Early Childhood Practice Research Articles

A DisCrit Analysis of Quality in Early Childhood: Toward Pedagogies of Wholeness, Access, and Interdependence

Background: In U.S. contexts, the language of “quality” early childhood education is widely invoked to evaluate the “goodness” of teaching and learning and is often leveraged in attempts to ameliorate inequities. Likewise, efforts to define and achieve generalizable conceptualizations of early childhood quality often guide what takes place in teacher education. Though objections to quality reform efforts and the ways they uphold white supremacy have been extensively discussed, less work has explicitly examined how ableism intersects with racism in the ways quality is defined and applied in early childhood. Purpose: The purpose of this conceptual article is to extend prior critiques of quality to critically examine intersections of racism and ableism in the definitions, measurements, and enactments of quality early childhood teaching and learning. We bring disability critical race theory (DisCrit; Annamma et al., 2013) into conversation with literature on quality in early childhood to examine how traditional notions of early childhood quality position and affect multiply-marginalized children, families, and teachers. We emphasize how dominant notions of early childhood quality are reinforced and can be disrupted in teacher preparation. Interpretive Analysis: We utilize DisCrit’s seven interrelated tenets to analyze how ableism and racism mutually reinforce notions of early childhood quality by: (1) predefining universal goals for teaching and learning; (2) reducing the complexity of teaching and learning; and (3) discarding the wisdom of multiply-marginalized children, families, and teachers. Each of these technocratic processes rely on one another (and at times, overlap) to uphold whiteness and ableism in both early childhood practice and teacher education; exposing them allows us to imagine alternate ways of conceptualizing and enacting meaningful early education. Through DisCrit praxis, we offer an alternative language of evaluation that centers multiply-marginalized young children, families, and teachers using pedagogies of wholeness, access, and interdependence. Conclusions: At the nexus of ableism and racism, standardized notions of early childhood quality create myriad forms of harm for multiply-marginalized children, families, and teachers. Although the language of quality pervades the field, we know it is not the only way. We implore teacher educators to support teacher candidates in developing a DisCrit praxis, as we engage in such processes of reflection and action ourselves. When teaching and learning are rooted in principles of wholeness, access, and interdependence, we put multiply-marginalized communities at the heart of our work, reclaiming and enacting meaningful pedagogies in early childhood.

Highlighting the importance of STEM education in early childhood through play-based learning: A Literature Review

This paper aims to focus on the international studies regarding early integrated STEM education and its importance for developing 21st-century skills in young children to prepare them for an ever-changing world. The paper reviews the importance of integrated STEM education in early childhood settings and how it supports the development of scientific concepts and 21st-century skills such as critical thinking and problem solving through play-based learning based on the current literature. Adding to the importance of STEM education, the paper explores what STEM education means in early childhood and how different types of play-based learning can support early integrated STEM concepts and skills in young children concerning the literature from different parts of the world. Furthermore, the literature presents the role of teachers in implementing STEM practices and the challenges encountered by teachers. The literature indicates low self-efficacy and confidence in teachers as the main factor affecting the delivery of STEM teaching and suggests ways to overcome this through STEM professional development to enhance the STEM practices in early childhood. The paper concludes with further recommendations and implications for stronger policies, and more research in this field to achieve high-quality integrated STEM education in early childhood.

Tian Shi (Timing) Di Li (Context) Ren He (Human Capital): A New Theoretical Framework for Analyzing the Implementability of Imported Early Childhood Practices and Making a Case for a Hybrid Model

ABSTRACT In this conceptual paper, we propose a new three-pronged theoretical framework derived from Chinese philosophy: (1) Tian Shi (timing), (2) Di Li (context), and (3) Ren He (human capital). Specifically, we delineate the nature of Tian Shi, Di Li, Ren He required for the successful translation of top-down education policy into practice using Hong Kong as a case example. Applying this new conceptual framework, we conducted secondary data analysis of two cases examining the implementability of U.S.-originated and popular child-centered early childhood models by Hong Kong kindergarten teachers (serving children ages 3–6), with one case focusing on the Project Approach in one kindergarten, and the other on the HighScope Curriculum in another kindergarten. The findings revealed that Hong Kong had not yet attained favorable Tian Shi, Di Li, Ren He to render success in these kindergarten teachers’ adoption of imported early childhood approaches with fidelity due to incompatibility in sociocultural and educational realities as well as professional competence. Instead, the teachers’ implementation behaviors made a case for a hybrid model as a viable and potentially sustainable solution to reconcile these contextual incompatibilities by weaving local and global practices into a conflation.

