Tina Binfield-Skøie

• Binfield-Skøie, Tina (2025). Negotiations of subject positions and belonging when children transition within early childhood education and care institutions. Early Years. ISSN 0957-5146. p. 1–15. doi: 10.1080/09575146.2025.2579515. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This study examines the transitions children undergo in early childhood education and care (ECEC) institutions. The micro-ethnographic study followed thirteen children in two Norwegian ECEC institutions, analysing their social practices during transitions. The aim is to gain insight how children negotiate subject positions and belonging among older peers. The study illustrates that boundaries for who belongs are shaped by social participants and the institutional structures. Although the transitioning children position themselves as older children, they face challenges related to being the youngest in their new environment of older peers. The findings also illustrate transitioning children’s active negotiations of subject positions and belonging as an older child. However, children construct boundaries between social actors through notions of differentiations between older and younger children. Moreover, the study highlights how notions about older or younger children may construct inclusionary or exclusionary boundaries for belonging and subject positions between children within the same group.

• Costa, Natália Meireles Santos da; White, E. Jayne; Rutanen, Niina; Vuorisalo, Mari; Ólafsdóttir, Sara M. & Çan, Jasemin [Show all 10 contributors for this article] (2025). Incommensurable tensions facing early childhood education transitions: A collective writing project. Policy Futures in Education. 24(2), p. 208–223. doi: 10.1177/14782103251368944. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This collective writing article addresses transitions into, between and out of early childhood education and care (ECEC) from the standpoint of incommensurability, which entails a lack of a common measure between diverging standards, values and priorities between competing instances involved into a shared matter ( Bird, 2000 ; Chang, 2013 ). We explore incommensurable tensions as non-reconcilable issues that arise between stakeholders, educational systems, socio-political landscapes and participating communities involved in transitions. The paper underscores four incommensurable tensions: First, policy into practice, discussing agenda conflicts between policy, funding and pedagogical orientations against the private life of under-three children transitioning into ECEC and the burdens of families and educators; second, equality versus equity in transitions, applying the tensional relation between these concepts to children’s sense of belonging and resources in transition; third, in whose best interest, contesting the ‘best interests of the child’ discourse over economic needs of families, educational institutions, and societies; and fourth, orienting age, exploring age as an orienting factor of institutional transition trajectories which produce age progression (de)valuation. Finally, the subsection Infant’s transition to ECEC: Incommensurable tensions in need to be overcome, written as a commentary to the main text by an invited collaborator, concludes the text.

• Binfield-Skøie, Tina (2025). Tensions when transitioning – teacher's perspectives on children's transitions within early childhood education and care institutions. International Journal of Early Years Education. ISSN 0966-9760. 33(4), p. 688–703. doi: 10.1080/09669760.2025.2564067. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  When transitioning within early childhood education and care (ECEC), children experience institutional changes which regulate ways of engaging in institutional life. This article aims to explore the possible tensions of transitioning when addressing teachers' perspectives on transitions within ECEC institutions (i.e. from a toddler group to a group for older children). The empirical material consists of twelve interviews with Norwegian ECEC teachers. Drawing on the theoretical concepts of institutional logics and subject positions, the thematic analysis suggests a tension in institutional logics and available subject positions for transitioning children. This positions children in a limbo between under-stimulated and over-challenged, playful children and disturbing bodies and dependent child and self-organised member. These tensions illuminate the transitions within ECEC institutions as a complex process that involves children's need to navigate between shifting institutional logics and available subject positions.

• Binfield-Skøie, Tina & Menning, Soern Finn (2024). Children’s participation when transitioning between early childhood education and care settings: potentials for readjusting institutional logics. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal. ISSN 1350-293X. 33(2), p. 352–367. doi: 10.1080/1350293X.2024.2443649. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Through exploring children’s transitions within Norwegian early childhood education and care (ECEC) institutions, this article highlights an interconnectedness of children’s knowledge of institutional logics and children’s agentic actions. The theoretical framework conceptualises institutional logics as inherent structures and patterns (Thornton, Patricia H., and William Ocasio. 2008. “Institutional Logics.” In The SAGE Handbook of Organizational Institutionalism, edited by Royston Greenwood, Christine Oliver, Kerstin Sahlin, and Roy Suddaby, 99–129. London: SAGE) and children’s agentic actions through their participation in everyday activities in ECEC institutions (Juhl, Pernille. 2023. Exploring Young Children’s Agency in Everyday Transitions. London: Bloomsbury). This ethnographic study followed 13 children who transitioned from a department for toddlers to a department for older children. Through a thematic analysis of video observations and field notes, children’s forms of agentic actions were categorised as adaptation, resistance and transcendence. Adaptation denoted embracing institutional logics, whereas resistance involves openly opposing them. However, the third category, transcendence, denoted an interrelation between children’s adjustment and opposition to these logics, which enabled the children’s agency. This article argues that children’s institutional participation are interconnected forms of agentic action with potentials for readjusting institutional logics.

