Parents’ perceptions of their children’s child care: a cross-national comparison

This study compares how parents in Germany and the USA perceive the quality of ECE services their preschoolers receive in the two different cultures and ECE systems existing in the countries. The sample included 2,407 parents in the USA and 392 in Germany. Classroom quality was assessed by trained observers using the USA and German versions of the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS). Parents’ perceptions of ECE programs were measured with a parent questionnaire (ECERSPQ), which is an adaptation of the ECERS. Findings show that in both countries, parents indicate high importance for the aspects of quality required in the ECERS/ECERSPQ, that parents assign substantially higher quality scores to their children’s classrooms than do trained observers, and parent quality assessments are influenced by the relative importance they attribute to aspects of quality. Findings are discussed in terms of assisting parents to become more discriminating in their child care choices.     

Getting parents involved in children’s play: Qatari parents’ perceptions of and engagement with their children’s play

The study investigates parents’ perceptions of and engagement with their children's play in the context of Qatar. Quantitative data were collected using a questionnaire that was administered to parents of children aged 4–7 years old in Doha. A total sample of 240 parents responded to the questionnaire. Findings indicated that Qatari parents valued the importance of play to their children’s development and learning. In addition, parents showed a moderate level of engagement with their children’s play. The findings also indicated that physical play was the most common type of play in which parents are engaged with their children, followed by discovery play. Moreover, significant correlations were found between parents’ perceptions of children’s play and their engagement with all play types. In addition, significant differences were observed in parents’ perceptions of and engagement with children’s play based on parents' socio-demographic variables. These findings highlight the importance of extending children’s play in all children’s educational levels, and getting parents involved in children’s play activities.     

Chinese children’s perceptions of aggression among peers at school

Recent research suggests that children may encounter aggressive behaviour during the transition from preschool to school. Yet, relatively few longitudinal studies have been conducted on children’s perceptions of aggressive behaviour in the transition from preschool to school. This study aims to fill a major gap in the literature by exploring Chinese children’s perceptions and experiences of aggressive behaviour, and their ways of coping with aggression, at three points in time: during the last month at preschool (Time 1), the first three months of Year 1 at school (Time 2) and the last month of Year 1 (Time 3). The present study also examines the role gender plays in 79 Chinese children’s perceptions of aggressive behaviour, as depicted in their drawings and accompanying narratives. The children mainly reported physical and verbal aggression rather than relational aggression. The findings provide robust data for understanding how children cope with aggression at school.     

Exploring young children’s gendered discourses about skin colour

ABSTRACT

Drawing on an ethnographic study conducted with young children (4–5 year olds) in a multi-ethnic Early Years classroom in the north of England this paper shows how young children’s discourses about skin colour are informed by intersections with their gender identities. This ethnography uncovers how young children engage with the related concepts of ‘race’/ethnicity, racialisation and racism in their peer interactions alongside how they appropriate ‘markers of difference’ to promote their own identity and ascribe an identity to their peers. By comparing the discourses collectively produced by two groups of children in the class this study argues that there is a need for whiteness to be educationally discoursed in a way that uncovers the violence of racism and exposes the cultural and political privileges of ‘being white.’     

Exploring children’s perceptions of the perceived seriousness of disruptive classroom behaviours

Children’s reports of the perceived seriousness of disruptive classroom behaviours were examined from their own perspective and from their perceptions of their peers’ beliefs about the same behaviour. Two hundred and seventy-six (116 female and 161 male, M_age?=?11.00?years, SD_age?=?1.29) children recruited from a primary and a secondary school in the UK completed measures of the perceived seriousness of disruptive classroom behaviours from their own perspective and also their beliefs about their peers’ perceptions, social desirability and social behaviour. A three-factor structure of disruptive classroom behaviours emerged encompassing: Imprudent behaviours, negative behaviours and expressed emotions. Children judged the disruptive classroom behaviours as more serious compared to how they thought their peers would judge the same behaviour. Gender and age differences also emerged. The findings support the conclusion that children regard disruptive classroom behaviours as more serious than they believe their peers do.     

Parenting and children’s adjustment problems: the mediating role of self-esteem and peer relations

The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of parental and personal characteristics on children’s internalizing/externalizing problems. Further, this study aimed to examine personal characteristics (self-esteem, peer relations) as mediators in the relation between parenting and internalizing/externalizing problems. In order to address these questions, this study used a cross-sectional design. The sample included 588 pre-adolescents and adolescents (10–14 years old) and their mothers. Children completed the My Memories of Upbringing Questionnaire, the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (child report), the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, the Friendship Quality Questionnaire, and the Harter’s Self Perception Profile (Social acceptance subscale), while mothers completed The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (parent report). Results support a model for the influence of both direct and indirect effects on children’s internalizing/externalizing problems.     

