Diversity in early childhood education: a German perspective

This paper outlines the theoretical foundation of a skill enhancement programme in early childhood settings which follows the ideas of the Anti-Bias approach. A focal point of the concept is to acknowledge the connection between societal, structural and individual biases. It challenges those biases and assists educators in improving their competences to promote diversity. The paper describes the history of the transfer of the Anti-Bias approach across?three different international contexts. An empirical study is then introduced which is based on the combination of a document analysis and expert interviews of those who facilitate the concept. The findings reveal that developing competences in reflecting the individual self and professional actions are key methods, and they entail implications for concepts of enabling educators to support inclusion. Those implications as well as input on dealing with diversity in Germany are outlined.     

Evolving issues in early childhood education: A personal perspective

This article describes the issues in early childhood education that were most pressing during the past two decades. It indicates whether each issue has been settled and outlines urgent new issues for today. In 1967 the most salient issues were the importance of early childhood for education, when early education should begin, whether it could compensate for childhood experience at home, and whether the effects of early education were permanent. In 1972 the central issue was the best kind of early educational program. By 1977 attention had shifted to ways that early education could be done most efficiently and cheaply, whether parent education was the answer, and how it worked. By 1982 a new issue had arisen: the effects of full-time day care on preschool children's development. Today's most pressing issues seem to be finding ways to maximize the fit between programs and participants, the implications of the superbaby trend, and the effects of day care on infants' development.     

Early childhood education and care regulation: a comparative perspective

Although all industrialized countries regulate early childhood education and care establishaments, regulatory regimes differ substantially. Early childhood education and care regulation is provider-focused in France and Germany, child-focused in Sweden, and facility-focused in the United States. Regulatory enforcement also varies sharply, with France, Germany, and Sweden stressing technical assistance, while the United States stresses compliance. A review of controversies reveals opportunities for cross-national learning and for regulatory reform.     

Issues in early childhood education

Abstract

This paper raises some of the key issues affecting the educational opportunities of children from birth to seven. These include: services for children under five, four‐year‐olds in primary school classes, equal opportunities, training and status of early years professionals. The paper emphasises the influence of concepts of early childhood and the need for UK policy makers to recognise babies and very young children as people, and to acknowledge their capabilities.     

Renovating early childhood education pedagogy: a case study in Vietnam

Since 2003, the Vietnamese government has prioritised curriculum reform efforts and commitment to improving the quality of the national curriculum. The Vietnamese early childhood education renovation has encountered considerable changes and challenges, particularly in the area of pedagogical approaches. Many early childhood teachers continue to favour direct instruction over more appropriate teaching practices for early childhood. This paper reviews the implementation and renovation of the revised curriculum over the past 10 years in Vietnam, and examines the changing realities of early childhood teachers' work to explore ways to implement and sustain changes in pedagogy in Lam Dong Province, Vietnam. The paper explores how changing societal expectations and the changing educational philosophies and resultant pedagogy have impacted on the beliefs and practices of early childhood teachers. The teaching profession, as a whole, is facing ongoing change and challenge; not only are ongoing educational reforms redefining teachers' work, but increasing teacher attrition and turnover also creates problems for Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) in Lam Dong province. The paper concludes with suggestions for areas for future research in Vietnam in the field of ECEC.     

Creativity: a reaffirmation of its place in early childhood education

At a time when early years educators feel under increasing pressure from the government to adopt more formal approaches to learning, this article sets out to reaffirm the importance of developing each child's creative capacity to the full. The point is made that through the application of creative capacity a vital dimension of human intelligence is demonstrated. It is argued that creative growth is too often hampered by misunderstandings that continue to distort the relationship between creativity and education. Issues that are vital to the development of understanding about the nature of creativity are made explicit and the conditions most likely to promote creative thought and action are identified. In the interest of clarity the term ‘early years’ will be applied to children between the ages of three and eight in diverse educational settings.     

