journal of childhood, education & society volume 2, issue 3, 2021, 217-219 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.202123159 editorial ©2021 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. teaching and learning science during the early years kathy cabe trundle1, mesut saçkes 2 abstract: over the past two decades, science has increasingly become an integral part of early childhood curricula, and research on teaching and learning science in early years has emerged as an established field of study. collectively, the findings of a growing body of literature suggest that introducing science in developmentally appropriate ways may support young children’s learning of science concepts and scientific thinking skills. the increasing number of edited volumes and special issues, including this one, devoted to the topic of early childhood science teaching and learning indicates that early science education, as a field of study, will continue to attract researchers from early childhood and science education as well as educational and cognitive psychology. keywords early science education; preschool science education; teaching and learning of science research on the teaching and learning of science during children’s early years of development has emerged as an established field of study over the past two decades. collectively, the findings of a growing body of literature suggest that introducing science in developmentally appropriate ways may support young children’s sensory explorations of their world and provide foundational knowledge and skills for lifelong science learning as well as a deeper appreciation of nature (trundle, 2015; trundle & saçkes, 2012). despite the increasing number of research studies on early childhood science education, our knowledge about the teaching and learning of science during the early years remains limited compared to other domains such as literacy and mathematics (trundle & saçkes, 2012, 2015). empirical studies, reviews, and policy analyses are needed to inform the theory and practice of teaching and learning of science in preschool and kindergarten classrooms. the following research themes provide a foundation for further studies in the field (siry, trundle & saçkes, in press): 1) development of children’s scientific thinking and inquiry skills and how to support children as they engage with science; 2) play as a pedagogical tool for science learning and skill development; 3) children’s emotions and motivation toward science; 4) the effectiveness of available science curricula and the design of developmentally appropriate science curricula for young learners; 5) accessibility of early science education for all children; 6) the integral link between science and language and young children’s talk about and interaction with science concepts and phenomena; 7) the integration of science learning with other content domains; 8) outdoor and environmental education to support science learning; 9) family participation in young children’s science learning; 10) educational materials and technology to support young children’s science learning; and 11) parent and caregiver support of infants and toddlers as they begin to experience science concepts and skills. the content of this special issue of the journal of childhood, education & society contributes to our understanding of several aspects of early science education including: • how play-based inquiry activities support children’s conceptual understanding of thermal_____________ 1 utah state university, emma eccles jones college of education and human services, department, logan, utah, usa, email: kathy.trundle@usu.edu, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4281-3782 2 balıkesir university, necatibey school of education, balıkesir, turkey, email: msackes@balikesir.edu.tr, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3673-1668 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202123159 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:kathy.trundle@usu.edu https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4281-3782 mailto:msackes@balikesir.edu.tr https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3673-1668 kathy cabe trundle & mesut saçkes 218 insulation and engagement with scientific and engineering practices (fragkiadaki et al., 2021; miller & saenz, 2021) • the role of language, question-explanation exchanges, and dual language learning environment in learning science concepts (åkerblom & thorshag, 2021; haber et al., 2021; rumper et al., 2021) • how early childhood teachers’ perceptions of gender influence their science teaching practices (hamel, 2021). • how off-school visits promote young children’s engagement with scientific inquiry and learning of science concepts (roberts, 2021). • the extent to which science concepts and skills are included in u.s. preschool curricula (ocasio et al., 2021). teaching and learning science as inquiry during the early years should invite children to be cognitively, motivationally, and physically active participants in investigations where they ask questions, make observations and answer questions within the context of developmentally appropriate concepts and materials (trundle & saçkes, 2012). the findings of research studies over the last two decades, along with the studies included in this special issue, suggest that young children have potential to benefit from science learning opportunities (carey, 2004; güçhan-özgül, 2021; kuhn & pearsall, 2000; metz, 1997; hobson, trundle & saçkes, 2010; samarapungavan, mantzicopoulos, &patrick, 2008; saçkes et al., 2020; trundle & saçkes, 2015). over the past two decades, science has increasingly become an integral part of early childhood curricula, and research on teaching and learning science in early years has emerged as an established field of study. the increasing number of edited volumes and special issues, including this one, devoted to the topic of early science teaching and learning indicates that early science education, as a field of study, will continue to attract researchers from early childhood and science education as well as educational and cognitive psychology. declarations acknowledgements: not applicable. authors’ contributions: authors contributed equally to the manuscript. competing interests: the authors declare that they have no competing interests. funding: not applicable. references åkerblom, a., & thorshag, k. (2021). preschoolers’ use and exploration of concepts related to scientific phenomena in preschool. journal of childhood, education & society, 2(3), 287–302. https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202123115 carey, s. (2004). bootstrapping and the development of concepts. dedalus, winter, 59-68. https://doi.org/10.1162/001152604772746701 fragkiadaki, g., armeni, a., zioga, s., & ravanis, k. (2021). dramatic play as a means to explore and support preschool children’s thinking about thermal insulation. journal of childhood, education & society, 2(3), 220–234. https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.20212395 güçhan-özgül, s. (2021). integration of inquiry and play: young children’s conceptual change in astronomy. journal of inquiry based activities, 11(1), 1-15. haber, a. s., puttre, h., ghossainy, m. e., & corriveau, k. h. 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(2000). developmental origins of scientific thinking. journal of cognition and development, 1(1), 113-129. https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202123115 https://doi.org/10.1162/001152604772746701 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.20212395 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202123117 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202123118 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10956-009-9189-8 teaching and learning science during the early years… 219 https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327647jcd0101n_11 metz, k. e. (1997). on the complex relation between cognitive developmental research and children’s science curricula. review of educational research, 67(1), 151-163. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543067001151 miller, a. r., & saenz, l. p. (2021). exploring relationships between playspaces, pedagogy, and preschoolers’ play-based science and engineering practices. journal of childhood, education & society, 2(3), 314–337. https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202123121 ocasio, a., waltzer, t. ., caudy, c., & kloos, h. (2021). are preschoolers expected to learn difficult science constructs? a content analysis of u.s. standards. journal of childhood, education & society, 2(3), 364–390. https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202123122 roberts, p. (2021). follow the leader: child-led inquiries to develop science learning of young children. journal of childhood, education & society, 2(3), 303–313. https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202123120 rumper, b., frechette, e., sharifnia, e., greenfield, d., michnick golinkoff, r., & hirsh-pasek, k. (2021). portrait of early science education in majority dual language learner classrooms: where do we start?. journal of childhood, education & society, 2(3), 235–266. https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202123119 saçkes, m., trundle, k. c., & shaheen, m. (2020). the effect of balanced learning® curriculum on young children’s learning of science. early childhood education journal, 48(3), 305-312. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-019-00985-x samarapungavan, a. l. a., mantzicopoulos, p., & patrick, h. (2008). learning science through inquiry in kindergarten. science education, 92(5), 868-908. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.20275 siry, c., trundle, k. c., & saçkes, m. (in press). science education during the early childhood years: research themes and future directions. in n. lederman, d. zeidler, & j. lederman (eds.) handbook of research on science education, volume iii (vol. 3). routledge. trundle, k. c. (2015). the inclusion of science in early childhood classrooms. in k. c.trundle & m. saçkes, (eds.), research in early childhood science education (pp. 1-6). springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9505-0_1 trundle, k. c., & saçkes, m. (2012). science and early education. in r. c. pianta, w. s. barnett, l. m. justice, & s. m. sheridan (eds.), handbook of early childhood education (pp.240-258). guilford press. trundle, k. c., & saçkes, m. (eds.). (2015). research in early childhood science education. springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-0179505-0 https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327647jcd0101n_11 https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543067001151 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202123121 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202123122 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202123120 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202123119 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-019-00985-x https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.20275 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9505-0_1 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9505-0 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9505-0 teaching and learning science during the early years journal of childhood, education & society volume 3, issue 2, 2022, 168-176 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.202232155 research article ©2022 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. a longitudinal investigation of the effects of parental discipline strategies on social competence in early childhood karleah harris1, charlene harris2, lisa dunkley3 abstract: in the current study, we investigated the associations between parenting discipline strategies (i.e., physical punishment and non-violent punishment) and social development using n = 3265 reports from primary caregivers across three waves of data. analyses were conducted using cross-lagged structural equation modeling, where we evaluated the developmental effects of physical punishment and non-violent punishment on social competence. the findings showed partial support for developmental changes between non-violent punishment and social competence unfold reciprocally and longitudinally; the relationship between physical punishment and social competence appeared unrelated, as physical punishment in wave 2 only negatively predicted social competence in wave 3. these findings underscore the importance of understanding the developmental pathways for parenting discipline strategies and social skill development among children living in urban neighborhoods. article history received: 06 december 2021 accepted: 01 july 2022 keywords parental discipline; social competence; fragile families; childhood; urban families introduction the development of social competence in early childhood has long been documented as a critical component of positive adjustment outcomes (akhtar et al., 2017; huber et al., 2019; rose-krasnor, 1997). developmental researchers recognize that children develop important prosocial skills, including communication, cooperation, as well as emotional regulation skills, based on meaningful and appropriate interactions with others (dodge et al., 1986). studies testing the relationship between social competence and adjustment outcomes have focused on the importance of early socialization processes between the parent and the child (baker et al., 2011; mirabile et al., 2018; spruijt et al., 2019). these studies have been uniquely framed by baumrind’s (1978) traditional parenting typology and extended by maccoby and martin (1983) to include authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, and neglectful parenting styles based on two dimensions, i.e., “demandingness or control” and “responsiveness or “warmth.” according to the research, parenting dimensions assess demandingness as the degree to which parents control children's behavior and can range from using such behavioral control methods as physical punishment, i.e., spanking, to rule-setting. in contrast, responsiveness includes parental behaviors that demonstrate warmth and support; examples include time-out and removal of privileges or admonishment of the child, which has been associated with a decrease in undesired behaviors in children (gonzalez et al., 2019). in reviewing the literature on parenting styles and its consequence, one area that has received considerable empirical attention is parental discipline practices. these efforts defined physical punishment as aggressive or violent behaviors by parents such as hitting, smacking, slapping, and spanking a child (brown et al., 2018; gonzalez et al., 2019) “to control their child's misbehavior and to promote compliance” (straus & donnelly, 2017, p. 4). most studies examining physical discipline methods found that parents’ use of stringent discipline increases the risk of long-term adverse outcomes including depression, low selfcontrol, and poor cognitive and social skills which heightens the risk of maltreatment across the lifespan _____________ 1 university of arkansas at pine bluff, department of human sciences, pine bluff, ar, usa, e-mail: karleah.harris@gmail.com, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7243-4762 2 state university of new york at oswego, department of human development, oswego, ny, usa, e-mail: charlene.harris@oswego.edu, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-00022797-4791 3 east tennessee state university, counseling and human services, johnson city, tn, usa, e-mail: dunkleyl@etsu.edu, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5319-3131 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202232155 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:karleah.harris@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7243-4762 mailto:charlene.harris@oswego.edu https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2797-4791 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2797-4791 mailto:dunkleyl@etsu.edu https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5319-3131 a longitudinal investigation of the effects of parental discipline strategies… 169 (gershoff & grogan-kaylor, 2016; heilmann et al., 2021; piko et al., 2012; yildirim et al., 2020); although