Exploring Finnish Children's Narratives of Their Local Communities

ABSTRACT Sense of community and where we come from has a major impact on our lives and well‐being. Still, young children rarely get their voices heard in community studies. This paper explores Finnish children's experiences of the local communities by analysing small stories children narrated in early childhood education (ECE) and home environments. In total 59 children aged 2 to 9 participated in the research. Participatory methods were used including individual interviews, group discussions with drawing, ethnographic fieldnotes, and photo‐walks. Small stories research and Tjora's and Scambler's layers of community were used as analytical tools to study children's narratives. In this study, children's closest social relations, family and friends, were a key feature of children's narratives, emphasising social aspects of community. Along with these relations, the results highlight the importance of proximity for children's experiences. Furthermore, this article suggests that the community layers framework is a useful tool to examine children's narratives.