This paper reports on a design oriented study conducted in close collaboration between two researchers and three preschool teachers. Within this study, a play-based interview script was designed in accordance with theoretically driven principles. Based on this script, the preschool teachers conducted interviews with children from three preschools…

Action research is a methodology that has been increasing in educational studies in recent years. Previous studies have revealed that action research affects practitioners more than traditional methods, since the practitioners are not only participants but also researchers themselves. One branch of action research is collaborative action research…

Research-practice partnerships (RPPs) are emerging as a promising approach for educational change by closing the gap between educational research and practice. However, these partnerships face several challenges, such as addressing cultural differences as well as relationship-building in a historically unbalanced relationship between researchers…

This research aims at detecting and stimulating multiple intelligences of kindergarten children early by applying collaborative action research by academics and practitioners. This research moves from the most fundamental problem in early childhood education activities especially in kindergartens namely the teachers' mistreatment in learning…

Children's peer social worlds as part of language and literacy learning are often "hidden" from researchers and teachers alike. This article reports on collaborative research between a researcher and veteran kindergarten teacher into these hidden worlds. We draw upon ethnographic documentation (videos, interviews, field notes) and video…

In Swedish preschools teachers seem to struggle with the concept of "teaching" in their day-to-day practices. A three-year collaborative research project involving preschool teachers, managers and researchers therefore aimed to describe and further develop knowledge about what could characterize teaching and co-assessment based on…

This paper, based on interviews conducted for the "Early Childhood Oral History Project," draws on oral life-history interviews with 14 prominent early childhood researchers who have been active since the 1970s within diverse European countries. A common theme across the interviews is the key role that collaborative research between…

Translational research involving the development, implementation, and assessment of evidence-based interventions has shown promise in improving outcomes for children from lower socioeconomic-status backgrounds. One such approach involves 2-generation interventions, which target both children and their parents/caregivers. Here we traced the…

The advent of Common Core Standards in New York State has forced a revisitation of past practices. With a goal of ensuring that all students are college and career-ready by the end of high school these standards call for increased rigor and higher expectations at all grade levels. The purpose of this study was to analyze through collaborative…

Against the background of Swedish preschool's historical and traditional functions in Swedish society, this article focuses on some of the choice points and their implications for professional and organisational development in preschool. By combining feminist pragmatism and feminist action research, some analytical points are made regarding the…

The purpose of this study was to apply and explore, in the context of an Icelandic preschool, the methods developed by the New Zealand "Te Whaariki" curriculum to assess children's well-being and learning dispositions. This article describes the process of piloting learning stories as a research method, where researchers and preschool…

Identified strategies researchers used to build and maintain partnerships with three Head Start programs and the attitudes of the staff of these programs toward research partnership. Found that staff support for this research partnership was high and broad-based within the three Head Start programs, demonstrating evidence for the effectiveness of…

This paper examines several issues involved in collaborative research between a kindergarten teacher-researcher and a university professor as they developed an early childhood anti-bias curriculum. Literature on collaborative research in early childhood settings is reviewed, and the concept of anti-bias, culturally inclusive education is defined.…

Swedish teachers are currently expected to become more involved in school improvement based on the findings of research. One of the main goals of this work is to develop practice in its own contexts. Teachers become involved in action and research or, in other words, the combination of practice and theory. A central issue in this work is whether…

This is a record of the proceedings of the 30th annual conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia (MERGA). The theme of the conference is "Mathematics: Essential research, essential practice." The theme draws attention to the importance of developing and maintaining links between research and practice and…