Toddlers as active, competent story weavers: Lexie’s story

2021 ◽  
pp. 146879842110479
Author(s):  
Amanda White ◽  
Janet S Gaffney ◽  
Helen Hedges
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Video Data ◽  
Community Settings ◽  
Shared Meaning ◽  
Her Family ◽  
Personal Story ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Personal Stories ◽  
Diverse Community ◽  
Early Childhood Settings

Communication and literacy development of young children is shaped by the nature of social and cultural relationships in everyday situations. Few studies, however, have explored early story experiences encountered by infants and toddlers in naturalistic settings. We argue that personal stories about everyday lived experiences are a vital context for considering how toddlers develop communicative competencies as they participate in these stories within their families and communities. The paper presents selected findings from a qualitative study underpinned by a broad theoretical view of story embedded in a sociocultural, participatory framework. We contend that stories are collaborative, social endeavours in which intersubjectivity is accomplished collectively and multimodally. Evidence is offered of the communicative process enacted by 1-year-old Lexie, her parent, teacher and peers, as they shared meaning together in a personal story about eating lunch. Lexie and her family were participants in a wider study of the story experiences of 1-year-old toddlers, within and across their family home and early childhood settings, in a culturally diverse community of Aotearoa New Zealand. Drawing on multimodal ethnography and video data, findings illustrate how Lexie and her family, teacher and peers actively participated together in the weaving of a shared personal story using verbal, visual and kinaesthetic forms of communication. The study contributes to the field of early childhood literacy by providing unique insights into the potential of everyday personal stories as a valuable context for exploring ways children’s communicative competencies are developed through relationships in family and community settings.

scholarly journals Building Pedagogical Leadership Knowledge in Early Childhood Education

2016 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 28-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janis Carroll-Lind ◽  
Sue Smorti ◽  
Kate Ord ◽  
Lesley Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Development Project ◽  
Leadership Capacity ◽  
Third Generation ◽  
Activity System ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Shared Meanings ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Cultural Historical Activity ◽  
Early Childhood Settings

THIS PAPER DESCRIBES A research and development project that trialled a coaching and mentoring methodology with pedagogical leaders in early childhood settings in Aotearoa New Zealand. The methodology, which drew on ‘third-generation’ cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) was taught to leaders who were coached and mentored to use it as a mediating tool to identify connections between everyday leadership tensions and systemic contradictions (as identified within CHAT). The paper elaborates on the way in which participants came to understand the centre as an activity system and learned to ‘play the system’ rather than the person in the exploration and resolution of contradictions. They did so through engaging in productive change conversations with colleagues within their workplace settings. The paper concludes by confirming the potential of CHAT as a tool for building pedagogical leadership capacity through using tension and/or conflicting views as starting points in developing shared meanings and practices.

scholarly journals Early childhood education in the outdoors in Aotearoa New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophie Alcock ◽  
Jenny Ritchie
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Outdoor Education ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Early Childhood Care ◽  
Childhood Care ◽  
Forest Schools ◽  
Early Childhood Settings

© 2018, Outdoor Education Australia. Early childhood care and education services in Aotearoa New Zealand drew initially on the Fröbelian model of the kindergarten or ‘children’s garden’. Later models such as the Kōhanga Reo movement, the highly respected curriculum Te Whāriki: He whāriki mātauranga mō ngā mokopuna o Aotearoa, and the Enviroschools programme are grounded in te ao Māori, Māori worldviews, that feature a strong connectedness to place, and a deep sense of a spiritual inter-relationship with the land, mountains, rivers, and oceans. This article considers how the imported Scandinavian/European/UK models of ‘forest schools’ might fit within this context. To illustrate early childhood education in the outdoors in Aotearoa (New Zealand) we draw upon research conducted in early childhood settings in this country that illuminates children’s experience in the outdoors. We draw upon critical early childhood scholarship to theorise this situation of forest schools emerging in Aotearoa, along with influences from the forest school movement evident in existing New Zealand early childhood services. The article suggests that traditional Indigenous Māori worldviews and knowledges give meaning and contextualised authenticity to ‘forest schools’ approaches in early childhood education in Aotearoa (New Zealand).

scholarly journals Early childhood education in the outdoors in Aotearoa New Zealand

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophie Alcock ◽  
Jenny Ritchie
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Outdoor Education ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Early Childhood Care ◽  
Childhood Care ◽  
Forest Schools ◽  
Early Childhood Settings

