Play and Learning in Early Childhood Settings: International Perspectives PDF
Preview Play and Learning in Early Childhood Settings: International Perspectives
Play and Learning in Early Childhood Settings International Perspectives on Early Childhood Education and Development Volume 1 SeriesEditors ProfessorMarilynFleer,MonashUniversity,Australia ProfessorIngridPramling-Samuelsson,GothenburgUniversity,Sweden EditorialBoard ProfessorJoyCullen,MasseyUniversity,NewZealand ProfessorYukikoMastsukawa,Rak-RakUniversity,Japan ProfessorRebecaMej´ıaArauz,ITESO,Mexico ProfessorNirmalaRao,UniversityofHongKong,China ProfessorAnneB.Smith,FormallyfromtheChildren’sIssuesCentre,UniversityofOtago, NewZealand ProfessorColletteTayler,QueenslandUniversityofTechnology,Australia AssociateProfessorEvaJohansson,GothenburgUniversity,Sweden ProfessorLilianG.Katz,Ph.D.ProfessorEmeritaofEarlyChildhoodEducation,University ofIllinois,USA Earlychildhoodeducationinmanycountrieshasbeenbuiltuponastrongtraditionofamateriallyrich andactiveplay-basedpedagogyandenvironment.Yetwhathasbecomevisiblewithintheprofession,is essentiallyaWesternviewofchildhoodpreschooleducationandschooleducation. Itistimelythataseriesofbooksbepublishedwhichpresentabroaderviewofearlychildhoodeducation. Thisseries,seekstoprovideaninternationalperspectiveonearlychildhoodeducation.Inparticular,the bookspublishedinthisserieswill: (cid:2) (cid:2) Examinehowlearningisorganizedacrossarangeofcultures,particularlyIndigenouscommunities Make visible a range of ways in which early childhood pedagogy is framed and enacted across (cid:2) countries,includingthemajoritypoorcountries (cid:2) Critiquehowparticularformsofknowledgeareconstructedincurriculumwithinandacrosscountries Explorepolicyimperativeswhichshapeandhaveshapedhowearlychildhoodeducationisenacted (cid:2) acrosscountries (cid:2) Examinehowearlychildhoodeducationisresearchedlocallyandglobally Examinethetheoreticalinformantsdrivingpedagogyandpractice,andseektofindalternativeper- (cid:2) spectivesfromthosethatdominatemanyWesternheritagecountries (cid:2) Critiqueassessmentpracticesandconsiderabroadersetofwaysofmeasuringchildren’slearning Examine concept formation from within the context of country-specific pedagogy and learning outcomes Theserieswillcovertheoreticalworks,evidence-basedpedagogicalresearch,andinternationalre- searchstudies.Theserieswillalsocoverabroadrangeofcountries,includingpoormajoritycountries. Classicalareasofinterest,suchasplay,theimagesofchildhood,andfamilystudieswillalsobeexam- ined.Howeverthefocuswillbecriticalandinternational(notWestern-centric). · Ingrid Pramling-Samuelsson Marilyn Fleer Editors Play and Learning in Early Childhood Settings International Perspectives 123 Editors Prof.IngridPramling-Samuelsson Prof.MarilynFleer Go¨teborgUniversity MonashUniversity Dept.Education Fac.Education SE-40530Go¨teborg FrankstonVIC3199 Sweden Australia [email protected] marilyn.fl[email protected] ISBN:978-1-4020-8497-3 e-ISBN:978-1-4020-8498-0 DOI10.1007/978-1-4020-8498-0 LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2008927209 (cid:2)c SpringerScience+BusinessMediaB.V.2009 Nopartofthisworkmaybereproduced,storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted inanyformorbyanymeans,electronic,mechanical,photocopying,microfilming,recording orotherwise,withoutwrittenpermissionfromthePublisher,withtheexception ofanymaterialsuppliedspecificallyforthepurposeofbeingentered andexecutedonacomputersystem,forexclusiveusebythepurchaserofthework. Printedonacid-freepaper 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 springer.com Foreword This book represents the outcome of the joint activities of a group of scholars who were concerned about the lack of international research in play for children frombirthto3years.TheauthorsaremembersoftheOrganisationMondialepour l’E`ducation Pre´scholaire (OMEP). For further information, see http://www.omep- ong.net/. The idea of carrying out a research project internationally was born at the OMEP’sWorldCongressinMelbourne,Australia2004.Allmembercountrieswere invitedand10countriesdecidedtoparticipate,ofwhichthreehavewithdrawndur- ingtheprocess.Thereasonforthismightbethatinthesecountriesonlyoneperson was working with the project, while other seven countries have been working in a team of two or more persons. The countries that have carried out research and contributed to this book with a chapter each are