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.     

Improvization and strategic risk-taking in informal learning with digital media literacy

The city provides a rich array of learning opportunities for young children. However, in many urban schools, often it can be logistically difficult to get young children out of the building. But when elementary children are encouraged to view the city as a classroom and use digital media to explore and represent their neighborhoods, they can be inspired by the unpredictable events of daily life to ask naïve, critical and sometimes troubling questions. This paper presents a case study of a teacher in an informal media literacy learning environment who worked with a group of 9-year olds in Philadelphia. It documents the experience of a novice teacher who, flummoxed by an accidental encounter between her students and a homeless person, transformed an uncomfortable experience into a teachable moment. Children's questions about homelessness became the organizing frame for learning experience, as the instructor helped children make sense of the information on the Internet, analyze popular culture films and news media, and conduct interviews with community leaders and advocates for the homeless. The inquiry process resulted in a collaboratively produced multimedia project, created by children. The case study has implications for pre- and in-service teacher education for digital and media literacy. This paper suggests that improvization and strategic risk-taking must be conceptualized as a set of socio-emotional and experiential competencies that teachers need when using digital media in an urban community as a tool for learning.     

文化学习与幼儿教育

幼儿应该学什么?什么时候开始学?如何才能学得好?我怎样才能知道我已经回答了上述三个问题?第一个问题主要是关于课程的目标与目的,第二个问题是关于如何看待儿童长远发展问题,第三个问题是关于如何贯彻课程计划,第四个问题是关于评估。这四个问题是所有打算制定幼儿教育课程的人必须回答的。本文对这四个问题作了初步讨论。     

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.     

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.     

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.     

“You need a phone and camera in your bag before you go out!”: Children’s play with imaginative technologies

Early childhood settings value play as the way young children learn and educators encourage children’s re-enactment of cultural practices in the imaginative play spaces provided. From a cultural-historical perspective, children expect these imaginative play spaces to contain objects from their social contexts, but what happens when technologies are not provided? The aim of this study was to explore children’s imaginative play involving working and imaginative technologies within two kindergartens (the year before formal schooling). Imaginative play spaces are designed to replicate social situations relevant to the cultural context in which they occur and as technologies increase in society, their proliferation is reflected within early childhood settings. Understanding the role that imaginative technologies can play in children’s digital literacy learning is important for the early childhood field. Also, these devices are often absent from literature and overlooked in conversations about children’s digital participation. The findings show how the children engaged with the imaginative technologies and raises questions around the influence of these technologies on children’s imaginative play and their technological understandings. The findings have implications for educators’ understandings of children’s play with technologies and the objects they provide in an era where children’s lives are increasingly immersed in technology.     

Keeping connected: exploring the potential of social media as a new avenue for communication and collaboration in early childhood education

Parent and family engagement has long been a significant element in early childhood (EC) education. Lack of family involvement can lead to a number of consequences in children’s physical and emotional development. However, attempts and strategies used by early learning centres and childcare centres to resolve this issue are often unsuccessful. Face-to-face interactions as the traditional way of communication are becoming inadequate due to parents and families’ busy schedules. Through interviews with 17 participants, including EC professionals and parents, from three childcare centres in Northern Tasmania, Australia, the project being reported in this paper explored the readiness of the two stakeholder groups to use social media tools to facilitate better communication, collaboration and family involvement. Findings of the research revealed an interest in adopting social media tools by both EC professionals and parents. Concerns were also expressed from a number of aspects, such as confidentiality and time constraints.     

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.     

