scholarly journals Eating in the Nursery School: Pedagogy, Performativity & Biopolitics

Horizontes ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
Michalis Kontopodis

AbstractThe study presented here explores eating as a pedagogical practice. It pays attention to arrangements of things such as Christmas cookies, whole-wheat and white bread, frozen chicken, plates, chairs, tables, and freezers. Entering in dialogue with performativity theory and post-structuralist approaches, a series of ethnographic analyses from German and Brazilian nursery schools reveal how eating can be enacted as a sensual pleasure, a health risk, an ethnic custom, or a civil right within a variety of local pedagogical contexts. Through specific arrangements of foods and other things, young children are educated to eat with moderation, to change their ethnic dietary habits, or to become modern citizens. Pedagogy can thus entail doing public health, doing ethnic identity, or doing citizenship while eating is an important way of doing these in early childhood education and care settings.Keywords: Early Childhood Education & Care; Ethnicity; Obesity Prevention, Performance.Comendo na escola infantil: Pedagogia, Performatividade & BiopolíticaResumoO estudo apresentado aqui explora o ato de comer como uma prática pedagógica. Tem-se como proposta prestar atenção aos arranjos de comidas como biscoitos de Natal, pão de trigo integral e pão branco, frango congelado, pratos, cadeiras, mesas e congeladores. Através do diálogo com a teoria da performatividade e abordagens pós-estruturalistas, uma série de análises etnográficas de escolas de educação infantil alemãs e brasileiras revelam como comer no jardim de infância pode ser um prazer sensual, um risco para a saúde, um costume étnico, ou um direito civil dentro de diferentes histórias locais e constelações de poder. Através da combinação de alimentos específicos e outras coisas, as crianças são educadas para comer com moderação, para mudar seus hábitos alimentares étnicos, ou para serem cidadãos modernos. A pedagogia pode, portanto, consistir em fazer valer a saúde pública, fazer valer a identidade étnica, ou fazer valer a cidadania e comer é uma forma importante de fazer isso em configurações de educação e nos cuidados na primeira infância.Palavras-chave: Educação da primeira infância e Cuidado; Etnicidade; Prevenção de obesidade; Performance.

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
pp. e43759
Author(s):  
Patrícia Domingos dos Santos ◽  
Franciele Cascaes da Silva ◽  
Bruna Weber Santos ◽  
Camila Isabel Santos Schivinski

The present study aimed to identify and compare knowledge and practices of early childhood education professionals from three public nursery schools (A, B and C) in the city of Florianópolis/SC relative to prevention, early detection and handling of acute respiratory infections (ARIs) in children aged between zero and six years old. A total of 120 educators answered a questionnaire. The instrument was composed of 15 close- and open-ended questions, five of which were scored. In statistical analyses, the Anova One-Way test revealed no significant differences for knowledge between professionals from the three institutions, with nursery school B having the highest mean score (6.12 ± 0.8), showing fair knowledge about child care. Overall results point to existing gaps concerning the need for guidance on these aspects of a child’s health.


Author(s):  
Helen Knauf

Early childhood education centres in Germany today are increasingly using social networks to present their work. This article puts this development into the context of a comprehensive process of mediatisation. Using two group discussions with teachers in early childhood education and care centres, I will show that the route via a social network is not just a new communication channel, but that the content communicated, the relationships between the actors, and the identity of the institution are also changed by it. Legal ambiguities, technical infrastructure and a lack of experience are identified as crucial barriers to the use of social networks. From the perspective of the users, social networks primarily create opportunities for a higher level of feedback for the pedagogical practitioners, more transparency and information for parents, and various points of reference for conversations between adults and children about learning processes.


2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 153-170
Author(s):  
Maja Antonietti ◽  
Monica Guerra ◽  
Elena Luciano

The relationship with families is a crucial topic in educational services for children aged 0-6 years. The participatory and inclusive approach that has traditionally characterized Italian early childhood education and care has come under serious pressure during the Covid-19 pandemic: the ongoing health, social, political, and economic emergency has radically modified timeframes, spaces, an modes of communicating and relating, both in early years/nursery school settings and more generally. This paper examines the relationship between early childhood education services and families, by reporting and analyzing data from an exploratory study on distance education in services for children aged 0-6 years, during the spring 2020 lockdown in Italy. Specifically, a questionnaire was used to collect the views of a sample of educators, teachers, and coordinators concerning the practices that had been implemented in support of the remote educational relationship (in Italian, “Legami Educativi A Distanza – LEAD” programme). Among the various themes investigated, the focus here is on problematizing the ways in which families’ participation changed during the distance education phase.


Author(s):  
Sandra Antulić Majcen ◽  
Maja Drvodelić

Quality early childhood education and care has been the focus of interest of researchers for over half a century. Approaches to the quality monitoring and quality assurance of early childhood education and care, as well as its conceptualisation and operationalisation, have changed and developed over the decades in line with contemporary understandings of child development and learning, and in accordance with changes in the purpose and functions of early childhood education and care. The results of many relevant studies confirm that quality early childhood education and care is crucial for short-term and long-term positive outcomes in different development and learning areas, especially in the case of disadvantaged children, including children at risk of social exclusion. The aim of this paper is to present the concept of quality in early childhood education and care from various research perspectives, with special emphasis on a review of the literature on the quality of pedagogical practice aimed at children at risk of social exclusion. The paper presents the theoretical model of responding to the needs of children at risk of social exclusion in Croatian early childhood education and care. Special attention is given to the quality of pedagogical practice regarding children at risk of social exclusion, as a prerequisite for planning targeted measures and interventions directed at this group of children and their families within the Croatian early childhood education and care system. It was concluded that the key factors for quality pedagogical practice are an interdisciplinary approach of highly qualified professionals and the participation of all key stakeholders within the child’s immediate environment, as well as connection between relevant policies and practice, which are crucial for early childhood education and care quality.


Author(s):  
Margarita León

The chapter first examines at a conceptual level the links between theories of social investment and childcare expansion. Although ‘the perfect match’ between the two is often taken for granted in the specialized literature as well as in policy papers, it is here argued that a more nuance approach that ‘unpacks’ this relationship is needed. The chapter will then look for elements of variation in early childhood education and care (ECEC) expansion. Despite an increase in spending over the last two decades in many European and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, wide variation still exists in the way in which ECEC develops. A trade-off is often observed between coverage and quality of provision. A crucial dividing line that determines, to a large extent, the quality of provision in ECEC is the increasing differentiation between preschool education for children aged 3 and above and childcare for younger children.


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