Olga Savinskaya

The importance of studying childhood as a self-sufficient object of social practice is described in the paper. A review of the formation of this direction in sociology is offered, basic principles are designated. The empirical part of the work is devoted to the study of kindergarten as a special life world for children. Special attention is paid to the description of the data collection method – interview-game, which I consider an adequate method for studying the children opinions. The methodical aspects of the interview-game usage are described. Analysis shows that children turn out to be unique “experts” of the world of childhood who, through a specially constructed conversation, can tell about their activity in the kindergarten and about their ideas for changing educational practices. Children emphasize importance of free playing with peers during the day, the specificity of care practices (eating and sleeping), the interaction tactics between the teacher and children, make their suggestions for creating more comfortable conditions in the kindergarten. Children turn out to be very creative innovators of practices to reconstruct the space of a kindergarten and to change the teacher’s role and rules of communication. Our research shows that the grains of these ideas must be seriously and systematically collected to fully comprehend what the child wants to say. Methodically, the interview of children is one more step in the development of the method as data collection.