Contemporary Issues in
Early Childhood

ISSN 1463-9491

Volume 2 Number 3 2001

CONTENTS

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

Editorial, pages 263‑264
Susan Matoba Adler. Racial and Ethnic Identity Formation of Midwestern Asian-American Children, pages 265‑294
Leonie Arthur. Popular Culture and Early Literacy Learning, pages 295‑308
Leigh M. O’Brien. Juggling Scarves or Inclusion for What? Young Children with Special Needs in an Era of School ‘Reform’, pages 309‑320
Elizabeth Kable. Making Sense of a New Curriculum Text within Competing Discourses and Complex Contexts, pages 321‑336
James M. Ernest. An Alternate Approach to Studying Beliefs about Developmentally Appropriate Practices, pages 337‑353
Patrick Hughes. From Nostalgia to Metatheory: researching children’s relationships with the media, pages 354‑367
COLLOQUIA
Janet Gonzalez-Mena. Cross-cultural Infant Care and Issues of Equity and Social Justice, pages 368‑371
Rebecca Cronin. Addressing Educational Inequity for Urban Indigenous Students, pages 372‑381
BOOK REVIEWS VIEW FULL TEXT
Talk Matters: refocusing the language of public schooling (Beatrice S. Fennimore), reviewed by Patricia A. Jessup, page 382
Early Childhood Educational Research: issues in methodology and ethics (Carol Aubrey, Tricia David, Ray Godfrey & Linda Thompson), reviewed by Michele Knobel, page 386
Young Children’s Personal, Social and Emotional Development (Marion Dowling), reviewed by Sheralyn Campbell, page 391

Editorial

Recent world events have meant that many more people around the world now live with uncertainty as a daily phenomenon. Rapid changes affect the lives of children in ways that are often beyond contemplation. Many adults have faced the difficulty of trying to explain complex world events to children when they struggle to understand and make sense of situations themselves. Recognition of and respect for diversity in all its forms (cultural, ethnic, family, religious, political, to name a few examples) has become increasingly pertinent as we strive to deal with a combination of new situations and older issues.

Volume 2 No. 3 of Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood contains articles that raise new topics for consideration as well as discussing some well-known topics from different perspectives. Susan Matoba Adler relates details of a research project undertaken with Asian-American families, specifically Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Filipino, and Hmong families living in the Midwest of the USA. Adler examines how racial and ethnic identities develop in children in pre-school and elementary contexts and the expectations that their parents have of their children’s teachers.

Leonie Arthur takes on the issue of popular culture in children’s lives and reports data from an investigation of children’s literacy experiences in the home and community and in educational settings. Arthur found that the former are increasingly digital and connected to popular culture while the latter are mostly book based and exclude popular media culture.

School reform and children with special needs is the focus of the article by Leigh O’Brien. After considering an experience her daughter encountered, O’Brien shows how economic rationalism is continuing to erode aspects of human education in our education systems. This is a global issue for Western education systems at all levels, from the youngest to the oldest children.

The ways in which teachers responded to a new curriculum document for children aged 4 and 5 years is the focus in the article by Elizabeth Kable. This article documents the complexity associated with teachers using a new curriculum document and the factors that impinge on teachers in their different settings, including competing agendas and power relations operating in different sites.

The next article takes a novel approach to developmentally appropriate practice, using it to explore some of the limitations of traditional research methods. James Ernest describes an alternate method of research that has been found to be useful in explicating subjective phenomena. Known as Q-methodology, Ernest makes a case for using Q-methodology as it is able to take account of cultural and contextual factors when multiple stories or narratives are the way in which an issue is discussed.

In another article that addresses the significance of the media in children’s lives, Patrick Hughes discusses children’s relationships with the media, assessing the potential for political action that is offered by paradigms and research approaches that dominate research in this area. Hughes examines structural, humanist and interactionist paradigms as well as essentialist and non-essentialist research approaches to argue for an approach that asks new questions and creates new guidelines for discussing children’s relationships with the media.

The colloquia continue the focus on issues of diversity and social justice that is the underlying theme of several of the articles. Janet Gonzalez-Mena considers social justice in cross-cultural infant care and provides practical examples and advice about how to deal with everyday situations for infants. In the second colloquium, Rebecca Cronin examines issues of equity in urban education for indigenous Australian children. She argues for changes in educational systems that address change in society and for teachers to become aware of the issues that affect indigenous children in urban communities.

Three book reviews complete this edition of the journal. The first is by Pat Jessop, who considered Talk Matters: refocusing the language of public schooling (2000), by Beatrice S. Fennimore. This is followed by Michele Knobel, who reviews Early Childhood Educational Research: issues in methodology and ethics (2000), by Carol Aubrey, Tricia David, Ray Godfrey & Linda Thompson. The final book review is by Sheralyn Campbell, who looked at Young Children’s Personal, Social and Emotional Development, written by Marion Dowling.

We thank those who have supported the journal to date by submitting and reviewing articles, writing colloquia and completing book reviews and encourage those who are researching and writing in areas that use alternative perspectives to submit articles and colloquia to the journal.

