Religion, lek og læring i barnehagen: Motsetninger, muligheter og forstyrrende møter.

This article examines how religion, play and learning may interact in kindergarten, and what opportunities and challenges arise in such encounters. The article shows how religion and play appear as contradictions in policy documents and research from Norwegian kindergartens. This contradiction is challenged through an analysis of a pedagogically framed Holi celebration in a kindergarten, where the children processed their impressions from a teaching-oriented approach through free play. The article uses Gert Biesta's concepts of qualification, socialization, subjectification, and “a pedagogy of interruption” to discuss how play can make room for children's meaning-making. The risk of misunderstandings and offenses must be acknowledged, but not obscured by the possibilities that may arise when religion is thematised through both teaching and play. Key words: religion, play, learning, pedagogy of interruption, early childhood education