Context Of Early Childhood Education Research Articles

Book talks as an approach to nature of science teaching in early childhood education

ABSTRACT This article focuses on the need for increased attention to content issues and working methods for science teaching in Early Childhood Education (ECE). Science education research emphasises the importance of not only focusing on specific phenomena, but also on the Nature of Science (NOS). NOS teaching deals with questions about what science is, how scientific knowledge is developed and in what ways humans are involved in these processes. An inclusion of such issues is important if common stereotypical images of science and scientists are to be challenged. Previous research has suggested that NOS can be taught through book talks connected to trade books. However, there is a lack of empirical studies at the ECE level supporting this suggestion. Thus, this article reports from the first part of a project in which researchers and teachers explored book talks as a possibility to introduce NOS in early years science (children between 1 and 5 years old). Data consists of book talks (N=48) around two picture trade books led by five preschool teachers preceded by a teacher-researcher workshop on NOS and NOS teaching. The results show that discussions on a variety of NOS issues is possible in an ECE context. These results are discussed in relation to previous literature on both NOS teaching and science in the early years.

Enhancing young children's movement experiences through a colouring activity pages: individualised ad hoc colouring materials can make a difference

ABSTRACT Young children’s colouring activities are an educational resource, providing an opportunity for children to express their feelings about the people and objects in their lives. To our knowledge, no systematic empirical research has yet addressed the question of how individualised childreńs colouring materials with a healthy message impact physical activity patterns and movement experiences in the early childhood education context. Therefore, the aim of this study was to analyse, following a quasi-experimental design, the impact of an individualised physical activity colouring pages on young childreńs physical activity patterns, through pedometry and systematic observation during outdoor movement sessions. Furthermore, childreńs drawings and narratives were used to explore children’s movement experiences to the individualised colouring activity pages. Our results suggest that the individualised ad hoc colouring materials can promote increased physical activity levels, but more importantly, children had the opportunity to discover new movement possibilities and explore their capabilities. In conclusion, it is really important for a wider range of early childhood education teachers to consider how creating their own materials might encourage more movement possibilities and active behaviours among young children.

A funds of knowledge approach to promoting school engagement

Research shows that the exclusion of families’ funds of knowledge (FoK) from the curriculum contributes to low levels of school engagement. This study is part of an ongoing research project aiming to promote school engagement among students from immigrant backgrounds through the strategic use of FoK. We provide an overview of the project design and explain how it has been implemented in the specific context of early childhood education in a school in Catalonia. A qualitative approach is used to assess the effect of the process from the teacher perspective, contrasting positive aspects with some of the difficulties experienced. We conclude that including families’ FoK in pedagogical practice can contribute towards improving student engagement and fostering more inclusive educational environments.

Inteligências múltiplas relacionadas aos campos de experiência da Base Nacional Comum Curricular na Educação Infantil

A Educação Infantil é uma importante fase na vida da criança para desenvolver o conhecimento e passar a entendê-lo como um sistema de cultura no qual está inserida. Nesse cenário, o professor terá destaque, na concepção de promover a educação da criança por meio de atividades que consideram o mundo vivido dos escolares, de suas histórias, sua família, seus colegas, com quem convivem, tanto na instituição como em casa. A partir dessa contextualização, pretende-se contribuir com a Educação Infantil no sentido de evidenciar a relação entre as Inteligências Múltiplas (IM) e os Campos de Experiência da Base Nacional Comum Curricular (BNCC). No presente artigo, o objetivo principal é descrever a Teoria das Inteligências Múltiplas e relacionar com os Campos de Experiência da Base Nacional Comum Curricular (BNCC). O enfoque metodológico é qualitativo e descreve a Teoria das Inteligências Múltiplas de Howard Gardner e os Campos de Experiência da Base Nacional Curricular BNCC (BRASIL, 2017). As inteligências manifestam-se em todas as pessoas e o seu desenvolvimento está, relacionado aos estímulos que estão preconizados nos cinco Campos de Experiência da Base Nacional Comum Curricular – BNCC (BRASIL, 2017) para o desenvolvimento da Educação Infantil.