Feeling like ‘the ham of the sandwich’: The contested professional identities of school-based early childhood educators in Chile

Present-day early childhood educators face the challenge of producing their professional identities in highly neo-liberal contexts, negotiating contested discourses on professionalism, education quality and the overall purpose of early childhood education. While it has been suggested by critical scholarship that the early childhood workforce responds to these challenges by developing a unified professional identity, the author contends that particular contexts of practice (such as schools) and the schoolification of early childhood education may produce fragmentation within the workforce. This is crystallised in the figure of the school-based early childhood educator, whose professional practice lies somewhere between that of a kindergarten educator and a schoolteacher. As school-based early childhood education is not perceived as proper early childhood practice by kindergarten educators, school-based educators struggle to identify with this group of practitioners. Drawing on a psychoanalytically informed qualitative study with early childhood educators, the author discusses some of these tensions and proposes the notion of liminal identity (an intermediate space of becoming where identities – among other possibilities – may be examined and reimagined) as a starting point for the exploration of this emergent type of professional subjectivity in the context of an increasing provision of early childhood education in school settings. The author calls for a destabilisation of oversimplified understandings of the relation between educators and their contexts of practice, and the acknowledgement that educators experience and respond to the struggles of the profession in diverse and complex ways.

Beyond transparency: more‐than‐human insights into the emergence of young children's language

AbstractThis paper draws on 3 years of ethnographic research with young children and their families in a northern English town, employing a more‐than‐human lens to pay attention to what, beyond humans, might be involved in the emergence of children's literacies. The paper focuses on the role of the body and place in the emergence of young children's vocalisations and talk. In particular, the paper rethinks the dominant assumption that children's language is primarily for the purpose of transparently conveying meaning. It does this by drawing on posthuman and decolonial scholarship on childhood and language, and particularly on the work of Glissant on opacity and difference, in order to interrogate the relationship between expression, understanding and power. Thus, the paper outlines how an understanding of the relationship between body, place and talk might inform pedagogy by highlighting the need for space to embrace divergent, complicated, irrational, playful and non‐functional language practices in early childhood, rather than looking for rapid, straight line development.

Making the Invisible Visible: Using a Contextual Measurement Approach to Identify Children With Social-Emotional and Behavioral Needs in Preschool Classrooms

Best practices in early childhood include using measures to identify children’s social-emotional and behavioral needs within routine, naturalistic preschool contexts. Aligned with best practices, we examined the combined utility of two contextual measures, a teacher report and a direct observation of classroom behavior, in the context of interactions with teachers, peers, and learning tasks. Latent profile analysis ( N = 527 children) identified four profile groups: (a) well-adjusted and positively engaged, (b) high externalizing and conflict engagement, (c) adequately adjusted/mildly disengaged in learning tasks, and (d) elevated internalizing behavior and low engagement. Children’s profile classification was associated concurrently with emotion regulation and social competence. Teachers independently reported on children’s social-emotional or academic concerns. Teachers’ reports of social-emotional concerns comported for children in the externalizing profile but did not comport for the internalizing group. Findings illustrate the utility of a contextual assessment approach for early identification and intervention, particularly for children who display internalizing behavior.

A systems perspective on early childhood development education in South Africa

South Africa’s basic education system is dysfunctional. It scores last or close to last in a myriad of metrics and delivers learners with some of the worst literacy and numeracy competencies worldwide. A bimodal distribution in the results exists when learners from the richest socioeconomic quintile are performing adequately well, while learners from the poorest quintiles are failing. This paper presents a system dynamics simulation model to describe the causal linkages between improved early childhood and pre-school learning practices on the education system as a whole. The paper investigates the difference in performance between rich and poor communities. Three interventions explore the research question of whether it is the number of enrolments into early childhood development programs that increases a cohort’s school readiness, or rather the quality of the early childhood development programs into which they were enrolled. The results answer the research question for the Western Cape province by showing that increasing the quality of the formal ECD programs leads to a greater percentage of school-ready five year olds than increasing the percentage of enrolled children, but that decreasing community poverty leads to better results than either intervention. The results show the simulation model to be a powerful tool to assist with policy setting and intervention testing for any other province or country by simply changing the input data and calibration.

A national examination of poverty and interactive caregiving practices among parents of young children.

