1 Introduction

The aim of this chapter is to understand the way motivation is a central dimension of subjectivity in relation to social interactions and friendship in Early Childhood Education (ECE). We focus on the theoretical and epistemological arguments surrounding motive and motivation put forward by González Rey (2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018). We draw examples from our empirical research based on social relations and friendship in early childhood to further theorise motives and motivation in relation to personality development. Theoretically, González Rey (2018) highlights subjectivity, as a symbolic-emotional system where individuals are engaged in the generation of subjective productions. We argue the concept of friendship involves subjective senses that are configured in moments of dialogue and action that involve cultural, emotional and symbolic expressions. Children forming social relations and friendships generate subjective senses and configurations that are symbolically produced in a constellation of emotions and motives that are configured in ongoing past, present and future relations.

Motive and motivation are important to subjectivity, and have been developed in fields of mental health and psychotherapy (Mori & Goulart, 2019), however, there has been less attention in early childhood education. Notable exceptions include the identity of young children moving countries with their families (Adams & Fleer, 2016), and teachers living outside their birth country for work purposes and ways they develop a sense of belonging within the international schools (Adams & Fleer, 2019). Quinones (2016) used subjectivity to explore children’s affective connections with young peers (babies). Peers subjective senses as moments of action provide an understanding of the children’s symbolic and emotional senses as they reciprocally act together (Quinones, 2016). Fleer (2019), used subjectivity and the reciprocal relations generated between students and an early childhood teacher in the teaching of science.

This chapter contributes to furthering the scholarship of González Rey’s theoretical construction of subjectivity by outlining motive and motivation as a central dimension for developing social relations in the context of a developing friendship. We put forward the argument that by drawing on empirical examples of two children developing social relations and friendship, theoretically a new path for better understanding subjectivity and motivation is produced.

First, we draw González Rey’s theoretical construction of subjectivity and how this is interwoven with motives and motivation. Next, we present empirical research and draw out our interpretation of subjectivity. The case example is part of a larger study on children and families transitioning to a new country (Adams, 2014). The focus is on two children’s social interaction during a playdate. A playdate is an invitation for a friend to visit the home of another and build on their friendship (Adams & Quinones, 2020). We argue that playdates are a social space for developing friendships. Subjective configurations and senses of ‘making friends’ are present through peers’ dialogues and actions and are configured through expressions by parents and teachers.

2 Subjective Configuration, Motives and Motivation

The quest to understand motivation and personality development was a central component of González Rey’s (2004–2014) works. Drawing on studies using Vygotsky’s (1994) concepts of sense, perezhivanie and psychological formation, inspired González Rey (2009) to advance the concept of subjectivity. González Rey argued that personality development integrates internal and external psychological processes through ‘a complex emotional-cognitive system that produces new realities’ (2012 p. 48). Over the last two decades, González Rey, deepened his conceptualisation of personality development through theorising a new understanding of subjectivity (see, González Rey, 2004, 2012, 2019). Here, as with other chapters in this book, we draw on this theorisation to better understand the individual and social dimensions of young children’s interactions, which contribute to their personality development. Specifically, the concepts of social subjectivity, subjective sense and configurations in relation to motives and motivation as children form new friendships during transition periods as they move to a new country with their family.

Subjectivity is a self-organising system and is defined ontologically through the formation of symbolic-emotional units (González Rey, 2012). The individual’s experience and what the person contributes to the experience form individual subjectivity subjective configurations and subjective senses, which originate from the interweaving of emotions and symbolic processes (González Rey, 2004, 2009, 2012). Subjective configurations are ‘flexible, changing forms that are shaped by the context of the situation, the state of mind of the individual during the lived experience, and their participation in various social networks where actions are expressed and undertaken’ (Adams & Fleer, 2017, p. 355). Theoretically, subjective senses are interwoven with subjective configurations and are referred to as ‘… “snapshots” of symbolic-emotional flashes that unfold in a chaotic movement, from which subjective configurations emerge as a self-regulative and self-generative organisation of subjective senses’ (González Rey, 2019, p. 28). The generative and regulative organisations of subjective configurations and subjective senses are constantly unfolding and characterise social and individual motives and motivation (González Rey, 2019).