positive effects of physical discipline were observed in african american children (simons et al., 2013). other studies examined links between non-physical discipline methods and effects (lecuyer et al., 2011; ma et al., 2022) and demonstrated that non-physical discipline reduced the risk of harmful outcomes and increased prosocial behaviors and social skills, especially in young children over time (yu et al., 2018). while these studies identified parental discipline as a significant predictor of behavioral outcomes in children (lecuyer et al., 2011), more recent studies add support for the reciprocal or bidirectional nature of these effects (xing et al., 2021), thus supporting our approach to exploring the bidirectional impact of parental discipline in the study. although the link between parental physical discipline and negative child and adolescent outcomes seems to be well established in research, there remains a cultural debate on its use as well as the effects of physical discipline among ethnic groups (heilmann et al., 2021; tompkins & villaruel, 2022; ward et al., 2022; wolf & suntheimer, 2020). research on diverse samples showed that african american parents are more likely to report the use of physical punishment as a form of discipline in children; a direct contrast to european american and hispanic parents (gershoff et al., 2018a; lansford et al., 2004; simons & wurtele, 2010). indeed, african american parents have been found to endorse the use of physical punishment as an appropriate method of discipline approach more readily than their european american counterparts, who are more likely to approve of non-physical discipline styles (flynn, 1998; gershoff et al., 2018b; simons et al., 2013). despite the prevalence and acceptability of physical discipline use by african american parents, numerous studies noted increased positive behaviors in african american children over time, and more adverse effects were observed in european american youth (mcloyd & smith, 2002). the use of physical discipline by african american parents is best understood in the cultural normative context (deater-deckard & dodge, 1997), which suggests that both the parent and child are socialized to perceive physical punishment as a typical developmental experience; thus, they are more willing to accept its practice. while parental discipline outcomes can be attributed to cultural factors, namely race or ethnicity of parents, some studies have focused on other contextual factors such as neighborhood and family factors that can also impact behavior outcomes in childhood and adolescence (kotchick & forehand, 2002). in this context, there is strong evidence that higher rates of physical discipline were found among youth in urban settings (creavey et al., 2018). this is because parents in disadvantaged neighborhoods often experience additional family stressors such as lower socioeconomic status and family stability, which may increase the likelihood of harsh childrearing practices such as physical punishment in such environments (creavey et al., 2018). in this sense, it is helpful to explore the impact of parental discipline on child outcomes above and beyond the contextual effects of ethnicity and family structure to better understand the associations between parental discipline practices and children’s social competence in diverse urban contexts. despite the evidence in the literature, physical discipline remains a common practice by parents in most u.s. households; there is a general lack of knowledge on the use of physical punishment practices such as spanking across developmental stages, making it difficult to explicitly test for consequences of physical discipline over time. thus, for researchers to fully understand the developmental implications of physical discipline and expand on the existing knowledge base, the current study investigates developmental changes between two parental discipline strategies (physical and non-violent punishment) and social competence above and beyond the influence of individual characteristics of the sample. the current study using three waves of data, we tested the reciprocal and longitudinal associations between two parental discipline strategies––physical discipline and non-violent discipline––on children’s social competence and vice versa. further, we tested the extent these effects varied across control variables, i.e., ethnicity/race (i.e., european american, african american/black, hispanic/latino, and other) and family karleah harris et al. 170 structure (i.e., two biological parents vs. other family situation) as these factors seem to provide additional information on understanding parenting disciplinary practices within context. method sample and procedures the study was approved by the institutional review board (irb) at the university of arkansas at pine bluff. data were part of the fragile families and child wellbeing study (ffcws) public use dataset available. data are free to download from princeton university's office of population research (opr) data archive. a detailed description of the ffcws sampling and design can be found elsewhere (reichman et al., 2001). the current study examined primary caregiver and children interviews from 20 large cities between 1998 and 2000 (waldfogel et al., 2010). primary caregivers consisted of biological parental caregivers (mothers and fathers) and non-biological parental caregivers who were interviewed at or shortly after the child’s birth and subsequently interviewed through additional waves of data, i.e., age 3 (wave 3), 5 (wave 4), and 9 (wave 5), respectively. our analyses focused on 3,265 primary caregivers (biological and non-biological) who participated in the study across three data points. based on the responses, 26.5% of children reported living in households with two biological parents as caregivers. measures family structure variable. youth in the study were asked to describe their current living situations. responses were given as 1= biological mother and father, 2 = biological mother and a new partner, 3 = mother only, 4 = biological father and her new partner, 5 = biological father only, and 6 = other primary caregivers. these responses were dichotomized into two groups 1 = two biological parents situation and 2 = other parent situation. ethnicity/race. the youth in the sample were asked to report their ethnicity. responses were given as 1 = european american only, non-hispanic, 2 = african american/black, non-hispanic, 3 = hispanic/latino, 4 = other, non-hispanic, and 5 = multiracial, non-hispanic. the sample participants for each ethnicity included african american/black (58.7%), european american (14.9%), hispanic/latino (19%), and other ethnic groups (7.4%). the responses were grouped into four categories for our analyses where 1 = white only, non-hispanic, 2 = african american/black, non-hispanic, 3 = hispanic/latino, and 4 = other. more than half the sample (67.1%) were african american. physical punishment. the primary caregiver’s use of physical punishment strategies was measured by a subset of 5 items from the conflict-tactic scale (cts) by straus et al. (1998), which includes questions on physical punishment, e.g., spanking and slapping. response choices reflected the frequency of each behavior’s use in the last 12 months ranging from 0 = never to 6 = more than 20 times. cronbach’s alphas ranged from .71 to .88. non-violent punishment. primary caregivers reported their use of non-violent disciplinary methods using 4-items from the conflict-tactic scale (cts) by straus et al. (1998). the questions assessed the use of violent discipline methods where primary caregivers (1) explained to the child why something was wrong, (2) gave the child something else to do instead of what they were doing wrong, (3) took away privileges or grounded, and (4) put the child in in “time out” or sent the child to their room. response choices reflected the frequency of each behavior’s use in the last 12 months ranging from 0 = never to 6 = more than 20 times during the past 12 months. cronbach’s alphas ranged from .75 to .84. social competence. primary caregivers reported children’s social competence using the 9-items adapted from the 13-item express subscale of sociability and empathy from the adaptive social behavior inventory (absi) (hogan et al., 1992; greenfield et al., 1997). for the study, each primary caregiver was asked to indicate whether the child; understands others’ feelings when they are happy, is open and direct about what he/she wants, whether the child was sympathetic to other children’s distress, or is confident a longitudinal investigation of the effects of parental discipline strategies… 171 with other people. responses ranged from was not true (0), sometimes or somewhat true (1), or very true or often true of her child (2). cronbach’s alphas ranged from .71 to .91. data analysis plan an examination of skewness and kurtosis of main study variables was in an acceptable range, i.e., below +2 and -2 (george & mallery, 2019), whereas incomplete or missing data were handled via full information maximum likelihood (fiml) in amos. the analyses consisted of crossed-lagged regression models to assess developmental changes between parental discipline strategies (physical punishment and non-violent punishment) and social competence across three waves of data using structural equation modeling (see figure 1). standard fit statistics, including the comparative fit index (cfi), the root means square error of approximation (rmsea), and the chi-square statistic, were used to assess model fit across all path analyses (byrne, 2013). to test for differences in the model using two control variables (race and family structure), we conducted multigroup comparisons by family structure and ethnicity, where free default models (unconstrained) were compared to fixed models (constrained). a summary of the fit for the unconstrained and constrained models for both race and family structure is reported in table 2. results the descriptive statistics of the study items for the three points of data are included in table 1. the bivariate correlations between parental discipline measures (physical punishment and non-violent punishment) and social competence across three waves of data are shown in table 2. the correlations indicate that physical punishment and social competence were not consistently related across three-time points. for example, physical punishment at t1 was positively correlated with social competence at t1 through t3; rs = .05, p <.05; but physical punishment appeared unrelated to social competence at all other time points. on the contrary, non-violent discipline and school competence were positively correlated with social competence across each wave––rs ranged from .08 to .16. table 1. correlations between parental discipline and social competence variables 𝛼𝛼 m sd 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1. physical punishment t1 .79 3.52 1.38 − 2. physical punishment t2 .71 3.22 1.31 .36** − 3. physical punishment t3 .88 2.42 1.10 .24** .30** − 4. non-violent punishment t1 .75 4.69 1.10 .47** .23** .16** − 5. non-violent punishment t2 .79 4.62 1.12 .22** .45** .21** .40** − 6. non-violent punishment t3 .84 3.80 1.29 .23** .27** .53** .37** .45** − 7. social competence t1 .71 1.71 .29 .05* .02 -.03 .16** .12** .10*** − 8. social competence t2 .76 1.73 .30 .05* .01 -.02 .15** .13** .08** .35** − 9. social competence t3 .91 1.84 .28 .05* .02 .03 .11* .14** .17** .12** .11** − note. significant coefficients are bolded. *p < .05; **p < .01 ***p<.001 an examination of longitudinal paths in the developmental changes between physical punishment and social competence showed, as expected that non-violent punishment positively and significantly predicted social competence at each time point (𝛽𝛽s ranged from .111 to .156, ps = .001). reciprocal effects were also observed for social competence, which positively predicted physical punishment (𝛽𝛽s ranged from .035 to .061, p<.05 and p<.001, respectively). by contrast, the association between physical punishment and social competence showed physical punishment at t2 negatively predicted social competence at t3 (𝛽𝛽 = –.070, p <.05) but did not predict physical punishment at t1 and social competence at t2. significant stability paths were observed over the three-time points. fit indices provided evidence of adequate model fit ,χ2 (3265) = 237.725, df = 13, p <.001; cfi = .943, nfi = .940, rmsea = .059. karleah harris et al. 172 figure 1. cross-lagged analysis of physical disciplinary strategies and social competence next, additional analysis tested for longitudinal invariance across family structure and ethnicity, although there were no significant differences. the analysis of family structure (two-parent vs. other parent situation) indicated a similar result across all family structure groups. as for invariance across ethnicity, the multigroup analysis of invariance showed no evidence of variation across racial/ethnic groups. table 2. multigroup analysis of relationships across background variables variables 𝜒𝜒2(df) p cfi nfi rmsea ∆𝜒𝜒2 ∆cfi ∆rmsea 1. family structure unconstrained model 231.984 (26) <.001 .939 .933 .048 − − − constrained model 241.251(34) <.001 .938 .930 .042 9.267 .001 006 2. ethnicity/race unconstrained model 223.113 (52) <.001 .944 .931 .032 − − − constrained model 246.551(76) <.001 .944 .924 .026 23.438 .000 .006 note. 𝜒𝜒2= chi-square statistic, df = degrees of freedom, 𝜒𝜒2/df = chi-square to degrees of freedom ratio, ∆𝜒𝜒2/df = difference in chi-square between the default and unconstrained and constrained models, cfi = comparative fit index, ∆cfi = difference in comparative fit index between the default model and the unconstrained and constrained models nfi = normed fit index, rmsea = root mean square error of approximation, ∆rmsea = difference in rmsea between the unconstrained and constrained models. discussion the current study investigated the importance of understanding parental discipline strategies and social competence over time in a young urban sample. drawing on baumrind’s parenting typology to examine the effect of parenting behaviors on social competence, we assessed the reciprocal or bidirectional effects between two parental disciplinary strategies––physical punishment and non-violent punishment–– and their impact on social competence. because we expected sample characteristics such as ethnicity/race as well as family structure to influence parental discipline in this population, we controlled for these effects in multivariate analyses across cross-lagged effects. overall, we found partial support for reciprocal effects between parenting and social competence in the sample. this is in line with previous work, which found mixed support for the link between parental discipline and social competence; our study explored parental discipline techniques using longitudinal data, thus providing insight into parental discipline methods over time. in addition, while it is debated whether parental disciplinary practices can vary across cultures, including ethnicity and family structure, the findings demonstrate that even when controlling for these effects, the effects remained consistent; thus, no differences were observed in the sample where over 50% a longitudinal investigation of the effects of parental discipline strategies… 173 of the families were african american. nevertheless, in keeping with the main study goals, we found evidence that effective parental discipline methods increased the likelihood of positive outcomes. our finding is consistent with existing work that suggests parental disciplinary strategies characterized by high levels of responsiveness or warmth promote socially competent behaviors in young children (barnett et al., 2012; bigner & gerhardt, 2019; jeon & neppl, 2019; spruijt et al., 2019). contrary to our expectations, when it came to the link between physical punishment and social competence, physical punishment at t2 negatively predicted social competence at t3 but seemed unrelated to social competence at the other time points. the significant negative association between physical punishment and social competence supports the findings in the review by gershoff and colleagues (2018a), which shows physical punishment in children increases the risk for negative behavioral (ma et al., 2022) and