Journal of Childhood, Education & Society (JCES)
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Preschool staff perceptions of leader capabilities during COVID-19 early stage in Iceland
Get PDFIn mid-March 2020, leaders of Icelandic preschools faced a new reality: the task of leading and keeping their preschools open during the early stages of a pandemic. Suddenly, everything changed, and dystopia became the “new normal”. The proximal closeness between unrelated people was forbidden, and everyone was supposed to practice social distancing. This article discusses the attitudes of preschool staff towards their leaders (principals) during that time. How successfully did the leaders handle the first weeks of the pandemic? Data were drawn from an online survey conducted between 8 and 18 April 2020 during a time when feelings were running high. The results showed that staff felt that most of the leaders supported and did their best to take care of their staff members. Leaders established new ways to communicate and get information from both staff and parents. They showed assertiveness and used their former leadership training and skills. However, staff perceived leaders had problems setting boundaries, and their insecurity affected their leadership skills. The unique contribution of this study is that its data were collected during the early stages, which may be helpful for later stages or other crises affecting preschools in the future
Deinstitutionalisation in Hungarian child protection: Policy and practice changes in historical contexts
Get PDFThe aim of the study is to present the historical changes in child protection in Hungary and the process of deinstitutionalisation, which is still shaping child protection work in this country. The research seeks to answer the question of how the process of institutionalisation and deinstitutionalisation was implemented in Hungary in the socialist era and after the introduction of Act XXXI of 1997 on the Protection of Children and on the Directorate for Guardianship (Act XXXI of 1997), which was a milestone in the Hungarian child protection for the 0-3-year olds. The study employs a case study methodology with secondary data corpus including legislation and data provided by the Central Statistical Office in Hungary. The scientific approach of the study is mainly historical, presenting the main features of child protection in three distinct periods 1950-1970, 1980-1995 and 1996-2018. The findings indicate that the socialist era has had a prevailing influence on child protection for many decades, but the years following the transition into democracy brought major transformation in child protection, a "transition of the child protection system", paving the way for the process of deinstitutionalisation and the emergence of alternative forms of care
Exploring humour within the early childhood period from children’s and teachers’ perspectives
Get PDFThe purpose of this study was to examine humour from the perspectives of 60-72-month-old children and their teachers in Turkey. A phenomenological method was used to collect data through semi-structured interviews, which included each child making a drawing about something they thought was ‘funny’. Teachers were also interviewed via semi-structured questions related to children’s humour. Data collected from 22 children and five teachers were analysed using McGhee’s humour development theory and Martin’s descriptions of four humour styles. The humour produced by our sample mainly included items related to incongruity. Teachers described children’s humour development in terms of how the children behaved within their social group, and some believing that children who do not make jokes about their peers, have no humour development. Our findings pointed to a lack of awareness of the benefits of humour to the learning process and early years’ education, particularly with teachers needing to account for age, developmental level and cultural differences
What are Singapore parents’ perception of play in the early years?
Get PDFInternational research indicate that play is the most effective way for children to learn and develop physically, cognitively, socially and emotionally as well as reduces stress and enhances confidence, curiosity and creativity. Despite the importance and benefits of play for children’s learning and development, play seems to be vanishing from preschool classrooms globally (and in Singapore) for various reasons. It is believed that one of the reasons for this phenomenon could be the lack of parents’ support for children’s play due to their high expectations and demand for academic achievement and the lack of their awareness or understanding on the importance of play in children’s development. Hence, the key purpose of this exploratory study is to gather data from parents on their perception of play and holistic development in Singapore preschools. Data were collected from 30 parents through interviews using a semi-structured questionnaire. The data collected were transcribed verbatim and coded and subsequently, organised by research question and analysed and interpreted constructively and reflexively. The findings of the study revealed that although most Singapore parents understood and recognised the importance of play and holistic development in the early years, some of them wanted preschools to prepare their children academically for primary school. Parents also shared a list of factors which supported or impeded their support for children’s play and some of them felt that they could benefit from parent education programmes. These findings highlight the importance of the school-family-community partnership in the education of young children in Singapore
A longitudinal investigation of the effects of parental discipline strategies on social competence in early childhood
Get PDFIn the current study, we investigated the associations between parenting discipline strategies (i.e., physical punishment and non-violent punishment) and social development using n = 3265 reports from primary caregivers across three waves of data. Analyses were conducted using cross-lagged structural equation modeling, where we evaluated the developmental effects of physical punishment and non-violent punishment on social competence. The findings showed partial support for developmental changes between non-violent punishment and social competence unfold reciprocally and longitudinally; the relationship between physical punishment and social competence appeared unrelated, as physical punishment in Wave 2 only negatively predicted social competence in Wave 3. These findings underscore the importance of understanding the developmental pathways for parenting discipline strategies and social skill development among children living in urban neighborhoods
The second parent: Ideologies of childhood in Russian pedagogy manuals