Interactive caregiving practices can be protective for the development of the brain in early childhood, particularly for children experiencing poverty. There has been limited research examining the prevalence of interactive caregiving practices in early childhood at the population level across the U.S. The purpose of this study was to describe the prevalence of three interactive caregiver activities: (1) reading, (2) telling stories/singing songs, and (3) eating a meal together, using the 2017–2018 National Survey of Children’s Health, among a sample of children age five and younger, and to examine the relationship between these interactive caregiving practices across income levels and by selected potentially confounding household characteristics. Children living in families with incomes below the federal poverty level had lower odds of being read to every day compared to children living in families with incomes at 400% or more above the federal poverty level (aOR 0.70; 95% CI 0.53–0.92). Children living in families within incomes at 100–199% of the federal poverty level had lower odds of being sung to and told stories to every day than children living in families with incomes at 400% or above the federal poverty level (aOR 0.62; 95% CI 0.50–0.78).These findings have long-term implications for children, as interactive caregiving practices are known to improve cognitive activities such as language development, which is associated with educational attainment into adulthood. Finding ways to increase the adoption of interactive caregiving practices may be one way to mitigate disparities in education, especially among families experiencing poverty.

(Un)finding childhoods in citational practices with postdevelopmental pedagogies

Taking up the contention that child development manifests through the developmental logics it enacts, the authors work with citational practices as iterations of how developmentalism's logics are done in everyday practices in early childhood and teacher education. They work with Erica Burman's method of ‘found childhood’ to propose citational practices as artefacts of found childhood – as traces of how childhood happens in contemporary life and as an indicator of the dominant knowledges and knowledge-making practices that animate 21st-century childhoods. With disciplining and failure as moments of citational practices, the authors follow how practices of citing do and do not do developmental logics. In dialogue with postdevelopmental pedagogies, they wonder how one might cite into otherwise futures beyond the certainty and temporalities dictated by child development. The authors refuse the progress-oriented logics of child development and do not articulate new ‘best’ practices for citing, but instead write through provocations that might take up questions of world-making, pedagogy and life in line with the propositions offered by postdevelopmental pedagogies.

A mixed methods study of siblings’ roles in maternal feeding practices in early childhood: an application of the learning from experience process

BackgroundFirstborn children have higher rates of obesity compared to secondborns, perhaps due, in part, to differential feeding practices. Despite the centrality of siblings in family life and potential for influence, almost nothing is known about the role of siblings in parent feeding practices in early childhood.MethodsParticipants (n = 117) were mothers of consecutively born siblings. Firstborns participated in an RCT that compared a responsive parenting intervention designed for primary prevention of obesity against a safety control. Secondborns participated in an observational cohort. Multilevel models tested whether and how firstborn characteristics (temperament, appetite, rapid weight gain) at 16 weeks and 1 year were associated maternal feeding practices of secondborns in infancy at 16 weeks, 28 weeks, and 1 year (food to soothe) and at ages 1, 2, and 3 years (structure-and control-based feeding practices). A purposive subsample (n = 30) of mothers also participated in semi-structured interviews to further illuminate potential sibling influences on maternal feeding practices during infancy and toddlerhood.ResultsFirstborn characteristics did not predict secondborn feeding in infancy (all ps > 0.05). Firstborn negative affect, however, predicted mothers’ less consistent mealtime routines (b (SE) = − 0.27 (0.09); p = 0.005) and more pressure (b (SE) = 0.38 (0.12); p = 0.001). Firstborn appetite predicted mothers’ less frequent use of food to soothe (b (SE) = − 0.16 (0.07); p = 0.02) when secondborns were toddlers. Firstborn surgency, regulation, and rapid weight gain, however, did not predict secondborn feeding practices during toddlerhood (all ps > 0.05). Interviews with mothers revealed three ways that maternal experiences with firstborns informed feeding practices of secondborns: 1) Use of feeding practices with secondborn that worked for the firstborn; 2) Confidence came from firstborn feeding experiences making secondborn feeding less anxiety-provoking; and 3) Additional experiences with firstborn and other factors that contributed to secondborn feeding practices.ConclusionsSome firstborn characteristics and maternal experiences with firstborns as well as maternal psychosocial factors may have implications for mothers’ feeding practices with secondborns. Together, these mixed methods findings may inform future research and family-based interventions focused on maternal feeding of siblings in early childhood.

Parenting practices in early childhood in the municipalities of Riosucio and Manzanares

El presente artículo hace parte del proyecto de investigación Promoción de competencias parentales para el desarrollo de conductas prosociales de niños y niñas de 4 a 7 años realizado en el eje cafetero y que hace parte del programa presentado a Colciencias: “Sentidos y prácticas políticas de niños, niñas y jóvenes en contextos de vulnerabilidad en el eje cafetero, Antioquia y Bogotá: un camino posible de consolidación de la democracia, la paz y la reconciliación mediante procesos de formación ciudadana”. Es el resultado de la segunda fase del proyecto, en la que mediante la realización de entrevistas semiestructuradas se buscó describir las prácticas de crianza en la primera infancia utilizadas por las familias de dos municipios de Caldas.