2.1 Motives and Motivation

Motives and motivation are contested concepts within cultural-historical literature (see, González Rey, 2011) and rather than entering this discussion, we refine our understanding to using González Rey’s (2004, 2014) conceptualisations. Motive and motivation according to González Rey (2014) have been considered as determinants of behaviour, which has led to motives being understood as an individual’s actions, leading to reductionism ‘such that motives appears to be “motive of learning”, “motive of playing”..’ (p. 427). This understanding does not allow for the complexity of processes involved with human actions driven by motives. Instead, González Rey (2014) argues that the inseparable moments and generative nature of subjective sense and configurations result in the ‘main motive of any human action, but they are not external to the action … subjective configuration represents the subjective nature of human action…which break down the dichotomies between the external-internal and the social and individual that are currently considered in psychology’ (p. 433).

Motive and motivation are inseparable from the complex system and processes that are nestled within social subjectivity, subjective sense and configuration. We argue that the creation of shared motivations, motives, actions and emotions are integral to young children’s psychological processes and social interactions as they move countries and enter into social interactions, and form relations with peers and adults new to their social spheres.

3 Subjectivity and Motivation—A Constructive-Interpretive Methodology

The constant generative and implicit nature of subjective configuration and subjective sense means they cannot be captured empirically ‘by an act of knowledge’ (González Rey et al., 2019, p. 31). The processes related to subjective sense and subjective configuration do not appear explicitly through discourse, behaviour or relational processes (González Rey, 2019). For this reason, during empirical studies, subjective configuration and subjective senses are constructed inferentially through a constructive-interpretive methodology (González Rey, 2019). Within this research methodology, the objectives of the research are addressed by theoretical models rather than inductive generalisations. Initially, the researchers are required to make conjectures based on social interactions such as behaviours, actions and discourse. The hypothetical information informs the interpretive constructions and are referred to as indicators, which ‘emerge through dialogical processes throughout which different methodological devices are articulated’ (González Rey, 2019, p. 32).

The methodology provides an interesting way to examine the social interactions of young children as they are making new friends, particularly their motives and motivation to be together ‘configured in action’ (González Rey, 2017, p. 516). To add depth to the inferences in the current study, children’s, mother’s and teacher’s dialogues provide different perspectives that when brought together support understanding motives and motivation in relation to children’s friendship.

3.1 Method

In the current study, video observation and targeted conversations with young children as they went about their everyday life in a new country was a major component of the study. The understanding and interpretation of children’s motives and motivation at home, during their school day and in the community, was deepened by semi-structured interviews with the mothers’ and teachers of the children.

The researcher and participants were co-constructors of the research project as the teachers provided access to their classrooms, staff and planning meetings. The mothers provided access to their homes from early in the morning until late in the evening and invited the researcher to meals, family excursions to markets, play grounds and sporting fixtures. The children verbally agreed to be in the study. All participants actively introduced topics they indicated were of interest to them while living in a new country.

3.2 Participants

Ethical procedures from a university ethics committee were followed. In the larger study (see Table 10.1), three principals of international schools, seven teachers and five families were involved (Adams & Fleer, 2015; Adams & Quinones, 2020). The larger study involved seven focus children, ranging in age from 3.9 years to 7.9 years, with a mean age of 5.4 years at the beginning of the study (see Table 10.1).

Table 10.1 Family and focus children. This study has its focus on the Jones family
Full size table

The data for this chapter originates from one family—the Jones. The video data analysed includes data collected from the family as they move into a new home. The focus child, Isa invites a new friend, Ellie from the neighbourhood to help her rearrange her bedroom. This is followed by a discussion with the mother and the child’s teacher. The adults were interviewed to provide different perspectives and understanding of social interaction and the emerging friendship between the children.

3.3 Research Tools

The research tools are resources that have a dialogic character, dialogue provides contradictions and openings for subjective configuration from the actual experience (Goulart et al. 2019). The research tools included digital video recorders to complement the field notes and observation of the young children. Informal dialogue between the researcher and the children were captured by video recordings. The dialogue was initiated either by the researcher or the children if one or other required clarification of a point or an activity being entered into. Similarly, the parents and teachers were interviewed through semi-structured means, including formal and informal dialogue. Discussions about situations and resources provided opportunities for the adult participants to co-construct knowledge together and were an avenue for individual expression. The semi-structured interviews offered a socially produced space in which ideas were developed within the research context.

According to González Rey and Mitjáns Martínez’s (2019) the tools used in the research support the production of indicators and hypothesis originating from participants dialogue with others and with the researcher. In the case studies presented here, we use this method of analysis to better understand the everyday lives as young children entering into social relations and friendship, with parental and teacher support.

