Global Education Review (Mercy College, New York)
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Toward a Model of Educational Equality: Establishing Social Validity Measures for Inclusion
Full text linkInclusion of students with special education needs (SEN) and especially autism spectrum disorder (ASD) into general education curricula is a challenging practice. In recent years, the practice of inclusion has been expanding within the international school community. Outside of the United States, the process of inclusion is developing rapidly due to an ever-increasing demand. The demand is fueled by families and is compounded by the scarcity of international schools with developed programs and inclusive classrooms. Applied Behavior Analysis provides evidence-based strategies and tactics that support educators and those responsible for inclusion of students SEN and ASD. The purpose of the present study was to use behavioral observation techniques to determine socially valid performance criterion for attending behaviors in typically developing primary school students during group instruction and independent desk work. No direct observation data were found on this subject, to date. Direct observations occurred in situ using whole interval recording procedures across typical students across primary grades one through eight, inclusive. Data were collected under two types of conditions, lecture style instruction, and independent desk work for boys and girls across all grades. The performance criterion could then be used to guide decisions by IEP teams to fade out support of those students with SEN in the general education setting. Results show that typical students attend to the teacher during live lectures an average of 93% of the time using a time sampling data collection technique and 96% during independent desk work.
Finding Froebel in the environmental and economic climate of the 21st Century
Full text linkThis editorial for Part 2 of the Special Issue on the pedagogy of Friedrich Froebel situates the articles in the context of economic pressures and environmental challenges in the Anthropocene. These different positions include environmental concerns, neoliberalism, and the fragility of how methods and curriculum issues can be interpreted, all which took us towards the complexity of life in the Anthropocene. Education Reform Movement. It highlights the contributions made to contemporary research and practice in early childhood education and advancing understanding of a Froebelian approach
A Multi-layered Dialogue: Exploring Froebel’s Influence on Pedagogies of Care with 1-year-olds across Four Cultures
No full textInfant and toddler pedagogy has flourished as a specialized area of practice in early childhood care and education settings, yet it remains an under-researched area. There is also limited empirical research internationally that explores cultural meanings of meaningful provision for this young age group. This ethnographic study explored pedagogies of care with 1-year olds in four cultures—England, United States, New Zealand and Hong Kong—guided by Froebel’s education philosophy and a view of pedagogies of care as embodiments of culture. The researchers employed sociocultural and ecological theoretical perspectives (Darling, 2016) to attend to cultural meanings at the micro, macro and temporal levels in relation to people, contexts and processes. This lens enabled the researchers to resist the positivist tendency to normalize and unify all children’s experiences and maintain the integrity of diverse interpretations. Inspired by Tobin et al.’s (1989, 2009) cross-national research on preschool in three cultures, the researchers utilized a video-cued multivocal and layered interpretation approach to elicit the “voices” of 1-year-olds, their teachers/practitioners and families. This paper focuses on each researcher’s discussion of the ways Froebel’s principles of autonomy in learning and freedom with guidance were seen to unfold. The nuances of how these principles were manifested in pedagogies for infants and toddlers is explored in relation to each country’s curriculum and cultural ideals
Froebelian Pedagogy as Everyday Activism in Support of a Sustainability Agenda
Full text linkA contemporary concern about children’s loss of contact with the natural world accompanies an ongoing urbanization and their reduced independent mobility. Children are becoming increasingly reliant on adults in accessing outdoor play and this is giving rise to more such experiences being shared. This research has explored the contemporary contribution of Froebelian holistic pedagogy through which child, adult and natural environment relations are understood as mutually beneficial. An exploration has been undertaken through preschool organized family trips to nature sites in a suburban English context. Sensory ethnography (Pink, 2009) has framed use of child-worn Go-Pros™ on trips by ten children between two and four-years old. This footage has then formed the basis for sensory elicitation interviews with parents in which we revisit shared experience from their child’s point-of-view. These parallel perspectives have been analyzed through use of a vocabulary of holistic relations drawn from the theory of the evolution of human consciousness (Gebser, 1949) The potential is highlighted for children to draw adults into sensory experiences, big questions and storied relations with surroundings which can balance the potential for adults to draw children into abstract relations with a global context. Each is equally significant in forming rich, continuous connections between individuals and whole and can highlight the potential offered by Froebel’s pedagogy in support of a sustainability agenda. This is through its orientation to a vision of the whole and significance of our own holistic capacities as everyday activism within this
Posing Unique and Urgent Challenges to Understandings of Quality: Elucidations through a Froebelian lens
Full text linkThis paper reports on findings from a small pilot study undertaken with early years practitioners in Scotland. The Scottish Government is currently implementing its key election promise of almost doubling the entitlement to publicly funded early learning and childcare (ELC) for all three and four-year old and eligible two-year old children. A key message from the Scottish Government during this period has been that quality is at the heart of the expansion initiative (Scottish Government, 2017b). However, quality can be a contested and an ill understood concept (Moss, 2019). This pilot study, therefore, explored the perspectives of practitioners in Scotland regarding what quality in early years provision entails, particularly in this time of change and expansion. The paper will make three key arguments based on the findings from the study. First, that although quality is a much-used term in Scottish ELC settings, understandings of the term can be subjective, yet powerful and can leave practitioners with more questions than answers. Second, we argue that Fröbelian principles could ameliorate some of the issues regarding quality in Scotland, particularly in terms of combatting discrimination. Finally, we argue that those principles must be accompanied by a social justice lens in which prejudice and stereotypes are recognized, named, and unpacked and action for change taken
Valued Learning Topics in Kindergarten
Full text linkIn the Scandinavian tradition, how children learn is of much greater importance than what children. However, this study seeks primarily to investigate “what to learn” as opposed to “how to learn.” The matter of what topics are most valued is under-researched, particularly in regard to kindergarten teachers and what they think children should learn during their time in kindergarten. In this study, the above-stated fact was investigated through focus group interviews (Halkier, 2015) in six kindergartens during January of 2020. In each kindergarten, 3-5 kindergarten teachers – 23 in total – participated in these interviews. A qualitative approach was used to obtain participants and capture their perspectives (Kvale & Brinkman, 2015). All of the responses emphasized a common theme, that focus should be placed on learning and developing social competence and early literacy learning (ELL). National Early Literacy Panel (NELP) defines ELL as learning vocabulary and developing oral language, along with becoming familiarized with the alphabet, writing letters, and obtaining phonological awareness (2008). In contrast, when asked what the most important aspect was in following the governmental curriculum, kindergarten teachers specified ELL.
