Robust hope,democracy and early childhood education

This paper discusses a recent Australian study of boys' education using case studies to determine successful practices. It focuses on an early childhood site where access to ‘discourses of power’ for students and parents and a valuing of students' ‘action knowledge’ created a particular democratic culture achieving improved outcomes for boys. The data are drawn from focus groups with families, interviews with educators, conversations with children and on‐site observations over two days. The findings are discussed in terms of those factors deriving from Henry Giroux's work on democracy and hope. In addition, we build on the work of Giroux by discussing the site as an exemplar of what we have come to call ‘robust hope’.     

Preparing early childhood educators for global education: the implications of prior learning

This paper outlines the increasing cultural diversity of Australia’s education settings and explicates the global education movement and the new Australian Early Years Learning Framework. It discusses the implication of these factors for early childhood education practice and early childhood teacher education. The key research question considered in this paper is what prior learnings do early childhood educators utilise to consider global education? Data are presented on a research project that explores the prior learning of pre‐service early childhood educators at a major Australian university. The paper shows that, unlike primary and secondary pre‐service teachers, most early childhood education pre‐service teachers have significant professional experiences in educational settings. These prior experiences have a significant impact on pre‐service early childhood educators’ knowledge, beliefs and attitudes in the area of global education and align strongly with the global education curriculum movement and new national curriculum.     

Sustained shared thinking in an early childhood setting: an exploration of practitioners' perspectives

Sustained shared thinking (SST) has been identified in the Teachers Standards (Early Years) (2013) as contributing to good progress and outcomes by children. In this paper, I define SST and discuss the outcomes of a study of practitioners' understandings of SST, its challenges and benefits. Writing frames, questionnaires and focus group interviews were used with 19 practitioners. SST was considered a child-initiated interaction with links to co-construction. The interaction occasioned deep-level learning in children, who were often totally absorbed and showed learning which was ‘sustained’ over time. Implications are highlighted, especially the need for additional training in using SST.     

Addressing children's life changes in the early childhood curriculum

Young children may experience stress from changes in their lives. These changes may be developmental, critical, or catastrophic. Early childhood educators need to establish partnerships with parents to help families cope with all three types of changes. Teachers can facilitate children's emotional expressions, build understanding through the use of dramatic play, provide a stable routine, monitor post-traumatic play, and discuss events that affect individual children, the entire class, or the community. Teachers can also serve as a resource to families by providing books for parents and children, and building a referal file of agencies and helping professionals.     

A study of early childhood education programmes in Delhi,India

Early years is the period of rapid physical and mental growth wherein the foundation for the child's development is laid and therefore, these years are considered extremely critical for the overall development of the child. Given the critical significance of these early childhood years, it is imperative for every child to get the opportunity to develop in a stimulating environment. The early childhood programmes provide this stimulating environment to the children. Extensive research evidence indicates towards the positive impact of early intervention and both short-term and long-term gains of an early childhood programme. However, mere participation in an early childhood programme is not sufficient. The quality of the programme attended by the children at this stage is also crucial. The various provisions provided by the programme to the children determine the quality of an early childhood programme. Curriculum seems to be the basic variable that influences the provisions provided to children in an Early Childhood Care and Education programme and in turn determines the quality of the programmes for children. This article is an attempt to study the variability of provisions provided and curriculum implemented in different early childhood programmes.     

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.     

More than a shortage of early childhood teachers: looking beyond the recruitment of university qualified teachers to promote quality early childhood education and care

In Australia and internationally, government policies aim to increase the supply of early childhood teachers and thus improve the quality of early childhood education and care services. In this paper, we suggest that such a policy-quality trajectory in Australia is not as straightforward as policy discourses suggest. From industrial relations and broader policy contexts, we argue that the early childhood profession is a profession on the margins and that this marginalisation complicates efforts to enhance numbers of early childhood teachers. Mindful of this marginalisation, we draw upon preliminary findings from a study exploring the motivations, beliefs and expectations of mature age postgraduate students to highlight practical issues pertaining to students and early childhood teacher education programs that further complicate policy drives to increase the supply of early childhood teachers. We propose that the success of such policy drives is dependent on a comprehensive addressing of the complexities raised in this paper.     

Wildly wise in the terrible moment: Kant,Emerson, and improvisatory Bildung in early childhood education

Abstract

This paper aims to show how Emerson provides a reworking of Kantian understandings of moral education in young children’s Bildung. The article begins and ends by thinking of Emersonian self-cultivation as a form of improvisatory or wild Bildung. It explores the role of Bildung and self-cultivation in preschools through a philosophy that accounts for children’s ‘Wild wisdom’ by letting Emerson speak to Kant. The paper argues that Kant’s vision of Bildung essentially involves reason’s turn upon itself and that Emerson, particularly in how he is taken up by Cavell, shows that such a turn is already present in the processes of children inheriting, learning, and improvising with language. This improvisatory outlook on moral education is contrasted with common goals of moral education prescribed in early childhood education where the Swedish Curriculum for the Preschool Lpfö 98 is used as an example.     