• Binfield-Skøie, Tina (2023). Like barn leker best? Likhetens flertydighet. Nordisk tidsskrift for pedagogikk og kritikk. 9, p. 102–114. doi: 10.23865/ntpk.v9.4152. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Nordisk barnehagetradisjon beskrives gjerne som egalitær, preget av sosiopolitiske ambisjoner om å redusere ulikhet mellom samfunnsgrupper (Bendixsen et al., 2018). Artikkelen drøfter flerkulturelle barns vilkår for deltagelse i barnehagen i lys av barnehagelæreres forståelser av likhet. Likhet kan bidra til å etablere grensemarkeringer for tilhørighet (Gullestad, 2001), men kan på samme tid markere ulikhet gjennom hverdagsprioriteringer (Ellmer, 2020). Tematisk analyse av dybdeintervjuer med fire barnehagelærere viser et dialektisk spenn i likhetsbegrepet – fra «å ikke gjøre forskjell» til «å gi like muligheter». Likhet kobles i intervjuene til sin motsetning – at alle er forskjellige. Barnehagen betraktes som en nøytral grunn der forskjeller utforskes ut fra hva vi har til felles. Deltagelse i fellesskapet overlates slik sett til barnets opplevelse av tilhørighet og identifisering av «det antatt like» i barnehagens innhold og praksis. Artikkelen bidrar med et kritisk blikk på likhetens flertydighet ved at forståelser av likhet kan bidra til opplevelser av ulikhet parallelt med intensjonen om like muligheter for alle.

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• Binfield-Skøie, Tina (2026). Parent-teacher collaboration: challenges in children’s transitions between groups. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Examining parent–teacher collaboration in Early Childhood Education and Care institutions, this study explores the research question: How do teachers collaborate with parents during children’s transitions between groups in ECEC institutions? Previous studies show that the transition between groups often comes unexpectedly and is experienced as challenging for the children’s parents (O’Farrelly & Hennessy, 2013, 2014). The study draws on the concept of institutional logics (Gulløv, 2004, 2017), which highlights how institutional practices, values and routines shape participation. This framework helps illuminate how boundaries between home and institution are constructed and maintained. Anchored in a social constructivist paradigm, the study explores these boundaries through interviews with twelve ECEC teachers who described their experiences, perspectives, and institutional routines surrounding transitions between groups. Ethical principles, including informed consent, anonymisation, and attention to potential power asymmetries in the research process, guided the study (Bertram et al., 2024). Preliminary findings suggest that parents often experience transitions as major events in which children lose familiar caregivers and peers. Although staff appear considerate of parents’ emotions, collaboration remains limited. Parents are frequently informed shortly before or after transitions occur, rather than being engaged as active contributors to the process. Though ECEC institutions in Norway are required to collaborate with parents (Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training, 2017), this study indicates that internal institutional practices, such as group transitions, may be overlooked as areas for meaningful collaboration. The findings point to a need for practices that more fully include parents in decisions affecting their child’s everyday institutional life.

