Negotiating parental agency in daily encounters with educators

This journal issue began with a conversation between Larry Prochner and myself at the Reconceptualizing Early Childhood Education Conference in June 2008 held in Victoria, British Columbia. We discussed the idea of bringing together a group of Canadian early childhood education scholars who have been inspired by reconceptualist ideas to make their work more visible and simultaneously to further develop this important body of knowledge. Our hope was that this issue, in conjunction with other existing reconceptualist-informed work, could open spaces for rethinking practice in early childhood education in Canada. The response to the call for papers for this special issue reassured us that Canadian scholars have much to contribute to current discussions in early childhood education, especially when early childhood education has emerged as a key priority for various provincial jurisdictions over the past five years. In my view, an expanded early childhood education system cannot be pursued without critically engaged conversations about our common understandings of childhood and learning. The articles in this issue engage in this conversation. This preamble brings me to the purpose of this collection: the theory-practice divide in early childhood education. Reconceptualist ideas (based on postmodern, poststructural, feminist, and postcolonial, among other postfoundational theories) have revolutionized the field of early childhood education. This body of scholarly work has the potential to disrupt normalizing early childhood education discourses that create and maintain social inequities in society and to respect differences and diversities. At the same time, critiques have been presented that question the relevance of the reconceptualizing movement to everyday early childhood education practices. Given the importance of diversity in the Canadian context, it seems relevant to challenge the notion that postfoundational theories are primarily theoretical enterprises and explore how the theory-practice binary has been situated in traditional early childhood education discourses. The articles in this volume engage with this challenge. The authors do not view theory and practice as separate categories, nor do they refer to the application of theory to practice; rather, their work can be situated in the intra-active nature of theory and practice as described by Lenz Taguchi (2010). In this introduction, I do not attempt to define the reconceptualist movement in Canada or to provide a history of its genealogy. Plotting its history and creating a definition of reconceptualist ideas in early childhood is not a linear and simple task. At the same moment that definitions are demarcated, exclusions are created. Furthermore, a historical account needs to take into consideration time and place as uneven and dynamic, something that would require much more space than I have here. Rather, I elaborate on four themes that link the articles in this issue to the broader reconceptualist literature. My

Today with the rise in the number of 3- to 6-year-old children enrolled in center-based early childhood programs, and a focus on program quality, it becomes imperative for educators to have a better understanding of the role research plays in establishing high-quality programs as these programs provide much of the foundation that supports early learning and development (Child Trends, 2014). Although psychology, and the role of child development research in particular, has always been integral to the field of early childhood education beginning with the seminal works of Piaget, Bronfenbrenner, Bruner, and others (Lickona,1971), the field had never fully embraced the use of research to inform practice, until the 1990s. This had been, in part, because the field of early childhood education originally viewed itself as a field of practitioners that provided for the everyday care and needs of young children, whereas it viewed child development researchers as scientists who paid little attention to the practical needs of classroom teaching (Takanishi, 1981). Although, today, there is no longer this ideological divide between the two areas, with the child development research being used to inform educational practice and policy (Center for the Developing Child, 2007), nevertheless there still remains a gap in the ability of educators to effectively implement evidence-based practices. Given the increased focus on providing young children with access to high-quality education, and the need for teachers to implement evidence-based practices the present paper attempts to bridge the gap by providing a brief overview of the science of early childhood development, its importance for development of early learning standards, and an overview of the Early Learning Toolkit which was developed to provide early learning educators guidance and resources to support the implementation of early learning standards within their own states as well as well across the nation. The goal of this article is to bridge theory and practice in early childhood education.

<p>[Introduction}: " </p> <p>“I am a professional,” and “I came to werq.” (Shangela, 2012). This message from Shangela’s 2012 song “Werqin’ Girl” signifies the importance of hard work to attain “professional” status as a drag performer. It also relates to the mainstream success that drag culture has enjoyed in recent years, which can be credited to the global success of <em>RuPaul’s Drag Race</em>. Werq or “werk” is a term that describes the passionate labour that goes into marketing a drag persona and making a career out of it. Historically, it aims to call out heteronormativity and challenge dominant cultural norms (Lovelock, 2019). In a sense, the hard werk of drag queens and kings disturbs the cultural and societal norm of what constitutes “professional behaviour” or “professionalism.” This normalcy in what constitutes “professionalism” also exists in the field of early childhood education. For example, the <em>Code of Ethics and Standard of Practice</em>, a document that guides professionalism for early childhood educators in Ontario, indicates that an educator that exhibits professionalism is “knowledgeable” in practice that is “caring and responsive on children’s development, learning, self-regulation, identity and well-being” (College of Early Childhood Educators, 2017, p. 8)."</p>

