Early Childhood Education And Care Centres Research Articles

A man in the centre: inclusion and contribution of male educators in early childhood education and care teaching teams

ABSTRACTPressure on labour-supply has rekindled concern about the low participation of men in early childhood education and care (ECEC) and public debate about the ‘appropriateness’ and ‘value’ of male educators in these settings. We examined this issue from the perspective of all staff (N = 23), in two Australian ECEC centres employing a male educator. A diversity lens framed analysis, providing a contemporary and inclusive account of male educators as members of the teaching team rather than as gender-anomalies in the workforce. Staff identified male educators as assets with their value extending beyond symbolic salience as men in a feminized workplace. Men’s pedagogical contribution was described as related to employment role, not gender identity. Distinct benefits to productivity and relationships were reported. From the perspective of those inside gender diversity enhanced workplace (relationships) and work productivity (quality); low participation of men presents an opportunity-cost that extends beyond simply increasing the workforce pool.

Sensory-based food education in early childhood education and care, willingness to choose and eat fruit and vegetables, and the moderating role of maternal education and food neophobia.

To investigate the association between sensory-based food education implemented in early childhood education and care (ECEC) centres and children's willingness to choose and eat vegetables, berries and fruit, and whether the mother's education level and children's food neophobia moderate the linkage. The cross-sectional study involved six ECEC centres that provide sensory-based food education and three reference centres. A snack buffet containing eleven different vegetables, berries and fruit was used to assess children's willingness to choose and eat the food items. The children's parents completed the Food Neophobia Scale questionnaire to assess their children's food neophobia. ECEC centres that provide sensory-based food education and reference ECEC centres in Finland. Children aged 3-5 years in ECEC (n 130) and their parents. Sensory-based food education was associated with children's willingness to choose and eat vegetables, berries and fruit. This association was stronger among the children of mothers with a low education level. A high average level of neophobia in the child group reduced the children's willingness to choose vegetables, berries and fruit. No similar tendency was observed in the group that had received sensory-based food education. Children's individual food neophobia had a negative association with their willingness to choose and eat the vegetables, berries and fruit. Child-oriented sensory-based food education seems to provide a promising method for promoting children's adoption of vegetables, berries and fruit in their diets. In future sensory food education research, more focus should be placed on the effects of the education at the group level.

Support to Enhance Level of Implementation in Physical Activity Interventions: An Observational Study

THIS ARTICLE AIMS TO DESCRIBE the level of implementation (LOI) of the Jump Start study, and examine the relationship between LOI changes and the support types provided to early childhood education and care (ECEC) centres. Direct observations were conducted in 21 ECEC centres at six months and 12 months after the start of the intervention. Each centre's LOI percentage was calculated and classified into high, medium or low implementers using objective criteria. Support strategies were determined by LOI at first observation. Pearson correlations between the support types and LOI were calculated using SPSS Statistics (version 23.0). In most cases (86%), ongoing support led to an increase in LOI, 17.5% on average. Phone calls were the only type of support significantly related to the positive LOI change (r = 0.532, p = 0.013). It was difficult to detect other effective support types due to the combined and small variance in support types provided to each centre.

Enhancing the quality of early childhood education and care: ECEC tutors’ perspectives of family engagement in Spain

ABSTRACTAccess to high-quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) is important for developmental outcomes and school success. The first years of life are a critical period for learning and the quality of early experiences can have a significant impact later in life. Parenting is one of the primary influences on children’s development and family engagement is crucial in children’s educational success. This study presents a descriptive analysis of ECEC tutors’ perspectives (N = 120) about family engagement across schools in Spain. Data were obtained from the Spanish National Education Council (the Consejo Escolar del Estado) to assess parental school involvement in a total of 63 ECEC centres. Findings suggest that early childhood tutors have a positive perspective of parental involvement and play a key role in supporting active school involvement of parents that enhance the quality of ECEC programmes.

Childcare Educators’ Perceptions of and Solutions to Reducing Sitting Time in Young Children: A Qualitative Study

Young children spend a high proportion of their time at childcare sitting. Reducing sitting time or breaking up prolonged periods of sitting may be positively associated with health outcomes among children. The purpose of this study was to identify childcare educators’ perceptions of what environmental and policy modifications could be made within early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings to reduce sitting time among children during childcare. Eighty-seven educators from 11 ECEC centres participated in 11 focus groups between September 2013 and November 2013. Each focus group was audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. A semi-structured schedule was developed to investigate the educators’ perceptions of the influences on children’s sitting time at childcare. A problem–solution tree was developed to determine potential solutions for reducing total and prolonged sitting time in young children at childcare. Most educators were unaware of the high levels of sitting time among young children. Educators identified that childcare practices, the physical environment and the weather were factors that influenced children’s sitting time. Potential solutions to reduce sitting time were to break-up prolonged sitting time by using movement breaks, standing desks, movement transitions between activities, relocating key facilities around the space to promote movement, and integrating movement during learning activities. Also, educators suggested that posters could be used to increase awareness among educators about the benefits of reducing sitting time. Educators identified key practices that could be modified to reduce young children’s sitting time in childcare. These potential solutions should be evaluated to understand their effectiveness.

