scholarly journals In Conversation with Fikile Nxumalo: Refiguring Onto-Epistemic Attunements for Im/possible Science Pedagogies

2021 ◽  
pp. 321-330
Author(s):  
Fikile Nxumalo ◽  
Maria F. G. Wallace
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Science Education ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
Settler Colonialism ◽  
Black Feminist ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Indigenous Knowledges ◽  
Educational Spaces

AbstractThis chapter elucidates critical concepts of place in relation to Black-feminist and more-than-human geographies in the context of early childhood education. This conversation helps get at pressing political contexts for science education that are often excluded in white educational spaces. Our conversation with Dr. Nxumalo offers practical starting points for researchers interested in playing with the messy intersections of materiality, settler-colonialism, white supremacy, Indigenous knowledges, and more-than-human kin.

scholarly journals Understanding Early Childhood Science Education: Comparative Analysis of Australian and Finnish Curricula

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sari Havu-Nuutinen ◽  
Sarika Kewalramani ◽  
Nikolai Veresov ◽  
Susanna Pöntinen ◽  
Sini Kontkanen
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Science Education ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Science Curriculum ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Curriculum Framework ◽  
International Comparative

AbstractThis research is a comparative study of Finnish and Australian science curricula in early childhood education (EC). The study aims to figure out the constructivist components of the science curriculum in two countries as well as locate the similarities and differences in the rationale and aims, contents, learning outcomes, learning activities, teacher’s role and assessment. The curriculum analysis framework developed by Van den Akker (2003) was used as a methodological framework for the curricula analysis. Based on the theory-driven content analyses, findings show that both countries have several components of constructivist curriculum, but not always clearly focused on science education. The Australian Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) integrates children’s science learning within their five specific learning outcomes, whereas the Finnish national core curriculum for early childhood education and care has no defined learning outcomes in general. The Finnish curriculum more clearly than EYLF encompasses science and environmental education as a learning domain, within which children participate in targeted scientific activities to gain procedural knowledge in specific environmental-related concepts. More focus should be turned to the teachers’ role and assessment, which are not determined in science context in both countries. This international comparative study calls for the need of a considered EC curriculum framework that more explicitly has science domains with specifically defined rationale, aims, content areas, learning outcomes and assessment criteria. The implications lie in providing early childhood educators with tangible and theoretically solid curriculum framework and resources in order to foster scientific thinking in young children.

scholarly journals ‘Hang on, she just used that word like it’s totally easy’: Encountering ordinary racial affects in early childhood education and care

Ethnicities ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 146879682096396
Author(s):  
Shaddai Tembo
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Race And Racism ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Educational Spaces ◽  
Education And Care ◽  
Materialist Theory

At a time when racism remains prevalent in educational spaces, this paper addresses what else we can know about the ways in which race and racism manifest and are experienced in practice. This paper draws on continual mobilisations of affect and new materialist theory to examine the conditions of emergence through which race and racism are experienced within ordinary, yet affective, encounters. I propose that drawing attention to how race surfaces in affective encounters may allow us to develop more critical interventions that challenge racisms in process.

scholarly journals EARLY SCIENCE EDUCATION AND ITS RELEVANCE

2012 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-9
Author(s):  
Claudia Valentina Assumpção Gallian
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Science Education ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Scientific Concepts ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Early Science Education ◽  
And Mathematics

This text begins with a concern related to teacher education which will focus on early childhood education, specifically in regards into the sciences and knowledge relating to the axes undertaken to frame the curriculum of the first stage of basic schooling as nature, culture and society. Science for young children should be considered as the foundation of all later development and is clear that it is not understood as it should be. But now, it is being more discussed taking account that these children have their development in a holistic perspective (Johnston, 2009; Johnston & Tunnicliffe, 2008). It should be noticed that the approach of knowledge related to science in Early Childhood Education, discussed in this text, does not take place in an isolated way, should be developed on a proposal mainly integrating the different fields of knowledge, to explore, in the articulation of knowledge, the wealth of exploitation and appropriating the world by the children. According to Johnston (2011) science teaching should be encouraged in the early years, aiming at reaching a holistic sense, that is, seeking not only understanding the scientific concepts but also developing attitudes and abilities related to them. Thus, the understanding of scientific concepts is closely related to both the development of knowledge in other areas such as geography, history and mathematics and to the social skills, such as collaboration, cooperation, etc and attitudes such as enthusiasm, initiative, curiosity etc.

(Re)Centering Quality in Early Childhood Education: Toward Intersectional Justice for Minoritized Children

2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 203-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariana Souto-Manning ◽  
Ayesha Rabadi-Raol
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
American English ◽  
Race Theory ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Definition Of

In this chapter, we offer a critical intersectional analysis of quality in early childhood education with the aim of moving away from a singular understanding of “best practice,” thereby interrupting the inequities such a concept fosters. While acknowledging how injustices are intersectionally constructed, we specifically identified critical race theory as a counterstory to White supremacy, culturally relevant and sustaining pedagogies as counterstories to monocultural teaching practices grounded in deficit and inferiority paradigms, and translanguaging as a counterstory to the (over)privileging of dominant American English monolingualism. While each of these counterstories forefronts one particular dimension of oppression, together they account for multiple, intersecting systems of oppressions; combined, they expand the cartography of early childhood education and serve to (re)center the definition of quality on the lives, experiences, voices, and values of multiply minoritized young children, families, and communities. Rejecting oppressive and reductionist notions of quality, through the use of re-mediation, this article offers design principles for intersectionally just early childhood education with the potential to transform the architecture of quality.

scholarly journals Indigenous Knowledge in Early Childhood Education: Building a Nest for Reconciliation

2020 ◽  
pp. 19-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheryl Kinzel
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Critical Pedagogy ◽  
Transformative Learning ◽  
Canadian History ◽  
Truth Telling ◽  
Indigenous Students ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Indigenous Knowledges ◽  
Diploma Program

This article is based on my dissertation study exploring how Indigenous knowledges were experienced by non-Indigenous students in an ECE diploma program at a Canadian college. Analysis of participants’ stories through the lens of critical pedagogy helped identify experiences with Indigenous knowledges and Reconciliation. Critical reflection on these experiences identified key findings: 1) the promise of transformative learning, 2) an acceptance of the truths and realities of Canadian history, and 3) the necessity of experiencing Indigenous knowledges. Through the metaphor of building a nest, I see transformative learning, truth telling, and inclusion of Indigenous knowledges as a path toward Reconciliation of Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples within early childhood education programs.

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