Frameworks for change: four recurrent themes for quality in early childhood curriculum initiatives

This paper reports on the first phase of a case study that investigated how early childhood teachers experience organisational change. As one of three levels of quality improvement, State government‐funded curriculum initiatives were developed with an aim to promote change. Three curriculum documents, one each focusing on literacy, pedagogy and health, were released in a short time frame. Analysis of the content of these documents reveals four themes of change that reflected the theories underpinning the waves of change flowing across New South Wales, Australia, in the years 2001–02.     

The enactment of literacy curriculum policy by early childhood teachers in two Australian schools

Since the early 2000s, literacy education has become an area of intense focus in Australian education policy, positioned to have a role in Australia's pursuit of enhanced international competitiveness in the “global knowledge economy”. Policy called for improvements in literacy outcomes, monitored by mandated annual assessments, and policy statements recognised the need to establish solid literacy foundations in early childhood to facilitate learning, and desired improvements, in later years. This article is derived from a larger study that investigated the production and enactment of literacy curriculum policy by early childhood teachers in Australian schools. It focuses on the school level within the State of Western Australia, presenting findings derived from thematic and critical discourse analysis of participant interview and documentary data collected in two case‐study schools. Comparative analysis revealed that literacy curriculum policy processes in both case‐study schools were focused on achieving improved test results in mandated testing regimes. This was impacting upon literacy curriculum in the early childhood years of schooling, in Australia deemed to involve children up to 8 years of age, in many, possibly adverse, ways. These findings may offer insights in other contexts about literacy curriculum policy processes that are focused on enhancing competitive positioning.     

Principles under pressure: student teachers' perspectives on final teaching practice in early childhood classrooms

Global concerns about what constitutes an appropriate curriculum and pedagogy for young children inevitably raises questions for teacher educators and the content of teacher education programmes. These concerns have been particularly visible in England following recent policy initiatives and the resultant ‘academic shovedown’ and ‘high stakes’ performativity culture in schools. Against this background, this article reports on a qualitative study of student teachers' experiences of their final teaching practice, identifying pressure from a range of sources to deliver a more formalised curriculum than they were prepared for in their university-based courses. Drawing on Bronfenbrenner among others, we consider the socio-political and -cultural sources of pressure linked through human agency, and the implications of these for teacher educators. The study argues that student teachers of young children may be faced with cognitive and emotional dissonance between the content of university-based training on the one hand, which promotes a developmentally appropriate, play-based approach in keeping with the Early Years Foundation Stage (the statutory curricular framework in England), and the reality of pedagogical practice in early years settings on the other.     

英国幼儿教育的历史发展与改革研究

英国幼儿教育起步较早但发展缓慢。90年代以来,在儿童中心观、自由游戏观、发展主义观的哲学背景下,英国政府重建课程框架,颁布《基础阶段课程指南》,并建立＂视导制度＂进行教学质量监督,由此明确了早期教育的标准,提高了教育质量,其改革的一系列措施对我国发展学前教育具有借鉴意义。     

Learning about democracy at school: an action research project in early childhood education

This article examines part of an action research project carried out in a Spanish public school. We explain the complex reality of an early childhood education classroom. Focusing on early childhood education, the project was developed in collaboration with a teacher from one of the classrooms of four year olds. Several of the children in the class have serious behaviour problems. The teacher (Lucía) is very concerned because they take their anger and frustration out on objects, classmates and adults by hitting them. She has a lot of difficulty working with these problem children. This research work deals with transforming the practices of the researcher, the pupils and the teacher. One of the first critical challenges was to turn classroom discussions into opportunities for addressing the injustices that the children experience daily. Teaching should serve to empower children. Programmed classroom discussions can be a place where pupils are given the chance to speak out about conflicts, and where important decisions are made to address them.     

Curriculum in early childhood education: critical questions about content,coherence, and control

A continuing struggle over curriculum in early childhood education is evident in contemporary research and debate at national and international levels. This reflects the dominant influence of developmental psychology in international discourses, and in policy frameworks that determine approaches to curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment. Focusing on early childhood education, we argue that this struggle generates critical questions about three significant themes within curriculum theory: content, coherence, and control. We outline two positions from which these themes can be understood: Developmental and Educational Psychology and contemporary policy frameworks. We argue that within and between these positions, curriculum content, coherence, and control are viewed in different and sometimes oppositional ways. Following this analysis, we propose that a focus on ‘working theories’ as a third position offers possibilities for addressing some of these continuing struggles, by exploring different implications for how content, coherence, and control might be understood. We conclude that asking critical questions of curriculum in early childhood education is a necessary endeavour to develop alternative theoretical frameworks for understanding the ways in which curriculum can be considered alongside pedagogy, assessment, play, and learning.     

