Showing papers in "Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood in 2000"

‘Concrete’ Manipulatives, Concrete Ideas:

Abstract: The notion of ‘concrete,’ from concrete manipulatives to pedagogical sequences such as ‘concrete to abstract,’ is embedded in educational theories, research, and practice, especially in mathematics education. In this article, the author considers research on the use of manipulatives and offers a critique of common perspectives on the notions of concrete manipulatives and concrete ideas. He offers a reformulation of the definition of ‘concrete’ as used in psychology and education and provides illustrations of how, accepting that reformulation, computer manipulatives may be pedagogically efficacious.

Consensus, Dissensus or Community: The Politics of Parent Involvement in Early Childhood Education:

Abstract: Parents appear in early childhood texts and policy documents within discourses that position them as ‘others’, preventing the creation of equitable parent—staff relationships. This article draws on discussions with early childhood staff to explore the implications of ‘othering’ parents and it canvasses two contrasting communication strategies through which to challenge this ‘othering’. The first strategy derives from Habermas's modernist notion of communicative consensus; the second from Lyotard's postmodern notion of emancipatory dissensus.

Violent Boys and Precocious Girls: regulating childhood at the end of the millennium

Abstract: This article explores the regulation of childhood at the end of the twentieth century by focusing on the figures of the proto-violent boy and the proto-sexual girl in relation to the figure of the dangerous and predatory male adult. These figures, who represent the Other to normal childhood, are explored with respect to popular culture, examining computer games on the one hand and popular song and dance on the other. It is argued that conceptions of childhood for the next century need to engage with the specificity of the sites in which subjectivities are constituted and to move away from the simple dichotomies of normality and pathology.

The Scientific Discourse of Education: Predetermining the Lives of others — Foucault, Education, and Children

Abstract: A discourse of education has emerged that legitimizes the belief that science has revealed what younger human beings are like, what we can expect from them at various ages, and how we should differentiate our treatment of them in educational settings. Recent poststructuralist, critical, and postmodern work has called to question the notion of predetermined, universal childhoods that require particular forms of educational experience determined by scientific discovery and by human beings who are older. The purpose of this article is to further problematize the discourse of education that has justified the construction of younger human beings as the ‘other’ and legitimizes the continued regulation of their lives through the institution of education. This particular problematization is based on and limited by the work of Foucault and addressed from two positions: (1) rules that govern the discourse of education; and (2) disciplinary technologies that produce docile bodies as objects that yield to the discourse.

Teletubby Tales: Popular Culture in the Early Years Language and Literacy Curriculum

Abstract: The aim of the study reported in this article was to explore the potential that popular culture has for motivating young children to engage in literacy and oracy practices in the early years. Pre-school settings and schools regularly fail to take account of children's popular cultural interests in their development of curriculum content. Literacy practices in most nurseries and schools are located within dominant cultural discourses and in the case of many industrialised societies, this means that the curriculum usually reflects the cultural norms of white middle-class communities. In an attempt to disrupt these dominant discourses, literacy activities related to the television programme Teletubbies were introduced into two nurseries in England. Data were gathered using field notes, photographs and interviews. The article discusses how the incorporation of popular cultural texts into the curriculum provided motivation and excitement for many children, some of whom were not usually willing members of the 'literacy club'. In this study, literacy activities related to the Teletubbies were introduced into two nurseries in England. Teletubbies is a television programme created for very young children that focuses on four cuddly creatures who live together in a bunker. The decision to incorporate the Teletubby discourse into the language and literacy curriculum was based on the huge popularity the programme has enjoyed with children under 5 in the United Kingdom. This popularity may be attributed in part to the fact that the programme has captured the essence of a 'postmodern childhood' (Wagg, 1992) in which children's media 'troubles less and less to mediate the world to the child, or to impart knowledge or skills. Instead TV (along with other mass media) is the world, and it happily discusses itself' (Wagg, 1992, p. 169). The Teletubbies have television screens on their tummies on which are featured short documentaries relating to children's interests. Each recording is shown twice

