Journal of Childhood, Education & Society (JCES)
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Parents’ role in adolescents’ leisure time use: From goals to parenting practices
Get PDFInspired by Ann Swidler’s toolkit theory, this qualitative study aims to achieve a better understanding of social class differences in parenting practices and, in turn, in young people’s leisure time use. To that end, 32 semi-structured face-to-face interviews with parents from middle- and working-class families were conducted in a small city in Belgium. An inductive thematic analysis revealed substantial social class differences with respect to three parenting practices: (1) setting an example, (2) resolving conflicts and (3) facilitating leisure activities. The interviews showed that these differences were mainly linked to social class differences in parents’ resources: working-class parents more often lacked flexible time, financial resources, an extensive social network on which they could rely and the institutionally required attitudes, skills and experience to engage in the above-mentioned parenting practices. We conclude that young people’s (continued) institutional leisure participation puts high requirements on parents and not all (working-class) parents are able to live up to such requirements. In that way, contemporary leisure settings reproduce rather than mitigate inequality in the use of leisure time
Effects of a parent training using telehealth: Equity and access to early intervention for rural families
Get PDFChildren living in geographically rural areas may have limited access to early, intensive evidence-based interventions suggesting children residing in these areas are less likely to experience positive outcomes than their urban-dwelling peers. Telehealth offers an option to rural families seeking early intervention by using communication technologies where providers are able to consult and deliver services in real-time over geographical distances. To our knowledge, no other study has examined the implementation of P-ESDM in rural natural environments within the framework of the state’s early intervention program. Using a multiple baseline design across participants, the current study investigated the effects of the parent-Early Start Denver Model implemented within a rural northeastern state’s existing IDEA Part C early intervention program. Parents demonstrated increased fidelity to intervention strategies and reported satisfaction with the program’s ease of implementation and observed child gains. Statistically significant pre-to post- change in children’s ASD symptomatology were reported for the domains of communication, social reciprocity and repetitive and restricted behaviors. Support for parent-mediated interventions, the importance of fidelity of implementation for sustainability of intervention strategies, and the need to explore telehealth as a viable service delivery option to improve developmental trajectories for toddlers with autism are discussed
Stay in solidarity and share equally: An open access journal in childhood studies
Get PDFJournal of Childhood, Education & Society (JCES) was founded as a product of collective thought under the leadership of Dr. Mehmet Toran in July 2019 by a group of early childhood researchers who conduct both collaborative and independent academic research. Under the light of scientific research, current publishing policies cannot eliminate inequalities in public access for transfer and access of knowledge that is generated for the public weal (Beall, 2013). Particularly, having a limited access to the knowledge in early childhood studies is acknowledged as the first step for constitution of JCES. In this context, we would like to underline that independent researchers who are voluntarily taking part in the emergence of JCES are involved in a very courageous endeavour. This collective constitution takes an important responsibility for the public as well, and we point out that to fulfil this responsibility, it embraces moral and ethical rules as a reference point. Objectives, scope and ethical principles of JCES are determined with the contribution of the editorial board. In addition, we make promise to the larger research community of early childhood area that we will make sure to contribute to the area by giving a priority to high quality of research with robust evidence.
JCES adopts open science perspective in early childhood studies. Therefore, JCES has a high opinion of sharing the knowledge among people who are in children’s ecology democratically. Attaching importance to open science policy, JCES defends scientific knowledge as public property that should be shared with all without depressing its value (Tonta, 2015). In the light of this target, -as JCES editorial board- we believe that scientific information that has been produced as public property should be shared with everyone through open access. The scientific communication enhanced between researchers-practitioners-readers is aimed to put into practice through the “open access” method. In this context, as open access policy within JCES, we embraced non-profit, voluntary editorial operations without charging a fee either from the reader or authors. Our experiences during publishing our first issue promise that it can be put into practice with a collective movement voluntarily on a digital platform. Solidarity is possible to carry out editorial process not only in Turkey but also with a contribution from every corner of the world.
We have given extra importance to research ethics as our publishing policy. While specifying ethical principles, we aimed to take researcher’s attention to this issue. In this sense, after discussions with EECERA and then with the permission from Trustees of EECERA, we decided to embrace EECERA Ethical Code for Early Childhood Researchers that is formulated by Chris Pascal, Tony Bertram, Julia Formosinho, Colette Gray and Margy Whalley (2012). The ethical code bears qualification as a guide for researchers working in the early childhood area. We would like to indicate that applicant articles to the JCES are also evaluated in terms of those ethical codes during the editorial preliminary consideration process.
