This paper reports on a small-scale study of the social interactions between six children labelled with special educational needs and their peers in their respective early years settings. Data from play observations, photographs and staff interviews is used to examine the dynamics of the connections that they make with other children. The position…

In the context of encouraging the use of natural outdoor settings for educational experiences with young children, survey research using photographs of outdoor settings was conducted to explore in-service early childhood educators' preferences and perceptions regarding outdoor settings and the educational opportunities and resource needs they…

Capitalizing on preschoolers' inherent enthusiasm and capacity for learning, the authors developed and implemented a dual-language program to enable young children to experience diversity and multiculturalism by learning two new languages: Spanish and American Sign Language. Details of the curriculum, findings, and strategies are shared.

This paper explores special issues that a novice, minority researcher encountered at a multi-racial research site. The first author's personal experiences as a female, Tamil-speaking Indian Singaporean shaped the research process and its reception at the research site. In this paper, she observes that, while her ethnic membership operated as a…

As educators and scholars in social studies and art education respectively, we describe two visual methods from our own research and teaching in pre-K to university settings that are embedded in visual practices. We underscore their transformative potential by using Maxine Greene's (1995) ideas of the education of perception as a critical means…

In the past several decades the global village has witnessed a rapid decline in the number of indigenous languages. This study was a narrative inquiry within a qualitative methodology. Two research questions were used to analyze the narratives of Choctaw Nation Head Start teachers concerning technology usage for increasing, and revitalizing the…

We explore the use of video and photo elicitation in a research study undertaken to understand the way in which preschool teachers perceive and construct their provision of children's educational experiences. We explore the value of visually elicited interviews based on video footage and photographs captured during teaching and learning in four…

Teacher research has been included in university and graduate teacher education programs for the past 2 decades. Recently, associate degree programs have also begun to engage their students in teacher research. What happens when community college early childhood students conduct teacher research as a course assignment? This study involved 8 former…

Historically underpinning principles of the English curriculum framework for children from birth to five years explicitly acknowledged a spiritual dimension to children's uniqueness and well-being. Yet spirituality receives scant reference in the discourse of creative learning and teaching. This paper considers the relationship of spirituality to…

This paper qualitatively examines the implementation of an intensive weeklong robotics curriculum in three Pre-Kindergarten classrooms (N = 37) at an early childhood STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) focused magnet school in the Harlem area of New York City. Children at the school spent one week participating in computer…

A series of studies investigated White U.S. 3- and 4-year-old children's use of gender and race information to reason about their own and others’ relationships and attributes. Three-year-old children used gender- but not race-based similarity between themselves and others to decide with whom they wanted to be friends, as well as to determine which…

The article describes a collaborative action research in a preschool in Reykjavik. The participants were two preschool teachers who collaborated with researchers at the University of Iceland. The project was set up as a professional development course for the teachers. Emphasis was placed on continuity in children's education, integration of play…

This article explores the use of children's photography as a method for conducting mathematics education research with young children. Collected as part of a study focusing on the experiences with measurement children have at the start of schooling, the photographs presented here were taken by children aged five and six years, from two Australian…

The Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) is an augmentative and alternative system (AAC) used to improve and increase communication for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and other developmental disorders. Research addressing the efficacy of this system is increasing; however, there is limited information published that evaluates…

This study explores how teachers visualize their professional persona. It is based on six case studies of female teachers in Israel, who photographed themselves at work, focusing on images of ideal situations of teaching. The study explores the self-perceptions of the teachers, which led to the construction of the images, by analysis of the signs…