What Next? Toddler Netizens, Playstation Thumb, Techno-Literacies

Abstract: This article considers how traditional mass media and new information technologies change our thinking about childhood, and the very experience of childhood. It asks questions such as: How does the merchandise of the marketplace, the media and new technologies construct and segment childhood? What should early childhood educators and parents consider in the selection of instructional or entertainment CDs or websites? Four major issues are raised in relation to the 'information revolution' and early childhood: concepts of development; media and information technology literacy; critical criteria for software selection; issues of equity and access. Today more than ever before, concepts and experiences of childhood are in constant transition. Historically, childhood as a concept and identity marker has evolved slowly, often taking centuries to become institutionalised in systems of schooling, and to sediment in the public imaginary. For example, social historian Aries (1962) has talked about the shift from the child as 'miniature adult' prior to the sixteenth century, to a reconceptualisation in the seventeenth century marked by developmental stages in 7-year increments. By the late twentieth century, Freud gave us a more finely segmented concept of childhood within a larger psycho-sexual developmental framework. The urge to rationalise and fix development in identifiable and innate stages is best exemplified in this century by Piaget's cognitive, Kohlberg's moral, and Chomsky's language development narratives. But these, as previous development stories, were generated in particular social and cultural contexts, based on specific (European) concepts of the human subject. Yet they all derived from a shared culture of the book and print literacy (Luke, 1989).

Identifying and Supporting Spatial Intelligence in Young Children

Abstract: Intelligence is a concept related to behaviours that are valued in a social and cultural context. Since the establishment of formalised education for Westernised industrial society, education has focused on the development of literacy and numeracy skills and has acknowledged those areas as important in formal education. Intelligence, hence, has been valued in those who are highly literate and numerate. However, a careful analysis of highly creative people in the area of mathematics and science, and recognition of the impact of technology in an Information Age suggests that other behaviours broadly identified as spatial intelligence are significant areas of human capability. Spatial intelligence has been highlighted in recent years though the work of Howard Gardner. However, interpretations of this work have tended to emphasise the role of spatial intelligence in artistic domains and ignored the seminal contribution that spatial intelligence plays in mathematical and scientific domains. The article explores spatial intelligence in the sciences from a variety of perspectives, including a neuropsychological perspective, and uses Gardner's developmental trajectory of intelligence to explore how to facilitate the development of spatial intelligence. We challenge practitioners to examine their practices in educational settings and reflect on the extent to which they provide opportunities for children to demonstrate and develop their spatial intelligence.

Colonialism and Cargo Cults in Early Childhood Education: Does Reggio Emilia Really Exist?

Abstract: The Reggio Emilia, preschools in Italy, have been called one of the best preschool education systems in the world. This is witnessed by the proliferation of people who have made a pilgrimage to Reggio to study this system and bring it to the USA. This article uses Reggio as a now familiar cultural icon in an attempt to problematize larger issues in the field of early childhood education. Beginning with a brief overview of some of recent Reggio discourse the author interprets this phenomenon using Foucault in an attempt to illustrate the extent to which “power reaches into the very grain of individuals … inserts itself into their actions and attitudes, their discourses, learning processes and everyday lives' (1980, p. 39). Assisting with this interpretation, the popularity of Reggio is positioned against cargo cult theory and the normative, hegemonic practices of colonization.

Marketised Positioning of Early Childhood: New Contexts for Curriculum and Professional Development in Queensland, Australia:

Abstract: The field of early childhood education is experiencing similar conditions to the rest of the Australian public sector, characterised by a climate of accountability for quality outcomes, emphasis on...

Unsettling the Bedtime Story: Parents' Reports of Home Literacy Practices

Abstract: This interview-based study on middle-class Australian parents' involvement in young children's literacy found that reading to children (particularly in the pre-school years) is a routine part of family life, a task shared between mothers and fathers. However, there were patterns of gender difference in the accounts. Mothers were more likely than fathers to emphasise the importance of the child's early exposure to books. They were also often reported to take a supervisory role in relation to their partner's story reading. Men were more likely to undertake reading at bedtime than at any other time and also more likely to report using various strategies to shorten the time spent on story reading. Fathers reading to sons appeared to take on a special significance related to masculine bonding and modelling.

