Abstract
This issue has six articles as usual, but four are about thinking beyond current ideas or viewing from different perspectives, and the potential for early childhood educators not only to look and comprehend, but also to imagine and sense differently. These articles include, first, looking more closely at evidence already in existence in order to examine the accuracy of what has been claimed, even from those with established authority (Amy Noelle Parks), and, second, thinking beyond current constructions of professionalism in long-day childcare in Australia because of the classed and gendered histories of workers (Yarrow Andrew). The third (Sheena Elwick) and fourth (Jake Wallis and Sue Dockett) articles use digital technologies in novel ways to investigate what might be gained from alternative vantage points. Schoolification is the topic of the fifth article by Sigrid Brogaard Clausen, and Katherine K Delaney investigates the borderlands of daily classroom practice in the final article.
Major government reports are usually trusted by readers, and taken to be correct and authoritative sources. Amy Noelle Parks, in her article ‘Writing about class and race differences and similarities in early childhood mathematics: The case of one monograph’, interrupts this perception with a literature analysis of 49 articles, all of which drew on the same monograph, but some of which claimed the monograph stated very different things. While the majority of the articles (two-thirds) made the same or similar claims as the authors of the monograph, the other third cited the monograph to establish significant social class differences in early mathematics. This included a major government report, which used the monograph to establish not only social class, but also racial differences, neither of which were claimed by the authors of the monograph. While Parks admits that this is a complicated story, she argues that the ‘the production of truth claims in research is strongly influenced by the stories that we already take to be true’, and that, because of this, researchers need heightened sensitivity when considering what is claimed as accurate.
Using interview data from 24 childcare workers in Australia, Yarrow Andrew argues in ‘Beyond professionalism: Classed and gendered capital in childcare work’ for a new concept of childcare expertise: one that takes account of the classed and gendered histories of workers. Instead of waiting for the process of professionalisation to occur by improving the qualifications of staff, Andrew contends that there is a need to develop a fundamentally different strategy from that used in professions which, historically, have been valued more highly than childcare. He suggests that, in this new strategy, the expertise of workers should be acknowledged, naming emotional and relational skills as currently unrecognised and therefore not valued, and that these should be prioritised in making a case for ‘better recognition of childcare work economically and culturally’.
Sheena Elwick disturbs the often mundane way that educators can be prone to view infants in her article ‘“Baby-cam” and researching with infants: Viewer, image and (not) knowing’. Elwick proposes adopting an ethically reflective approach towards infants, and draws on digital images from two different sources in her methodological reflection on researching with infants. Informal conversations were captured as participants responded to images from a tripod-mounted digital camera and from baby-cam, a digital camera and sound-recording equipment worn by infants. These starkly different dialogues show the power of different perspectives and the possibilities of using baby-cam for moving beyond known ways of seeing and theorising about infants.
The technique of network analysis is used advantageously by Jake Wallis and Sue Dockett in ‘Stakeholders, networks and links in early childhood policy: Network analysis and the Transition to School: Position Statement’. They map the network and show online links between stakeholders accessing the digital version of the Transition to School: Position Statement, a document developed collaboratively by a range of stakeholders with responsibilities in the area of transition to school. The visual display of networks shows the online involvement of stakeholders in regard to the Position Statement, and the complexity of some of the networks and the simplicity of others. This way of viewing provided the authors with new information about existing links and connections, and enabled them to identify where such links could be strengthened and where others could be initiated. Network mapping is also enabling these researchers to be much more strategic about how they promote their research, to learn about how end users engage with their research, and to consider how stakeholders can potentially contribute to future research.
The ongoing concern with schoolification in the early years is the subject of the article by Sigrid Brogaard Clausen: ‘Schoolification or early years democracy? A cross-curricular perspective from Denmark and England’. Brogaard Clausen considers recent developments in both countries and acknowledges that, while schoolification is already dominant in England, it is increasing in Denmark. She makes a case that, in both countries, children, parents and professionals are being displaced as democratic stakeholders by neo-liberal cultures of accountability and external governance. Examples are provided from both countries, and the implications for such cultures are discussed.
The borderlands of practice, or spaces where teachers negotiate a variety of ideas, expectations and assumptions about children’s learning on a daily basis, are the focus of the article by Katherine K Delaney. In ‘Dissonance for understanding: Exploring a new theoretical lens for understanding teacher identity formation in borderlands of practice’, Delaney adopts a case-study approach to investigate the experience of a veteran kindergarten teacher in the USA who chose to move from kindergarten and work with pre-kindergarten-aged children. Delaney uses a theoretical lens of dissonance in an effort to find ways of supporting teacher identity formation in changed and changing circumstances, or the borderlands of practice.
Distinguished professors Collette Tayler and Helen Penn contribute colloquia that honour the life and work of Dr John Bennett, and his unique and extensive contribution to early childhood education and care internationally. A book review by Erica Evans from the University of Brighton in the UK completes this issue. Erica reviews Jan Georgeson and Jane Payler’s International Perspectives on Early Childhood Education and Care, published by Open University Press/McGraw Hill Education.