Showing papers in "International Journal of Early Childhood in 2015"

Early Childhood Education for Sustainability: The OMEP World Project.

Abstract: At the closure of the UNESCO decade on Education for Sustainable Development (2005–2014), this article reports on large research projects on sustainability conducted within the World Organisation for Early Childhood Education (OMEP) through 2009–2014 The overall aim of the projects within OMEP was to enhance awareness of Education for Sustainable Development among young children, OMEP members and the international early childhood community, with a special focus on taking a child-oriented perspective The OMEP research comprised four studies which are described in this paper The rich data in the research were drawn from 28 participating countries, involved more than 44,330 children aged from birth to 8 years, as well as 13,225 teachers These participants were from various early childhood educational contexts The research methods used included child interviews, children’s dialogues, and child-driven, theme-based projects as part of children’s early education programs The results showed that young children have significant knowledge about the Earth and important ideas about environmental issues, as well as knowledge of the responsibilities which individuals carry with respect to sustainability In the research findings, it was strongly apparent that adults often underestimate the competencies of young children It is argued that education for sustainability can be a driver for quality early childhood education

Using Strengths-Based Approaches in Early Years Practice and Research

Abstract: Strengths-based approaches draw upon frameworks and perspectives from social work and psychology but have not necessarily been consistently defined or well articulated across disciplines. Internationally, there are increasing calls for professionals in early years settings to work in strengths-based ways to support the access and participation of all children and families, especially those with complex needs. The purpose of this paper is to examine a potential promise of innovative uses of strengths-based approaches in early years practice and research in Australia, and to consider implications for application in other national contexts. In this paper, we present three cases (summarised from larger studies) depicting different applications of the Strengths Approach, under pinned by collaborative inquiry at the interface between practice and research. Analysis revealed three key themes across the cases: (i) enactment of strengths-based principles, (ii) the bi-directional and transformational influences of the Strengths Approach (research into practice/practice into research), and (iii) heightened practitioner and researcher awareness of, and responsiveness to, the operation of power. The findings highlight synergies and challenges to constructing and actualising strengths-based approaches in early years childhood research and practice. The case studies demonstrate that although constructions of what constitutes strengths-based research and practice requires ongoing critical engagement, redefining, and operationalising, using strengths-based approaches in early years settings can be generative and worthwhile.

The Serious Joy and the Joyful Work of Play: Children Becoming Agentive Actors in Co-Authoring Themselves and Their World Through Play

Abstract: In most cultures, play seems to matter a great deal to young children. This is evidenced by the vast amount of time children spent playing and the combination of often unsurpassed passion, imagination, and energy which they invest in this activity. This paper explores why play matters through the lens of Bakhtin’s dialogic approach combined with Vygotsky’s developmental theory. In expanding upon their insights into a framework termed “the transformative activist stance,” we suggest that play offers unique opportunities for children to develop and exercise their agency, identity, and voice. While playing, according to this perspective, children discover how to be agentive actors—that is, unique persons who have an irreplaceable role in co-authoring social interactions, communal practices, and the world itself. In this complex endeavor, children sort out the difficult challenge of becoming unique, self-determined, and free persons within the communal world shared and co-created with others. Examples from video recordings of children’s interactive play in a naturalistic setting illustrate how play paves the way for children to collaboratively create and transform the world from their unique stances and positions. This approach suggests that play is serious work for children as they develop capacities for agency. Therefore, it is critically important that early education allocates ample time for this activity.

Promotion of Migrant Children’s Epistemic Status and Authority in Early School Life

Abstract: Migrant children may display problems of participation in school interactions with adults and peers, depending on their difficulties in speaking the host country’s language and understanding its culture. This condition amplifies the general view of children as incompetent in producing and acting knowledge. This paper analyses video-recorded interactions in kindergartens in Reggio Emilia (Italy), involving migrant children, teachers and Italian children. These schools are famous worldwide for their methodology, based on treating children as competent agents. I focus on the participants’ actions constructing conversational sequences and the systems that these interactional sequences construct. The analysis highlights that migrant children are given recognition as competent agents, and that their status and authority is promoted in producing and acting knowledge. Recognition and promotion of migrant children’s agency, status and authority are based on forms of facilitation, coordination and negotiation, enhanced by initiatives taken by teachers and Italian children. These initiatives give particular relevance to: a. migrant children’s personal expressions and display of competent agency, and b. their linguistic and cultural difficulties. Initiatives combining these two aspects promote the social construction of a form of hybrid identity, both personal and cultural, which is constructed and appraised in the interaction.