Barns deltagande i förskole- och daghemskontext under inledningen av coronavirusets utbrott i Finland och Sverige

Coronapandemin är en ny samhällskris som är sparsamt beforskad varför olika perspektiv på coronaviruset behövs. Denna artikel bidrar till att fördjupa kunskapen om barns uttryck om coronaviruset bland annat genom att analysera personalens beskrivningar av barns uttryck kring coronavirusets utbrott i Finland och Sverige i daghems- och förskolekontext i mars 2020. Det empiriska materialet består av 79 enkätsvar från personal i förskola och daghem. Begreppen deltagande och resiliens har använts som teoretisk bakgrund och dessa diskuteras i artikeln. Barnen visar på fyra olika former av deltagande i daghem och förskola. Artikeln bidrar till att sätta barns deltagande i relation till en samhällskris som coronapandemin samt visar på ett mångfacetterat deltagande. Resultatet av studien kan få implikationer både på förhållningssätt och arbetsmetoder i samband med kriser.

Lessons Learned from Norway on Risky Play in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC)

Risky play is defined as thrilling and challenging forms of play that have the potential for physical injury and has been linked to developmental and health benefits for children in the early years. Currently, in Western contexts, children’s opportunities for risky play is decreasing. Social factors such as practitioner and parental attitudes and beliefs have been found to impact children’s opportunities to engage in risky play. In risky play research and literature, Norway is regarded as a less risk-adverse Western country. Therefore, this research aimed to understand the impact of social factors on children’s affordances for risky play in a Norwegian Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) context. Research was conducted at a Norwegian ECEC institution and participants included 28 children, aged 3 to 4 years, and 4 ECEC practitioners and 5 parents. The study employed participant observation field notes and semi-structured interviews with parents and practitioners. This research identified themes in social factors that may contribute to children’s affordances in risky play in ECEC, including assumptions about childhood, parents and practitioner attitudes, and pedagogical practices.

USING THE SOCIOCULTURAL CONCEPT OF LEARNING ACTIVITY TO UNDERSTAND PARENTS’ LEARNING ABOUT PLAY IN COMMUNITY PLAYGROUPS AND SOCIAL MEDIA

ABSTRACT This paper considers utilising the sociocultural concept of learning activity to understand parents’ learning about young children’s play in the context of community playgroups and social media use. Parents’ knowledge about children’s play influences the provision of parental-provided play experiences for young children and can be enhanced through participation in a community playgroup. Increasingly, playgroup parents are using social media to communicate about children’s play at playgroup and this social situation for learning about play is yet to be theorised for maximising young children’s access to play-based learning experiences in early childhood. Learning activity as a sociocultural concept, recognises learning as an activity for self-development. It has been applied to formal education contexts but has not been used to understand parents’ learning in informal early childhood education contexts. This paper explores its potential for generating new knowledge about parents’ learning about play in the home and community by conceptualising learning as an activity enacted within the social situation of community playgroups and social media. Implications for the mobilisation of this social situation are framed in the context of parent engagement in early childhood education.

Who has the power? A reflection on teaching drama improvisation with young children

The following study reflects and explores the dynamics of aesthetic experiences within drama improvisations. This arts-based research was carried out in Hong Kong with six Cantonese children who were aged 3–5 years. Data were collected from the video transcripts of five workshops and the researcher’s own research journal. Two significant milieus were observed: switching in-between roles and intuitive creativity is not talkback. I argue that because each of these two milieus provide the foreground for the complex – and at times contradictory – nature of children’s aesthetic experiences where Deleuzian power is at play, opportunities arise for both, challenging the traditional adult–child power relations, and in so doing, educators can be able to reconfigure and reconceptualise teaching goals and practices, both generally and specifically, within the context of early childhood education.

The status-quo of play-based pedagogies in Western Australia: Reflections of early childhood education practitioners

This paper discusses the findings of a qualitative research project conducted in 2017 that explored practitioners’ experiences and perceptions of the provision of play pedagogies in contemporary Western Australian early childhood education contexts. Interviews were conducted with four play-based learning teachers and an open-ended survey was completed by 40 early childhood educators who were members of the audience at a Western Australia conference in 2017. The study participants discussed beliefs and values pertaining to quality play-based learning and tensions associated with the diminishing role of play in the early years of schooling and its impact on young children. They also highlighted several enablers and barriers that influence and shape current early childhood education practice. The findings of this study provide further evidence for the issues identified in recent Early Childhood Australia (Western Australia) discussion papers and in other research surrounding play-based learning in the current social-political context.

New Destinations and the Early Childhood Education of Mexican-Origin Children.

