Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood最新文献

{"title":"Unpacking power: The role of critical reflection in preschool internship","authors":"C. Nolan, C. Brennan, Tasha Tropp Laman","doi":"10.1177/14639491231162158","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14639491231162158","url":null,"abstract":"This study examined the potential role of critical reflection as a tool to support pre-service early childhood teacher interns in understanding and questioning pedagogical choices witnessed in their preschool internships while developing their own socially responsible teaching capacity. This study contributes to the field of critical reflection in teacher education by emphasizing an analysis of power, using Patricia Hill Collins’ matrices of power to understand the complexities of systemic injustices and identify potential solutions. The authors conducted an analysis of students’ critical reflections, which were completed weekly during their quarter-long preschool internship. The authors found that a critical analytic lens, using power, created intentional space to pause and expand interpretations of unequal and inequitable dynamics within the students’ preschool internship experiences, and had the potential to impact their subsequent pedagogical decisions. These findings hold the possibility for teacher preparation programs to bolster students’ reflective praxis and seed justice-oriented possibilities in early childhood education.","PeriodicalId":46773,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2023-03-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41845814","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Book Review: On being and well-being in infant/toddler care & education: Life stories from baby rooms by Mary Benson McMullen","authors":"Maria Cooper","doi":"10.1177/14639491231162185","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14639491231162185","url":null,"abstract":"Child well-being is of critical importance to who children are, what they do, and how they grow and develop in years to come (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2021). This topic is of increasing interest to scholars and in debates about quality in early childhood education. However, research-based explorations of babies’well-being as a factor of quality in early childhood education are a rare find in the literature. Mary Benson McMullen’s book is a timely exception, with its main focus on the well-being of babies, their relational experiences with their families and care teachers, and the baby rooms they are part of. Based on her observations of baby rooms and experience of working with babies, families and care teachers, McMullen presents and analyses life stories to highlight both possibilities and tensions in infant/toddler care and education. I am drawn in particular to McMullen’s revelation that these curated stories derive from 12 years of research observations in four baby rooms in the USA. This careful selection and history gives each story a sense of authority to teach us something of value. Even though the stories are of a particular time and place, the reader is left in no doubt about the significance of these stories for today and tomorrow through the messages they embody. As I venture further into McMullen’s book, I feel excited about the possibility of using this book with my student teachers so that they, like me, may experience these stories in unique and meaningful ways. The book itself exhibits traces of many genres, from ethnographic to autobiographic, dramatic, historical non-fiction, and even romance and horror, depending on how the book is felt and experienced. No matter the genre, stories that are ‘bursting to be told’ (112) are the beating heart of this book. The protagonists are the babies, their families and their care teachers, who feature in plots that are engaging, gripping and noteworthy. Drawing inspiration from the works of Vivian Gussin Paley, McMullen’s book suggests we can all be storytellers and storysharers. The 160-page book is structured as six chapters. The first chapter sets the scene and provides a rationale for why the book is needed. The definitions and explanations are steeped in personal and professional wisdom. McMullen’s model of well-being, a central idea in this and other chapters, emphasises dimensions or ‘senses’ of well-being that have equal weighting in terms of importance. These senses include comfort and security, belonging, respect and communication, engagement and contribution, and efficacy and agency. McMullen describes her holistic model as a reimagining of Maslow’s (1943) original theory, intended to highlight the interconnections between the senses of well-being for babies, their families and their care teachers. For me, McMullen’s model represents a much-needed pushback on the linear progression and superficial ranking of human Book review","PeriodicalId":46773,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2023-03-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45896278","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Book review: Educating young children with diverse languages and cultures by Karen N. Nemeth","authors":"Khusna Irfiana, Romadhon","doi":"10.1177/14639491231161876","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14639491231161876","url":null,"abstract":"It is not an overstatement to say that teaching languages to young children with diverse backgrounds is challenging and dilemmatic for early childhood educators, particularly in addressing their unique needs. Limited research has been conducted to examine how early childhood education, teaching and care might address such issues. Karen Nemeth’s Educating Young Children with Diverse Languages and Cultures offers an insight into early childhood education for multilingual and/or bilingual children, and is therefore a must-read for early childhood educators. This book addresses issues related to the needs of children from diverse experiences, cultures, abilities and languages, with discussions of relevant competencies for the successful work of early childhood educators in inclusive and multidisciplinary perspectives on language development. It is worth noting that the title clearly addresses the content of the book: educating young children with diverse languages and cultures. The word ‘language’ is the central focus of this book, while ‘diversity’ is part of the discussion. The book starts with mentioning the core focus in the study of language development and its connections to all of the chapter topics, which