3.4 Construction of Information

After ethical permission was gathered by a university ethics committee, the total data gathered consisted of 42 sessions where the researcher participated in the everyday life of the focus children. Dialogue with mothers and teachers occurred at a time and place chosen by them, for example school or home setting and during incidental conversations as time was spent with the family. The construction of information occurred over a six-month-period.

Reviewing and aligning the video data and interviews enabled analysis of the social interactions between the children. Combined with the dialogue from the mother and teacher enabled documentation and construction of the social productions during the process of learning contributing to the children’s development. The indicators originated from constructive interpretations of the participants dialogue, outward displays of emotions and actions captured in the video and the dialogues. The subjective senses and configurations of the children were generated by their past and moment-to-moment social interactions, dialogue and the contexts they were situated within.

The interlinking of the children, parents and teacher’s individual and subjective productions provided two key social productions. These are central for understanding subjectivity, motives and motivation as the children enter a new social space, and ways they were supported by adults as they engaged in social interactions. The generative and regulative organisations of subjective configurations and subjective senses are constantly unfolding and characterise social and individual motives and motivation:

  1. 1.

    Dialogue and actions are the source of subjective productions that are constantly unfolding and characterise social and individual motives and motivation as children move through the process of learning and development while becoming friends.

  2. 2.

    Social productions of adults influence the conditions created for children’s subjectivities, motives and motivation as they create conditions for children to become friends.

4 Case Study: Dialogue and Actions as the Source of Social Subjectivities

In this section, we introduce a case study of the Jones family, the focus child is Isa, and the visiting friend is Ellie. The Jones family had been residing in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for nine months at the time of the research visit. The family had waited for the house to become vacant and moved into the neighbourhood six-month prior to the research beginning. Isa did not have any friends the same age, who lived in the housing complex.

The family had recently noted that a new family had moved in next door and Ellie requested Isa to be invited for a playdate. The visit involved reconfiguring Isa’s bedroom furniture. Isa had requested repeatedly to her mother that they change her bedroom furniture, to make space for a sofa to be placed against the wall. The moving of Isa’s bedroom furniture coincided with the first playdate visit by her neighbour, seven-year-old Ellie.

5 Observation One—Reconfiguring the Bedroom

The mother, Isa and neighbour Ellie were in the bedroom. The mother took charge of the situation and firmly requested that the children move all of the toys from the bed and floor to the bathroom, so they were out of the way. Ellie was quick to respond and moved a handful of soft toys efficiently to the bathroom. Isa saw a ball, she held it high and let it drop, stating, ‘TIMBER!’ As it fell Mother stated, ‘Ok that’s being silly, darling you’re not exactly helping! Ellie and I are doing all the work’. Isa watched her mother and Ellie pick up more toys.

The three participants discussed the best way to move the bed into the alcove in the room. They discussed whether the sofa that Isa wanted in her room would fit. The mother and Ellie began to push the bed, Isa saw a mattress that was under the bed and when it was uncovered, she began to jump. The mother stated, ‘Isa, dear, I don’t see you helping—if Ellie wasn’t here we would be in trouble!’ Isa continued bouncing on the mattress. Ellie and the mother pushed the bed into the alcove. Isa jumped, shouting ‘IT FITS! HORAAY! [the bed] IT FITS! New friends come on over!’ Ellie replies, ‘it looks really nice in that space’, and reported that the bed was now in the same position as in her bedroom next door.

Isa continued jumping on the mattress and picked up a toy, ‘Isa! What are you doing? If it were not for Ellie this would never be done. Put that down and help, darling!’ Isa placed the toy on the floor and saw another toy, which she picked up and started playing with. Ellie moved all of the toys to the bathroom while Isa played. They all agreed that moving the bed had made the room look bigger. Isa lifted her arms out wide and spun around on the wooden floor in the clear space, and stated, ‘Yeah, it is massive! [the bedroom space] I love it!’.

Isa’s, long-term motivation was to change the way her room was configured as she wanted more space to fit in a sofa so her ‘new friends from school could all come and play’ (conversation with Isa).

5.1 Social Subjectivity: Unfolding Motives and Motivation

From the momentary observation, we interpret the dialogue and the actions as a source of social subjectivity. The observation involved Isa changing her room with her neighbour Ellie and her mother. The motivation in this situation should not be seen as only an intrinsic psychical function but also configured in action (González Rey, 2017). Isa’s subjective senses and configuration involved actions directed towards changing her room conceptually, rather than participating, or socially interacting with Isa in the moment. However, her longer term motivation was social as she wanted to invite her friends from school to play.