Critical and Feminist Reconstructions of Early Childhood Education: Continuing the Conversations:

Abstract: Over the past few years, several early childhood educators have engaged in both critical and feminist analyses of the dominant perspectives in early childhood education. Following the work of such scholars as William Pinar and Maxine Greene, they have called for reconceptualizations of the field. In a recent session at the American Educational Research Association conference, a large panel of early childhood educators shared their visions for reconceptualization. Four of those visions are included in this colloquium. Readers are invited to react and provide their own suggestions.

New Views on the Young Brain: offerings from developmental psychology to early childhood education

Abstract: This article presents a broad review of recent developments in perspectives and research on early cognition. An overview of methodologies used to explore infant memory and categorisation is provided, with a discussion of the manner in which studies using these procedures have served to overturn Piagetian viewpoints on infant cognitive competence. In addition, research into the way in which the brain grows and responds to early experience is described, with a consideration of how neural networks are established and shaped by early learning. The general conclusion is that there is now available a range of radically new approaches to understanding the growth of the human brain and mind that is potentially of immense value to early childhood educators.

Working Perspectives within Feminism and Early Childhood Education

Abstract: The authors describe a model for feminist-based early childhood practice from two perspectives: the classroom teacher and the teacher educator. Using examples from their own work, the authors outline the assumptions and the principles which guide their work with children and adults. Implications for the field are discussed.

A Child's Say in Parent—Teacher Talk at the Pre-School: Doing Conversation Analytic Research in Early Childhood Settings

Abstract: In this article the authors analyse how one child actively participates in a particular occasion of home-pre-school communication conducted in a pre-school setting. A conversation analytic perspective is adopted to analyse the three-way parent-teacher-child conversation. This instance shows how a child becomes a speaker in the talk rather than being only a topic of talk between adults. The analysis provides an understanding of how the participants collaboratively construct and produce 'the competent pre-school child' and 'the competent conversational member' in, and through, their talk. It also examines how the teacher's version of social order is challenged by the child in the conversation. In addition, by proceeding from a distinctly different theoretical perspective, that of conversation analysis, it is possible to show how qualitative research can provide new understandings of an important dimension of early childhood practice

Art and Young Children: Doing it Properly

Abstract: This short article discusses the ways in which teachers and artists may work with young children, particularly in the visual arts. It considers how their views of the child and art shape, and are shaped by, the various competing texts available to them.

Listening to Young Children Talking on the Telephone: A Reassessment of Vygotsky's Notion of ‘Egocentric Speech’:

Abstract: In this article the author explores aspects of young children's private speech, examining characteristics of their development of discourse knowledge in utterances that are not directed to actual conversants. Two routes are taken, which the author tries to interlink without seeking a hard and fast juncture. The first is a study of what children are doing when they talk into a toy telephone, with reference to a transcript taken from empirical research. Knowledge of the essential structure of telephone discourse is displayed, as are emotional motivations behind the construction of pretence talk. The second is the notion of 'egocentric speech' as coined by Piaget and developed, within his sociocultural perspective to language acquisition, by Vygotsky. The author argues that dominant contemporary presentations of Vygotsky's notion of 'egocentric speech' tend to stress the self-regulatory or planning function at the expense of its role in expression of the imagination. The two discussions come together in the suggestion that the deployment of the imagination in reassembling sociocultural knowledge for the creation of pretence play, sometimes expressed in private speech, can be a significant factor in the exercise of discourse competencies for young children.

Pre-School Teachers in Primary Schools: Stories from the Field

Abstract: Continuity and collaboration between preschool and primary programmes is frequently impeded by the different approaches to teaching snd learning espoused by teachers in each setting. This article d...

Exploring Boys' Literacy Performance at School: incorporating and transcending gender

Abstract: This colloquium paper focuses on government-funded projects on boys' literacy performance in Australian schools. It begins by outlining the socio-political context in which the work was undertaken and briefly references the socially critical model that supported the development of professional development and teaching units. The paper draws on work completed and work in progress in highlighting dilemmas inherent in working in this field. The central argument is that it is necessary, but insufficient, to continue discussing gender's association with school literacy outcomes.

Why Reggio Emilia Doesn't Exist: A Response to Richard Johnson

Abstract: In this colloquia the author responds to Richard Johnson's ‘Colonialism and Cargo Cults in Early Childhood Education: does Reggio Emilia really exist?’ (Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 1, p...

