Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood
ISSN 1463-9491

CONTENTS [click on author's name for abstract and full text]

Constructions of Childhood in Early Childhood Education Policy Debate in New Zealand

LINDA MITCHELL Faculty of Education, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

doi:10.2304/ciec.2010.11.4.328

What assumptions about children and childhood are held by government officials and organisation representatives who are influential in policy formation in early childhood education (ECE) in New Zealand? How are assumptions manifested in policy? This article draws on a study carried out from 2001 to 2003, a time of radical ECE policy change in New Zealand. It uses principles derived from social constructionist theory and values expressed in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child to analyse constructions of childhood in ECE policy debate during this time. Three dominant constructions about childhood were identified: a construction of the ‘child as dependant within the family’; the ‘child as learner within a community of learners’; and the ‘child as citizen within a social community’. These constructions were associated with views about the purposes and outcomes of ECE; the roles of children, teachers, families, and government; and favoured policy approaches. It is argued that a construction of child as citizen within a social community is a new paradigm that places children’s rights and agency to the forefront, and acknowledges the interdependence of care and education. As a basis for policy, it could cater better for societal change and support ECE services as participatory forums building social networks, support and cohesion.

Who Has Rights to What? Inclusion in Australian Early Childhood Programs

ANNE PETRIWSKYJ School of Early Childhood, Faculty of Education, Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove, Australia

doi:10.2304/ciec.2010.11.4.342

In early childhood settings prior to school and in the early years of primary school, debate continues over the meaning of inclusion and its scope in terms of the groups under consideration. The genealogies of early childhood education and care, early primary school, special education and cultural education were examined to identify recurring and emerging approaches to inclusion within Australian programs for children from birth to eight years. Approaches to inclusion encompassing multiple forms of diversity coexist in the Australian educational literature with targeted approaches focused on disabilities or risk. These differing approaches reflect underlying ideological divisions and varying assumptions about diversity. Multiple approaches, including the expansion of early childhood services, reflect tensions over children’s rights, conceptualizations of inclusion, the expectations of teachers, system coordination, economic constraints and political pressure to cater for a complex range of young children in varied settings. The article incorporates discussion on underlying philosophical tensions within the early childhood field.

Provision of Pre-primary Education as a Basic Right in Tanzania: reflections from policy documents

LYABWENE MTAHABWA Department of Psychology, College of Education, University of Dodoma, Tanzania

doi:10.2304/ciec.2010.11.4.353

This study sought to assess provision of pre-primary education in Tanzania as a basic right through analyses of relevant policy documents. Documents which were published over the past decade were considered, including educational policies, action plans, national papers, the Basic Education Statistics in Tanzania documents, strategy documents, documents representing the views of the people, and the Tanzania Development Vision 2025. Critical discourse analysis guided the process of analysis. The results suggest that pre-primary education has hardly been provided as a basic right. Issues of quality, equity and hearing children’s voices have rarely been considered, particularly as a result of the problems associated with the policy, such as the lack of an implementation plan. Further, it has been mentioned less frequently in some of the key government documents. This brings the current policy closer to politics than policies. The article recommends that there needs to be a consideration of quality, equity and hearing children’s voices at the policy level to realise provision of pre-primary education as a basic right.

The Aesthetic Preferences of Infants: pictures of faces that captivate their interest

KATHERINA DANKO-McGHEE Department of Art, University of Toledo, USA

doi:10.2304/ciec.2010.11.4.365

This research focused on the observation of infants between the ages of 2 and 18 months with regard to their aesthetic preferences for a variety of visual stimuli. These stimuli included: a black-and-white schematic drawing of a baby, a popular cartoon image, a colorful abstract painting of a baby, and a photographic image of a baby’s face. Prior research with this age group has determined that faces are of most interest to them. However, young children are now bombarded by the visual media (i.e. television and DVDs, picture books, etc.), and this preference may have changed. Determining the aesthetic preferences of babies will help parents, childcare providers, and picture book authors/illustrators to provide visual imagery that is aesthetically appealing to them. Providing visually stimulating imagery can help babies to develop their visual discrimination and tracking skills. Research confirms that birth to five years is the most important period for children with respect to brain development. Therefore, more research is needed that will provide us with clues about what forms of visual stimulation are appropriate in order to better facilitate this developmental process.

