Suchergebnisse

The Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI) undertook an analysis of the global literature and available Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) and school outbreak data, 25 January 2020 – 31 August 2020, from the Victorian State Government Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to explore 5 key questions: • What is known about the direct and indirect effects of COVID-19 on children and adolescents? • What is known globally about the role of ECEC and schools in transmission of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus)? • What are other countries doing to enable children and teachers to go back to school safely: which mitigation measures are being proposed? • What do the Victorian data tell us about transmission of the virus in our educational settings? • What evidence-based recommendations could enable ECEC and schools to open up safely?

Early childhood educators' work is embedded in the complexities of relations and relationships, and this relational work is entangled in care. Care can be difficult to define and is often assumed as an inherent 'good' in education. In heavily feminised work environments such as early childhood education, it is easily assumed to be part of what naturally occurs amongst educators and children. However, I suggest that it is dangerous to assume we understand a concept as complex and value laden as care without also engaging in reflection and analysis about the complexity and multiplicity of care. In this paper I will explore some threads of care in early childhood education and care. I make use of Braidotti's concept of cartographies to critically examine aspects of care in early childhood education. A cartography enables an exploration of power and knowledge in relation to care. Care, like classrooms, is messy, relational, in action, situated and contextual. This examination of care enables the perceived connection between care as a necessary 'good' to be contested. Instead, care is mapped across multiple threads and potentials, threads that might sometimes be warm and sustaining, while sometimes being oppressive and stressful.

This article aims to present a few tensions and contradictions when implementing children's rights using the case of three Casas de Pensamiento Indígena (CPI)—indigenous childcare services—in Bogotá. It questions global policies and local interpretations of early childhood education. Its main purpose is to find insights on what it means to attend to young children from minority groups. Could early childhood education and care (ECEC) services be reduced to ethnic backgrounds? In the struggle to deal with global, local, and community discourses, policy makers see positive discrimination not only as a way to justify their actions and their policies but also as a way to respond to the question of equity and diversity, regardless of equality. Therefore, this article highlights this discussion on positive discrimination as a way to intensify social inequality or reproduce inequalities at another level with a different name. Rancière's dissertation on politics (Rancière 1998) and on the different meanings of politics and politique is used to understand the subtle relationship between equity and diversity. Considering all of this, it was decided to do fieldwork to comprehend the daily lives of CPI settings and the complexity of their formalization/institutionalization. The study highlights how CPI both differs from and is part of conventional services, and how indigenous caregivers and children face an institutional script that asks them to perform indigenism.

The ECEC area – traditionally located in the "outskirts" of societal interest – has gradually moved towards a more central position, as an politicized area of social intervention and learning. New demands for evidence, new relations of economic interests, new research focusing on "what works" and new monitorial demands are evolving. At the same time, both transnational and national learning agendas is being implemented at a very large scale, carrying commercial systems, strong didactical implications and intensified requirements regarding control and documentation. This development has transformed the role of the ECEC institutions. But what about the professional? The question is whether we are looking at a completely new type of professionalism of the ECEC pedagogue. The aim of this symposium is to discuss the change in professionalism of edagogues, in the light of this drastic development, based on three different perspectives on this question, drawing on three different empirical studies. ; The ECEC area – traditionally located in the "outskirts" of societal interest – has gradually moved towards a more central position, as an politicized area of social intervention and learning. New demands for evidence, new relations of economic interests, new research focusing on "what works" and new monitorial demands are evolving. At the same time, both transnational and national learning agendas is being implemented at a very large scale, carrying commercial systems, strong didactical implications and intensified requirements regarding control and documentation. This development has transformed the role of the ECEC institutions. But what about the professional? The question is whether we are looking at a completely new type of professionalism of the ECEC pedagogue. The aim of this symposium is to discuss the change in professionalism of edagogues, in the light of this drastic development, based on three different perspectives on this question, drawing on three different empirical studies.