Research on 'Best Practices' has become a fundamental aspect of the field of education in recent years.However, it is a vague concept without a clear scientific consensus.The objective of this study was to analyse what is meant by Best Practices in Early Childhood Education (0 to 6 years) in scientific research.A Systematic Literature Review was conducted following the PRISMA 2020 principles.The main objective was to recognise the elements that identify scientific publications describing Best Practices from 2014 to 2024, in English, Spanish, Portuguese and French, in the three most relevant databases in our field (Scopus, Web of Science and SciELO).The main results show that under the term "Best Practices" there are a variety of publications with little theoretical basis that refer to very diverse aspects.It is concluded that it is essential to continue to delve deeper into this field in order to establish the concept of Best Practices, which can be shared by experts and whose results can be transferred to the field of Early Childhood Education.

Customer satisfaction is closely related to the quality of services received from certain sectors. For the education sector, students are recipients of services in the form of learning especially those provided by an institution. The quality learning process is of course closely related to the quality of the lecturers. However, student satisfaction with the quality of learning in the field of Early Childhood Education at Kolej Universiti Islam Melaka (KUIM) has not been seen. This study is important to implement because a student's success depends on the quality of a lecturer who can indirectly raise the image of an educational institution. This research was conducted to (i) identify the level of student satisfaction with the quality of learning in the field of Early Childhood Education at KUIM, (ii) identify the relationship between the quality of learning with the level of student satisfaction with the Early Childhood Education program and (iii) identify definitely a major factor contributing to student satisfaction levels. The survey study design was used by involving a total of 150 students from semester three to semester six using a questionnaire. The Google Form application is used to create the questionnaire and contains two parts, namely Part A (Demographic information) and Part B (Quality of learning). The results showed that the overall mean score value for the level of student satisfaction with the quality of learning in the field of Early Childhood Education was at a high level with a mean score value of 4.21 and a standard deviation of 0.59. Guidance factors contribute to the level of student satisfaction with the quality of learning. These results are supported by a moderate r value for each quality of learning. The findings of this study can be important for the lecturers as a guide in efforts to optimize the quality of Early Childhood Education at KUIM.

Today's rapid changes along with industrialization, urbanization, and the increase of nuclear family have arisen many of social problems such as people's loss of humanity and morality. A large number of scholars who are aware of those problems have made efforts to achieve well-being and relief of stress-which lead to sound development of human-by psychotherapy and counseling. Early childhood, especially, is an important time when the primary developmental areas are formed. Since an infant's value and attitude formed in this age can influence greatly to the attitude of the lest of his life, it can be said that a preventive program is very necessary. As one of the measures, it is recently believed that forming fine behavior and value is essential for establishing upright personality and sociality. Accordingly, the horticultural therapy activity as a part of Nature Friendly Education in the fields of edu-care and early childhood education draws attention. However, current horticultural therapy activities as a natural friendly way in edu-care and early childhood educational institutes drill only fragmentary knowledge-such as unilateral teaching of certain plants or environments - or merely organize programs of natural observation. Moreover, most of them are not constant but designed to be one-off programs. Lack of diverse horticultural therapy programs which to be adopted in the field of edu-care and early childhood education as well as teachers' awareness make the constant horticultural therapy activities impossible. Thus, the purpose of this study is to examine the overall condition and effectiveness of horticultural therapy activity in the field of edu-care and early childhood education as well as how it is related to the 7th National Kindergarten Curriculum by reviewing existing researches which are related to horticultural therapy activities for children. Analysing how the content of the horticultural therapy activity is related to the 7th National Kindergarten Curriculum in detail will contribute to applying horticultural therapy activities to the field of edu-care and early childhood education. To achieve the purpose, the study divided the contents of children's horticultural therapy activity into four domains-type of the plant, raising the plant well, making the use of the plant, and other horticultural activities-then collected some contents of horticultural therapy activity appliable to each domain, and finally analyzed the relationship with the 7th National Kindergarten Curriculum. The early childhood is the time when natural or horticultural therapy activity can be performed most effectively since it is when one's emotion is sensitive. Also, since one's value and attitude formed in early childhood influence to the lest of his life enormously, it is very important to have an interest toward nature, experience it, and have a fine attitude toward the nature in this time. However, the realities are not supportive. Most of edu-care and early childhood educational institutes are located in apartment complexes or office districts so that there are difficulties to create a nature-experiencing environment. Besides, although an institute is located near natural environment, it rarely makes a conscious effort to apply the environmental interest to the actual classroom. According to the existing studies, horticultural therapy activities among very curios and active children had positive effect on physical, emotional, socio-moral and cognitive-linguistic development, as a result, made their whole development possible. The existing studies also asserted that the horticultural therapy activity is highly related to diverse fields of studies, so that children can integrate diverse knowledge through horticultural therapy activities.

