Children and Worldviews: Harpel's Story
The Children and Worldviews Project explores qualitative, narrative methods to investigate the worldviews of children, that is, the way in which they make sense of their experiences and matters which are of particular importance to them.
My teddy
I really care about my teddy at home. Every time my teddy and me cuddle it makes me go to sleep a lot faster than I normally do. I got it from a machine. I put 20p in and there is a big kind of hand, a kind of metal hand and I pressed these two buttons and when I'm confident that it can land I press a red button and the hand goes down and grabs the teddy. Nearly everywhere I go to do some betting I take it with me, it brings me good luck.
When my Mum does the cleaning up, Mum put it away or it'll get lost. When my teddy gets dirty I put it in the washing machine so it comes out nice and clean, I've had it for two years and it is still in good condition. I take my teddy to bed everyday, when I wash it, I wash it in the morning and then put in the boiler and by about when it goes night when I go to bed, it be nice and dry. I wash him when he gets dirty, about every two days. Its important that he's in good condition because if he wasn't, I wouldn't keep him. Now he looks like my brother really. He helps me go to sleep because I cuddle him and he's nice and furry.
Since I had George I've never had a nightmare. I used to get nightmares when I watched like scary films when I was younger. But now I have George and I'm getting a bit older. He brings me luck too, I don't know how really, you just look at him and bet, and it brings you good luck. Like he helps me win money playing cards. If I lost George I'd get another George. If it brings me luck, then I'll be happy.
People knows that if they laughs at my teddy, I'll just have to sort them out. My teddy is important because it makes me feel happy. I call him George because of the way he looks - he's kind of browny, with a nose, tie and big ears. He's furry and he makes me happy every time I squeeze his tummy and he makes a noise.
Leader of the gang
Me and my friends are gangsters, we're the originals, we're original, you can't never mess with us. Some gangsters are outside in the playground, our friends, they go to this school, they're in my class. I'm their boss, they don't mess with me.
My school
I care about this school. Most schools have like Christians people in most schools, only in this school you have like most Indians at this school and Muslims close together. We don't have a uniform, but we're gonna get a uniform, we're voting now so we have to write if we want one.
About me
I like playing music, we practice this kinda Indian, kinda Sikh stuff. I'm Sikh and Asian.