Cathy Nutbrown

Citizenship and inclusion in the early years: understanding and responding to children’s perspectives on ‘belonging’

This paper argues for, and demonstrates the effectiveness of, including young children in commenting on and improving their learning environments. It reports the experiences gathered from of 16 setting‐based, small‐scale, practitioner‐led projects. Taking a view of citizenship as ‘participation’ the paper shows how practitioner‐research can support the evolution of inclusive environments for all children. Following a critical review of the literature on citizenship, young children, and ‘inclusion’ the paper considers the usefulness of the participant methodology of practitioner action research and the concept of ‘voice’ in educational research and report. Examples of practitioner‐research projects involving children aged three to six years identify and illustrate key themes from the data. Thus, they demonstrate: (1) the range of factors which excited or worried the children; and (2) the ways in which children’s concerns and ideas were listened to and action for change was developed. The children’s ideas and extracts from their comments are included alongside the practitioners’ responses in the cases which are discussed. Four main points are considered in conclusion: (1) children’s views can contribute to the development of inclusive practices; (2) children’s voices are central to studies of their perspectives and the methodological challenges of listening to children’s voices in research must be addressed; (3) identity and self esteem are key to the successful promotion of young children’s positive sense of inclusivity and belonging in their early years settings; and (4) supported practitioner‐research can enhance inclusive early years practices. The paper argues that including children in the identification and exploration of issues important to them promotes a positive sense of inclusivity and that such approaches to developing pedagogies of citizenship and belonging constitute a practical enacting of ‘voice’.

Children’s Perspectives on Family Literacy: Methodological Issues, Findings and Implications for Practice:

This article reports a study of family literacy practices from the perspectives of five-year-old children drawn from areas of social and economic deprivation in an English city. Methodological and ethical issues of interviewing young children are discussed. An interview survey (N= 71) found literacy activity reported in all homes; fathers involved in literacy with their children; and boys (as well as girls) involved in literacy activity. Findings were compared with those of a further randomly selected sample (N= 77) whose parents had participated in a family literacy programme. The comparison showed a modest, but consistent, increase in child-reported family literacy activity in the programme group, and concludes that the impact of a family literacy programme is discernible through children’s perspectives. Implications for family literacy practices and the need for further research, including measures of children’s literacy achievement and views of parents and the teachers participating in the programme, are identified.

Naked by the Pool? Blurring the Image? Ethical Issues in the Portrayal of Young Children in Arts-Based Educational Research.

In this article I discuss my growing worry over the use (and nonuse) of photographs of young children in social research. Taking a view of child protection as paramount, I situate the discussion in the context of ethical governance of research, young children as research participants, changing views of childhoods, and the juxtaposition of the Arts with/in Arts-Based Educational Research. The article sets out a worry over the increasing tendency to pixilate—and hence distort—images of young children for inclusion in research reports or presentations. This (largely unchallenged) practice is slipping into research conventions whilst at the same time research governance and research involving children profilerate. The article argues that the pixilation of photographs of children, may represent a further “crisis of representation” and is an example of the “Othering” of young children in research.

parents’ experiences of a family literacy programme

Relatively few studies of family literacy programmes have investigated parents’ views, despite their importance for the future development of this kind of programme in early childhood education. This article reports on a family literacy programme from the perspectives of the parents involved in it. The study was carried out in socio-economically disadvantaged communities in a northern English city. Parent experiences were investigated through interviews at the beginning and end of the programme (N = 85) and home visit records. Interviews with a control group (N = 73) of parents who had never participated in a family literacy programme were also conducted at the end of programme. Take-up and participation rates were extremely high for child-focused components of the programme, but the adult (parent-focused) education component had lower take-up. Parents expressed extremely positive views about the child-focused component of the programme and all felt it had benefited children. There was evidence, according to parent report, of programme impact on family literacy practices. Implications for family literacy programmes are discussed.

Inclusion and exclusion in the early years: conversations with European educators

This paper reports a study to investigate the views of early childhood educators working in a range of early childhood settings in four European countries, Denmark, Greece, Italy and the UK. Recent research into European perspectives on early education, special educational needs and inclusion is reviewed highlighting: a multinational call for action on teaching children with learning difficulties; issues related to the inclusion (and exclusion) of children with emotional and behavioural difficulties; the prevalence of inclusive policies in parallel with some exclusive practices and attitudes, and issues of professional development to support educators’ work with children with learning difficulties. Secondly, the rationale, aims and research design of the Comparative Approaches to Preschool Education: Special Educational Needs (CAPE: SEN) study are outlined. This survey of 113 European early childhood educators working, in the main, in mainstream/generic settings used three methods of data gathering: questionnaires, email conversations and face‐to‐face interviews. The paper draws on extracts from the data to discuss four themes: educators’ personal/professional experiences; professional development; inclusion and exclusion; and the roles of parents. In conclusion, four structures to which future cross‐cultural studies need to be related are identified.

