Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood
ISSN 1463-9491

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

An Analysis of the Conceptualisation of ‘Quality’ in Early Childhood Education and Care Empirical Research: promoting ‘blind spots’ as foci for future research

MARIANNE FENECH Institute of Early Childhood, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia

doi:10.2304/ciec.2011.12.2.102

This article critically analyses how empirical research investigating quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) in the period 1980‑2008 has conceptualised ‘quality’. Applying Foucault’s notion of ‘critique’ to 338 peer-reviewed journal articles uncovered six interconnected truths: quality is an objective reality; quality enhances children’s optimal development; quality is the domain of science/psychology; quality can be known from researchers’ perspectives; quality can be understood using an ecological framework that is limited to child, familial and childcare variables; and quality ECEC is more pertinent to preschoolers than babies and infants. The article problematises these prevailing truths, arguing that the dominance of positivist discourse in ECEC research has limited how quality ECEC can be thought and talked about. An addressing of the blind spots this article identifies has the potential to lead to more developed and nuanced understandings of quality ECEC.

Latino/a Immigrant Children’s Drawings and Writings

LOURDES DIAZ SOTO Department of Curriculum, Culture, and Educational Inquiry, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida, USA
IRENE GARZA Department of Curriculum and Instruction, University of Texas at Austin, USA

doi:10.2304/ciec.2011.12.2.118

This article shares children’s drawings and writings reflecting immigration border-crossing experiences in south Texas, USA. The authors present the children’s drawings as well as their narratives, relying on the work of Robert Coles and the authors’ own intuitive Latina/Xicana lenses. The authors’ intent is to pursue the possibility of future inquiry with ameliorative intentions for increasing numbers of young immigrant children.

The Australian Early Development Index: reshaping family–child relationships in early childhood education

CHRIS PEERS Faculty of Education, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

doi:10.2304/ciec.2011.12.2.134

This article addresses the cultural significance of the Australian Early Development Index (AEDI) and discusses changes that the discourse of this instrument makes to the way in which the child is conceptualised. It analyses the technological function of the AEDI to examine how it makes the child a universal resource for human capital. The article examines messages in promotional and research literature surrounding the AEDI that represent it as a reliable statistical instrument which will promote social justice and equity for young children and their families. The scholarly discourse has so far failed to address the broader context of neo-liberal economic and social reform from which the AEDI – and its Canadian predecessor, the Early Development Instrument (EDI) – initially emerged. The article therefore interrogates the EDI and the AEDI as mechanisms for refining and expanding markets in the management and regulation of children from disadvantaged backgrounds and their accompanying vulnerability. These market expansions draw upon econometric theoretical sources, leading to conceptual changes relating to understandings of children and new concepts and practices for the early childhood education sector. Discourses surrounding the use of the AEDI are informed, in part, by perceptions about the breakdown of the family and the impact this will have for long-term sources of social and economic cohesion. The article examines the symbolism entailed by the ways in which the literature surrounding the AEDI and EDI addresses moral and civil sources of authority in modern Western civilisation.

Disposable Cameras, Humour and Children’s Abilities

ELENI LOIZOU Department of Education, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus

doi:10.2304/ciec.2011.12.2.148

This was a two-phase qualitative study that investigated the humorous aspects of humorous photographs young children took in their school and home environment, which were examined in the context of the theory of the absurd and the empowerment theory. The participants in the study were six children – three boys and three girls – between the ages of four years, eight months and five years, eight months. During phase one, the children were given a disposable camera and were asked to take photographs of whatever they considered humorous and made them laugh in their school and home environment. Semi-structured interviews and the photographs were the main data sources. During the interviews, the children described the photographs and reasoned about their funniness. After six months, during phase two, the children revisited their humorous photographs and talked about them. This study asserts that kindergartners’ humour definitions as presented in their photographs can be regarded within the framework of the two theories. More specifically, the children refer to incongruity, something out of the ordinary (a cognitive process), and act as social agents utilising relationships within their social milieu to produce and appreciate humour (communities of practice). The use of a camera is considered as a creative and empowering tool which involves children in research.

Researching Children’s Understanding of Safety: an auto-driven visual approach

JOSEPH S. AGBENYEGA Department of Early Childhood, Faculty of Education, Monash University, Frankston, Australia

doi:10.2304/ciec.2011.12.2.163

Safe learning spaces allow children to explore their environment in an open and inquiring way, whereas unsafe spaces constrain, frustrate and disengage children from experiencing the fullness of their learning spaces. This study explores how children make sense of safe and unsafe learning spaces, and how this understanding affects the ways they engage with their learning spaces. Using a qualitative research method that employed auto-driven visual and observation approaches, this research conducted at one centre in the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria, Australia, examined children’s movement and interaction within their learning spaces. The results suggest that the children felt safe in spaces that offered them the best opportunities for play. These are the spaces where they behaved well, laughed freely, reacted positively, and played without too much restriction and intimidation, keeping in mind the restrictions imposed on them by their teachers at other spaces. The implications for constructing and managing safe learning spaces for children are discussed.

A Document Analysis of the National Association for the Education of Young Children’s Developmentally Appropriate Practice Position Statement: what does it tell us about supporting children with disabilities?

KATY GREGG Department of Child and Family Development, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, USA

doi:10.2304/ciec.2011.12.2.175

With the increasing frequency of young children with disabilities being included in early childhood classrooms, there is a critical need for early childhood educators and professionals to take an analytical look at the standards guiding early childhood education. By completing a qualitative document analysis of the developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) position statement of the National Association for the Education of Young Children, the author explored what the statement articulates regarding children with disabilities included in early childhood classrooms. This discussion explicates what teachers may take away from DAP regarding disabilities and the gaps it leaves for individual interpretation in classrooms. Findings indicate that while DAP and inclusive practices have much in common, the position statement lacks the specificity necessary to assist general early childhood teachers in implementing individualized approaches.

Social Media in Health Research: an example from childcare provider message boards

MEGHAN LYNCH Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

doi:10.2304/ciec.2011.12.2.187

Social media sites, such as message boards and blogs, provide innovative data sources for researchers as these sites feature people sharing advice and discussing issues in a public arena. Research has found the online context can encourage people to reveal more information than do such traditional methods as interviews or focus groups. However, despite the important role the Internet plays as a medium for obtaining and discussing health information, little research has examined how people discuss children’s health on social media sites. The present exploratory study begins to fill the gap in this research by comparing how childcare providers discuss their nutritional attitudes and behaviours on two online childcare provider message boards to how providers discuss these topics in interviews. Following further refinement, future research and practice in children’s behaviour development should benefit from this new approach to collecting data.

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