Jessie Jovanovic

Learner engagement under the ‘regulatory gaze’: possibilities for re-positioning early childhood pre-service teachers as autonomous professionals

Abstract In a climate of increasing regulation within early childhood education and care services, and the greater re-positioning of professionals within public sectors, this article seeks to extend the literature surrounding risk and regulation in early childhood. In efforts to ‘push back’ against the ‘regulatory gaze’ in the early childhood education and care sector, we investigate the role that learner engagement in initial teacher education can play in empowering early childhood pre-service teachers (PSTs) as professionals. This question is explored in the reporting of the findings from an action research study which redesigned a semester-long teacher education topic to draw on the students’ self-knowledge, applied experience and content choice, to go beyond the meeting of minimum credential requirements. Data were derived from sequential student evaluations and topic coordinators’ reflections. Subsequent analysis highlights significant insights in relation to student-teachers’ understanding of professionalism and their role within the ECEC sector. The implications of this re-positioning of PSTs’ developing sense of professionalism amidst increasing regulation are discussed.

Saying Goodbye: An Investigation into Parent–Infant Separation Behaviours on Arrival in Childcare

The goal of this small-scale study was to investigate how parental separation behaviours affect the transitional behaviour of infants aged 6–18 months. Thirty parent–infant pairs were observed during the separation process across three metropolitan childcare centres in Adelaide, South Australia. Observed interactions with both their infants and centre caregivers reveal that participating parents concentrated more on routine tasks and conversations with caregivers than on interacting with or responding to their infant prior to separation. Parents also shared information more frequently with caregivers and rarely spoke with their child about their return to the centre. Infants were typically immobile, engaged in watching behaviours and were in close proximity to a caregiver 15 minutes after their parents departure. The findings confirm that the daily (or regular) parent–infant separation process is dyadic in nature. This paper offers tentative ideas for childcare practice and further avenues for research to consider the focus and speed of parent–infant separations in ways that may better support the infants reoccurring transition into their childcare environment.

Exploring the use of emoji as a visual research method for eliciting young children’s voices in childhood research

ABSTRACT Recognition of the need to move from research on children to research with children has prompted significant theoretical and methodological debate as to how young children can be positioned as active participants in the research process. Visual research methods such as drawing, photography, and videography have received substantive attention in child-centred research paradigms. However, despite their increasing ubiquity in young children’s lifeworlds, technology or media-based visual materials have received little interest. This article reports on a study which used emoji as a visual research method for eliciting young children’s (aged three to five years) understandings and experiences of well-being. Findings elucidate the capacity of emoji as a visual research method for eliciting children’s voices, and considerations for its use in child research.

Educating professionals who will work with children in the early years: an evidence-informed interdisciplinary framework

The first five years of a child’s life are irrefutably important, establishing life-long health, social and economic outcomes. To optimize these outcomes, global policy is directing professionals from a range of disciplinary backgrounds to work more collaboratively than ever before with children in the early years. Such collaborations have proven problematic as individual disciplines and pre-service education requirements vary widely. Using Community-Based Participatory Research and Diffusion of Innovation approaches, this study aimed to develop an educational framework for professionals working with children in the early years and their families, to begin a cultural change for interdisciplinary collaboration and participation across the early years. Systematic reviews, modified Delphi rounds and focus groups identified the diverse demands of multiple professions, qualification levels and workforce agendas, as well as highlighting shared outcomes, knowledge and intentions across disciplines.

Early childhood educators’ understanding of early communication: Application to their work with young children

Young children need rich learning experiences to maximize their potential. Early childhood educators (ECEs) working in childcare have knowledge of individual children as well as skills and professional knowledge that afford opportunities to provide language-rich environments for learning. To successfully work in partnership with ECEs, speech-language pathologists need to understand what they know about early communication development and how they apply it in their work. This study explored ECEs’ understanding of early communication development in childcare contexts, and how they related this to the education and care they provided. In this exploratory study we conducted three focus groups with 19 ECEs who were employed in eight different childcare centres in low socio-economic areas in metropolitan Adelaide, South Australia. Data were analysed thematically revealing three core themes: ‘Knowing and doing in context’; ‘ECEs’ role’; and ‘ECEs’ challenges’. Participants articulated understanding of early communication development and the importance of strong relationships between ECEs, children and their families. These ECEs’ skills and knowledge of children in their care was the basis from which they provided language-rich learning environments with individually tailored educational programmes to support all children, including those experiencing communication difficulties. They highlighted challenges in delivering this care, including the need for more explicit support from speech-language pathologists. There is potential to further develop interdisciplinary partnerships between ECEs in childcare and other professionals, such as speech-language pathologists, to maximize early developmental opportunities for children attending childcare.

Transformative Curriculum: “I Felt like an Artist”

Contemporary early childhood teacher education is situated in a knowledge and policy environment where on the one hand preservice educators have the opportunity to connect with unlimited knowledge sources and, on the other, are expected to conform to standardized outcomes. This situation is compounded by increasingly inequitable learning outcomes for children in many countries. In this paper, we argue that this context demands different ways of teaching and learning in early childhood teacher education and that in order to address increasing inequity, preservice educators must experience a transformative university curriculum. This paper uses the example of an arts topic, with a particular focus on music, to examine ways of positioning preservice educators that open up, rather than restrict opportunities to reconceptualize early childhood curriculum. The authors examine data from curriculum documents and student reflections in order to discuss the intended (planned), enacted (implemented) and experienced university curriculum.

Observing Children with Attachment Difficulties in Preschool Settings: A Tool for Identifying and Supporting Emotional and Social Difficulties/Observing Children with Attachment Difficulties in Schools: A Tool for Identifying and Supporting Emotional and Social Difficulties in Children Aged 5–11

The role that attachment relationships with significant adults can play in supporting infants’ and toddlers’ socio-emotional needs is well-recognised in contemporary research and discourse. This makes the recognition and attention that the Observing Children with Attachment Difficulties series is generating significant in itself, but also for pre-schoolers and school children aged 5–11 children alike. The relevancy of these books is wide-ranging for those who work with children in diverse professional fields, such as education, social work or clinical psychology. Simply put, the books present an observational tool, supported by clear instruction, which provides a much-needed, practical focus on the identification of attachment and emotional difficulties that may be evident in young children’s behaviour. Children of this age are learning to recognise their own feelings and how to adequately explain or deal with the origins of them, making these resources all the more valuable for the practitioner. Each book follows a similar pattern: