When your colleagues are also your friends

Liora Bresler told me once that researchers need to belong to a community of knowledge; In order to maintain curiosity and self-confidence there is a need to keep in touch with colleagues with similar interests and ideas. She was right. My little community of about 12 researchers interested in physical space and materiality in preschools has been a place where I could feel at home. Though, one might pose a question if this feeling of belonging rather comes from our personal relations than from our professional interests (?) In any case I can’t imagine that having fun with colleagues can have negative influence on one’s work: Is there anything better than loving to spend time with your colleagues?

 

 

Our three-year-long project “Space and materiality in preschools”, supported by Norwegian research council, has come to an end (not because we have nothing more to research on, but because the money is used up). The end of the project was marked by two conferences at Vestfold University College (VUC): one small research conference on September 24., the other larger dissemination conference (in Norway 450 people means large conference) on September 25. for practitioners and pre-school teacher students. In addition to invited keynote speakers, Ellen Beate Sandseter who spoke about the importance of risky play for learning, and Randi Evenstad and Aslaug Andreassen Becher who spoke about preschool architecture in Norway, everyone form the VUC-project contributed with ten-minute-presentations of their research:

• Line Føsker (teacher educator in mathematics) studied children’s understanding of space from mathematician’s point of view;
• Eva Maagerø and Astrid Granly (Norwegian language) studied how walls in preschools communicate in multimodal ways;
• Solveig Nordtømme (pedagogy) has observed and analysed how preschool spaces inspire children’s interaction and play;
• Kari-Anne Jørgensen (outdoor education) is in the process of PhD study where she is interested in children’s experiences from outdoor-preschools and how their learning is related to landscapes and outdoor places;
• Nina Odegard (pedagogy) has been interested in children’s use of recycled materials; 
• Anne Lise Nordbø (drama) has studied how theatre stage can be transformed into stage for children’s play.
• Solveig Østrem (religion and ethics) has studied gender related issues in children’s outdoor and indoor play. 
• Hege Hansson (drama) explored how physical affordances of theatre stage can offer possibilities for children’s aesthetic experience and engagement;
• Heidi Kristin Olsen (librarian) has taken part in the project as project-librarian, contributing with her diverse competences in innovative ways;

My own presentation of children’s meaning negotiation during their explorative play with materials was given whole 45 minutes… though, time always seems to be too short when one is engaged in what he/she is talking about. It is more likely that the one who talks will forget about time than the one who listens. And it is less likely that the one who talks could suddenly lose interest and get bored than the one who listens. I think that we teachers should consider this fact when we want to engage our student in their own learning… but that is another blog, article… or something.
         
We have received positive response on our patchwork of presentations, performances and audience exercises. What do I mean by audience exercises? Since the conference theme is associated with space, activity and embodiment, our audience needed to be challenged in other ways that simply sitting and listening; Our project coordinator Thomas Moser, professor in physical education, seemed to be inspired by the affordances of the conference room (more precisely the chairs) and improvised an activity to engage the audience physically. This was a great success for the occasion! (…as long as none has reported any broken chares to the janitor…)

 

The organization of the conferences demanded some hard work, but was also a great fun. It was a bit sad too because the project has come to an end – but some of us united a few weeks later in a little village in Northern Spain to write together, discuss our articles, drink vine and even ride horses. And as I said: There is nothing better than when your colleagues are also you friends, and when positive energy from friendship generates all kinds of motivation and joy.

 

Our two professors, Thomas Moser and Gunvor Løkken, deserve many thanks for their motivation, constructive feed-backs and excellent leadership! Big thanks also go to Turid Amundsen for her work with organization of the conferences.

  

Experience of Being a Father

There is so much we can’t know before we experience it. We can read in books, people can try to explain, and we can believe that we have understood – but as long as things we hear about do not concern us - have nothing to do with our experiences, we might not feel an urge to know more about them. But when something (or someone) has become a part of our lives we suddenly have time to pay attention to details, be sincerely curious and engage emotionally… I am, kind of, trying to be general in my introduction here, but becoming a father can really not be compared to many other life experience; It concerns so many sides of being a human…This is how my brother describes his daughter. In the same time he also describes his discovery of what it means to be father:  

“Ana is an angel. I cannot believe how much a 10 months child can understand and how well she can communicate! Earlier I thought that so young children could not communicate at all, but now I see how wrong I was. She plays so well, both alone and with us, her parents, and she likes joking with us; She knows what "no" means, and shows respect to this word …not always, though. She sometimes even uses this word against us, when we do something that she does not want!

She understands that the remote control does something to TV and that a mobile telephone, for some reason unknown to her, is supposed to be held against the ear while talking in air. She can use words “mom” and “dad” and can even pronounce her own name.

 

She knows where her nose is, where her eyes are, and where "Ana's clever head" is. She can clap when she does something smart, and wave to people when they are leaving. She can crawl very fast when she wants to reach her dad’s Lego constructions, and she destroys them with laughter. She has become found of certain TV commercials and stops playing to turn to the TV when she recognizes the music. Ana is a miracle!

Signed: Her dad”