Posthumanisme /nymaterialisme og nomadisme - affektive brytninger av barnehagens observasjonspraksiser

This article challenges observation as a method in early childhood, justified as a mapping tool for creating knowledge about children. Observation as data material is about writing down already known categorisation about children and their development. Categories and categorisation make a foundation for correspondence and coherence - connections that might create generalising knowledge about children in early years. The article is about a research project conducted in a child-centre over a two-year period. We had an on-going conversation with the personnel around theories about ‘child development’. In the article we experiment with observation based on posthuman/newmaterial theories. Our specific interests are to explore the complexities around observation by asking; why observations, what do we expect through observation, and what might observation as datamaterial be/become? We are inspired by the Norwegian film “Kitchen Stories” (Salmer fra Kjøkkenet, Hamer, 2003) both as affect/provocation and desire (Koro-Ljungberg & MacLure, 2013). We search for affective bending and messiness (Lather, 2007; Law, 2004) to disturb and challenge observation as dominating paradigm in the field of early years, to break some patterns around the positioning of data materia