Children’s Violently Themed Play and Adult Imaginaries of Childhood: A Bakhtinian Analysis

Abstract: Children’s violently themed play has long been contentious within educational policy, parenting literature, and the academe, with conflicting views as to its immediate and long-term consequences. Yet, little attention has been given to the way in which the meanings and values attributed to childhood influence these debates. Drawing on an ethnographic study of a Nursery in London, England, this article explores the different ideas about childhood contained within policies of the setting and educators’ responses to children’s violently themed play. The article draws on the work of the Bakhtinian circle to suggest educators’ complex and ambiguous responses to violently themed play need to be understood in relation to broader social contradictions connected to childhood, adult–child social relations, and early childhood education. Bakhtinian theorising is offered as an important resource for opening up meaningful dialogue about contentious issues in early childhood practice, including to taken-for-granted assumptions about childhood and violently themed play.

Indigenous Language Learning and Maintenance among Young Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children.

Abstract: Internationally, cultural renewal and language revitalisation are occurring among Indigenous people whose lands were colonised by foreign nations. In Australia, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are striving for the re-voicing of their mother tongue and the re-practicing of their mother culture to achieve cultural renewal in the wake of over 250 years of colonisation (Williams in Recover, re-voice, re-practise. Sydney, NSW AECG Incorporated, 2013).While 120 Indigenous languages are still spoken in Australia today, little has been documented regarding the extent to which languages are learned and maintained by young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. The current paper offers a unique insight by drawing upon a large-scale dataset, Footprints in Time: the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children (LSIC), to describe patterns of language use and maintenance among young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. Of the 580 children followed longitudinally from the first wave of the baby cohort of LSIC (aged 0–1 years) until wave 4 (aged 3–5 years), approximately one in five (19.3 %) were reported to speak an Indigenous language. Children in the study were learning up to six languages simultaneously, including English (both Standard Australian English and Aboriginal Australian English), Indigenous languages, creoles, foreign languages (other than English) and sign languages. Social and environmental factors such as primary caregivers’ use of an Indigenous language and level of relative isolation were found to be associated with higher rates of Indigenous language maintenance. These findings have important implications for identifying ways of supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children to learn and maintain Indigenous languages during early childhood, especially for children who may not have the opportunity to learn an Indigenous language in the home environment and for children living in urban areas.

Framing Young Children’s Humour and Practitioner Responses to it Using a Bakhtinian Carnivalesque Lens

Abstract: This article presents findings from a pilot study offering an alternative framing of children’s humour and laughter in an early childhood education setting. It employs a Bakhtinian carnivalesque lens to explore the nature of children’s humour in an urban nursery and investigate the framing of children’s humour and laughter outside the popular paradigm of developmental psychology. In addition, it addresses the challenge that children’s humour can present for early childhood practitioners, turning to Bakhtin’s analysis of carnival to frame children’s humour as carnivalesque. This conception is then offered as a part of a potential explanation for practitioners’ occasional resistance to children’s humour, proposing that dominating, authoritative discourses within early childhood education play a significant role in this. The article draws on a number of theorists, including Bakhtin more widely, to address reasons why humour is not valued pedagogically within the UK early childhood field and suggests that further research in the area is imperative, in order that we gain a better understanding of the place and significance of children’s humour within early childhood practice.