González Rey (2016) argues ‘that intellectual, motor, or any other operation become sources of subjective senses, transforming psychological functions into motives for their own functioning’ (p. 15). Once the bedroom furniture was changed to the way she had requested, Isa’s emotions were shown through actions and emotive words (jumping up and down and shouting that the bed fits). Isa did not seem to interact with Ellie, there was little acknowledgement of Ellie or recognition that she was in the room. In contrast, Ellie’s emerging motive seemed directed towards following the mother’s commands and acquiescing to her requests (quickly moved the toys to the bathroom, pushed the bed). The mother directed the conversation as she ordered the children to complete tasks and repeatedly informed Isa that she was not participating and had it not been for Ellie, the furniture would not be moved. It is inferred that the mother’s motivation was to move the furniture and return the room to a neat space with the children’s help. However, Ellie, not Isa met the mother’s immediate demands. The mother’s emotions are shown through the tone of voice, which were occasionally softened with terms of endearment (dear, darling) directed towards Isa, and positive comments for Ellie.

On the other hand, reconfiguring Isa’s bedroom opens the potential to develop a new social sphere between Isa and Ellie, and potentially other ‘new friends from school’. Even so, in this moment Isa’s motivation involved subjective configurations and senses that included emotional enjoyment of playing with toys and then being in her new bedroom space. From Ellie’s perspective, she shared her motivation by helping out a new friend and complying with the mother’s directions. Social and individual motives are configured as a social production rather than determinants of behaviour (González Rey, 2014), as Isa, her mother and Ellie engage in actions, emotions and dialogue together.

5.2 Observation Two—The Reading Corner

The discussion returned to whether or not the sofa would fit against the wall where the bed had previously been positioned. The sofa and cushions were retrieved from downstairs and placed against the wall. There was a gap between the sofa and the wall, in the corner that Isa intended to make into a ‘reading corner’. Isa moved to retrieve some cushions and a blanket, restating, ‘this is MY private reading corner, MY reading corner’. Isa looked at the space, then at Ellie and stated: ‘Hmm, can you get out please’. Ellie replied, ‘All of us are allowed—only girls are allowed’.

Ellie seemed to ignore the request to move out of the reading corner, instead, she suggested that Isa place her Barbie stickers on the wall in the reading corner. Ellie was excited and offered to use her own Barbie stickers that matched with Isa’s already stuck to the wall. Ellie asked Isa if she wanted some teddy’s and ran to fetch one from the bathroom. Ellie retrieved a panda. Isa suggests they only needed a cushion, which Ellie retrieved. Ellie suggested they needed ‘a really good book’ in the book corner. Ellie returned from the bookshelf situated outside the room, Isa stated, ‘Ellie, it is really good isn’t it—only two people are allowed in [the book corner] at the one time and mummy sits on the stool and she reads us a book (pointed to the stool near the corner)’ and pointing to a small stool stated, ‘that’s called the reading corner stool!’.

Mother returned and directed the children to move all of the toys from the bathroom back to where they were positioned prior to moving the bed. The children discussed the hidden book corner with great excitement. The mother responded, ‘I can’t fit in that corner’. Isa agreed, ‘You won’t fit [in the corner] but you can sit on the stool and read to us and we sit in the corner’. Isa’s mother nodded her head in an affirmative gesture and stated, ‘Ellie, Isa can you help me? I want to finish this today not next week!’.

5.3 Social Subjectivity: Unfolding Shared Motives and Motivation

From this second momentary observation, Isa and Ellie’s shared motives and motivation for creating a reading space were integral to becoming friends. Personal and subjective productions were interwoven with shared emotions and symbolic processes while the children acted and participated in the experience. The shared motives involved suggested actions, rather than demanding. The dialogue became part of the subjective space, as children expressed what they wanted, firmly. Each child, self-organised and self-generated creative ideas for the reading space in the corner, and without negotiation silently agreed that the reading corner was for two people, and would be decorated with a cushion, and panda and a special book, with enough room for the mother to sit and read. As Ellie is the invited friend to the playdate it can be inferred that through historical social understanding, it is expected she agreed with Isa’ suggestions (fetching a teddy bear, a cushion, a book).