Get PDFThe collapse of the Soviet Union saw deep reforms in the educational system and, with the new market economy, in the presuppositions about training and employment that underpinned it. But this article argues that contemporary Russian teacher training materials nonetheless reproduce Soviet understandings about childhood, education, and the state. Comparing discourses about teaching in Russian, Soviet, and American resources for prospective teachers reveals that differences between Russian and American teaching practices stem not from economic differences, but different conceptions of the social purpose of education. Discourse analysis identified patterns in representations of children and teachers in widely-used Russian teacher training textbooks, mainstream American teacher training textbooks, and Soviet pedagogical writings. This analysis revealed that contemporary Russian textbooks, in contrast to their Soviet counterparts, represent the function of education as helping prepare a child to enter society qua capitalist workforce. But the materials differ from American textbooks in their depictions of the responsibilities of teachers, the role of the state, and the rights of children in primary schools. In these respects, Russian textbooks sound much like Soviet ones
Are you listening to me? Understanding children\u27s rights through Hungarian pedagogic practice
Get PDFHungarian pedagogues agree that children should be listened to, have their rights recognised, and their voices heard. The UNCRC recommends that children’s rights should be part of early childhood education, but this is not typical in Hungarian kindergartens and there is little pedagogical material to support the education of children about their rights. This paper focuses on 5 kindergartens each typically accommodating over 150 children between the ages of 3-6 years old across Hungary. Six pedagogues worked with multi-age groups (4 kindergartens) and same-age groups (2 kindergartens). The research adopted participatory methods to gather children’s views recognising them as valuable collaborators. Children provided insight into their own lives through play based creative activities that focused on eliciting children’s thoughts and feelings. Pedagogues collected video data using a ‘toolkit’ of children’s play activities during a 6-week period of the COVID-19 pandemic. Pedagogues reflected on children’s play through a series of online focus groups with emphasis on how children expressed their views and preferences through play. Participants were encouraged to examine the power relationships between children and adults and analyse their role in knowledge production rather than knowledge extraction. Six themes emerged through thematic analysis, mapped to the 4 guiding principles of children’s rights: participation, survival, development and protection. The findings highlight the juxtaposition between children’s life-as-experienced and life-as-told by adults; the skill of pedagogues to hear and sensitively interpret children’s voices based on their play and the challenge to slow down and reflect on practice
Re-imagining socialist childhoods: Changing narratives of spatial and temporal (dis)orientations
Get PDFThe focus of attention of this special issue has both personal and professional significance for the guest editors and most of the contributors, whose childhoods were touched by either the experience of socialism or its collapse and consequences. Influenced by Foucault’s (1977) idea that reporting evidence and significant moments from the past contributes to histories that are authentic and accurate, this special issue offers insights into the changing narratives of socialist and post-socialist childhoods. We are mindful of the risks associated with revisionism; that is, revisiting and, through that, re-evaluating the past in light of what we know in the present. Mitigating this risk, to some extent, is that many of the authors whose secondary research papers are published in this issue were privileged to work with original documents written in local languages. In this way, they were able to interrogate the past and reveal the nature of discourses and practices in order to make a contribution to better understand the present (Skehill, 2007)
Evaluating the practice in Swedish school-age educare: Issues and contradictions
Get PDFThis article reports how teachers in Swedish school-age educare evaluate (SAEC) their practice. The study was conducted within a research- and development programme and is based on 47 teachers’ written reflections about performing evaluations. The reflections have been analysed using various neo-institutional logics. The results indicate that the teachers’ focus, regarding both the children and the practice, is directed differently when they are guided by different logics. When guided by the market logic, teachers focus on customer preferences and customer satisfaction. Guided by the professional logic, teachers focus the collective as well as the activities and the organisation around them. Guided by the bureaucratic and state logics, the teachers focus on the formal teaching, the individual child, and the school-age educare goal fulfilment. The results also show issues and contradictions concerning how to evaluate, what to evaluate, and when to evaluate. One possible claim is that the learning processes at the school-age educare are broad and complex, and thus difficult to “mould” to fit into evaluation schemes
Transition to school process of children with disadvantages: A literature review
Get PDFTransition to school can be described as an opportunity for children to experience a new social and educational environment. However, it also includes a loss of security area and fear of the journey into the unknown and it can be more difficult for children with disadvantages and their families. It is necessary to address the recent studies conducted on this period, in order to present different perspectives and to determine the tendency of the studies carried out on the transition to primary school in the current literature. In this way, it is possible to look at the transition to school for children with disadvantages from a broad perspective. The aim of this study is to review the research that addresses the transition process of children with disadvantages to primary school. Following the inclusion and exclusion processes carried out in this context, 15 studies related to the subject were examined and the studies were analyzed descriptively. According to the findings, it is seen that the studies mostly focus on revealing the existing situation. The findings of the studies examined in this context are interpreted under the themes of (a) factors affecting the transition of children, (b) problems experienced in the transition, (c) collaboration in the transition, and (d) advices for the process. Findings reveal the importance of each individual in a community at the same risk having their own characteristics, and of considering individual differences while addressing cultural differences. It is thought that new research is needed to improve the transition in terms of inclusivity