scholarly journals Educators’ interpretations of children’s belonging across borders: Thinking and talking with an image

2021 ◽  
pp. 147490412110658
Author(s):  
Anna-Maija Puroila ◽  
Anette Emilson ◽  
Hrönn Pálmadóttir ◽  
Barbara Piškur ◽  
Berit Tofteland
Keyword(s):  
Sense Of Belonging ◽  
Early Education ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Empirical Knowledge ◽  
Democratic Values ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Education And Care ◽  
Quality Framework

European quality framework for early childhood education and care calls for creating environments that support all children’s sense of belonging. This study aims to advance empirical knowledge on educators’ interpretations of children’s belonging in early education settings. The study is part of a project conducted in five European countries – Finland, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. The following research question guides the study: How do educators interpret children’s belonging in early education across borders? The study draws from the theory of the politics of belonging by Yuval-Davis and employs ‘thinking and talking with an image’ as a methodological approach. The findings explicate educators’ taken-forgranted categorisations, thus portraying their views about educational settings as sites for children’s belonging. Opposing, joint play and being alone were identified as emotionally loaded interactions that educators interpreted as significant for children’s belonging. The educators emphasised democratic values, such as diversity, participation, equality and equity. However, they viewed diverse tensions in embodying democratic values in a diverse group. The shared basis of the profession appeared as a more significant basis for educators’ interpretations than the different societal contexts. The study encourages educators and researchers in European countries to collaborate in promoting children’s belonging.

scholarly journals Dancing as Moments of Belonging: A Phenomenological Study Exploring Dancing as a Relevant Activity for Social and Cultural Sustainability in Early Childhood Education

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 8080
Author(s):  
Maria Grindheim ◽  
Liv Torunn Grindheim
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Sense Of Belonging ◽  
Phenomenological Study ◽  
Life Experiences ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Sustainable Living ◽  
Aesthetic Experiences ◽  
Cultural Sustainability ◽  
Childhood Education

Individuals’ capacities to contribute to more sustainable living are deeply influenced by their early life experiences. Hence, there is a need to discover which experiences are relevant to young children’s contemporary and future contributions to more sustainable living. Perceiving children as aesthetically oriented to the world and their sense of belonging as a core experience for social and cultural sustainability, and using the example of dancing, we investigate how such a sense of belonging can be supported through aesthetic first-person experiences. This article is therefore structured around the following research question: How can adults’ experiences of themselves, others and their sense of belonging—when dancing—inform explorations of ways to foster embodied and aesthetic belonging for social and cultural sustainability in early childhood education (ECE)? Drawing on a phenomenological study, we analyse interviews with four dancers, who differ in age, gender and dance genre. Our analysis reveals their experiences when dancing as being in a meditative state, having a sense of freedom and feeling body and mind as one, described as an overall “different”, resilient way of being and belonging in a social context. Our findings indicate that facilitating moments of sensible and bodily awareness can support a non-verbal understanding of oneself and others, as well as arguments for promoting aesthetic experiences while dancing as relevant to sustainable practices in ECE.

scholarly journals Is infant belonging observable? A path through the maze

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 404-416
Author(s):  
Jane M Selby ◽  
Benjamin S Bradley ◽  
Jennifer Sumsion ◽  
Matthew Stapleton ◽  
Linda J Harrison
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Sense Of Belonging ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Infants And Toddlers ◽  
Quality Outcomes ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Learning Framework ◽  
Video Recordings ◽  
Education And Care

This article evaluates the concept of infant ‘belonging’, central to several national curricula for early childhood education and care. Here, the authors focus on Australia’s Early Years Learning Framework. Four different meanings attach to ‘belonging’ in the Early Years Learning Framework, the primary being sociopolitical. However, ‘a sense of belonging’ is also proposed as something that should be observable and demonstrable in infants and toddlers – such demonstration being held up as one of the keys to quality outcomes in early childhood education and care. The Early Years Learning Framework endows belonging with two contrasting meanings when applied to infants. The first, the authors call ‘marked belonging’, and it refers to the infant’s exclusion from or inclusion in defined groups of others. The second, the authors provisionally call ‘unmarked’ belonging. Differences between these two meanings of infant belonging are explored by describing two contrasting observational vignettes from video recordings of infants in early childhood education and care. The authors conclude that ‘belonging’ is not a helpful way to refer to, or empirically demonstrate, an infant’s mundane comfort or ‘unmarked’ agentive ease in shared early childhood education and care settings. A better way to conceptualise and research this would be through the prism of infants’ proven capacity to participate in groups.

