Narratives of change: the role of storytelling,artefacts and children’s literature in building communities of inquiry that care

Xenophobic discourse surrounding migration, resulting in marginalisation of the other, is on the rise. This article tracks the formation of a professional community of teacher inquirers who wanted to challenge the prevalent negative discourse by generating narratives of change. Using narrative inquiry methods to capture ‘stories of experience’ told in response to artefacts of value, the community of inquiry revealed through their storytelling the value of excavating knowledge connected to language, culture and identity. This personal knowledge evoked care and empowered the teachers to confidently select and use children’s literature alongside creative response strategies to re-imagine their classrooms as spaces to welcome refugee and new-arrival children. The article argues that communities of inquiry provide potential ways forward for educators to pre-figure ‘an imperative of mutual care’.     

Gathering,interpreting, and positioning children’s narratives in environmental education research

Cecilia Caiman and Iann Lundegård’s research highlights that an important goal of education is to equip younger generations with tools for innovation. This specifically applies in the realm of science education, as younger generations will likely require a unique preparation and skillset to tackle the environmental issues they will face in young adulthood and beyond. In their article, the authors position imagination as a tool for innovation and infinite possibility in this realm, and they capture moments of children actively imagining or “blending” their ideas to illustrate their worthiness in the cause of sustainability. In this research, I also realize the value of children’s creative narratives on the path toward building a more collective ethic of environmental care. However, I emphasize that positioning children’s imaginative narratives in an education toward sustainability calls for the study of children’s identities-in-progress, and thus, a rigorous theorization of the context in which these narratives/selves are created. This, in turn, necessitates the use of situated and deep methodological approaches to capture and interpret children’s self-expressions. Through my use of Holland’s figured world concept and an ethnographic case study methodology, this research unpacks narratives similar to those presented in Cecilia and Iann’s research to reveal the complexity of children’s imaginative utterances in a school garden context. I consider the myriad of factors that shape children’s experiences and corresponding expressions to complicate and situate children’s expressions within the larger context of self and care development. Revealing this individualized and layered nature of identity and care development in environmental education research allows for the creation or replication of educational experiences and spaces where innovation and care development can occur.     

Transnational treaties on children’s rights: Norm building and circulation in the twentieth century

During the twentieth century, the socio-legal status of the child changed dramatically. The adoption of three international treaties specific to the rights of the child – namely, the Geneva Declaration (1924), the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of the Child (1959) and the United Nations Convention on the Rights on the Child (1989) – increasing at each stage the number and different types of rights, is a remarkable illustration of this state of fact. National socio-legal developments have, of course, greatly inspired the authors of these treaties. However, the rights of the child assumed a new dimension in intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations, exchange platforms par excellence. This article seeks a better understanding of the circulation of children’s rights during the twentieth century, within the three above mentioned treaties. From an interdisciplinary and transnational perspective, the study aims to analyse the multiple facets of children’s rights and the origins of non-domestic influences in this international process. The article appraises the role of international and intergovernmental organisations. Based on archival data, it identifies the concepts, the institutions, the agents and the contexts that influenced the evolution of children’s rights. It shows how the genesis, the diffusion and the promotion of international treaties, as well as their subsequent regimes, structured the circulation of children’s rights.     

Raising critical issues in the analysis of gender and science in children’s literature

Trevor Owens’ paper provides a critique of the role of gender and authority in selected children’s books that presented biographies of Albert Einstein and Marie Curie. In the context of discussing Trevor’s (2009) article about children’s literature, this forum explores issues related to the (a) representation and construction of gender, science, and childhood in literature for children; (b) the need to consider socio/historical/cultural contexts in analytical and theoretical frameworks; and (c) the importance of fostering critical literacy perspectives in pre- and in-service science teachers and the children whom they teach.     

