Environments or learning spaces in school classrooms contribute to the improvement of educational processes. Specifically, in the Early Childhood Education, teachers can design learning spaces, which fosters an environment of safety and autonomy for the students of the Early Childhood Education. This study explores the teachers' narratives…

Pedagogic mediation from Pedagogy-in-Participation in Portugal, as a context-specific approach to professional development, provides a participatory framework through which practice enhancements are supported. This research introduced ten ECEC leaders and mentors, within a specific local authority in England, to the democratic nature of pedagogic…

Ladson-Billings (2014) asserts educators often fail to carry out a critical form of culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) by neglecting the development of sociopolitical consciousness and attending to limited understandings of "culture." Using narrative inquiry, this study explored preschool teachers' narratives on various factors which…

Literature and research have shown that professional development constitutes an essential dimension in constructing both work and professional identity. An important aspect in such development is training. In the field of adult education, different authors (Pratt, 1993; Mezirow, 1985; Schön, 1996; Silva, 2007) emphasize the importance of placing…

Purpose: The purpose of this current study is to follow the development of preservice kindergarten teachers during the practicum phase of their teacher education studies in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic and following the first period of lockdown. Design/methodology/approach: The sample included 38 preservice kindergarten teachers in their…

This study focuses on early childhood teachers' narrative identities in the North, based on the concept of narrative identities in place. The aim of the study is to deepen understanding of early childhood teachers' work in the culturally diverse North by approaching the teachers' narrative identities as closely connected with place. The research…

Research literature acknowledges the influential role of teachers' beliefs on their interpretations, decision-making and pedagogical practices. It also suggests that initial teacher education (ITE) plays a relevant role in explicitly addressing beliefs that students hold. This study aims to examine beliefs about the child of prospective early…

The links between a positive teacher-child relationship and young children's academic and social-emotional development have been well established, particularly for children with disruptive behaviors. However, less is known about children's views of the teacher-child relationship and how these representations relate to other established measures.…

Observing the teaching-learning situations that arise in educational contexts is a key part of teacher education. The present study examined how forty-three future teachers constructed their professional knowledge. Adopting a qualitative approach, we discuss the teaching situations observed by pre-service teachers in the subjects of…

This article explores the lived and sometimes clandestine professional experiences of early childhood teachers who exist within contexts where dominant discourses of professional are competing with teacher's own understandings of their professional identities. Cultural models theory is used to shed light on the secrete and undercover work of…

In this essay, I reflect on my lived experiences as a girl child growing up in my home country of Botswana, and also as a mother in a foreign country, Canada. I am experimenting with my personal essay and making connections with academic articles that will help me understand my behaviors, attitudes, and responses to challenging situations that…

In the light of sustained interest in the potential value of young children's narrative play, this article examines Vivian Gussin Paley's approach to storytelling and story-acting, in this case with 3- to 5-year-olds. It scrutinises how children's narratives are co-constructed during adult-child and peer interactions through spoken and embodied…

This article tells the story of a Muslim woman's visit to a kindergarten classroom in a Catholic school and describes lessons learned by the teacher and the students.

This article explores how constructions of identity, race and difference permeate and are challenged in a Swedish preschool class. The study is informed by theories of phenomenology and critical whiteness. Data are drawn from a larger ethnographic study conducted in an ethnically diverse preschool. The purpose of the study was to explore how…

This article investigates what happens to institutional narratives of care in Swedish preschool when a policy on increased documentation is introduced. Questions deal with preschool teachers' professionalism as expressed through the teachers' talk about documentation. The analysis is based on theories in education policy, teacher professionalism…