Lesbian parents’ perceptions of children’s picture books featuring same-sex parented families

Children’s picture books featuring same-sex parented families have been suggested as a powerful resource in leading change in the struggle against heteronormativity in early childhood education. At present, little is known about lesbian parents’ perceptions of how picture books in their homes and in early childhood settings can influence children’s understandings about families. This study captured the voices of eleven lesbian parents as part of a larger project on their experiences with early childhood settings in Australia. Analysis of the interviews identified four key themes: silence, timing, struggle and limits. This discussion shows that whilst these books have some value in honouring diversity, more care is needed in considering their limitations. Queer Theory informed this study and offers important insights for educators to consider when making pedagogical decisions in resisting heteronormativity.     

Religious education,conflict and diversity: an exploration of young children’s perceptions of Islam

This article explores the way pupils in English primary school perceive Islam through discussion of Islam in the media. The research suggests that pupils are aware of Islam as a world religion and of many of the images and popular discourses associated with Islam. The research also suggests that while a minority of pupils expressed explicit racist or prejudiced views about Islam many pupils appeared to perceive Islam and Muslims as ‘foreign’ and ‘alien’. The article questions the effectiveness of an approach to teaching Islam that does not include pupil’s negative preconceptions of religion and which focuses on presenting an idealised or monolithic version of Islam.     

‘Some kind of weird,evil experiment’: student perceptions of peer assessment

This paper explores the attitudes and perceptions of three cohorts of Australian humanities and social science undergraduate students towards peer assessment. It seeks to gain a deeper understanding of local dissatisfaction with peer assessment through an in‐depth analysis of students’ contributions to focus group discussions. Responding to education theorists’ claims that peer and other forms of innovative assessment empower students, the paper concentrates on themes of power evident within students’ narratives. The interpretive framework coheres around four interrelated conceptions of power: sovereign, epistemological, disciplinary and structural. Students were found to support the notion of peer assessment as a formative exercise, yet were highly critical of it as a summative practice. Significantly, some of the students’ dissatisfaction stemmed from broader changes across the higher education sector more generally. The paper draws attention to the need for this to be taken into account when considering assessment as a technology of power and empowerment.     

Curious play: children’s exploration of nature

This article explores the concept of ‘curious play’ as a theoretical framework to understand and communicate children’s experiences of free play in nature. The concept emerged interactively from three sources of inspiration: an ethnographically inspired study of children playing in nature; as a critique of the concept of ‘risky play’ being the dominant discourse on children’s play in natural environments; and from phenomenological and cultural-historical theories of children’s play and play environments. The article illustrates this interplay through an analysis of two empirical examples, and argues that curious play offers a comprehensive and existential approach to understanding the interplay of children playing in nature and children’s growth. Thus, children are conceptualized as active explorers and playful agents whilst embodying and creating knowledge, skills and understandings of themselves and their life-worlds.     

Do teachers’ perceptions of children’s math and reading related ability and effort predict children’s self-concept of ability in math and reading?

This study investigated to what extent primary school teachers’ perceptions of their students’ ability and effort predict developmental changes in children’s self-concepts of ability in math and reading after controlling for students’ academic performance and general intelligence. Three cohorts (N?=?849) of elementary school children and their teachers were followed for four years. Children’s self-concepts and performance ability in math and reading were measured annually during Waves 2–4. Teachers rated the children’s ability and effort at each of the four waves. Domain-specific differences and developmental changes could be identified in the associations between teachers’ perceptions and children’s ability self-concepts. Teachers’ ability perceptions predicted children’s concurrent and subsequent ability self-concepts in math and reading, whereas teachers’ effort perceptions predicted children’s math ability self-concept only at Wave 4. Analyses with multi-sample procedure showed that these models were similar for boys and girls and for children in different cohort groups.     

Left-behind children: teachers’ perceptions of family-school relations in rural China

Large-scale rural-urban migration in China has left rural schools with large proportions of left-behind children whose parents are away working in the city. This has a huge impact on family-school relations and poses a burden on teachers. This study draws on 42 interviews with teachers working in two rural schools. This article argues that teachers’ negative narratives about antagonistic family-school relations are driven by the gaps between their culturally embedded traditional models of family-school relations and the reality, with implications for the expanded role of schools and that of grandparents as caregivers. This article further discusses the implications of these findings for rural schools and draws heavily on Western models of family-school relations in a comparative perspective.     

