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Contemporary Issues in |
ISSN 1463-9491 |
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Volume 4 Number 2 2003 |
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Other issues available | Journal home page | Publisher home page |
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CONTENTS |
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[click on author's name for abstract and
full text] |
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Editorial,
pages 111‑112
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This issue of the journal offers articles from authors in Belgium, Israel, the USA and Australia, and colloquia from England and the USA. These articles cover a variety of topical issues, including access to long day care provision, the use of technologies with young children and the intersection between the compulsory and non-compulsory years of education. The final section of the editorial is dedicated to the memory of Professor Carolyn Baker, a member of the editorial board of Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood. The memoriam has been contributed by Susan Danby, a colleague and former student. The first article reports research about four early childhood teachers qualified to teach children from birth to the age of eight, who began their teaching careers in the early primary years (elementary school). Clare Britt & Jennifer Sumsion focus on points of overlap as opposed to difference between early primary settings and those catering for children in the pre-compulsory years. They show the possibility of a shared borderland between early childhood and primary education by identifying connections between these two sectors. The following article by Michel Vandenbroeck examines the history of exclusion in Belgian infant care, depicting how 100 years ago day care centres provided care for the infants of women who worked in factories. Today in Belgium, women who work in factories are excluded from having infants cared for in day nurseries. The article examines how this has occurred and the place of childcare in western European welfare society. Many early childhood educators strive to enact a socially just curriculum and, as part of that, counter prejudicial attitudes. Jen Skattebol shares some dialogue from staff members and children in an inner-city long day centre, where staff were attempting to build meaningful relationships with the local indigenous community. Drawing on post-colonial and post-structural theory to explain how the children used various constructions of identity, Skattebol shows how the efforts of staff were thwarted when operating from developmental and advocacy discourses. Ecopsychology is the topic of the fourth article in this issue. Lillian Phenice & Robert Griffore explore the idea that children are born with a sense of relatedness to the natural world and through processes of socialisation, assume a separateness or dislocation from that environment. The authors draw on data from a research project to show that education can build on this sense of relatedness to the natural world. An article by Ofra Nir-Gal & Talia Nur from Israel relates data from a small study of 20 young children that investigated Internet activity and potential uses of the Internet for children in compulsory and pre-compulsory kindergarten. The findings reveal what is significant for successful Internet use, as well as what is important in an Internet environment that makes learning meaningful. In the final article of this issue, Elizabeth Stamopoulos describes the challenges for teachers, teachers’ aides and principals in an amalgamation of P1 classes in Western Australia. This grouping of pre-primary and year 1 students together in one class requires a merger of philosophies and curricula that have in the past been researched, written and enacted from teaching perspectives as quite separate entities. In the colloquium, Jillian Rodd questions whether changes to the English education system that involve the three ‘Ts’ (tests, targets and tables) have had the desired effect of turning children onto learning. Testing has never been popular in England and when accompanied by targets and tables, and seemingly at the expense of the arts curricula, has been the topic of much debate. Books reviewed in this issue include two edited collections: ICT in the Primary School (edited by Loveless & Dore, 2002), which is reviewed by Jenny Masters, and Putting Children First: the changing face of Newark’s public schools (edited by Silin & Lippman), to which Carrie Lobman responds. We hope you enjoy this issue of the journal and the issues it raises. Susan Grieshaber & Katrina Weier |
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Within the Borderlands: beginning early childhood teachers in primary schools |
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This article presents findings from a study undertaken by a pre-service early childhood teacher, that investigated the experiences of four beginning early childhood qualified teachers in primary school settings. The study explored the metaphors that these teachers used when describing their lived experience stories and analysed what these metaphors indicated about the discourses the teachers perceived were available to them, and where they had chosen to situate themselves within these discourses. Throughout the article, the metaphor of ‘border crossings’ is used to highlight the focus within much of the literature on the difference and separation between early childhood and primary education. Data were generated through in-depth, open-ended interviews, a group discussion, visual representations and written material. The thematic recurrences and discursive positionings within the metaphors and narratives of the participants were deconstructed and critically analysed using a framework of feminist post-structuralism. In particular, this article explores the discursive positionings related to the teachers’ movement within the borderland of early childhood education and primary education. It argues that early childhood teachers in primary schools are operating within an exciting space – an intersection between early childhood education and primary education. Rather than focusing on the difference and separation between these points, the focus shifts to working toward creating points of overlap, of connection – a shared borderland between early childhood education and primary education. |
