Julie Nicholson

Deconstructing Adults' and Children's Discourse on Children's Play: Listening to Children's Voices to Destabilise Deficit Narratives.

This study used discourse analysis to compare the language adults use to discuss contemporary childrens play and childrens narratives of their own play experiences. Adult discourse was analysed to determine whether they positioned children through deficit or strength and the attributions of responsibility embedded within their language choices (e.g. assuming responsibility is with the child, family or society). Interviews were completed with 98 children (3–17) living in the USA and interviews and surveys were completed with 135 adults (18–88) from 21 different countries. Children emphasise interconnection with others, being outdoors and using open-ended toys to imagine and explore when discussing their play with little mention of technology. A majority of adults (78%) used deficit discourse and few used strengths-based language to discuss childrens play (21%). Adult discourse differed significantly from childrens descriptions of their own play. Findings suggest the importance of including childrens perspectives in research on childrens play.

If I Am Not Doing My Own Playing Then I Am Not Able to Truly Share the Gift of Play with Children: Using Poststructuralism and Care Ethics to Examine Future Early Childhood Educators' Relationships with Play in Adulthood.

The current sociopolitical context of schooling is positioning play as incongruous with childrens academic learning. As a result, teacher educators must increasingly guide future early childhood professionals to develop the skills and knowledge necessary to become effective play advocates. This includes articulating the value of play across the lifespan to a variety of stakeholders. Yet, ironically, many adult women entering the early childhood profession report that a wide range of barriers prevent them from including play in their adult lives. Two case studies highlight how early childhood graduate students use their experiences with play across the lifespan as a foundation for becoming play advocates. Nel Noddingss care ethics and feminist poststructural critiques of the construct of care inform the analysis and discussion of the findings. Implications suggest the importance of guiding early childhood professionals to acknowledge self-care as a component of care and play as an essential expression of self-care.

Developing leadership for early childhood professionals through oral inquiry: strengthening equity through making particulars visible in dilemmas of practice

Developing leadership among early childhood professionals has become increasingly important as investing in childrens early years has been championed as a public and private national and international priority. Two case studies present how oral inquiry and specifically, the Prospect Centers Descriptive Review of a Professional Dilemma of Practice, was used to support early childhood professionals to develop their leadership by strengthening the skills and dispositions they need to critically reflect upon, explore and negotiate the complex dilemmas they face in the context of their daily practice. Research on the use of inquiry to address uncertainty, the development of reflective practices, relational logics of effectiveness and social justice leadership inform discussion of the findings. Implications suggest the promise of using oral inquiry to support leadership development for early childhood professionals.

Inserting Postmodern Epistemological Perspectives into Discourse on Readiness: Privileging Assets, Capacity Building, and Diversity to Increase Equity

We as a school district must begin to “ready” ourselves and our classrooms to be both responsive, and reflexive, to the students and families we are in service to. Asking ourselves and one another, how are we “readying” our curricular approaches and instructional strategies for the diverse and unique needs of the students and families we open our doors to every day? In what ways are we “ready” and willing to engage, encourage, and empower families to contribute and participate in the daily instructional design process? What do we, as individuals, divisions, and departments, need to shift—across the system—in order for this kind of “ready school—school readiness” to occur? Without our schools and district simultaneously embracing the responsibility of “school readiness” within our own practice and belief system, our children and families will be forced to continue to confront and bare the inequitable weight of “school readiness” deficit discourse, never once taking into consideration the enormity of responsibility a school, district, and society has to ready themselves for our students. (Interview with Sarah Collins, 0–8 Early Education Coordinator, Everett Unified School District, December 2013)

Recognizing Postmodern Intersectional Identities in Leadership for Early Childhood.

Current interest in the development of leadership capacity within the early childhood profession provides an important opportunity to critically examine our field’s conceptualizations of leadership. Modernist binary leader/follower conceptions are not reflective of contemporary scholarship describing identities as multiple, dynamic, socially constituted, negotiated, complex and like the self, undergoing continuous transformation. Additionally, linear descriptions of leadership development contrast with research documenting professional growth and change as a nonlinear, cyclical, and contextually influenced process, and deny the existence of power relationships that afford and constrain the multiple and intersecting identities of practitioners in the early childhood field. Drawing on a multilevel model of intersectionality, we problematize how identities are described in discussions of early childhood leadership and propose the need to revisit, revise, and reimagine leadership concepts for our field by advancing a postmodern turn in our theorizing.

