Cultures of education and rituals of transition from home to the infant toddler center. Observing interactions and professional development

Abstract

At the infant-toddler center, the rituals of transition that mark children’s arrival and going home times offer interesting kaleidoscopes for the study of interactive dynamics with the associated meanings and implicit educational models. Numerous pedagogical studies have investigated the meanings of these events, for the most part drawing on the monocultural model of classical attachment theory to analyze interactions between adults and children. Far less research has approached these rituals using triadic, systemic and intercultural categories of analysis in order to explore not only educators’ actions but also what is going on in their minds. In this paper, we discuss examples from a recent study on rituals of transition in the multicultural context of an infant toddler center, combining description of the timing, behaviors and interactive styles of children and adults, with analysis of the thoughts and representations of the educators.