The findings discussed regarded ELL as a critical topic in early childhood education and care (ECEC), both internationally and in the Scandinavian countries of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark (Børne-og Undervisningsministeriet, 2007; Kunnskapsdepartementet, 2017; Skolverket, 2019). The findings were also discussed regarding social competence as an expression of the Bildung concept (Klafki, 1997) and in regard to Froebelian pedagogy, which has greatly influenced Scandinavian kindergartens. Although this heritage may have been used, shaped and interpreted in a child-oriented direction (Brostrøm, 2004; Håberg, 2017), it has the potential to provide various input and directions
The role of parental involvements in children’s acquisition of Kiswahili pre-reading skills in Tanzania
Full text linkThis study explored the role of parental involvements in children’s acquisition of Kiswahili pre-reading skills in Tanzania. Specifically, it compared rural public high performing schools and low performing schools. Stratified random sampling and purposive sampling were used to obtain 350 participants. Data were collected through questionnaire-based-interview, semi-structured interview, focus group discussion, and tests administration methods. An independent sample t-test and thematic analyses were employed. Results indicated that there was no statistically significant difference in involvements between parents from high performing schools (M= 33.39, SD = 9.79), and those from low performing schools (M= 31.74, SD = 9.93); t (152) = 1.040, p >.05 in learning activities. This implies that parental involvements in learning activities were less associated with children’s acquisition of Kiswahili pre-reading skills. Findings from interviews and FGDs revealed that parental involvements were hindered by lack of parents’ knowledge about pre-primary education, limited parental support, and effects of home learning environment. To maximize children’s pre-reading skills, the study recommends that parents should be informed about their involvement in learning activities
Folding Froebel with Deleuze: Rethinking the significance of imitation in early childhood
Full text linkThe paper brings Froebel’s philosophy into conversation with that of Deleuze. We focus on the fold and on self-activity as key concepts that hold a special place in the monist philosophies of both thinkers. One point at which their (very different) ontologies coincide is their conceptualization of a cosmos in which everything is ultimately in relation. The philosophical convergences of such different thinkers in different eras are mapped in relation to the influences of a shared lineage with some earlier hermetic and romantic strains of thought. Both Froebel and Deleuze conceive of subjectivity as a relation of dynamic folding and unfolding of inner life and external world. The fold, as the operation that brings outside and inside together in a unitary system, counters the dualisms that still tend to structure thought: for instance, ideal/material, intelligible/sensible, nature/culture, individual/social.
Reading Deleuze with Froebel helps to draw out some theoretical underpinnings of Froebel’s holism, by bringing movement, matter and the senses back into focus and rethinking the relation between children and their environment in learning and development. We discuss some empirical examples of what this might look like from a current research project, focusing on imitation as one example of the fold between the inner life and the outer worlds of young children. In particular, we are interested in exploring how Froebel’s conception of imitation as a dynamic and metamorphic act of self-transformation might share some affinities with the concept of becoming developed by Deleuze and Guattari
A life "in and with nature?" Developing nature engaging and nature enhancing pedagogies for babies and toddlers
Full text linkThe holistic relationship between children and nature is at the heart of Froebel’s philosophy and practice: he took for granted that young children would grow up “in” and “with” nature. This paper explores the contemporary relevance of this thinking to babies and toddlers in early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings. It is based on a research project funded by the Froebel Trust which explores outdoor provision in English settings. Our findings suggest that whilst the pedagogic potential of the outdoors for babies and toddlers appears to be generally recognized, there is little emphasis on supporting them to engage with the natural characteristics of the outdoor environment. Concerns about safety and an emphasis on physical activity mean that natural elements may be discouraged in favor of manufactured alternatives such as artificial grass or commercially produced resources. We argue that Froebelian philosophy offers a much-needed theoretical lens that can illuminate the limitations of such practices for both the human and non-human world. Importantly, we highlight the interconnectedness of human and environmental health and suggest the need to develop nature engaging and nature enhancing pedagogies from birth.
Didactic and Curriculum in ECEC from a Froebelian standpoint
Full text linkHow can we use Friedrich Froebel’s play theory in order to analyze ECEC, Early Childhood Education and Care? Wolfgang Klafki builds his theory of categorical Bildung on Froebel’s play theory, which presupposes the interaction between child, adult and content, as in the didactic triangle. Froebel’s play theory was lost in the hands of his followers Bertha von Marenholtz-Bülow and Henriette Schrader-Breymann. Developmental theories such as the cultural level theory and the recapitulation theory had a strong influence. One result was a child-centered laissez-faire pedagogy, waiting for the child to mature enough to be able to start school. With Klafki and his perspective on Froebel, it is possible to ask a set of questions in order to describe and analyze contemporary ECEC programs: (i) What are the didactic relations between child, adult and content, as in the didactic triangle? (ii) What is the content and how is it selected and organized? (iii) What kind of play and learning is intended