Inserting Inclusivity and Social Justice into Conceptualizations of Leadership for Early Childhood: Theoretical Anchors and Postfoundational Pedagogies for Inspiring Provocations in the Field

Increased public attention and investment in children’s first 5 years has reignited historical concerns about the lack of a formal pipeline for supporting leadership development within the field of early childhood. Critical analysis of the barriers described as undergirding this dearth of leadership highlights the need for expanded conceptualizations that more authentically capture the complex and diversified skills, knowledge, and dispositions enacted by early childhood professionals in contemporary contexts. Juxtaposing historical inequities, positioning ECE professionals outside the boundaries of leadership discourse with progress made to expand its definitions, an argument is made that we must continue to recast productions of leadership in early childhood using social justice discourse and critical theories as conceptual anchors leading to more equitable, inclusive, and diversified understandings. Contextualized narratives provide windows into the work—content explored, pedagogies employed, and reverberations rippling into the community—of one graduate program working to insert more equitable discourses of leadership into the field. Voices representing a diverse group of women and men, all full-time working professionals representing every sector of early childhood, relay the complexities, tensions, and promises in “becoming” leaders for social justice in early childhood.

A review of the literature on leadership in early childhood: examining epistemological foundations and considerations of social justice

ABSTRACT With the increasing acknowledgement of the benefits of early childhood education, there is a need to ask critical questions about whether ample leadership exists for guiding ambitious systemic change in the field. This review of leadership in early childhood educational contexts between 1995 and 2015 examines the epistemological assumptions embedded in the literature (and those advantaged and marginalized as a result), the expressed purposes of leadership work and specifically, whether, and to what extent, considerations of social justice and equity have been included in leadership theorizing. Eighty-one publications were identified through a search of major electronic databases and analysed using an analytic review template that includes definitions of leadership, modern and postmodern epistemologies underlying these texts, and considerations of social justice. Findings suggest that while traditional hierarchical conceptions are common, there is a shift towards more distributed and relational understandings of leadership. More recently, leadership is being described as a socially constructed, situated, culturally informed and dynamic process. There has also been an increase in the number of scholars emphasizing postmodern thinking in discussions of leadership over modernist conceptions. Still, there is less explicit discussion of postmodern intersectional identities in leadership. In addition, most literature does not include explicit discussion of social justice in theorizing about leadership, or the expressed purposes of leadership. This suggests the importance of critically examining the epistemological assumptions represented in leadership discourse and of more intentional links between leadership and goals that address social injustices for children, families and the early childhood workforce.

Teacher Leaders Building Foundations for Data-Informed Teacher Learning in One Urban Elementary School

ABSTRACT We examine how teacher leaders (TLs), working in a low-income urban elementary school, supported their colleagues to learn how to collect quality formative data and to discuss it in collaborative conversations in order to make their students’ learning visible. The TLs faced challenges reflecting consequences resulting from the district’s high stakes accountability policies restricting teachers’ agency with instructional decision-making and limiting their definitions of data as summative test scores. We document how the TLs worked to reframe teachers’ understanding of data to include evidence of student thinking and supported their colleagues to reclaim teaching as professional versus technical work.

Cycling on abandoned Second World War airfields and Jugando a Las Escondidas en el Parque: examining play memories from adults growing up around the world

This study examined play memories from adults who grew up in a wide range of international contexts. Surveys and semi-structured interviews asking adults to recollect play memories were completed with 135 adults (100 Females, 35 Males) who grew up in 21 countries. Play memories were analysed to identify adults’ favourite types of childhood play, barriers preventing their play, beliefs about the impact of their childhood play across their lifespan, the emotions associated with recollecting their play, and the similarities and variations represented across the adults’ play memories. Pretend play, play in nature, and risk-taking were prevalent themes, however, the data reflect how variation in sociocultural and historical contexts strongly influenced childrens play experiences. The majority of participants associated play memories with positive feelings and reported lifelong benefits of early play experiences. The literature on sociocultural variations in childrens play and neuroscience research on memories as reconstructions informs discussion of the findings.