scholarly journals Early Childhood Education and Care System in Finland

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenni Salminen
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Lifelong Learning ◽  
Primary Education ◽  
Day Care ◽  
Early Education ◽  
Learning And Development ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Education And Care ◽  
The Continuum

In Finland, Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) includes day care arrangements offered to families (care) along with goal-oriented early childhood education (early education and teaching) provided for children prior to transitioning to primary education. ECEC is therefore seen to build a coherent starting phase within the continuum of lifelong learning. ECEC follows the “educare” principle, which emphasizes the simultaneous consideration for children’s education, teaching, and care as the foundation of pedagogical activity, which is at the same time strongly rooted in the idea of learning and development as a holistic experience. The aim of this article is to provide an overview of the Finnish ECEC system, introduce its societal, organizational and curricular preconditions and discuss the current tensions and challenges faced.

scholarly journals Who is minding the kids? New developments and lost opportunities in reforming the British early education workforce

2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 320-331 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ludovica Gambaro
Keyword(s):  
Early Education ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Public Funding ◽  
General Increase ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
New Developments ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Education And Care ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Low Pay

The last 20 years have seen a substantial increase in enrolment in early childhood education and care (ECEC) in several European countries. The expansion of ECEC services inevitably requires new staff. There is however a tension between a rapid growth of services via the creation of low-paid, low-qualified jobs and the aspiration, voiced unanimously by policy makers, to improve the qualification and status of ECEC workers. This paper examines the case of the UK, where ECEC services and public expenditure devoted to them have increased substantially. It uses UK Labour Force Survey data to document changes in the pay and educational qualifications of the early education workforce. Results show how despite a general increase in the qualification level of these workers, their pay remains relatively low. Moreover, pay is found to be mostly related to characteristics of the workplace, and its access to public funding, rather than to the productive characteristics of workers. The paper concludes by arguing that the issue of low pay in ECEC is likely to become more salient in the future, as governments expand services while trying to keep down their costs.

Impact Study: Early Education use and Child Outcomes up to Age 5

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (10) ◽  
pp. 414-417
Author(s):  
David Hancock
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Early Education ◽  
Child Outcomes ◽  
Impact Study ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Education And Care ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Children's Development ◽  
Children’S Development

There is evidence to suggest that early childhood education and care has a significant impact on children's development. A recent report on the subject has revealed some interesting conclusions about the link between settings and outcomes

scholarly journals (Re)imagining Entangled Sustainability: A Human and Nonhuman Theorisation of Belonging to Safeguard Sustainability’s Holism

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 4714
Author(s):  
Alicja R. Sadownik ◽  
Josephine Gabi
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Early Childhood ◽  
Sense Of Belonging ◽  
Social Sustainability ◽  
Related Phenomenon ◽  
Human Language ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
The Social ◽  
Education And Care ◽  
Social Environmental

After years of research and theorisation connected to education for sustainable development, the holistic core of sustainability seems to have disappeared within the frames of the social, environmental and economic pillars. This article suggests a post-humanism inspired understanding of a sense of belonging. Even though the phenomenon of belonging is ascribed to social sustainability, the post-human theoretical toolkit challenges the humanism-based understanding of a sense of belonging as a human-related phenomenon. Using Deleuze and Guattari’s rhizome and affect concepts and Barad’s concept of intra-action, we show the connections between the human and nonhuman elements constituting each other in our world. We conclude with the implications that using post-human language (to understand belonging) may have for policy, Early Childhood Education and care (ECEC) practice and theory.

scholarly journals “I love my work but...” The Professionalization of Early Childhood Education

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret Boyd
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Early Education ◽  
Professional Status ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Early Education And Care ◽  
Professional Development Training ◽  
Education And Care ◽  
The Relationship

There are two separate but related issues that have challenged advocates, researchers and practitioners in the field of early education and care work for decades : improving the quality of children’s programs and increasing the wages and benefits of the workers. The solution has been framed as a need for professionalizing the workforce – professional development training, higher education and enhanced skills. While seeking professional status is expected to improve the quality of childcare programs and worker compensation, the relationship between quality, compensation and professional development training has not been fully explored. Through in - depth interviews with 32 early childhood educators I explored the relationship between educational qualifications and experience , with teacher pay and condition s of employment. Although the majority saw their work as “valuable and meaningful” they did not intend to remain in early childhood education. They experienced poverty wages, few benefits, high work related expenses and job insecurity. Their narratives highlight a crisis in early childhood education that requires radical change within the profession of early education . To retain the most qualified and motivated early childhood educators , pay and working conditions must be improved. Obtaining professional status and credentials for early education and care workers is not enough . Substantial increases in wages and benefits must be central to this movement; anything less suggests exploitation not professionalization.

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