Didactic Approaches to Child-Managed Play: Analyses of Teacher’s Interaction Styles in Kindergartens and After-School Programmes in Norway

Abstract: This article explores the nature of teachers’ involvement in child-managed play. We approached this didactic issue through analysis of interactional situations in a kindergarten and an after-school programme and by drawing on relational theory and the concept of “pedagogical tact”. Qualitative material was gathered from observations and video recordings of children and their teachers in the kindergarten and the after-school programme, and interactional situations were analysed. The findings show that in both institutions, teachers’ involvement follows three main approaches: surveillance, an initiating and inspiring approach, and a participating and interactional approach. Whether surveillance is based on judgments about safety or about rules, it seems to hamper the children’s play. Children in both institution types seem to like when teachers’ involvement included the initiation of new activities. Such activities often transform into child-managed play. Teachers’ inspiring communications and interactions were also characterised by recognition and acknowledgement, and this approach appeared to promote child-managed play. It seems important that a surveillance approach does not overshadow an initiating and inspiring approach or a participating and interactional approach in interactional situations through which teachers act with pedagogical thoughtfulness and tact.

Stress, Coping and Wellbeing in Kindergarten: Children’s Perspectives on Personal, Interpersonal and Institutional Challenges of School

Abstract: Starting school requires children to manage a wide range of personal, interpersonal and institutional expectations and challenges, yet few child-report measures have captured the diversity of these experiences. In this paper, the Pictorial Measure of School Stress and Wellbeing (PMSSW) interview was used with 101 school entrants at the beginning and end of the kindergarten year to explore children’s feelings about typical school events, reasons for these feelings, strategies for coping with these challenges, and the extent to which these perceptions changed over time. Results showed that the majority of children were positive about these aspects of school and did not change their feelings, but a minority were persistently negative, and up to 29 % became more negative over time. Responses varied by the type of event, with some being perceived as more challenging than others. The strategies children suggested for managing challenging events offered insights into their understanding and use of school rules and routines as a coping mechanism, particularly at the beginning of the school year. Over time, children showed greater use of personal strengths and abilities, their friendships with peers and their relationships with teachers to suggest effective strategies. These findings confirm the potential of the PMSSW as a tool for gathering children’s perceptions of wellbeing and coping at school. Through the use of methods that acknowledge and empower children, researchers and teachers can better appreciate and cater for individual differences in children’s experiences of school transition.

Layers of Discourse in Preschool Block Play: An Examination of Children’s Social Interactions

Abstract: Mikhail Bakhtin’s philosophical orientation concerning dialogism offers a challenge to contemporary play theory. This study demonstrates the benefits of a Bakhtinian analysis of double voicing in early childhood programs. Bakhtin’s notion of dialogism, specifically Bakhtin’s ideas on genre and utterance, has received less attention in the analysis of play. Bakhtin’s conceptualization extends the notion of genre to all spoken utterances in play activities. The purpose of the present study was to examine the existence of Bakhtin’s typology of double voicing with preschool children as they talked and built structures with unit blocks. Bakhtin identified three basic varieties of double voice discourse: (a) unidirectional, (b) vari-directional, and (c) active discourse. The investigation took place in a preschool classroom that encourages a playful curriculum. Drawing on videotaped preschool classroom examples, preschoolers’ use of double voicing in the context of block play was analyzed. The data found the two types of passive double voicing: (a) unidirectional and (b) vari-directional, as well as active categories of hidden dialogicality, parody, and skaz. Bakhtin’s view of language acquisition is discussed by only a handful of early childhood play scholars, and this article suggests early childhood professionals use Mikhail Bakhtin’s double voicing typologies in classroom as a contemporary view for framing early childhood socialization and discourse.

Examining the Quality of Outdoor Play in Chinese Kindergartens.

Abstract: The benefits of outdoor play for children’s well-rounded development are maximized when children experience enjoyment and, at the same time, gain physical, motor, cognitive, and social-emotional competence. This study examined the quality of outdoor play in Chinese kindergartens, the dominant form of full-day early childhood education program serving children aged from 3 to 6 years in China. The Outdoor Play Rating Scale was used to study the quality of the provision for children’s outdoor play. A total of 174 classrooms from 91 kindergartens in Zhejiang Province were included in the study. A stratified random sampling procedure was used to select kindergartens and classrooms. Results indicated that there was inadequate opportunity for outdoor play, including free play, as well as low level of physical activity by children. We found significant differences in quality of outdoor play across kindergartens in different locations (urban/non-urban areas). Recommendations were provided to practitioners in the discussion that primarily emphasized addressing the need to increase opportunities for children’s access to a wide range of outdoor activities and to improve teachers’ professional competencies in organizing quality outdoor activities for children. Implications for policymakers include the need to narrow the gap in the quality of outdoor environments in kindergartens so that children’s play is supported in ways that will enhance children’s early development and learning.

