Practice In Early Childhood Education Research Articles

‘How are rainbows made?': profiles of early childhood teachers' beliefs and their associations with responses to young children's causal questions

ABSTRACT This study investigates how early childhood teachers in China respond to children’s causal questions and explores the relationship between their belief profiles and response patterns. Grounded in Martin Buber’s dialogic philosophy and complemented by constructivist theories, latent profile analysis revealed three distinct belief profiles: leaders, followers, and polyphonists. Multilevel logistic regression showed that leaders were more inclined to provide explanations, followers tended to encourage exploration and information seeking, and polyphonists used a balanced combination of response types. These findings highlight the complex interplay between beliefs and practices in early childhood education, reflecting the cross-cultural exchange, collision, and integration of global educational ideas. The study underscores the importance of fostering critical and creative thinking in teacher education to help navigate the complexities of education.

THE IMPACT OF THE PREDICTION-OBSERVATION-EXPLANATION MODEL ON PRESCHOOLERS’ UNDERSTANDING OF GEAR CONCEPTS THROUGH BLOCK PLAY

The complexity of gear concepts, often misunderstood by young children, highlights the need for educational frameworks beyond simple play. To examine the effects of using the prediction, observation, and explanation (POE) model in building block activities, a true experimental design was implemented. A total of 49 preschoolers were randomly assigned to either an experimental group, which engaged with building blocks embedded with the POE model, or a control group, which followed a building instruction guide. Data were gathered through pretests, posttests, and two-week delayed tests administered to all participants. The theoretical framework for this study was based on the POE model, emphasizing the importance of prediction, observation, and explanation in the learning process. The results revealed that the POE model had positive impacts on fostering young children’s acquisition of gear concepts. Specifically, gear speed and gear direction were identified as the most challenging concepts for preschoolers to grasp. The results highlight the critical role of children's reflection in learning these concepts. The participants’ common naive conceptions about gear function, gear speed, and gear direction were identified. The implications of these results highlight the importance of incorporating reflective practices in early childhood education to enhance concept acquisition and address misconceptions. Keywords: science education, gear concepts, building blocks, alternative conceptions, early childhood education

Children’s bodily positioning in accounts of naptime in early childhood education and care: a Foucauldian perspective

ABSTRACT Naptime practices of early childhood education and care (ECEC) have been found to place children’s bodies under adult governance, leaving children few possibilities for agency and influence (e.g. Kuukka 2015; Nothard et al. 2015). In this study, we explore children’s (aged five to seven) accounts of naptime in ECEC, asking how children’s bodily positioning is manifested in them. We analysed two data sets: (1) ethnographic conversations and interviews with children in ECEC, and (2) children’s imaginative narratives on naptime in ECEC. The children’s accounts manifested three bodily positionings: docile, demurring, and rebellious bodies. The findings indicate children have limited possibilities for agency and control over their bodies in this context, although, according to the UNCRC, they have a right to have an influence in matters affecting them (UNICEF 1989). The study highlights the significance of considering naptime anew from the perspective of diminishing adult governance of children’s bodies in ECEC.

Examining Early Childhood Expulsion Through a Trauma-Informed Lens

Expulsion is unfortunately common in early childhood settings and has a negative impact on both children and caregivers. In this qualitative study, we conducted semi-structured interviews to learn about caregivers’ experiences with early childhood expulsion. We analyzed the data using a trauma-informed lens to examine how the experience of expulsion was potentially traumatic to children and caregivers. Our findings indicate that caregivers believed the experience of expulsion was deeply harmful for themselves and their children. The implications of this study highlight ways early childhood education systems and practices can improve to be more trauma-informed and prevent expulsion.