psychological in late years. consequently, the findings reinforce the need for parents to use alternative disciplinary techniques as punishment to promote the development of social skills in young children. the present study was limited in that parenting disciplinary strategies and social competence were based exclusively on primary caregivers’ reports, which may affect social desirability in the responses. thus, to fully understand the impact of discipline on social competence, it is important to include reports by children as well as teachers. although not a focus of this study, we can assume that the association between parental discipline and social competence might vary by the sex of the child. this is supported by other studies which suggest parents are more likely to use physical punishment in boys than girls (marshall et al., 2021). thus, there is also a need to compare the associations between discipline and social competency in girls and boys. while these efforts may have provided additional insight into these relationships, the current findings improve our understanding of the developmental changes between parenting discipline practices and social competencies during childhood years and broaden the existing work by using an ethnically diverse urban sample. although the study does not allow us to detect changes in parental discipline over time, the data suggest primary caregivers reported greater use of non-violent methods of discipline; however, physical punishment methods appeared to decrease over time, as physical punishment scores gradually declined in later years. future studies should incorporate additional parental discipline measures to understand the pathways between parental discipline and social competence (i.e., prosocial behaviors), especially given the heterogeneity of urban families. finally, the results of the study provide partial evidence for bidirectional relationships between parental discipline and social competence; our findings have implications for prevention and intervention programs aimed at developing social competence among youth living in high-risk urban settings. these findings suggest that early childcare professionals should increase parental involvement in education which is important to improving communication with parents and vice versa, thereby increasing children’s social competence. thus, including parents and teachers in early childhood education and care (ecec) may support healthy social competencies, which are vital to education and learning. also, the results of the study emphasize the importance of discipline in the development of social skills, even in a high-risk sample. consequently, early childcare professionals should discourage physical punishment, such as spanking to reduce the risk of poor social competence in subsequent years. given that the majority of the sample includes at-risk families, it is even vital for childcare professionals in this population to encourage caregivers to use positive parenting discipline to foster more positive behaviors in children from a young age to protect against adverse outcomes in later years. declarations authors’ declarations acknowledgements: the data utilized in this investigation are publicly available from the fragile families and child wellbeing study was supported by r01hd036916, r01hd039135, and r01hd040421, as well as the annie e. casey foundation and the bill and melinda gates foundation. the funders were not involved in the writing of this article or the decision to submit it for publication. authors’ contributions: the authors contributed equally to this paper. karleah harris et al. 174 competing interests: the authors declare that there were no competing interests. funding: see acknowledgment. ethics approval and consent to participate: this study did not involve human subjects due to the use of secondary data. therefore, no approval was needed for participation. publisher’s declarations editorial acknowledgement: the editorial process of this article was carried out by dr. ibrahim h. acar. publisher’s note: journal of childhood, education & society remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliation. references akhtar, p., malik, j., & begeer, s. 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(2018). child inhibitory control and maternal acculturation moderate effects of maternal parenting on chinese american children’s adjustment. developmental psychology, 54(6), 1111-1123. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/dev0000517 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2020.104513 https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/dev0000517 a longitudinal investigation of the effects of parental discipline strategies on social competence in early childhood journal of childhood, education & society volume 2, issue 2, 2021, 106-116 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.202122100 research article ©2021 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. how have after-school clubs adapted in the united kingdom post-march lockdown? pete king1 abstract: after-school clubs have provided an important childcare service for parents and carers where children are provided with an environment to play once the school day has finished. when the united kingdom went into lockdown in march 2020, all children’s services closed that included the childcare provision of after-school clubs. when they reopened in between july and september 2020, changes had to be implemented to meet government restrictions. this study from 54 respondents working in the childcare sector identified changes within four themes: maintain service; bubbles; play space and play behaviour. this has resulted in an increase hygiene measures, staffing and amount of space for individual children, however, there is a decreased in the number of children attending, the resources and activities on offer and movement within the place space. although after-school childcare is still being offered, there is financial concern on their viability and sustainability as parental demand may drop which has implications in providing a unique environment where children of different ages and abilities mix. article history received: 21 april 2021 accepted: 15 may 2021 keywords after-school club; lockdown; covid-19; play introduction childcare is a service offered in the united kingdom (uk) with the first recorded childcare provision in 1816 in new lanark, scotland set up by robert owen (bradburn, 1966). childcare within uk law, for example legislation for england and wales, is defined as: (2) “childcare” means any form of care for a child and, subject to subsection (3), care includes— (a) education for a child, and (b) any other supervised activity for a child (childcare act 2006, p. 10). this research study focuses specifically on (b), supervised activity in relation to after-school school club provision where children attend out of school hours whilst parents and carers may require childcare due to support them to work or attend educational or training requirements (king, 2020a). after-school clubs within the uk are mostly run in primary schools but are not linked to the educational curriculum. they are not an after-school activity run by the school or school staff. they are a dedicated recreational time for children to play whilst still on the school premises. after-school clubs focus on supporting children’s play (playwork principles scrutiny group [ppsg], 2005) and are staffed provision run by childcare workers and playworkers. the number of after-school clubs within the uk saw an increase in the 1990s as a result of two government initiatives to encourage more adults, particularly women to return back to the workforce (faulkner & coates, 2013). the first was the out of school childcare initiative (osci) through the conservative government (education extra, 1997) and the second was the national childcare strategy (department for education and employment [dfee], 1998) developed by the labour government through the new opportunities fund (nof) (big lottery fund, 2004). the osci initiative begin in 1993 and _____________ 1 swansea university, college of human and health science, swansea, uk, e-mail: p.f.king@swansea.ac.uk, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0273-8191 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202122100 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:p.f.king@swansea.ac.uk https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0273-8191 pete king 107 provided funding by the conservative government’s department for education and employment through local training and enterprise councils (tec), whereas the nof was through the big national lottery charity, both providing set up grants for sustainable childcare provision. the after-school club were: “designed to provide a safe haven for children after-school, with play, rest, recreation and stimulating activities within a high quality care setting for which parents pay a fee” (education extra, 1997, p. 11) the sustainability of the provision was primarily based on parents and carers paying a fee for their children to be cared for at the end of the school day and during school holidays. at its height in the early 2000s, it was estimated from around 350 clubs in 1990, the number of after-school clubs in england rose to an estimated 5000 (barker et al, 2003), which also included the introduction of breakfast clubs and wraparound care. although there has been a decline in the number of after-school clubs due to a combination of set up funding not in existence and the result of austerity measures being introduced by the new conservative and social democrat party (sdp) collation government in the uk in 2008, 79% of families in england in 2017 had used some form of childcare during the school term (department for education [doe], 2017) which would include an after-school club. in addition to providing childcare as parents and carers worked, children attending after-school clubs were spending much of their free time outside of school playing in these adult supervised settings and have taken these memories of play into adulthood (king, 2020b). after-school clubs continue to provide childcare for adults and a safe space for children to play in their childhood. however, in march 2020, the uk government announced a national lockdown (dickson, 2020) resulting in the closure of schools to all except for those who were kept open specifically for children of key workers and vulnerable children (king, 2021). a qualitative study using semi-structured interviews undertaken at the start of lockdown on how playwork and childcare provision responded identified three themes: provision stopped where staff were furloughed; provision continued supporting the school ‘hubs’ and provision had to adapt to a different way of operating (king, 2021). to support key workers, the uk government instructed local authorities to implement a ‘cluster or hub model’ (uk government, 2020). a cluster or hub is one location where any key working children can be educated and looked after whilst their parents and carers undertake a key working role, for example, a doctor. most hubs were situated in schools, although other venues such as family centres were used, however these were only accessible for families of keyworkers. the closing of adventure playgrounds, afterschool clubs impacted on both the children who attended, and the staff employed to support children’s play (king, 2021). the themes of provision closing, supporting ‘hubs’ for key workers and being adaptable were supported by a quantitative online survey undertaken by the out of school alliance (oosa) (2020a) in england. during the first national lockdown in may 2020, from 359 after-school clubs, 82% of them were temporarily closed and just 13% remained open to support key workers children. the closure of the afterschool club was mostly by either not financially viable to remain open or the school was providing the childcare as a function of running as a ‘hub’. two follow up studies undertaken by the oosa in august (2020b) identified from 620 clubs, 72% still remained closed and by november (2020c) found from 313 afterschool clubs, 51% (just over half) were running with reduced numbers of children attending. it was also noted that between the august and november survey’s, there were half the number of respondents and this was put down to clubs having to close (oosa, 2020c). in scotland, the scottish out of school network (soscn) re-opening survey in october 2020 found from 103 responses, 91% of clubs were operating with less numbers compared to pre-lockdown in march. in the uk, from the first lockdown in march 2020, support for childcare providers had been provided by the scottish government for staff who have been furloughed who could apply for funds under the coronavirus job retention scheme (uk government, 2021a). in addition to the funding for furloughed staff, the uk government also provided funding support for small businesses, which many after-school clubs operate as (uk government, 2021b). there has also been additional funding support in scotland for childcare providers who remain open for keyworking and vulnerable children under the ‘temporary restrictions fund’ (scottish government, 2021). in wales, any childcare provision affected by the coronavirus can also apply for a covid-19: childcare provider grant (welsh government, 2021) and the how have after-school clubs adapted… 108 childcare support (cwtch) grant under the ‘erf restrictions business fund’ (business wales, 2021). there is worry that as small businesses, after-school clubs will stop operating as they rely on fee paying parents and carers (oosn, 2020c; soscn, 2020). the focus of after-school clubs has been to provide a safe space to play whilst their parents and carers continue to work or study. play, and particularly free play is recognized to be important in children’s development (santer, griffiths, & goodall, 2007; zosh et al., 2017). recent research has shown that within the primary schools within the uk, children’s recess time has decreased (baines & blatchford, 2019; ramstetter, murray, & garner, 2020), so reducing the amount of play during the day. although there has also been a decline in the number of children attending after-school clubs in the last 10 years in the uk (baines & blatchford, 2019), for many children who still attend them, the after-school club can provide both the time and space to play with other children and still have an important informal role in their development (zosh et al., 2017). what the after-school club also provides is a unique provision where children aged often between 4 and 11 years can play and socialize together, where the provision supports the five fundamental types of human play: physical play, play with objects, symbolic play, pretense, or socio-dramatic play, and games with rules (whitebread, basilio, kuvalja, & verma, 2012) where children have more control over their play. research has indicated the nature of after-school clubs empowers children and contributes to their informal learning (smith, 2010). with the lockdown in march 2020 causing all after-school clubs to close, this not only had a financial implication for the staff but there is also the consideration of the effect this may have on children deprived of an important space for them to play. the importance of after-school club provision has shown they provide a place for children to meet their peers, make friendships and engage in a variety of play activities (barker et al., 2003; beunderman, 2010). although not part of the school educational curriculum, after-school clubs can provide an important ‘addition’ to the school by providing a safe space for children to play whilst their parents and carers are still at work when the school day finishes. after-school clubs provide an essential service to the community and may be considered as a developing ‘community of practice’ (cop) (wenger-trayner & wengertrayner, 2015), particularly in areas of deprivation (callanan et al., 2016) as evident in other child related services as adventure playground (king & newstead, 2020). the impact of covid-19 and lockdown is already a concern for children’s education (mcguinness, 2021), and this can also include other aspects of children’s lives, for example being able to meet and play with friends within the after-school club in their recreation or free time (dodd, 2021). after-school clubs provide an important service for both children and their parents and carers. this study is a follow up study to the march study on how after-school clubs operated during lockdown (king, 2020c) to find out how after-school clubs have managed to operate since lockdown finished in july 2020 and the new school term in the uk began in september 2020. this formed the basis of the research question ‘how have after-school clubs operated post-march lockdown?’ method an open-ended online survey was constructed using the qualtrics® platform with ethical approval granted from the college of human and health sciences ethics committee, swansea university. the survey asked whether participants considered themselves to be a childcare worker, a playworker or both. the participants stated their job role from manager, co-ordinator, senior practitioner, practitioner, volunteer or director. the location of the after-school club was provided in relation to where in the uk and the type of building it is located in (e.g. school). participants then stated what happened to the provision during lockdown from closed and being furloughed, closed but still working, opened for keyworking children, open for both keyworking and vulnerable children and open for all children. the responses from these questions provided demographic data. participants were provided with x open-ended questions to provide qualitative narrative data: • describe a typical day at the after-school club before lockdown? • how has the after-school club run since it re-opened? pete king 109 • what new policies and procedures have had to be put in place since post-lockdown? • how did the children play when they returned to the after-school club after lockdown? • what changes to your practice has there been since post-lockdown? • how has social distancing been implemented in the after-school club? • is there anything you would like to add or say? the survey was piloted with five experienced professionals in the play and childcare sector. feedback was positive with minor changes in wording, the only significant change was the addition of whether the participant considered themselves both a childcare worker and playworker. the online survey was circulated through a link and posted on various social media platforms including twitter® and facebook ® from september 2020 to december 2020 and circulated to local and national out of school networks who distributed the link to their members. all responses from the open-ended questions were analysed using the nvivo 12® software for analysis. the analysis used the thematic analysis framework developed by braun and clarke (2006) which is a six-step process to develop initial codes to form themes. participants in total 130 people clicked the survey link. out of the 130, 3 stated they were under 18 years or age so were not able to take part in the survey, 2 responses were from adventure playgrounds so the data was not used and 71 respondents did not provide any information. this left 54 responses where the data was used for this study. when asked if they considered themselves a playworker, childcare worker or both, 25 (48%) stated they were playworkers, 6 (12%) were childcare workers and 21 (40%) stated there were both. the responses showed 33 (61%) were managers, 11 (20%) directors, 5 (9%) senior practitioners, 3 (6%) practitioners and 2 (4%) co-ordinators reflecting a range of different roles and responsibilities within the after-school club. the majority of responses were from england with 45 responses (85%), 6 from wales (11%) and 2 from scotland (4%). most after-school clubs were situated in a school with 36 responses (67%), followed by other at 13 (24%), 4 in a community centre (7%) and 1 in a village hall (2%). results graph 1 shows how the variation on how the after-school clubs operated during the march to july 2020 lockdown: graph 1. how after-school clubs operated between march and july 2020 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 closed and furloughed closed and still working open supporting both key working and vulnerable children open supporting key working children only open for all children n um be rs operation how have after-school clubs adapted… 110 graph 1 shows that 34 after-school clubs (63%) were closed where the staff member was either furloughed, or still working but not running any sessions. where the provision was still running, 16 places (33%) were supporting both key working and vulnerable children whilst 4 (7%) were catering for key working children only, presumably all supporting the school ‘hubs’. a ‘typical’ day before lockdown when asked to describe a ‘typical’ day before lockdown, the comments provided from the survey respondents are shown in table 1 and reflect the after-school club type provision: table 1. a ‘typical’ after-school club session time provision age range number snack space activities staff arrive before the sessions start to set up, organise activities, prepare food and do any paperwork clubs start at the end of the school day (around 3pm) and run up to 6 pm school-based after-school clubs collect reception children up to year 2 from classrooms or their schools. children in y3 upwards can make their own way. some offer wraparound care (breakfast and after-school club) and holiday playscheme for school-based clubs with children from other schools, or non-school based after school club, all children are collected from their schools. 4-11 however key was children ‘mixing together’ and not being segregated into age groups range 20 to 160 with 30-40 around average mostly cold snack where children can selfselect both indoor space and outdoor space is available which is supervised mixture of organised activities and resources available to choose from. child-led, free-flow play, free play the ‘typical’ day for an after-school shown in table 1 has not changed much in relation to the structure and emphasis of being a child-led provision (king, 2000). the common use of phrases such as free play and free-flow play (bruce, 1994) where children can choose what, where and how they want to play within the confinements of after-school clubs. children have the movement of using both indoor and outdoor space, although there would be adults supervising these areas all the time. these confinements include having to be supervised, not allowing to leave if they get bored and provision having to adhere to any registration and inspection regulations. another aspect that was stated was ‘mixing together’ children, which provides a unique feature for school-based after school clubs as during the school day children will stay within their peer and age groups, however in the club children do mix together (king, 2000). table 2. an after-school session post-lockdown time provision age range number snack space activities staff arrive earlier more staff needed and allocated ‘bubbles’ children collected in their year groups 4-11 and children now kept in ‘bubbles’ in year groups reflecting the school ‘bubbles’ of 15 children children either bring snack from home or is made both indoor space and outdoor space is available which is supervised and children stay in their ‘bubbles’ resources fixed within ‘bubbles’ and cleaned before another ‘bubble’ uses them. less freedom of movement and choice of activities a more detailed description of how the after-school clubs have been able to operate is shown from the thematic analysis can be shown in table 3, where four main themes are considered: maintain service; bubbles; play space and play behaviour. pete king 111 table 3. themes and sub-themes theme sub-theme main points maintain service revise policies all operational policies and procedures amended (health and safety, safeguarding, registrations forms etc.) covid-19 policy risk assessment increase hygiene cleaning of resources change in collection and pick-up routine no parents/carers on site access financial concerns reduce numbers as parent demand decreases either not working or working from home furloughed staff during lockdown extra staffing costs forming bubbles restricted government funding making sustainability uncertain bubbles designated groups year groups class groups key stage groups designated staff enough staff for number of bubbles staff remain 2m apart within and between bubbles regulated movement bubbles kept apart no social distancing within bubbles play space re-arrange physical space how snack time is arranged and implemented specific room or allocated space for bubbles increased children’s individual space designated resources and activities more structured and less freedom to choose how to play less equipment and rotated between bubbles some physical activities not allowed increase outdoor use safer to be outside children are encouraged to play outside restricts types of play as not indoors play behaviour as before children happy to be back adapt to changes challenging frustrated with new restrictions in place nervous at first friends, peers and siblings can’t play together outside of their bubble social interaction increase in staff and children interaction 1:1 interaction reduce physical contact between children and with staff theme1: maintain service theme 1 focuses on how after-school clubs have continued to provide a service. this required a complete revision of all policies and procedures resulting in developing a new covid-19 policy and risk assessment: covid-19 policy which covers health and safety, safeguarding, play, registration and induction, risk assessment, payment (respondent no. 17). the revision of all the policies and procedures resulted in an increase in hygiene which not only involved cleaning of equipment, but a change in how children were brought to the club and where and when they were collected which prohibited access for parents and carers: adults collecting children ring doorbell when arriving, and a member of staff then takes child to the exit of school where parent/carer collects them. no adults allowed into setting (respondent no. 22). the increase in cleaning costs, the drop in parental need for the provision and where children were put into bubbles, the maintenance of existing number of staff or in some cases increase staffing has put a considering financial burden on the after-school clubs. this is reflected in the comment below: how have after-school clubs adapted… 112 we are operating on a shoestring budget due to needing more staff for less children and operating bubbles (respondent no. 8). theme 2: bubbles the theme of ‘bubbles’ reflected the biggest change to practice. the bubbles formed placed children in designated group, often reflecting the school’s year, class or key stage groupings. in addition, staff were allocated specific bubbles: the segregation of children into bubbles is the biggest headache for me. i am lucky that we have always worked with surplus staff. this means i now have enough staff to support each bubble (respondent no. 13). the formation of specific bubbles resulted in staff having to remain 2m apart from each other and the children, however, for children within the bubbles, social distancing was not strongly adhered to, although, children between bubbles could not mix together: some have found it difficult not being able to play with friends from other key stage bubbles or only being able to be with those from their own key stage. adults must social distance. under 11's are not expected to. activities (more structured) are set up to support and advocate social distancing (respondent no. 34). theme 3: the play space the main focus of an after-school club is to facilitate a space for children to choose how they want to play. however, with the formation of bubbles and the increase hygiene this resulted in the re-arrangement of the play space in relation to the rooms being used, providing snack and increase use of the outdoor space: tables are arranged in rows facing one way. staff prepare the snack and take in to the children. we try to make it a bit more fun by the staff taking the children's snack ‘order’ (respondent no. 16.) we feel it is safer to be outside and have been surprised how much some of the children, who would normally stay inside given the choice, are enjoying being outside (respondent no. 29). however, with the number of children in each bubble at a maximum of 15 and bubbles being in different rooms or rotated where specific activities may take place, this has increased the amount of space children have to play within their bubble: more room was needed so it was easier to spread out (respondent no. 2) although there was an increase in individual space for each child, the choice of activities within the play space was reduced as resources and activities were either stopped or allocated to specific bubbles at a time: limited choice of activities each day due to quarantining toys, games and activities where wiping down is not an option to ensure virus spread is limited” (respondent no. 9) theme 4: play behaviour children returned to the after-school club, unless a designated key worker or vulnerable child, after three months of lockdown. the interaction between children and staff were impacted on the introduction of bubbles, staff having to social distance and reduced choice, however although some children found this a challenge to start, it was noted how they quickly adapted and for most, were happy to be back among their friends: the children were very happy to return but the excitement and lack of contact for so long affected their behaviour towards each other (respondent no. 17). the children seemed to have adapted very well. they seemed pleased to be back and seemed to enjoy the interaction within their own groups (respondent no. 31). a summary of the results shows: pete king 113 • prior to the march-lockdown, after-school clubs had a distinct structure where children of all ages can mix together during snack and when they played they had choices on how and freedom to move where they wanted to play • post march-lockdown, the structure of the after-school club had changed in relation to the collection at the start and end of the session and the creation of ‘bubbles’ reducing the number of children who attended. children’s choice of play and freedom to move was restricted as well as who they could play with • thematic analysis on the changes between preand post-march lockdown identified four themes: maintaining service; bubbles; play space and play behaviour conclusion and discussion play has been considered an important aspect for children’s development (zosh et al., 2017), and particularly their free play (santer et al., 2007) where children can have more choice and variety in their play. with the reduction of school recess time in the uk (baines & blatchford, 2019), the after-school club has become for some children in the uk an important provision to be able to play. across the uk, after-school provision has provided a space for children to play after the school day offering childcare whilst parents and carers are able to work. they have become a common feature in many schools, however there is concern for childcare services continuing as a result of the current covid-19 pandemic reflected in the following comment: after 22 years my business may not re open due to covid 19. i worked hard to build up my business over the years. i feel a sense of despair and loss as there is nothing i can do about it. it is a sad day for all us child carers/playworkers (respondent no. 20). this study reflects the statistical evidence provided by current childcare surveys (oosa, 2020a, 2020b, 2020c; soscn, 2020) where clubs that have managed to still run are doing so with reduced numbers in bubbles, staffing issues and reduced space and resources. there is a clear uncertainty of demand for the future, especially as the completion of this research is undertaken during the third national lockdown in the uk. the rise of after-school clubs in 1990’s was a result of the government’s osci initiative to get adults (predominately women) ‘economically active’ and provide a space for children to be looked after when the day finishes. with an uncertain economy in relation to more adults home working and supporting during lockdown children home schooling, this has put huge pressure on after-school clubs to continue as