Here and now: the attendance issue in Indigenous early childhood education

Concern about poor school attendance and participation, particularly of Indigenous children, is a key issue in Australian education; however, strategies to address this issue have been piecemeal and have met with limited success. While much has been written about the issue of school attendance, little attention has been given to absenteeism in early childhood education or its effects at this level. Drawing on data from a longitudinal ethnographic study of Indigenous children in early childhood education in an Australian city, this paper examines the impact of intermittent attendance on the academic, social and personal wellbeing of young Aboriginal children. Explanations for non‐attendance, particularly in the non‐compulsory pre‐school, are considered, and the efficacy of current policy trends to coerce parents to deliver children to school by withholding welfare income is challenged. It is argued that because absenteeism in the Indigenous context is part of the broader complex of social exclusion and disadvantage, policy‐makers and service providers, such as the school, are presented particular challenges involving the balancing of competing principles.     

Documenting with early childhood education teachers: pedagogical documentation as a tool for developing early childhood pedagogy and practises

The Finnish social pedagogical curriculum for early childhood education directs early childhood teachers to use documentation to assess and develop pedagogy and practise. This empirical study examines the challenges and benefits a group of Finnish preschool teachers experienced when they learned to document their work. Although the idea of documenting appears fine in theory, and international experiences of constructing child-centered pedagogy through documents are promoted in the literature, accomplishing this task successfully is challenging in practise. In this study, as the features of documentation in early childhood education and care practise were considered critically, ideological discord was found within the national and local policy-making process, including problems with pedagogical leadership, which reduced the power of documentation in practise. However, the study also revealed that using documentation empowered the teachers as professionals, helped them communicate with parents and children, and guided them to focus on the children’s views.     

Artful Dodgers: an arts education research project in early education settings

Artful Dodgers is an arts education project developed by two artists and delivered in two early years settings located in two areas of urban disadvantage. It is a music and visual arts programme designed and implemented with early years teachers of children aged 3–5 years. It explored whether the provision of high-quality arts experiences could enhance children’s emerging literacy and numeracy. A novel ‘artist in(formed) residency’ model was developed within a unique arts education research design. Piloting a tripartite relationship between researchers, artists and early years teachers, this study was situated within a qualitative action research paradigm, with both artists located in both services weekly over a 12-week period. The evaluation of the programme indicates changes in pedagogical planning and style in the early years teachers over the period of the artists’ residency. Their language became more reflective and their practice incorporated a wider and richer range of materials; there was greater evidence of more child-led activities and unstructured play opportunities over the duration of the study. The data suggest that children’s social, cooperative and communication skills were enhanced. Recommendations have implications for the professional development of artists and teachers working in early years settings.     

Big Five personality traits as predictors of the academic success of university and college students in early childhood education

Academic success in early childhood teacher education is important because it provides a foundation for occupational development in terms of professional competence, the quality of educational practices, as well as career success. Consequently, identifying factors that can explain differences in academic success is an important research task. Previous research has indicated that the Big Five personality traits can predict academic success in tertiary education even when other predictors have been accounted for. However, there is a lack of research regarding students in early childhood education. Therefore, this study investigated the effects of the Big Five on the academic success of college and university students in Germany who were studying early childhood education. Data from 567 college students and 270 university students were used. Several socio-demographic variables and the school-leaving Grade Point Average (GPA) served as controls. As hypothesised, students with higher conscientiousness also had better college and university GPAs. Furthermore, higher conscientiousness was associated with higher study satisfaction but only for college students. Unexpectedly, neuroticism was not negatively related to study satisfaction. In addition, there were exploratory findings concerning the effects of agreeableness, extraversion, neuroticism and openness. The findings are discussed with respect to implications for research and practice. In particular, the consequences with regard to the preparation of students in early childhood education are discussed.     

Contemporary trends and developments in early childhood education in China

Early childhood education in China has gone through a century‐long development process and has made great progress in the past two decades. Contemporary early childhood education is becoming diverse in its forms and educational approaches, and is aligning itself with the increasingly open and diversified society. It is clear that early childhood education in China is strongly influenced by sociocultural changes and reflects the hybrid of traditional, communist and Western cultures. We should re‐think what happened in past years and continue to promote reform and development in early childhood education.