This study examined differences in exposure to early childhood education among Mexican-origin children across Latino/a destinations. Early childhood educational enrollment patterns, which are highly sensitive to community resources and foundational components of long-term educational inequalities, can offer a valuable window into how destinations may be shaping incorporation among Mexican-origin families. Integrating data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort with county-level data from the decennial census, multilevel logistic regression models revealed that Mexican-origin, black, and white children had lower odds of enrollment in early childhood education programs if they lived in new Latino/a destinations versus established destinations. The negative association between new destinations and early childhood education enrollment persisted despite controls for household selectivity, state and local early childhood education contexts, Latino/a educational attainment, Latino-white residential segregation, and immigration enforcement agreements. Within the Mexican-origin subgroup, the enrollment gap between new and established destinations was widest among the least-acculturated families, as measured by parental nativity, duration of residence, citizenship status, and English proficiency. These findings highlight how both place and acculturation stratify outcomes within the large and growing Mexican-origin subset of the Latino/a population.

Estudio de la orientación y la percepción espacial en alumnado del Grado de Educación Infantil a través de portal 2

El videojuego es una herramienta cuya expansión y arraigo cultural en la sociedad actual permite su inclusión como elemento didáctico para trabajar con el alumnado. El estudio se ha dirigido al alumnado del 2º curso del grado de Educación Infantil de la Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación de la Universidad de Cádiz. Hemos empleado el videojuego Portal 2 para trabajar con nuestros estudiantes conceptos como la orientación y la percepción espacial. Conceptos de gran importancia en la etapa de Educación Infantil, etapa en la que los niños tienen su primer contacto con el colegio. De tal forma que los futuros maestros deberán aportar las herramientas suficientes a su futuro alumnado para relacionarse con el espacio que les rodea. La metodología empleada en esta experiencia ha sido de carácter cuantitativo con un número total de estudiantes de 170. Se ha realizado un estudio exploratorio en 6 grupos. El procedimiento se ha llevado a cabo en tres fases diferenciadas: (a) Introducción sobre conceptos básicos del videojuego Portal 2. (b) Sesión de juego libre y guiado y (c) realización de un cuestionario. Los resultados obtenidos, señalan que el alumnado adquiere ciertas destrezas relacionadas con la orientación y la percepción espacial y otros conocimientos relacionados con el campo matemático, tales como la toma de decisiones, tras el uso del videojuego Portal 2. Como conclusión, se puede señalar que el alumnado percibe al juego como un elemento de interés en el aula, aunque no necesariamente en el contexto educativo de la Educación infantil; sino que lo orientan a contextos educativos superiores como Educación Primaria y Secundaria. No obstante, consideran que su inclusión mejoraría la capacidad de abstracción, interpretación y percepción espacial.

Ginástica na educação infantil

Objetivo: O presente estudo teve como objetivo geral identificar e analisar as pesquisas que relacionam a ginástica com o contexto da Educação Infantil (EI), publicadas nos Anais do FIGPT. Metodologia: trata-se de uma revisão sistemática da literatura que se propôs a verificar o número de publicações presentes no período compreendido entre os anos de 2001 a 2018 nos Anais do Fórum Internacional de Ginástica para Todos (FIGPT), considerando o tipo de estudo (pesquisa bibliográfica, pesquisa de campo ou relato de experiência), o tipo de ginástica, os principais objetivos e desfechos dos referidos estudos. Resultados e Discussão: Dos 560 resumos/artigos completos encontrados nos Anais do FIGPT que contiveram as palavras pesquisadas no título, que foram “Ginástica”, “Educação Infantil” e “Escola”, 16 se tratavam da Ginástica na EI no contexto Escolar e passaram a compor a amostra. Os estudos encontrados cujo tema é a EI, se concentram no período entre os anos de 2007 e 2018. Conclusão: A análise das publicações dos Anais de todas as edições do FIGPT realizadas até o ano 2018 revelou que a ginástica associada ao contexto da EI apresenta um crescente ao longo dos anos, compondo um quantitativo de 3% das publicações totais, caracterizadas por pesquisas cuja maioria é relato de experiência.