After calling for papers for the inaugural issue, we had a considerable amount of article applications. Those applications studiously evaluated by the referees after preliminary considerations. In this process, constructive feedback from the referees and the revisions authors made in consideration to given feedback contributed to quality of articles concurrently to the quality of the journal. Peer review process that is held studiously, on time and constructively demonstrated that solidarity is built correctly and truthfully. Therefore, we would like to especially thank the referees for the inaugural issue.
As you will see in the journal, there are six articles for the inaugural issue from five different countries: Belgium, Colombia, Israel, Tanzania and the USA. This variety is a result of effective publicity of the journal by editorial board and efficient use of digital platforms with open access policy. Besides that, especially the call for papers announcements by EECERA in their member mail groups and social media accounts demonstrated once more how important solidarity is. As a result of this solidarity and cooperation, we would like to underline that the geographical variety of applicant articles strengthen our faith and self-confidence as well.
After publishing first issue, we will continue pertinaciously working to strengthen international collaborations and to ensure continuity of the journal. Being aware of responsibility we are carrying and the risks we may face in the process, we would like to state that we have already taken necessary precautions. To ensure long running path and continuity of publishing for the journal, Gizem Alvan, Kerem Avcı and Taibe Kulaksız - doctorate students- have already started gaining experience in journal publishing and editorial administration process. These experiences would play an important role to provide sustainable publication of the journal. We would like to congratulate them to take part in a constitution courageously.
We would like to thank all partners who contributed to spreading information to publish interest with open access with their articles and their supports in the editorial process for the inaugural issue. We would like to state that the call for papers continues for the second issue of JCES which will be published in August 2020 and we are open to early childhood researchers’ original contributions
STEM starts early: Views and beliefs of early childhood education stakeholders in Tanzania
Get PDFFor about a decade, Tanzania has intensely focused on developing literacy and numeracy skills in pre-primary and early grades programs. Recently, the attention has shifted towards the significance of teaching Science, Mathematics, Technology and Science (STEM) in the early years. To enhance the 21st century skills necessary for building a middle income and knowledge-based economies, the existing empirical evidence emphasizes the need for STEM education starting from pre-primary level. This paper aims to unpack the state of the STEM education in pre-primary education in Tanzania. By using homogenous purposive sampling, two policy-makers, three ECE academics, eight school principals, and eight pre-primary teachers from rural and urban public schools were recruited. Data were collected by interviews, semi-structured survey questionnaires, and documentary analyses. Though there was consensus among ECE stakeholders that children should be exposed to STEM environments as early as possible, findings indicated that even among ECE practitioners, there is a very vague understanding of what entails of STEM education in ECE. Further, while teachers were aware and guided to facilitate science and mathematics education, they were not aware and there were no specific policy briefs/circular instructions on how to facilitate Technology and Engineering education in ECE. The paper concludes with suggestions on how to integrate STEM in early childhood education, especially for Tanzania
Promoting self-regulated learning in preschoolers
Get PDFSelf-regulated learning (SRL) is important for a person\u27s school career and their later academic success, and it should therefore be fostered as early as possible. Nevertheless, research focusing on the promotion of SRL in preschoolers is limited. The present study aims to examine the efficacy of an SRL intervention based on a longitudinal control-group-design for preschoolers (direct-level intervention) and their kindergarten teachers (indirect-level intervention). The SRL intervention took place in either a) an autonomous learning environment, where SRL learning strategies were practiced with no special focus on the stimulation of communicative abilities or b) in a social-interactive learning environment, where SRL learning strategies were practiced while communicative abilities were stimulated. The sample consisted of 189 preschoolers (49.5% ♀, 50.5% ♂, mean age: 5.6 years, SD = .47 years) and 30 kindergarten teachers. SRL and general self-regulation ability (gSR) served as performance measures. The results of the paired t-tests revealed an increase in SRL and gSR for preschoolers irrespective of the condition, while a group-differential intervention benefit for preschoolers (i.e. direct-autonomous or direct-interactive intervention) could not be confirmed by the applied repeated measures ANOVA and contrast analyses. Further, we did not find any substantial benefit from teacher intervention (i.e. indirect intervention) analysed by non-parametric Wilcoxon test. This unexpected result is discussed in light of methodical considerations. Nevertheless, the study provides important implications for future intervention studies. 