they are run as a business and rely on fee paying parents. the short-term financial help currently available needs to develop into long-term support for this needed provision. the importance of after-school clubs is not just for the benefit of providing childcare for parents and carers, they provide a unique space for children to play and interact. the universal opinion that play supports children’s development (whitebread et al., 2012) and the role school recess allows for children to have free play (santer et al., 2007), for example, during recess during the school day (baines & blatchford, 2019). here, children in primary schools tend to stay in their year groups, both in lessons and during their time in recess, although current research in the uk. however, when coming to the after-school club, children between an age range of 4-11 years mix together, and form friendships where research has shown this is an important factor for attending after-school provision (barker et al., 2003, beunderman, 2010). it can be argued that after-school clubs provided this vygotskian approach to play with mixed ability and age of children is a strong feature of this type of childcare provision. a study on using mixed-age classes within primary school early years education in ireland indicated a positive impact on learning and wellbeing (kerr, murphy, & doherty, 2016) and empowerment (smith, 2010). however, with the change of children in age or class ‘bubbles’ has resulted in children not being able to mix as freely as they did, in addition to the reduced freedom of movement and choice of activities, and thus potentially on children’s development as well as their wellbeing with less play opportunities and not engaging in the five important types of play (zosh et al., 2017) as there were restrictions on what the after-school club could provide. how have after-school clubs adapted… 114 another aspect to consider is the loss of a play space for children of mixed ages, and abilities to play together, supervised by staff supporting and not controlling their play. how we play in childhood are memories we take into adulthood. a study undertaken by king (2020b) asking adult who attended an after-school club between 1990 and 2010 identified four key factors they remembered playing in this provision. these were the activities that were on offer, the supervising adults, the food provided, and friendships made. these positive memories reflect the ‘structure’ or most after-school clubs and also highlights the importance of the supervising adult there to support children in their play. the friendships made were in the mixed age range playing together, a unique factor of after-school clubs. during the school day, most children stay and play within their peer and year groups. however, when attending an afterschool club, children of all ages mix and play together. the current restrictions have reduced children forming friendships outside their bubbles and can only interact with designated staff in their bubbles. even the providing of a snack is more controlled, and in some cases children have to bring in their own snack to eat in the after-school club at the end of day. one positive consideration is staff recognized they sometimes had more time to play with individual children within the bubbles, something not often being able to do prior to the march lockdown. there needs to be a follow up study on finding out children’s perception’s of these changes in their after-school club that are happening now, as this can impact on their memories of attending when they become adults (king, 2019). there are limitations to this study in relation to a sample of 54 which would appear small compared to the number of after-school clubs across the uk. however, the findings from this qualitative study do reflect, and compliment the quantitative survey’s undertaken by two childcare networks (oosa, 2020a, 2020b, 2020c; sosn, 2020) where a larger number of respondents took part and provide credibility of the findings (shenton, 2004). this study was a cross-sectional study undertaken after the first lockdown in march 2020. subsequently there have been two more lockdowns in the uk in october 2020 and january 2021. further studies are needed on how after-school are going to survive, particularly with a staggered return to education for primary children, and the uncertainty of new strains of covid-19 resulting in further lockdown. this study provided a historical snapshot on how childcare provision of after-school clubs have managed to stay operating post-march 2020 lockdown in the uk. although after the first lockdown, the different countries within the uk introduced slightly different measures, the result was the same for all after-school clubs. the measures put into place has resulted in the increase of hygiene measures and the restricting of how after-school clubs operate resulting in less parental contact, reduced number of children in year or class bubbles and less opportunities in their choice of play, reduced movement within the play space, and to mix with children of different ages. the reduced numbers of children in bubbles have resulted in more space for children to play and in some cases, more time to interact and play with the childcare staff. however, the overall worry is the financial future for after-school provision in relation to reduced numbers attending due to having smaller ‘bubbles’ of children and whether parents and carers still need the service. declarations acknowledgements: there are no acknowledgements. authors’ contributions: this is the sole work of the author. competing interests: no competing interests. funding: no funding was provided for this study. references baines, e., & blatchford, p. 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(for example, pascal & bertram, 2012; winterbottom & mazzocco, 2015). however, the implementation of service-learning in early childhood classrooms has not been well documented, and the links to this type of research and the potential impact on character education are scarce at best. historically, service-learning has been linked to helping children connect the curriculum through projects that deal with real community needs, and with an emphasis on building relationships and making connections, allowing teachers to maximize children’s strengths, which allows all learners to be successful (lake & winterbottom, 2010). for example, children with challenging behaviors, english language learners, and children with exceptional needs have all benefited from using a service-learning pedagogy. this study examines the experiences of both teachers and students in an early childhood classroom that used a service-learning pedagogy for a year, and investigates if the integration of this type of teaching methodology had an impact on the character development of the young students participating in the classroom. how is service-learning practiced? a service-learning educational model is participatory, democratic, and collaborative in nature, and in early childhood is best practiced by those who are committed and close to the real world of young children and their families (winterbottom & mazzocco, 2015). this pedagogy is grounded in real world situations, and is carried out by practitioners, in collaboration with the community at large who have a direct and passionate investment in what is occurring inside the classroom; it is largely carried out as collaboration with people in context and not to people (freire, 1970). moreover, service-learning is done in the company of peers, construing the domain of education as contingent on interactions and relationships _____________ 1 university of north florida, teaching learning and curriculum, jacksonville, usa, e-mail: c.winterbottom@unf..edu, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6061-2947 2 kent state university, office of global education iniatives, stark campus, kent, usa, e-mail: sschmi16@kent.edu, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5408-6266 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202232173 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:c.winterbottom@unf..edu https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6061-2947 mailto:sschmi16@kent.edu https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5408-6266 embedding character education into an early childhood classroom… 113 (pascal & bertram, 2012). through action and interaction, it is the praxeology that drives the curriculum revealing underlying assumptions and helping to generate new epistemologies. conversely, it also reveals how teachers can change their approaches to working with young children and their families. types of service-learning in the early childhood classroom (for this study early childhood is defined as 48-60 months old), service-learning can be used as an instructional strategy to meet learning goals and/or content standards. the components of effective service-learning include planning and preparation, action, and reflection. during these components, especially in the planning and preparation, diversity, youth voice, and collaboration should be clearly visible (lake & jones, 2008). during the reflection phase of service-learning the students are asked to incorporate multiple reflection activities (for example, through artwork, dialogue, or music) that are ongoing and that prompt deep thinking and analysis about oneself and one’s connection and relationship to their community; for young children community does not have to reach outside of their classroom, it can be their immediate classroom or the school. diversity should be incorporated through a promotion of understanding of diversity and mutual respect among all participants and partnerships. moreover, it is essential that the children have a voice and collaborate to maintain a powerful/meaningful working relationship. this aligns with the united nations convention that children should have a voice, and should be fully prepared to live an individual life in society, but be brought up in the spirit of peace, dignity, tolerance, freedom, equality and solidarity (convention of the rights of the child, 1989). finally, during the progress monitoring stage of service-learning, the students should be engaged in an ongoing process to assess the quality of implementation and progress toward meeting specified goals. examples of projects that students collaborated on for this study included feeding and building shelters for animals and creating a kindness quilt to help build the school community. strengths and limitations of service-learning service-learning is only one of a myriad of exemplary pedagogical approaches in early education, and has, of course, both strengths and limitations. service-learning at its’ root is focused on examining child-pedagogue community practice and exploring what works for teachers and why. this epistemology is then used to inform teaching and learning, and provides a framework for shaping future learning. to this point, a lot of the evidence that has informed practice has been imposed on the educational field from external sources (pascal & bertram, 2012; winterbottom & mazzocco, 2015) but using a service-learning approach teachers can potentially advocate change and reform from within outward. a key strength of this approach is that those involved in practice can identify ways to improve their teaching methodology, their classroom, and their school, and take responsibility for this action, inspiring and generating collaborative learning and action. moreover, teachers informing their practice via this paradigm can give a close account of what works, including how and why, therefore ensuring credibility and utility in the real world of practice. finally, and critically for those who work with young children and families, it has an ethical and values transparent stance (pascal & bertram, 2012). families can become engaged with their child’s learning, and be a part of the school community and the wider society. the limitations for practitioners using this pedagogical approach are also acknowledged. as in any theoretical paradigm that does not involve larger-scale interactions, it necessarily focuses on specific contexts and smaller numbers and its transferability to teacher training programs is therefore influenced by locality of context (in this case a head start early childhood program). service-learning is also not able, nor does it set out, to show any kinds of cause and effect, or to support comparisons or predictions. it takes time to build relationships with the community and with collaborators, which involves a deep attachment and ongoing commitment to projects that is not always possible to dedicate to the pursuit of knowledge. therefore, because of this type of pedagogical framework, this kind of teaching methodology is sometimes seen to have less credibility and utility to guide policy christian winterbottom & sarah schmidt 114 decisions due to lack of perceived rigor in method. character education the objectives of integrating character education is to create a community within a school, where faculty and staff are modeling the same moral values as the students, where all stakeholders are reflective in their practice and behavior, where caring is reciprocated between adults and children, and where all involved are working toward a common goal via organized planning (robinson & kecskes, 2010). in this study we define character education as integrating and teaching (1) relationship virtues: for example, respect, fairness, civility, and tolerance (2) performance virtues: for example, diligence, self-discipline, effort, and perseverance, (3) or a combination of the two (robinson & keckses, 2010). these efforts help create a network of pro-social relationships among all teachers, students, parents, and administrators, in a school. in an ideal setting, the promotion of teaching character and values permeates all parts of the school, including academics, disciplinary procedures, governance, the mission, and beyond. examining the research literature of character education includes the seminal work of goldstein (1999), kohlberg (1981), and noddings (1984). the connection between these scholars (caring, moral education, virtues) can be found in the pedagogy of service-learning in early education programs. noddings (1984) suggests that one way for students to engage in caring behavior is for them to engage in consistent service activities in the school or community. the authors believe service-learning is an opportunity where students can collaborate with the community, an expectation of this work would be a true apprenticeship in caring. the work of goldstein (1999) examined the theories of noddings but also vygotsky. in this work, goldstein espoused how vygotsky resisted the separation of cognition and affect, emphasizing the existence of a dynamic system of meaning in which the affective and the intellectual unite and that vygotsky himself saw affect and intellect as interconnected and inseparable. in much of his work, kohlberg (1981) attempted to capture and label the logic behind specific actions and virtues and thereby define one’s level of moral reasoning. such virtues as honesty, integrity, fairness, respect, and responsibility can be taught and practiced through service-learning projects. characteristics such as character education, particularly moral reasoning, occur as a hidden curriculum when students unintentionally practice personal virtues through service-learning projects. it is the role of the teacher educator to expose the hidden curriculum and engage preservice teachers through discussions and actions. examining character education in early childhood in early childhood classrooms, children can learn effectively via teacher modeling (noddings, 1984). children emulate the adults around them, so naturally this applies to doing the good along with the bad. noddings (1984) suggests that defining what it means to care to young children is important, but what is paramount is showing “in [our] own behaviors what it means to care…[by] demonstrating caring in our relations with them” (p. 154). brownlee et. al. (2012) also focus on the concept on rules and values with young children, as teachers discuss the importance of modeling to children. berkowitz and bier (2004) discuss the necessity for positive interaction