Contemporary Issues in
Early Childhood

ISSN 1463-9491

Volume 9 Number 3 2008

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

SPECIAL ISSUE
Investigating Quality
Guest Editor: ALAN PENCE

Alan Pence. Introduction, pages 189‑190
Michael D. Niles & Lisa G. Byers. History Matters: United States policy and indigenous early childhood intervention, pages 191‑201
Jenny Ritchie. Honouring Māori Subjectivities within Early Childhood Education in Aotearoa, pages 202‑210
A. Bame Nsamenang. Agency in Early Childhood Learning and Development in Cameroon, pages 211‑223
Radhika Viruru. Childhood Labor in India: issues and complexities, pages 224‑233
Lourdes Diaz Soto. Hearts of Compassion: a concern for violence against children, pages 234‑240
Alan Pence & Veronica Pacini-Ketchabaw. Discourses on Quality Care: the Investigating ‘Quality’ project and the Canadian experience, pages 241‑255
Veronica Pacini-Ketchabaw & Ahna Berikoff. The Politics of Difference and Diversity: from young children’s violence to creative power expressions, pages 256‑264

COLLOQUIUM
Joohi Lee & Ji Yoon Yoon. Teaching Early Childhood Teacher Candidates How to Assess Children’s Inquiry Skills in Science Learning, pages 265‑269

CALLS FOR PAPERS
Professionalism in Early Childhood (Special Issue), pages 270‑271 doi:10.2304/ciec.2008.9.3.270 VIEW FULL TEXT
Policy in Early Childhood (Special Issue), page 272 doi:10.2304/ciec.2008.9.3.272 VIEW FULL TEXT

Introduction

doi:10.2304/ciec.2008.9.3.189

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The articles in this special issue of Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood are based on an early childhood forum that took place at the University of Victoria, Canada in November 2007. The forum was one in a series that have been organized as part of the Investigating Quality (IQ) project, co-led by Drs Alan Pence and Veronica Pacini-Ketchabaw at the School of Child and Youth Care, University of Victoria.

The IQ project grows out of a shared interest the two investigators have in applying critical theory, post-structural, postmodern, anti-colonial and related perspectives to early childhood practices, policies and research in the province of British Columbia, and more broadly. As noted by Pence & Pacini-Ketchabaw in their article, Canada does not have a strong history of engagement with these ideas, but the province’s and country’s commitments to diversity, multiculturalism and social equity suggest such an engagement is both appropriate and timely.

Forums associated with the IQ project have allowed the opportunity to explore early childhood issues for diverse audiences and from a variety of perspectives, including indigenous early childhood care and education (see Rodriguez et al, 2007), implications of ‘reconceptualist ideas’ for practice in Canada (Pacini-Ketchabaw & Pence, 2005; Pence & Pacini-Ketchabaw, 2006) and international development (Pence & Hix-Small, 2007).

The articles that constitute this special issue have implications for practices, policies and research in Canada – and far beyond. Each challenges key aspects of early childhood understandings as they have been constructed and projected through European/Western lenses. Drs Michael Niles and Lisa Byers, indigenous scholars from the United States, lead off the issue and question the degree to which the dominant or mainstream early years literature is capable of addressing questions that arise within indigenous communities given the absence of those communities in studies cited as ‘pointing the way’. Dr Jenny Ritchie, based in Aotearoa/New Zealand and speaking from the context of a country that is much further advanced in recognizing the importance of indigenous perspectives in its early childhood curriculum, policies and research, looks closely at the challenges early childhood professionals face in attempting to realize such objectives at the program level. Dr Bame Nsamenang, from Cameroon, speaks from the perspective of childhoods in Africa and the degree to which ‘African voices’ and African experiences of childhood are actively discouraged at the international level. Children as active agents in their own development, and in concert with other children, are dismissed as constituting neglect and abuse despite centuries of practice and evidence of contextual efficacy. Dr Radhika Viruru also raises key questions regarding childhoods in different contexts, and how labor and childhood have been constructed differently in the West and in India. Dr Lourdes Diaz Soto provides a heartfelt reflection regarding violence against children in the contemporary world and children’s ability to demonstrate compassion – becoming models for an ‘adulterated’ society. Drs Alan Pence and Veronica Pacini-Ketchabaw bring these diverse discussions back into the context of attempting to influence change in early childhood practices, policies and research in British Columbia and Canada, while Dr Veronica Pacini-Ketchabaw and doctoral student Ahna Berikoff, in the final article, take us into specific programs in British Columbia where we can ‘hear’ the words of young children wrestling with constructions of race, poverty and discrimination, and explore professional discourses regarding those words, which carry practitioners in very different directions.

The seven articles presented here grew out of three days of interaction, listening to and engaging with individuals from diverse parts of the world, but all sharing a commitment to issues of voice, representation and social equity. A shared concern was that children and childhoods are increasingly subjected to templates and acts of normalization and universalization that suppress diversity in the name of child well-being. These articles challenge many dominant understandings of ‘best practice’ and good works – hearing in them echoes of colonization. While the positions taken in the articles are critical, their message is hopeful.

Alan Pence
University of Victoria, Canada

References
Pacini-Ketchabaw, V. & Pence, A. (Eds) (2005) Early Childhood Education in Motion: the reconceptualist movement in Canada. Ottawa: Canadian Child Care Federation.
Pence, A. & Hix-Small, H. (2007) Global Children in the Shadow of the Global Child, International Journal of Educational Policy, Research and Practice, 8(1), 83‑100.
Pence, A. & Pacini-Ketchabaw, V. (2006) The Investigating Quality Project: challenges and possibilities for Canada, Interaction, 20(3), 11‑13.
Rodriguez, C., Pence, A. & Greenwood, M. (Eds) (2007) Indigenous Approaches to Early Childhood Care and Education [special issue], Canadian Journal of Native Education, 30(1).