is followed by a glossary of key terms and a list of essential competencies for early childhood educators. The remaining chapters correlate with the competencies that early childhood educators must uphold, such as how to support language development (chapter 2), how to get started as an early childhood educator (chapter 3), how to recognise the elements of a high-quality curriculum (chapter 3), and how to meet individual needs, the environment and materials, and family and community (chapters 4, 5 and 6, respectively). The following two chapters (chapters 7 and 8) discuss processes and practices for co-teaching and collaborating, as well as professional ethics and teacher dispositions in early childhood education. The last chapter (chapter 9) revisits the content of the preceding chapters from the perspectives of school administrators, teacher preparation instructors and professional development providers. The key contribution of this book is its concise description of language development and its links to becoming an early childhood educator with an eye towards success and resilience in a changing field. In the midst of shifting public opinion and attitudes towards teaching young children with diverse languages, early childhood educators may be perplexed about how to prepare for early childhood education while taking into account all of the needs of diverse children. Nemeth says: ‘Not every early childhood educator needs to be an expert in everything, but they do need to have the confidence to deal with every child’ (2). This book offers practical information for families and early childhood educators in maintaining and developing young children’s languages. For the Book review","PeriodicalId":46773,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2023-03-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41645132","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Speculative spaces: Children exploring socio-ecological worlds with mythical nature spirits","authors":"J. Byman, K. Kumpulainen, Jenny Renlund, C. Wong, P. Renshaw","doi":"10.1177/14639491231162152","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14639491231162152","url":null,"abstract":"Drawing on Donna Haraway's notion of speculative fabulation, in this study the authors investigate how a pedagogy grounded in mythical nature spirits, children's imaginative explorations and storying activities created spaces for children to explore socio-ecological worlds. Their inquiry draws on an ethnographic case study of three children (aged seven to eight) in a Finnish primary school who participated in a cross-curricular unit framed by a set of pedagogical materials called ‘The Riddle of the Spirit’. Their inquiry shows how speculative fabulations emerged into performing spaces, in which imaginary fabulations of humans, spirits and places created alternative narratives about more-than-human relations. Such fabulations emerged when the children became spirits, when the spirits were transformed from kings to queens, and when trees that humans had cut down could be revived and returned to the forest. Thus, the authors’ inquiry suggests that myths embedded in storying activities can offer unexplored educational opportunities to invite children to attend to and imagine socio-ecological worlds.","PeriodicalId":46773,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2023-03-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47774266","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"‘Diplomatically bossy’: Discursive constructions of ‘good’ leadership in early childhood told through educators’ memories","authors":"M. White, M. Gibson, M. Theobald, A. Farrell","doi":"10.1177/14639491231157143","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14639491231157143","url":null,"abstract":"This article puts forward a discursive analysis of early childhood leadership in Australia, offering new ways of understanding the work of early childhood leaders and adding to the methodological tools used to consider work in early childhood education and care. While an emerging body of work recognises the complexities of early childhood leadership, there is little empirical work that identifies how early childhood leaders draw on discourses to understand their roles. This article reports on a study that problematises discursive understandings of ‘good’ early childhood leadership in collective-biography workshops with seven participants. A poststructural feminist inquiry, informed by Foucauldian theory, enabled complex and nuanced readings of early childhood leaders’ accounts. Discourses – or ways of thinking, speaking and doing – were identified and scrutinised through Foucauldian-informed discourse analysis. The findings were conceptualised through ironic categories that hold together discursive tensions and contradictions. Ironic categories, such as ‘diplomatically bossy’, provoke and stimulate new ways of thinking about what it means to be a ‘good’ early childhood leader. The findings add to the emerging conversation and new methodological approaches that address complexity, diversity and contingency in understandings of early childhood leadership.","PeriodicalId":46773,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2023-03-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41890252","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Thanks to reviewers","authors":"","doi":"10.1177/14639491231156262","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14639491231156262","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46773,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136271108","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Editorial","authors":"Nicola Yelland","doi":"10.1177/14639491231153289","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14639491231153289","url":null,"abstract":"In the first issue of 2023, we publish six articles, a colloquium and a book review that reflect the range and diversity of the field. The articles consider superdiversity and gender diversity, a review of research regarding the Anthropocene, experiences with the more-than-human, and children’s rights. Since we entered the global pandemic in 2020, it seems paradoxically inevitable that time has both stopped and moved with unstoppable speed. At the time of writing, the numbers of people contracting and being hospitalised with COVID-19 seem to be on the rise as the northern hemisphere progresses through winter, and in the south we welcome visitors from all over the globe seeking respite from the cold, as well as from the