The Work of the Eye in Infant Pedagogy: A Dialogic Encounter of ‘Seeing’ in an Education and Care Setting

Abstract: This paper examines the significance of a ‘look’ in infant–teacher dialogues in an early education and care centre in New Zealand. Drawing on Bakhtin’s principle of ‘visual surplus’ video recordings of two infants’, aged under 1 year of age, interactions with their teacher and teacher interpretations of these interactions were analysed in terms of the time it took for an infant to be ‘noticed’. The results revealed that teachers responded to infants’ initiations significantly faster when a ‘look’ accompanied verbal initiation than when it did not, while the length of the interaction did not depend on whether or not a ‘look’ was used to initiate an interaction. Different types of ‘looks’ (a gaze/glance/watch) were found to generate different responses and were given different values by teachers. Results also highlight the fact that ‘look’ initiations are often nested within language sequences that take place in a larger dialogic space of adults and peers. The findings point to the significance of the ‘work of the eye’ in understanding the complex nature of communications that occur between adults and infants in early childhood education settings.

Reconceptualising Teacher-Child Dialogue in Early Years Education as a Moral Answerability.

Abstract: This paper forms part of a study which used Bakhtinian concepts to explore the interactions between children aged from 3½ to 5 years and their teachers in two early childhood settings. The paper focuses on the dialogic research approach that was used as the methodological framework, whereby two of the teachers and the researcher engaged in collaborative discussions of selected video recordings of the teacher–child interactions. The study is underpinned by a view of education and thereby teacher–child dialogue as open-ended, and children are seen as active participants. For 4 weeks, spread over a period of 4 months, interactions between the children and the participating teachers were video-recorded. After each week of recordings, the teachers and researcher each selected one of the video clips that surprised or intrigued, and these clips were then discussed at a meeting. It is argued that a dialogic research approach created a more respectful relationship between teachers and researcher by giving the teachers opportunities to contribute to the interpretation of data and to act on these. Findings show that the collaborative discussions not only led to more complex understandings of teacher–child dialogue as uncertain and unfinalised, but also to transformative changes in the teachers’ practice with fewer structured, teacher-initiated activities and more open-ended opportunities for children.

"I Have to Rest All the Time Because You Are Not Allowed to Play": Exploring Children's Perceptions of Autonomy during Sleep-Time in Long Day Care Services.

Abstract: Daytime sleep is a significant part of the daily routine for children attending early childhood education and care (ECEC) services in Australia and many other countries. The practice of sleep-time can account for a substantial portion of the day in ECEC and often involves a mandated sleep/rest period for all children, including older preschool-aged children. Yet, there is evidence that children have a reduced need for daytime sleep as they approach school entry age and that continuation of mandated sleep-time in ECEC for preschool-aged children may have a negative impact on their health, development, learning and well-being. Mandated sleep-time practices also go against current quality expectations for services to support children’s agency and autonomy in ECEC. This study documents children’s reports of their experiences of sleep-time in ECEC. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 54 preschool-aged children (44–63 months) across four long day ECEC services that employed a range of sleep-time practices. Findings provide a snapshot of children’s views and experiences of sleep-time and perceptions of autonomy-supportive practices. These provide a unique platform to support critical reflection on sleep-time policies and practices, with a view to continuous quality improvement in ECEC. This study forms part of a programme of work from the Sleep in Early Childhood research group. Our work examines sleep practices in ECEC, the subsequent staff, parent and child experiences and impacts on family and child learning and development outcomes.