The mother created the conditions for reconfiguring the bedroom and within the new rearranged space, Isa and Ellie created a shared place for reading. Initially, the children’s suggestions seemed incongruent. However, after initial suggestions, it seemed there was implicit agreement with each other, which included who was able to enter the space, and the type of decorating and activity that would be undertaken in the corner. The children’s individual subjective senses and configurations seemed incongruent in the moment but were not refuted by the other, which contributed to agreement and organising a shared space. The internal/external and the individual/social interactions are unable to be separated (González Rey, 2014) as what each child brings to the situation and the way it is received and acted upon contributes to shared subjective productions. Isa and Ellie are learning about each other and social interaction through, directing, doing, agreeing, ignoring and suggesting alternatives. Through these actions, it is inferred a common bond was formed where their subjective senses and configurations, motives and motivations are brought together and contribute to creating foundations for their friendship to develop.

Entering into a new friendship and a new social space involves the interweaving of each person’s subjective configurations and senses. The generative acts of self/social-organising motives and motivations contributed to a silent agreement of ways to participate in the shared space.

5.4 The Mother’s Subjective Configurations and Motivations About Friends and Friendship

In the following transcript, Isa’s mother’s subjective sense and configurations in relation to friends and friendships is presented. The mother’s experience with her children’s friends and friendships provide a perspective of her personal subjectivity and motivation in relation to her family context such as moving countries and the challenges of finding and making new friends.

In order to understand Isa’s mother motives and motivations for her children to have friends, we discuss the social space that leads to her behaviours and actions. The mother’s main motives are subjectively generated through the living situation of moving countries and supporting her children to make new friends. The mother discussed the positive benefits of moving countries and ways that children are forced to ‘adapt, develop, and are pushed to meet with people, and cope with new situations. So, they grow from that and then you consolidate as a family because you are together and have to make new friends together’ (Mother’s interview).

The mother also discussed the challenges of moving countries and referred to her own feelings, and how she was, ‘really upset that Isa had to leave her friends [in America] and make new friends [in Malaysia]’. Yet, the mother indicated that she felt ‘lucky’ her children were comfortable in new environments. She talked about Isa’s ‘old best friend, Zoey’ who was a neighbour in America. Zoey was the same age as Isa and attended the same school. According to the mother, Isa talked intermittently about how she missed Zoey but she did not miss living in America or her old school. Zoey and Isa’s friendship continued (even though Zoey lived in America and they did not see each other). Isa had not made a best friend in Malaysia. The mother stated, ‘She hasn’t replaced her, in that sort of way. Zoey, is still sort of in her mind, her best friend. Even now, she talks about Zoey’.

The mother commented on the transient nature of families involved with the current school Isa attended, and indicated the constant movement of children in and out of the classroom. She stated there had been ‘so many people come and go’ in the nine months, Isa had been attending the school. In Isa’s classroom, she stated, ‘there had been five children leave and five new ones arrive, with a further two departing prior to the end of the school year’. She then relayed a story about other families who had children between 12 and 13 years of age who requested they attend boarding school so they did not need to continually make new friends and deal with the constant transition of friends in and out of their lives. She compared this to the school that Isa attended in America where the community was stable and most members were ‘born and died there’ without moving.

5.5 Coaching for School as a Social Motivation for Having Friends

The mother discussed ways she coached both of her children, in advance of situations. Her main technique was to ask open-ended questions such as, ‘How do you feel?’, ‘Are you nervous?’ and ‘Okay. Maybe what we can do is make sure you smile, be friendly, talk to everybody. You will be nervous. It is normal to be nervous. It would be strange if you weren’t, when you’re meeting all those people’. The mother also pre-empted social situations where groups of children had known each other since the beginning of term and suggested it may be challenging for Isa to make friends and to make sure she was, ‘nice and friendly’ by smiling, making eye contact helping others. The mother’s rationale to coach Isa before experiencing new situations was to initiate Isa’s thinking about ways the social situations might unfold, and provide Isa with information that might help her fit in socially.

Coaching is a social production self-generated by the mother in respect to helping out her children with future social interactions. The mother’s motive and motivation is subjectively configured through her individual subjectivity (González Rey, 2019), that is her past experience and current situation where she creates conditions for her children to make friends. The interweaving of emotions and symbolic processes experienced with meeting new friends is shaped by the context of moving countries. The personal and subjective productions are expressed in the mother’s emotions as she indicated to Isa that ‘feeling nervous’, ‘feeling strange’ ‘being nice’ while meeting new people or friends is not unusual. For the mother to coach her child, as she enters into a new social situation and relations, is an indicator of the generative nature of social subjectivity, where actions, motives and motivations are interwoven. The mother’s past experience is subjectively configured and shared with her daughter, so that Isa understood and was provoked to think about what to expect as she entered a new situation.