Teacher’s Use of English and Spanish Interactive Strategies during Wordless Shared Book Reading: Relations to Emergent Bilingual Children’s Responses

Little attention has been paid to describing the ways early childhood education (ECE) teachers implement interactive strategies and the use of Spanish and English, in real time, to support Spanish–English emergent bilingual children’s contributions to shared book reading interactions. Video recordings from 19 ECE classrooms during shared book reading were used to conduct sequential analysis to examine the different types of interactive strategies (e.g., questions, extensions) implemented by bilingual ECE teachers and emergent bilinguals’ responses to these strategies. This study found that teachers’ interactive strategies may reflect a degree of reciprocity, with teachers and children sensitively attuned to one another’s contributions in real time. Teachers’ questions in English and Spanish were related to emergent bilinguals’ responses across a wide range of language complexity. Similarly, teachers and emergent bilinguals tended to respond to one another in the language of the prior utterance, suggesting teachers and emergent bilinguals are attuned to the contributions of one another. By examining teacher–child dynamics, this study produced results that can address issues that may have direct, translatable implications for ECE practice and intervention efforts.

Views, Knowledge, and Self-Reported Practices of Early Childhood Educators: Sociocultural Theory’s Practicability

Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory is a well-known theory that focuses on the cognitive development by combining it with a social perspective. In the literature, Sociocultural Theory is seen as an alternative to the traditional theories of cognitive development in early childhood education. Teachers' perceptions of the theory may be important in the children's learning process. The current study aims to investigate the views, knowledge, and self-reported practices of early childhood educators regarding the practicability of Vygotsky’s Sociocultural theory. Phenomenological research design, as a qualitative research method, is applied. The data is collected through semi-structured interviews with early childhood educators who worked in private kindergartens in Ankara, and convenience sampling is used to reach the participants. Two researchers analyzed the data with the thematic analysis method. The findings show that although participants used some of the implications of the theory, they do not have explicit information about the implications, especially about the scaffolding and peer learning. It is recommended that more support and training regarding the theory, especially peer learning and scaffolding, should be offered to the in-service teachers.

Assessing the implementation of healthy eating and physical activity policies and practices in Early Childhood Education and Care in New South Wales, Australia: A cross-sectional study.

Australian children are not meeting the recommended physical activity (PA) and healthy eating (HE) guidelines. Health behaviour practices implemented in community settings such as early education services can improve child's health outcomes and are therefore key to help meet guidelines. This study aimed to measure the implementation of HE and PA policies and practices in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) services in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, and to examine their association with service characteristics. A random sample of 1122 centre-based ECEC services were invited to a cross-sectional survey measuring HE and PA policy and practice implementation. Regression analyses were conducted to assess the relationship between the service characteristics and implementation of policies/practices. In total, 565 ECEC services completed the survey. Results show that while some practices are implemented, the implementation of practices promoting HE and PA education is low. Practices related to educator training for HE (18%) and PA (13%) were poorly implemented. The implementation of practices such as 'providing educator training around child PA', 'engaging families in activities to increase child PA' and 'encouraging supportive feeding practices' were significantly higher in services located in major cities than regional/remote services. 'Having a PA policy' and the practice of 'limiting the use of screen time' was significantly higher in long day care services than in preschools. The implementation of 'providing educator-led PA', 'providing free play opportunities' and 'having a PA policy' was significantly lower in private not-for-profit community managed services than in private for-profit services. Implementation of various HE and PA policies and practices in regional/remote services, private not-for-profit services and preschools across NSW could be improved. SO WHAT?: Future research should be prioritised towards identifying factors influencing the implementation of these policies and practices to best tailor implementation support efforts for those who need it the most.

Understanding datafication in Swedish ECEC through three evaluation imaginaries

In this paper we explore datafication through a specific kind of evaluative practice in Swedish early childhood education and care (ECEC): the creation of quality reports by individual preschools. A theoretical framework is developed based on Dahler-Larsen's descriptions of three ‘evaluation imaginaries’ (the modern, reflexive modernity and audit society), with elaboration of their respective characteristics and complementary notions from other sources. We then apply the framework, and a qualitative text analytical approach, to analyse eight quality reports from diverse Swedish preschools, purposefully selected to represent preschools that vary in terms of ownership, geographical location, size and pedagogical profile. We find that the reflexive modernity imaginary is most clearly influential in the ECEC quality reports, but there are emerging indications of the audit society imaginary's influence. We also find variations in prioritised focus in the reports among ECEC providers, underscoring the need for further exploration. The study calls for future research to delve into provider-specific nuances, expand the investigation to other kinds of evaluations and scrutinise the broader implications for ECEC operations and practices.