© 2018, Outdoor Education Australia. Early childhood care and education services in Aotearoa New Zealand drew initially on the Fröbelian model of the kindergarten or ‘children’s garden’. Later models such as the Kōhanga Reo movement, the highly respected curriculum Te Whāriki: He whāriki mātauranga mō ngā mokopuna o Aotearoa, and the Enviroschools programme are grounded in te ao Māori, Māori worldviews, that feature a strong connectedness to place, and a deep sense of a spiritual inter-relationship with the land, mountains, rivers, and oceans. This article considers how the imported Scandinavian/European/UK models of ‘forest schools’ might fit within this context. To illustrate early childhood education in the outdoors in Aotearoa (New Zealand) we draw upon research conducted in early childhood settings in this country that illuminates children’s experience in the outdoors. We draw upon critical early childhood scholarship to theorise this situation of forest schools emerging in Aotearoa, along with influences from the forest school movement evident in existing New Zealand early childhood services. The article suggests that traditional Indigenous Māori worldviews and knowledges give meaning and contextualised authenticity to ‘forest schools’ approaches in early childhood education in Aotearoa (New Zealand).

scholarly journals Early childhood education as a site of ecocentric counter-colonial endeavour in aotearoa New Zealand

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Ritchie
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Indigenous Epistemologies ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Human World ◽  
A Site ◽  
Early Childhood Settings ◽  
Ethical Project

This article draws upon a range of theoretical domains, first to outline the historical rationale for the urgent changes needed to challenge and transform the dominator culture which has justified exploitation of Indigenous peoples and the resources of the earth. It invites educators to reconsider the narratives that are either consciously or inadvertently promoted in our work, suggesting that we can learn from Indigenous epistemologies in which humans are situated alongside earth others, as respectful, related guardians and caretakers. It finally draws on some examples from a recent qualitative study conducted with ten early childhood centres from across Aotearoa, to illuminate possibilities for enactment of counter-colonial renarrativisation within early childhood settings in service of an ethical project of enhancing relationalities, reconnecting children and their families with the more-than-human world.

scholarly journals Early childhood education as a site of ecocentric counter-colonial endeavour in aotearoa New Zealand

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Ritchie
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Indigenous Epistemologies ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Human World ◽  
A Site ◽  
Early Childhood Settings ◽  
Ethical Project

This article draws upon a range of theoretical domains, first to outline the historical rationale for the urgent changes needed to challenge and transform the dominator culture which has justified exploitation of Indigenous peoples and the resources of the earth. It invites educators to reconsider the narratives that are either consciously or inadvertently promoted in our work, suggesting that we can learn from Indigenous epistemologies in which humans are situated alongside earth others, as respectful, related guardians and caretakers. It finally draws on some examples from a recent qualitative study conducted with ten early childhood centres from across Aotearoa, to illuminate possibilities for enactment of counter-colonial renarrativisation within early childhood settings in service of an ethical project of enhancing relationalities, reconnecting children and their families with the more-than-human world.

Supporting toddlers as competent story navigators across home and early childhood contexts

2021 ◽  
pp. 3-8
Author(s):  
Amanda White ◽  
Irene Padtoc
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Social Relationships ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Home Language ◽  
Personal Story ◽  
Personal Experiences ◽  
Role Of Teachers ◽  
Early Childhood Settings

Young children learn how to communicate with others through their everyday interactions and social relationships. In this article, we argue that stories about personal experiences are a valuable context for exploring how 1-year-old toddlers learn to engage with others across their family homes and early childhood settings. We demonstrate how Lexie, aged 16 months, communicated multimodally as she contributed to a personal story about her experience of eating lunch. Lexie’s competence as a storyteller was supported by a teacher who shared her cultural background and home language. Lexie’s story highlights the critical role of teachers in supporting story interactions in attuned and reciprocal ways that allow the competencies of 1-year-old toddlers as learners and communicators to be recognised and extended.

‘Physical education’ in early childhood education

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 503-519 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirsten Petrie ◽  
Jeanette Clarkin-Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Physical Education ◽  
Primary Schools ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
School Aged Children ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Children’S Views ◽  
Development Movement ◽  
Early Childhood Settings

Children’s physical education in early childhood settings has always been underpinned by an emphasis on play. This is viewed as foundational for child development (movement education, cognitive growth, socialising functions, emotional development). However, where priorities about childhood obesity prevail, increased ‘prevention’ efforts have become targeted at primary and pre-school-aged children. It could be argued that early childhood education has become another site for the ‘civilising’ of children’s bodies. Drawing on data from a questionnaire completed by 65 early childhood education centres in Aotearoa New Zealand, we examine the play and physical education ‘curriculum’ and what this may mean for pre-school children’s views of physical activity and health. In light of the evidence that suggests pre-school physical education programmes reinforce achievement of a certain restrictive and narrow model of physical health and activity, we explore the implications for primary school physical education. In doing so we consider how teachers of physical education in primary schools may need to reconsider the curriculum to support young children to regain enthusiasm for pleasurable movement forms that are not centred on narrowly perceived notions of the healthy or sporting body.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document