162 research outputs found
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Agency as assemblage: Using childhood artefacts and memories to examine children’s relations with schooling
Get PDFIn this article, we explore how childhood artefacts and memories might help us think retrospectively about children’s agency and its relationship to schooling and teaching. Across four university sites in Canada and the United States, we asked undergraduate students in teacher education and childhood studies programs to choose an artefact or object that encapsulates contemporary conceptions of childhood and to discuss them in a focus group setting at each site. Building on three participants’ descriptions of how they remembered and reflected upon school-oriented objects – a progress report, a notebook, and a pencil sharpener – we explore how participants used their artefacts in ways that allow us to theorize children’s agencies as assemblages, where agency is relational and contingent on multiple social and cultural factors. Drawing on our participants’ interpretations, we consider how a reconceptualized concept of agency may expand our understanding of the possibilities of children’s agencies in school and raise new questions about the meaning of childhood within contexts of teacher education and childhood studies
Secondary analysis of qualitative data: Hungarian minority kindergarten pedagogues’ perspectives of the new curriculum framework in Serbia
Get PDFSecondary analysis is employed to address new research questions by analysing previously collected data. This paper reports on the secondary analysis of qualitative data where the original research investigated the preschool education reform in Serbia from the perspective of Hungarian ethnic minority kindergarten pedagogues. The choice to apply a secondary analysis fulfilled the aims of (i) investigating traces of socialism in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) provision in Vojvodina, a northern region of Serbia; and (ii) exploring the complexity of Christmas celebrations in nurseries. In order to address the aims, a secondary analysis of 12 semi-structured transcripts was carried out. This analysis revealed important additional findings for the original study. In light of the education reforms in Serbia we found that, first, there are strong connections between the ‘socialist past’ ECEC practices and what these practices may look like in the future; and, second, the traditional celebration of religious holidays outside of church organizations, such as Christmas, may change in the nurseries. This paper also offers insight regarding the importance of secondary analysis which provides an opportunity to making use of existing resources
Allowing for segregation in ECEC? Legal conditions, administrative structures and enrolment practice in Germany
Get PDFSupposedly children are to learn together in surroundings mirroring the overall democratic and diverse make-up of society. Segregation in ECEC is undesirable. However, substantial segregation exists - even in systems designed for universal, high-quality ECEC provision. While some research has already carved out the role of parents´ choice of institutions, little is known about how children are selected by institutions. This article attempts to shed light on institutional choice as a variable for segregation. Including a detailed picture of the German ECEC system and pointing out administrative relations between municipalities and providers in Germany, this article will depict enrolment. It will draw an empirically based ‘tryptich’, focusing on municipalities´, provider organisation managers` and ECEC centre managers` views on enrolment. Findings will lead to a call for providers and municipalities to join efforts in order to design and implement enrolment procedures that prevent segregation
Policies and practices of early childhood education and care during the COVID-19 pandemic: Perspectives from five countries
Get PDFThe COVID-19 pandemic, which affects all areas of life, has also affected children in need of education and care. It is of great importance to develop policies that take into account the best interests of children in this process. In this review article, the policies developed for early childhood education and care during the pandemic period in five countries (Australia, Croatia, Hungary, Spain, and Turkey), how they are implemented, the problems that arose, and the solutions produced are discussed. As a result, the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed that we need to focus on eliminating the educational inequalities, set policies for the welfare of children on foundations that are more realistic, rebuild teacher training, and improve the welfare of families. Priorizating the best interests of the child in the policies to be developed and building the social ecology on justice will ease overcoming the crises that will be faced
“How will you construct a pathway system?”: Microanalysis of teacher-child scientific conversations
Get PDFDuring the preschool years, children’s question-explanation exchanges with teachers serve as a powerful mechanism for their early STEM knowledge acquisition. Utilizing naturalistic longitudinal classroom data, we examined how such conversations in an inquiry-based preschool classroom change during an extended scientific inquiry unit. We were particularly interested in information-seeking questions (causal, e.g. “How will you construct a pathway?”; fact-based, e.g., “Where’s the marble?”). Videos (n = 18; 14 hours) were collected during a three-week inquiry unit on forces and motion and transcribed in CLAN-CHILDES software at the utterance level. Utterances were coded for delivery (question vs. statement) and content (e.g., fact-based, causal). Although teachers ask more questions than children, we found a significant increase in information-seeking questions during Weeks 2 and 3. We explored the content of information-seeking questions and found that the majority of these questions were asked by teachers, and focused on facts. However, the timing of fact-based and causal questions varied. Whereas more causal questions occurred in earlier weeks, more fact-based questions were asked towards the end of the inquiry. These findings provide insight into how children’s and teacher’s questions develop during an inquiry, informing our understanding of early science learning. Even in an inquiry-learning environment, teachers guide interactions, asking questions to support children’s learning. Children’s information-seeking questions increase during certain weeks, suggesting that providing opportunities to ask questions may allow children to be more active in constructing knowledge. Such findings are important for considering how science questions are naturally embedded in an inquiry-based learning classroom
Portrait of early science education in majority dual language learner classrooms: Where do we start?
