Showing papers in "International Journal of Early Years Education in 2018"
TL;DR: In this article, the authors set out an argument about professional love as both a term to comprehend the reciprocal pedagogic relationship and an extension of Noddings' notion of the "ethic of care".
Abstract: Framed as an extension of Noddings’ notion of the ‘ethic of care,’ the paper sets out an argument about ‘Professional Love’ as both a term to comprehend the reciprocal pedagogic relationship which ...
56 citations
TL;DR: Learning through play has traditionally been a central tenet in early childhood education, however, in recent times primary schools have begun to consider the benefits of introducing a play-based a... as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Learning through play has traditionally been a central tenet in early childhood education, however, in recent times primary schools have begun to consider the benefits of introducing a play-based a...
31 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined adult-child touch and its functions in a Swedish preschool (for 1 to 5-year-old children) with naturalistic observations and video-recorded data of everyday pres...
Abstract: The present study examines adult–child touch and its functions in a Swedish preschool (for 1 to 5-year-old children). The data are naturalistic observations and video-recorded data of everyday pres...
29 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a sociological perspective of knowledge is adopted for early childhood education and care (ECEC) workforce, enabling a critical consideration of what is the knowledge-base for ECEC, how it is formed, legitimised and applied.
Abstract: It is widely accepted that the early childhood education and care (ECEC) workforce is central to the quality of services. Modernist constructs of quality signal the importance of qualifications for quality, but the preoccupation with qualification levels silences questions about the knowledge required of ECEC professionals. Postmodern perspectives have opened up debates on understandings of professionalism and given voice to those who work in ECEC. However, sociological perspectives of knowledge challenge postmodernism as either creating a dichotomy between modernist technocratic models of professionalism and the ethical models implicated in postmodernism or at worst presenting knowledge as non-existent. Adopting a sociological perspective of knowledge moves away from the dichotomy, enabling a critical consideration of what is the knowledge-base for ECEC, how it is formed, legitimised and applied. Drawing on Bernstein contributes to the debates on professionalism through providing a model for the ...
29 citations
TL;DR: This article examined the schematic underpinnings in the drawings of a four-year-old girl, Thea, and reviewed literature on graphic representations, signs and meaning-making before discussing sc...
Abstract: This paper examines the schematic underpinnings in the drawings of a four-year-old girl, Thea. The paper reviews literature on graphic representations, signs and meaning-making before discussing sc...
28 citations
TL;DR: The authors examined how often teachers are involved in children's imaginative play and discussed their beliefs about their role in supporting children' imaginative play, and found that despite the general importance of play, teachers' involvement in developing children' imagination play appears to be minimal.
Abstract: Grounded in Vygotsky’s cultural-historical theory, this paper examines how often teachers are involved in children’s imaginative play and discusses their beliefs about their role in supporting children’s imaginative play. To investigate this problem, video (65 hours of digital observations) and interview data (two hours and 30 minutes) of 60 children with 7 teachers from two preschools in Australia were analysed. Using Vygotsky’s [1966. “Play and Its Role in the Mental Development of the Child.” Voprosy Psikhologii 12 (6): 62–76] cultural-historical concept of play, and Kravtsov and Kravtsova’s [2010. “Play in the L.S. Vygotsky’s Nonclassical Psychology.” Journal of Russian and East European Psychology 48 (4): 25–41] conception of ‘subject positioning’ (being inside and outside of the play), it was found that despite the general importance of play, teachers’ involvement in developing children’s imaginative play appears to be minimal. The interviews showed that teachers’ beliefs about their role in...
26 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors report on a study in which preschool teachers are expected to integrate ICT into their curricula and pedagogical practices, with the ubiquitous presence of ICT in the contemporary world.
Abstract: With the ubiquitous presence of ICT in the contemporary world, preschool teachers are expected to integrate ICT into their curricula and pedagogical practices. This paper reports on a study in whic...
22 citations
TL;DR: Using a grounded theory approach, this paper explored the ways a diverse group of pre-service student caregivers, new to teaching and caring for infants, come to understand notions of "love" during their training.