• Spieler, Kristin Severinsen & Binfield-Skøie, Tina (2026). Institutionalized Progression of Sleep and Rest in Norwegian Kindergartens. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This study examines how sleep and rest are constituted as a progressional organized institutional practice in Norwegian kindergartens, asking: How is the sleeping/resting child constructed in the Norwegian kindergarten context? Building on institutional logics (Gulløv, 2017) and previous research, sleep is discursively framed and governed through adult practices (Leirpoll, 2023; Gehret, 2021; Kuukka et al., 2024; Nothard et al., 2015). Ulla (2017) demonstrates that the sleeping child becomes a deviation from the ideal active, learning and productive child. We analyze the authors' self-experienced narratives from careers as ECEC teachers (Skilling & Stylianides, 2020). Three composite narratives reveal a patterned progression of sleep/rest. Ethical principles were followed, such as anonymization and critical reflections on the analytical prosess (Bertram et al., 2024). Because the authors themselves contributed with the narratives, consent was an implicit given. Our findings illustrate an institutional continuum of sleep/rest: from pram-sleeping to mattress-sleeping, from the individual sleeper to the mass rester, and from the sleeping child to the non-sleeping child. These transitions reflect institutional valuations of activity and productivity, and how adult governance and disciplinary practices shape children’s institutional routines of sleep/rest. The study highlights a potential disconnect between political intentions emphasizing children’s need to sleep/rest (Ministry of Education, 2017), and local enactments that may reinterpret or undermine those intentions, creating practices that conflict with children’s participation rights. Accordingly, political implications are that policymakers and practitioners should anticipate how policy language will be interpreted and operationalized locally to better align institutional practices with children’s rights and wellbeing.

• Binfield-Skøie, Tina (2025). "We don't play with babies": Transitioning children's encounters with social exclusion in peer communities. Full text in Research Archive
• Binfield-Skøie, Tina (2025). Barns omsorgshandlinger i barnehagens overganger. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Denne studien Denne studien peker på barns bidrag av omsorgshandlinger i overganger innad i barnehagen. Studiens formål tar sikte på å vise hvordan barn på ulikt vis har betydning for hverandres opplevelse av tilhørighet i overgangsperioder. Den etnografiske studien fulgte tretten barns overgang mellom avdelinger i to norske barnehager. Analysen er inspirert av Dreier’s (2019) neksuser av sosiale praksiser og tar utgangspunkt i barns relasjonelle handlinger i det institusjonelle fellesskapet. Det teoretiske konseptet om tilhørighet (Yuval-Davis, 2011) bidrar med innsikt i barns emosjonelle tilhørighet og identifikasjon som deltaker i barnefellesskapet. Studien gir innsikt i hvordan barns omsorgshandlinger kan bidra til barns muligheter for tilhørighet i overgangen mellom avdelinger. Foreløpige funn peker på barns omsorgshandlinger i lek der barn bidrar til andre barns inkludering i lek. Barns omsorgshandlinger bidrar til at barn viser solidaritet med hverandre gjennom bekreftelser av vennskap og markeringer av fellesskap mellom barn. Mens de to første funnen peker på aktive handlinger der barn er sammen om noe felles, for eksempel lek, trekker studien fram betydningen av fysisk nærhet som medvirkende til etablering av tilknytning mellom barn i overgangsperioden. Den fysiske nærheten handler blant annet om hvordan barn reagerer på andres gråt eller nærheten av kropper. Sentralt for denne studien, er at omsorgshandlingene mellom barn som trekkes fram i denne studien ofte ikke blir sett av ansatte eller er utenfor situasjoner der ansatte er til stede. Dermed bidrar studien til å gi innsikt i hvordan barns relasjoner kan være et viktig bidrag for kvaliteten i barnehagens overgangspraksiser.

• Binfield-Skøie, Tina (2025). Children's negotiations of belonging when transitioning between institutional settings in ECEC. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The study aims to explore how children’s transitions between institutional settings in Early Childhood and Care (ECEC) involve negotiations of belonging within peer communities. In Norwegian ECEC institutions, transitions from a group of toddlers to a group of older peers are a common feature (Jensen et al., 2023). Previous research indicates that transitions involve a re-positioning period for both the transitioning children and the older peers (Harju et al., 2023). While the transitioning children quickly identify as an older child, the older peers often consider them visitors for an extended period (Fincham and Fellner, 2016). The study draws on the theoretical conceptualisation of belonging (Yuval-Davis, 2011), which highlights how boundaries for who belongs and how to belong are drawn between social actors and, in this case, within institutional settings. The ethnographic study followed 13 children’s transitions in two Norwegian ECEC institutions. The study adhered to the Norwegian Guidelines for Research Ethics in the Social Sciences and the Humanities (NESH, 2021). Particular attention was given to children’s provisional consent. The findings suggests that transitioning children’s negotiations of belonging consist of positioning themselves as an older child. However, this position is challenged by older peers who differentiate between younger and the older children, positioning the newcomers as outsiders. An implication of the study entails an awareness of how boundaries for belonging is constructed within ECEC institutions. Institutional boundaries are constructed between y

