Democracy or legacy? Boys’ views on early literacy in three Maltese state schools

2021 ◽  
pp. 1476718X2110513
Author(s):  
Charmaine Bonello
Keyword(s):  
Early Literacy ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
Children's Rights ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Children’S Rights ◽  
Formal Schooling ◽  
Reading And Writing ◽  
Writing Practices ◽  
British Colony ◽  
State Schools

Malta, a former British colony, has inherited a legacy of formal education, which remains stubbornly in place even after almost 60 years of independence. Similarly, persistent are arguments in research and policy highlighting democracy and children’s rights in early years practice and boys’ underachievement in literacy. This paper examines 5- to 6-year-old boys’ perspectives about their schooled reading and writing experiences in three Maltese state schools through the dual lenses of children’s rights and democratic practice to create new understandings of these widely discussed longstanding phenomena. The paper discusses themes emerging from three focus group interviews which were part of a broader mixed-methods phenomenological doctoral study. Findings revealed that most boys experienced undesirable reading and writing practices, pointing to a need to rollback the highly formalised approach to literacy practised in many early years of educational settings in Malta. This paper questions whether countries like Malta will remain paralysed by a legacy of early formal schooling or move forward to an actual realisation of children’s rights through sustained democratic early childhood paedagogies.

scholarly journals Avaliação da linguagem oral e escrita no pré-escolar e nos primeiros anos de escolaridade

2021 ◽  
pp. 40-53
Author(s):  
Joana Batalha ◽  
Maria Lobo ◽  
Antónia Estrela ◽  
Bruna Bragança
Keyword(s):  
Phonological Awareness ◽  
Early Literacy ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
First Grade ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Second Grade ◽  
Syntactic Awareness ◽  
Reading And Writing

In this article, we present an assessment instrument aimed at diagnosing oral language and reading and writing skills in children attending pre-school (5 years) and the early years of primary school. The instrument was mainly designed for the school context, and it was developed in collaboration with kindergarten educators and primary teachers who participated in PIPALE - Preventive Intervention Project for Reading and Writing, a project which is integrated in the National Program for the Promotion of School Success. The instrument covers the assessment of phonological and syntactic awareness, comprehension of syntactic structures, early literacy, and reading and writing skills (word reading, word and sentence writing, text comprehension, and text production). Besides offering a detailed description of the structure and tasks of the instrument, the present study includes the results of the first implementation of this tool to a total of 495 students in pre-school, first grade and second grade. The results show significant differences between the three groups (pre-school, first grade and second grade) in phonological awareness (identification of initial syllable, initial phoneme and final rhyme) and between the younger groups and the second graders in syntactic awareness (acceptability judgement task) and early literacy skills. As for reading and writing skills, the results show better performance in reading tasks than in writing tasks, a strong significant correlation between phonological awareness and word reading and word writing, and between literacy skills and word reading and writing. We also found a milder correlation between syntactic awareness and reading comprehension, as well as text writing. These results suggest that the instrument is effective for an early diagnosis and early intervention of reading and writing skills.

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2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-48
Keyword(s):  
Picture Books ◽  
Children's Rights ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Children’S Rights ◽  
Contemporary Society ◽  
Children's Books ◽  
Children’S Books ◽  
Emotional Literacy ◽  
Forest School ◽  
Social And Emotional

scholarly journals Children’s development, capability approaches and postdevelopmental child: The birth to four curriculum in South Africa

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karin Murris
Keyword(s):  
Child Development ◽  
South African ◽  
National Curriculum ◽  
Children's Rights ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Children’S Rights ◽  
Curriculum Framework ◽  
Fourth Theme ◽  
Development Capability

This article explores how three well-known conceptual frameworks view child development and how they assume particular figurations of the child in the context of the South African National Curriculum Framework for Children from Birth to Four. This new curriculum is based on a children’s rights framework. The capability approaches offer important insights for children’s rights advocates, but, like psychosocial theories of child development, assumes a ‘becoming-adult view of child’, which poses a serious threat to children’s right to genuine participation. They also share the exclusive focus on understanding development as located ontologically in the individualised human. In contrast, critical posthumanism queers humanist understandings of child development and reconfigures subjectivity through a radical philosophical decentring of the human. The relevance of this shift for postdevelopmental child in the context of the new South African early years curriculum is threaded throughout the article. A posthuman reconfiguration of child subjectivity moves theory and practice from a focus on assessing the capabilities of individual children in sociocultural contexts to the tracing of material and discursive entanglements that render children capable. This onto-epistemic shift leads to the conclusion that the National Curriculum Framework for Children from Birth to Four requires a fourth theme (with guiding principles), which would express a multispecies relationality and an ethics of care for the human as well as the nonhuman.

