An institutional ethnographic study on the social organisation of integration work in Norwegian ECEC Centers

Abstract

In this article-based dissertation, I explore the social organisation of integration work in Norwegian Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) centers. This thesis begins from the standpoint of ECEC professionals as entry-level participants and refugee parents as second-level participants. Institutional ethnography has been used as the overarching methodological and theoretical approach. The concepts of ruling relations and work knowledge from institutional ethnography combined abductively with other theoretical concepts, namely, the civilising process (civilising institutions), stigma, impression management, and making up of people comprise the overall theoretical framework of this thesis. This study employs explorative institutional ethnographic qualitative methods, and its findings and analyses are presented in four articles. The aims of this study are to explore the institutional complex within which integration is organised from the standpoint of ECEC professionals as entry-level participants and to explore the institutional complex within which integration in ECEC centers is organised from the standpoint of refugee parents as second-level participants. The main research question for this study is: How is the integration of refugees in ECEC centres socially organised from the standpoint of ECEC professionals and refugee parents? The study has other specific research questions that are addressed in each of the four respective articles. …