Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood
ISSN 1463-9491

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

Editorial, pages 188‑190
Iris Duhn. The Making of Global Citizens: traces of cosmopolitanism in the New Zealand early childhood curriculum, Te Whāriki, pages 191‑202
Lynn Ang Ling-Yin. Steering Debate and Initiating Dialogue: a review of the Singapore preschool curriculum, pages 203‑212
Sukhdeep Gill, Dixie Winters & Diane S. Friedman. Educators’ Views of Pre-K and Kindergarten Readiness and Transition Practices, pages 213-227
Doris Cheng Pui Wah. The Translation of the Western Teaching Approaches in the Hong Kong Early Childhood Curriculum: a promise for effective teaching?, pages 228-237
Suzy Edwards. ‘Stop Thinking of Culture as Geography’: early childhood educators’ conceptions of sociocultural theory as an informant to curriculum, pages 238-252
Gay Wilgus. Beyond ‘Because I Said So!’ Three Early Childhood Teachers Challenge the Research on the Disciplinary Beliefs and Strategies of Individuals from Working-Class Minority Backgrounds, pages 253-269
Susan Young. Seen but Not Heard: young children, improvised singing and educational practice, pages 270-280
Jeanne Marie Iorio. Rethinking Conversations, pages 281-289

COLLOQUIUM
Liz McCaw. Teachers’ Memories and their Relevance Today, pages 290-291
Luis-Vincente Reyes. Creating an Inclusive Early Childhood Professional Development System in New Mexico, USA, pages 292-301

BOOK REVIEWS VIEW FULL TEXT
Observing Harry: childhood development and learning 0‑5 (Cath Arnold) reviewed by Megan Gibson, pages 302-303
Beyond Listening: children’s perspectives on early childhood services (Clark, Kjorholt & Moss) reviewed by Julie Zagdanski, pages 303-304
Popular Culture, New Media and Digital Literacy in Early Childhood (Jackie Marsh) reviewed by Rachel Holmes, pages 305-306
doi:10.2304/ciec.2006.7.3.302

Editorial

doi: 10.2304/ciec.2006.7.3.188

VIEW FULL TEXT | BACK TO CONTENTS LIST

The theme of this issue is power and resistance, whether that is in terms of dominant discourses exemplified by policy agendas, individuals transforming and negotiating their practice within cultural constraints, the ability to reflect on how power is exerted in adult–children relationships, or how theories become a means for reflection that can both constrain and open up new opportunities for children. The articles are ordered on the following basis: their emphasis on policies and how they provide constraints and opportunities; how teachers can reflect on and learn from theories to transform their own pedagogies; and ways in which to reflect on and rethink the dynamics between adults and children, and to expand our understanding of children.

The first article shows how even though policy documents may be on appearance progressive, they can reinforce dominant discourses and power relations. In ‘The Making of Global Citizens: traces of cosmopolitanism in the New Zealand early childhood curriculum Te Whariki’, Iris Duhn applies a critical lens to the New Zealand early childhood curriculum outlines in Te Whariki. She contends that the document is consistent with the neo-liberal ideology which has dominated New Zealand since the mid 1980s, despite being widely regarded as progressive. Te Whariki’s ‘good child’ is adaptable, flexible, autonomous, a problem solver and a lifelong learner who can thrive in a globalised, competitive world. The cosmopolitan emphasis of the curriculum, which also reinforces family and community, creates the type of person required to cope with constant uncertainty and change in an era of globalisation.

Furthermore, even progressive policy initiatives have the potential to be undermined by broader social forces. In ‘Steering Debate and Initiating Dialogue: a review of the Singapore preschool curriculum’, Lynn Ang Ling-Yin explores the social and political constraints that may neuter the child-centred focus of the new kindergarten framework in Singapore, which in itself signifies recognition of the importance of early childhood education. The policy builds upon a framework previously used which focused primarily on moral and social development, which is compatible with Confucianism. Again, the new kindergarten framework advocates play and a child-centred curriculum, steering away from teaching a set knowledge-based curriculum. However, there are tensions with the later demands of schooling and parental expectations that kindergartens should instruct children in bilingualism, literacy, linguistic and general academic skills that are examinable in primary schools. This has the potential to undermine the wishes of policy makers to implement an innovative approach to curriculum in preschool contexts.