Abstract: Using a grounded theory approach, this study explores the ways a diverse group of pre-service student caregivers, new to teaching and caring for infants, come to understand notions of ‘love’ during...
21 citations
TL;DR: In this article, Davies and Rinaldi discuss the use of pedagogical documentation as a way of listening to young children and explore ways in which such documentation can not only lead to insights into children's thinking, but also to questioning of taken-for-granted assumptions about children, learning and the wider world.
Abstract: If children are to be heard in research and pedagogy, we need to find ways to listen to them. But how do we listen to young children when words are not their primary means of communication? Drawing on research investigating children’s perspectives of outdoor spaces in pedagogical settings, this article discusses the use of pedagogical documentation as a way of listening to young children. This listening involves children and adults working together in a relationship of co-experimentation which requires suspension of judgment, openness and preparedness to be affected by the ‘other’ [Davies, Bronwyn. (2014). Listening to Children: Being and Becoming. London: Routledge; Rinaldi, Carla. (2006). In Dialogue with Reggio Emilia: Listening, Researching and Learning. London: Routledge]. The article explores ways in which pedagogical documentation can not only lead to insights into children’s thinking, but also to questioning of taken-for-granted assumptions about children, learning and the wider world. Fur...
20 citations
TL;DR: The authors investigated the influence of guidance instruction and type of activity on parental guidance of young children's mathematics and scientific inquiry during cooking, games, and nature acti cation, and found that the influence varied with the age of the children.
Abstract: This study investigated the influence of guidance instruction and type of activity on parental guidance of young children’s mathematics and scientific inquiry during cooking, games, and nature acti...
18 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, neuroscientific research reveals the pivotal role love and touch plays in children’s development, as well as the importance of out-of-home care in children's development.
Abstract: Young children spend an increasing amount of time in out of home care, as neuroscientific research reveals the pivotal role love and touch plays in children’s development. In response to this new k...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors report an empirical investigation into the evolving activity of a 6.5-year-old child and an adult conversing about the child's drawing of "Numberland".
Abstract: The overarching interest of this study concerns how to outline learning opportunities and support in early childhood education (ECE) without losing its play-based character. More specifically, the study reports an empirical investigation into the evolving activity of a 6.5-year-old child and an adult conversing about the child’s drawing of ‘Numberland’. What the child’s drawing and his discussion about it with the adult tell us about his emergent mathematics skills is analysed. How the child shifts between speaking and enacting as if and as is, and how the adult supports his mathematics understanding through entering into the play-frame are analysed. How imaginary, play-based activities like this can provide the means for ECE and what this implies for the teacher are discussed.
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe a phenomenon established by their predecessors over hundreds of years (Froebel 1826; Montessori 1916; Piaget 1...).
Abstract: Across the world, knowledgeable early childhood educators value young children’s play, a phenomenon established by their predecessors over hundreds of years (Froebel 1826; Montessori 1916; Piaget 1...
TL;DR: In this article, the quality of teacher-child interaction and its effects on children's classroom engagement and disaffection in Vietnamese kindergartens were investigated, and the authors concluded that teacher interaction was important for children's learning.
Abstract: This study investigated the quality of teacher–child interaction and its effects on children’s classroom engagement and disaffection in Vietnamese kindergartens. The quality of teacher–child intera...
TL;DR: The Australian Early Childhood Education and Care sector currently are the Early Years Learning Framework and the National Quality Standards and shape the practice of early childhood education and care as discussed by the authors, which are the main drivers of the early childhood ed...
Abstract: Overarching the Australian Early Childhood Education and Care sector currently are the Early Years Learning Framework and the National Quality Standards and shape the practice of early childhood ed...
TL;DR: The authors studied how immigrant/refugee women studying in a Canadian early childhood college program navigated the interstices between the cultural and religious understandings of care that five African, Musl...
