Organized Dissonance and Emotionality: A Case Study of One Public Kindergarten in Moscow

Russian Education and Society. 2016. Vol. 58. No. 5-6. P. 388–427.

E.A. Konobeeva

Kindergarten structure and operation are strongly influenced by the interrelation between the emotionality of children and adults and the existing formal rules. This paper analyses the organizational form of a state kindergarten through Karen Ashcraft’s concept of “organized dissonance”. Case-study materials provide comparisons of bureaucratic organization, feminist organization, and organized dissonance based on parameters such as primary goals, power structure, rules, division of labor, qualifications for hiring and promotion, and ideal member relations. It is concluded that emotionality and the formal rules of kindergarten intermingle and may partially substitute for one another and modify the practices and participants’ relations.

The data were mostly collected through participant observations conducted in one of Moscow’s state kindergartens (April-May, 2013) but also included interviews and document analysis. Field notes and a diary were analyzed with the procedures of grounded theory.

Ключевые слова: бюрократия, bureaucracy, emotional labor, детский сад, организованный диссонанс, феминистическая организация, эмоциональный труд, kindergarten, organized dissonance, feminist organization