Engaging with young children’s voices: implications for practitioners’ pedagogical practice

Patricia A Shaw

doi:10.1080/03004279.2019.1622496

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe paper seeks to extend the knowledge and understanding of how engaging with young children’s voices in a meaningful way, can alter practitioners’ pedagogical practice and thus create environments for learning that are more inclusive. It draws on the findings of a research study that explored practitioners’ (teachers, nursery nurses and teaching assistants) views about engaging with young children’s voices of perceived notions of inclusion in pedagogical activities in the early years classes of two schools in the North of England. It adopted a qualitative methodological approach that operates within constructivist and interpretivist paradigms. The study revealed that practitioners retain some resistance to responding to the voices of young children and that internal and external pressures influence their decision-making. Moreover, it signifies the necessity for greater emphasis on the importance of engaging with children’s voices in the training of newly qualified teachers, and the ongoing professional development for all practitioners in early childhood education.

Highlights

An increased international awareness of the need to involve children in decisionmaking about important issues in their lives (United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) 1989; Holt and Holloway 2006) has emerged from a contemporary perspective of the child
Maybe as the year progresses and they’re maturing and they’re learning more ..., the length of time that they are sat on the carpet ... does lengthen, .. maybe we ought to get it a bit more ....” (NN: Riverside Infants (RI)). These examples indicate that the significant factor is the practitioners’ pedagogical understanding rather than their length of experience, which may come from on-going professional development, or be dependent upon whether the practitioners have a reflective disposition
Practitioner training and on-going professional development are fundamental to their understanding of how young children are able to express themselves about matters of importance to them

Summary

Introduction

An increased international awareness of the need to involve children in decisionmaking about important issues in their lives (United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) 1989; Holt and Holloway 2006) has emerged from a contemporary perspective of the child. The corollary is that practitioners will find it more difficult to make learning meaningful and powerful to the child’s voice and restrict their opportunities to learn according to their own interests and preferences This shift in emphasis is evident in the latest report by the English regulatory and inspection body for the education of children (Ofsted 2017), in which eight of its fifteen recommendations stress the use of formal teaching methods, which do not consider the needs of the individual. Work in the philosophy of early education (Moss, Dahlberg and Pence 2000; Dahlberg and Moss 2005), and in the attention to some aspects of successful practice, is moving towards the notion of a ‘listening pedagogy’ (Rinaldi 2005) This pedagogy recognises and celebrates young children as active and powerful agents in their own learning and development (Dahlberg, Moss and Pence 2006). These are as follows: Riverside Infants (RI); Oak Ridge Primary (ORP); teacher (T); nursery nurse (NN); and teaching assistant (TA)

Findings and Discussion

12 More than 20 More than 20

Conclusion