Parenting practices during early childhood: validity evidence of a Brazilian scale

ObjectiveThe present study aims to analyze the validity of evidence and internal consistency of an inventory for assessing parenting practices during early childhood. MethodParticipants were 857 mothers of one-to-42-months children recruited in three cities in the Southeast region and one city in the Midwest region of Brazil. The participants answered a sociodemographic questionnaire with maternal and child data, and the Parenting Styles Inventory for Mothers of Babies (IEPMB). The IEPMB includes 25 questions about positive and negative parenting practices that mothers use to raise their children. An exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis was conducted using the following criteria to indicate adequate model fit: root-mean-square error of approximation (RMSEA) < .08; standardized root mean square residual (SRMR) < .09; comparative fit index (CFI) > 0.90. For the hypothesis-testing method, a comparison between groups using a student's t-test based on the child's age (infants vs. toddlers) and mother's age (adolescents vs. adults) was carried out. ResultsThe final 11 items model of the measure revealed an adequate overall model fit (RMSEA = 0.04; SRMR = 0.04; CFI = 0.94). The items were grouped into three constructs: Aggressiveness and Emotional Dysregulation, Relaxed Discipline, and Positive Monitoring. Adolescent mothers reported less positive monitoring than adult mothers (p < 0.001). Mothers of toddlers reported more aggressiveness/emotional dysregulation (p < 0.001) and relaxed discipline (p = 0.05) than mothers of infants. ConclusionsThe instrument named from this study as the Parenting Practices Inventory for Mothers of Babies showed evidence for measuring mothers’ parenting practices in early childhood and allows the identification of parents who need support.

Parenting practices in early childhood as technologies of power in family and educational contexts.

This research with a post-structuralist epistemological approach and qualitative methodology had the objective of revealing the conditions that make it possible for the parenting practices of caregivers of early childhood children in family and educational contexts to be configured as technologies of power (procedures through which power relations are socially legitimized). Likewise, it was proposed to demonstrate the self-care practices of children configured as technologies of the self. The results made it possible to identify current parenting practices where discipline practices are still evident in both contexts. It is concluded that power relations arise in the middle of a relational triad school - family - childhood, in an apparently functional gear, thus, children are influenced by the processes of both entities and begin to witness how the family has become Foucault's terms in an "institution". Part of the practices carried out by adults are incorporated by children and become self-care practices that, according to the analysis obtained, are part of a powerful formation of technologies of the self, however, not so well achieved. at this age, but a strong constitution is expected in the next stages of the life cycle.

Understanding relationships between epistemic cognition and executive functioning: Implications for measurement and practice in early childhood

Research shows that epistemic cognition can support reasoning about the inclusion of diverse children. We argue that, to engage in such reasoning, children need the capacity to consider and evaluate competing knowledge perspectives (epistemic cognition) and to be cognitively flexible. Cognitive flexibility involves a subset of skills within the suite of self-regulation skills known as executive functions (EF). This study explored the extent to which cognitive flexibility might be related to epistemic cognition and the effectiveness of a pictorial and interview methodology to explore children’s epistemic cognition. Eighty-two children participated in three EF tasks designed to assess their ability to flexibly shift from one mental set to another (cognitive flexibility). Children were also interviewed about the drawings they created to represent social exclusion/inclusion in their play settings. Results indicated that, in contrast to expectations, cognitive flexibility and epistemic cognition were not related. Challenges associated with using the pictorial and interview methodology are discussed.

Mothers’ Understanding of Brain Development in Early Childhood: A Qualitative Study in Brazil

To analyze mothers’ understanding of child brain development and their stimulus practices with children in the first months of life. Qualitative research, with 18 Brazilian mothers, over 18 years of age, used semi-structured interviews to identify their perspectives on important healthcare outcomes, based on reflexive thematic analysis. Mother’s accounts displayed little understanding of child brain development, focusing on the development of neuropsychomotor skills. There was relative uncertainty about the daily care practices that would provide appropriate child stimuli, through which to provide promotion and protection of child development. Maternal knowledge about child brain development indicates a need to strengthen parenting practices in early childhood. Expanding this knowledge and practices can contribute to parental caregivers being immediate providers of child development, to detect vulnerabilities and early difficulties. In addition, this approach would promote involvement in daily care and increase shared responsibility in the construction of strengthened executive functions for good child development.

