scholarly journals When are we going to have the real school? A case study of early childhood education and care teachers’ experiences surrounding education during the COVID-19 pandemic

2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 336-347
Author(s):  
Hem Chand Dayal ◽  
Lavinia Tiko
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Case Study Research ◽  
Small Island ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Education And Care

In this study, we set out to explore how two private, early childhood education and care centres in a small island developing state in the Pacific are coping with schooling during the COVID-19 lockdown period. In particular, we used a case-study research approach to explore teachers’ feelings about the situation and what actions or strategies the centres have devised to continue to support education of young children. We also report on the challenges and opportunities that teachers have experienced in teaching remotely. The case studies suggest that teachers feel worried not only about their personal lives, but also about their professional lives as teachers. The findings also reveal how the two early childhood education and care centres innovate in delivering education in a time of severe crisis. Glimpses of success are visible in terms of making teaching and learning possible and meaningful even with very young children. These findings provide useful insights into teaching and learning during a pandemic.

An animated story created by a group of young children

2021 ◽  
pp. 146879842098875
Author(s):  
Marianne Undheim ◽  
Trude Hoel
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Qualitative Case Study ◽  
Field Observations ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Education And Care ◽  
Digital Stories ◽  
Empirical Material

This paper contributes to the contemporary focus on literacy and digital stories in early childhood education and care (ECEC) institutions. When a group of young children create an animated story together, they might collaborate, both with their peers and with their teacher. By drawing on social semiotic multimodal perspectives as the theoretical framework, the purpose of this paper is to describe and explore how different modalities and narrative devices contribute to the development of an animated story created by six children (aged 4-5 years) and a teacher in collaboration. The study is a qualitative case study, focusing on contemporary events in a Norwegian kindergarten. The empirical material consists of video-recorded field observations of the process as well as the final product. Through an inductive exploration of the development of verbal narrative, three analytical strands are identified: i) verbal narrative in the final product, ii) multimodal narrative in the final product, and iii) narrative devices applied by the children during the process. The findings demonstrate the importance of including and considering the process, the product, narrative devices and all the modalities—in particular the kineikonic mode—when creating an animated story with young children. An implication of these findings is for ECE teachers and researchers to acknowledge and integrate all the various aspects that contribute to the final product when young children create animated stories.

scholarly journals What Keeps Early Childhood Teachers Working in Long Day Care?

2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 32-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon McKinlay ◽  
Susan Irvine ◽  
Ann Farrell
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Day Care ◽  
Early Childhood Teachers ◽  
Case Study Research ◽  
Reform Agenda ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Long Day ◽  
Education And Care ◽  
Constructivist Approaches

RETAINING EARLY CHILDHOOD TEACHERS in long day care (LDC) is a pressing challenge for Australia's reform agenda in early childhood education and care (ECEC). Case study research with five early childhood teachers in LDC revealed individual and contextual factors that enabled and challenged the teachers to stay in LDC. Drawing on social constructivist approaches, the research contributes empirically based insights that support the recruitment and retention of early childhood teachers in LDC.

scholarly journals Systems Thinking Skills of Preschool Children in Early Childhood Education Contexts from Turkey and Germany

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 1478 ◽  
Author(s):  
Şebnem Feriver ◽  
Refika Olgan ◽  
Gaye Teksöz ◽  
Matthias Barth
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Preschool Children ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Systems Thinking ◽  
Case Study Research ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Childhood Education

This study presents an attempt to contribute to the field of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) by conceptualizing systems thinking skills of four- to six-year-old preschool children with the role of age in this particular skill. For this purpose, we developed and tested a method and instruments to assess and conceptualize systems thinking skills of 52 preschool children in early childhood education contexts from Turkey and Germany. By employing qualitative case study research, we concluded that the young children showed some signs of complex understanding regarding systems thinking in terms of detecting obvious gradual changes and two-step domino and/or multiple one-way causalities, as well as describing behavior of a balancing loop. However, their capacity was found to be limited when it comes to detecting a reinforcing loop, understanding system mechanisms by acknowledging the unintended consequences, detecting hidden components and processes, demonstrating multi-dimensional perspective, solving problems through high-leverage interventions, and predicting the future behavior of the system. Age had a notable effect on the total systems thinking mean scores of the participants.

scholarly journals 'It's all the things'? Exploring teachers' views on the notion of 'community' in early childhood education

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Judith Hamer
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Physical World ◽  
Political Discussion ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Study Centre ◽  
Education And Care ◽  
The Rich