from teachers to facilitate the development of character in young children. early childhood age children already begin to understand the concept of doing the right thing and during this period of their lives, young children are able to empathize and show concern for others well being, as well as understanding abstract concepts (johansson et al., 2014). the ability to understand these concepts enables young children to comprehend why it is discouraged to hurt others, not include others, or be unkind. with this foundation, young students are able to see the benefit of doing well for others, as they would like to have done for themselves. in the simplest terms, and for this study teaching children to be kind to each other and those in the community defines character education in an early childhood classroom. this study seeks to enrich early childhood classrooms with service-learning to build upon skills taught within character education. embedding character education into an early childhood classroom… 115 methodology the theoretical perspective that drove this study is derived from a theory of praxeology. a praxeological-learning theory adheres that learners produce knowledge, and teachers should empower them to seek social transformation through constructing and finding ways to solve problems using their own comprehension (pascal & bertram, 2012). a praxeological-learning theory involves and is contextualized by the smaller group and the larger; rooted in the early work of dewey (1916), piaget (1954) and later by wenger (1998) praxeological-learning theory is always situated within a specific context and so embraces localism but it is also democratic and participatory in the wider sense of society. participants using a mixed-methodology, specifically semi-structured interviews, observation, artifacts (qualitative), and examining student social/emotional development this case study focused on children and participating children and teachers attending a head start early childhood program in midwestern united states. this head start has been in operation for over 30 years, and was originally built with the dual purpose of serving the child care needs of children, staff, and faculty from the university associated with the program. however, the early childhood program enrolls children from 6 weeks of age through kindergarten from members of the community as well as university children and provides family support, guidance, and education to the community. the preschool is operational for 11 hours a day, and is licensed by the state department of job and family services as well as being accredited by the national association for the education of young children. the preschool has a diversified, well-trained staff selected for their ability to nurture and provide educational experiences for young children and provide support to families. enrollment is conducted by a member of the family service team, who remain accessible as a resource and support to families. each classroom has two full-time caregivers/teachers, one of whom is the primary caregiver to each child. eighteen young children participated in this study and 2 full time teachers. the participants’ ages in this study ranged from 48 months to 60 months. permission and ethics after receiving permission from the university’s office of research compliance (orc), an email was sent to the director/owner of the preschool to ascertain permission from teachers, parents, and finally verbal consent from the children to participate in the study. once permission was granted from all participants in the study, all observation, artifact collection and interviews could begin to occur, and data was collected by the authors. pseudonyms have been given to both students and teachers to provide anonymity. the initial design of the project, permission was granted by the university’s institute review board (irb), and as would be expected, careful reference was made to ethical guidelines (british education research association [bera], 2004). moreover, to consider the balance and harm and effect on the children, confidentiality and issues of informed consent were taken into consideration (alderson, 1995). reference was also made to the principles and ethical guidelines developed by the national children’s bureau (2002, 2003) applying particularly to research with children. implementation in the summer, during pre-service training, the participating teachers and administrators attended a two-day workshop (author instructed workshop) on what service-learning is, integrating service-learning into existing teaching strategies, and ways to implement this type of pedagogy in an early childhood classroom while not distracting away from the ongoing curriculum. from the fall, the participants integrated service-learning with the children in their classrooms to implement the strategies learnt in the training (a graduate student familiar with service-learning was assigned to provide support and assistance to the teachers throughout the year as needed). to begin the service-learning projects, the teachers read books and topics that were familiar to the children (recycling, animal habitats) and started to discuss and plan possible service-learning projects that christian winterbottom & sarah schmidt 116 they could all do together. ultimately, the children decided on 1. building habitats for the local wildlife (bird houses for the owls) and 2. creating a kindness quilt for their peers in the school to create a school community, where each class could contribute and students could use to make them feel better if they were feeling sad, upset, or lonely. at the beginning of the fall semester and at the end of the spring semester each participating child was assessed (using the ages and stages questionnaire social/emotional development). as well as the qualitative artifacts, these results were also analyzed to see if the service-learning pedagogy had a positive impact on the children. moreover, the children were asked 5 semi-structured interview questions to ascertain their involvement in the projects. the teachers completed a survey to discover if they believed the service-learning pedagogy made a difference. data collection and analysis as part of the first round of data analysis, the raw field notes were coded and conclusions were initially drawn from the data (miles et al., 2014). a sequential analysis was further implemented to ensure a more robust set of findings. in this study, field notes were recorded during the interviews with the children and analysis of the artifacts created by the children. the data notes and field notes were then read and re-read before being coded descriptively, by topic, and finally analytically (winterbottom, 2012); memos were developed and tentative trends emerged from the data. to ensure a reliable interpretation of the data the author checked the data and findings independently with a graduate student. the findings were then integrated with the theoretical constructs and the literature. data obtained from the interviews were transcribed verbatim and subsequently analyzed. the interviews were read and reread several times and memos were written while reading through the transcripts. specifically, each participant’s transcript, phrases, words, thoughts, feelings, or patterns that were common or repeated were circled and highlighted to ascertain if there were any relationships across the data (bowen, 2009). the semi-structured interview questions provided the initial codes, which were then merged into common themes. after coding, sets of transcripts were compared by the author to ensure dependability and reliability of the data. for example, children’s experiences in the classroom environment were an initial code, as was community engagement. once the initial relationships were established, the researcher made quality checks throughout the course of the study, including coding checks, checking for bias, and participant knowledgeability (miles & huberman, 1994). to test the dependability of the data collection and data interpretation we also used member-check and peer debriefing to test the reliability of our data collection and data interpretation. findings and discussion through recording of interviews and subsequent transcription, we found common themes within the children’s responses to interview questions. the interviewer asked the children the same questions: explain the service-learning project, how it helped others, what they learned from the project, and things they have done to be helpful. the following themes of positive words, positive deeds, positive feelings, and off-topic responses were used to code responses. positive words in keeping with the work of robinson and keckses (2010), we defined character education as integrating relationship virtues and performance virtues within the pedagogy. as the teachers integrated praxeological-learning into their classrooms the goal of character education was to create a community within a school, where the faculty and staff model positive virtues and moral characteristics. for example, when discussing positive attributes because of the projects charles responded by saying, i'm kind to my brother and share my toys and when my brother asked me can yeah he can and he watched tv and see what i went um pick and he said i wanna and he said i wanna watch scooby-doo that way and then be kind. during the interview process, when asked what they had been doing through the school year, the children responded using positive libretti. for example, when the interviewers asked the students to embedding character education into an early childhood classroom… 117 describe what they thought of the service-learning they said that it was “good,” and that they enjoyed being ”kind.” (see table for examples) the students also answered with using kindhearted words when speaking to others, when asked how the project was helpful. this suggested that the children understood (even at a young age) that when we are being kind to others, it is important to use positive words, instead of words that would hurt others’ feelings (for example, the students indicated during the interviews that they should “not call names” and that it wasn’t nice to “say potty words”). these actions from the children were apparent when they made the decision to build houses for the wildlife close to the child development center so they had a place to shelter. the children worked together to create the habitats, and then spoke shortly after the activities how it affected them. for example, gavin described how he started to include the other children in the classroom in his play, i'll be kind how do you be kind; um play with wheels and carter yeah finn. you're spider-man and i tell you you're iron man then then i took care of your captain america i told audrey you're batman girl, then, i told um johnny her supergirl, now i told mia batman. these characteristics are generated from both the teachers as well as being active participants in the projects that they worked on. as indicated by noddings (1984), instructors of young children play a larger role in character education by being the example in what they say and do in the children’s presence. positive deeds in this early childhood development stage, the children are already beginning to understand the concept of doing the right thing and during this period of their lives, they are able to empathize and show concern for others well being, as well as understanding abstract concepts (johansson et al., 2014). the ability to understand these types of concepts enables these students to comprehend why it is discouraged to hurt others, not include others, or be unkind. for example, while building the habitats the children understood that the goal was to make the animals safe, an in turn they reflected on their own actions in the classroom. amanda stated this well when she said, “…like when you help someone um you get calmed down and you help someone kind but first when you do something that's angry and you've hurt someone and you have to calm your body down slowly and you have to to say kind words to them.” with this foundation, young students are able to see the benefit of doing well for others; in the simplest terms, teaching children to be kind to each other and those in the community defines character education in early childhood classrooms. one of the major themes emanating in this study highlighted the students wanting or learning to do good deeds, or “do good” for others. when the students were asked, “how did the project help other people?” many responded with answers relating to kindness or “being kind.” other participants acknowledged sharing or helping others in their responses. when asked how the kindness quilt project helped others, one child responded, “trying to share with all the friends…i shared.” a majority of the children responded with “being kind,” when asked how they helped others, or explained how they helped a peer or caring adult; “i helped [charlotte] write her name.” some children described “good deeds” as the opposite of actions that could hurt others, such as “no punching and no kicking,” or described the importance of including others in play, with one child’s response “play with [connor]” through these responses, we have inferred that children perceived being kind as being helpful to others, along with doing a service to help others (see table 1 for examples). this theme aligned with the assertion of berkowitz (2012) who explained the main influence on the development of a child’s character is how other people treat the child. in this case, the students were collaborating together and interacting with each other in a positive manner. positive feelings students’ responses regarding character education identified positive outcomes related to time management, collaboration, and communication. brandes and randall (2011) reflected on how a civic responsibility can lead to a heightened self-worth. the research literature also suggests that these outcomes may be the foundation for future civic involvement. the theme of positive feelings emerged through the children’s responses when asked to describe the project, what they learned from the project or what they christian winterbottom & sarah schmidt 118 had done to be helpful (highlighting the work of brandes & randall, 2011). for example, when asked to explain the kindness quilt project, one student described another student being happy because “we did stuff for her to be happy.” another child, when asked what they learned from the project, described that “it feels good” when they are kind to others. a third child uses the description “it feels good when i help people because it feels like my body’s calming down.” these descriptions allow us to infer the internal effects of “doing good” for others, and how young children internalize the positive feelings received from being helpful through praxeological-learning. we believe that when instructors in an early childhood setting introduce a service-learning pedagogy into the classrooms it can be assumed the positive benefits that align with character development will be evident, as they get older. additionally, some of the associated benefits of introducing servicelearning include academic improvements as well as pro-social values and behavior. in the quantitative analysis we focused on the participants social/emotional growth. table 1. examples of the activity and the noteable comments from the children child activity noteable comment andrea building habitats i help my friends, when they fall i help them ariah we joined the sunshine the sunshine room and the schools joined us joined us and what kindness crew that from being kind of feels good amanda building habitats like when you help someone um you get calmed down and you help someone kind but first when you do something that's angry and you've hurt someone and you have to calm your body down slowly and you have to to say kind words to them charles kindness quilt we're going to more kind of school because everybody's been kind now it's getting even bigger connor kindness quilt be good be good how do you be good; that means you be kind what do you do to be kind you actually have to share to being kind jack kindness quilt we don't know when we made our kindness quilt how did it help other people gavin building habitats i'll