Cultural Historical Digital Methodology In Early Childhood Settings

Young Children Playing and Learning in a Digital Age explores the emergence of the digital age and young children’s experiences with digital technologies at home and in educational environments. Drawing on theory and research-based evidence, this book makes an important contribution to understanding the contemporary experiences of young children in the digital age. It argues that a cultural and critically informed perspective allows educators, policy-makers and parents to make sense of children’s digital experiences as they play and learn, enabling informed decision-making about future early years curriculum and practices at home and in early learning and care settings. An essential read for researchers, students, policy-makers and professionals working with children today, this book draws attention to the evolution of digital developments and the relationship between contemporary technologies, play and learning in the early years.

This international handbook gives a comprehensive overview of findings from longstanding and contemporary research, theory, and practices in early childhood education in the Northern and Southern hemispheres. The first volume of the handbook addresses theory, methodology, and the research activities and research needs of particular regions. The second volume examines in detail innovations and longstanding programs, curriculum and assessment, and conceptions and research into child, family and communities. The two volumes of this handbook address the current theory, methodologies and research needs of specific countries and provide insight into existing global similarities in early childhood practices. By paying special attention to what is happening in the larger world contexts, the volumes provide a representative overview of early childhood education practices and research, and redress the current North-South imbalance of published work on the subject.

Digital technologies have become ubiquitous in many young children's everyday experiences in the home and wider community. This study explores the use of digital technologies across five distinct early childhood settings within a Melbourne municipality. The study explored 12 educators' perspectives on the use of digital technologies in the early childhood classroom, conducted classroom observations and collected documents from the settings. Through the application of the cultural-historical theoretical lens, the study discovered that digital technologies are most effectively used with young children when the use is integrated into the early childhood classroom. However, in the participating early childhood settings, digital technologies were not integrated-three of the classrooms treated them as an add-on to the curriculum on a needs basis, and the two remaining settings embedded them in the classrooms. Using digital technologies as pedagogical tools in the early childhood classroom is a complex task that requires support and a joint effort from a range of stakeholders. The findings of this study have led to the development of a transformative framework that provides practicing early childhood educators with a starting point for employing digital technologies as an integral element of the early childhood classroom curriculum.

This book makes an original contribution to researching child-community development so that those with specific interests in early childhood education have new theoretical tools to guide their research practices. The book explicitly theorises the use of digital visual tools from a cultural-historical perspective. It also draws upon a range of post-structuralist concepts for moving research and scholarship forward. Examples of visual technologies from research in different cultural communities are foregrounded. In particular this book introduces contemporary methodologies for researching child and community development with a focus on visual methodology so the dynamics of development can be captured over time and analysed historically, culturally, socially, ecologically and psychologically through a range of iterative techniques. Visual technology was not freely available in Vygotsky’s time for example, and therefore potentially represents an extension of his genetic experimental approach to researching child development. The book presents a range of methodological arguments about research into child and community development through which new conceptions for research centred on young children have been created. The authors of the chapters also discuss why a more holistic, dynamic and ethical view of research is needed for generating new knowledge about child development in a range of cultural contexts. ​

This work discusses the complexity of child development. It provides a critique of alternative perspectives of research and development and shows how to do research with the concepts of cultural-historical theory.

Programming & Planning in Early Childhood Settings explores a range of approaches to curriculum and to documenting children's learning in early childhood settings. This valuable resource for early childhood education students and practitioners provides a broad view of the concepts and issues in early childhood curriculum. Chapters reflect ongoing discussions about what is meant by the terms 'planning' and 'programming' in the context of early childhood, what is authentic curriculum for young children, and effective teaching strategies to extend young children's learning. The strong focus on sociocultural theories of learning promotes awareness of children's diverse experiences, competencies and learning styles, and helps readers recognise the need for collaborative partnerships between educators, children and families in order to develop appropriate programs. Thoroughly revised and updated, this new edition shows how chapters of the text are relevant to the Australian Professional Standards for teachers, and highlights connections to the school-based context. Numerous real-life examples, reflections, articles and case studies assist students to understand a variety of educational theories, philosophies and frameworks. Throughout the book there is a focus on the processes of reflection, evaluation and ongoing improvement.

This book concisely explores the distinguishing features of scientific knowledge and research in early childhood education and care (ECEC). It has a dual-level focus of containing and relating the concrete practices of conducting research with the more fundamental conceptual discussions around research – the Bildung of the researcher. The book introduces and succinctly explains the concepts of methodology, theoretical knowledge about method, and how all parts of conducting research are informed by theory. The interrelation of these concepts, and many premises of research, are often regarded as assumed knowledge. In this book, premises of research are explicated and discussed, as well as methods on how to engage in informed dialogue. This introductory text explicates many features of scientific knowing and knowledge building in ECEC that tend to be presumed rather than clarified. It will be important in furthering the professional development of PhD students, Master’s students, supervisors, and researchers.

This book moves beyond the traditional constructivist and social-constructivist view of learning and development in science. It draws upon cultural-historical theory in order to theorise early childhood science education in relation to our currently globalised education contexts. The book argues that concept development in science for young children can be better theorised by using Vygotsky’s concept of Imagination and creativity, Vygotsky’s theory of play, and his work on higher mental functions, particularly the concept of inter and intrapsychological functioning. Key concepts are extracted from the theoretical section of the book and used as categories for analysis in presenting evidence and new ideas in the second section of the book. In this second part of the book, the authors examine how science knowledge has been constructed within particular countries around the globe, where empirical research in early childhood science education has occurred. The third part of the book examines the nature of the encounter between the teacher and the child during science learning and teaching. In the final part of the book the authors look closely at the range of models and approaches to the teaching of early childhood science that have been made available to early childhood teachers to guide their planning and teaching. They conclude the book with a theoretical discussion of the cultural-historical foundation for early childhood science education, followed by a model of teaching scientific concepts to young children in play-based settings, including homes and community contexts.