What’s in Your Refrigerator? Children’s Views on Equality, Work, Money and Access to Food

Abstract: This study investigates young children’s theorising about families and their differential access to food from a perspective of wealth and poverty. Fifty-two children, aged 6–7 years, attending a Western Australian school were invited to share their perspectives on this global issue. The single case study method utilised three children’s focus groups to gather a range of perspectives from the children. Photographs of full and empty refrigerators were used elaborate a story told to the children about two families with significantly different amounts of food in their refrigerator at home. The study demonstrates that researchers and educators may fruitfully consider social sustainability with young children whose insights into these issues provide evidence of their clearly formed perspectives on complex global issues. Conversations about global “wicked problems” enable children to express their point of view on economic and social as well as environmental issues. The findings indicate that the young children in this study hold clear and sophisticated opinions regarding fairness, poverty, the relationship between paid work and money, food security and social justice. They also had an optimistic outlook on how to address inequality. Significant insights into children’s theorising around social sustainability are presented in four themes.

Limes and Lemons: Teaching and Learning in Preschool as the Coordination of Perspectives and Sensory Modalities

Abstract: This article proposes a conceptualization of teaching and learning in early childhood education, as the coordination of perspectives held by children and teachers through engaging different sensory modalities in the learning process. It takes a sociocultural theoretical perspective. An empirical example from a routine mealtime situation is presented to illustrate the ideas. In the example, the teacher and young children, aged 1–3 years, engage in a dialogue about limes and lemons. Within this dialogue, over mealtime in a preschool, children and teachers interconnect experiences to make mutual sense. It is argued that teaching can be conceptualized in terms of coordinated actions and more specifically the coordination of communicated perspectives, modalities, and experiences. This notion of teaching is useful to clarify how teachers can support children’s learning in the collective arena of preschool. It highlights the social and communicative nature of teaching in a form appropriate to understanding this process in the context of this setting. Through coordinating perspectives, experiences and situations across time, the teacher is shown to facilitate the children’s participation, communication in a second language, and, per implication, learning.

Exploring Young Children's Writer Identity Construction through the Lens of Dialogism.

Abstract: Drawing on Bakhtinian dialogism and interactional sociolinguistics, the author explored how young English language learners become writers over time. With a focus on the children’s dialogic writing processes rather than their products, the author aimed to trace the children’s journey in becoming writers and make evident the evolvement of their identity as writers. In this light, their interactive discourses within and across particular but connected literacy events were studied. Discourse analysis was undertaken on the video segments and transcripts of three literacy events selected from different writing units across an academic year. It was found that the young writers evolved from “others as authors,” to “self as an author,” and to “self as a reflective writer” and the process of becoming a writer was ongoing and actively engaged multiple voices of the children, their teacher, and others. Further, the findings suggested that the dialogic becoming processes opened possibilities for young writers to discover and bring their different voices and selves to their writing and enhanced motivation relative to learning to write and writing to learn.

Becoming Bilingual: Children’s Insights About Making Friends in Bilingual Settings

Abstract: The majority of the world speaks more than one language, yet the impact of learning a second language has rarely been studied from a child’s perspective. This paper describes monolingual children’s insights into becoming bilingual at four time points: 2 months before moving to another country (while living in Australia), as well as 1, 6, and 12 months after moving to Germany. The participants were two monolingual English-speaking siblings (a male aged 7–8 years and a female aged 9–10 years) who subsequently learned to speak German. At each of the four time points, interviews were undertaken with each child using child-friendly drawing and questionnaire techniques. Three themes were identified: (1) the children’s awareness of language competence, (2) inclusion factors, and (3) exclusion factors that influenced friendship formation. The impact of language ability on making friends was a dominant theme that arose across the four time points and was triangulated across data collection methods. The children made friends with others who had similar language competence in German, even though they were younger, and did not share the same first language. Age-matched peers who were more competent in German were less likely to be described as friends. Across all three themes, the playground was highlighted by both children as the key site where becoming bilingual most strongly impacted initiation and negotiation of friendships. Becoming bilingual impacted the children’s friendship formation and socialisation opportunities with more competent language users.