Young people’s and parent’s perceptions of managed moves

The current research aimed to increase understanding of the experiences of young people and their parents of managed moves, what contributed to success and the nature of the challenges experienced. The study was conducted in one English Local Authority, where five young people and their parents were interviewed. Five superordinate themes emerged from the interviews, relating to: the initial process (people, trail period, managed moves as a positive solution); the reasons for the move (bullying/social isolation, breakdown in relationships with staff); conceptions of success (happiness, improved self-perceptions, learning and progress), factors contributing to success (fresh start/clean slate; home–school communication; pastoral support, school suitability) and problems arising (moving a problem, narratives around young people, timing and family stress). The findings are discussed in relation to implications for practice.     

Master’s thesis projects: student perceptions of supervisor feedback

A growing body of research has investigated student perceptions of written feedback in higher education coursework, but few studies have considered feedback perceptions in one-on-one and face-to-face contexts such as master’s thesis projects. In this article, student perceptions of feedback are explored in the context of the supervision of master’s thesis projects, using review studies with respect to effective feedback in coursework situations. Online questionnaires were administered to collect data from three cohorts of master’s students who were either working on their thesis or had recently finished it (N?=?1016). The results of the study indicate that students perceive the focus of feedback in terms of a focus on task and self-regulation; they perceive the goal-relatedness of feedback in terms of feed up (goal-setting) and feed back-forward (how am I going and where to next?); and elaboration of feedback is perceived in terms of positive and negative feedback. Furthermore, students that perceive the feedback to be positive, and to provide information on how they are going and what next steps to take, are the most satisfied with their supervision and perceive they are learning most from their supervisor. The findings are discussed in relation to findings in coursework settings, and are explained using goal orientation theories.     

Differences in practitioners’ understanding of play and how this influences pedagogy and children’s perceptions of play

This paper presents research that examines the links between practitioners’ understanding of play and its relationship to learning, their pedagogic interactions with children and children’s own perceptions of their play. Previous research has shown a mismatch between practitioners’ understanding of play and their practice. This research identifies how differences in understanding of play, especially the role of the adult, by practitioners in two unrelated settings are associated with variation in pedagogic interactions emphasising choice and control. Furthermore, it is argued that these differences are reflected in differences in children’s use of the cue of adult presence as a defining feature of play and not-play activities.     

Mothers’ gendered aspirations for their children: a case study of Forbesganj,Bihar

Current literature on parent aspirations has not empirically explored the factors that may lead to differences in aspirations among similar types of parents. Additionally, little is known about the gendered nature of these differences. In this study, we seek to understand factors shaping mothers’ aspirations in regards to education, marriage, and careers of their daughters and sons, and to explore why differences may be found for mothers from similar socioeconomic backgrounds. Using a case study approach, we conduct in-depth interviews with 28 mothers in the Indian town of Forbesganj, Bihar. We use a conceptual framework based on the capabilities approach, and draw on theories of social learning, or learning from one’s peers, through which to understand differences in aspirations. Findings suggest that mothers desire lives for their children that are different from their own, and that conceptions of such lives are influenced by exposure to role models in their communities.     

Parents’ assessments of their children’s abilities

Conducted in the framework of the theory of social representations, the study was designed to examine the dimensions in terms of which parents assess their children’s abilities, the ways in which social positions — here, the parents’ education and gender and the child’s gender — organize these assessments, and the ways in which the assessments relate to the estimated school success of the child. The subjects were a nationwide sample of parents (N=938), who were asked to estimate their children’s school success and to assess these children’s abilities. A factor analysis showed the ability assessments to be multidimensional. The parents assessed girls’ cognitive and social abilities to be better than boys’. Academically educated parents drew a more categorical distinction than other parents between cognitive and other abilities, which suggests that they endorse a differential conception of intelligence. A clear congruity of content was observed between the estimations of school success and the assessments of abilities, indicating that different school subjects are associated with different abilities.     

Impact of the 2015 Nepal earthquakes on children’s schooling: focusing on individual children’s enrolment flow

This study examined the impact of the 2015 Nepal earthquakes on children’s schooling by focusing on individual children’s enrolment flow, particularly from public to private schools, which is becoming a worldwide trend in recent years. The results revealed that the total number of attendees at target schools recovered to pre-earthquake levels 2 months after the disaster; however, flow towards private schools was impeded, especially among ECD (early childhood development) children. The earthquake disaster sharply distinguished children who can go to a private school and those who cannot do so. Moreover, it impeded access even to public schools for children in a vulnerable position.     

Deleuze’s children

Children, the image of the child, and the gendered figures of the girl and the boy are thematics that run through the work of Deleuze and feature prominently in his joint writing with Guattari. However, there are many different children in Deleuze’s writings. Various child figures do distinct things in Deleuze’s work. In this article, I argue that his work on children can be utilized to rethink popular, teleological notions of childhood and ‘growing up’.