Reading teachers’ knowledge of children’s literature and English phonology

We investigated relationships among elementary teachers’ reading-related content knowledge (knowledge of literature and phonology), their philosophical orientation toward reading instruction, their classroom practice, and their students’ learning. Correlations showed little relationship between instructional philosophy and content knowledge, and little relationship between instructional philosophy and classroom practice. However, relationships emerged between content knowledge and instruction, and between kindergarten teachers’ phonological knowledge and their students’ reading achievement. We recommend that the recent focus on teacher’s disciplinary knowledge be broadened to include teachers of beginning reading and that teachers be afforded opportunities to develop the necessary knowledge base to teach reading effectively.     

Thematics and products in American magazine advertising containing children, 1940–1950

To assess changes in thematic and value depictions in American magazine advertising containing children from 1940 to 1950, a content analysis coded advertisements for themes/genres, product‐types, and connections of ad‐child to ad‐product. While results indicate significant increases in the number of advertisements containing children in the postwar years, findings also show the majority of those advertisements to be for “adult‐oriented products.”; However, postwar advertising images also hail children in larger amounts as observed through various personalizing aspects. For example, children are increasingly shown in the postwar period “looking at,”; “reaching for,”; or “using”; the ad‐product. There are also significant postwar increases in the favorable reaction of the ad‐child to the ad‐product itself, rather than to product use. As expected there are several inter‐period thematic shifts, particularly those of “war/home front”; and “teen social”;. Finally, image assessments point to postwar shifts in the value associations taking place between ad‐children and ad‐products.     

Multiculturalism’s narratives in Singapore and Canada: exploring a model for comparative multiculturalism and multicultural education

This paper examines the diverse nature of multiculturalism. Although there is no lack of literature on multiculturalism, it is dominated by a Western paradigm and perspectives. This paper offers a model that takes a pluralistic perspective on diversity by locating multiculturalism within the imaginings of the nation. This model uses the concept of narratives with its ideological bases to invite dialogue among various multiculturalisms and to examine the processes by which particular multicultural narratives emerge within their socio‐political and historical locations. The Canadian and Singaporean multicultural narratives are explored to tease out some of the nuances of this model.     

Buddhist and arts-based practices for addressing racial oppression: building upon Cleveland and Tobin’s mindfulness in education

Cultural Studies of Science Education - In this response to Richard Cleveland’s review of the Special Issue on Mindfulness in Education by Kenneth Tobin (Learn Res Pract 4(1):112–125,...     

Letter writing instruction for children: Case-sensitive letter frequencies in children’s handwriting workbooks

Reading and Writing - Children’s ability to write letters automatically has been linked to academic achievement. Despite the importance of handwriting, handwriting instruction is often...     

A taxonomy and research framework for personalization in children’s literacy apps

This paper reviews the key types of personalization in children’s literacy apps to propose a taxonomy and research framework for future empirical studies Systematic content analysis was used to identify the amount and type of personalization in a hundred most popular children’s literacy apps/digital books. Titles with three and more personalization features were screened qualitatively to identify what can be personalized, how personalization occurs and who personalizes the experience. Similar themes were synthesized into a research framework that outlines how identity, self-evaluation and agency relate to personalization. The discussion sets the agenda for future research, design and evaluation of children’s digital books.     

Group size and organisational conditions for children’s learning in preschool: a teacher perspective

Background:?There is a limited amount of research about group size in preschool, and how it impacts on teachers’ working conditions and their ability to support children’s learning and knowledge development in line with curriculum intentions.

Purpose:?From a perspective on quality, this article examines the organisational conditions for children’s learning in preschool in relation to group size. The questions at issue are: how do teachers explain how they organise the child group and the learning environment in preschool, and why?

Sample:?The sample consists of 12 preschools from different parts of Sweden. The preschools selected for the study are stratified in order to represent small and large group sizes in Swedish preschools as defined by the Swedish National Agency for Education. The sample contains both urban and rural regions and represents districts that differ geographically, demographically, ethnically, and which include varied socioeconomic structures. The 12 preschools had children in three age groupings: 1–3, 3–5 or 1–5. The number of children in the participating preschools ranged from 12 children to 45 children, with seven of the preschools having more than 30 children in their groups.

