Aurelia Di Santo

A Call for a Shift in Thinking: Viewing Children as Rights-Holders in Early Childhood Curriculum Frameworks

The authors conduct a document analysis of the Early Learning for Every Child Today: A Framework for Ontario Early Childhood Settings (2007) to identify childrens rights as reflected in a widely used early childhood curriculum framework in Ontario, Canada. They argue about the significance of looking at curriculum through the lens of childrens rights in order to create a global community and strive toward a “rights-integrative approach to early learning.” The findings from the analysis indicate how curriculum documents used for guiding early learning practices may serve as ideal vehicles for introducing discourses on childrens rights.

Preservice early childhood educators’ pedagogical beliefs

ABSTRACT Preservice early childhood educators begin postsecondary programs with established beliefs about children, children’s learning, and their roles as future educators. The present study examined 26 first-year students’ beliefs about children, classroom practice, and guiding children’s behavior. Participants completed the Teacher Beliefs Q-Sort (Rimm-Kaufman, Storm, Sawyer, Pianta, & La Paro, 2006) at three time points over the course of their first year of studies. We compared responses across the three time points to explore whether the students’ beliefs changed over time. Findings are presented under three main themes: 1) beliefs about children; 2) beliefs about classroom practice; and 3) beliefs about behavior management. Overall, findings reveal that for all three themes, at each time point, practices that are most characteristic of the participants’ beliefs are child-centered, whereas beliefs that are least characteristic of their beliefs are teacher-directed. To support students’ application of theory to practice, they should be given opportunities during their studies to voice, explore, and critically examine their beliefs in relation to philosophies and teaching approaches.

The innovation of Ontario full-day kindergarten educator teams: have they reproduced the split systems of care and education?

ABSTRACT This study investigated the implementation of a full-day kindergarten programme in Ontario, Canada. Key to the implementation of this programme has been a new kind of educator team consisting of a certified teacher and a registered early childhood educator and a complementary partnership in which each team member contributes equally. Our research examined team members’ perceptions and practices related to their roles and responsibilities. Findings suggest that the care work for which early childhood educators are disproportionally responsible is accorded less value and status than the work of educating children. Implications of these findings are discussed in relation to the care/education split, the social reproduction of care work and social inequities.