Progressive practice and translanguaging: Supporting multilingualism in a Hong Kong preschool

ABSTRACT As an officially trilingual special administrative region of China and an economic powerhouse in Asia, Hong Kong has invested heavily in dual language schools that emphasize learning English alongside of Cantonese or Mandarin at all levels of education. Little research has explored how learning and language use takes shape within these schools, particularly within early childhood educational contexts. This article analyzes how young learners in Hong Kong early childhood program that adheres to an emergent curriculum and inquiry-based pedagogy develop trilingualism though translingual communicative practices. Specifically, we showcase conditions for trilingual participation within one classroom, as well as how children within it negotiated peer relationships through linguistic improvisation and accommodation.

Distributed pedagogical leadership and teacher leadership in early childhood education contexts

ABSTRACT The topic of distributed pedagogical leadership has attracted researchers’ interest in early childhood education leadership. A growing body of research focuses on investigating leadership enacted between leaders and teachers in ECE settings. In this article, we focus on the enactment of distributed pedagogical leadership in Finnish ECE settings and their relations to teacher commitment to pedagogical leadership on staff teams. The study employed an explanatory sequential mixed methods design. Data on the perceptions of 130 ECE professionals, ECE center directors, ECE teachers, and child care nurses on the enactment of distributed pedagogical leadership and teacher commitment were collected with a survey. A qualitative inquiry included six ECE professional interviews. The results indicate that the studied ECE centers have adopted leadership approaches congruent with distributed pedagogical leadership and the implementation of distributed forms of leadership related positively with the ECE teacher’s ability to lead reflection and learning in their teams.

Constructing deficit data doppelgängers: The impact of datafication on children with English as an additional language

In this article, an evaluation of the English early childhood education context reveals children constructed as data. The complex, chaotic and unpredictable nature of the child is reconstituted in numerical form – a form which can be measured, compared and manipulated. Children are reconceptualised as data doppelgängers, ghostly apparitions which emulate the actual embodied child. The focus of early childhood education and care thus moves from child-centred to data-centred education. The author specifically focuses on the impact of this aspect of the performative regime on children who have English as an additional language – an under-researched area in the field. Foucault’s work on governmentality is used as a theoretical lens through which to understand the process of datafication. The author uses a composite child, generated from a number of children from her experience as a teacher, as a starting point for discussion. This reveals children as disadvantaged, as their home languages are no longer used to assess communication skills. Their data doppelgängers are not useful to the teacher as they are unable to demonstrate a Good Level of Development – a key measure of school readiness in English policy. The author argues that in post-Brexit-vote Britain, subtle changes to early childhood education increase disadvantage, promoting white, British culture and thus marginalising those from other cultures.

Systems Thinking Skills of Preschool Children in Early Childhood Education Contexts from Turkey and Germany

This study presents an attempt to contribute to the field of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) by conceptualizing systems thinking skills of four- to six-year-old preschool children with the role of age in this particular skill. For this purpose, we developed and tested a method and instruments to assess and conceptualize systems thinking skills of 52 preschool children in early childhood education contexts from Turkey and Germany. By employing qualitative case study research, we concluded that the young children showed some signs of complex understanding regarding systems thinking in terms of detecting obvious gradual changes and two-step domino and/or multiple one-way causalities, as well as describing behavior of a balancing loop. However, their capacity was found to be limited when it comes to detecting a reinforcing loop, understanding system mechanisms by acknowledging the unintended consequences, detecting hidden components and processes, demonstrating multi-dimensional perspective, solving problems through high-leverage interventions, and predicting the future behavior of the system. Age had a notable effect on the total systems thinking mean scores of the participants.

Professional learning communities: Enhancing collaborative leadership in Singapore early childhood settings

Leadership in early childhood education has been promoted as a collaborative process in which all teachers, rather than just the positional leader, are involved. Collaborative leadership practices are not well understood within the marketised Singapore early childhood education context. Beyond mandatory leadership training, little is known about how leaders are supported to strengthen their leadership practices and involve others in leadership activities. School-based literature suggests that learning through professional learning communities expands the collective capacity of organisations; however, literature on professional learning communities in early childhood education is limited. This article reports on the findings of an interpretive case study examining the current understandings and leadership practices of principals in the Singapore early childhood education context, and investigating how participation in professional learning communities can support the development of collaborative leadership practices. The participants in two professional learning communities established as part of this study were six principals from an anchor-operator childcare provider and five principals from private childcare centres in Singapore. Two teachers working with each of the respective principals were also involved in focus group interviews to ascertain if there were changes in their principals’ leadership practices. Data was collected from professional learning community meetings, online reflections, pre- and post-professional learning community interviews with the principals, and follow-up focus group discussions with the teachers. The key findings indicate that praxis as a result of participation in a professional learning community led to some shifts in principals’ thinking about collaborative leadership practices and resulted in reported changes to their leadership approaches, distribution of leadership, and improved collegiality and collaborative learning for teachers. The results indicate that considering and implementing collaborative leadership practices through professional learning communities in the Singapore early childhood education context requires sensitivity towards Asian Singapore sociocultural values related to hierarchy and economic pragmatism.