This potential for conflict is also evident in the US context, where an emphasis on accountability in terms of academic criteria by the federal government could undermine a broader understanding of readiness for school, and the approaches that best facilitate this transition from pre-K and kindergarten settings. In ‘Educators’ Views of Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten Readiness and Transition Practices’, Sukhdeep Gill, Dixie Winters & Diane Friedman provide a detailed examination of issues associated with this transition, such as how to facilitate communication between educational settings and how to better educate parents to help their children cope with school. An academic focus is too narrow and caters to middle-class, white families’ perceptions of what is important. It misses the important aspects of social and emotional development. This article provides concrete suggestions to move beyond mere information in the form of leaflets and letters, to open days, phasing in the move to school and opening up communication channels between teachers at the different levels of education. Parental expectations and involvement are identified as important for children to make the transition more or less smoothly.

Attempts to transform teaching in the early years in Hong Kong are also vulnerable due to parental views about what is required to equip their child for schooling, and curriculum constraints imposed by testing in primary schools. In her article ‘The Translation of Western Teaching Approaches in the Hong Kong Early Childhood Curriculum: a promise for effective teaching?’ Doris Cheng Pui Wah highlights a policy initiative in Hong Kong which draws on the Project Approach, Reggio Emilia and High/Scope to encourage early years teachers to move to more interactive rather than didactic pedagogical models. There were seven participants in the project, who were involved in being introduced to the approaches, transforming teaching accordingly and reflecting on their practice with researchers. The study identified contested constraints such as parental expectations and a strong emphasis on drills and examinations. Teachers also seemed to introduce the pedagogical models in ways that did not help children become active learners, but focused on results. Curriculum also constrained their options. There was by no means a straightforward translation of theory into practice.

This raises issues about the relationship between theory and practice in terms of how to effectively transform practice in progressive ways. Despite the best intentions of academics, professional development models are often inadequate in translating and integrating theories into pedagogical practices. Suzy Edwards, in ‘‘Stop Thinking of Culture as Geography’: early childhood educators’ conceptions of sociocultural theory as an informant to curriculum’, interrogates how theoretical advances in sociocultural theory are understood by practitioners and integrated into early childhood education. She had 16 participants from Melbourne, Australia, who were involved in various roles in teaching in preschools. An initial session focused on participants’ prior philosophies of education and understanding of sociocultural theory through group discussion. Other sessions introduced developmental theories, Vygotsky, Rogoff and the project work of Reggio Emilia. Each session involved criticism and discussion. Over the course of the workshops the teachers’ positions changed significantly from assuming sociocultural theory was about multiculturalism to understanding that all children bring distinctive backgrounds which affect their learning experiences and response to the school environment. The study points to the need for more careful professional development to move teachers beyond their current perceptions, and sometimes misinterpretations, of the latest academic theories.

Yet theoretical frameworks can provide an ability to reflect upon and resist cultural norms, while also being adaptive and critical of these theories in a practical context. In ‘Beyond ‘Because I Said So!’ Three Early Childhood Teachers Challenge the Research on the Disciplinary Beliefs and Strategies of Individuals from Working-class Minority Backgrounds’, Gay Wilgus challenges stereotypes about adults from working-class minority backgrounds using authoritarian, coercive disciplinary techniques by showing how three early childhood teachers do not simply reproduce and accept cultural attitudes about discipline. The study involves classroom observations and a series of interviews with the preschool teachers.

Finally, educational research can enable practitioners to go beyond a restrictive understanding of children’s behaviour to the dynamic aspects of multimodal expression. Susan Young, in her article ‘Seen but Not Heard: young children, improvised singing and educational practice’, draws our attention to the spontaneous musical activities of children in her study based on observations of two- and three-year-olds. She challenges the traditional approach to musical education and shows how ‘sound effects’ give additional emotional effect to children’s everyday actions, play and movements. Young suggests that our preoccupation with isolating different modes of expression on disciplinary divides is too static, and does not allow us to capture the spontaneity, multimodality and emotional aspects of children’s play and learning. Young highlights how power is exerted through narrow ideas of musicality that discipline and restrain children’s expressive potentials. Her article has the potential to open up our minds to new possibilities of engaging young children.

Jeanne Marie Iorio, in ‘Rethinking Conversations’, reinforces this approach by challenging us to rethink the power dynamics between adults and children so as to listen carefully to children and give them space to explore, think and communicate. She presents her own reflections on conversations with children about painting that either close down the conversation or open up the conversation so the child can speak. Being attentive and reverent in the moment allows adult–child conversations to shift to aesthetic experiences, where each person honours themselves ‘within’ the conversation.

