scholarly journals Exploring Military Artefacts in Early Childhood Education: Conflicting Perspectives on Cultural Sustainability, Belonging and Protection

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 2587
Author(s):  
Åsta Birkeland ◽  
Liv Torunn Grindheim
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Local Area ◽  
Positive Interactions ◽  
Focus Group Interviews ◽  
Cultural Sustainability ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Group Interviews ◽  
Chinese Kindergarten ◽  
Insight Into

Social and cultural sustainability is outlined as creating surroundings that include and stimulate positive interactions, such as promoting a sense of community and a feeling of belonging to a community, by being safe and attached to the local area. Artefacts chosen in early childhood education (ECE) institutions are integrated parts of the culture in which the ECE institutions are embedded; artefacts, thus, are understood as serving belonging and cultural sustainability. The study examined what insight into cultural sustainability could be surfaced in conflicting perspectives about military artefacts in ECE. Focus group interviews were conducted with Chinese and Norwegian graduate students and ECE researchers, during which photographs of a Chinese kindergarten where military artefacts and toys were highly represented. Conflicting perspectives on military artefacts among the participant surfaced how belonging are closely intertwined with protection and where to belong: locally, nationally or internationally. The skeptical approach to military artefacts is challenged by awareness of different ways to promote national pride and entanglement among generations. The findings indicate a need for more research on conditions for belonging and the normative complexities of artefacts in cultural sustainability.

scholarly journals Dancing as Moments of Belonging: A Phenomenological Study Exploring Dancing as a Relevant Activity for Social and Cultural Sustainability in Early Childhood Education

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 8080
Author(s):  
Maria Grindheim ◽  
Liv Torunn Grindheim
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Sense Of Belonging ◽  
Phenomenological Study ◽  
Life Experiences ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Sustainable Living ◽  
Aesthetic Experiences ◽  
Cultural Sustainability ◽  
Childhood Education

Individuals’ capacities to contribute to more sustainable living are deeply influenced by their early life experiences. Hence, there is a need to discover which experiences are relevant to young children’s contemporary and future contributions to more sustainable living. Perceiving children as aesthetically oriented to the world and their sense of belonging as a core experience for social and cultural sustainability, and using the example of dancing, we investigate how such a sense of belonging can be supported through aesthetic first-person experiences. This article is therefore structured around the following research question: How can adults’ experiences of themselves, others and their sense of belonging—when dancing—inform explorations of ways to foster embodied and aesthetic belonging for social and cultural sustainability in early childhood education (ECE)? Drawing on a phenomenological study, we analyse interviews with four dancers, who differ in age, gender and dance genre. Our analysis reveals their experiences when dancing as being in a meditative state, having a sense of freedom and feeling body and mind as one, described as an overall “different”, resilient way of being and belonging in a social context. Our findings indicate that facilitating moments of sensible and bodily awareness can support a non-verbal understanding of oneself and others, as well as arguments for promoting aesthetic experiences while dancing as relevant to sustainable practices in ECE.

scholarly journals The role of federal and state policy in addressing early childhood achievement gaps: parent perceptions and student outcomes related to 21st Century Learning Centers programming in the United States

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather P. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
21St Century ◽  
State Policy ◽  
Learning Centers ◽  
Community Learning Centers ◽  
Community Learning ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Insight Into

AbstractAs policymakers and school communities work to address underlying causes of achievement gaps and access to quality early childhood education, this study considers the use of 21st Century Community Learning Centers to address early childhood education needs on western U.S. state, Idaho. The study sought to understand the relationship between federal and state policies related to out-of-school opportunities to enhance early childhood education. Utilizing data from a statewide evaluation of Idaho’s 21st Century Learning Centers, the study examined 92 centers providing after school, before school, or summer programs in grades preschool through the third grade to predominately at-risk children. Data collection included quantitative data from a survey given to parents (n = 183), as well as qualitative data collected through site-based interviews, focus groups and observations. Data included a review of historical and current data on participation rates; attendance rates; standardized test scores for program participants in grades PK-3 (n = 3258). Data were analyzed for themes and transfer. The study findings provide further insight into understanding possible relationships between U.S. federal and state policy regarding 21st Century Community Learning Centers on both students’ outcomes and parent satisfaction. The findings further support the role of out-of-school time (OST) experiences in the larger ecosystem of learning and provides insight into understanding how the OST activities are carried over into family life.