Oppositional Discourses: deconstructing responses to investigations of male early childhood educators

Abstract: This reflective account begins with verses representing the multiplicity of frequently oppositional responses generated by the author's investigations of the perceptions, experiences and contributions of male early childhood educators. Discourses underpinning these responses are identified. They include (1) male as victim; (2) non-critical advocacy for an increased male presence in early childhood education; (3) critiques of interpretive research; (4) feminist perspectives; and (5) the 'traditional' early childhood stance. Each of these discourses is then briefly deconstructed to identify contested assumptions about the participation of men in the early childhood sector and to provide a meta-view of the key issues involved. It is argued that prevailing discourses ignore the voices of children and constrain conceptualisations of possible contributions by male early childhood educators. The article concludes with a call for more inclusive and more flexible discursive spaces in which to explore the potential implications of the involvement of men in early childhood education. Prologue Voice 1: a male early childhood teacher-director falsely accused of child sexual assault:

Gendered Make-up

Abstract: This article summarizes a recently completed study of gender in an urban kindergarten classroom in the USA. Using a feminist post-structuralist framework to analyze gender, this qualitative study e...

Environmental Literacy: Providing an Interdisciplinary Context for Young Children

Abstract: This article outlines the benefits of developing a program considering environmental education in which children are engaged in learning opportunities that connect to their lives and interests. The authors contend that reform efforts generally focus on the application of content knowledge by using higher order thinking skills and encourage connections to be made with the world beyond the classroom. The article includes examples which highlight that environmental literacy is particularly appropriate for emphasizing the world beyond the classroom, for developing depth of understanding and content knowledge, and opportunities to use higher order thinking skills

A Unique Pedagogical Project Contextualised within a Children's Art Exhibition.

Abstract: Interactions in learning between young children and early childhood student teachers, in a context outside the usual practicum, are reported in this article. The context is a children's art exhibition, in which over 280 artworks of children aged between 17 months and 6 years were exhibited. The project focuses on the mediation of thinking and creative expression between children and early childhood students, around three-dimensional works of art, which generated cross-modal artistic expression in both groups. Students visiting the exhibition were guided by their lecturer in a story-making process, prompted by children's symbolic expressions. The aim was to exemplify a pedagogical process in which children's thinking could be accessed, and then further mediated through story-drama. These stories, and other artworks, were then shared with children back in their early childhood programmes to stimulate further thinking, creativity, and representation across a range of symbolic languages - construction, music-making, dance and pretence. The 'partnership in thinking' between children and students thus occurred without face-to-face interactions, but through their symbolic communications. Hence, the art exhibition provided a stimulus and context for integrated learning exchanges between children and early childhood student teachers. This represents a creative pedagogical framework which exemplifies partnerships in action, and a Vygotskian approach to adult and child pedagogy.

Distant Places, Diverse Spaces: early childhood professional development in isolated locations

Abstract: This article raises some questions about the appropriateness and value of the dominant models of professional development for early childhood professionals in rural areas. The issues raised in this article draw on both research conducted into the experiences of professional development of a group of early childhood professionals residing outside the main urban areas in Queensland, and the author's experiences in the conducting of these activities. The discussion raises questions about rural identity, the usefulness of professional development in a 'one size fits all' model and how this might position rurally located professionals as being needy, disadvantaged, deficit and to a large extent powerless in their own professional development choices. The article concludes that whilst these professionals identify themselves and are treated as 'victims of isolation', their capacity to take charge of their own professional development is constrained. The research findings and the issues raised suggest the need for further research, particularly into alternative models of professional development that are context sensitive and interact with issues of professional identity and rurality.

There's a Bug in My Ear: value adding through authentic interview experience

Abstract: This article describes an effective method for training early childhood teacher education students in interview skills as a preparation for future employment interviews. The method situates learning within a near authentic experience using an interactive coaching model. Students experienced the interview situation in a simulated environment, which tried to model actual employment interviews. Students adopted the roles of interviewer, interviewee, coach and observer. As these roles were rotated, students' understanding of interview processes and interview skills were steadily developed to the point where the majority of the students demonstrated high quality interview skills. The inclusion of an interactive coaching facility and the provision of video feedback provided another facet that improved the efficiency of the training model. Outcomes in terms of student evaluations and success at subsequent employment interviews suggested that the methodology was highly effective in enhancing the skills of all students involved.

