Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood |
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CONTENTS [click on author's name for abstract and full text] |
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Editorial,
pages 232‑234
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In this final issue of Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood for 2003, we are pleased to publish articles from authors in Cyprus, New Zealand, Canada and Australia. In the first article, Alison Jones takes up the issues of safety and pleasure in early childhood education, arguing that anything connected with pleasure in the field is necessarily questionable and fragile. Drawing on data from focus groups in New Zealand, Jones examines why this is the case and attempts to identify what is ‘allowable’, and why, in terms of pleasure in contemporary times. Identifying three curriculum paths that are available from sociocultural theory (transformative, assimilated-positivist and social-constructivist), Suzy Edwards makes a case for the increased role of sociocultural theory in early childhood education and curriculum by explicating each path and analysing its contributions to the field to date. Edwards also offers the three paths for further discussion and investigation given that curriculum creation and enactment is a human endeavour that reflects the cultural values, beliefs, assumptions, theories and languages of those who develop it. A similar theme is evident in the third article, ‘The American Crèche: ‘Let’s do what the French do, but do it our way’. Larry Prochner appraises the history of early childhood programs in the USA, noting evidence of French influence and descriptions of programs in the USA as disjointed. Prochner concludes that despite the influence of the French model, group care for infants in the USA developed according to social views that the family unit was responsible for infants and their care. Next, Jo Ailwood considers play, the quintessential element of early childhood programs. Ailwood uses Foucault’s notions of governmentality to investigate how play has been produced as an essential component of any early childhood program and what this means for how both adults and children are required to conduct themselves. Using data from Cyprus, Andri Savva explored young children’s responses to three reproductions of adult works of art, replicating findings from similar studies with older children. Aged 4‑5 years and from public nursery schools in Cyprus, Savva used the data to make recommendations for art education in Cyprus. In the final article, research examining the bilingual identity of young Latino/a children in six families from Sydney, Australia is reported by Criss Jones-Díaz. The way in which identities intersect with and are negotiated in conjunction with ‘race’, ethnicity and gender differences is examined, and techniques by which early childhood practitioners can support maintenance of the home language are identified. Colloquia in this issue come from contributors in England and Turkey. Philip Gammage contemplates context and policy in early childhood education, bringing to bear social statistics and longitudinal research data that note not only the complexity of the world in which we currently reside, but also the attendant responsibilities this places on those involved in early childhood education to look beyond simple remedies such as might be apparent in accountability discourses or that coincide with commercial interests. In the second colloquium, Ismihan Artan & Gulden Balat report data from a research project that investigated the recognition of musical instruments by young children in Ankara, Turkey. As the authors point out, the children’s responses were related to their gender and the significance of musical stories for young children is recognised. Book reviews consider a range of topics, including drama and imaginative play, the first year of life, and an edited collection with contributions from around the globe. Di Catherwood takes a look at the first year of life as described by Robinson (2003) in From Birth to One: the year of opportunity. Debra Ackerman contemplates the compilation, Kidworld: childhood studies, global perspectives, and education (edited by Gaile Cannella & Joe Kincheloe), which encompasses topics as broad as children and poverty, Beanie Babies, and childhood in a corporate world. In the final review, the fact that play can still be a controversial issue in early childhood education is considered by Jillian Rodd in her review of Supporting Drama and Imaginative Play in the Early Years (Hendy & Toon, 2001). Sincere thanks go to those who have reviewed for the journal during 2003 – we appreciate your support and the valuable feedback you have provided. Reviewers for 2003 We also acknowledge gratefully the support of Professor Collette Tayler from the School of Early Childhood, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia, in this year’s publication of Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood. Sue Grieshaber & Katrina Weier |
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The Monster in the Room: safety, pleasure and early childhood education |
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Inspired by the work of Joseph Tobin and his book, Making a Place for Pleasure in Early Childhood Education (Yale, 1997), this article is about the necessarily uneasy and tenuous place of pleasure, desire and sensuality in early childhood education at a time when the field struggles to be identified as rule-governed and properly ‘professional’. With reference to focus group data from early childhood teachers and managers in Auckland, New Zealand, it considers what might be the comforts, and the problematic effects, of the contemporary demands for safety, and asks what kinds of pleasures are available to the modern ‘safe’ professional early childhood teacher. |
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New Directions: charting the paths for the role of sociocultural theory in early childhood education and curriculum |
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This article identifies the growing role of sociocultural theory as an informant to the early childhood curriculum. Beginning with a brief description of the more traditional Piagetian interpretation regarding development and its use in early childhood education and curricula such as DAP (Developmentally Appropriate Practice), the article identifies key theoretical arguments made against this view on the basis of ontological, methodological and/or epistemological precepts. The growing literature regarding the use of curriculum approaches to early childhood education based on the sociocultural explanations for development proposed by Vygotsky and Rogoff are identified. The article argues that the manner in which sociocultural theory is being utilised in early childhood education may be considered in terms of three main ‘pathways’, including the transformative, assimilated positivist and social-constructivist paths. |
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The American Creche: ‘Let’s do what the French do, but do it our way’ |