Reconceptualizing early childhood education: Cartographic relational stories

In this article, we enact a partial cartographic storying of reconceptualist turns in our work. We do this by situating ourselves in relation to each other and our work across time as a mode of tracing the (situated) possibilities that these turns have enacted for children-in-relation with worlds. In enacting this dialogic and cartographic storying, we collaborate in a way that is inspired by Black methodologies. This means that we intentionally think with liberatory possibilities in our work in early childhood education research and practice across modalities, disciplines, temporalities and geographies. Importantly, like Black methodologies this co-theorizing is also ontological; it is inseparable from our own relational becomings. Following an anticolonial ethos, we are interested in the liberatory potentials of our work, at multiple scales and in different but specific places. We attempt to enact the difficult task of (re)storying our childhood education research and practice in ways that pay attention to the interconnected presences and effects of white supremacy, human supremacy and colonialism, while simultaneously refusing to reinscribe a flattened damage-centred understanding of children, educators and their relational worlds.

Negotiating parental agency in daily encounters with educators

In this paper, we reflect on the relationships between parents and professionals in early childhood education, as they unfold on a daily basis when parents drop off children in the morning and pick them up in the afternoon. The paper seeks to understand how parents exert agency in such contexts, and how professionals respond to such agency by facilitating or negotiating active contributions from parents during these short encounters. We adopt a situated and interactional perspective on agency in professional practice informed by a multimodal approach to discourse and interaction, presenting an empirical research design consisting of tangible face-to-face encounters between parents and professionals through audiovisual recordings in the context of Switzerland. The paper explores a collection of four case studies extracted from a dataset comprising over a thousand video-recorded encounters between parents and professionals, and identifies various expressions of parental agency as they occur in interactions during the drop-offs and pick-ups. It also describes and elaborates how professionals respond to such expressions and contribute to a joint accomplishment of parental agency at work. The findings show that parents and educators play an active role in how these encounters unfold, in the sorts of actions, frames and participation frameworks collaboratively accomplished during drop-offs and pick-ups and in establishing rapport in interaction. The findings are discussed from the perspective of professional practice in the field of early childhood education, especially ‘transitional encounters’ related to educational practices in early childhood education.

Constructing and governing freedom – physical environments as a discursive practice in Swedish early childhood education

ABSTRACT This article problematizes the ideals and norms surrounding the organization of environments for children. It investigates the understanding of the arrangement and organization of Early Childhood Education (ECE) environments, aiming to offer an alternative perspective on taken-for-granted assumptions about ideal environments for children. Using Foucault’s conceptualization of discourse and power, the article examines how discursive practices shape and reshape norms and ideals of what constitutes a ‘good’ physical environment in ECE. Based on 145 texts published between 1969 and 2021 in an influential Swedish preschool teacher journal, the study analyzes systematic discourses on preschool environments. Key findings concern the environment’s role in the governing of children. The discursive construction of ideal environments emphasizes a ‘toy-free’ setting with minimal framing and instruction, pointing to a discursive shift in the desired type of freedom for children: from the freedom to become a part of culture, to the freedom to change culture.

Strategi Keterlibatan Orang Tua dalam Pendidikan Anak di Era Digital

Technological progress is inevitable. In today's digital era, technology has been completely assimilated into our daily lives. The lives of young children today have changed in several ways as a result of this. The digital era offers advantages and disadvantages. As the individuals closest to their children, parents must be able to use appropriate parenting techniques in the digital era so that their children are not affected by the negative impacts of technological advances. This post will discuss a number of digital-based early childhood education practices that parents can implement. It is hoped that parents can implement these strategies in order to reduce the negative impacts of using digital media.

