Exploring Multicultural Literacy Learning Experiences and Meaning of Pre-service Early Childhood Teachers

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 5-30
Author(s):  
Hwewon Kim
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Teachers ◽  
Learning Experiences ◽  
Literacy Learning ◽  
Multicultural Literacy

scholarly journals Living with Tensions: Stories of Chinese Early Childhood Teachers’ Teaching and Learning Experiences in the Contemporary Urban Chinese Context

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Jing Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Practical Knowledge ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Early Childhood Teachers ◽  
Learning Experiences ◽  
Chinese Context ◽  
Personal Practical Knowledge ◽  
Teachers Experiences

<p>This narrative inquiry explores 6 Chinese early childhood teachers’ teaching and learning experiences in Shanghai and Beijing, where Chinese and Western educational ideas and practices co-exist. Interviews with teachers, kindergarten directors, and parents, and participatory observations and collected documents are analysed and interpreted to reveal the teachers’ experiences of being both teacher and learner in the contemporary urban Chinese context. The teachers’ experiences and voices are at the centre of this study and are represented in poetic format. The themes emerging from the teachers’ poems are discussed alongside relevant literature in order to gain in-depth understanding of each teacher’s teaching and learning experience in specific kindergarten contexts. Emerging themes embody the reality of teaching and learning, professional learning in the embedded community of practice, and the teachers’ professional and personal selves. Tensions and challenges the teachers faced in teaching and learning are identified. The enabling and constraining factors that may deskill, re-skill, or empower the teachers are discussed. The teachers’ stories suggest that they experience tensions between the multiple and contradicting educational ideas; the embedded kindergarten community’s interpretation of teaching and learning at multiple levels; the teachers’ personal practical knowledge; and their life as a multifaceted human being. The research suggests the need for kindergarten directors, scholars and policymakers to pay attention to the dynamic relationships between a kindergarten’s structure, curriculum, pedagogy, images of the child, teachers’ personal practical knowledge, professional learning, and teachers’ inner selves and agency.</p>

Digitizing Inquiry-Based Science in Early Elementary Grades

2021 ◽  
pp. 285-311
Author(s):  
Anne E. Karabon ◽  
Chelsi Janicek
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Early Childhood Teachers ◽  
Learning Experiences ◽  
Science Inquiry ◽  
Elementary Grades ◽  
Traditional Curriculum ◽  
Learning Context ◽  
Instructional Videos ◽  
3Rd Grade

Education was disrupted this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Similar to societal shifts, teachers were nimble to quickly adapt to a distanced or remote context by recreating traditional curriculum as virtual content. By leveraging digital technology to transform learning experiences, early childhood educators may see beneficial results in how children and families embrace science inquiry in a virtual context. This chapter describes how digitized inquiry activities can be developed by early childhood teachers (PreK-3rd grade) in response to teaching and learning in a distance and remote learning context, with an in-depth description of a 3rd grade teachers' experience. The authors, in a scholarly conversational manner, discuss what was learned in the process of creating the virtual science instructional videos and provide ideas for others to engage in the creation of high-quality virtual learning experiences for young children.

Invisible to visible: Mapping the continuum of literacy learning experiences in an early years setting

2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 465-484 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Kervin ◽  
Jan Turbill ◽  
Kathryn Harden-Thew
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Development Strategy ◽  
School Setting ◽  
Learning Experiences ◽  
Literacy Learning ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Pedagogical Practices ◽  
Formal Schooling ◽  
National Quality

The face of early childhood education continues to change. In Australia, the national early childhood guidelines, Early Years Learning Framework (2009) and the National Quality Framework have articulated and defined the work of early years’ educators in a range of areas, including literacy. Both frameworks state that their aim is to maintain the focus of the Development Strategy provide all Australian children with an educational foundation to support them throughout their lives. In this climate, and some years after the implementation of these guidelines, it seems timely to examine the literacy programmes, practices and perspectives of prior-to-school environments as they prepare children to transition to the early years of primary school. This paper reports on the findings of a study that aimed to explore the nature of literacy programmes, practices and perspectives, and in particular how such programmes support educators and children in one prior-to-school setting, as they prepare to transition to the first year of formal schooling. Analysis of the experiences offered in prior-to-school centres revealed a number of learning experiences that illustrated Bernstein’s notion of visible and invisible literacy learning pedagogies. It was found that viewing these learning experiences along a continuum from invisible to visible pedagogical practices was a useful framework for categorising the range of experiences in which the children engaged. It is suggested that such a continuum would be a useful framework for both prior-to-school and kindergarten teachers to better support children as they transition across settings. However, we must add a caveat, namely, that such a framework should not lead to increase pressure on prior-to-school settings to increase ‘visible pedagogical practices’ in order to ‘teach’ literacy skills.