Abstract: Within the context of the education-care divide in the field, numerous studies have affirmed that preschool teachers feel unprofessional when they assume a caring role yet believe that love and care are central to their work. However, immigrant/refugee teachers may experience this tensionality more acutely since their own cultural beliefs and values about caring for young children are situated outside the authoritative discourse, underpinned by western theories and practices. Framed by sociocultural-historical theory and concepts such as communities of practice, the purpose of this one-year ethnographic study was to enquire into how immigrant/refugee women studying in a Canadian early childhood college programme navigated the interstices between these discourses. Qualitative data were collected through field notes, spatial mapping, interviews, focus groups, and artefacts/documents. This article focuses on disjuncture between the cultural and religious understandings of care that five African, Musl...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors use the bio-ecological model of development and drawing on the capabilities approach to call for a shift in policy and pedagogical discourse from measuring outcomes.
Abstract: The current future-focused, outcomes driven early childhood policy climate presents a danger that early years pedagogy will lose sight of the ‘present’ child. Increasingly policy support for early childhood education is built around an emphasis on preparing children for school and positioning it as a key element in enhancing society through preparing future citizens to become productive members of society. The measurable outcomes discourse, in emphasising product, renders invisible the critical contribution of the processes of everyday practice to children’s development. To challenge and counteract the strong outcome discourse early years professionals must have confidence in their pedagogy. However, research suggests that those working in the early years may lack the language and strategies for supporting their educational practice. Using the bio-ecological model of development and drawing on the capabilities approach this paper calls for a shift in policy and pedagogical discourse from measuring...
TL;DR: This paper investigated the quantity of audible and intelligible (near and clear) educator talk directly experienced by under-two-year-old infants attending early childhood education and care (EC...
Abstract: This study investigated the quantity of audible and intelligible (‘near and clear’) educator talk directly experienced by under-two-year-old infants attending early childhood education and care (EC...
TL;DR: The authors argue that the present alignment of love with (or as) professional care sets a risky precedent for the field since it ignores the loving relationships that exist beyond care-giving acts, and suggest alternative ways love might be understood thus granting love the status it deserves in the education and care of young children.
Abstract: © 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Discussions of love and care might seem a natural alliance for early childhood teachers. Yet, while care is now at last beginning to be accepted as a legitimate feature of early years childhood within professional discourse alongside 'education' (enshrined in concepts such as 'educare', 'ECEC', or 'well-being'), articulations of love remain an elusive concept for practice. In this paper, we explore some of the reasons for this - not least because love is difficult to define, almost impossible to measure and implicates teachers both personally and professionally. We suggest that the present alignment of love with (or as) professional care sets a risky precedent for the field since it ignores the loving relationships that exist beyond caregiving acts. We argue for the necessity to distinguish between love and care in educational practice based on the writings of Scheler [1970. The nature of sympathy. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd.]. Drawing on the theoretical concept of 'aesthetic love' and vzhivanie posited by Bakhtin [1981. The dialogic imagination. Austin, Texas: University of Texas; 1986. Estetika slovestnogo tvorchestva. Moscow: Isskustvo.], we suggest alternative ways love might be understood thus granting love the status it deserves in the education and care of young children.
TL;DR: The early childhood paradigm of early childhood allows for the construction of the child as active agents able to comment on their own lives as discussed by the authors, and the new paradigm allows the child to be constructed using divergent discour...
Abstract: The new paradigm of early childhood allows for the construction of the child as active agents able to comment on their own lives. Historically children have been constructed using divergent discour...
TL;DR: Even though studies of the accessibility of digital technologies in educational contexts have become progressively more extensive, understanding children's motive for play or for learning is essent... as discussed by the authors, the authors
Abstract: Even though studies of the accessibility of digital technologies in educational contexts have become progressively more extensive, understanding children’s motive for play or for learning is essent...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyse the drawings of five-year-old children and find that what a child draws is influenced by many factors, including the child's culture and environment.
Abstract: Research results have shown that what a child draws is influenced by many factors, including the child’s culture and environment. The aim of this study was to analyse the drawings of five-year-old ...
TL;DR: The call by policymakers, education stakeholders, and families for children to enter school "ready" has led to numerous empirical studies that seek to identify how children and their families are o...
Abstract: The call by policymakers, education stakeholders, and families for children to enter school ‘ready’ has led to numerous empirical studies that seek to identify how children and their families are o...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors report findings on pre-service teachers' thinking during planning and implementing play-based art activities, which is informed by discourses emphasising art teaching and learning in relation to play and theoretical assumptions conceptualising planning as "practice of knowing".