Toddlers contribute to early childhood education and care (ECEC) environments in unique ways in contrast to older children and adults. In this article, we explore early childhood teachers' stories about toddlers, thinking, and time. We follow a moment with a toddler's story told with his fingers, and discuss it through teachers' stories. Our focus is on what ideas about toddlers, time, and thinking these stories produce, and how these ideas affect toddler's possibilities to contribute to daily life in ECEC. We use Barad's concepts spacetimematter and temporal diffraction; and Haraway's concept Capitalocene and storying, to explore toddlers thinking and time in ECEC. We argue that the dominant concept of time in the Capitalocene can produce thoughtlessness, connected to children and children's opportunities to participate. Through a process of "storying," we hope to generate more and maybe different knowledge about toddlers, thinking, and time.

This article aims to present a few tensions and contradictions when implementing children's rights using the case of three Casas de Pensamiento Indígena (CPI)—indigenous childcare services—in Bogotá. It questions global policies and local interpretations of early childhood education. Its main purpose is to find insights on what it means to attend to young children from minority groups. Could early childhood education and care (ECEC) services be reduced to ethnic backgrounds? In the struggle to deal with global, local, and community discourses, policy makers see positive discrimination not only as a way to justify their actions and their policies but also as a way to respond to the question of equity and diversity, regardless of equality. Therefore, this article highlights this discussion on positive discrimination as a way to intensify social inequality or reproduce inequalities at another level with a different name. Rancière's dissertation on politics (Rancière 1998) and on the different meanings of politics and politique is used to understand the subtle relationship between equity and diversity. Considering all of this, it was decided to do fieldwork to comprehend the daily lives of CPI settings and the complexity of their formalization/institutionalization. The study highlights how CPI both differs from and is part of conventional services, and how indigenous caregivers and children face an institutional script that asks them to perform indigenism.

Objective: The study examines the age children in Iceland and Sweden start Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) and how children's starting age is associated with parents' use of paid parental leave and their characteristics. Background: While children in Iceland have no legal rights to ECEC following the end of paid parental leave, in Sweden there is a continuum between paid parental leave and publicly subsidised ECEC. The leave period is also shorter in Iceland than in Sweden. The article addresses how these policy differences reflect the transition from paid parental leave to ECEC-start in the two countries. Method: The study uses survey data, collected among parents in Iceland and Sweden. Results: Children in Iceland have an earlier ECEC start than children in Sweden. This earlier start, however, has to do with the number of children being placed in family day care while waiting for a place in the public run preschools. Mothers in Iceland stretch the parental leave for a longer period than mothers in Sweden do, and in Iceland, there were variations in ECEC start depending on mothers' labour force participation before childbirth and marital status, but not in Sweden. Conclusion: The lack of preschool at the end of paid parental leave creates challenges for a certain group of parents in Iceland, a situation parents in Sweden do not have to face.

In recent years, a growing number of studies have provided empirical support for the long-held belief that early childhood education and care (ECEC) has a positive impact on children's short and long-term well-being (e.g., Sylva et al., 2010). Politicians and other stakeholders have responded to this by implementing various changes in ECEC aimed to better the quality of these services. There are, however, indications that the renewed policies and practices (e.g., the introduction of balanced scorecards or pedagogical documentation) import aspects into the quality discussions concerning ECEC that potentially run counter to their aims (Paananen et al, 2016). One reason for this is arguably that the psychological concepts used in these discussion do not fully grasp the complex processes that constitute the well-being of children and adults engaging in ECEC. This symposium brings together researchers concerned with questioning existing notions of well-being in ECEC and with developing new conceptualizations that capture its constitutive processes. Together, they argue that although concepts developed in dominant strands of psychology – such as positive psychology – highlight important characteristics of well-being, they have not adequately explicated, for example, the role of children's agency, the everyday practices and socio-political circumstances underlying well-being in ECEC, or the philosophical grounding of the notion of well-being. While the contributions are joined by their point of departure in subject-oriented and socio-cultural theoretical approaches, each bring their own unique conceptual tools to exploring the issue at hand. ; In recent years, a growing number of studies have provided empirical support for the long-held belief that early childhood education and care (ECEC) has a positive impact on children's short and long-term well-being (e.g., Sylva et al., 2010). Politicians and other stakeholders have responded to this by implementing various changes in ECEC aimed to better the quality of these services. There are, however, indications that the renewed policies and practices (e.g., the introduction of balanced scorecards or pedagogical documentation) import aspects into the quality discussions concerning ECEC that potentially run counter to their aims (Paananen et al, 2016). One reason for this is arguably that the psychological concepts used in these discussion do not fully grasp the complex processes that constitute the well-being of children and adults engaging in ECEC. This symposium brings together researchers concerned with questioning existing notions of well-being in ECEC and with developing new conceptualizations that capture its constitutive processes. Together, they argue that although concepts developed in dominant strands of psychology – such as positive psychology – highlight important characteristics of well-being, they have not adequately explicated, for example, the role of children's agency, the everyday practices and socio-political circumstances underlying well-being in ECEC, or the philosophical grounding of the notion of well-being. While the contributions are joined by their point of departure in subject-oriented and socio-cultural theoretical approaches, each bring their own unique conceptual tools to exploring the issue at hand.

