Bridging the Gap between Policy and Implementation

2011 ◽  
pp. 242-260
Author(s):  
Jorge Lopez
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Open Access ◽  
Educational System ◽  
Major Change ◽  
The State ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Education Services ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
International Attention

The last decade brought major change to the Mexican educational system as sweeping reforms across all levels were implemented. In particular the early years of education became the focus of legislation to increase quality, open access, and improve curriculum. Mexico captured international attention when it became the first country to make it obligatory for the State to provide pre-school education services for children 3 to 6 years of age and required parents to see that their children attend a public or private pre-school. This chapter explores the gap between policy and implementation of early childhood and technology reform. This sweeping reform is one of the first international attempts to support early childhood education at this level.

Technology in Preschool Education in Mexico

2010 ◽  
pp. 70-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorge López ◽  
María Eugenia López
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Open Access ◽  
Educational System ◽  
Preschool Education ◽  
Major Change ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Global Community ◽  
Use Of Technology ◽  
Education In Mexico

The last nine years have seen major change in the Mexican educational system as sweeping reforms across all levels have been implemented. In particular the early years of education have become the focus of legislation to increase quality, open access, and improve curriculum. How technology shaped these sweeping reform efforts will change the future of Mexico in a global community. Early childhood education must support the use of technology if the population is to move into a techno-society.

A pesquisa no PPGE-UEPG/PR: Educação física escolar, educação infantil e formação de professores

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvia Christina de Oliveira Madrid
Keyword(s):  
Elementary School ◽  
Early Childhood ◽  
Teacher Training ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Physical Education ◽  
The State ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Pedagogical Practice ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Theoretical Assumptions

The research (PPGE/UEPG) of this work deals with themes in the areas of School Physical Education, Early Childhood Education and Teacher Training. The authors' academic production is linked to the axes and lines of research of the Study and Research Group on School Physical Education and Teacher Training – Gepefe (UEPG/CNPq). The work begins by presenting the study on the theoretical assumptions that underlie Education for Peace as an educational component of a Culture of Peace, the effective approach from the perspective of Edgar Morin's Theory of Complexity. Next, the study on the methodological theoretical assumptions of Physical Education in the final years of elementary school of the Public Network of the State of Paraná is presented, the research was carried out in schools in a municipality in the interior of the State. The theme of the third study deals with how school management is realized in the pedagogical practice of Early Childhood Education. The fourth study deals with the pedagogical practice of Physical Education in the early years of elementary school of the Municipal Education Network, in an interior city of the State of Paraná. At the end of the work, Gepefe's academic contribution is presented as a space for dialogues between the school context and the Training of Physical Education teachers, in the areas of teaching, research and extension. The authors hope that the work will contribute to foster discussions in the academic and professional spheres, providing debates and reflections in relation to the context of School Physical Education, Early Childhood Education and Teacher Training.

scholarly journals Understanding Early Childhood Science Education: Comparative Analysis of Australian and Finnish Curricula

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sari Havu-Nuutinen ◽  
Sarika Kewalramani ◽  
Nikolai Veresov ◽  
Susanna Pöntinen ◽  
Sini Kontkanen
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Science Education ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Science Curriculum ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Curriculum Framework ◽  
International Comparative

AbstractThis research is a comparative study of Finnish and Australian science curricula in early childhood education (EC). The study aims to figure out the constructivist components of the science curriculum in two countries as well as locate the similarities and differences in the rationale and aims, contents, learning outcomes, learning activities, teacher’s role and assessment. The curriculum analysis framework developed by Van den Akker (2003) was used as a methodological framework for the curricula analysis. Based on the theory-driven content analyses, findings show that both countries have several components of constructivist curriculum, but not always clearly focused on science education. The Australian Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) integrates children’s science learning within their five specific learning outcomes, whereas the Finnish national core curriculum for early childhood education and care has no defined learning outcomes in general. The Finnish curriculum more clearly than EYLF encompasses science and environmental education as a learning domain, within which children participate in targeted scientific activities to gain procedural knowledge in specific environmental-related concepts. More focus should be turned to the teachers’ role and assessment, which are not determined in science context in both countries. This international comparative study calls for the need of a considered EC curriculum framework that more explicitly has science domains with specifically defined rationale, aims, content areas, learning outcomes and assessment criteria. The implications lie in providing early childhood educators with tangible and theoretically solid curriculum framework and resources in order to foster scientific thinking in young children.

scholarly journals Professionalisation of early childhood education and care practitioners: Working conditions in Ireland

2021 ◽  
pp. 146394912110101
Author(s):  
Geraldine Mooney Simmie ◽  
Dawn Murphy
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Women Workers ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Performance Management ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
The State ◽  
Developmental Needs ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
Education And Care

