Sylvie Rayna

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s International Early Learning Study: Opening for debate and contestation:

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is initiating the International Early Learning Study, a cross-national assessment of early learning outcomes involving the testing of 5-year-old children in participating countries. The authors use this colloquium to inform members of the early childhood community about this project and to raise concerns about its assumptions, practices and possible effects. The authors also invite readers’ comments, to start a process of democratic dialogue and contestation.

Ecole maternelle (preschool) in France: a cross‐cultural perspective

SUMMARY This article looks at a cross‐cultural analysis of interviews of (im/migrant and non‐im/migrant) preschool teachers and parents, concerning im/migrant children enrolled in the French école maternelle, in the context of the international Children Crossing Borders (CCB) research project. Interviews were conducted in France following a polyphonic ethnographic method developed by Joseph Tobin, using video as a tool to stimulate a multi‐vocal, inter‐cultural dialogue. To this, dialogue collected by a US research team using the same method is added. The two meet over issues of play, learning, care and language. Each puts the underlying national (Republican) order that defines French schooling into perspective, exposes the fundamental differences between the two norms and in the way preschool children are perceived and shows the ambivalence of migrant and non‐migrant parents from diverse socio‐economic environments. The dialogue highlights the normative principles and cultural values voiced by each protagonist in their everyday expression. And finally, above and beyond apparent opposition – as strong as it may be – these voices reveal more complex and ambivalent tendencies towards education. RESUME: Cet article présente une analyse des discours croisés d’enseignantes du préscolaire et de parents (migrants et non migrants) sur les enfants (de) migrants à l’école maternelle française, recueillis dans le cadre du projet international CCB (Children Crossing Borders), en cours. Ces discours recueillis en France à l’aide de l’ethnographie polyphonique développée par Joseph Tobin, et complétés par des voix venues des Etats‐Unis, se croisent sur les questions du jeu, des apprentissages, du care et de la langue. Ils mettent en perspective l’ordre républicain qui sous‐tend le système éducatif français, laissent voir différents modèles normatifs et visions des enfants d’âge préscolaire, montrent l’ambivalence des parents migrants tout comme celle des parents aisés français. Ils donnent à voir les principes normatifs et valeurs culturelles mobilisés par chacun des protagonistes ainsi que leur traduction au quotidien. Enfin, ces voix font entendre au‐delà des oppositions apparentes, aussi fortes soient‐elles, quant au cadre éducatif, des tendances plus complexes et plus ambivalentes. ZUSAMMENFASSUNG: Dieser Artikel stellt erste Ergebnisse einer interkulturellen Analyse von Interviews vor, die mit ErzieherInnen und Eltern (mit und ohne Migrationshintergrund), bezüglich der Kinder mit Migrationshintergrund in französischen Kindertageseinrichtungen, durchgeführt wurden. Diese Studie ist im Rahmen eines internationalen Projektes CCB (Children Crossing Borders) angelegt. Die Aussagen wurden in Frankreich anhand einer, von Joseph Tobin entwickelten, polyphonen Ethnographie erhoben, die sich auf Videodokumentationen stützt, mit dem Zweck einen interkulturellen und multivokalen Dialog zu stimulieren. Hinzu kommen in den USA erhobene Gespräche, die von einem amerikanischen Forschungsteam mit der gleichen Methode gesammelt wurden. In den Interviews gibt es folgende gemeinsame Querschnittsthemen: das Spiel, das Lernen, die Betreuung und die Sprache. Jedes Interview reflektiert die Perspektive einer zugrunde liegenden republikanischen Ordnung, die das französische Schulsystem bestimmt, beleuchtet die Unterschiede zwischen den beiden normativen Modellen und die Art und Weise, wie Kinder wahrgenommen werden und zeigt die Ambivalenz von Eltern mit und ohne Migrationshintergrund aus verschiedenen sozio‐ökonomischen Verhältnissen. Die Dialoge decken die normativen Prinzipien und kulturellen Werte auf, die von jedem der Protagonisten in ihrer Alltagssprache ausgedrückt wurden. Schließlich, weit über die offensichtlichen Gegensätze hinaus – wie stark sie auch sein mögen – lassen diese Stimmen komplexere und weitaus ambivalentere Neigungen bezüglich Erziehung und Bildung erkennen. RESUMEN: Este artículo presenta un análisis intercultural de entrevistas a profesoras preescolares y a padres (inmigrantes y no inmigrantes) acerca de los niños (de) inmigrantes en la escuela maternal francesa, recogidos en el marco del proyecto internacional CCB (Children Crossing Borders), en curso. Estas entrevistas se realizan en Francia con ayuda de la etnografía polifónica desarrollada por Joseph Tobin, que se basa en el uso de vídeos para estimular un diálogo intercultural, multivocal. Estos diálogos son completados por voces recogidas en los Estados Unidos, según el mismo método por el equipo de investigación americano. Ambos se basan sobre las cuestiones del juego, de los aprendizajes, del cuidado y del idioma. Ponen en perspectiva el orden republicano en que se basa el sistema educativo francés, dejan ver distintos modelos normativos y visiones de los niños en edad preescolar, muestran la ambivalencia de los padres migrantes y de los no migrantes, de diferentes medios socio‐económicos. Muestran los principios normativos y valores culturales movilizados por cada uno de los protagonistas en sus expresiones cotidianas. Por último, estas voces revelan, más allá de las oposiciones aparentes – por fuertes que estas sean – tendencias más complejas y más ambivalentes hacia la educación.