Get PDFDespite the growing interest in early science education, there is much left to be explored, particularly in majority Dual Language Learning (DLL) classrooms. The current study examined 1) early science opportunities across classroom contexts in majority Spanish-English DLL Head Start classrooms, 2) the languages (i.e., English and Spanish) that teachers used to engage DLL children in science, 3) and how teachers’ discussion of scientific and engineering practices and disciplinary core ideas related to children’s academic outcomes. In a sample of 411 children (ages 3-5) from 34 Head Start classrooms, the current study found that teachers discussed and encouraged more practices during science lessons than circle time, dramatic play, and story time. There were no differences in teachers’ discussion of core ideas across contexts. Teachers used the same amount of English and Spanish to discuss practices and core ideas. Teaching physical science was associated with children’s science outcomes. Making observations and discussing life science were associated with children’s math outcomes. Teaching math, making observations, and developing and using models were related to children’s executive functioning. Findings from this study demonstrate that science opportunities occur across preschool classroom settings. Additionally, it provides evidence that teachers may be supporting DLL children’s home language while discussing science. Finally, results indicate that teaching science supports children’s academic performance in several outcomes. These findings have implications for DLL education policy as science may be a domain where teachers can support children’s home language and their learning across multiple domains
A posthuman perspective on early literacy: A literature review
Get PDFDrawing on research about young children’s literacy development, this review article discusses a recent paradigmatic turn for understanding the child and childhood from human-centerism to posthumanism. Building on the new materialist tradition (e.g., Barad, 2007) and the assemblage theory of Deleuze and Guattari (1987, 1997), the posthuman lens enables researchers and educators to see children as parts of entangled networks of relationships who continuously intra-act with their peers, teachers, materials, and the other nonhuman entities and activities produced constantly by the child-material entanglements. As such, the posthumanist perspective expands the current research on early literacy by offering new possibilities for re-conceptualizing the child, the materials or resources for early literacy, and the meaning of childhood and children’s play. These new ways of seeing the child, the materials, and childhood have also generated new pedagogical practices that are material-oriented, intra-active, and flexible. The review concludes by providing directions for conducting research from a posthuman perspective in the field of early literacy education
Science starts early: A literature review examining the influence of early childhood teachers’ perceptions of gender on teaching practices
Get PDFWomen are underrepresented in science fields as compared to men and although much research has been dedicated to understanding this disparity, most has been conducted on older aged children. However, this excludes the youngest and arguably most impressionable group of students: preschoolers. This study reviewed the literature to investigate how early childhood teachers’ perceptions of gender influence their teaching practices. Qualitative analysis and coding of 31 articles resulted in five main categories: Teacher Perception, Curriculum, Teacher Interactions, Gender Identity, and Social Standing. Results are discussed in the context of early childhood science teaching practices to better understand the role of the teacher and gender bias in young children’s preschool science experiences and how it may impact their future science interests
Dramatic play as a means to explore and support preschool children’s thinking about thermal insulation
Get PDFResearch in young children’s ideas, representations, and pre-conceptions about the natural and technical world has a long history. Most of the studies in the field have used individual, semi-structured interviews as a methodological technique to generate and collect empirical data. However, less is known about how tracing procedures can come in line and be incorporated into everyday educational reality in early childhood settings in a way that reflects young children’s interests and needs. The present study uses dramatic play to trace young children’s thinking in science and advance their science learning experiences. The study focuses on a science concept young children are familiar with in everyday life though has not been thoroughly studied in the literature yet: thermal insulation. Empirical data from 6 preschoolers in Greece are presented. Qualitative data were collected through recordings of children’s dialogues, children’s drawings, field notes from the early childhood teachers, and photographs. The findings revealed that during their dramatic play children a) developed basic argumentation to express their thinking about the phenomenon; b) related the phenomenon with the thermal condition and changes in temperature; c) identified materials and objects with insulating properties and distinguish them from others with non-insulating properties, and d) came to the conclusion that the use of amplified insulation materials can lead to better insulation results. The outcomes of the study add to the research methodology in early childhood science education and inform practice providing a pedagogical framework that balances between play-based pedagogies and advanced learning outcomes in science for young learners
How have after-school clubs adapted in the United Kingdom post-March lockdown?
Get PDFAfter-school clubs have provided an important childcare service for parents and carers where children are provided with an environment to play once the school day has finished. When the United Kingdom went into lockdown in March 2020, all children’s services closed that included the childcare provision of after-school clubs. When they re-opened in between July and September 2020, changes had to be implemented to meet Government restrictions. This study from 54 respondents working in the childcare sector identified changes within four themes: maintain service; bubbles; play space and play behaviour. This has resulted in an increase hygiene measures, staffing and amount of space for individual children, however, there is a decreased in the number of children attending, the resources and activities on offer and movement within the place space. Although after-school childcare is still being offered, there is financial concern on their viability and sustainability as parental demand may drop which has implications in providing a unique environment where children of different ages and abilities mix