be kind how do you be kind; um play with wheels and carter yeah finn. you're spider-man and i tell you you're iron man then then i took care of your captain america i told audrey you're batman girl, then, i told um johnny her supergirl, now i told mia batman beth building habitats audrey had to make her herself happy because oh because when she has to be happy because we did stuff for her happy adam building habitats i say we being kind shauna kindness quilt to be happy and help other people how can character education be used in the classroom? although these are simple actions for children to learn, they are demonstrating caring behaviors by acknowledging their peers and their teacher and using manners. teachers play a large role in character education, not by teaching or telling students about what it means to care, but by being the example in what they say and do in the children’s presence. aside from modeling wanted behaviors, involving young children in service-learning helps instill the need for caring and citizenship. participating in experiences where students work with an adult in their environment to complete a project to better their surroundings helps them take ownership and develop a sense of pride (noddings, 1984). additionally, it should be advocated for children to be involved beyond the immediate school environment and participate in service-learning in the local community. activities such as cleaning up a park, volunteering in a homeless shelter or hospital can introduce children to places outside of their classrooms, allowing them to see how areas of the community are connected (noddings, 1984). embedding character education into an early childhood classroom… 119 by understanding what caring means, seeing it demonstrated by teachers and other adults, and then participating in service-learning projects that put caring into action, children are able to better understand the importance of being a caring citizen in the classroom and beyond. although seemingly simple, this puts great responsibility on the caring adult in the room, the classroom teacher. through service-learning, as demonstrated in our study, young children are able to work alongside the teacher or caring adult in the classroom. participating in projects within the classroom and community allow young children to learn first hand while observing caring adults also working toward a common goal. for this study, the authors believed that the purpose of character education is to educate young people about morals, values, citizenship, and doing what is virtuous (vargas & gonzalez-torres, 2009). arthur et al. (2014) defines character as, “who we are and who we become and includes, amongst other things, the virtues of responsibility, honesty, self-reliance, reliability, generosity, self-discipline, and a sense of identity and purpose.” (p. 3) it goes without argument that the qualities mentioned are those that benefit classrooms, schools, and communities when embodied by young children. in this study, we wanted to specifically determine the function and suitability of service-learning as a suitable pedagogy for enhancing character through education with the youngest learners: students in an early childhood classroom. through examining the development of character in a character education program we needed to define what character education looked like in early childhood, how it is taught, the role of moral education, its effect on how children develop, and the benefits of having character education in early childhood. further discussion through the use of a pedagogical element of praxeological-learning, the participants in this study were engaged in a service-learning classroom. the research goal of the study was to specifically determine the function and suitability of service-learning as a suitable pedagogy for enhancing character through education students in an early childhood classroom. through examining the development of character in a character education program defined what character education looked like in early childhood, how it is taught, the role of moral education, its effect on how children develop, and the benefits of having character education in early childhood. using the recordings of interviews and subsequent transcriptions, the authors found common themes within the children’s responses to interview questions: positive words, positive deeds, and positive feelings. historically, researchers of early childhood have often debated how character education should be integrated in their classrooms (lake & winterbottom, 2010), and as a result it has not been an integral concept. similarly to the work of berkowitz (2012), we believe that character education should be defined as educating children and helping to make informed decisions on how to make the correct or incorrect choice at any given moment. to be able to do this, the teacher should foster the ability to choose to do the right thing by engaging the learner in meaningful experiences. integrating academic content while working in real world situations, and carried out by practitioners, in conjunction with the community at large who will have a direct and passionate investment in what is occurring inside the classroom and in society is a potential way to build character development that is missing in a lot of schools today. in this project, the teachers, children, and the community worked on providing habitats for the local wildlife, while at the same time creating a kindness quilt for the other students in the school. through teaching respect (for the environment we live in), civility and tolerance (collaborating with each other) relationship virtues espoused by robinson and keckses (2010) were integrated into the classroom. moreover, diligence (learning how to build, creating a habitat), self-discipline and effort were also developed (performance virtues). if the goal of character education is to create a community within a school, then the use of service-learning is a vehicle where faculty and staff can model these moral values and can work toward a common goal with the community through collaboration and interaction (robinson & kecskes, 2010). it is our belief that through these efforts we can help create a network of positive relationships among the community and all teachers, students, parents, and administrators. christian winterbottom & sarah schmidt 120 concluding thoughts as the education system in the us continues to head towards accountability and even higher stakes testing, it is important to remember the building blocks of society: young children. this study examined the experiences of both teachers and children in an early childhood classroom that used a service-learning pedagogy for a year, and investigated the social emotional and character development of the young students participating in the classroom. the authors believe that through the implementation of servicelearning in early childhood classrooms society, and through small community collaborations we can grow and create a generation of students who connect academic curricula through projects that deal with real community needs. with an emphasis on building relationships and making connections, service-learning is an approach that can allows teachers to maximize children’s strengths, which allows all learners to be successful, while at the same time building character and positive social and emotional traits. limitations of the study a possible limitation of this study is the relatively small number of students participating in the cohort, although the findings from our study have clear implications for teacher education programs. working with a school district and classroom teachers presents challenges. early childhood pedagogues, who do not understand that service-learning teaches and/or reinforces curriculum standards, will sometimes construe this type of learning as non-academic or merely fun-based. therefore, sharing the impact of praxeological-learning in conjunction with academic goals will help to convince districts, schools, and teachers that this type of education belongs in their educational setting. it is our hope that in their future classrooms, the teachers match the service-learning strategies to the developmental needs of their students. declarations authors’ declarations acknowledgements: "not applicable." authors’ contributions: cw collected the data and wrote the manuscript. ss helped analyze the data, and with the revisions. competing interests: all "the authors declare that they have no competing interests." funding: the university of north florida. ethics approval and consent to participate: ethical and consent approval was made by the university institution review board (irb). publisher’s declarations editorial acknowledgement: the editorial process of this article was carried out by dr. adrijana višnjić jevtić. publisher’s note: journal of childhood, education & society remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliation. references alderson, p. 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(2015). empowerment through pedagogy: positioning service-learning as an early childhood pedagogy for pre-service teachers. early child development and care, 185(12), 1912-1927. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430.2015.1028396 http://www.bera.ac.uk/publications/ethical%20guidelines http://eprints.qut.edu.au/48497/ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2011.11.012 https://doi.org/10.3102/00028312036003647 https://doi.org/10.1177/183693911403900203 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2008.05.003 https://doi.org/10.1080/1350293x.2012.737236 https://doi.org/10.1037/11168-000 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8675-4_41 https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511803932 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-012-0542-9 https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430.2015.1028396 embedding character education into an early childhood classroom through service-learning journal of childhood, education & society volume 3, issue 2, 2022, 86-97 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.202232171 research article ©2022 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. play based activities for mathematical thinking at infancy: nursery teachers’ and parents’ beliefs pavlina petrou1, areti panaoura2 abstract: mathematics takes place in a major part of human life and mathematical concepts are used in every part of daily life, starting from the age of infancy. the present study concentrates on the age of 11 months to two years, during nursery education, when formal, informal and non-formal activities enable infants to have experiences related to mathematical concepts. nursery teachers are expected to include play-based activities at every stage of the teaching process, while parents are recognized as young children’s first educators. we examined nursery teachers’ and parents’ beliefs and practices about the development of the infants’ mathematical skills through the use of play-based activities and their respective roles. the present study was conducted in cyprus, where obligatory preschool education is only one year before primary education. questionnaires, interviews and shared diaries with home activities were used for quantitative and qualitative data. results indicated that both groups of participants expressed positive conceptions on the value of daily life play-based activities which could support mathematical learning. however, it seemed that in the case of parents there was a lack of relevant knowledge about the use of attractive and creative activities which could relate to plenty of mathematical concepts. parents recognize the vital role of teachers and they asked for further guidance and support. we discuss how we can ensure the quality of early mathematics informal teaching and nonformal learning experiences can be offered for all infants. we discuss the role of the curriculum in mathematics at nursery school under a play-based context and the guided parental involvement. article history received: 29 january 2022 accepted: 29 march 2022 keywords play-based activities; teachers’ and parents’ beliefs; mathematical thinking introduction the national council of the teachers of mathematics and the national association for the education of young children underline that high quality, challenging and interesting education at early ages is a vital foundation for future mathematical performance, by concentrating at the ages of 3 6 years old (cerezci, 2020). most studies concentrated on those ages, as most of the curricula in mathematics worldwide are starting from the age of 3 or 5 years old without any reference at the nursery education. the role of nursery education for infants and the role of non-formal learning through parental involvement have not been examined thoroughly. we have to keep in mind that children start playing before they walk or speak. play allows the children to show their feelings, emotions and ideas (ozdogan, 2011). there are plenty of studies on the effect of play-based activities on language learning, cognitive development and mathematical skills (derman et al., 2020). however, only a few of them are referred to preschool education and mainly nursery education. the present study concentrates on the age of 11 months to two years old, during nursery education. nursery teachers are expected to develop infants’ mathematics competencies by including play-based activities. they need to create and support an appropriate pedagogical environment and at the same time, they are expected to cooperate with parents in order to guide them on how they could have productive learning time with their infants. we have to underline that we are talking about educational systems where _____________ 1 frederick university, school of education and social sciences, department of education, nicosia, cyprus, e-mail: pavlina.p89@gmail.com orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-00017465-6713 2 frederick university, school of education and social sciences, department of education, nicosia, cyprus, e-mail: r.panaoura@frederick.ac.cy, orcid: https://o rcid.o rg/ 000 0 0002 -213 2 -30 66 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202232171 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:pavlina.p89@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7465-6713 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7465-6713 mailto:r.panaoura@frederick.ac.cy https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2132-3066 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2132-3066 pavlina petrou & areti panaoura 87 the availability of universal childhood education has become a reality and we now need further to ensure that even at the ages of non-obligatory education the teaching and learning experiences are qualitative for all children. the present study was conducted in the educational system of cyprus, where obligatory education started one year before primary education. most children attend a private preschool starting at the age of 2 or 3 years. infants are either under the care of their grandparents or attend private nursery schools. those nursery schools are under the supervision of the ministry of labour and not the ministry of education and it does not have to base their program on a curriculum. the present study is a part of a project about the development of mathematical thinking at the age of infancy through the use of formal and informal play-based activities at school and at home. the aims which are presented here concentrated on (a) the nursery teachers’ beliefs and practices about the development of mathematical skills at early ages and the respective role of play-based activities and (b) the parents’ beliefs about their own role through the everyday activities with their children and their beliefs about the respective nursery teachers’ role. nursery education and research on mathematics learning at the age of infancy contemporary research on early mathematics education focuses on children from birth until they enter formal schooling (bjorklund et al., 2020). the starting age of formal schooling is different for each educational system. in some cases, the formal curriculum is starting at the age of 5 years old and in a few cases at the age of 3 years old without having