Building a knowledge base about the impact of early learning frameworks for infants and toddlers

ABSTRACTThis article discusses the proliferation of early learning, pedagogical and curriculum frameworks and guidelines encompassing infants and toddlers in early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings, and argues for the need to build a cumulative and ideally cross-national knowledge base about the impact of such frameworks and guidelines. To this end, and within the context of Australia’s national ECEC curriculum framework, Belonging, being & becoming: The early years learning framework for Australia (the EYLF), it then outlines the study protocol for the Babies & Belonging project that is investigating infants’ experiences of belonging in ECEC centres.

Transition of Children with Disabilities into Early Childhood Education and Care Centres

THIS PAPER REPORTS ON findings from research (Warren, 2013) which sought to understand, in the New South Wales (NSW) context, the factors impacting on the transition into early childhood education and care (ECEC) centres for children with disabilities from the perspective of both parents of children with disabilities and educators in ECEC centres. The study aimed to identify successes and barriers, and consider potential interventions and procedures that might increase the participation of children with disabilities in ECEC centres. This paper will discuss findings from the educator perspective only, including 37 completed questionnaires and semi-structured interviews from 10 teacher participants. Thematic analysis revealed the importance of communication with parents, relationships with previous service providers, opportunities for professional learning and organisational support.

Documentation as a tool for participation in German early childhood education and care

The aim of the study presented in this article is to find out whether the documentation practices in German early childhood education and care (ECEC) centres are compatible with the notion of participation by children. Children's participation has to be seen as a general educational issue in the context of democratic and inclusive education, but also as a specific aim to foster the learning and reflective competencies of the individual child. This makes it all the more important to know whether participation can be found in early childhood key practices – for example documentation. The research examines the documentation practices in 40 ECEC centres in Germany. On this basis, the article outlines what the main forms of documentation are (portfolio, documentation panels, presentations of children's work) and what importance children's participation has for these forms. It shows that participation is of minor relevance in the documentation practices in most of the ECEC centres examined. Only a few centres involve children extensively in documentation and include documentation in their daily work. If participation is part of the documentation practices, a ‘pedagogy of listening' as conceived by the Reggio approach can be found.

Styles of documentation in German early childhood education

The pedagogical documentation of educational processes in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) centres is an important concern of early childhood education. Its purpose is to make learning visible and to stimulate discussion between educators and parents. In the academic discourse, however, pedagogical documentation is subject to differing interpretations: while some authors see it as a practice that supports the learning processes of children, along the lines of a ‘pedagogy of listening’, others regard it as a tool for the assessment of skill development. Against this background, the present article examines how these different understandings of documentation are implemented in pedagogical practice in German ECEC centres. On the basis of an empirical investigation with 40 case studies, it can be shown that pedagogical documentation is primarily seen as an assessment tool in Germany. Four types of facility could be identified, each representing a particular style of documentation; for example, specific motivations, functions and practices of implementation can be distinguished.

Lessons in Safety: Cultural Politics and Safety Education in a Multiracial, Multiethnic Early Childhood Education Setting

Young children learn about safety from a variety of sources, including formal lessons and informal activities provided through early childhood education and care (ECEC) services. For many ECEC centres in Australia, scheduled visits from police and fire departments are a highlight of safety education activities. Such visits offer children the opportunity to see and touch safety equipment, to meet police and fire department personnel, and to discuss and ask questions about safety issues. This article analyses ethnographic data generated in a multiracial, multiethnic ECEC setting in the outer western suburbs of Sydney, Australia in 2006. Part of a larger, ongoing study concerning childhood and popular culture, this article analyses the cultural politics of safety education visits from police and fire department personnel in one research site. Drawing on Foucauldian notions of power-knowledge, together with critical race theories, the article argues that children's knowledge of fire and police services is culturally situated, and impacts significantly on the effectiveness of such visits as a means of communicating lessons in personal safety. In particular, the article considers how the children's responses to safety lessons are shaped by gendered and racialised relations of biopolitical power and state-sanctioned violence that produce discursive norms between individuals, communities and state institutions.