The two colloquia in this issue are reflective pieces regarding memories in teaching (Liz McCaw) and a professional development process that is responsive to the New Mexico context (Luis-Vincente Reyes).

Kerry Wardlaw & Nicola J. Yelland
Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia

The Making of Global Citizens: traces of cosmopolitanism in the New Zealand early childhood curriculum, Te Whariki

IRIS DUHN University of Auckland, Unitec, New Zealand

doi: 10.2304/ciec.2006.7.3.191

The first New Zealand early childhood curriculum framework, Te Whariki, was published in 1996. Te Whariki presents quality in early childhood education as productive of a particular type of child. In this article the author argues that Te Whariki is not about ‘best practice’ but about producing the ideal child. This child emerged at a time when New Zealand was deeply entangled in neo-liberal visions of globalisation. The type of child embedded in New Zealand’s early childhood curriculum has the potential to affirm neo-liberal visions of the future global subject.

Steering Debate and Initiating Dialogue: a review of the Singapore preschool curriculum

LYNN ANG LING-YIN University of East London, United Kingdom

doi: 10.2304/ciec.2006.7.3.203

This article presents a discussion of the new kindergarten framework in Singapore. The recent launch of the framework indicates a step forward in the field of early years, with a clear recognition of the importance of the early childhood experience. However, it also raises pertinent issues about the social, cultural, and political maxims that surround the curriculum. Looking closely at the preschool context in Singapore, this article considers the conflicting paradigms that underpin the curriculum: the idealised aspirations of policy makers and early years professionals in creating a child-centred, interactional curriculum; the ideology of a Chinese, Confucian culture which extols scholastic achievements and the pursuit of academic, moral and cultural attainments; parental expectations; and the demands of a meritocratic, economically driven society which perceives education as a commodity to be obtained for financial success and social mobility. In seeking to initiate dialogue and steer debate, this article therefore forces readers to consider some of the tensions and conflicts that underpin the new kindergarten curriculum, and questions the ways in which the curriculum can be conceptualised by practitioners amidst these competing maxims.

Educators’ Views of Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten Readiness and Transition Practices

SUKHDEEP GILL & DIXIE WINTERS The Pennsylvania State University, York, USA
DIANE S. FRIEDMAN United Way of York County, York, USA

doi: 10.2304/ciec.2006.7.3.213

The transition from pre-kindergarten (center-based programs for four-year-olds) to kindergarten is a critical milestone with far-reaching consequences for children and their families because positive transition and school readiness are integrally linked as predictors of future school success. This study was conducted to explore the existing kindergarten readiness and transition practices in a local county, to examine educators’ perspectives regarding factors influencing readiness and transition, and to explore their perceptions of the parents’ role in these domains. A semi-structured survey was mailed out to 129 school districts and pre-kindergarten programs in the county; 86 returned them. The results indicated that kindergarten and pre-kindergarten programs were equally focused on child readiness as far as development of academic skills was concerned. Compared to pre-kindergarten, kindergartens were more involved in information-sharing activities associated with school transition. The importance of the role of family as well as of the communication between family and school was noted as an area of challenge. Follow-up action and implications are discussed in light of these results.

The Translation of Western Teaching Approaches in the Hong Kong Early Childhood Curriculum: a promise for effective teaching?

DORIS CHENG PUI-WAH The Hong Kong Institute of Education

doi: 10.2304/ciec.2006.7.3.228

This article reports data from a study about the challenges of teaching reform carried out by three in-service kindergarten teachers in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Intending to improve the quality of teaching and learning, these teachers adapted Western teaching approaches such as High Scope and Project approaches, which they had learnt about in their teacher education course, to Hong Kong classrooms. By tracking the enactment process of an implemented change for half a year, it was observed that teaching reform could not simply be achieved by just putting theories into practice. It requires the constant dialectical interplay of practice with theories in a continuous manner in the specified context. The findings highlight the difficulties of making pedagogical shifts and the merits of employing collaborative inquiry to support the use of effective pedagogies.