Persecutory Guilt, Surveillance and Resistance: the emotional themes of early childhood educators

SAMARA MADRID Elementary and Early Education Department, University of Wyoming, Laramie, USA
MAYLAN DUNN-KENNEY Department of Teaching and Learning, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, USA

doi:10.2304/ciec.2010.11.4.388

This research examines the emotional themes and discourse of emotion of early childhood educators using a post-structuralist theoretical framework of emotion. The data selected and analyzed is taken from 4 two-hour discussion groups that were conducted over an eight-week period with four female early childhood educators. The emotional themes and patterns that emerged from the discussion groups and artifacts, teacher journals, and follow-up interviews were analyzed and then followed with a micro-level analysis. The findings revealed that the three most common emotion words discussed were ‘stress’, ‘worry’, and ‘frustration’, which were linked to surveillance and a discourse around persecutory guilt through institutional and relational systems, fostering implicit resistance among participants.

Metamorphosis: play, spirituality and the animal

JANE BONE Faculty of Education, Monash University,Australia

doi:10.2304/ciec.2010.11.4.402

Animal- and bird-becoming is an aspect of play as metamorphosis connected to spirituality in early childhood settings. The reconceptualisation of play presented here is supported by research that explored the spiritual experiences of young children in different early childhood contexts. Qualitative case study research carried out in Aotearoa New Zealand included children, teachers and families. The concept of ‘everyday spirituality’ that emerged from this inquiry is informed by post-structural philosophical perspectives. Transformative spaces of spiritual withness, the spiritual in-between and the spiritual elsewhere construct everyday spirituality in these settings. Four narratives contribute to a bricolage about play as metamorphosis. This aspect of play challenges human/non-human animal binaries, and celebrates unfixedness and infolding: both features of the spiritual. Deleuzian concepts support the discussion and connections are made to the posthuman(ist) condition.

Point and Click: theoretical and phenomenological reflections on the digitization of early childhood education

ANNE MANGEN National Centre for Reading Education and Research, University of Stavanger, Norway

doi:10.2304/ciec.2010.11.4.415

This article presents some theoretical-methodological reflections on the current state of the art of research on information and communication technology (ICT) in early childhood education. The implementation of ICT in preschool has triggered considerable research activity on the educational potential of digital technologies. Numerous projects and studies are being carried out in several disciplines; however, there is little or no interdisciplinary exchange. In this article, the author presents and justifies a theoretical-methodological alternative – namely, piecemeal theorizing. Piecemeal theorizing consists in posing precisely formulated questions at different levels of generality, the pursuit of which will necessarily lead the researcher(s) in several disciplinary directions. The author suggests a mode of research conducted by multidisciplinary and piecemeal theorizing of precisely defined and demarcated questions at different levels of granularity, hence accumulating partial answers resulting in theory development and scientific progress – however incremental – in the field. By drawing on theories and perspectives from fields such as cognitive neuroscience, media psychology and phenomenology, we might be in a position to better address some fundamental and largely unaddressed questions pertaining to the potential impact of digital technology on children’s learning. Specifically, the article focuses on one such question – namely, the particular intangibility of the digital – and reflects on the potential implications of this intangibility for learning and literacy development. The aim is thence to provide an alternative conceptual, theoretical and epistemological framework for studying the experiential impact of digital technology on preschoolers’ literacy development.

English as a Problem Language

PETER MOSS Institute of Education, University of London, United Kingdom

doi:10.2304/ciec.2010.11.4.432

At a time when English has emerged as the dominant language of academic communication, there is a disturbing silence about the risks and problems attendant on this development and a failure to ask critical questions about its consequences. Who gains and who loses? What is lost in translation? What are the consequences of one way linguistic traffic? I argue that the growing dominance of English has great potential to increase inequality, reduce diversity and enhance certain power relations, and ask what is to be done, offering some proposals as a contribution to a wider and urgently needed debate.

Educating the Future Educators: the quest for professionalism in early childhood education

JACKIE MUSGRAVE Early Years and Childhood Studies, Solihull College, United Kingdom

doi:10.2304/ciec.2010.11.4.432

This article examines the implications of recent and proposed changes to the college-based training of practitioners in early childhood education (ECE). These changes will change the length of courses by shortening them and, therefore, the depth of teaching that students will experience on a college-based course. The links between level of education and improved outcomes for children are discussed. This colloquium explores how these changes may impact on the professionalization of the early childhood workforce. Definitions of professionalism found in the early childhood literature and the notion of the professional ECE student are explored. The current barriers to viewing ECE as a profession and the ongoing professionalism of the field are discussed, as are possible solutions to removing the barriers.

© SYMPOSIUM JOURNALS Ltd
PO Box 204, Didcot, Oxford OX11 9ZQ, United Kingdom
info@symposium-journals.co.uk
www.symposium-journals.co.uk