scholarly journals Implementation of Children Rights Fulfilment In Bandar Lampung Special Development Institution For Childrens

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 01-12
Author(s):  
Melista Aulia Nurdina
Keyword(s):  
Formal Education ◽  
Children's Rights ◽  
Class Ii ◽  
Children’S Rights ◽  
Individual Approach ◽  
Self Development ◽  
Approach Method ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Right ◽  
Development Institution

Protection of children faced in conflict with the law and undergoing a criminal period in the Special Development Institution for Children, their rights and needs must always be fulfilled. These children's rights consist of the right to education, skills guidance, health care, and others. This study aims to identify and analyze the fulfillment of children's rights that must be fulfilled in the Special Development Institution for Children. The problem in this research is children's rights that must be fulfilled in the Special Development Institution for Children. The method of implementing the fulfillment of children’s rights in the Special Development Institute for Children, factors that hinder the implementation of the fulfillment of rights in the Special Development Institution for Children. The approach to the problem used in this research is normative and empirical juridical. The data analysis in this study was conducted qualitatively. This study found that the rights of children in the Class II of Bandar Lampung Special Development Institution have been carried out well. The assisted children get formal and non-formal education; the assisted children receive self-development guidance such as hair shaving, electric welding, planting, and mind preservation. The assisted children are also free to play music, exercise, and perform worship according to their respective beliefs. Implementing the fulfillment of children's rights uses an individual approach, and its implementation uses an assessment. Officers have programs to fulfill children’s rights, such as service, guidance, implementation, and supervision. The author suggests that Class II of Bandar Lampung Special Development Institute’s officers can fulfill children's rights ranging from formal education, non-formal education, skills, self-development, religion, maximizing the individual approach method to assisted children so that they can know more about the backgrounds, needs, emotions and interests of these children, as well as improve the quality of existing advice and infrastructure.

scholarly journals Fulfilment of Formal Education for Children with Criminal Sentences: Analysis of Law Number 11 of 2012 concerning the Juvenile Justice System

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 1747-1755
Author(s):  
Subarsyah Subarsyah
Keyword(s):  
Juvenile Justice ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
Juvenile Justice System ◽  
Children's Rights ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Children’S Rights ◽  
Literature Study ◽  
Rights Of The Child

Crimes committed by children are currently experiencing a very significant increase. In Indonesia, the settlement of criminal cases against children is included in vulnerable children who need more attention in fulfilling their rights. However, there are still many violations of children's rights during their status as perpetrators of crimes and afterwards. This study aims to analyze the fulfilment of the formal education of criminal children by Law Number 11 of 2012 concerning the Juvenile Justice System. This study uses a qualitative approach with a literature study. The results of the study explain that Indonesia as a country that has ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child through Presidential Decree Number 36 of 1990 dated August 25, 1990, has further integrated children's rights into national law, namely into Law Number 23 of 2002 concerning Child Protection. Protection of children was created as an effort to educate and build quality and affluent children in education. These forms of protection include providing comfort, security, health, and adequate education. The existence of The Child Special Guidance Institute plays a vital role in fulfilling the educational needs of formal and non-formal children.

Human Rights Education

2020 ◽  
pp. 697-717
Author(s):  
R. Brian Howe ◽  
Katherine Covell
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
Children's Rights ◽  
Children’S Rights ◽  
Human Rights Education ◽  
Political Commitment ◽  
Normative Framework ◽  
Rights Of The Child ◽  
The United Nations

This chapter discusses the need for and value of children’s human rights education (HRE). It does so within the normative framework of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and related human rights instruments. The chapter discusses the growth of an international movement for HRE, models of HRE, and initiatives for children’s HRE in schools and non-formal education. Such initiatives are scattered and limited in scope. However, where comprehensive children’s rights education is provided, the evidence shows its success in teaching children about, through, and for human rights. It suggests also that children’s HRE can provide the framework for building a culture of human rights. In essence, children’s HRE is consistent with the goals of HRE described by the United Nations. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the lack of political commitment as an overarching challenge for HRE.

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