Parental Perceptions of Child Care Quality in Centre-Based and Home-Based Settings: Associations with External Quality Ratings

Abstract: The current study examined how parental perceptions of child care quality were related to external quality ratings and considered how parental perceptions of quality varied according to child care context (home-based or centre-based settings) Parents of 179 4-year-old children who attended child care centres (n = 141) and home-based settings (n = 38) in Montreal, Quebec, as well as their educators, participated in the study Parents were interviewed using the Child Care Satisfaction Rating Scale, a measure of parent perception of child care quality The home-based and centre-based child care settings were evaluated by research assistants using the Quebec Educational Quality Observation Scale Correlational analyses revealed significant associations between global satisfaction and quality scores, as well as subscale scores for parental and observational assessments of child care quality In addition, Chi-square analyses revealed that parental satisfaction with the parent–educator relationship and with their child’s emotional well-being in child care was stronger for children in home-based settings than in centre-based care This research provided empirical support for parents’ ability to discriminate quality child care It is argued that quality assessment should take the perspectives of multiple stakeholders into account

Intersubjectivity as a Measure of Social Competence Among Children Attending Head Start: Assessing the Measure’s Validity and Relation to Context

Abstract: The present paper reported on a new method and procedure for assessing preschooler’s social competence. This method utilized an observational measure of intersubjectivity to assess the social competence that develops in real time during interaction between two or more children. The measure of intersubjectivity reflected a conceptualization of the construct as multi-dimensional and co-constructed during interaction. Findings showed the measure to be reliable and valid for a low income preschool population. In addition, intersubjectivity levels and dimensions were shown to vary with group characteristics and play type. Longer interactions were found to have higher levels of intersubjectivity across dimensions. These findings suggest that children’s social competence is not a function of individual child capacities, but rather a product of engagement in shared activities such as play. As an indicator of the competence displayed during interactions, intersubjectivity was also shown to be tied to the particular contextual elements of the interactions and reflective of the types of play in which children participated. This offers a functional view of social competence, in which young children establish intersubjectivity with their peers for specific purposes during interaction. In this way, neither social competence nor intersubjectivity is viewed in terms of individual capacities, but rather in terms of social tools that children use to aid and sustain their play interactions. From this perspective it may be possible to analyze how preschoolers accomplish social competence during interaction and to provide supports within the classroom for this process.

