scholarly journals Quality Interactions in Early Childhood Education and Care Center Outdoor Environments

2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen L. Tonge ◽  
Rachel A. Jones ◽  
Anthony D. Okely
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Care Center ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Outdoor Environments ◽  
Education And Care

scholarly journals Children’s Rough-and-Tumble Play in a Supportive Early Childhood Education and Care Environment

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (19) ◽  
pp. 10469
Author(s):  
Rune Storli
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Skill Acquisition ◽  
Care Environment ◽  
Physically Active ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Supportive Environment ◽  
Outdoor Environments ◽  
Education And Care ◽  
Indoor And Outdoor Environments

While a growing body of evidence highlights the benefits of rough-and-tumble play (R&T) in young children, it remains one of the most challenging kinds of play to support in early childhood education and care environment (ECEC) institutions. The present study explores the occurrence and characteristics of R&T in indoor and outdoor environments in a Norwegian sociocultural context where children can freely choose what, where, and with whom to play. The data consist of 100 randomly recorded two-minute videos, which were coded second by second for R&T. Qualitative analysis reveals that in a physically and culturally supportive environment for R&T, children aged 3–5 years perceive indoor spaces that afford physically active play to be more attractive for R&T than outdoor environments. The findings indicate gender differences related to R&T and how girls and boys use the physical environment in different ways. The quantitative findings are discussed within interactional affordances theory and show that children practise perceptual, motor, and social skills to successfully engage in R&T. Enhanced knowledge of children’s skill acquisition in R&T can support practitioners in developing pedagogical skills to facilitate challenging and safe environments for appropriate indoor R&T for both girls and boys.

Ready or not, here they come! Care as a material and organizational practice in ECEC for children under two

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 323-334 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teresa K Aslanian
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Care Center ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Dyadic Relationships ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Education And Care ◽  
Care Practices ◽  
Professional Care ◽  
Full Day

Caring relationships between children and educators in early childhood education and care centers become in an array of entanglements with spaces, materials, and the organization of time. An exclusively dyadic understanding of care is insufficient in the material, institutional, pedagogic, and professional environment of early childhood education and care. This article reports on an ethnographic study of material and organizational professional care practices in a high-functioning full-day early childhood education and care center for children less than 3 years in Norway. Drawing on Tronto and Fisher’s feminist care ethics and a posthuman perspective, the study’s aim was to gain knowledge about how early childhood educators perform care as a professional practice beyond the dyad. The article explores care through the lens of a disruption in daily activities, when the laying down of new flooring in the center produced changes in the otherwise highly functioning caring environment. Changes in the availability of materials and the organization of space and time are analyzed using Malabou’s concept of plasticity. The effects of the agentic force of material changes on the caring practices of the center, despite the already strong and established dyadic relationships between the children and educators, are discussed.

scholarly journals Environmental Influences on Children’s Physical Activity in Early Childhood Education and Care

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 423-428
Author(s):  
Karen Tonge ◽  
Rachel A. Jones ◽  
Anthony D. Okely
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Sedentary Time ◽  
Outdoor Environment ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Outdoor Environments ◽  
Education And Care ◽  
Children’S Physical Activity

Background: To examine the relationship between attributes of early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings and children’s physical activity and sedentary behavior. Methods: Cross-sectional study involving 490 children aged 2–5 years from 11 ECECs. The ECEC routine, size of the outdoor environment, and time spent in the outdoor environment were calculated for each center. Children’s physical activity and sedentary time were measured using accelerometers. Multivariate linear regressions were used to examine associations of the attributes of ECEC centers with the outcome variables, adjusting for the effects of center clustering and gender. Results: Children in ECECs that offered free routines (where children can move freely between indoor and outdoor environments) had lower levels of sedentary time (28.27 min/h vs 33.15 min/h; P = .001) and spent more time in total physical activity (7.99 min/h vs 6.57 min/h; P = .008) and moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity (9.49 min/h vs 7.31 min/h; P = .008). Children in ECECs with an outdoor environment >400 m2 had less sedentary time (28.94 min/h vs 32.42 min/h; P = .012) than those with areas <400 m2. Conclusion: Modifiable practices such as offering a free routine and increasing time spent in outdoor environments could potentially offer an easy and sustainable way for ECEC centers to promote physical activity and reduce sedentary time among children.

Social Investment and Childcare Expansion

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margarita León
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Perfect Match ◽  
Preschool Education ◽  
Conceptual Level ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Education And Care

The chapter first examines at a conceptual level the links between theories of social investment and childcare expansion. Although ‘the perfect match’ between the two is often taken for granted in the specialized literature as well as in policy papers, it is here argued that a more nuance approach that ‘unpacks’ this relationship is needed. The chapter will then look for elements of variation in early childhood education and care (ECEC) expansion. Despite an increase in spending over the last two decades in many European and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, wide variation still exists in the way in which ECEC develops. A trade-off is often observed between coverage and quality of provision. A crucial dividing line that determines, to a large extent, the quality of provision in ECEC is the increasing differentiation between preschool education for children aged 3 and above and childcare for younger children.

scholarly journals Professionalisation of early childhood education and care practitioners: Working conditions in Ireland

2021 ◽  
pp. 146394912110101
Author(s):  
Geraldine Mooney Simmie ◽  
Dawn Murphy
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Women Workers ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Performance Management ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
The State ◽  
Developmental Needs ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
Education And Care

The last decade has revealed a global (re)configuring of the relationships between the state, society and educational settings in the direction of systems of performance management. In this article, the authors conduct a critical feminist inquiry into this changing relationship in relation to the professionalisation of early childhood education and care practitioners in Ireland, with a focus on dilemmatic contradictions between the policy reform ensemble and practitioners’ reported working conditions in a doctoral study. The critique draws from the politics of power and education, and gendered and classed subjectivities, and allows the authors to theorise early childhood education and care professionalisation in alternative emancipatory ways for democratic pedagogy rather than a limited performativity. The findings reveal the state (re)configured as a central command centre with an over-reliance on surveillance, alongside deficits of responsibility for public interest values in relation to the working conditions of early childhood education and care workers, who are mostly part-time ‘pink-collar’ women workers in precarious roles. The study has implications that go beyond Ireland for the professionalisation of early childhood education and care workers and meeting the early developmental needs of young children.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document