This study draws on four case studies of young children in order to explore the relationship between children's action schema [Athey, C. (1990). "Extending though in young children: A parent-teacher partnership." London: Paul Chapman] and their developing speech, language and communication. What emerged was a connection through…

This multi-sited ethnographic case study documents a second-generation Korean immigrant child who engages in regular border-crossing experiences between the U.S. and South Korea, his father's country of origin. Pairing a transnationalism framework with the concept of funds of knowledge, this study examined how border-crossing experiences and…

Many governments have launched the top-down early childhood curriculum (ECC) reforms to enhance the accountability of early childhood education and care (ECEC) services. The present discourse analysis of latest ECC policies across four diverse but representative countries -- Australia, China, New Zealand, and Singapore -- aims to examine the…

Friedrich Froebel is well-known for the invention of kindergarten and the pioneering educational philosophy he developed in the 1800s, which respected children's self activity and women's capabilities for the role of teacher, while promoting play as the primary medium for learning. His radical ideas and principled approach to early childhood…

Building on relevant research concerning the play-literacy relationship, the social-semiotic theory of multimodality, and the notion of embodiment, this article seeks to explore the possibilities of children's play as a meaningful context for literacy practices and, more importantly, of play itself as a form of literacy practice. This article…

Literacy is one of the most important areas of development. Several pieces of research examine the positive impact of the arts on children's literacy development. However, most of them focus on specific literacy skills and not in providing a holistic examination of literacy. Also, they adapt a structured methodology, with pre-decided lesson plans,…

This article focuses on the impact of the physical environment and construction of play culture in kindergartens. Based on a case study, we explore employees' perception of indoor physical environment and children's play. The findings revealed that gender is interwoven in the physical environments and materials. Children's play practices are…

In a time when story-acting practices have gained increasing focus, little is known about the relations between family story acting and a child's interactions with the ideal models represented in stories. Drawing upon a cultural-historical perspective of play and development, this study is aimed at discovering how a child is able to interact with…

This paper draws on observational studies of three young children in order to demonstrate firstly, their intrinsic motivation to explore systematically through repeated patterns of action or 'schemas'; secondly, how those repeated actions appear and are explored in their emerging language demonstrating their increasing construction of and…

This research aimed to explore children's play in relation to gender stereotypes and beliefs and practices of educators in preschool settings. A feminist poststructuralist approach framed the design of the research and data were collected in two settings through predetermined categories of play during periods of spontaneous free play. The question…

Creative school environments use creative approaches in their curriculum, content, and teaching and learning. Considering that creativity is fostered by all elements of educational processes such as teachers, classrooms, and school environments, the purpose of the current study was to explore perceptions of Turkish student teachers in an early…

This study reports on the development of new motor and behavioural indicators for recognizing symbolic acts among infants. Following five infants between the ages of 6 and 18 months and their ability to use an object in novel way yielded four levels of action, based on the number of objects and actions combined in each symbolic act. Employing…

This study explores young children's digital game play outside of the home as a means of surviving and thriving in modern spaces that limit young children's participation by looking at four digital game-playing three-year-old children. In this ethnographic study, critical theory is used to examine how modern public spaces (e.g., a grocery market,…

Around the world, if and how young children learn through their play in early childhood education and care contexts has been the subject of much debate. Yet rarely has the debate heard from the young children themselves, often due to the pervasive belief that they do not understand learning. To redress this, a qualitative case study was conducted…

This study examines how acceptable play was framed for a class of pre-Kindergarten children by their teacher and classroom aide. Using comic subjectivity theory [Zupancic, A. (2008). "The odd one in: On comedy." Cambridge: MIT Press], the author explores how children's playing at pretend violence (bad guy and pretend gun play) is…