Actual and perceived motor competence in children with motor coordination difficulties: Effect of a movement-based intervention

BackgroundThe present study analyses the effect of a Movement-Based Intervention to improve Actual and Perceived Motor Competence in children with probable Developmental Coordination Disorder aged four and six years. Methods and proceduresA longitudinal pre-experimental study was designed with measurements conducted at pre-test, post-test and follow-up (after 5 months without intervention). The group, composed of children with probable Developmental Coordination Disorder or low motor competence, consisted of 57 participants, and the duration of a Movement-Based Intervention was 27 sessions allocated in nine weeks. Outcomes and resultsActual Motor Competence was evaluated with the Movement Assessment Battery for School children and Perceived Motor Competence with Pictorial Scale of Perceived Motor Skill Competence for Children. The results showed significant improvements in both study variables (Actual Motor Competence and Perceived Motor Competence), both at post-test and follow-up, five months after the end of the intervention.In conclusion, a Movement-based Intervention is effective in improving Actual and Perceived Motor Competence in the participants of this research, children with low motor competence or probable Developmental Coordination Disorder. What this paper addsConsidering the improvements observed after the program in Spanish sample, it seems that the usual practice in Early Childhood Education in our context may not be sufficient, i.e., it may not provide children with the necessary support (number of lesson and time) and appropriate learning contexts to promote the development of their motor skills. Considering the results, this study suggests that using an Movement-Based Intervention with an appropriate pedagogical approach, and offering different learning opportunities to children according to their needs, could positively influence their Actual and Perceived Motor Competence, and could motivate them towards future practice.

Culturally Reflective Practice: An Alternative Framework to Culturally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Education in New Zealand

This paper critically examines the adoption and implications of culturally appropriate and reflective practices in New Zealand early childhood education (ECE). Using the national ECE framework, Te Whāriki, as a case study, this analysis highlights the limitations of culturally appropriate practices in addressing systemic decontextualization issues. It proposes culturally reflective practices as a more comprehensive alternative. By integrating universal minimum standards of human and children’s rights with local cultural contexts, culturally reflective practices challenge dominant discourses and promote a democratic ECE system. This paper further explores the necessity of incorporating culturally sensitive and sustaining pedagogies in teacher education to foster a reflective practice that transcends mere cultural appropriateness.

Changes in an early childhood education and care teacher’s practical theory in language pedagogy as a nexus:

This case study focuses on an expert early childhood education and care teacher’s practical theory in language pedagogy when implementing bilingual pedagogy (Finnish–Swedish) in a linguistically heterogeneous group of children aged 3–5 years. Practical theory refers to teachers’ views of good teaching that guide their practices. Applying a mediated discourse analysis approach (nexus analysis), we examine the interplay of factors that promote and challenge changes in the practical theory of language pedagogy in early childhood education and care. The discourses show that the changes are related to Swedish use (a new language for the children) and the use of the children’s home languages. Several personal, interactional, and contextual factors circulate in the expert teacher’s discourses, affecting the changes in her practical theory. Personal factors include reflection, beliefs, and experiences. Feedback from parents and children represents interactional factors, whereas contextual factors cover concepts such as participation and language-enriched teaching. This study highlights the significance of the multiple interrelated factors that are present when an expert teacher’s practical theory of language pedagogy changes, which needs to be reflected upon both in the practice of early childhood education and in teacher training.

Gendering and slow violence as mundane political practice in early childhood education

ABSTRACT For many years, researchers have attended to gender in early childhood education (ECE) from an equity perspective, framed initially by feminist and feminist poststructuralist theories. More recently, researchers have adopted feminist new materialism and feminist posthumanist perspectives to consider gender in ECE. Here we think with the concept of slow violence to contemplate how, in combination with extra-sectionality, gendering is a cumulative and an integral part of the mundane political practices occurring in ECE contexts, lurking in the everydayness of busy settings and ‘hidden in plain sight’. We show how the talk of educators forms an integral part of the practices occurring daily in ECE settings, and how the ways gender is discussed becomes one of the mundane political practices that are cumulative and part of slow violence. This article was prompted by nuances that emerged when probing data from interviews with Australian early childhood educators and by noticing differently, how gender can be constructed in the everyday talk and actions of educators.