History Matters: United States policy and indigenous early childhood intervention

MICHAEL D. NILES School of Social Work, Arizona State University, Phoenix, USA
LISA G. BYERS School of Social Work, University of Oklahoma-Tulsa, Tulsa, USA

doi:10.2304/ciec.2008.9.3.191

This article discusses the degree to which early childhood practitioners in the United States attend to cultural differences and social injustice in their pedagogy, with a particular reference to indigenous peoples. The article has three major sections. The first describes an indigenous perspective regarding ‘improvement’ and ‘quality’ with respect to early childhood programs. Included is a review of United States policy developments regarding indigenous peoples (including an examination of relevant aspects of the Bureau of Indian Affairs) and a discussion of the impact of those policies on indigenous families. The second section discusses the impact of contemporary early childhood policies and practices on indigenous communities. The third section is a review of the dominant research literature and theoretical beliefs.

Honouring Māori Subjectivities within Early Childhood Education in Aotearoa

JENNY RITCHIE Te Whare Wānanga o Wairaka – Unitec New Zealand, Auckland, New Zealand

doi:10.2304/ciec.2008.9.3.202

For the past decade educators working within early childhood services in Aotearoa have been challenged to deliver a curriculum that requires inclusive representation of Māori, the indigenous people, their language and culture. This article reflects on some responses to the challenge of this ‘bicultural’ curriculum, drawing upon research which has sought to identify some pathways which are enabling and honouring of this indigenous representation.

Agency in Early Childhood Learning and Development in Cameroon

A. BAME NSAMENANG University of Yaoundé, ENS Annex of Bambili and Human Development Resource Centre, Bamenda, Cameroon

doi:10.2304/ciec.2008.9.3.211

This article focuses on agency, as a natural disposition in children to be active and participative. Africa’s parenting attitudes and education in African family traditions encourage and foster children’s responsible agency in family life, cultural and economic activities, and their own developmental learning from an early, especially within the peer culture. It is amazing that in an era of accentuating efforts to understand and actualize the UNCRC provisions on children’s citizenship and participation, international advocacy persists in stigmatizing as child labor the centuries-old productive agency of Africa’s children and youth, which disables almost 70 percent of the continent’s population, instead of working to enhance and learn from it. The article critiques the conceptual developmental and core rights issues pertaining to children’s agency, substantiating the discourse with illustrative impressions on the changing but ‘normative’ child agency in family traditions in Cameroon.

Childhood Labor in India: issues and complexities

RADHIKA VIRURU Department of Psychological Sciences, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar

doi:10.2304/ciec.2008.9.3.224

It is estimated that more than 12 million children in India under the age of 14 engage in paid labor at least part time, due mostly to economic reasons. Dominant discourses about childhood however conceptualize childhood labor not only as unethical but as exploitation. This article explored will the tensions between Western notions of childhood (within which paid labor is considered taboo) and the realities of children’s lives in India, arguing that childhood labor must be contextualized and understood not only as a colonial legacy but also as part of its socio-cultural context. The author argues that separating children from the world of work fosters a culture of childhood that emphasizes entitlement over participation and privileges the rights of the consumer over children’s rights as citizens.

Hearts of Compassion: a concern for violence against children

LOURDES DIAZ SOTO Dalton State College, USA

doi:10.2304/ciec.2008.9.3.234

This article documents the global concern of violence toward children in the post-modern society. The possibility of pursuing altruistic possibilities is explored in light of recent research conducted with children who experienced the events of 9/11 in New York City and immigrant border crossing children. The conclusion explores how early childhood and progressive educators can work toward alleviating violence against children.

Discourses on Quality Care: the Investigating ‘Quality’ project and the Canadian experience

ALAN PENCE & VERONICA PACINI-KETCHABAW University of Victoria, Canada

doi:10.2304/ciec.2008.9.3.241

This article describes the contexts within which reconceptualist approaches to research and practice in early childhood education are taking place in British Columbia, Canada. The authors situate their work on a project entitled Investigating ‘Quality’ in Early Childhood Education within national and international early childhood discourses.

The Politics of Difference and Diversity: from young children’s violence to creative power expressions

VERONICA PACINI-KETCHABAW University of Victoria, Canada
AHNA BERIKOFF University of Victoria, Canada

doi:10.2304/ciec.2008.9.3.256

This article reinterprets practising for diversity and difference discursively and contextually using post-colonial, anti-racist feminist, and post-structural lenses. Working with data from a participatory action research project, the article critically reflects on normalized and standardized discourses of difference and diversity by interrogating how young children negotiate racialized identities and power relations during everyday dialogues. The article concludes with a discussion of the challenges and possibilities of practising for social justice.

Teaching Early Childhood Teacher Candidates How to Assess Children’s Inquiry Skills in Science Learning

JOOHI LEE University of Texas-Arlington, USA
JI YOON YOON University of Minnesota-Duluth, USA

doi:10.2304/ciec.2008.9.3.265

This article presents pragmatic information on teaching early childhood teacher candidates how to assess children’s inquiry process skills. The authors list three important steps in choosing inquiry skills. They generated behavioral indicators for each inquiry skill, and designed an assessment rubric using number grading or a satisfactory/unsatisfactory rubric system.

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