‘Stop Thinking of Culture as Geography’: early childhood educators’ conceptions of sociocultural theory as an informant to curriculum

SUZY EDWARDS Monash University, Frankston, Australia

doi: 10.2304/ciec.2006.7.3.238

The discourse and concepts associated with sociocultural theory have become increasingly important in discussion associated with early childhood education and curriculum at a theoretical level since the early 1990s. However, the extent to which such ideas have been adopted and understood by early childhood educators at the level of practice remains unclear. This study reports the findings from an investigation aimed at examining the understandings of sociocultural theory held by a group of early childhood educators and assistants without previous in-depth exposure to the discourse and concepts of sociocultural theory. The findings suggested that the educators initially interpreted sociocultural theory in multicultural terms. As opportunity to explore their ideas continued, this understanding shifted to one in which the educators saw sociocultural theory as related to the children they taught within their educational contexts. Questions were raised by the educators regarding the extent to which sociocultural theory challenged their existing sense of self as teachers.

Beyond ‘Because I Said So!’ Three Early Childhood Teachers Challenge the Research on the Disciplinary Beliefs and Strategies of Individuals from Working-class Minority Backgrounds

GAY WILGUS The City College of New York, USA

doi: 10.2304/ciec.2006.7.3.253

Research literature suggests that adults from working-class minority backgrounds demonstrate authoritarian and coercive tendencies in their choices of disciplinary strategies when compared with adults from middle-class, ‘white’, ‘Anglo’, or ‘North American’ backgrounds. However, in a recent study in New York City, three early childhood teachers from working-class, Latino backgrounds were conspicuously democratic and non-authoritarian in teacher–child interactions involving discipline. This study points to the need to examine suggestions in the literature that adults from working-class minority backgrounds simply accept and reproduce traditional childrearing and early educational practices of the cultures in which they were raised. In addition, these data identify a need to question the usefulness of certain binary oppositional dualisms often appropriated for analysis of social phenomena, including minority/non-minority, working class/middle class and individualism/collectivism. The ultimate demand is for innovative language and concepts that take into account the complex interactions which come into play as teachers, parents and other adults formulate beliefs about disciplinary strategies. A major piece of this project involves re-evaluating the way we define, examine and write about culture.

Seen but Not Heard: young children, improvised singing and educational practice

SUSAN YOUNG University of Exeter, United Kingdom

doi: 10.2304/ciec.2006.7.3.270

In this article the author suggests that the persistence of a ‘performance model’ of early childhood music education has detracted attention from children’s spontaneous musical activity. The article focuses on one dimension of children’s spontaneous musicality: improvised singing. Descriptions of short episodes taken from two periods of observation, the first in a day-care setting among two- and three-year-olds and the second in a nursery among three-year-olds, provide examples of different kinds of improvised singing and how they are integrated into physical movement, and play with objects and malleable substances such as sand and water. The descriptions move into detailed discussion which draws attention to the way in which, as they play, the children’s singing represents one mode blended among many and gives insight into time-based processes. The author goes on to suggest that these time-based processes support ways of engaging, either with material things or in interacting with others. The article contains a number of propositions for the benefits which might accrue from a reconsideration of singing in early childhood education.

Rethinking Conversations

JEANNE MARIE IORIO Rita Gold Early Childhood Center, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, USA

doi: 10.2304/ciec.2006.7.3.281

As teachers, researchers, caregivers, and people who take care of young children, we are often in conversation with children. These conversations are complex, filled with child and adult interactions. Further, both the child and the adult hold various levels of power, and work as a group within the interaction. As an artist and early childhood educator, these considerations are central to the author’s own rethinking of adult-child conversations as aesthetic experiences. Through the observation and documentation of several adult–child conversations with three preschoolers, the author attempts to understand when an adult–child conversation is an aesthetic experience, as well as to negotiate the power present within the interaction. Further, the author discusses the implications of the experience on her own practice and future research.

Teachers’ Memories and their Relevance Today

LIZ McCAW South Wellington Elementary School, Nanaimo, Canada

doi: 10.2304/ciec.2006.7.3.290

The author suggests that the connection between teachers’ early memories and the way they conceptualize their work is likely to be enormously important in the long run.

Creating an Inclusive Early Childhood Professional Development System in New Mexico, USA

LUIS-VINCENTE REYES New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, USA

doi: 10.2304/ciec.2006.7.3.292

Creating a state comprehensive professional development system for the preparation of early childhood personnel in the USA requires a development framework that is inclusive and responsive to diversity. Over the past few years, states from around the country have begun to embark on journeys towards the development of such a system. The purpose of this article is to share New Mexico’s experience and lessons learned from its work in the creation of a professional development system in early childhood that is culturally and linguistically responsive.

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