Foucault's notion of heterotopia offers a novel way to understand teachers' conceptualizations of childhood, in juxtaposing adult memories of childhood with their present context of teaching children. Memory writing prompts were given to 41 early childhood teachers, and the resulting written narratives were analyzed as heterotopic spaces. The…

This article examines the use of naturalistic observations to explore children's experiences in the early years at school, from their perspectives. It looks at the difficulties encountered in determining the significance of observed behaviours in relation to (a) experiences and (b) impact of those experiences. Often the children were not satisfied…

The Swedish preschool curriculum emphasises preschool teachers' task to stimulate children's interest in science and technology. Technology education, however, has not always had a given place in Swedish early childhood education, and this has been associated with female preschool teachers' fear of technology. This qualitative study explores how…

Practicum is the cornerstone of teacher education. Triadic assessment of practicum is an established model in early childhood initial teacher education in New Zealand. Based on a phenomenographic study on assessment of practicum, this paper presents a new perspective on triadic assessment. Interview data are collected from 35 participants (20…

This paper draws data from a 5-year ethnographic study of young multilingual (Mixteco/Spanish/English) children in their early childhood classrooms. In this paper, we focus on two of the children and their distinctive paths as they develop language and literacy. Using a sociocultural and multimodal theoretical framework we examine how these two…

In this article, educators at University Primary School in Champaign, Illinois, share examples and understandings of the ways The Project Approach challenges young children to think critically about topics of importance in their world. Project investigations that provoke academic and social challenges for individuals and classroom communities of…

We often hear that the most important role of education is to teach children to think creatively and effectively. Singapore Ministry of Education (MOE) has recognised the importance of nurturing children from young and aimed to shift from "academic rote learning" to more experiential learning. Since 2003, mandated nationwide skill…

This study aimed to ascertain the nature of curriculum activities in Jordanian preschools. Fifteen preschools participated in the study. Data were collected by observing the children in their daily routines, as well as analysing their writings and drawings. Data were translated from Arabic to English before analysing it. Four main categories were…

Over the last decade, there has been increasing awareness of the importance of engaging young children in research about their experiences and considering ways in which children's experiences, expectations and perceptions influence both their interactions and those of others. This has resulted from recognition of young children as active citizens,…

This study describes symbolic representation in block play in a culturally diverse suburban preschool classroom. Block play is "multimodal" and can allow children to experiment with materials to represent the world in many forms of literacy. Combined qualitative and quantitative data from seventy-seven block structures were collected and analyzed.…

As part of a longitudinal study, the authors interviewed 73 nontraditional students regarding their perceptions of the challenges experienced and supports received as they returned to school to earn bachelor's degrees. All participants were working in the early care and education field. Interviewees perceived the cohort structure of their B.A.…

A child's move from early intervention (EI) to special education preschool is considered to be a critical transition point for both the child and family. Family concerns during this process are heightened by changes in service delivery systems. Although much has been written about the transition from EI services, little is known about the parents'…

Children's expression and regulation of emotions are building blocks of their experiences in classrooms. Thus, the authors' primary goal was to investigate whether preschoolers' expression or ability to regulate emotions were associated with teachers' ratings of school adjustment. A secondary goal was to investigate how boys and girls differed…

Because students spontaneously exhibit aesthetic and rhythmic acts in the classroom and human beings across the world have engaged in the arts for thousands of years, this study argues that artful behavior represents an inherent and significant human proclivity. Exploring the tension between the human predisposition and the physical and mental…

The current study was conducted with groups of first grade children (aged six years) in two primary schools in Reykjavik in an endeavour to ascertain how they recalled and reconstructed their playschool experiences. The children's playschool teachers were co-researchers participating in the data generation; they were, at the same time participants…