Musicalization has become an essential practice in early childhood education, contributing significantly to the child’s overall development. This article analyzes the benefits of musicalization in early childhood, considering its cognitive, motor, social, and emotional impacts, grounded in the work of Teca Alencar de Brito. It discusses how these benefits emerge from sonic, playful, and expressive experiences integrated into school routines. Early childhood education, historically marked by assistentialist approaches, came to be recognized as a fundamental stage of basic education after the 1988 Brazilian Constitution and the 1996 Law of Guidelines and Bases (LDB), which ensured children's right to full development. In this context, music assumes a central role by dialoguing with playfulness and the multiple languages of childhood. Musicalization enhances attention, memory, phonological awareness, motor coordination, socialization, and affective expression. Developed through a literature review, this study seeks to understand how music contributes to the teaching-learning process and to the child’s holistic development. It concludes that when music is approached intentionally, sensitively, and contextually, it broadens cultural and cognitive repertoires, strengthens social bonds, and promotes children’s autonomy, establishing itself as an indispensable pedagogical practice in contemporary early childhood education.

Hasta el año 2020, los cambios a la hora de educar en la práctica solían producirse de forma paulatina y concreta en los distintos niveles educativos. En el nivel inicial, la inclusión de tecnologías en muchas oportunidades generó resistencias. En la actualidad, sabemos que es necesario repensar las bases teóricas y las prácticas que hacen referencia a la educación ya que se han produciendo cambios importantes y vertiginosos en el contexto de cuarentena obligatoria generado por el COVID- 19. Realizaremos un análisis de casos de propuestas educativas generadas y desarrolladas por tres instituciones de nivel inicial de Argentina (Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires y ciudad de Ezeiza) y España (Madrid) en donde se reflejan dichos cambios abruptos. Relacionaremos estos casos con autores clave en campos tales como la Didáctica del Nivel Inicial y la Tecnología Educativa.

According to previous research, the leadership in early childhood education (ECE) needs to be strengthened and improved by building sustainable structures. The aim of the current research was to investigate how ECE professionals evaluate its leadership. The context of the study was a development project called Sustainable leadership in ECE conducted in two municipalities in Finland. The purpose of the project was to investigate and create a sustainable structure for ECE leadership with the aim of strengthening pedagogical leadership. The participants were 110 ECE professionals, comprising experts, directors, teachers, and nurses. The research was based on responses to an electronic questionnaire about the quality of ECE leadership built around six themes: leadership of the organisation, Human resource management, Structure of the organisation, Pedagogical leadership, Knowledge management and work well-being, and Leadership of self. The results indicate that only in the pedagogical leadership theme were there statistically significant differences between the groups of professionals. Having high professional status and being highly qualified seem to enhance the ability of professionals to reflect critically on pedagogical leadership and to have more demanding attitudes about the quality of pedagogical leadership.

Cognitive development and teaching have highlighted the importance of learning based on the relationship among individuals and the learning environment. Teaching and learning of science in early childhood development and education (ECDE) can only be effective if adequate facilities, materials, equipment and activities are put in place. Teaching of science in ECDE centres in Kenya is faced with numerous challenges, hence the negative influence on children's learning of the subject. This raised the question of whether we have appropriate conditions for implementation of the science curriculum in ECDE centres. This study investigated conditions for implementation of science in 115 ECDE centres managed by 230 teachers in Kakamega Municipality, Kenya. It used the ECDE facilities checklist, the ECDE classroom science materials/equipment checklist, the ECDE classroom science activities checklist, and the ECDE teacher classroom science questionnaire to analyse the availability of science materials, equipment, class size and activities for ECDE children in the classroom. Each teacher was videotaped for two consecutive days during science activities. Their attitude towards science curriculum was measured by the use of an attitude scale. The findings of the study indicated that three-quarters of the ECDE centres had appropriate general facilities. However, a majority (91.2%) of ECDE centres lacked adequate and quality classroom science materials/equipment. The activities that the ECDE teachers engaged in were mostly unrelated to science activities (85.7%), even though they had a favourable attitude towards the science curriculum. This study is significant because the resulting findings will influence practice in early childhood education by informing policy makers on prevailing conditions for implementation of the science curriculum. On the theoretical side, the findings will contribute to the development of teaching and learning science materials, science equipment and a children's science curriculum tool kit.

