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13489 results in Education, history, theory

Page 206 of 675

  • Chapter 12 - Conclusions

  • Claire McLachlan, University of Waikato, New Zealand, Marilyn Fleer, Monash University, Victoria, Susan Edwards, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne
  • Book:
    Early Childhood Curriculum
    Published online:
    12 August 2019
    Print publication:
    30 March 2018, pp 220-225

  • Summary

    We began this book by talking about what an early childhood curriculum is or could be, drawing on a range of different curriculum models, theories and research. In this chapter we will pull together the threads from the previous chapters and identify answers to some of the questions we have posed throughout the book. First, let's return to our tertiary early childhood classroom and consider how the students’ understandings of curriculum have evolved.

    CASE STUDY 12.1: REVISITING UNDERSTANDINGS OF CURRICULUM

    Setting: A university tutorial room

    Timing: The last class for the year

    Participants: An international group of third- year BEd (Early Years) students and their lecturer

    Subject: Curriculum in the early childhood setting

    Lecturer: It seems incredible that we are finally at the end of the course! What I'd like todotoday, as part of wrapping up this course and helping to prepare you for your new careers as teachers, is to check that you have a good understanding now of the term ‘curriculum’ and what it means in terms of your teaching practice. If you think back to the beginning of this course, I asked you to define what you understood by the term ‘curriculum’. It was evident in that early discussion that as a group we had a range of different opinions about it and also there was quite a bit of confusion about what ‘curriculum’ might mean for us as teachers. We've spent a lot of time on this topic and we've looked at many aspects of it. Take about 15 minutes to discuss this now and then we will discuss it as a group. Get someone from your group to record your ideas, so that we can share them.

    Students move off into groups of about six people and begin the task set by the lecturer.

    Michael: I remember this activity; we were all over the place about what we thought a curriculum is.

    Jacob: Yes, we were – and, to be honest, I didn't want to take this course, but it has been useful in terms of clarifying my thinking about curriculum.

    Kiri: Yes, it has. I've realised now that the curriculum I'm used to using is similar in lots of ways to other curriculum documents, but it really represents the social, educational, political and economic aims each community or country has for their children.

  • Chapter 1 - Introduction

  • Claire McLachlan, University of Waikato, New Zealand, Marilyn Fleer, Monash University, Victoria, Susan Edwards, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne
  • Book:
    Early Childhood Curriculum
    Published online:
    12 August 2019
    Print publication:
    30 March 2018, pp 1-7

  • Summary

    Welcome to the third edition of Early Childhood Curriculum. It has been lovely to know that the early childhood sector finds our thinking about young children and curriculum valuable and that we have been invited to update the book again. Before we start, we will introduce you to a fictional scenario from a tertiary classroom. We think that this scenario sets the scene for the issues we will explore in the book and we will revisit the scenario as we explore different aspects of curriculum.

    CASE STUDY 1.1: EXPLORING UNDERSTANDINGS OF CURRICULUM

    Setting: A university tutorial room

    Timing: The first class for the year

    Participants: An international group of third-year BEd (Early Years) students and their lecturer

    Subject: Curriculum in the early childhood setting

    Lecturer: We've spent some time talking around the idea of a curriculum and I think we all have some ideas about what a curriculum is. In your reading today, Peter Moss argues that curriculum development is a political act. He says it is constructed – reflecting the values and beliefs of those involved at a particular point in time. He also says it is contested – there is no one agreed idea of curriculum, but rather multiple views of what it should be. What I'd like you to do in your groups is talk about what you think a curriculum is and what you think an early years curriculum should achieve for children. Take about 15 minutes to discuss this and then we will discuss it as a group. Get someone from your group to record your ideas, so that we can share them.

    curriculum the aims or objectives, content or subject matter, methods or procedures, and assessment and evaluation associated with a program of teaching and learning for a specific group of learners

    Students move off into groups of about six people and begin the task set by the lecturer.

    Daniel: I hate it when she asks these sorts of questions! I feel like there is never a right answer.

    Jacob:Yes, it is annoying – hard to see what relevance this has to what happens in the reality of the classroom, but I suppose we'd better have a go at answering the question or she's bound to pick on us for an answer.