A study of work with parents to promote early literacy development

Abstract Recent research has shown the extent of childrens literacy experiences in the home before school entry, and their importance for subsequent attainment. Pre‐school intervention involving parents has been found effective in other areas of child development but there have so far been very few attempts to promote pre‐school literacy development directly by working with parents. There may be doubts about the form such work should take and its feasibility. In the present study, home‐based and school‐based ways of working with parents were devised and tried out with families in the Sheffield Early Literacy Development Project. Case studies of 20 children in the Project, aged between 1 and 4 years, and their parents were carried out. It was found that parents were willing and able to engage in a dialogue about their childrens home literacy and that the Project changed their approach to childrens literacy experiences. Both home‐based and school‐based methods had an impact but the former appeared superi...

Effects of a preschool bilingual family literacy programme

This article reports a multi-method evaluation of a one-year small-scale preschool family literacy programme with bilingual Pakistani-origin families in the UK. The programme was implemented mostly through home visits and included provision of literacy resources, some postal communication and group meetings. The study was conducted in collaboration with the Sheffield REAL (Raising Early Achievement in Literacy) project. Take-up and participation were high (with significant involvement of older siblings) and no families dropped-out. Families’ views, obtained through interviews at the beginning and end of the programme, were extremely positive in terms of increased understanding of how to support their children’s literacy development, impact on their confidence and literacy achievements, and how they valued the programme. Outcomes for children showed significant gains over a control group. The family literacy programme was found to be both feasible and effective.

Teachers' use of a conceptual framework for early literacy education involving parents

Abstract Changes in literacy education regarding the importance of the early years and the role of parents have implications for teacher professional development which have not yet been fully addressed. This article describes a conceptual framework intended to give early childhood educators a way of thinking about the role of parents in childrens early literacy development and how teachers can work with parents. The conceptual framework was offered to a group of teachers through a professional development programme of six seminars. Four sources of data were used to evaluate the meaningfulness of the framework, its perceived usefulness to teachers, and its impact on practice. Findings indicate that the framework largely achieved its intended purposes but some issues requiring further development and investigation are identified

Special Educational Needs and Inclusion : Multiple Perspectives of Preschool Educators in the UK

This article first offers an overview of policy contexts in the four countries of the UK. Second, it reviews recent research into perspectives on special educational needs and inclusion in the preschool years. Third, the rationale and research design of a study to investigate preschool educators’ perspectives on these issues are outlined. Five key themes are discussed: their personal experiences; their professional development; their views of childhood; their thoughts on inclusion and exclusion, and their beliefs and practices around the roles of parents. The article concludes with discussion of the importance of greater cross-system understanding of curriculum, pedagogy and educational ethos and identifies the need for further research.

Conceptualising arts-based learning in the early years

This paper argues that, because young children’s response to the world is primarily sensory and aesthetic, early years curriculum should give due attention to the arts. There is an urgent need to better conceptualise ways of working with young children in relation to the arts. The paper is based on three key and permeating ideas: first, that human beings need the arts for holistic development; second, that there have been many attempts to integrate the arts with other areas of learning in the early years; and third, a more robust and clearly articulated conceptualisation of arts-based learning in the early years is needed. The paper critically reviews the international literature relating to these three key areas and concludes that: early childhood education must pay due regard to the innate human need for aesthetics in the design of curricula; on the whole, young children’s experience in the arts has not been nurtured in ways which support their artistically-attuned development; and arts-based learning in the early years are not clearly conceptualised. The paper reports an example of arts-based learning involving professional artists working with children and aged six months to five years in preschool settings in England an outcome of which was a conceptual framework for arts-based learning. The paper identifies the need to provide children with greater recognition of their efforts in the arts and more adult models or users and makers of art. It further concludes that where arts-based approaches to learning are derived from research, and refined through embedded practice, children are able to learn in ways which are naturally suited to their human condition and therefore better equipped to take part in cultural and artistic elements of life as identified in the United National Convention on the rights of the child.