What's the Story?: Exploring Parent–Teacher Communication through ePortfolios

2017 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 13-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda Higgins ◽  
Sue Cherrington
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Document Analysis ◽  
Electronic Portfolios ◽  
Communication Tool ◽  
Focus Group Interviews ◽  
Teacher Communication ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Individual Interviews ◽  
Group Interviews ◽  
Reported Data

ELECTRONIC PORTFOLIOS (ePORTFOLIOS) ARE a relatively new phenomenon in early childhood education (ECE) with minimal existing research available on their use and effectiveness as a learning and communication tool in ECE. This article reports on a study examining the influence of ePortfolios on parent–teacher communication in one early childhood (EC) service. Reported data has been drawn from online surveys, document analysis of ePortfolios, individual interviews and focus group interviews with parents and teachers. Thematic analysis identified two main themes: the benefits and drawbacks of communicating via the ePortfolio, and the types of communication that were evident.

scholarly journals Early Childhood Education for Sustainability Through Contradicting and Overlapping Dimensions

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 374-395 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liv Torunn Grindheim ◽  
Yvonne Bakken ◽  
Kjellrun Hiis Hauge ◽  
Marianne Presthus Heggen
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Education For Sustainability ◽  
Cultural Sustainability ◽  
United Nations Educational ◽  
Four Dimensions ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Cultural Organization

Purpose: The article investigates how to make a broader understanding of sustainability relevant for early childhood education (ECE) guided by the four dimensions suggested by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization: ecological, economic and social/cultural sustainability, and good governance. Design/Approach/Methods: Previous research on ECE on sustainability is discussed in relation to the four dimensions and to Biesta’s concepts of socialization, qualification, and subjectification. Findings: The investigation finds that all four dimensions are necessary in ECE for sustainability, and it suggests how the dimensions can be understood, how they may overlap, and how they can be contradictive. Originality/Value: The article depicts how children’s opportunities to engage and to disturb established ways of thinking can be facilitated through all dimensions.

Selected aspects of institutional early childhood education and care in Warsaw – the perspective of professionals and low-income parents

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 124-0
Author(s):  
Małgorzata Karwowska-Struczyk ◽  
Olga Wysłowska
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Final Part ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Individual Interviews ◽  
Low Incomes ◽  
Education And Care ◽  
Group Interviews

The article presents results of research into low income parents as well as professionals involved in the education, care and upbringing sectors. It concerns access to toddler care and preschool, the costs of sending children to such institutions, support for parents on low incomes, as well as the demands parents have of these institutions. The authors carried out two group interviews with parents, as well as three individual interviews with workers from the institutions. In the final part of the article, the results of the research are presented along with recommendations for politics concerning the sectors of education, upbringing and care of children from the ages of 0 to 6.

scholarly journals Early childhood education leadership in Finland through the lens of structure and agency

2020 ◽  
pp. 174114322090372
Author(s):  
Jan Varpanen
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Distributed Leadership ◽  
Social Reality ◽  
Education Leadership ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Structure And Agency ◽  
Education Leaders ◽  
Key Dimensions ◽  
Group Interviews

In early childhood education, the concept of distributed leadership has emerged as a key analytical tool for understanding leadership as well as a normative guide for what leadership should be. The concept originates in Peter Gronn’s work, where it is positioned as overcoming the structure-agency debate, which is a foundational question in the study of social reality. While distributed leadership itself has been extensively studied, the problem motivating Gronn’s work—the structure-agency problematique—has rarely been investigated. In an effort to create a deeper understanding of the role of structure and agency in constituting early childhood education leadership, this study examines how these two key dimensions of social reality structure early childhood education center leaders’ understanding of leadership. The data for the study consist of focus group interviews where early childhood education center leaders discuss various aspects of leadership. The data are analyzed in the broad framework of post-structural discourse analysis, using the analytic concept of frame, which reveals the interplay of structure and agency in early childhood education leaders’ understandings of their work. The findings show that early childhood education center leaders’ understanding of leadership is mainly focused on the side of structure and offers few chances for the kind of collective effort hoped for by Gronn.

scholarly journals Exploring the place of arts-based approaches in early childhood education research

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Clough ◽  
Cathy Nutbrown
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Early Childhood ◽  
Education Research ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Educational Policies ◽  
Research Practice ◽  
Music Drama ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Critical Issues ◽  
Insight Into

Defined broadly as the use of art forms – music, drama, music, painting, storying and so on – to create privileged insight into educational policies and practices, Arts-Based Educational Research [ABER] techniques have started to have some, albeit limited, purchase on the mainstream of educational enquiry; there is less evidence, however, of their use in early childhood research. This article critically outlines some chief characteristics of an ABER approach, its claim to legitimacy in the currency of qualitative research practice and the issues which presently both drive and challenge it. An example from our own work is given, and the essay concludes with a prospectus of critical issues, questions and exhortations.

scholarly journals Fostering Cultural Sustainability in Early Childhood Education through a Neighbourhood Project

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 5203
Author(s):  
Aihua Hu ◽  
Siv Ødemotland
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Student Teachers ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Early Childhood Teacher ◽  
Education For Sustainability ◽  
Cultural Sustainability ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Qualitative Research Methodology

Culture is the life blood of a society, which influences people’s worldviews, values, and behaviours. Research has confirmed that children’s participation in culture helps develop thinking skills, builds self-esteem, and improves resilience. This paper aims to explore how a purposely designed project can foster cultural sustainability through a case study of a neighbourhood project conducted in Chinese and Norwegian kindergartens. A qualitative research methodology is utilised. Major data sources are an overall project plan prepared by one of the Norwegian university researchers, project descriptions and PowerPoint presentations from the kindergartens, as well as workshop notes taken by one researcher during the workshop, complemented and triangulated by the follow-up reflective narratives from three kindergartens. Qualitative content analysis and comparative analysis are used to analyse the collected data. Findings have indicated that kindergartens hold similar views on culture and cultural stainability. Though the actual activities are diverse and implemented in different ways, the goal of fostering cultural sustainability is achieved in all participating kindergartens. Children not only have gained knowledge of their neighbourhood and problem solving and social skills but also have developed sense of belonging and emotional link with their local culture through the active participation. More importantly, this study has indicated that purposely designed projects/activities can promote early childhood education for sustainability and quality of ECE. It is thus recommended cultivating student teachers’ and kindergarten teachers’ competence to design projects/activities integrating different dimensions of sustainability in early childhood teacher education

The Future is Created by and within Children

2007 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anette Sandberg ◽  
Tuula Vuorinen
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Preschool Teachers ◽  
After School ◽  
Play Intervention ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Research Areas ◽  
Increasing Demand ◽  
Group Interviews ◽  
Teachers And Parents

THE OVERALL AIM OF THIS STUDY was to present research areas within early childhood education in a dialogue between municipality and university. The purpose was to produce ideas and develop research in teacher education, with the hope of increasing the understanding of what kind of research is needed into early childhood education. The data collection comprised 10 focus group interviews with politicians, managers, principals, lecturers, preschool teachers and parents, as well as children in after-school recreation centres and preschools, in all a total of 46 participants. The preschool teachers and parents also answered a questionnaire. From the results, different research areas appear; those especially highlighted were play, intervention, cooperation between preschool and home, the position of preschools in relation to schools, and child group research. There was also an increasing demand for children's perspective in gender, class and ethnicity research.

Early-Childhood Education for the Developmentally Delayed: Diagnosis, Intervention, and Evaluation

1979 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 81-92
Author(s):  
Susan Freedman Gilbert
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
School Children ◽  
Developmental Delays ◽  
Delayed Diagnosis ◽  
Language Impairments ◽  
Developmentally Delayed ◽  
Speech And Language ◽  
Childhood Education

This paper describes the referral, diagnostic, interventive, and evaluative procedures used in a self-contained, behaviorally oriented, noncategorical program for pre-school children with speech and language impairments and other developmental delays.

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