The last decade has revealed a global (re)configuring of the relationships between the state, society and educational settings in the direction of systems of performance management. In this article, the authors conduct a critical feminist inquiry into this changing relationship in relation to the professionalisation of early childhood education and care practitioners in Ireland, with a focus on dilemmatic contradictions between the policy reform ensemble and practitioners’ reported working conditions in a doctoral study. The critique draws from the politics of power and education, and gendered and classed subjectivities, and allows the authors to theorise early childhood education and care professionalisation in alternative emancipatory ways for democratic pedagogy rather than a limited performativity. The findings reveal the state (re)configured as a central command centre with an over-reliance on surveillance, alongside deficits of responsibility for public interest values in relation to the working conditions of early childhood education and care workers, who are mostly part-time ‘pink-collar’ women workers in precarious roles. The study has implications that go beyond Ireland for the professionalisation of early childhood education and care workers and meeting the early developmental needs of young children.

scholarly journals Finnish Pre-Service Teachers’ Perceptions of Perceived Competence in Early Childhood Physical Education

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (12) ◽  
pp. 6454
Author(s):  
Anne Soini ◽  
Anthony Watt ◽  
Arja Sääkslahti
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Teacher Training ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Motor Skills ◽  
Perceived Competence ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Linear Regression Models ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
Childhood Education

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) teachers have a central role in supporting young children’s physical activity (PA) and overall development in the early years. However, the value of early childhood education teacher training (ECETT) programmes is not widely understood. This study aimed to investigate pre-service teachers’ perceptions of perceived competence when (1) supporting a child’s PA, (2) teaching PE, and (3) observing and assessing a child’s motor skills and PA. These self-evaluations were compared with a range of individual, educational, and behavioural characteristics. Final-year Bachelor degree pre-service teachers (n = 274; 54%) from seven universities in Finland participated in the self-report questionnaire. The results of the linear regression models showed that the relevant PE studies and previous experiences of pre-service teachers predicted higher perceived competence of supporting a child’s PA, teaching PE, and observing and assessing a child’s motor skills and PA. Thus, the study findings demonstrated how teacher training could positively influence perceptions and attitudes to increase a person’s perceived competence when implementing PE in the early years. Overall, results reinforce the importance of PE in ECETT, and the time devoted to this syllabus area should be maintained or increased.

scholarly journals Is infant belonging observable? A path through the maze

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 404-416
Author(s):  
Jane M Selby ◽  
Benjamin S Bradley ◽  
Jennifer Sumsion ◽  
Matthew Stapleton ◽  
Linda J Harrison
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Sense Of Belonging ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Infants And Toddlers ◽  
Quality Outcomes ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Learning Framework ◽  
Video Recordings ◽  
Education And Care

This article evaluates the concept of infant ‘belonging’, central to several national curricula for early childhood education and care. Here, the authors focus on Australia’s Early Years Learning Framework. Four different meanings attach to ‘belonging’ in the Early Years Learning Framework, the primary being sociopolitical. However, ‘a sense of belonging’ is also proposed as something that should be observable and demonstrable in infants and toddlers – such demonstration being held up as one of the keys to quality outcomes in early childhood education and care. The Early Years Learning Framework endows belonging with two contrasting meanings when applied to infants. The first, the authors call ‘marked belonging’, and it refers to the infant’s exclusion from or inclusion in defined groups of others. The second, the authors provisionally call ‘unmarked’ belonging. Differences between these two meanings of infant belonging are explored by describing two contrasting observational vignettes from video recordings of infants in early childhood education and care. The authors conclude that ‘belonging’ is not a helpful way to refer to, or empirically demonstrate, an infant’s mundane comfort or ‘unmarked’ agentive ease in shared early childhood education and care settings. A better way to conceptualise and research this would be through the prism of infants’ proven capacity to participate in groups.

scholarly journals Leadership in early childhood education: The case for pedagogical praxis

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ioanna Palaiologou ◽  
Trevor Male
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Ideological Struggle ◽  
Education And Care ◽  
Curriculum Reforms ◽  
Predominately Female ◽  
Teacher Status

In this conceptual article, the authors examine the context of early childhood education and care in England and the underpinning predominant ideologies to explore how these impact on the framing of leadership. The English context entails several contradictions (antinomies) at ontological, epistemological and axiological levels, and is heavily influenced by an ideological struggle concerning the value of play within the sector as opposed to a climate of child performativity. Moreover, the predominately female workforce (a factor itself) has faced relentless changes in terms of qualifications and curriculum reforms in recent years. With the introduction of the graduate leader qualification (Early Years Teacher Status), a vast body of research has been seeking to conceptualise what leadership means for early childhood education and care. In this article, the authors argue that these attempts are helpful and contribute to this discourse of leadership, but it needs to be thought of not only abstractly, but also practically. Thus, the authors conclude, the (re)conceptualisation of leadership should locate it as pedagogical praxis after evaluating the inherent deep dispositions of leaders in conjunction with their history, surrounding culture and subjective perspectives/realities.