A Response to ‘Colonialism and Cargo Cults in Early Childhood Education: Does Reggio Emilia Really Exist?’ (Johnson, 1999):

Abstract: In this response, Rofrano argues that Johnson (Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 1, pp. 61-77) positioned himself implicitly within academic rationalist discourse by using formal academic language, and positioned those who support Reggio as existing outside that frame. Rofrano shows that Johnson used more informal, emotional language in his description of early childhood educators who support Reggio and in so doing perpetuated one of the discourses which he set out to critique.

Making Art with Children — Much More Than ‘Doing it Properly’: A Response to Felicity McArdle:

Abstract: In this colloquium, the author responds to Felicity McArdle's discussion paper, 'Art and Young Children' (Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 101-104). The colloquium paraphrases Felicity McArdle's article, examining the 'hidden curricula' of her discourse and suggesting alternate views that refocus attention on the child rather than the adult. An exhibition of paintings by very young children in China resulted, for McArdle, in an 'uneasy reading' (McArdle, 1999, p. 101) Was this because the 'technical skill and artistry' apparently so exceeded that which McArdle was able to equate with the artistry and technical expertise of 4 year-old children viewed in an Australian context, that all beliefs about what was 'proper' in art teaching with young children was severely challenged. Well, good! What exactly the beliefs were is not clear. Tension between directive and non-directive teaching in early childhood arts is contentious, certainly (Hiller, 1993; Edwards, 1997). However, the idea of teaching 'skills' in drawing, painting and modelling to young children becomes confused when identified with McArdle's account of her own student response to 'life drawing' classes with a bullying and aggressive tutor. She seems uncertain whether this is the model of teaching she interprets as 'proper', and yet appears drawn to consider it so. Is she missing the point? 'The genius of young children is their imagination - they are the original, original thinkers' (Cue, 1998). In my experiences of working as a practising artist with children from 2 to 14 years of age, specific skills in each medium have been both directly and

Book Reviews: Deconstructing Early Childhood Education: Social Justice and Revolution, Gender in Early Childhood, Theorizing Childhood

Abstract: Professor Morris Zapp got it right in David Lodge’s (1984) delightful academic satire, Small World. Zapp’s view of deconstruction is telling: ‘It’s kind of exciting – the last intellectual thrill left. Like sawing through the branch you’re sitting on’ (p. 184). I have read Cannella’s Deconstructing Early Childhood Education twice – once for me and once with a doctoral level seminar this past semester. It’s an engaging, thoughtfully written treatise that offers a timely critique of the taken-for-granted in early childhood education. It makes an important contribution to the literature that seeks to reconceptualize the field, and it builds the case for reconceptualization using language that is accessible to a large audience. The book is intellectually exciting. It troubles me, and it troubled my doctoral students. It makes problematic virtually all the assumptions on which early childhood education has traditionally been based. As I take Cannella’s ideas seriously, I can feel the branch shaking under the saw. Cannella’s project is bold and straightforward. She applies the poststructuralist tools of Foucault, Derrida, Lyotard, and others to deconstruct the themes, discourses, theories, and practices of contemporary early childhood education. The book is organized into a series of chapters that systematically challenge the foundations of the field. After an introduction to postmodern analysis, Cannella begins by conducting a Foucaultian genealogy of childhood that challenges the taken-for-granted assumption that childhood is separate and distinct from adulthood. She moves next into chapters that critique the discourse of child development and deconstruct the themes that privilege early experience as determiners of adult life. The argument then shifts to problematizing the ways the field has constructed institutions of early education and care, reified play-based and child-centered perspectives, and attempted to professionalize early childhood education ‘as an instrument for the regulation of women and children’ (p. 2). In an effort to offer an alternative reconstruction (after her deconstruction), Cannella concludes with a chapter describing early childhood education as a struggle for social justice. The book has many strengths. As alluded to above, the monograph is organized and written in a way that invites readers into a dialog with the text BOOK REVIEWS