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From Crèches to Childcare: constructions of motherhood and inclusion/exclusion in the history of Belgian infant care |
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In this article the author highlights some elements of the history of exclusion in Belgian infant care and how it is underpinned by constructions of motherhood. In a Belgian context, infant care means institutional care for children from birth to the age of three, funded by the Family and Health Department, in contrast to and entirely separated from pre-school for children aged three to six years, funded by the Education Department (Organisation for Economic Cooperatin and Development [OECD], 2001). The author does this from a hermeneutical historical point of view. As Escolano (1996) has claimed, this means that by means of the evaluation of the internal coherence of the stories (the organisation of data and discourse) and their external coherence with the social context and with other concordant or discordant stories, the author tries try to understand ideas and representations that may help explain the growing exclusion in Belgian infant care. |
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Dark, Dark and Darker: negotiations of identity in an early childhood setting |
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The importance of curriculum frameworks that emphasise social justice and counter the development of prejudice have been widely discussed in early childhood literature and inform the pedagogies in many early childhood settings. This article draws on some practitioner inquiry set in an inner-city long day care centre. As a group of educators, the practitioners (including the author) drew on ‘popular’ interpretations of developmental and anti-bias discourses to interact with young children around issues of identity. The author examines the way ‘identity’ is constructed as a (fixed) site of affirmation in these interpretations of curriculum. By drawing on post-colonial and post-structural theory, the author adopts a focus on the ways material differences between people were constructed and affirmed. This ‘post-colonial’ reading of the data reveals the constraining effects of curriculum frameworks for both staff and children at the centre. The author shows how the children strategically deployed a variety of identity constructs to slip through the gaps created by tensions between and within the developmental discourses and the advocacy discourses in operation. Finally, the implications of viewing ‘identity’ as a pedagogical site for negotiation rather than as a site of affirmation are discussed. |
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Young Children and the Natural World |
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A concept associated with ecopsychology is that children are born with a sense of relatedness to their environments, and through the processes of socialization they acquire a sense of separateness from environments, including the natural environment. Young children were asked about their views concerning several aspects of the natural environment. The data suggest that young children are constructing understandings concerning the relationship of humans to the natural world. This implies that their educational experiences can shape and augment their conception of relatedness to the natural world. |
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Learning in an Internet Environment during Early Childhood |
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The present study focuses on the Internet activity of young children in order to examine how these children utilized the Internet and their potential in the uses of the Internet. The study sample consisted of 20 children, from both compulsory and pre-compulsory kindergarten. Two Internet learning environments were examined: (1) the ‘universal’ environment of the Web, where a search engine was used for navigation; and (2) the ‘modified’ Web environment, which was created in accordance with the abilities and level of young children. It was shown that young children who operated in a ‘modified’ Internet environment manifested better control of the uses of Internet interfaces and were better oriented in the Internet environment when compared with their activity in the ‘universal’ Internet environment. Another finding was that not all of the Internet uses constitute a meaningful learning environment for young children. In order for the environment to be advantageous for children, Internet uses must be structured in accordance with the children’s levels of development and needs, with the emphasis on the use of the Internet as a source of information in parallel with concrete activity and teacher/adult mediation in the children’s Internet activity. |
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Elucidating the Dilemma of P1 in Western Australian Schools: towards a solution |
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Currently in Western Australian schools, the early childhood education profession faces profound change, as a result of changes to classroom combinations. One of these is an innovation called ‘P1’, which involves grouping pre-primary and year 1 students in the one class. Unlike other composite primary year classes, P1 demands an amalgamation of early childhood and primary curriculum and philosophy. To date, the basis on which P1 curriculum is to be built has yet to be established. No formal process been articulated for dealing with the ideological differences and beliefs that exist in schools with respect to early childhood and primary education. This article draws on a five-year Western Australia (WA) study, which examined teachers’ conceptual and behavioural positions toward P1. The findings indicated a need for leadership, specialised staff, resolution of philosophical differences, curriculum guidelines, quality support structures and the enhancement of school and community relationships. There were also concerns that government and curriculum expertise had not kept pace with the needs of staff. |
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