<p>This thesis explores the multiple meanings of ‘community’ within early childhood education (ECE). Utilising a qualitative, interpretive approach, this exploratory case study has sought to gain an in-depth understanding of how teachers view the meaning of ‘community’ within a typical, non-community-owned ECE centre. Rogoff’s (1984, 1995) three planes of sociocultural activity (personal, interpersonal and institutional) have been utilised as a theoretical framework to more fully understand the rich context of this case study centre. Findings from this study highlight that practices of this centre primarily focus inwards on the education and care of the enrolled children and the support of their families within the ECE ‘centre community’. However, despite this, the teachers both collectively and individually also reflect a diverse range of views on the notion of ‘community’ in terms of people, place and connections, including views that look outwards to consider the child within the context of their wider social and physical world. This study concludes that there needs to be a much larger social and political discussion about the notion of ‘community’ within the wider ECE sector, including the role and provision of ECE, not only in terms of the care and education of children but within society as a whole.</p>

Civic Action and Learning with a Community of Aboriginal Australian Young Children

2017 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 87-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Gwenneth Phillips ◽  
Kerryn Moroney
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Collective Responsibility ◽  
The United States ◽  
Civic Action ◽  
Civic Learning ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Education And Care

CIVICS AND CITIZENSHIP ARE increasingly used in early childhood education policy, but what citizenship and civic learning can be for young children is under-researched and lacking definition. Drawing from the Australian findings of the major study Civic action and learning with young children: Comparing approaches in Australia, New Zealand, and the United States, this article shares evidence of civic capacities that a community of young Aboriginal Australian children demonstrate in an early childhood education and care centre. Communitarian citizenship theory provides a framework for citizenship that is accessible for young children by focusing on families, communities and neighbourhoods. Cultural readings of illustrative examples on how young Aboriginal children express civic identity, collective responsibility, civic agency, civic deliberation and civic participation are discussed, highlighting how cultural values shape civic action. Links to state and national early childhood curricula are provided to guide others to further support civic learning in early childhood education.

Teachers as Brokers

2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 622-637 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sue Mentha ◽  
Amelia Church ◽  
Jane Page
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Early Childhood Teachers ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Learning Spaces ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Everyday Practices ◽  
Education And Care

This paper explores a small sample of Australian early childhood teachers’ perceptions of the rights-based conceptsparticipationandagency. We recognise and reconcile some of the perceived tensions between the debates on participation and protection and how these play out in the teaching and learning spaces of early childhood education. Teachers’ reflections on these concepts in relation to practice are highly significant to the field, connecting the concepts of children’s rights to the reality of everyday practices in early childhood education and care settings. As brokers or conduits to participation in early learning environments, a better understanding of teacher’s professional stance enables opportunities for young children to be better heard. An understanding of complexities and relatedness within these settings, can lead to more consistent and clear policy implementation.

scholarly journals Online Learning for Early Childhood (Case Study in Indonesia)

2021 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sri Tatminingsih ◽  
Tiara Oktarianingsih ◽  
Della Raymena Jovanka
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Online Learning ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Capital City ◽  
Survey Method ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Teachers And Parents ◽  
Online Form

This article describes online learning in early childhood education in Indonesia. Particular attention is paid to the Greater Jakarta area, which is a buffer area of the capital city of Indonesia. This study used a survey method with a questionnaire containing five open-ended questions that the respondents could fill in freely. The questionnaire was distributed through an online form to early childhood education teachers and parents of young children. Respondents' answers were grouped based on their similarity and sorted based on the number of answers, then analyzed quantitatively and descriptively. The results showed that online learning is difficult to implement in early childhood education. The enforced application of online learning in early childhood actually creates many obstacles and causes an unfavorable impact on early childhood behavior while learning. However, online learning in early childhood must still be implemented during a pandemic as it is the only option. The solution to increase the abilities and skills of teachers in planning and implementing online learning include the ability to involve parents. The results of this study are expected to be a reference by teachers, parents, and early childhood education providers in implementing effective online learning in early childhood education in a fun way and paying attention to the characteristics of early childhood.

scholarly journals Negotiating and appropriating the 'one person, one language' policy within the complex reality of a multilingual crèche in Strasbourg

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eloise Caporal-Ebersold ◽  
Andrea Young
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Language Policy ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Education And Care ◽  
The One ◽  
Children's Interests ◽  
The City

The aim of this article is to analyse the early childhood education and care (ECEC) language policy in the city of Strasbourg, focusing on an ethnographic case study of a newly established bilingual English–French crèche in the city. In France, establishing an early childhood education structure – more specifically, a day care centre catering to young children – involves close coordination with national, departmental, and local government entities. Associations that embark on this process go through a long administrative process. Taking this fact into consideration, we maintain that to understand the language policy in ECEC, it is imperative to examine the overlapping participation of different government entities and services from the national, regional, departmental, city, and local levels. Our data reveal that the conceptualization of the language policy at a newly created bilingual crèche structure was highly influenced by top-down language policies and pervading language ideologies. Yet, the crèche personnel needed to interpret, negotiate, and appropriate this policy in order to consider its feasibility and to take into account the children's interests and welfare within the normal functioning of this early years structure.

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