scholarly journals Teaching phonics without teaching phonics: Early childhood teachers’ reported beliefs and practices

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 783-814 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stacey Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Early Literacy ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Early Childhood Teachers ◽  
Literacy Learning ◽  
Interview Data ◽  
Mixed Methods Study ◽  
Two Phase ◽  
Literacy Beliefs

Phonics continues to be one of the most controversial literacy instruction topics debated in the USA, the UK, Australia and New Zealand. Given the importance placed on phonics in early literacy learning and the role that teacher beliefs play in the types of code-related literacy children encounter, the purpose of this two phase mixed-methods study was to investigate the relationship between teachers’ reported play–literacy beliefs, their phonics practices and the reasons behind their decisions not to use commercial phonics programmes in the prior-to-school years. This mixed-methods study found there was a correlation related to teachers’ play-based, child-centred literacy beliefs, their reported holistic early literacy phonics practices and their decisions not to use commercial phonics programmes. Logistic regression analysis revealed a positive and significant relationship between early childhood teachers who stated that they would never consider using a commercial phonics programme and their reported belief that children learn letters and sounds incidentally. Thematic analysis of interview data found that the teachers interpreted phonics instruction as a method occurring as an isolated skill–drill activity and subsequently held strong views against heavily scripted commercial phonics programmes. The interview data also revealed a range of play-based and holistic phonics examples embedded through everyday classroom experiences over explicit systematic instruction reported. Early childhood teachers’ knowledge, experience and reported beliefs, together with a high level of confidence in addressing parental pressure to engage in formalised phonics lessons, were reasons behind their reported practices. This study has important implications for understanding the different types of phonics methods children encounter, teacher concerns over loss of play-based literacy learning and the continuing controversy between adult-directed phonics and child-initiated, play-literacy practices.

scholarly journals Living with Tensions: Stories of Chinese Early Childhood Teachers’ Teaching and Learning Experiences in the Contemporary Urban Chinese Context

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Jing Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Practical Knowledge ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Early Childhood Teachers ◽  
Learning Experiences ◽  
Chinese Context ◽  
Personal Practical Knowledge ◽  
Teachers Experiences

<p>This narrative inquiry explores 6 Chinese early childhood teachers’ teaching and learning experiences in Shanghai and Beijing, where Chinese and Western educational ideas and practices co-exist. Interviews with teachers, kindergarten directors, and parents, and participatory observations and collected documents are analysed and interpreted to reveal the teachers’ experiences of being both teacher and learner in the contemporary urban Chinese context. The teachers’ experiences and voices are at the centre of this study and are represented in poetic format. The themes emerging from the teachers’ poems are discussed alongside relevant literature in order to gain in-depth understanding of each teacher’s teaching and learning experience in specific kindergarten contexts. Emerging themes embody the reality of teaching and learning, professional learning in the embedded community of practice, and the teachers’ professional and personal selves. Tensions and challenges the teachers faced in teaching and learning are identified. The enabling and constraining factors that may deskill, re-skill, or empower the teachers are discussed. The teachers’ stories suggest that they experience tensions between the multiple and contradicting educational ideas; the embedded kindergarten community’s interpretation of teaching and learning at multiple levels; the teachers’ personal practical knowledge; and their life as a multifaceted human being. The research suggests the need for kindergarten directors, scholars and policymakers to pay attention to the dynamic relationships between a kindergarten’s structure, curriculum, pedagogy, images of the child, teachers’ personal practical knowledge, professional learning, and teachers’ inner selves and agency.</p>

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