Do I have to wear mud pants? Mud pants as material agent in Finnish preschool

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2918337
AutoresVirve Keränen (0000-0002-4506-7482, University of Oulu, autor de correspondencia), Kinnunen (0000-0001-6985-6614, University of Oulu)
Año2025
Volumen46
Número5
Páginas1-13
Fecha de publicación2025-01-16
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaDiscourse Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0159-6306 • E-ISSN: 1469-3739
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/01596306.2025.2452398
OpenAlexW4406486018
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas39

Mud pants have protected Finnish preschool children from dirt and water for many years. However, children do not like to wear them and educators in preschools feel that mud pants cause hard work. This contradiction made us wonder with mud pants. Drawing on relational–material approaches, we understand mud pants as material agent and ask the following question: How mud pants act as material agent in everyday relations in preschool? Our wondering showed that mud pants act as material agent since they create different actions within non-human and human relations. Children in their mud pants strengthen the discourse of happy, clean and healthy outdoor child. However, mud pants limit children’s bodies and cause discomfort, making it hard for them to perform happy childhoods. We argue that it is necessary to think with mud pants and other material agents in preschool to make the material discourses more visible

Dirt · Sociology · Wonder · Children's Rights and Participation · Engineering · Posthumanist Ethics and Activism · Psychology · Science Education and Perceptions · Social Psychology