6 Teacher’s Subjective Configurations and Sense of Social Interactions

The dialogue and interview with Isa’s teacher was in the classroom after school and during class time as the teacher moved from one group of children to another. The teacher discussed the transient nature of families in international schools, and stated, ‘even though I have worked in many international schools, I am always shocked by the number of children who move in and out in a given year, it is something that I find really hard to understand!’.

The teacher commented on how each child was different in the way that they entered the classroom and were equipped (or not) with social skills. In a similar finding to Adams and Quinones (2020), the teacher suggested that many children made friends with neighbours and these friendships were often sustained at a close emotional level, particularly if the children were in the same class and the parents were friends. More specifically, the teacher indicated that Isa quickly became an important member of the classroom, as she was quick to notice if others needed help and was open and friendly to others and often volunteered to do jobs that no one else wanted. According to the teacher, Isa was artistic and drew brightly coloured pictures, which created interest from the other children and initiated conversations.

The teacher helped children’s social interactions by organising fluid groups across curriculum activities. The teacher’s motivation originated from her past experience as she stated, ‘…Initially I let the children choose who they want to sit next to, this seems to help them settle into the classroom better. Then as the time passes, some children will continue to work really well together, whereas others spend more time talking and often this will lead to being silly and disrupting the whole class. Then I step in and choose who they work with’.

Similar to Isa’s mother, the teacher’s actions are directed towards children’s social skills and fostering opportunities for them to develop social interactions during implementation of the curriculum. The teacher showed sensitivity towards children from families in international schools and placed importance on their social skills. The teacher acknowledged the importance of children making friends and she was attuned to the creation of social networks of neighbours and making sure children have time for social and academic work together in the classroom. The subjective configurations and sense related to understanding social interactions and children’s social skills are generated though her past experience working with international families.

7 Conclusion

Motives and motivations, subjective configurations and senses unfold in the presence of emotions and symbolical productions of social interaction (González Rey, 2004, 2014). Becoming a friend includes subjective productions where children’s congruent motives and motivations of social interactions emerge. Isa and Ellie’s individual/shared motives as they subjectively configure their experiences during moments within the playdate, highlight the way playdates are potential social spaces for enacting historical knowledge and learning about current social engagement.

González Rey’s, theoretical understanding of subjectivity enabled numerous indicators to be inferred, originating from the children’s, mother’s and teacher’s understanding of social interaction. Similar to Fleer and González Rey (2017) there was a congruent language that emerged in the general discourse expressed as the social subjectivity between the family and school. However different from the ‘intellectual deficit and pathologisation associated with instrumental-cognitive representation of learning’, (p. 157) the language of the teacher and mother was strength based and placed emphasis on creating conditions for social interaction at both home and school.

Both adults referenced the importance of the children interacting socially when new to a class prior to advances in academic learning were expected ‘if they have the social the learning happens really quickly’. Both indicated that the child’s own motivation towards social interactions was to be encouraged, and suggested that creating the conditions for children’s autonomy when making friends was important. Indicators from both adults suggested that the child needs support from the adults for new pathways to make friends. These required systematic supports such as organisation of playdates with neighbours and creating social spaces where children can engage during school work and playtime. The interweaving of individual/social subjective sense and configurations directs attention to shared motives and motivations within social interaction. The mother’s individual subjectivity was apparent as she suggested that parents need to be open and encourage their child to invite unknown children for play dates, and coach their children in ways to initiate play leading to friendship. The personal subjectivity of the teacher suggests awareness of curricular activities where interactions are fostered.

To study motivation and subjectivity in the context of friendships, subjective configurations and senses from all those involved in the life of children, enriches ways we socially produce conditions that meet aspirations of making friends. Isa’s mother drew on her personal subjectivities that included her emotional and symbolical productions as she shared her thoughts that for young children to make a friend includes—being nice, feeling strange, feeling nervous, smiling and talking to everybody. Through observations of Isa and Ellie although some suggestions were ignored or incongruent, moving beyond these to suggest and help, contributes to social engagement. Subjective configurations, senses and productions are generated through motivations and motives that are shared in past, present and future social relations and new pathways for friendship development.