Early childhood studies as vocal studies: Examining the social practices of ‘giving voice to children’s voices’ in a crèche

Abstract

The article suggests reconceptualizing the role of ‘children’s voices’ in childhood studies. By taking an institutional setting of early (or rather, earliest) childhood education and care as a test case, it argues for and empirically demonstrates a double shift in research perspectives. First, the principle of ‘giving voice to children’s voices’ is turned from an overarching research objective into a central object of research. Second, the metaphorical and the non-metaphorical meaning of ‘voice’ are clearly separated in order to relate them anew. Voices are observed and taken into account with respect to their sonic phenomenality before any abstract notions of ‘children’s voices’ come into play. By taking into account that even children with little or no speech mostly do have a voice, the paradoxical formula of ‘giving voice to children’s voices’ gains a renewed sensitizing function in research practice. Analyses of field notes delineate a range of observable vocal phenomena and respective social practices of ‘giving voice’ in a crèche and detect both various strategies of verbalization as well as strategies of practically dealing with children’s hearable voices.