  • Chapter 7 - Curriculum as a conceptual tool: Observation, content and programming

  • Claire McLachlan, University of Waikato, New Zealand, Marilyn Fleer, Monash University, Victoria, Susan Edwards, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne
  • Book:
    Early Childhood Curriculum
    Published online:
    12 August 2019
    Print publication:
    30 March 2018, pp 89-122

  • Summary

    LEARNING INTENTIONS

    In this chapter we will examine the:

  • • links between observation and planning in the curriculum

  • • importance of observation to early childhood practice

  • • role of different environments and settings on curriculum planning

  • • role of the Zone of Proximal Development in assessment

  • • importance of play

  • • issues associated with transitions

  • • importance of key informants in curriculum planning.

    • This chapter will outline the relationship between observation, planning and content in early childhood curriculum. The role of relationships, transitions, environments and play as informants to observations, planning and content selection will be examined. These constructs will be analysed in the context of international research about the role of relationships, transitions and play in children's learning and development and the implications for how they shape curriculum.

    observation the process of watching and interpreting, in this context, children's actions

    Linking observation to planning in the curriculum

    CASE STUDY 7.1: OBSERVING WHAT CHILDREN CAN DO

    Jacob: I guess that's part of the curriculum design stuff, isn't it? That you work out what it is that you want children to be able to do and therefore you plan activities and work out in advance what you think they will achieve, so that you can assess whether or not it worked.

    In Case study 7.1 (Observing what children can do), Jacob has articulated a particular model of assessment. Assessment is a way of finding out if what a teacher has organised for children to learn actually worked. He sees an important link between planning for teaching and what children do.

    Graue and Walsh (1998) note that the process of ‘finding it out’ is particularly fraught with difficulty when it involves children:

    Finding it out about children is exceptionally difficult – intellectually, physically, and emotionally. Physical, social, cognitive and political distances between the adult and the child make their relationship very different from the relationships among adults. In doing research with children, one never becomes a child. One remains a very definite and readily identifiable ‘other’ (p. xiv).

    Warren (2000) considers it impossible to separate interpretation fromobservation: ‘What is “seen”, then, is not the real, in the sense of an experience distinct from interpretation.’ He argues that ‘reality is always a moving target, always in the process of becoming, always already interpreted’ (p. 132).

Early Childhood Curriculum
  • Planning, Assessment and Implementation
  • 3rd edition
  • Claire McLachlan, Marilyn Fleer, Susan Edwards
  • Published online:
    12 August 2019
    Print publication:
    30 March 2018
  • The third edition of Early Childhood Curriculum provides a comprehensive and accessible introduction to curriculum theories and approaches in early childhood and early primary settings. Drawing on a cultural-historical framework for education, the text explores a variety of approaches to learning and teaching and equips readers with the tools to effectively plan, design and implement curriculum strategies. Thoroughly revised and updated, this edition features up-to-date coverage of national curriculum documents, including the Early Years Learning Framework and Te Whāriki, and expanded content on play-based curriculum, assessment and documentation. Key domain areas of the curriculum are explored in depth and have been revised to include updated discussions of environmental factors, digital knowledge and multiliteracies. Each chapter is enriched with learning intentions, definitions of key terms, reflection points, links to current curriculum documents and illustrative case studies to help readers connect theory to practice.

  • Chapter 5 - Interpreting early childhood curriculum

  • Claire McLachlan, University of Waikato, New Zealand, Marilyn Fleer, Monash University, Victoria, Susan Edwards, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne
  • Book:
    Early Childhood Curriculum
    Published online:
    12 August 2019
    Print publication:
    30 March 2018, pp 61-73

  • Summary

    LEARNING INTENTIONS

    This chapter is intended to help you learn that:

  • • curriculum frameworks are working documents that are supported by governments and provide teachers with different ways of thinking about how to approach the provision of early childhood curriculum

  • • curriculum frameworks typically describe a view of how children learn and develop, describe ways for teachers to support children's learning and development, and list learning outcomes indicative of children's learning and development

  • • teacher professional learning and reflective practice is an important part of using and implementing curriculum frameworks in practice.