Seeing is Believing? Insights from Young Children in Nature

Abstract: If the eye is a window to the soul, an important question to ask in the early years is “What do children see?” in their encounters with the world. Gaining a better understanding of children’s interpretations is central to the pedagogical task of early childhood teachers, yet children are seldom asked to provide their points of view outside of adult frameworks for learning. A photograph can be assumed to contain shared and consistent meaning. However, using a Bakhtinian theoretical perspective and the notion of visual surplus that ‘seeing’ is much more than merely a visual process of looking, the research investigates the question, “What do children ‘see’ in nature based education beyond the home-based gate?” The analyses consider the joint meaning-making processes between children and adults when children are invited to share their perspectives on experiences and in which photography is used as an intersubjective medium. Armed with digital cameras during outings into local landscapes, a group of four children attending home-based education was invited to capture sights of significance to them and their families. The perspectives of these children, based on what they saw during nature-based learning experiences, were captured through stimulated recall interviews with their Educator. Children’s insights are described in their own words, using photographs as a source of provocation. The findings highlight the symbolic, metaphoric, spiritual and relational nature of children’s interpretations when provoked by encounters with nature. These interpretations can present adults with significant challenge in their assumptions about children’s capacity to theorise about complex concepts and that adults share the same visual lens as children. Si l’œil est une fenetre sur l’âme, «que voient les enfants dans leurs rencontres avec le monde?» est une question importante a se poser en jeune enfance. Il est primordial pour le travail pedagogique des enseignants prescolaires d’avoir une meilleure comprehension des interpretations des enfants; on demande pourtant rarement aux enfants de donner leurs points de vue hors des cadres d’apprentissage adultes. On peut supposer qu’une photographie a un sens partage et coherent. Cependant, utilisant une perspective theorique bakhtinienne ainsi que la notion de surplus visuel selon laquelle “voir” est beaucoup plus que le simple processus visuel de regarder, cette recherche examine la question suivante, «Qu’est-ce que les enfants voient dans une education basee sur la nature au-dela de la barriere familiale?» Les analyses examinent le processus conjoint de construction de sens des enfants et des adultes quand les enfants sont invites a partager leurs perspectives sur des experiences et dans lesquelles la photographie est utilisee comme medium intersubjectif. Armes de cameras numeriques pendant des sorties dans la nature environnante, un groupe de quatre enfants frequentant un service d’education familiale ont ete invites a capturer des vues significatives pour eux et leurs familles. Les perspectives de ces enfants, sur la base de ce qu’ils ont vu pendant les experiences d’apprentissage basees sur la nature, ont ete cueillies par des entrevues de rappel stimule avec leur educatrice. Les visions des enfants sont decrites dans leurs propres mots, a l’aide de photographies comme source de provocation. Les resultats font ressortir la nature symbolique, metaphorique, spirituelle et relationnelle des interpretations des enfants lorsque provoquees par des rencontres avec la nature. Ces interpretations peuvent soulever chez les adultes d’importantes questions sur leurs postulats sur la capacite des enfants a elaborer des theories de concepts complexes et que les adultes partagent la meme vision que les enfants. Si los ojos son una ventana al alma, es importante preguntarse, “Que ven los ninos” en sus primeros anos de vida durante sus encuentros con el mundo. Mejorar el entendimiento de las interpretaciones de los ninos es central para la tarea pedagogica de los profesores y profesoras de infancia temprana, sin embargo, en raras ocasiones se les pide a los ninos y ninas sus puntos de vista fuera de los marcos de los adultos para el aprendizaje. Una fotografia puede asumirse como un element que contiene significado consistente y compartido. Sin embargo, utilizando una perspectiva teorica Bakhtiniana y la nocion de excedente visual de que ‘ver’ es mucho mas que el propio proceso visual de ver, la investigacion intenta responder la pregunta, “Que ven los ninos en la educacion basada en la naturaleza, mas alla de lo que hay en sus hogares?” El analisis considera los procesos conjuntos significativos entre ninos/as y adultos cuando los menores son invitados a compartir sus perspectivas sobre experiencias, mientras se utiliza una fotografia como un medio intersubjetivo. Un grupo de 4 ninos/as, equipados con camaras digitales durante salidas a paisajes cercanos, que participan de una educacion basada en el hogar, fue invitado a capturar imagenes de significado especial para ellos y sus familias. Las perspectivas de estos ninos, basadas en lo que vieron durante sus experiencias educativas basadas en la naturaleza, fueron capturadas mediante entrevistas de recuerdo estimulado a sus educadores. Las perspectivas de los ninos fueron descritas en sus propias palabras, utilizando fotografias como el recurso de provocacion. Los resultados destacan la naturaleza simbolica, metaforica, espiritual y relacional de las interpretaciones de los ninos al ser provocadas por encuentros con la naturaleza. Las interpretaciones pueden presentar a adultos con desafios significativos en sus formas de asumir las capacidades de los ninos de teorizar sobre conceptos complejos; y que los adultos comparten los mismos lentes de vision que los ninos.

Enhancing Social Competence and the Child–Teacher Relationship using a Child-Centred Play Training Model in Hong Kong Preschools

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine whether a child-centred play training model, filial play therapy, enhances child–teacher relationship and thereby reduces children’s internalising problems (such as anxiety/depression and withdrawal) and externalising problems (such as aggressive and destructive behaviour). Sixty teachers (n = 60) and 60 children (n = 60) in six kindergartens were invited to participate in the study. In Phase One, 30 of these teachers (n = 30) were randomly assigned a child with either internalising problems or externalising problems. A 10-week Child-Centred play training model was used to reduce the children’s problems and promote the quality of the child–teacher relationship. The other 30 teachers and 30 children with either internalising problems or externalising problems were placed in the control group. In Phase Two, the teachers and children in the control group received the same 10-week play training. It was found that child–teacher relationship was enhanced through an increase in communication of acceptance, that is, allowing the child to lead and becoming involved in play with the child. Children’s internalising and externalising problems—especially aggressive behaviour—were reduced after ten sessions of child-centred play.

Chronotopic Thresholds, Reflection, and Transformation of Supervision Experiences for Preschool Assistants in Norwegian Preschools.

