Socio-dramatic play is an everyday occurrence in early childhood education as children create narratives together in shared imagined worlds. The teacher's role in this type of play is less clear and this paper draws on a study using Lindqvist's "playworlds" approach to gain insight into how teachers participate in children's play. In…

When first released in 2009, the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) recognised intentional teaching as one of its eight core practices (Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) (2009). In 2022, the EYLF was revised to include a broader understanding of 'intentionality', encompassing both the educator and the child…

This paper explores children's understandings of Acknowledgement to Country practices and Aboriginal knowledges. Guided by the relational lenses of respect, responsibility and reciprocity, we conducted focus groups with children across five Australian early education centres. We found that Acknowledgement practices were evident through recitation…

Playing is an activity that affects significantly the psychological development and learning in preschool age. Opinions among researchers and practitioners are divided about adults' role in children's play. Despite being a children's activity, high-level, complex social play hardly appears without adult mediation. According to the narrative play…

The article seeks to develop a better understanding of the contribution of materiality in a discourse between a creator (content producer) and an interface, dealing with analogue and digital artefacts. Focus is in the materiality of the two different art-creation learning processes, acrylic painting and digital painting. The objective of this…

This article aims to use the cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) framework to analyse the participation of an early childhood teacher in children's creative play, in order to enhance and support creativity. The study is grounded on Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development, and highlights teacher's play involvement and the arts as a cultural…

Access to play has been recognized as a universal right of children (UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 31) and promoted by international and national organizations with a focus on children's well-being, such as Childhood Education International, the International Play Association, the US Play Coalition, and the Alliance for…

Although early childhood caregivers in South African townships integrate singing into their teaching on a daily basis, they are often unaware of how to facilitate other musical interactions through movement, playing instruments or body percussion. The 'Bejazzled' action research project was initiated to facilitate these interactions through…

The present study reports findings on pre-service teachers' thinking during planning and implementing play-based art activities. "Thinking" (in the present study) is informed by discourses emphasising art teaching and learning in relation to play and theoretical assumptions conceptualising planning as "practice of knowing."…

In early childhood education and care, Nordic social pedagogy approach is challenged by a learning orientation that often results in unproductive "either/or" thinking. Therefore, based on the two approaches and by analysing several dimensions of Froebel's ideas and prevailing social-historical activity (play) theory, the author deduces…

In-service early childhood educators (n = 33) completed a survey describing their perceptions towards: (a) how educators draw on personal spirituality to support their role in the classroom, (b) what curricular activities, interactions or experiences educators believe relate to nourishing children's spirituality, (c) how the classroom environment…

Imagination is one component of creativity; self-expression is another. The early childhood classroom should be full of creative possibilities that allow children to use their imaginations. For creativity to flourish, staff must provide an environment that fosters creative expression. Imagination itself is "the act or power of forming a mental…

In this paper, we address the guidance of student teachers in initial training in schools as an invaluable opportunity to raise creative learning awareness. The objective of this present research is to develop guidance strategies for guiding the identification of creative practices and for analyzing that moment as a "way of knowing". We…

While nature journaling with elementary age children has recently increased in popularity, journaling with children of ages 2-6 is often overlooked. This article focuses specifically on why journaling is a valid practice in early childhood and the practitioner application of journaling techniques modified for the young child. Young children have…

Art, drama, music, dance and literature activities are part of the basic components of an early childhood curriculum. They do not rely heavily on oral language or English proficiency, and this makes them accessible to all children regardless of language differences or language abilities. Teachers can use creative expression and art to practice…