Parent agency in promoting child learning: Family perceptions of focusing on family strengths during early childhood assessment and planning practices

Identifying family strengths is central to early childhood practices. Moving beyond identification to exploring and explicitly applying those strengths can evolve strengths-based and family capacity-building practices. Assessment and planning processes that focus on the strategies families use to help their child learn can give agency to families in this parenting role. This exploratory study examined the perspectives of seven families who participated in an early intervention assessment-to-planning approach that sought to uncover, understand, and utilize the strategies families used to help their child learn and their appraisals of those strategies. Family responses during qualitative interviews were analyzed into three themes: (1) naturalistic observations yield naturalistic understandings, (2) practices that honor family strengths and family fit, and (3) self-discovery and self-affirmation. Implications for evolving family capacity-building approaches are discussed.

Pedagogical documentation and the refusal of method: troubling dogmas and inviting collective obligations

ABSTRACT This article explores how pedagogical documentation, as the refusal of method, can be aligned with post qualitative inquiry, opening up possibilities for refuting dogmas and methods in early childhood pedagogy, theory, practice, and research. It delineates understandings of pedagogical documentation in the educational project of Reggio Emilia, and describes dogmatic (or unthought) practices which influence perceptions and uses of pedagogical documentation elsewhere: the dogma of children’s interests; the dogma of implementation; and the dogma of method. The article draws on the experience of a collective of academic-researchers and teacher-researchers working with pedagogical documentation in the context of an investigation into children’s relations with waste. Excerpts from interviews illuminate ‘voices troubling dogmas’, proposing an invitation to move forward from dogmas to imagining our collective obligations. Pedagogical documentation is thus conceived as a catalyst for helping us think collectively with the hope of making the dogmatic impossible.

Potentialities of pedagogical documentation as an intertwined research process with children and teachers in slow pedagogies

ABSTRACT This article seeks to look below the surface of pedagogical documentation with a temporal lens. We focus on the potentialities of pedagogical documentation as an intertwined research process with children and teachers as learners in ‘slow pedagogies’ (Clark [2020]. “Towards a Listening ECEC System: Valuing Slow Pedagogy and Slow Knowledge.” In Transforming Early Childhood in England, edited by P. Moss and C. Cameron. London: UCL Press). The article brings together two research studies: a small-scale study of Norwegian early childhood practice that adds an in-depth and a cross-national study based on key-informant interviews that adds breadth to thinking about the value of pedagogical documentation. We present a visual proposal, which extends our understanding of the ongoing process of children’s explorations and teacher’s observations, reflections and didactic decisions in open-ended learning processes (Carlsen [2021]. Reggio Emilia – Atelierkultur og Utforskende Pedagogikk [Reggio Emilia – Atelier Culture and Exploratory Pedagogy]. Bergen: Fagbokforlaget). The visualization shows the reciprocity in the co-researching process with children and teachers and contributes to the understanding of the temporal dimension and the complexity of the process of pedagogical documentation. The discussion points to the importance of early childhood teachers being able to ‘catch the moments’ in young children’s explorations and the value of ‘stretched time’ that can be supported and recorded through the process of pedagogical documentation.

Is Motor Milestone Assessment in Infancy Valid and Scaled Equally Across Sex, Birth Weight, and Gestational Age? Findings From the Millennium Cohort Study.

Is the assessment of motor milestones valid and scaled equivalently for all infants? It is not only important to understand if the way we use gross and fine motor scores are appropriate for monitoring motor milestones but also to determine if these scores are confounded by specific infant characteristics. Therefore, the aim of the study is to investigate the latent structure underlying motor milestone assessment in infancy and measurement invariance across sex, birth weight, and gestational age. For this study, the birth cohort data from the United Kingdom Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) was used, which includes the assessment of eight motor milestone tasks from the Denver Developmental Screening Test in 9-month-old infants (N = 18,531), depicting early motor development of the first children of generation Z. Confirmatory factor analyses showed a better model fit for a two-factor structure (i.e., gross and fine motor development) compared to a one-factor structure (i.e., general motor development), and multiple indicators multiple causes modeling revealed no differential item functioning related to sex, birth weight, and gestational age. The study provides support for the use of gross and fine motor scores when assessing motor milestones in infants—both boys and girls with different birth weights and of varying gestational ages. Further investigation into widely adopted assessment tools is recommended to support the use of valid composite scores in early childhood research and practice.

Tina Bruce, Lynn McNair and Jane Whinnett (eds), Putting storytelling at the heart of early childhood practice: A reflective guide for early years practitioners

Tina Bruce, Lynn McNair and Jane Whinnett (eds), <i>Putting storytelling at the heart of early childhood practice: A reflective guide for early years practitioners</i>