Design and method:?The article is based on interactionist perspectives, Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, a critical ecology of the early childhood profession, theories of children’s learning, and four dimensions of pedagogical quality. Together, these theoretical perspectives contribute to an understanding of the relationships between policy issues, educational goals, group size and teachers’ competence in organising and creating conditions for children’s learning. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with two teachers from each of the 12 preschools. The interviews lasted between 40–60 minutes and were recorded and transcribed verbatim. The analytical process was conducted in three steps and can be described as an analytical process of abduction. The four dimensions of pedagogical quality were used as analytical lenses to discern and understand critical aspects related to the teachers’ understanding of group size.

Result: Irrespective of group size, most of the children participate in different group constellations throughout the day, some organised by the teachers and some by the children themselves. Teachers’ competence to organise the children in such ways that good conditions for learning were created, differed between preschools, and depended on the teachers’ approach, which can be described as either intentional or unintentional learning.

Conclusion: Teachers’ organisational approaches influence the quality of the preschool and conditions for children’s learning in distinct ways.     

Self-perceived stability and change in children’s competence

Using Harter’s (Child Dev 53(1):87–97, 1982) perceived competence scale, this study integrates several paradigms related to the issues of self-perceived competence, stability or change and attributional theory. It examines how 268 Belgian and Portuguese fifth graders consider their scholastic, social and physical competence at present and in a retrospective or prospective time perspective. The children were also asked to rate the causes of their self-perceived competence-related stability or change. Nearly all of the children who saw change indicated that they had changed/would change in a positive way. Children more often thought that they would change in the future than that they had changed in the past. Children who saw change also made more internal attributions (effort and ability) than children who saw only stability. Finally, the results varied consistently between the Belgian and the Portuguese samples, indicating cross-cultural differences which are tentatively illuminated by macro-systemic considerations referring to educational policy in the two countries.     

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.     

Pre-school children’s agency in learning for sustainable development

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in pre-school children’s meaning-making and learning in education for sustainability. Young children should be recognized as ‘agents for change’ and active participants in their own day-to-day practices. Such issues are thoroughly discussed in the early childhood education for sustainability field. However, only a few research reports are presented on the subject. In this paper, our purpose is to examine empirically how agency is constituted when pre-school children explore science-related issues in a context of education for sustainability. The empirical material consists of video-recording sequences of four- to five-year-olds. In the analysis, we use a methodological approach based on Dewey’s pragmatist philosophy. We describe what a small group of children are doing and their ‘course of action’ towards ‘fulfilment’. In view of this, agency is explained as something that children achieve together in transactions rather than something they possess. Furthermore, the findings show the significance of the aesthetic relations in the constitution of agency. At the end of the article, we also discuss agency in relation to the ongoing debate on participation in young children’s meaning-making for sustainability.     

Issues of exceptionality,gender, and power: exploring Canadian children’s award-winning literature

This article explores the gendered ways in which issues of ability and exceptionality are presented in Governor-General award-winning Canadian children’s literature. In much of contemporary feminist thought, there is a strong focus on intersecting oppressions with gender as a central analytic lens. However, ability is still largely absent. Our aim is to bring ability to the forefront in an analysis of gendered representations in children’s literature. We therefore discuss gender, inclusion, and children’s fiction; detail our use of feminist discourse analysis; and present findings from our literature analysis, making connections to societal discourses of inclusion and gender. We conclude that educators must assist students in becoming aware of gendered and abled discourses, discussing their meanings, and deconstructing their hegemonic ideals. Without such critical discussions, the marginalisation of girls and individuals with exceptionalities will continue to be pervasive in children’s literature and, by extension, society.     

Distancing strategies in child-mother dyads: effect of mother’s education and children’s sex

European Journal of Psychology of Education - This study on mother–child interactions is in line with Sigel’s theoretical approach to distancing. The current study aimed at analyzing...