scholarly journals Pedagogical Silences in Australian Early Childhood Social Policy

2007 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 244-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Cheeseman
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
Public Programs ◽  
Childhood Experiences ◽  
Policy Initiatives ◽  
Education And Care ◽  
Democratic Rights ◽  
Publicly Supported

Growing international interest in the early childhood years has been accompanied by an expansion of public programs in Australia targeting young children and their families. This article explores some of the influences and rhetoric that frame these initiatives. It encourages critical examination of the discourses that shape the nature of early childhood programs in Australia and identifies a range of barriers that inhibit the involvement of early childhood teachers in the design and delivery of social policy initiatives for young children. As the imperatives of programs seeking to overcome social disadvantage take prominence in Australian early childhood policy initiatives, pedagogical perspectives that promote universal rights to more comprehensive early childhood experiences can easily be silenced. The article calls for pedagogical leadership to overcome these barriers and promote the democratic rights of all children to high-quality and publicly supported early childhood education and care programs.

scholarly journals Grounds for Learning: Schoolyard Activities as Provocations, Scaffolds and Mediators for Childhood Learning

2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-59
Author(s):  
Paul Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Quality Standard ◽  
Blind Spot ◽  
Natural Environments ◽  
Childhood Experiences ◽  
Policy Initiatives ◽  
Outdoor Spaces ◽  
National Quality ◽  
Natural Settings ◽  
Children's Activities

Compelling evidence links childhood experiences in quasi-natural settings with learning and wellbeing, but, as cities grow, children's activities have been increasingly restricted to de-natured spaces that are designed or controlled by adults. In recent years, academics and education practitioners have campaigned to reverse this trend, and one result is that Australian early childhood centres and schools increasingly provide environments that enhance opportunities for children to engage with nature. These moves are also underpinned by higher-level policy initiatives. For example, the National Quality Standard, Element 3.2.1, requires that early childhood outdoor spaces are designed so that children experience natural environments (ACECQA, 2013). Similarly, the South Australian Department for Education and Child Development (2016, p. 5) Outdoor Learning Environments Standard mandates ‘balanced environments which instil a sense of wonder, generate curiosity and spark the imagination of children and young people’. However, despite recent interest and policy initiatives, the processes by which environments influence learning remain ‘under-researched’ (Engelen et al., 2013, p. 324) and constitute a ‘significant blind spot’ (Rickinson et al., 2004, p. 8) in the literature.

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.

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.

scholarly journals Theatrical Scrawls. The Aesthetic Creations of Young Girls and Young Boys Scribble the Scene

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-177
Author(s):  
Flávio Santiago ◽  
Ana Lúcia Goulart de Faria
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Teaching Methods ◽  
Aesthetic Movement ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Education And Care ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Ways Of Being

The paper discusses the purpose of early childhood theater, as a possibility to establish horizontal relationships between children and adults. The article thus explores the potential solutions offered by the aesthetic movement of the arts, in the creation of “theatrical scribbles” by tiny young children. In this paper, it is highlighted the training work carried out by the theater Company “La Baracca” together with Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) educators from Bologna, Italy. Much emphasis it is also given to how imaginative approaches through arts are proposed, thus shaping new ways of being an educator, without making use of formal teaching methods.

scholarly journals Funds of knowledge and agentic strategies of three- and four-year-old children in South Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Glynnis Daries ◽  
Hasina Ebrahim
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Early Childhood ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Teacher Development ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Funds Of Knowledge ◽  
Pretend Play ◽  
Childhood Experiences ◽  
Early Childhood Care ◽  
Childhood Care

In South Africa, little is known about the funds of knowledge of young children, and how they use this resource to affirm their agency in early childhood centres to build their childhood experiences. With this article we contribute knowledge through exploring the strategies that young children use to show their agency and thereby their funds of knowledge in a marginalised context. The funds of knowledge approach is helpful for illuminating meaning-making endeavours that foreground agentic actions that are imaginative, creative and beyond normative expectations. The study reported on in this article was conducted in Bloemfontein, South Africa, at 4 early childhood centres. Data were obtained through observation of 30 three- and 4-year-old children. The findings suggest that young children engage in agentic strategies of avoiding, ignoring and challenging adult control, pretend-play, imitation of adults and peers, and gendered negotiations, as efforts to contest a largely teacher-controlled environment. The insights from this study contribute to the understanding of the kinds of practices in which young children routinely engage, but which are often disregarded and undervalued by teachers. The agentic imagery of children, together with intersections of other imagery, needs to be part of the knowledge mix to inform teacher development and policy on early childhood care and education of children between birth and 4 years old in South Africa.

Learning within the Context of Play: Providing Typical Early Childhood Experiences for Children with Severe Disabilities

1993 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 121-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Frances Hanline ◽  
Lise Fox
Keyword(s):  
Special Education ◽  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Severe Disabilities ◽  
Childhood Experiences ◽  
Education Practice ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Students With Severe Disabilities

Early childhood educators regard child-initiated, child-directed, teacher-supported play as the primary context in which young children learn, whereas special educators have relied more heavily on teacher-directed activities that are focused on specific skill development. The purpose of this manuscript is to suggest that a play-based environment is the most natural instructional context for young children with severe disabilities. The application of a play-based curriculum requires neither an abandonment of effective instructional special education practice nor a violation of early childhood education best practice. Adopting such an approach, however, does represent a conceptual step away from existing practice. Further, allowing play activities to form the foundation on which effective instruction and classroom organization are built requires the utilization of best practice in the fields of early childhood education and early childhood special education in conjunction with effective practices for educating students with severe disabilities.

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