    • This chapter will refocus attention on the ideas examined in Chapters 1 to 4, positioning teachers in relation to their centres or classrooms as cultural communities and understanding their positions in the broader cultural community and reading of early childhood education as a cultural practice. The ways in which teachers construct curriculum in relation to documents, time, history and place will be explored. The need for teachers to actively engage in ongoing professional learning is highlighted. In this chapter, we will explore the issues raised in Case study 5.1 (Thinking about curriculum) by Gwendolyne and Kiri about the relationship between curriculum documents and teachers’ knowledge about child development.

    CASE STUDY 5.1: THINKING ABOUT CURRICULUM

    Gwendolyne: In Malawi, our curriculum is a guide to help the carers know more about children's development and what concepts they should be teaching.

    Kiri: But what about this idea of it being constructed and contested? How does that work if we have a written curriculum?

    REFLECTION 5.1

    Take a few moments now and think about your own view of how children learn. How does it relate to your local curriculum document?

    Understanding early childhood curriculum

    Jill is a teacher who participated in a research project about teachers’ interpretations of the early childhood curriculum. You can read about Jill's interpretation of the curriculum in Case study 5.2 (Interpreting curriculum). As part of the project Jill was asked to reflect on her understanding of the curriculum. Jill has worked in early childhood education for over 20 years and during this time has developed an interpretation of curriculum that emphasises the relationships she sees between children's participation in their communities and their learning in the classroom.

  • Chapter 9 - Content knowledge: Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)

  • Claire McLachlan, University of Waikato, New Zealand, Marilyn Fleer, Monash University, Victoria, Susan Edwards, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne
  • Book:
    Early Childhood Curriculum
    Published online:
    12 August 2019
    Print publication:
    30 March 2018, pp 156-178

  • Summary

    LEARNING INTENTIONS

    This chapter is intended to help you learn:

  • • that conceptual development of infants and toddlers must be planned for and that key concepts are found in most early childhood curricula

  • • that concepts in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) are important for infants and young children to learn

  • • that everyday concepts and scientific concepts must both be supported in the early childhood learning environment

  • • how the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) and Te Whāriki link to concepts and process of STEM

    • In this chapter the theory and practice of Vygotsky's (1987b) work on concept formation will be introduced. This work is important for framing approaches to building content knowledge in mathematics and science in the context of the environment. This is an important part of the early childhood curriculum that can sometimes get lost in play-based approaches. In this chapter, a model for understanding how concept formation occurs in relation to children's everyday experiences of the world and their acquisition of formal knowledge will be examined. The model is explained using examples from practice that show how children and teachers can work together to build conceptual knowledge within play-based approaches to curriculum.

    concept formation when a child concurrently draws upon everyday concepts and scientific concepts for higher mental functioning. The child develops understandings of the concept only when both everyday and scientific concepts are known to the learner.

    Mathematical concept formation within everyday practice

    It is 10.00 am and Jacinta and her teacher are wiping the tables in preparation for morning tea. Jacinta's teacher has recently attended a workshop on curriculum planning and has brought back a series of cards that give suggestions for using everyday practices to promote mathematics education in young children. As the teacher wipes the table she recalls the dialogue on the back of the cards (see Figures 9.1 and 9.2) and has the following conversation with Jacinta:

    Teacher: Jacinta, see if you can move the cloth all the way to the edge of the table.

    Jacinta: Like this [moving the cloth across the table surface, running her hand along the edge].

    Teacher: Yes, that's it. We are wiping the whole area of the table – right to the edge.

    Jacinta: I have got every spot, haven't I?

  • Chapter 6 - Cultural-historical curriculum in action

  • Claire McLachlan, University of Waikato, New Zealand, Marilyn Fleer, Monash University, Victoria, Susan Edwards, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne
  • Book:
    Early Childhood Curriculum
    Published online:
    12 August 2019
    Print publication:
    30 March 2018, pp 74-88

  • Summary

    LEARNING INTENTIONS

    This chapter is intended to help you learn that:

  • • cultural-historical theory is useful for understanding children's learning in the context of their cultural and family experiences

  • • children's cultural and family experiences can provide the basis for curriculum provision

  • • an approach to curriculum that is informed by cultural-historical theory is different from enacting multiculturalism as a ‘tourist approach’ (Derman-Sparks 1989) in early childhood settings.