• Harju, Kaisa & Binfield-Skøie, Tina (2025). Institutionalised age: transitioning at three in Early Childhood Education and Care institutions. Full text in Research Archive
• Can, Jasamin; Revilla, Yaiza Lucas; Costa, Natália Meireles Santos da; Ólafsdóttir, Sara Margrét; Rutanen, Niina & Vuorisalo, Mari [Show all 9 contributors for this article] (2025). Tensions, trigger points and spaces of belonging in educational transitions - symposium. Full text in Research Archive
• Øgård, Monika; Hillen, Andrea Stefanie; Binfield-Skøie, Tina & Øgård-Repål, Anita (2025). Symposium NordYrk: Balancing the Ph.D: A qualitative study of Ph.D. candidates’ experiences of balancing the Ph.D. work. Full text in Research Archive
• Binfield-Skøie, Tina (2024). Transitions within ECEC institutions: children co-constructing and exceeding institutional structures. Full text in Research Archive
• Binfield-Skøie, Tina (2024). 'Å bli stor' - Forhandlinger om subjektposisjoner i barns overganger til storbarnsavdeling. Full text in Research Archive
• White, Jayne; Costa, Natália Meireles da; Ólafsdóttir, Sara Margrét; Binfield-Skøie, Tina & Lipponen, Lasse (2024). Children, parents, and institutions - ‘Lost in transitions’? - panel. Full text in Research Archive
• Rutanen, Niina; Revilla, Yaiza Lucas; Harju, Kaisa; Lago, Lina Söderman; Costa, Natália Meireles Santos da & Binfield-Skøie, Tina [Show all 7 contributors for this article] (2023). Young children's transitions to and within educational systems (Yarn session). Full text in Research Archive
• Brandt, Lisa Annika; Binfield-Skøie, Tina; Skreland, Lisbeth Ljosdal & Dale, Trine Smiseth (2023). Barnehagestrategien – tomme løfter eller økt profesjonsfellesskap? Full text in Research Archive
• Binfield-Skøie, Tina (2023). Fra småbarns til storbarns - overganger innad i barnehagen. Full text in Research Archive
• Stray, Ingunn Elisabeth & Binfield-Skøie, Tina (2022). Moral superiority in Norwegian Early Childhood Education discourses of parenthood. Full text in Research Archive
• Binfield-Skøie, Tina & Stray, Ingunn Elisabeth (2022). The shadows and power of literacy discourse-standards in Early Childhood Education. Full text in Research Archive
• Engtrø, Randi; Dale, Trine Smiseth; Skreland, Lisbeth Ljosdal & Binfield-Skøie, Tina (2022). What's hanging on the wall? Full text in Research Archive
• Binfield-Skøie, Tina (2026). Performing transitions. A qualitative study of the interplay between institutional structures and children’s participation when transitioning between groups in Norwegian Early Childhood Education and Care. Universitetet i Agder. ISSN 9788284273440. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Denne etnografiske studien undersøker barns overganger innad i barnehagen: fra en småbarnsavdeling (1–2 år) til en storbarnsavdeling (3–5 år). Med utgangspunkt i intervjuer med 12 barnehagelærere og et to måneders feltarbeid i to barnehager i Sør-Norge, har studien som mål å få innsikt i vekselvirkningen mellom institusjonelle strukturer og barns aktive deltakelse. Dermed retter studien oppmerksomheten mot barns institusjonelle og relasjonelle deltakelse i overgangen mellom grupper i barnehagen. Tidligere forskning på overganger innad i barnehagen peker på at dette kan være stressende perioder for barna der de må lære seg å inngå i nye relasjoner (Cryer et al., 2005; O’Farrelly & Hennessy, 2013, 2014; Recchia, 2012). Den tidligere forskningen viser at overganger i barnehagen innebærer komplekse prosesser der overgangsbarna etablerer nye relasjoner, inngår i nye institusjonelle strukturer og utvikler sine kompetanser som barnehagebarn (Fincham & Fellner, 2016; Garpelin & Kallberg, 2008; Harju et al., 2024; Merry, 2007; Recchia, 2012; Recchia & Dvorakova, 2012). Denne studien bidrar med innsikt i vekselvirkningen mellom institusjonelle