Sue Grieshaber & Nicola Yelland

Racial and Ethnic Identity Formation of Midwestern Asian-American Children

SUSAN MATOBA ADLER University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA

This 2-year qualitative study attempts to raise teacher awareness of the racial and ethnic identity formation of Asian-American children in the cultural contexts of their families and communities. It gives ‘voice’ to Asian-American parents, who share their perspectives on race and ethnicity, their experiences developing racial and ethnic identities of their own, and their descriptions of how they socialized their children to understand and deal with stereotyping, prejudice and racism. It examines how racial and ethnic identities develop in pre-school and elementary aged children and what expectations Asian-American parents have of teachers and schools regarding this development.

Popular Culture and Early Literacy Learning

LEONIE ARTHUR University of Western Sydney, Australia

Children experience a wide range of literacy practices in their homes and communities, yet these are not generally reflected in early childhood settings. This article reports on research findings which indicate that while children’s home and community literacy experiences and texts are increasingly digital and connected to popular media culture, experiences and texts in educational settings are predominantly book-based and generally exclude popular media culture. This practice marginalises children whose literacy practices at home are predominantly with television, videos, computers, comics and magazines rather than with ‘quality’ children’s books. Concerns regarding the role of popular media culture in children’s lives are critically examined and responses explored. Examples from research that illustrates ways of including popular culture in early childhood settings to enhance literacy learning opportunities for children from diverse backgrounds are also included.

Juggling Scarves or Inclusion for What? Young Children with Special Needs in an Era of School ‘Reform’

LEIGH M. O'BRIEN Nazareth College of Rochester, USA

The article raises questions about the discourse of difference, the meaning of inclusion, the impacts of school ‘reform’ on young children with special needs, and the purposes of schools in the USA. The author uses her own story as a mother of a first-grade daughter with special needs chastised for not wanting to juggle scarves to ask, Inclusion for what? To what end? The author highlights the connections between the economic and educational systems in the USA and asks educators to rethink what schools are for. Finally, she calls for all educators concerned with social justice to take on the transformation of society and schools to move them in a more humane direction.

Making Sense of a New Curriculum Text within Competing Discourses and Complex Contexts

ELIZABETH KABLE Education Queensland, Brisbane, Australia

The article discusses a study investigating how a group of teachers in Queensland, Australia made sense of the first systemically developed preschool curriculum guidelines. The study was informed by aspects of critical and post-structuralist theory and data examined included transcripts of conversations with teachers and official documents. The study showed that teachers constructed contradictory interpretations of the new curriculum text. They perceived the guidelines as both endorsing existing beliefs and practices and creating new expectations for practice. Teachers’ interpretations reflected the competing discourses, agendas and power relations that shaped their views about curriculum and the production of the curriculum guidelines. The study highlighted that the preschool curriculum is negotiated within complex and unstable discourses and power relations. Understanding the complexities that shape curriculum can help educators to monitor reflexively the positive and negative impact of curriculum reform on teachers’ practice.

An Alternate Approach to Studying Beliefs about Developmentally Appropriate Practices

JAMES M. ERNEST State University of New York, Buffalo, USA

Due to the predominance of positivism in the twentieth century, many researchers have been trained to use traditional research methods. The use of these methods determines how research questions are framed, data are collected, results are analyzed, and hence, what conclusions are drawn. This article uses the concept of developmentally appropriate practices to explore some of the limitations of traditional research methods and to describe an alternate method of research that has been found to be useful in explicating subjective phenomena. This method, known as Q-methodology, has been used in such diverse fields as political science, communication science, medicine, psychiatry, psychology, sociology, and linguistics, but has received little attention in education. The method has developed over a period of 65 years and takes into account cultural and contextual factors when providing multiple stories or narratives about an issue.

From Nostalgia to Metatheory: researching children’s relationships with the media

PATRICK HUGHES Deakin University, Geelong, Australia

Consensus about the influence and significance of the media in children’s lives is precluded by the fact that research into children’s relationships with the media is conducted within various models of childhood, paradigms and research approaches, each generating specific – sometimes mutually-exclusive – research questions and answers. This article assesses the potential for political action concerning children and the media that is offered by the paradigms (structural, humanist and interactionist) and research approaches (essentialist and non-essentialist) that dominate much contemporary research on children and media, illustrating each one’s use in recently published research. The article poses a new ‘localised’ research perspective on the topic, in which researchers and research subjects co-author ‘little narratives’ about media products. These ‘little narratives’ embody different – often competing – local desires and understandings, generate new questions and create new rules for discussing children’s relationships with the media.

Cross-cultural Infant Care and Issues of Equity and Social Justice

JANET GONZALEZ-MENA Gonzalez-Mena Associates, Suisun, USA

Intact identities of children, not of the dominant culture, is both a goal and an issue of equity and social justice. Identity development of some children can be compromised in cross cultural care if they are immersed in the dominant culture. Culturally sensitive care is a preventative strategy for early childhood professionals to use in order to keep these children rooted in their culture and attached to their families.

Addressing Educational Inequity for Urban Indigenous Students

REBECCA CRONIN RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia

This colloquium outlines some of the background issues that affect the schooling experience for Indigenous students in Australia. It discusses the importance of each of the issues to raise the level of awareness about them. In this way, it is hoped that teachers will be sensitised to their importance and incorporate a consideration of them in their programmes for young children.

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