Facetiming common worlds: exchanging digital place stories and crafting pedagogical contact zones

ABSTRACTChildren, educators, and researchers at a child care center in Victoria, Canada and Melbourne, Australia have been collaborating on an early childhood education pedagogical inquiry project that grapples with children’s relations with place and technologies. Resisting narratives of environmental stewardship and instrumental digital education that dominate in the settler colonial contexts of contemporary Canadian and Australian early childhood education, this article shares stories, practices, questions, and tensions generated within the inquiry. After outlining how we think with Facetime on iPhone within a common worlds pedagogies framework, we detail two practices generated in the inquiry: (1) exchanging digital place stories and (2) crafting pedagogical contact zones with place and technologies. These practices, we argue, make visible how our collaboration reconfigures children’s relationships with place and technologies in consequential ways, and risks generating uneasy, unfamiliar, and tentative pedagogies that respond to messy entanglements within digital, more-than-human common worlds.

Teachers’ Practices in the Acquisition of English by Asian Immigrant English Language Learners

Purpose - The increase in the enrolments of immigrant children in New Zealand seems to have posed great challenges to early childhood education services when it comes to developing the children’s English language acquisition. This qualitative case study explored how New Zealand early childhood teachers develop the English language acquisition of Asian immigrant English language learners (ELLs). The theoretical framework of this research drew on a range of sociocultural perspectives, including sociocultural adaptation and acculturation strategies. Methodology - The main participants of this study were seven early childhood teachers and six Asian immigrant ELLs from two early childhood centres. Data on the teachers were collected through observations and semi-structured interviews. For each centre, observations were carried out over a six week period which enabled a series of snapshots of how the teachers developed the English language acquisition of the ELLs. Findings - Making interactions comprehensible for the ELLs is one of the main strategies used by the teachers in developing the acquisition of English language by the ELLs. In the process of teaching the English language to the ELLs, most of the teachers were observed to use certain strategies in making interactions comprehensible for them. The teachers highlighted the strategies and modifications they made in order to make their interactions comprehensible for the ELLs. During the interview, it was clearly seen that with better proficiency in the English language, the communication between the ELLs and their teachers improved. Therefore, the sociocultural adaptation process takes place in a smooth manner for both the ELLs and the teachers. Significance - The central significance of the finding is that through the exploration of New Zealand early childhood teachers’ beliefs and practices, important insights are offered which lead to the improvement of educational practices in early childhood settings for immigrant children in relation to English acquisition. While some of the teachers’ beliefs and practices may have facilitative or positive effects on English acquisition, others may bring debilitative or harmful effects. The findings also add to the existing body of knowledge on teachers’ beliefs and practices in developing English acquisition among the ELLs, particularly Asian children. In the New Zealand early childhood education context, the study provides a platform on how early childhood teachers in New Zealand could develop English acquisition among Asian immigrant ELLs, while valuing and understanding children’s cultural backgrounds.

Leadership in early childhood education: The case for pedagogical praxis

In this conceptual article, the authors examine the context of early childhood education and care in England and the underpinning predominant ideologies to explore how these impact on the framing of leadership. The English context entails several contradictions (antinomies) at ontological, epistemological and axiological levels, and is heavily influenced by an ideological struggle concerning the value of play within the sector as opposed to a climate of child performativity. Moreover, the predominately female workforce (a factor itself) has faced relentless changes in terms of qualifications and curriculum reforms in recent years. With the introduction of the graduate leader qualification (Early Years Teacher Status), a vast body of research has been seeking to conceptualise what leadership means for early childhood education and care. In this article, the authors argue that these attempts are helpful and contribute to this discourse of leadership, but it needs to be thought of not only abstractly, but also practically. Thus, the authors conclude, the (re)conceptualisation of leadership should locate it as pedagogical praxis after evaluating the inherent deep dispositions of leaders in conjunction with their history, surrounding culture and subjective perspectives/realities.