Care is traditionally researched in ECEC as a dyadic, human phenomenon that relies heavily of tropes of females as care providers. The assumption that care is produced in dyadic relationships occludes material care practices that occur beyond the dyad. Drawing on Bernice Fisher and Joan Tronto's care ethics and Karen Barad's focus on the agency of materiality, I have sought to explore how care is produced outside of dyadic relations in ECEC and how that care relates to domestic practices and flourishing in ECEC.

The aim of this article is to provide a review of research on the youngest children (0–3) in Norwegian kindergartens. The review deals with research from the last two decades. The article also discusses critical initiatives related to implications of the research findings, and points in conclusion to some challenges of the role of research in politics. ; Postprint version. The original publication is available at www.springerlink.com at URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13158-010-0013-7

Profesionalni razvoj odgojitelja dio je oblikovanja kurikula ustanove ranoga i predškolskog odgoja i obrazovanja i u velikoj se mjeri odražava na cjelokupan kontekst u kojemu se kurikul konstruira, oblikuje i živi. Ovaj se rad bavi aktualnim pitanjima razvoja odgojiteljske profesije u okolnostima definiranima stalnim društvenim, političkim i tehnološkim promjenama. U prvome dijelu rada govorit će se o obilježjima zanimanja koje sebe želi artikulirati kao profesiju te specifičnim obilježjima odgojiteljske profesije i profesionalnog identiteta. Sljedeća je važna tema kompetencijski okvir odgojitelja, poglavito važnost cjeloživotnoga učenja kao ključnog elementa profesionalnog razvoja. Uz različite formalne i neformalne modalitete učenja u radu se osobito vrijednima ističu oni oblici stručnog usavršavanja koji se događaju ili bi se trebali događati unutar profesionalne zajednice. ; The professional development of teachers is a part of an institution's early and pre-school education curriculum design and it, to a large extent, affects the entire context in which the curriculum is constructed, formed and in which it lives. This paper addresses the topical issues of development of teacher profession in the circumstances defined by constant social, political and technological changes. The first part of the paper addresses the characteristics of the occupation that wants to articulate itself as a profession and the specific features of ECEC teacher profession and professional identity. The next important topic is the competence framework of teachers, and in particular the significance of the lifelong learning as the key element of professional development. In addition to various formal and informal learning modalities, the paper highlights as especially important the forms of professional development that take place or should take place within the professional community.

In 2009, the Australian states and territories signed an agreement to provide 15 hours per week of universal access to quality early education to all children in Australia in the year before they enter school. Taking on board the international evidence about the importance of early education, the Commonwealth government made a considerable investment to make universal access possible by 2013. We explore the ongoing processes that seek to make universal access a reality in New South Wales by attending to the complex agential relationships between multiple actors. While we describe the state government and policy makers' actions in devising funding models to drive changes, we prioritise our gaze on the engagement of a preschool and its director with the state government's initiatives that saw them develop various funding and provision models in response. To offer accounts of their participation in policy making and doing at the preschool, we use the director's auto - biographical notes. We argue that the state's commitment to ECEC remained a form of political manoeuvring where responsibility for policy making was pushed onto early childhood actors. This manoeuvring helped to silence and further fragment the sector, but these new processes also created spaces where the sector can further struggle for recognition through the very accountability measures that the government has introduced.