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Early childhood programs in the USA have been characterized as fragmented. In recent times more integrated European models have been studied as lessons for the USA. The French system in particular has been held up as a model of high-quality service for families with particular relevance for US policy-makers. This article reviews the history of early childhood programs in the USA that included attempts to introduce the French model of daily group infant care as early as the 1850s. While the French approach inspired American programs at the time, group infant care developed in line with the dominant approach to charity and social welfare that viewed the family as having the first responsibility for child rearing barring exceptional circumstances. |
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Governing Early Childhood Education through Play |
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Play serves as a significant nodal point in the discursive relations of early childhood education. The aim of this article is to ask how play has come to appear so necessary to early childhood educational settings and how this perceived necessity governs the behaviour of both adults and young children. To do this the author make use of concepts provided through Foucault’s notion of governmentality, or the conduct of conduct. The article begins with a thematic overview of some of the dominant discourses of play. It then considers some critiques of play discourses in early childhood education. Following this, it considers how play has been produced as a technology of governmentality in early childhood educational settings. |
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Young Pupils’ Responses to Adult Works of Art |
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Art educators have asserted that, in order to develop curricula that use adult works of art, it is necessary to understand how children perceive and respond to art objects. Although ‘art’ is not included in the early years national curriculum of Cyprus, curriculum resource books encourage the introduction of adult artworks in nursery schools. This exploratory study was designed to gather information regarding young children’s (aged 4‑5 years) responses to adult paintings. An open-ended interview procedure was used. Three reproductions of paintings of different artistic styles were selected: a realistic, a semi-realistic and an abstract. The sample included 25 children selected randomly from 12 public nursery schools of Cyprus. The findings suggest that artworks are an important part of children’s educational experiences, if approaches and methods that are compatible with their perceptual abilities are used. The study identified some relevant factors underlying young children’s responses to artworks and provides recommendations to enhance children’s learning in art. |
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Latino/a Voices in Australia: negotiating bilingual identity |
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In Australia, bilingual identity and home language retention/ attrition in bilingual children has had little research attention. This is particularly true in the early years of life where identity construction emerges in the context of early childhood education. This article begins with an overview of the Australian context to focus attention on the limited provision of bilingual support in early childhood settings. By drawing on the work in identity and hybridity negotiation, the ‘voices’ of six Latin American parents are discussed to show how identities are negotiated and intersect with language retention within the social fields of ‘race’, ethnicity and gender differences. Three emerging themes are highlighted: the diversity of the parents’ experiences in negotiating identity and language retention in family life; the parents’ experiences of identity as multiple; and identity as a site of transformation and struggle in child rearing and gendered family practices. These findings demonstrate the significance of parents’ perspectives and experiences of identity and language retention in raising their children bilingually, which can inform equitable and innovative practices in the provision of bilingual support in early childhood settings. In conclusion, the author invites early childhood educators to reframe their understandings of identity construction in young bilingual children. |
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The Sacred and the Profane in Early Childhood: an Englishman’s guide to context and policy |
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The change in family structures throughout the post-natural world (‘post-natural’ is used in the way that Anthony Giddens [BBC Reith Lectures, 1999] uses the term, i.e. when even child-rearing is largely no longer ‘natural’ and when institutions, technology and commerce have increasing sway over all dimensions of life) is briefly discussed together with some pressures that now inhibit, inform or constrain modern child rearing. The decline in the birth rate throughout Europe, Scandinavia, North America, and Australasia and the accelerating divorce rate are also seen as part of this changing context. Within these broad social changes comes the recent research on brain development during the early years of childhood. The extreme plasticity of the brain is discussed, as is the paradoxical and now somewhat archaic tendency for formal systems of education to invest in childhood after much of the formative learning is over. The article proposes that for ‘fitness of purpose’ we need educators and carers of vision and compassion, yet articulate and well read. It sees early childhood care and education as indivisible. The article notes that both policies and commercial interests may sometimes cause tension between indoctrination and education and between ‘accountability’ and professionalism. It sees professionalism as inherently ‘problematic’ and rightly about judgement, not about certainty. It insists that teachers and carers should be well educated, not merely trained, and suggests that without the intervention of effective, knowledgeable early years professionals, societies may increasingly lack a collective identity, unity and, perhaps, actual humanity. It builds upon this to suggest that integration of the prime services is best clustered around that of effective childcare and early education and that a professional yet ‘seamless approach’ to families, especially those in poverty, will handsomely repay child achievement and societal and family cohesion in the long term. |
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Recognition of Musical Instruments by Children between 4 and 6 Years of Age and Research Concerning the Natural Sounds They Associate with Those Instruments |
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Musical instruments help children to gain a lot of experience related to sounds and they play an important role in supporting skill development in children. In addition, with instruments children can create and explore their own music, rather than participate with and react to others. In this school-based research study 147 children were chosen randomly from among those who attended private kindergartens in high socio-economic areas in the city center of Ankara, Turkey. All children were aged between 4 and 6 years. The research methodology comprised a questionnaire to gather demographic information about the children, the use of musical instruments and a set of cards containing pictures of musical instruments. When the children were asked the question, ‘What is music’, they answered mainly by saying, ‘playing a musical instrument’. Many of the children were able to identify musical instruments correctly when shown pictures of them. |
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