Understanding children from 0 to 3 years of age and its implications for education. What's new on the babies' side? Origins and evolutions

Our views on infancy and toddlerhood have greatly changed during recent decades, as already documented by previous reviews of ECEC literature (Plaisance and Rayna 1997; Rayna and Plaisance 1998). B...

Children of Two to Three Years of Age in France: Early Childhood Settings and Age Divisions.

ABSTRACT In a French early childhood care and education system that is strongly divided by age and institution, the current research studies the collective life of children at the pivotal age of two to three years of age in four different early childhood settings: 1) a group of ‘grands’ (nursery) in a crèche (daycare centre), 2) a jardin maternel, 3) a classe passerelle and 4) a group including ‘tout-petits’ in an école maternelle (nursery school). Our methods combine the observation of children and the point of view of professionals, obtained using visual aids (photos and videos). We analyse successively the institutional organisation of ages, material culture and professional practices. Depending on the ways in which their age is defined by these settings, we show how these settings create different experiences for children, which make them ‘petit’ (at the école maternelle) or ‘grand’ (at the crèche). The interest of the jardin maternel and the classe passerelle is to show intermediate ways of framing the age of children two to three years old.

Transitions dans la petite enfance

In the changing political context of early learning and childcare in Scotland it is important to gather knowledge in order to understand the work of childminders and to make it more visible. The small scale scoping study presented here seeks to explore the role played, in Scotland, by childminders as they welcome and care for young children. In Scotland there are currently 6,102 people registered as childminders to provide day care in their own homes: they provide for 34,600 children (Care Inspectorate, 2015). Many of these childminders (about 80%) are members of the Scottish Childminding Association (SCMA). Their work is equivalent to that of day-carers and home-based carers in other countries. Typically, the children who benefit from their services have working parents who often choose this form of home-based care as the next-best choice to having their children at home.

Participer à un lieu d’accueil enfants-parents: quelles socialisations?

This article on centres for young children and parents in France – which are named lieux d’accueil enfants-parents (LAEP) – aims to question their meaning in terms of practitioners’, parents’ and children’s socializations. The article presents the context in which these centres appeared, their evolutions and their characteristics. Then, it analyses the participation of the different actors (children and adults) in the centres. This analyse is based on observations carried out in five centres and on focus groups with their staffs – practitioners of these centres which are named accueillant-e-s (literally, welcomers).