Preschool Teachers’ Handling of Begging as a Social Phenomenon

Pedagogical and Ethical Challenges Posed by a Sensitive and Controversial Issue

Abstract

In the last decade, thousands of commonly called “vulnerable EU citizens” have come to Western European countries, including Sweden. Many of them support themselves by begging, which has changed public space considerably. Poverty and social vulnerability have become visible in places they had not been visible in for a long time. This implies that many people, both adults and children, are confronted with poverty and social vulnerability on a regular basis. Many preschool children meet vulnerable EU citizens when they are out with their parents as well as with their preschool teachers.

Through examining the experiences and thoughts of preschool teachers on how to handle begging as a social phenomenon together with preschool children, the article intends to contribute to knowledge on how to address a sensitive and controversial issue in preschool. What do the experiences of preschool teachers in meeting begging together with children look like? Is begging an issue that is addressed by adults and children in preschool, and, if so, in which ways? Which pedagogical and ethical challenges arise when the issue is approached in a preschool context?

Begging is not criminalized in Sweden. It is not considered a threat to public order, safety, and health. Yet, previous research shows that encounters with people begging triggers many emotions, often negative and contradictory ones. How can this be reconciled with the “equal treatment” policies expected from Swedish preschools? Drawing inspiration from poststructuralist theory on education and ethics, I conceive these encounters as “meetings with the Other”, which do create tensions, but also possibilities.

The empirical material comes from ten focus group interviews with teachers from six Swedish preschools in different socio-demographic settings. The focus group interviews made it possible to document collective rather than individual processes of interpretation and sense-making. The material has been evaluated with the help of a reflexive thematic analysis.

Few of the interviewed preschool teachers has raised the issue of begging in conversation with preschool children, neither in connection with concrete encounters nor on other occasions. The teachers have also contended that it is not an issue raised by the children. There seem to be two possible explanations for this: One, people begging have become part of daily life, and today’s preschool children don’t know any other. Two, children learn from an early age that begging is nothing to be discussed, since both parents and preschool teachers often avoid the topic. The interviewed preschool teachers regarded begging to be a complicated and sensitive issue that was also considered as too political. Many of them, however, suggested that preschool children would have interesting things to say about the issue if adults felt comfortable raising it.

In order to outline both why the issue is avoided and how it could be addressed, the article looks at three of the most central pedagogical and ethical challenges related to encounters – real and imagined – with people begging: to avoid divisions between “us” and “them”; to negotiate asymmetric relationships of power; and to live up to perceived demands of political neutrality. The article relates these challenges to questions of human rights as well as “the Other”, “asymmetric ethics”, “the political”, and “conflictual consensus”.

The article argues that social justice is practiced in meetings with the Other. Social justice, therefore, is based on the choices and decisions we make in everyday encounters. These choices and decisions imply different forms of pedagogical and ethical challenges, but they also imply a potential for lived justice – even if incomplete.