    • This chapter will help you answer the question about curriculum posed in Case study 1.1 (Exploring understandings of curriculum): ‘Isn't that when you talk to parents about what they want in the curriculum?’

    In the previous chapters of this book, it was proposed that teachers need to understand how curriculum is constructed: by teachers in collaboration with children, families and communities. We begin here with a discussion of the ways teachers make decisions about curriculum. Cultural-historical theory is used as a framework for supporting educators’ work with young children in culturally respectful ways. We examine the importance of moving beyond notions of multiculturalism to understandings of how development and learning are enacted in different cultural communities, and the need for early childhood curriculum to enable learning for all children. This chapter also explains how teachers need to have an understanding of the knowledge children bring to their learning and be able to identify opportunities for extending children's learning.

    Thinking theoretically

    Curriculum decisions are informed by theoretical ideas about young children's development and learning. Some students studying for a Bachelor of Education were participating in a class preparing for a practicum placement with babies and toddlers. As part of this class the students were examining how cultural-historical theory could be used to develop curriculum experiences for very young children. They participated in a role-play activity where they pretended to be teachers engaged in a professional conversation about the relationship between theory and practice. You can read their role-play in Case study 6.1 (Sociocultural theory in curriculum), which provides a transcript of this role-play.

    CASE STUDY 6.1: SOCIOCULTURAL THEORY IN CURRICULUM

    Kate: How is everyone going observing and planning using a sociocultural approach?

    Samantha: I am attempting to get a handle on it. I feel that in all my observations so far I focus on the individual and their interactions, looking at what they are doing and planning to extend and support their interests.

  • Chapter 3 - Play, learning and development: How views of development shape how curriculum is framed

  • Claire McLachlan, University of Waikato, New Zealand, Marilyn Fleer, Monash University, Victoria, Susan Edwards, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne
  • Book:
    Early Childhood Curriculum
    Published online:
    12 August 2019
    Print publication:
    30 March 2018, pp 33-48

  • Summary

    LEARNING INTENTIONS

    This chapter is intended to help you:

  • • be able to identify the theory of child development that informs a particular curriculum

  • • make judgements about the differences between curricula in relation to child development

  • • take a close look at the diversity of theories of development and learning that inform curriculum in five countries

  • • gain deeper insights into the relations between play, learning and development in the context of curriculum theory.

    • In this chapter we will explore the concepts of play, development and learning in relation to curriculum development. It will be argued that how we think about these concepts shapes how we develop curriculum for the early years. Development, defined as an internal and evolving process, will be examined in relation to Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP), and development as a culturalhistorical interaction will then be discussed in the context of changing views on early childhood curriculum. We will also consider the differing views on play in the context of a play-based curriculum.

    Development and curriculum

    REFLECTION 3.1

    What assumptions do you have about children, childhood, play, learning and development?

    When we look at curriculum documents prepared by early childhood professionals from a range of countries we notice differences in what they value in terms of:

  • • play, development and learning

  • • children and childhood.

    • These values are reflected in what they want their curriculum to do, and thus in what the outcomes for children and society will be. Five examples of curriculum statements are given below.

    In the first example, Carlina Rinaldi (2006) is being interviewed about her views on curriculum in the context of the important work being done in Reggio Emilia, Italy, for early childhood education:

    As a reaction against people who classify us in Reggio as working with an emergent curriculum, I have been thinking about a concept that might be called a ‘contextual curriculum’. Our interpretation of the concept of curriculum starts from the assumption that children have a stunning mastery of many languages and an appreciation that ‘other minds’ can share their own different beliefs and theories … If the curriculum is conceived as a path or journey, it will be a path or journey that has, in our opinion, to sustain these competences as fundamental values for knowledge and for life (p. 205).

