Book Reviews: Early Childhood Education: Society and Culture, 2nd Edn, Learning to Teach in the Early Years Classroom

AbstractThis research is a comparative study of Finnish and Australian science curricula in early childhood education (EC). The study aims to figure out the constructivist components of the science curriculum in two countries as well as locate the similarities and differences in the rationale and aims, contents, learning outcomes, learning activities, teacher’s role and assessment. The curriculum analysis framework developed by Van den Akker (2003) was used as a methodological framework for the curricula analysis. Based on the theory-driven content analyses, findings show that both countries have several components of constructivist curriculum, but not always clearly focused on science education. The Australian Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) integrates children’s science learning within their five specific learning outcomes, whereas the Finnish national core curriculum for early childhood education and care has no defined learning outcomes in general. The Finnish curriculum more clearly than EYLF encompasses science and environmental education as a learning domain, within which children participate in targeted scientific activities to gain procedural knowledge in specific environmental-related concepts. More focus should be turned to the teachers’ role and assessment, which are not determined in science context in both countries. This international comparative study calls for the need of a considered EC curriculum framework that more explicitly has science domains with specifically defined rationale, aims, content areas, learning outcomes and assessment criteria. The implications lie in providing early childhood educators with tangible and theoretically solid curriculum framework and resources in order to foster scientific thinking in young children.

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Book Reviews: Curriculum in Early Childhood Education: Re-Examined, Rediscovered, Renewed, Stand Together or Fall Apart: Professionals Working with Immigrant Families

Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood ◽

10.2304/ciec.2014.15.2.210 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 15 (2) ◽

pp. 210-214

Author(s):

Mary Benson McMullen ◽

Sonya Gaches

Keyword(s):

Early Childhood ◽

Early Childhood Education ◽

Immigrant Families ◽

Childhood Education

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Finnish Pre-Service Teachers’ Perceptions of Perceived Competence in Early Childhood Physical Education

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph18126454 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (12) ◽

pp. 6454

Author(s):

Anne Soini ◽

Anthony Watt ◽

Arja Sääkslahti

Keyword(s):

Early Childhood ◽

Teacher Training ◽

Early Childhood Education ◽

Motor Skills ◽

Perceived Competence ◽

Early Years ◽

Self Report ◽

Linear Regression Models ◽

Teachers Perceptions ◽

Childhood Education

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) teachers have a central role in supporting young children’s physical activity (PA) and overall development in the early years. However, the value of early childhood education teacher training (ECETT) programmes is not widely understood. This study aimed to investigate pre-service teachers’ perceptions of perceived competence when (1) supporting a child’s PA, (2) teaching PE, and (3) observing and assessing a child’s motor skills and PA. These self-evaluations were compared with a range of individual, educational, and behavioural characteristics. Final-year Bachelor degree pre-service teachers (n = 274; 54%) from seven universities in Finland participated in the self-report questionnaire. The results of the linear regression models showed that the relevant PE studies and previous experiences of pre-service teachers predicted higher perceived competence of supporting a child’s PA, teaching PE, and observing and assessing a child’s motor skills and PA. Thus, the study findings demonstrated how teacher training could positively influence perceptions and attitudes to increase a person’s perceived competence when implementing PE in the early years. Overall, results reinforce the importance of PE in ECETT, and the time devoted to this syllabus area should be maintained or increased.

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Is infant belonging observable? A path through the maze

Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood ◽

10.1177/1463949118793330 ◽

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.

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Leadership in early childhood education: The case for pedagogical praxis

Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood ◽

10.1177/1463949118819100 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 20 (1) ◽

pp. 23-34 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Ioanna Palaiologou ◽

Trevor Male

Keyword(s):

Early Childhood ◽

Early Childhood Education ◽

Early Years ◽

Childhood Education ◽

Ideological Struggle ◽

Education And Care ◽

Curriculum Reforms ◽

Predominately Female ◽

Teacher Status

In this conceptual article, the authors examine the context of early childhood education and care in England and the underpinning predominant ideologies to explore how these impact on the framing of leadership. The English context entails several contradictions (antinomies) at ontological, epistemological and axiological levels, and is heavily influenced by an ideological struggle concerning the value of play within the sector as opposed to a climate of child performativity. Moreover, the predominately female workforce (a factor itself) has faced relentless changes in terms of qualifications and curriculum reforms in recent years. With the introduction of the graduate leader qualification (Early Years Teacher Status), a vast body of research has been seeking to conceptualise what leadership means for early childhood education and care. In this article, the authors argue that these attempts are helpful and contribute to this discourse of leadership, but it needs to be thought of not only abstractly, but also practically. Thus, the authors conclude, the (re)conceptualisation of leadership should locate it as pedagogical praxis after evaluating the inherent deep dispositions of leaders in conjunction with their history, surrounding culture and subjective perspectives/realities.

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