数字媒体技术专业课程体系的改革与实践

数字媒体技术专业是以数字媒体、网络技术相融合的一个新兴的学科领域。针对数字媒体专业建设中课程设置存在的问题,结合目前国内部分高校数字媒体专业课程体系结构,以及在数字媒体教学上的实践,从数字媒体技术专业建设目标的确定、课程体系的建设、专业实验室的建设、教材体系的建设等方面进行了探讨,并取得了阶段性的成果。     

Teaching through assessment: reconsidering the transfer problem through a convergence of technology and assessment in early childhood teacher education

This article considers the impact of the ‘transfer problem’ from a personal perspective. Drawing on experiences in teacher educator as preservice teacher, a practicing educator and later a preservice educator the author examines how she has seen and experienced the transfer problem and the potential for teacher education to enact a separation between theory and practice. The convergence of technology and assessment is presented to argue a case for a pedagogical approach used by the author referred to as ‘teaching through assessment’. The approach is theorised drawing on concepts from cultural-historical theory including, leading activity, learning activity and reflection to describe the potential for technology to appropriate a range of forms and functions that make it suitable for reconsidering how the transfer problem might be approached in teacher education classrooms.     

Young children learning about well-being and environmental education in the early years: a funds of knowledge approach

Early childhood educators currently provide content focused learning opportunities for children in the areas of well-being and environmental education. However, these are usually seen as discrete content areas and educators are challenged with responding to children’s interests in popular-culture inspired food products given these influence their consumption of energy-dense, nutrient-poor and highly packaged food in the early childhood setting. This paper reports preliminary findings from a pilot randomised trial examining the interconnectedness of sustainability, well-being and popular-culture in early childhood education. Planning, assessment documentation and summaries from twenty-four learning experiences implemented by six educators over a six-week period were analysed using a deductive approach. Twenty well-being and environmental education topics were identified and shown to be generated by the educators when considering the children’s ‘funds of knowledge’ on popular-culture inspired food products. We argue that topics derived from children’s engagement with popular-culture may help educators to create an integrated approach to curriculum provision. This may impact child weight and facilitate obesity prevention and environmental sustainability as children create stronger connections between these content areas and their everyday choices and practices.     

In support of drama in early childhood education, again

Early childhood practitioners appear to be in an unending battle to legitimize the use of the dramatic arts in the classroom. Even early childhood educators who accept the value of dramatic play seldom utilize the potential of drama fully. The purpose of this article is to reinforce the value of drama and theater for young children. Dramatic play, creative drama, theater, and television—a form of drama — all have their place in the development of young children.     

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’.     

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.     

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.     

Weather worlding: learning with the elements in early childhood

In the context of challenges posed by climate change, this paper draws attention to the significance of children’s relationship with weather. The paper contends that it is time to engage more closely with children’s weather relations when developing and experimenting with new environmental pedagogies. Furthermore, it is argued that there is a need look beyond the ways children learn ‘about’ the weather (where this is presented as something separate to our human selves), to more situated and entangled ways of learning in and ‘with’ weather. Notions such as the ‘weather world’ and ‘weathering’ are discussed here as valuable starting points for re-thinking child/weather relations. These offer a way forward where the lively curiosity of children, combined with the educational practice of being with the weather, may open up alternative, less human-centric ways of coming to know and respond to the environmental challenges ahead.     

Video gaming as digital media,play, and family routine: implications for understanding video gaming and learning in family contexts

While a number of studies have investigated learning associated with video gaming in out-of-school settings, only recently have researchers begun to explore gaming and learning in the contexts of home and family life. This paper discusses three different frameworks within which we can situate video games and learning at home: (a) video gaming as digital media, (b) video gaming as play, and (c) video gaming as family routine. Each framework brings different issues related to learning into focus, and contributes new insights into the role gaming plays in the lives of children, adults, and families as a whole.     

The acceptance of computer technology by teachers in early childhood education

This study investigated kindergarten teachers’ decision-making process regarding the acceptance of computer technology. We incorporated the Technology Acceptance Model framework, in addition to computer self-efficacy, subjective norm, and personal innovativeness in education technology as external variables. The data were obtained from 160 kindergarten teachers, from public kindergartens in Daejeon, South Korea. According to the results, subjective norm had the strongest effect on computer acceptance. In addition, perceived usefulness and computer self-efficacy had a direct effect on computer technology acceptance. On the other hand, perceived ease of use and personal innovativeness in education technology had an indirect effect on computer technology acceptance. The measures accounted for approximately 32% of the variance of intentions to use computers in kindergartens.