  • Chapter 10 - Content knowledge: Languages and literacies

  • Claire McLachlan, University of Waikato, New Zealand, Marilyn Fleer, Monash University, Victoria, Susan Edwards, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne
  • Book:
    Early Childhood Curriculum
    Published online:
    12 August 2019
    Print publication:
    30 March 2018, pp 179-202

  • Summary

    LEARNING INTENTIONS

    In this chapter we will examine:

  • • current research on the content knowledge that teachers need to have about languages and literacies in early childhood

  • • how teachers can build on children's home experiences in the early childhood classroom to help transform children's thinking.

    • This chapter will examine the role of content knowledge in early childhood education across the key areas of languages and literacies, including digital learning. Issues associated with how content knowledge is related to and evidenced in the early childhood curriculum will be theorised using Fleer's work on concept formation in early childhood contexts in Chapter 9. In our opening scenario (Case study 1.1), our students voiced concerns about how to integrate domain knowledge into teaching. This chapter explores how learning domain knowledge is integral to implementing a sociocultural curriculum. In Case study 10.1 (Emergent curriculum) we revisit our students’ concern about implementing emergent curriculum:

    CASE STUDY 10.1: EMERGENT CURRICULUM

    Michael: I don't know and I don't understand how constructed and contested curriculum fits with curriculum planning. How can you plan curriculum if you are using the emergent curriculum approach that some teachers use?

    Languages and literacies

    We will first return to the questions asked of you in Chapter 3 in relation to the curriculum you use in your teaching and reflect on these questions specifically in relation to languages and literacies in your early childhood setting:

  • • How are children viewed? How are children's languages and literacies development viewed in this setting?

  • • What content is valued? What types of languages and literacies knowledge and skills are valued for children?

  • • How is knowledge framed? Whose languages and literacies knowledge is prioritised and organised in this setting?

  • • How is progression organised (or not)? How is languages and literacies progression viewed and used for structuring curriculum?

  • • Who decides on the content? Who has decided on the languages and literacies content that is offered to children in this setting?

    • As Chapter 3 argued, all these questions shape the ways in which teachers make choices about curriculum content and how to interact with children's developing literacies knowledge and skills.

  • Chapter 11 - Content knowledge: The arts and health, wellbeing and physical activity

  • Claire McLachlan, University of Waikato, New Zealand, Marilyn Fleer, Monash University, Victoria, Susan Edwards, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne
  • Book:
    Early Childhood Curriculum
    Published online:
    12 August 2019
    Print publication:
    30 March 2018, pp 203-219

  • Summary

    LEARNING INTENTIONS

    In this chapter we will examine:

  • • current research on the content knowledge that teachers need to have about the arts, health, wellbeing and physical education in early childhood

  • • how teachers can build on children's home experiences in the early childhood classroom to help transform children's thinking.

    • In this chapter the theory and the practice of Vygotsky's (1998) work on concept formation will be further discussed. The content areas of arts and health, wellbeing and physical education will be used to illustrate the importance of conceptual knowledge in the early childhood curriculum. How to integrate domain knowledge into curriculum was identified by students in Case study 11.1 (Co-constructing curriculum?).

    On the face of it, the topics in this chapter sound like an unusual combination but, as we hope this chapter shows, much of the concept formation associated with these domains of knowledge involves the interrelationship of cognitive abilities and psychomotor skills. For the purposes of simplicity only, the arts in this discussion include the visual arts, dance and music. The focus is on concept formation that involves developing physical abilities, such as drawing, painting, playing a musical instrument, singing, dancing, and playing on the jungle gym, playing ball games and other games with rules.

    CASE STUDY 11.1: CO-CONSTRUCTING CURRICULUM?

    Jacob: I guess that's part of the curriculum design stuff, isn't it? That you work out what it is that you want children to be able to do and therefore you plan activities and work out in advance what you think they will achieve, so that you can assess if it worked or not.

    Arohia: But how does that fit with all these ideas around co-construction that our practicum lecturer has been talking about? How can I plan in advance, if I am trying to work with children to plan the curriculum?

    Health, wellbeing and physical activity

    If we think about concept formation for physical activity, we see how this subject area, too, can be thought about in terms of cultural-historical theory, as many aspects of children's everyday knowledge about these things from the home setting can be integrated with research on health, wellbeing and physical activity.

