

Much of the discussion about parents’ positions in the early childhood education and care (ECEC) institution relates to the discussion of ECEC quality, in which parental involvement is a key factor. This article suggests that focusing on the sociomaterial nature of the reality, including quality, will help to furnish a more nuanced view of how parents’ positions within the ECEC institution are shaped. The concept of assemblage is used as a tool to examine how parents’ positions are produced in interaction between situational social, symbolic, and material elements related to local ways of organizing ECEC and families’ situations. The research material consists of interviews with parents of four-year-old (n=51) children. The analysis focused on the parents’ varying positions and how they are produced in sociomaterial assemblages. Four case families, each of which illuminates how a certain position within the ECEC institution is produced, were chosen to demonstrate the usefulness of the concept of assemblage in understanding the productive force of the interlinkage between families’ varying life circumstances and local ways of organizing ECEC. As a result, the opportunities for families to be part of the decision-making related to the organization of ECEC can vary greatly.