strukturer og barns aktive deltakelse i barnehagen. Den teoretiske redegjørelsen trekker frem tre ulike perspektiver på overganger som belyser institusjonelle og relasjonelle prosesser i overganger. Overganger i utdanningssammenhenger viser til hvordan overgangen forstås som kontekstualisert innenfor en institusjonell sammenheng og er en del av barns tidlige utdanningsløp (Dunlop et al., 2024; Fabian & Dunlop, 2007). Det teoretisk perspektiv å gjøre overganger, fremhever en forståelse av aktørers aktive relasjonelle erfaring og opplevelse (Settersten et al., 2022; Stauber et al., 2022; Walther et al., 2022). Perspektivet overgangen som orienteringer (Juhl, 2023) viser til barns intensjonelle og kroppslige prosesser i overgangen som utgangspunkt for deltakelse i ulike institusjonelle sammenhenger. Studien har tre delstudier. Den første delstudien (Binfield-Skøie, 2025b) tar utgangspunkt i intervjuene med barnehagelærerne og deres erfaringer med overganger innad i barnehagen. De sentrale funnene i delstudien peker på at det oppstår spenninger i overgangen som har konsekvenser for barns subjekt posisjoner. Disse spenningene består av ulikheter i institusjonslogikker mellom ulike aldersgrupper. I overgangen eksisterer ulike logikker samtidig. I delstudie 2 (Binfield-Skøie & Menning, 2025) utforskes hvordan barns handlinger i overgangen kan forstås som agentiske handlinger der overgangsbarna har muligheter til å påvirke sin barnehagehverdag. Studien trekker på observasjoner fra barnehagene. Gjennom former for tilpasning, motstand og overskridelser, viser studien at barns navigering av forventninger til dem og balansering på grensen til hva som blir akseptert av andre, har potensial for å kunne endre institusjonslogikker. Den tredje delstudien (Binfield-Skøie, 2025a) utforsker barns sosiale og institusjonelle deltakelse i overgangen gjennom observasjoner i barnehagene. Delstudien peker på at overgangsbarna forhandler tilhørighet til det delte fellesskapet gjennom å etablere seg som sosial deltaker og forhandlinger av subjekt posisjonen som et stort barn. En meta-analyse av de tre delstudiene bidrar til å utvide og utvikle nye forståelser av overganger. Meta-analysen foreslår tre dimensjoner av overganger der barnas handlinger inngår i sosiale og institusjonelle nettverk som påvirker deres handlingsrom. Analysen viser at overgangsbarn navigerer mellom institusjonelle strukturer som er preget av bestemte forståelser av barnehagebarnet. Videre viser analysen at overgangsbarn er aktive i å manifestere seg som institusjonelle deltakere. Dette skjer ved at barna både plasserer seg i subjekt posisjonen som et stort barn, men også ved at de aktivt tar del i etablerte institusjonelle aktiviteter og rammer for deltakelse. Studien peker også på at overgangsbarnas forhandlinger om tilhørighet og en subjekt posisjon som et stort barn i stor grad skjer i sosiale jevnalderfellesskap. Med utgangspunkt i de teoretiske perspektivene på overganger introduserer denne studien perspektivet barns opptredener i overganger (performing transitions). Barns opptredener i overganger fremhever sammenhengen mellom den institusjonelle rammen, det sosiale fellesskapet overgangen skjer i, og barns aktive former for sosial og institusjonell deltakelse. Perspektivet opptredener i overgangen innebærer å fremstå som aktører som samtidig tilpasser seg endrede institusjonelle og sosiale forutsetninger for deltakelse. En sentral implikasjon av denne studien er at barns rolle i overgangen må vektlegges der deres bidrag og muligheter for å endre og påvirke egen hverdag og overgangen tas hensyn til i slike praksiser. Videre må barnehagens overgangspraksiser bestå av sosiale møteplasser i barnehagehverdagen der barn av ulike aldre kan leke og oppholde seg sammen.

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