This literature review is about the exploration of teachers’ teaching practices of Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) teachers utilized in different context’. The findings of this study are based on literature published between the years 2000 and 2020. This document is established as a current analysis of teaching practices of ECCE teachers. The limitation of this paper is that the majority of the study is based on Australia, UK, France, Germany, Pakistan Australia, and USA which restricts the results' worldwide application. The results are presented in seven comprehensive themes; Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE), Importance of Early Childhood Care and Education, Global status of Early Childhood Care and Education, Challenges in Early Childhood Care and Education, Strengthening in Early Childhood Care and Education, best teaching practices in Early Childhood Care and Education and teaching practices utilized by ECCE teachers in different contexts. At the root, all of these themes reveal the practices of ECCE teachers in different context. This study is directly linked to policymakers, educationist, government leaders, community members, researchers and parents who are interested to make early childhood education more effective and appropriate. However from this literature review it is found that ECCE teachers are not much practicing the effective teaching practices in their classrooms just as; collaborative activity, interactive activity, Hands-on or project based activities. Even it is also found that in many contexts in ECCE physical and social environment was not much conducive for children in order to make their learning effective.

With the increasing number of citizens accessing the Internet, governments at all levels around the world have no other choice but to utilize information technology, especially the Internet, to provide improved services to their citizens. This paper studies and analyzes the status and challenges of e-government services within early childhood education context in ten of the largest municipalities in Finland. The study draws upon previous research on e-government stage models and e-government challenges. Our analysis indicates that there is significant development work in progress in the field of early childhood education and e-government in many Finnish municipalities. Many of them have reached relatively mature stage in developing early childhood education e-services. The paper also discusses the challenges municipalities face when they try to implement e-government services. Overall, the paper tries to provide examples and ideas for researchers and practitioners for developing better quality early childhood education e-government services.

The field of early childhood education is propelled by guiding principles stemming from philosophical and child development research positions. While the guiding principles of high-quality early childhood education are influenced by universal and local perspectives, it is critical that early childhood curricula and pedagogy are firmly evidence-based. The necessity of an evidence-base does not serve to reduce or eliminate the influence of the pioneering philosophers in early childhood education, whose legacy should not be relegated to history. Through this paper we aim to demonstrate a reconcilable schism rather than an irreconcilable severance between philosophical and child development research-based positions in early childhood education. For the purposes of this paper, attachment, bioecological, sociocultural and self-regulation research, together with a selection of seminal early childhood education philosophers, are selected to demonstrate the potential of theoretical intersectionality in the era of the early childhood teacher-as-researcher.

Objectives The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of early childhood teachers' psychological well-being, happiness, and organizational commitment on early childhood teachers' resilience. Methods To this end, a survey was conducted on 316 teachers aged 3 to 5 working at kindergartens and daycare centers in Gwangju, Jeonnam, and Jeonbuk. Statistical analysis of the collected data was performed using the SPSS 24.0 program, Cronbach's a coefficient to verify reliability, Pearson's correlation analysis and multiple re gression analysis to verify relationship and influence. Results As a result of the study, first, the correlation between early childhood teachers' psychological well-being, happiness, and organizational commitment was examined, and the higher the degree of psychological well-being, happiness, and organizational commitment of early childhood teachers, the higher the resilience and sub-factors of self-regulation, positivity, and interpersonal skills. Second, as a result of analyzing the effects of early childhood teachers' psychological well-being, happiness, and organizational commitment on early childhood teachers' resil ience, it was found that “self-acceptance, positive interpersonal relationships, purpose of life” among psycho logical well-being variables, “internal happiness, external happiness” among happiness variables, and “emotional commitment” among organizational commitment affect early childhood teachers' resilience. Conclusions The purpose of this study is to analyze the main variables that can increase the resilience of early childhood teachers in the early childhood education field and use them as basic data for developing programs to improve resilience and finding ways to improve resilience.

In an effort to alleviate the existing teacher shortages in the field of early childhood education (ECE) across the United States, there is a necessity for teacher preparation programmes to accommodate ECE in-service teachers or graduate students (who do not have the chance to enroll in traditional graduate teacher preparation programmes due to geographical reasons, busy daily teaching schedules, and other personal reasons) the alternate route to complete their entire online graduate coursework in ECE. This accommodation would sufficiently prepare them for desirable teaching positions and potential advancement in various inclusive early childhood settings. This article will describe the continual organization and development of a follow-up alternative online approach for the degree of Master of Education (M.Ed.) in ECE at a Southwestern University.