Abstract: To maintain team learning for assistants in preschools, dialogue and group discussions are important. These dialogues and discussions can happen both as a part of spontaneous supervision and as a part of an organized process of supervision. Bakhtinian theory of understanding and its notion of dialogue could be used to organize supervision of preschool assistants in Norway. In this study, the goal is to investigate how assistants in preschools in Norway experience supervision and explore how supervision practice could be organized through Bakhtinian ideas and the concepts of chronotopes and chronotopic thresholds. Pedagogical experiences that shift the thresholds of communication can provide a means of operating on the boundaries of meanings within pedagogical situations. These processes encompass reflection and transformation in understanding experiences. Surveys were completed by preschool assistants in 28 preschools and a series of interviews also conducted with administrative leaders, preschool teachers, and preschool assistants. The data indicated that assistants believe that opportunities for reflection and sharing of experiences with others at work would help them learn and become better professionals. It is important that preschool assistants are acknowledged and allowed to discuss their experiences and values. This, in turn, requires supervisors who are able to supervise from a holistic perspective.

Sticky Dots and Lion Adventures Playing a Part in Preschool Documentation Practices.

Abstract: This article examines how material objects such as photographs, papers and computers influence documentation practices in a Swedish preschool. The importance of teacher documentation is emphasized in the 2010 revised Swedish preschool curriculum as a means of evaluating preschool quality. However, the curriculum gives no specific guidelines about documentation. A quality audit has found that teachers are unsure about how to document their practices and records. The curriculum also requires children’s participation in documentation. This research uses video-recordings from two groups of children in one Swedish preschool to analyse teachers’ documentation practices with children. The video-recordings were analysed, combining theories of power relations with post-humanism. This article reviews two documentation activities: pedagogical documentation and evaluation documentation. The findings indicate that the complexity of preschool documentation, as described in earlier research, is increased when materials and participants are taken into account by the intra-actions of entities such as teachers, children, photographs and colour-coded labels (sticky dots). The manner in which the teacher and the children were able to negotiate a narrative was conditioned by the photographs and the colour-coded labels that teachers used to evaluate the documentation and which were given quite different meanings by the children.

Young Children’s Music Play Ideas: Two Case Studies of Syncretic Literacy Practice in Classroom and Home Settings

Abstract: This critical enquiry into co-construction of meaning in music play uses applied literacy practices to explore children’s multimodal interactions. It shows evidence of cultural and social framing of their music making, their forms of organisation and ways of reinventing cultural knowledge during interaction. Using visual methodology and multimodal analysis, this study documents how children in diverse contexts intentionally transmit and redesign prior knowledge. Two case studies of diverse music activities, one in an early childhood rural setting and one in an inner-urban home setting, detail how two five-year-old children expanded communication with each other or with an adult using gestural, audio, spatial and visual modes as semiotic resources. These two multimodal experiences in music play are discussed to demonstrate how, in both situated events, young children demonstrated semiotic import of composing resources to transform prior knowledge in co-operative play. The activities illustrate how music play is a crucial element of everyday learning in early childhood settings. Teachers may promote learning by providing opportunities for children to co-construct and enact literacy in ways that transcend the curricular context. They expand literacy into larger worlds by recognising modes of gesture and spatial relations as students communicate life experiences through music play.

Curricular, Relational, and Physical Spaces in the Japanese Hoikuen

Abstract: Recent scholarship looks at the relationship of learning to space and place within educational research. The purpose of this article was to put data produced from teaching in four Japanese preschools into conversation with spatial theory and Ma, a Japanese spatial esthetic. We seek to understand how and what spaces (physical, curricular, and relational) are produced in Japanese hoikuen. We engage with Soja’s Firstspace, Secondspace, and Thirdspace in order to examine space in the Japanese preschools. We also think with concepts from Ma esthetics in order to understand the appreciation of unexpected moments and interactions. Specific insights gained from analysis focus on the design of the preschools, flexibility of furniture, shared workspaces, field trips, inquiries with nature, bonds between students, and addressing conflict. We present these insights to add to an emerging discussion of how spatial aspects of environments influence teaching and learning in early childhood education.