scholarly journals Didaktisk diskussion om barnträdgårdslärares möjligheter att arbeta med matematik i finländsk småbarnsfostran

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Camilla Björklund
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Educational Practice ◽  
Early Years ◽  
School Teachers ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
School Activities ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
New Research

Title: Didactical discussion on pre-school teachers’ prerequisites for working with mathematics in Finnish early childhood educationAbstract: Finnish teachers encounter an increased focus on learning aspects and a revised legislation strengthens teachers’ professional role for early learning, which also has impact on pre-school teachers’ work in early childhood education (children 0–5 years). The paradigm in early childhood education in recent years emphasizes development, learning and teaching. Mathematics is one content area that has been given a lot of attention in Nordic discussions on education for early years. However, the Finnish national curricula and guidelines for early childhood education give limited support for developing stimulating and goal-oriented educational practice in so called academic fields of knowledge, for example mathematics. This article aims at pointing at some of the prerequisites for working with mathematics in Finnish early childhood education in relation to new research on mathematical development and didactics suitable for early childhood education. Three authentic examples of traditional pre-school activities with toddlers are taken as a starting point for the didactical discussion.

scholarly journals Study on the Training Needs of Teaching Staff to Provide Quality Early Childhood Education Services

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sofia-Loredana Tudor
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Early Education ◽  
Training Needs ◽  
Educational Services ◽  
Teaching Staff ◽  
Education Services ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Education Strategy ◽  
Policy Measures

Early child development is related to early education, health, nutrition, and psychosocial development; therefore, the holistic concept of early approach combines elements from the area of stimulation of the child, health, nutrition, speech therapy, psychological counselling, physical development support, etc. The need for the development of integrated early education services and their extension to the area of 0-3 years are priorities of the European strategies assumed through a complex of educational policy measures, having as a priority the development of quality early education services for the benefit of all prerequisites for lowering the schooling rate (Strategy for early childhood education, Strategy for parental education, Strategy for reducing early school leaving in Romania, Study on the evaluation of public policies in the field of early childhood education - Saber Early Childhood). In this context of the development of early childhood education, numerous inequalities are identified in the implementation of European and national strategies and programs in the development of early childhood education services, supported by economic, political, social factors, etc. In order to make them compatible at European level, we consider it necessary to support training and development programs for staff providing educational services in early childhood education institutions. The purpose of this study is to acknowledge the opinion of the bodies with attributions in the pre-kindergarten and preschool education in Romania, as well as of the civil society and public opinion, as a prerequisite for identifying school policy measures and developing programs for training the teaching staff so as to be able to provide educational services in early childhood education (representatives responsible for early childhood education in school inspectorates and Houses of the Teaching Staff, teaching staff in preschool educational institutions, representatives of the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, representatives of the Social Assistance Directorate, managers of nursery schools, representatives of NGOs and other categories of organizations with experience in the field, parents and interested representatives of the civil society and public opinion). The present study is a qualitative research based on the focus-group method, but also a quantitative research by using the questionnaire-based survey, being carried out on a representative sample of 100 persons (2 focus-group of 25 persons, respectively 50 persons involved in the survey-based questionnaire). The conclusions of this study highlight the need to restructure the system of early childhood education in Romania through interventions at the legislative level and ensure a unitary system of policy and intervention in early childhood education. Also, we believe it is imperative to reorganize the training system of the human resource, by developing complementary competences of the teaching staff, adapted to the training needs of the early childhood population, ensuring a valuable inclusive and integrated intervention.

scholarly journals Strategies to Develop Emotional Intelligence in Early Childhood

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
İlkay Ulutaş ◽  
Kübra Engin ◽  
Emine Bozkurt Polat
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Intelligence ◽  
Early Childhood ◽  
Academic Success ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Behavioral Problem ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Social Emotional ◽  
Only Children ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Emotional Intelligence Training

Children have many opportunities in early childhood education that support their emotions. These opportunities need to be transformed into learning situations appropriate to their development and developed. Learnings cannot happen independently of emotional intelligence. Social–emotional skills must be developed in education to achieve both academic success and success in life. It is important to support emotional intelligence in early childhood education to enable children to be emotionally healthy, to cope with difficulties, to respect differences, and to gain a social perspective by working in collaboration with others. Emotional intelligence training helps not only children but everyone in the classroom setting, especially educators who are unsure of how to work with a child with an emotional or behavioral problem. Since emotional intelligence can be developed and strengthened by training at all ages, it can be a way of teaching for educators as they regularly include methods and techniques in the program. Based on this, in this section, the emotional intelligence of children, programs methods and strategies will be discussed in terms of supporting emotional intelligence in the early years.

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