Children in relation: Rethinking early childhood education

The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC, 1986; Bredekamp, 1987) has published guidelines which define “developmentally appropriate” practice for all children birth through eight. These guidelines have now come under criticism, however, for a variety of reasons. Researchers have argued that they present a false impression of consensus (Walsh, 1991), that they are premised on a developmental theory characterized by ethnocentric bias (Bowman & Stott, 1994), and that they represent cultural values that are not universally shared (Jipson, 1991; Wiliiams, 1994; Phillips, 1994). This article holds likewise that the promulgation of guidelines based on universalist assumptions places racial, ethnic, and linguistic “minority” children and parents at a disadvantage and contributes to the very processes that early childhood educators seek to remedy. After reviewing an extensive research literature which shows children from traditionally disadvantaged groupsin relation, the article concludes that the poor scholastic performance of disproportionate numbers of children should be attributed to interactional and relational factors rather than to innate capabilities or to parental “inadequacy.” An earlier version of this paper was presented at the annual meetings of the American Sociological Association, August 14, 1993, Miami, FL.     

Schematising activities in early childhood education

The purpose of this study was to determine the importance of introducing schematising to children in early childhood and to determine whether schematising can be taught to children. This was done using a longitudinal, quantitative study with a quasi-experimental design (N = 133). In this study, the use of schematising was taught to an experimental group of children to determine if it is possible to realise significantly improved results in schematising tasks for an experimental group in comparison to a control group of children who were not taught schematising. Pupils in the experimental group demonstrated significantly better results on schematising, which cannot be explained by maturation. In our future research, we will investigate the mathematical performances of these experimental and control groups in the next grade of the primary school curriculum.     

Avoiding sexism in early childhood education

Conclusion Television, other media, and adults in their daily interactions give children cues about what's appropriate for girls and for boys. It is the daily, continual combination of these events, occurring without thought of the hidden messages they convey to children, which creates an environment organized around sex roles. The message to all of us who work with young children is clear: Provide equal access of space and materials to every child; expect children to engage in all kinds of activities regardless of sex; expect children to exhibit a full range of behavior and reinforce them without regard to sex; and, finally, “liberate” the teacher's role by providing equal access and choices to adults and expecting a full range of responses from men and women alike. Above all, we must recognize that the maintenance of sexist environments and practices prevents every one of us from realizing his or her fullest potential.     

Relational play-based pedagogy: theorising a core practice in early childhood education

A commitment to long-standing child-centred ideologies and recent emphases on academic outcomes have both perpetuated narrow interpretations of play-based pedagogy in early childhood education. Instead, teachers might proactively and spontaneously deepen children’s thinking and understandings related to children’s own interests and motivations during thoughtful pedagogical interactions that arise from play. This paper draws on findings from a qualitative case study in Aotearoa, New Zealand where teachers used their professional expertise to engage with children’s thinking and understandings. We analyse the professional knowledge, strategies and skills teachers brought to these relational and play-based interactions. We offer new conceptualising of teaching in highlighting the need to position a sophisticated blending of play, learning and teaching within participatory and relational pedagogies as a core practice of early childhood education. Further, we argue that two constructs – everyday and scientific concepts, and the zone of proximal development – position theoretically ways in which teachers’ knowledge, expertise and engagement might contribute to these ‘in the moment’ rich, thoughtful understandings of what we term relational play-based pedagogy.     

Dutch bargee families: partners in early childhood education

This chapter analyses current provision of early childhood education for the toddler children of Dutch itinerant bargees (that is, children who live with their parents on ships). That provision functions as a microcosm of continuing changes to educational systems and the broader socioeconomic milieu operating in the Netherlands. The argument is illustrated by the author's experience and knowledge gained as director of the National Foundation of Education for Children of Bargee Families, and by contemporary theories of early childhood education.     

Child-initiated activity: Its importance in early childhood education

The teacher is discussing the activities of the day with a group of fifteen four-year-olds. She explains that first the total group will go to the art area and then to the science demonstration. Then the children will have a snack and go outside. When she is finished talking, all of the children get up and move to the art tables.Janis R. Bullock is Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Education, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT.     

A Parental perspective of school and familial curriculum making: a narrative inquiry of early childhood education planning in Hong Kong

This paper examines the early childhood context of Hong Kong (HK) which is characterised by an entirely privatised system. The level of knowledge a child possesses in early childhood can be a determining factor in their admission into desirable kindergartens or primary schools. Given HK’s privatised early childhood education system, the quality of a child’s learning is directly tied to the education services their parents provide independently or can afford financially. The study reported in this paper adopts a narrative inquiry approach to an under-researched area of early childhood education, namely the voices of parents within home learning environments and how the lengths they go to provide their children with a quality education.