    In this area of children's knowledge, learning how to be healthy, maintain a strong sense of their own identity and remain physically active are essential skills for a lifelong sense of wellbeing.

  • Chapter 8 - Assessing children and evaluating curriculum: Shifting lenses

  • Claire McLachlan, University of Waikato, New Zealand, Marilyn Fleer, Monash University, Victoria, Susan Edwards, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne
  • Book:
    Early Childhood Curriculum
    Published online:
    12 August 2019
    Print publication:
    30 March 2018, pp 123-155

  • Summary

    LEARNING INTENTIONS

    This chapter is intended to help you:

  • • think about assessment for learning and assessment of learning

  • • understand the relationship between assessment and evaluation.

    • This chapter will examine the relationship between observation, assessment and evaluation. The interrelated nature of assessment and evaluation is explored, along with its implications for the roles of teachers, children, families and communities. We present examples of assessment for infants, toddlers and preschoolers, plus give a case study of a curriculum leader in one school who generated a school-based curriculum. We will explore curriculum evaluation and assessment practices. In the first part of this chapter, the concept of assessment is further elaborated (building on Chapter 7), in order to build a context for discussing the relationships between assessment and curriculum evaluation.

    evaluation the range of methods used by teachers and other stakeholders to monitor whether the curriculum is effective in promoting children's learning and is using the most appropriate methods of teaching, learning and assessment

    curriculum the aims or objectives, content or subject matter, methods or procedures, and assessment or evaluation associated with a program of teaching and learning for a specific group of learners

    What is assessment?

    What I like is this question of ‘Do we really know the children?’ When we were talking about that, straight away for me it was: ‘No, we don't, and we don't have any mechanisms in place that assist us’, and I was thinking to myself: ‘How do we do that?’ (teacher reflections) (Fleer 2015).

    In the previous chapter, we discussed how teachers in Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere are using observation and narrative methodologies as a way of documenting their observations of children learning. We alsomade the point that observation has been a primary means of assessment in many early childhood settings for many years. In primary schools, a wider range of assessment methods have typically been used, but there continues to be enormous debate around which methods should be used with younger children. (See, for example, the special issue of Young Children, January 2012, 67(1).)

    assessment the range of methods used by teachers to monitor whether children are achieving learning aims and objectives and gaining new knowledge of content and subject matter

    What is the purpose of assessment?

    Is the purpose of assessment to gather information for the child, for the teacher or for the system?

  • Chapter 4 - Curriculum as a cultural broker

  • Claire McLachlan, University of Waikato, New Zealand, Marilyn Fleer, Monash University, Victoria, Susan Edwards, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne
  • Book:
    Early Childhood Curriculum
    Published online:
    12 August 2019
    Print publication:
    30 March 2018, pp 49-60

  • Summary

    LEARNING INTENTIONS

    This chapter is intended to help you learn:

  • • that the curriculum can ‘broker’ children's learning by building on and exploring the knowledge and experiences they bring to early childhood settings from their families and communities

  • • that children's social situations are comprised of the relationships they have with significant adults in their lives, and that changing social situations represent new learning opportunities for young children

  • • that curriculum is a dynamic concept and that the curriculum needs of young children change over time in response to social, cultural and economic changes in local communities.

    • This chapter examines how early childhood practices are enacted in different cultural communities and related to curriculum decision-making processes. These examinations will be used to show how different curricula are informed by alternative perspectives on development and learning, and by their political contexts. A case study of teacher practice will be used to show how this process is related to a cultural-historical perspective. Research emerging from the use of culturalhistorical theory as an informant of the early childhood curriculum will be used to discuss curriculum as a cultural construction affecting a range of stakeholders, including teachers, families, children, communities and policy makers.

    In this chapter we will examine the issues raised by Kiri, Hui Lee and Daniel in Case study 4.1 (Curriculum documents).

    CASE STUDY 4.1: CURRICULUM DOCUMENTS

    Kiri: I don't see what all the fuss is about, really, as we have two curriculum documents in my country that dictate what we should be doing anyway: Te Whāriki and the New Zealand Curriculum.