Australia, Chile, China, Japan, NewZealand,SwedenandUSA(Wisconsin).Formoreinformationaboutthepar- ticipatingcountriesandtheircorrespondingaddresses,seeAppendixI. ThisbookprojectstartedinMelbournewithadiscussionaboutwhatisgeneralin early childhood education globally, and what is culturally specific. The discussion wasinspiredbyoneofthekeynotespeakers,NazhatShameem(2004),judgeinthe supremecourtinFiji,whenshesaid:“Ifweallthinkwearesodifferentandspecific ineachculture,theroleofhumanrightshasnovalueanymore.” Weformulatedthreequestions: (cid:2) (cid:2) Whatisthemeaningofplayandlearning,for0to3? (cid:2) Howdoteachersworktosupportthis? Whatarethefamilies’viewsofplay? We decided to use Barbara Rogoff’s socio-cultural theory as a framework for our interpretations.Weusedherthreefociofanalysis:intrapersonal,interpersonaland cultural/institutional. We also agreed on making an empirical study including at least five children, agedfrombirthtothree,fromfivedifferentearlychildhoodeducationsettings,typ- icalforeachcountry.Somecountrieshavecollecteddatafrommorechildren.Each childisobservedbyvideorecordingsduringonewholeday,andthechild’steacher and parents are interviewed. The empirical data should be seen as case studies, v vi Foreword and can never represent each country on a more general level. However, we are convincedthatdifferentnationalethosbecomevisibleinthesefewcasestudies. Children aged from birth to three as a target group has received very limited attention in research all over the world. This age group, is increasingly becoming partoftheearlychildhoodeducationsysteminmanycountries,andfromwhatwe knowfromtheOrganisationforEconomicCo-operationandDevelopment(OECD) evaluation(OECD,2001),thestafftakingcareofthechildreninthisagegroupseem to be those with the lowest education. What does that mean for young children’s experiencesineverydaylifeinearlychildhoodeducation?Wehopeyouasareader ofthisbookwillenjoyreadingthisbookasmuchaswewhohaveinworkedwith thestudiesdocumentedintheforthcomingchapters. Go¨teborg IngridPramling-Samuelsson Melbourne MarilynFleer Contents 1 ACultural-HistoricalPerspectiveonPlay:PlayasaLeadingActivity AcrossCulturalCommunities..................................... 1 MarilynFleer 2 Play and Learning in Aotearoa New Zealand Early Childhood Education ...................................................... 19 JayneWhite,FionaEllis,AmiriaO’Malley,JeanRockel,SueStover andMeripaToso 3 PlayandLearninginAustralia.................................... 51 Marilyn Fleer, Holli A. Tonyan, Ana Cristina Mantilla, andCorineM.PatriciaRivalland 4 PlayandLearninginChile ....................................... 81 Vero´nica Aedo, Leonor Cerda, Patricia Dintrans, Mirna Pizarro, SilviaRedo´nandVero´nicaRomo 5 “Eduplay”:BeliefsandPracticesRelatedtoPlayandLearningin ChineseKindergartens........................................... 97 NirmalaRaoandHuiLi 6 TheMeaningofPlayandLearningfor0–3-Year-OldChildren inJapan........................................................117 Mari Mori, Akiko Nezu, Chikage Samizo, Tomomi Naito, andMamikoIshizuka 7 PlayandLearninginSwedishEarlyChildhoodEducation ...........135 IngridPramling-SamuelssonandSonjaSheridan 8 PlayandLearninginWisconsin ..................................155 LenoreWinebergandLouisChicquette vii viii Contents 9 CommonalitiesandDistinctionsAcrossCountries ..................173 IngridPramling-SamuelssonandMarilynFleer NameIndex........................................................191 SubjectIndex ......................................................195 Contributors Vero´nicaAedo TeacherinthePontificiaUniversidadCato´licadeChile,Vice-presidentofOMEP Chile,e-mail:[email protected] LeonorCerda Director of the early childhood Education Program, Universidad Cato´lica del Maule,e-mail:[email protected] LouisChicquette 2121N.NicholasStreet,Appleton,Wisconsin54914,USA, e-mail:[email protected] PatriciaDintrans TeacheroftheEarlyChildhoodEducationProgram,UniversidadCato´licaRau´l SilvaHenr´ıquez,e-mail:[email protected] FionaEllis DunedinCollageofEducation,POBox56Dunedin,NewZealand, e-mail:[email protected] MarilynFleer MonashUniversity,POSBox527Frankston,Victoria,3199,Australia, e-mail:marilyn.fl[email protected] MamikoIshizuka KindergartenAttachedKamakuraWomen’sUniversity,Japan, e-mail:[email protected] HuiLi AssistantProfessor,FacultyofEducation,TheUniversityofHongKong,Pokfulam Road,HongKong,e-mail:[email protected] AmiriaO’Malley Te Wananga o Aotearoa, 63, Te Wananga O Aotearoa 1861, Gisborne and Northland.64,KorowaiManukura(SchofEd),078720330, e-mail:Amiria.O’[email protected] ix
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