Navigating the process of building parent-teacher partnerships: Experiences of early childhood pre-service teachers
Get PDFThis study utilized the qualitative phenomenological approach to explore pre -service teachers’ experiences in their engagement with parents of young children as they practiced building partnerships with parents. Pre-service teachers (N=50) were each assigned a preschool child with whom they interacted together with the child’s parents and teacher; completing a semester-long assignment created within a family, schools and community course for students in an early childhood teacher preparation program. Pre-service teachers’ responses to a survey and their final written reflections were analyzed using the process of axial and open coding. Results indicated the importance of communication and understanding different dynamics and challenges in parent-teacher partnerships. Therefore, educators should continuously strive to equip pre-service teachers with the skills they will need to succeed as they work with schools, the community and especially in their work with parents
Teachers\u27 perceptions of integrating kindergarten and first-grade primary school language curricula
Get PDFThe purpose of this research paper is to investigate the perceptions of kindergarten teachers and first-grade primary school teachers on the integration of kindergarten and first-grade of primary school language curricula. This research is part of a broader study of the relation between natural/early and conventional/school literacy, the teachers\u27 perceptions of the possibility of integration of language curricula, as well as practices resulting from the study of curricula. The data were collected through a questionnaire sample of 326 kindergarten teachers and 306 teachers who were teaching at the time of this study the first-grade of primary school in two Greek prefectures. Research data has shown that first-grade teachers appear to be more positive than kindergarten teachers towards integrating the two curricula. Both kindergarten teachers and first-grade teachers seem to partially agree with the creation of a curriculum with common goals and objectives. Nevertheless kindergarten teachers appear more hesitant, expressing their concerns and fears of a potential “schoolarization” of the kindergarten
The impact of the quality of early mathematics instruction on mathematics achievement outcomes
Get PDFThe examination of teaching quality in mathematics in relation to student learning outcomes has become increasingly important following the research reports indicating that early mathematics teaching and learning experiences are critical contributors to students’ learning and later achievement in mathematics and other content areas. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between the quality of early mathematics instruction and students’ mathematics learning outcomes in 73 Pre-K to 3rd grade classrooms in an urban public schools system. The results suggested that the quality mathematics instruction varies across observed classrooms but mostly mediocre. Limited but significant associations between instructional quality and mathematics achievement were also documented at the classroom level. More specifically, there was a positive significant interaction between quality of mathematics teaching and students’ mathematics achievement at the end of the school year in classrooms where ratings of the instructional quality was identified as “high,” after controlling for students’ pre-test scores and gender
Perspectives of teachers, children, and parents on the transition to first grade
Get PDFThis research is a case study of a school that sought to ascertain what is required for the optimal adjustment of children to first grade from the perspective of each partner in the education triad – children, parents, and the teaching staff (teachers and assistant teachers). The research tools adapted to the participants are open-ended questionnaires to elicit the perspectives of the parents and teaching staff, and interviews of the children following their creation of a metaphorical collage to elicit their perspectives. Participants were three first-grade teachers, the assistant first-grade teacher, ten children from one of the first-grade classes, and twelve parents of these children. All the children attend a regional primary school and come from [cooperative Israeli settlements in central Israel. The findings indicate that the emotional climate of the school was regarded as positive by all the respondents. Although all respondents expressed a desire for more inter-personal communication with each other, the expectations of parents and teachers differed with respect to the desired frequency and setting limits on the communication between them. The paper also describes changes instituted to improve communication between the school and the parents in light of the research findings
Early childhood preservice teachers\u27 debugging block-based programs: An eye tracking study
Get PDFLearning computational skills such as programming and debugging is very important for K-12 students given the increasing need of workforce proficient in computing technologies. Programming is an intricate cognitive task that entails iteratively creating and revising programs to create an artifact. Central to programming is debugging, which consists of systematically identifying and fixing program errors. Given its central role, debugging should be explicitly taught to early childhood preservice teachers so they can support their future students’ learning to program and debug errors. In this study, we propose using eye-tracking data and cued retrospective reporting to assess preservice teachers’ cognitive strategies while debugging. Several eye-tracking studies have investigated learners’ debugging strategies though the literature lacks studies (a) conducted with early childhood preservice teachers and (b) that focus on block-based programming languages, such as Scratch. The present study addresses this gap in the literature. This study used mixed methods to triangulate quantitative findings from eye movement analysis and qualitative findings about employed debugging strategies into the creation of descriptive themes. Results showed that participants developed strategies such as simultaneous review of output and code, use of beacons to narrow down the area to be debugged, and eye fixation on output to form hypotheses. But most often, debugging was not informed by a hypothesis, which led to trial and error. Study limitations and directions for future research are discussed.