pandemic. Everyone seems to be craving a return to ‘normal’ that is being characterised with the term ‘the new normal’, while many of us regard normal as being irrelevant, or non-existent, and seek just to live fulfilling and sustainable lives. The articles in this issue seek new and alternative ways of reflecting on children’s lives as we move slowly on from the identification of the global pandemic, with the hope that the schism created offers us hope for doing things differently, to obtain more equitable and just childhoods for all children and their families and communities. In the first article, Chan and Ritchie ask us to participate in ‘Exploring a Tiriti-based superdiversity paradigm within early childhood care and education in Aotearoa New Zealand’. The article uses the lens of Te Tiriti o Waitangi (the Treaty of Waitangi, on Indigenous rights) to report the findings of their study, which ‘used a process of document analysis to examine early childhood care and education responses to increasing superdiversity in the “bicultural” legislative context of Aotearoa New Zealand’. The authors consider official documents that privilege the settler population’s view of Indigenous and migrant populations, which they deem to be ‘vulnerable’. They then use the lens of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and Vertovec’s (2007, 2019) superdiversity approach to explore these representations in an attempt to reconceptualise ways in which the nation’s priority learners might be supported. Next, Merewether interrogates one aspect of Piaget’s original works related to young children’s animism in ‘Enchanted animism: A matter of care’. Piaget maintained that young children can be characterised as being at a stage of ‘primitive thought’ prior to becoming more rational at a later stage. Merewether’s article calls for us to rethink this notion and suggests that ‘children’s animism, or “enchanted animism”’, is a ‘matter of care’, which then enables ‘an ethic of living more responsively and attentively with more-than-human others’. In her article, Merewether maintains that young children’s playful and enchanted animism enables them to experience their lifeworlds, including the more-than-human, in new and dynamic ways, and that adults should be attuned to this new wa","PeriodicalId":46773,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47497870","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Removing the guardrails of democracy: Silencing critique of early childhood policy and practice","authors":"S. Michael-Luna, Daniel J. Castner","doi":"10.1177/14639491231155971","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14639491231155971","url":null,"abstract":"In this article, the authors consider the shift from neoliberalism to authoritarian practice and its chilling effect on early childhood education policy, practice, and advocacy work. Firstly, they consider the history of resistance found within the field of early childhood education, recognizing the success of the reconceptualization movement. Secondly, they present the case of the 2021–2022 US legislative session in the state of Florida as evidence of the emergence of authoritarian practices. The authors conclude with proposals for partial, provisional, and practical ways of responding to the increasingly authoritarian conditions governing the education of young children.","PeriodicalId":46773,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2023-02-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45944497","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Communities of practice as a launchpad for social justice planning in early childhood education","authors":"Victoria Damjanovic, Jennifer K. Ward","doi":"10.1177/14639491231155554","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14639491231155554","url":null,"abstract":"This qualitative case study aims to explore the ways in which communities of practice support teacher learning, decision-making, and the purposeful infusion of social justice topics that are important to children within project work. The authors draw from transformative learning theory and critical pedagogy to guide their work in supporting early childhood education teachers in how social justice issues are connected to diversity, equity, advocacy, and liberation. The preliminary findings indicate the ways the communities of practice provided a safe space for the teachers to support one another regarding tensions of practice, and a space to center the knowledge and truth of children when integrating social justice topics in project work.","PeriodicalId":46773,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2023-02-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47895510","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Equity, inclusion and belonging for teachers in early childhood education in Aotearoa New Zealand","authors":"Kiri Gould, J.-P. E. Boyd, M. Tesar","doi":"10.1177/14639491231152617","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14639491231152617","url":null,"abstract":"This article troubles themes of equity, inclusion and belonging for early childhood teachers in Aotearoa New Zealand. The authors argue that relationships between teachers matter and, in pursuit of transformative teaching praxis, can be considered as a site for restorative justice, leading to increased solidarity and collective action. While much debate has focused on the counter-colonial, bicultural and transformative potential of the early childhood curriculum Te Whāriki, research has also focused on the complexities of requiring a largely monocultural (Pākeha/of European descent) and underprepared workforce to meet its complex aspirations in the context of a neo-liberal policy landscape. An under-recognised aspect of this challenge is how the same contexts give rise to inequitable and divisive relationships between teachers, diminishing opportunities for transformative justice for children and families. This article brings these two matters into dialogue: first, it is a critical examination of teachers’ narratives about their work and the complex and overlapping discourses that influence them and, second, it considers the transformative potential of inter-teacher groups as sites for restorative justice between teachers, leading to critical engagement with issues of inequity and collective advocacy.","PeriodicalId":46773,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2023-02-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48129273","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}