    Hui Lee: In my context, we only have one: Nurturing Early Learners. A framework for a kindergarten curriculum in Singapore.

    Daniel: In my country, we have had a document for a while now. It is the national Early Years Learning Framework for Australia: Belonging, Being and Becoming. But each of our states and territories has its own curriculum as well.

    REFLECTION 4.1

    What is the curriculum document used in your country?

    Curriculum and culture

    Four-year-old Ava was very interested in Dora the Explorer™. Ava had many of the Dora the Explorer DVDs and her preferred bedtime reading was usually a Dora the Explorer book. When grocery shopping with her father, Ava always selected the Dora the Explorer flavoured yoghurt, and at home she played with her Dora the Explorer craft materials and building blocks.

  • Chapter 2 - Theory, research and the early childhood curriculum

  • Claire McLachlan, University of Waikato, New Zealand, Marilyn Fleer, Monash University, Victoria, Susan Edwards, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne
  • Book:
    Early Childhood Curriculum
    Published online:
    12 August 2019
    Print publication:
    30 March 2018, pp 8-32

  • Summary

    LEARNING INTENTIONS

    In this chapter we intend to:

  • • define the term ‘curriculum’

  • • examine the major philosophical and theoretical positions that underpin modern conceptions of early childhood curriculum

  • • analyse how the efficacy of a curriculum can be evaluated.

    • In the first chapter it was noted that early childhood teachers are often confused by the term ‘curriculum’ because of the different ways this term is used, as noted by Kiri, Gemma, Jacob and Michael:

    CASE STUDY 2.1: DEFINING A CURRICULUM

    Kiri: Most countries have some type of written curriculum document. Surely the people who wrote those documents knew what they were on about?

    Gemma: But aren't those documents just a guide to what we do in the classroom? Although Te Whāriki has been revised and there is a stronger indication of what children should be learning, it is not very specific about the actual stuff I will do with children every day.

    Jacob: Isn't the curriculum how you plan the environment, and sort of based on your own national curriculum and the sorts of things it says that children should experience?

    Michael: But on my last teaching practice, my Associate Teacher told me that the curriculum was in her head and that she didn't take much notice of the curriculum she was using. She said that she just uses the curriculum as a source of ideas and then the real curriculum is designed on the trot as she interacts with children and as the children have new ideas for play.

    In this chapter we seek to unpack some of the ideas put forward by Kiri, Gemma, Jacob and Michael through introducing you to conceptual knowledge about curriculum, as well as through examining fundamental principles of curriculum design.

    Because knowledge is not static, we ask you to consider the importance of research as a driver for change and continued professional development. This chapter will explore some of the principles of what a curriculum is and how the taken for granted nature of curricula can be challenged.

    What is a curriculum?

    According to Scott (2008), a curriculum can be defined in the following way:

    A curriculum may refer to a system, as in a national curriculum; an institution, as in a school curriculum; or even to an individual school, as in the school geography curriculum (pp. 19–20).

  • 4 - Educators’ Perspectives on Language and Sexual Diversity in Schools

  • Helen Sauntson, York St John University
  • Book:
    Language, Sexuality and Education
    Published online:
    26 February 2018
    Print publication:
    15 March 2018, pp 93-122

  • Summary

    Interviews were conducted with educators working in secondary schools in the UK and an electronic survey was distributed to educators in high schools in Washington DC. The analysis and emergent findings from these data-sets are the focus of Chapter 5. In the interviews and surveys, the educators discuss their perceptions of how issues around sexual diversity are handled in their schools and what they think the key issues are. Like the young people interviews, the interview and survey data from the educators was analysed using linguistic frameworks in order to better understand how the speakers understand and construct different sexual identities in relation to the school contexts, and how their language encodes particular feelings and attitudes towards issues around sexuality and schooling. To this end, the frameworks used to analyse this data are tactics of intersubjectivity and appraisal. This enables a direct comparison of the young people’s and adult educators’ perceptions of how sexual diversity is constructed and experienced in the school environment (revealed through the application of the tactics of intersubjectivity framework) and their own feelings and attitudes towards sexual diversity and schooling (revealed through the application of appraisal analysis).

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