Pedagogical Leadership in Finnish Early Childhood Education and Care through the Lens of Practice Architectures

This research examines how practice architectures, i.e., cultural-discursive, material-economic, and social-political arrangements both enable and constrain the pedagogical leadership practice of early child-hood education (ECE) center directors (N = 3). The data were collected by a qualitative shadowing method and analyzed deductively using the theory of practice architectures. The findings revealed that social- political arrangements were fundamental for directing pedagogical leadership practice, affecting both material- economic and cultural-discursive arrangements. The social- political arrangements of pedagog-ical leadership were grounded in the municipality’s organizational structure; in turn, this structure organ-ized daily pedagogical leadership practices. Social-political arrangements were narrated as the directors emphasized the importance of national guidelines, legislation, and implementation of the national and local curricula. These were related to the material-economic arrangements because they required organizing time for discussion and further training of personnel. The national guidelines combined material-economic and social-political aspects as well as cultural-discursive arrangements in leadership practice, as pedagog-ical development aligned with legislation and national curriculum demands in a wide range of leadership functions in ECE centers. The essence of pedagogical leadership practice was the focal point of joint dis-cussions regarding pedagogy and the implementation of curriculum in the ECE centers. Most significantly, the quality of these discussions could enable or constrain pedagogical leadership and were influenced by cultural-discursive arrangements and leadership philosophy of the center directors alike.

A Focus Group Study on Participatory Practices in Early Childhood Education and Care Across Four European Countries

ABSTRACT Participation in educational settings is a universal right of every child, consigned by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. This right encompasses the need to protect and encourage young children´s active participation and decision-making in early childhood education and care. Research Findings: This qualitative study, inspired by the Lundy model (2007), examined ECEC teachers’ (n = 25) and coordinators’ (n = 25) perceptions about participation practices, collected through focus groups conducted in Belgium, Greece, Poland, and Portugal. Participants were previously referred as implementing participatory practices. Results showed that the four dimensions of the Lundy model emerged in teachers’ and coordinators’ group discussions: Participative space, Children’s voice, Audience of children’s perspectives, and Influence. Furthermore, a number of subcategories in each dimension reflected different orientations toward participatory pedagogy. Practice or Policy: This study contributes to informing and inspiring participation practices in ECEC across Europe and to enriching policy discussions regarding children´s participation rights, particularly in the early years. Promising participatory practices were identified in the various dimensions of participation, though some challenges remain, requiring in-depth knowledge about pedagogical practices and the promotion of initiatives to empower professionals to enhance children’s right to participate, particularly at the center-level.

A critical discourse analysis of NAEYC's developmentally appropriate practice texts: Shifting rhetoric and implications for advancing equity in family-school partnerships

ABSTRACT The most recent iteration of NAEYC’s key Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) texts (the 2020 Position Statement and the fourth edition of the DAP book) reflect a more robust stance on family educator-relationships and attention to issues of equity as reflected in linguistic shifts. This article analyses NAEYC’s rhetorical moves between the 2009 texts and the present versions, presenting a mixed-methods critical discourse analysis (CDA) of the changes in the texts drawing on critical theory, Doucet’s framework for anti-racist practice, discourse theory and critical linguistics. The findings reveal meaningful changes in the language and framing of family-educator relationships, highlighting a move towards more inclusive, reciprocal partnerships. And while the current editions of NAEYC’s key DAP texts show greater attention to cultural inclusivity and anti-bias approaches, we make a case to push for explicitly anti-racist reciprocal partnerships with families and communities within the DAP texts. We discuss the implications of these changes for policy and practice in early childhood education, as well as suggestions for future research in diverse cultural contexts, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. This analysis contributes to the ongoing conversation about equity and social justice in educational partnerships and practices.

“A Life Full of Meaning”: The Lifework and Educational Approach of Malka Haas

ABSTRACT Malka Haas (1920–2021) was a key pioneer in the founding of Israeli kibbutz kindergartens, and she profoundly influenced both the curriculum and practice of early childhood education (ECE) for the entire country. The article reviews Haas’s biography, her professional development, and the main principles in her educational approach: “the kindergarten as a whole life,” based on the significant experiences of the child in connection with the community and the Jewish tradition. The article also describes the sources of inspiration from which Haas drew her ideas and the impact of her approach on educational concepts for ECE in Israel today.