Abstract: The present study reports findings on pre-service teachers’ thinking during planning and implementing play-based art activities. ‘Thinking’ (in the present study) is informed by discourses emphasising art teaching and learning in relation to play and theoretical assumptions conceptualising planning as ‘practice of knowing’. Pre-service teachers’ thinking was explored through: (a) a tool ‘skĕptiko’ (a series of questions), created by the researchers to initiate inquiry during planning and provide evidence about participants’ ‘practice of knowing’, and (b) a semi-structured interview using the method of photo-elicitation. Classroom observation, researchers’ reflective notes, document analysis (‘skĕptiko’) and photographs were used in conjunction with data gathered from semi-structured interviews to confirm the findings. The findings suggest that there is a relationship between pre-service early childhood teachers’ thinking (planning) and practice (implementation). The rationale behind their decision...
TL;DR: In this paper, the similarities and differences of seven nature kindergarten programs in Australia and New Zealand were compared on factors such as philosophical influences, curriculum design, site location, safety requirements and program activity.
Abstract: This paper highlights the similarities and differences of seven nature kindergarten programmes in Australia and New Zealand. The study targeted three programmes from New Zealand and four from Australia. Participant observations and semi-structured interviews were used to build a profile of each site. The profiles were compared on factors such as philosophical influences, curriculum design, site location, safety requirements and programme activity. In many ways, the programmes were quite similar, and this was attributed to synergies between the respective curriculum frameworks and the influence of the European Forest School movement. There were, however, some unique features at each site and differences attributed to national perspectives. It is anticipated that the profiling of philosophical and logistical dimensions of nature programmes implemented in exemplar settings can help to inspire other early childhood educators and encourage them to reposition nature pedagogy as part of their own early childhood programmes.
TL;DR: This article revisited Froebel's principles and argued that we would be wise to continue to regard them as relevant and valuable touchstones for early childhood education in the twenty-first century.
Abstract: Twenty years ago, as an early childhood teacher, I was fortunate to attend a professional development day conference led by the inimitable Professor Tina Bruce At the conference, Tina asked we early childhood teachers: ‘What one thing would you put your back to the wall for in your job?’ In other words, Tina wanted us to share with one another the values that guide our daily work with young children and their families An avowed Froebelian, Tina herself subscribes to a very particular set of values (Bruce 2015) and she is not alone Many early childhood educators over two centuries have been influenced by the principles and philosophy developed by Froebel, the original kindergarten practitioner (Froebel Trust 2018) Indeed, as for so many others, my own initial teacher education was strongly influenced by Froebelian principles which have continued to guide my work in the field for thirty-five years We live in an era of unprecedented global focus on early childhood development (UNESCO 2017; WHO 2018), in this editorial I revisit Froebel’s principles and I argue that we would be wise to continue to regard them as relevant and valuable touchstones for early childhood education in the twenty-first century
TL;DR: The United Nations target (2015) that all children will have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education is predicated on the assumption that there will be enough resources available for them as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The ambitious United Nations target (2015) that all children will ‘have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education’ is predicated on the assumption that there wil...
TL;DR: In this article, a successful transition from preschool to school demands continuity in education between the institutions: continuity in pedagogy, values and institutional structures, and one way to achieve co...
Abstract: A successful transition from preschool to school demands continuity in education between the institutions: continuity in pedagogy, values and institutional structures. One way to achieve co...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors consider varied governmental initiatives in England and their implications for early years education, including: an Office for Standards in Education (2017), Bold Beginnings: The...
Abstract: This paper considers varied governmental initiatives in England and their implications for early years education, including: an Office for Standards in Education (2017. Bold Beginnings: The...
TL;DR: The legitimisation of love in early childhood education and care is undergoing a (re)birth and some reinforcement as discussed by the authors, with other academics and practitioners working to build the case for love as...
Abstract: The legitimisation of love in Early Childhood Education and Care is undergoing a (re)birth and some reinforcement. With other academics and practitioners, I am working to build the case for love as...