any reference to the previous ages. cognitive psychology and research on early ages indicated that infancy and the first childhood are the periods where the fastest development is observed (demetriou et al., 2020). anthony and walshaw (2009) argue that the development of mathematical competencies begins at birth and there are enriched through everyday experiences. the structured experiences offer added value to the learning processes. at the same time, the period from birth to the start of school is an important developmental phase where children acquire fundamental knowledge and develop basic skills necessary for later learning and school achievements (soto–calvo & sanchez-barrioluengo, 2011). even the time spent in childhood education and care centres seemed to predict the child's numeracy competencies in future (anders et al., 2013) or at least in the first grades of primary education (aunio & niemivitra, 2010). in order to face the inter-individual differences among children in their mathematical abilities at school entry, we need to study further the role and impact of nursery education in relation to parental involvement. ideally, the learning of mathematics should begin since birth and continue always as children explore the world around them by themselves. in order to do that they need important figures such as their parents and the nursery teachers in order to assist them positively and productively to construct and enrich their cognitive structures (irma et al., 2017). in this way, they could construct new knowledge and use their cognitive abilities fluently and flexibly. parviainen (2019) argues that the mathematical skills gained in early childhood influence later mathematical achievement and consequently it is clear the importance of strengthening mathematics learning and skills in early childhood education (sarama & clements, 2009). watts et al. (2014) indicated that the mathematics competencies children demonstrate at school entry are the strongest predictors of their later school achievement. in order to talk about teaching and learning mathematics in the early years, we have to conduct studies in various complex, multifaceted and dynamic learning environments which include at least home activities and nursery school activities. everyday activities provide the stimulus for informal mathematical development. for example, young children at the age of infancy can learn about patterns through rhymes and songs (anthony & walshaw, 2009). the majority of the children when they start kindergarten at the age of 3 years old, can count small sets of objects and they share objects equally into groups. earlier studies identified the phenomenon of subitizing, according to which children are able to visually process objects of four or fewer objects without counting them (bruce et al., 2016). all the curriculum in mathematics included at least five main thematical units: numbers/operations, geometry, measurement, patterns/relations and statistics/probabilities. many times, there is a misconception and an identification of numeracy with mathematics learning and for this reason, research concentrated on number development and numeration (yilmaz, 2017). elia (2018) play based activities for mathematical thinking at infancy… 88 concentrated on geometric and spatial thinking in early childhood by emphasizing the role of the body and other semiotic resources. when babies locate themselves and objects in space they are using either landmarks or geometric cues (cross et al., 2009). several studies indicated that children gradually learn to build mental images of the surrounding environment and create mental maps for navigation by using spatial abilities (clements & samara, 2007). undoubtedly the mathematical concepts are interrelated and when children learn measurement, they connect length with numbers (hawes et al., 2017). the play-based learning at the age of infancy and nursery teachers’ and parents’ beliefs play is the leading activity that children enjoy. they start to play before they walk or speak (ozdogan, 2011) and consequently it is the basement of the social, physical, emotional, mental and cognitive development of the child. through play, young children and infants develop their self-confidence and construct their self-image. the play has long been regarded as a critical element of early childhood curriculum and pedagogy (dockett & perry, 2010). defining play and play-based learning is not straightforward (carolan et al., 2020). much of what we know about play and its relationship with learning has its roots in theorists such as piaget, vygotsky and bandura, who underline the role of play, investigation and exploration, the role of language and communication. there are numerous of studies on the effect of play-based mathematical activities on mathematical skills, language and cognitive development at the ages of preschool education (derman et al., 2020). one of the main aims of mathematics education is to ensure that mathematical learning is meaningful and enjoyable for children. the curriculum, the teaching processes and the learning environment need to retain a sense of playfulness in order to ensure the fun and positive dispositions through the experiences (lee, 2010). similarly, the everyday activities at home can be used as part of informal or non-formal learning. for example, the activities of sharing, cooking, completing puzzles and estimating provide opportunities for young children to practice and develop mathematical competencies. as bruce et al. (2016) underline, while children demonstrate remarkable abilities with many mathematical concepts, many nursery teachers do not have positive beliefs about the necessity to “teach” mathematics or they do not have the necessary competence and confidence on engaging meaningfully with both the children and the content of mathematics. their knowledge, their beliefs and their self-efficacy beliefs are the most important factors that influence their practices in the school environment. the absence of a formal curriculum at these ages does not enable teachers to depend their decision on a theoretical framework derived from experts and policymaker stakeholders. the second vital dimension is parents. parents are recognized as young children’s first educators. studies about the home numeracy environment have in most cases found a positive relation between indices of the home numeracy environment with the children’s number skills (soto-calvo , 2019). however, their impact differs based on their socioeconomic background (nguyen et al., 2016). for example, levine et al. (2010) indicated that parents with low background provide more input about simple counting than parents with a high background who emphasize more estimation, number cardinality and in general advanced sense skills. levine et al. (2010) studied for many years in a longitudinal study on the role of parental math talk on the children’s acquisition of cardinality. it was impressive that children by the age of 30 months old were able to count and label cardinal value sets. similarly, casey et al. (2008) used block–building interventions in relation to storytelling and they indicated that storytelling provided an effective context for teaching geometrical concepts and spatial sense. carolan et al. (2020) examined families’ experiences of a funded play-based early learning program for children in the year before school entry. results indicated mainly the importance of good communication with teachers in order to understand the playbased framework. sometimes parents try to use typical school-based activities through textbooks in order to accelerate the development of their children’s knowledge and skills. however, they need to relate the intended goals with play; otherwise, they create to their children a disposition of boringness towards school. they have to pavlina petrou & areti panaoura 89 know the balance in order to promote both play and mathematical understanding (dockett & perry, 2010). the learning opportunities need to arise from both naturally occurring informal experiences and from planned activities (anthony & walshaw, 2009) that are play-based. the present study focuses on how nursery teachers construct beliefs and self-efficacy beliefs about their role to be engaged in both play-based pedagogy and mathematics as a curriculum discipline. the main challenge is for an integrated mathematical curriculum for very young learners in order to develop mathematical thinking through a bridge that connects in a realistic and natural context the pedagogy, with the curriculum and the related learning communities at school and home. the role of activities at home through non-formal learning processes engages parents whose beliefs guide their actions. method in order to examine teachers’ and parents’ beliefs about the role of play-based activities on the development of infants’ mathematical thinking at the age of 11 months to 2 years old, a mixed methodology was used. we aimed to relate teachers’ and parents’ beliefs with their practices at school and their everyday home activities respectively. the quantitative part is based on data collected through a questionnaire for the nursery teachers’ beliefs and a questionnaire for the parents of a nursery school which was examined as a case study, due to the first researcher's special relation which increased participants’ confidence. the qualitative part is based on semi-structured interviews with a group of parents and the activities they kept as a diary and shared them with us. sample the sample for the quantitative part of the study was consisted of two main groups of participants: nursery teachers and infants’ parents. 110 nursery teachers who were working with children up to the age of 2 years old and 99 parents (44 fathers and 55 mothers) whose children went to a nursery school took part at the study. the sample was not representative as due to the pandemic of covid-19 we were not able to visit the nursery schools. we had used social media for finding the sample of the nursery teachers, by sharing the online questionnaire and having it open for 3 days. obviously, the sample was not representative and probably participants who took part voluntarily had specific characteristics which were not examined by this study. we had visited a nursery school in cyprus, where the second researcher had easy access due to personal relations, in order to ask parents to take part in the study. with the contribution of the director, almost one parent of each child of all the children of the school (99 parents of 105) completed the questionnaire. a small group of 7 parents took part in individual semi-structured interviews and kept a diary for a week where they were asked to present the home activities with their children which were related to the development of mathematical thinking. the sample of a small group of parents accepted to spend a few more time in order to take photos of the activities with their children and describe them. although we knew that probably the parents who accepted voluntarily to take part in the second part of the study had extra interest and they did not represent even all the parents of the school we aimed to have indications about the activities they used. all the participants were informed that they could abort from participation in the study and the parents of the qualitative part of the study gave their signed permission to use the photos without revealing their children’s identities. measurement tools a questionnaire was constructed for the measurement of nursery teachers’ beliefs and a questionnaire for the measurement of parents’ beliefs. the teachers’ questionnaire consisted of 28 likert type items (1= strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree). the items are presented in table 1, as part of the results of the exploratory factor analysis. items were about their beliefs about the epistemology of learning mathematics, their beliefs about the teaching of mathematics in nursery and preschool education, the curriculum of mathematics and the teaching processes which mainly reveals the role of play. the parents’ questionnaire consisted of 31 items (table 2) about the development of mathematical thinking, the role of play in their children's life, their beliefs about the role of the nursery teachers and their role as the constructors of their children’s everyday activities at home. a protocol was used for the individual semiplay based activities for mathematical thinking at infancy… 90 structured interviews with parents and guidelines were given to them in order to keep a weekly diary with the activities they organize for their kids and there were related to mathematics. data analysis quantitative data were analyzed by using the spss. exploratory factor analysis was used for each one of the questionnaires in order to identify the major factors which constructed nursery teachers’ and parents’ beliefs. after the content analysis of the factors, we had conducted descriptive statistics on them. qualitative analysis was used in order to examine specific aspects of parents’ beliefs and mainly in order to identify the play-based activities they organize for their infants which were related to the development of mathematical thinking. we aimed to relate their actions with their respective beliefs. specifically, we had used content analysis of the interviews in order to concentrate our attention on the activities they used, the games they buy or organize, their expectations about the teachers’ role and their beliefs about their role. the diaries were used in order to identify activities that could confirm their practices whether there were previously expressed or not. results we first subjected the nursery teachers’ responses to exploratory factor analysis in order to examine the extent to which the questionnaire statements reflected the main dimensions under examination. the analysis of the participant's responses to the items resulted in four factors with eigenvalues greater than 1 (kmo=0.807, p<0.05). those four factors explained the 68.295% of the total variance. the first factor which was consisted of 7 items reflected on nursery teachers’ beliefs about the infants’ understanding of mathematical concepts. the second factor was consisted of 7 items about the development of children’s mathematical thinking. the third factor was about the role of play on the infants’ mathematical understanding and the fourth factor was about the role of play on the children’s mathematical understanding. at table 1 the loadings of the items on the factors are presented. the means (min=1 and max=5) of the four factors were high (table 2) indicating the positive beliefs that nursery teachers have about the role of teaching on the development of mathematical thinking at an early age and mainly the significant role of the play-based activities. they recognize the predominant role of their work as the organizers of the activities at school and as the experts who have to guide the parents for relevant informal activities in authentic framework. table 1. the factor loadings of the items of the nursery teachers’ questionnaire statements factors 1 2 3 4 it is necessary to master the subject of mathematics in order to be able to teach mathematics to all children. learning maths requires talent. every child can learn mathematics. mathematical teaching through play facilitates the learning and acquisition of mathematical concepts by all children. using play for teaching mathematical concepts to children in infancy is difficult for me. my classroom’s infants enjoy using mathematical play. my classroom’s infants enjoy participating to mathematical activities. i organise mathematical teaching activities through play i organise mathematical teaching activities through fairy tales. i organise mathematical teaching activities through outdoor play. during meeting with parents, we discuss about activities they can do with their children. during meeting with parents, we discuss about ways they can take advantage of playing with their children. during meeting with parents, i suggest them board games that are useful to play with their children. during meeting with parents, i suggest them exploration activities they can have with their children in the countryside, in the yard, in a park. .942 .916 .874 .866 .867 .785 .418 .855 .813 .722 .784 .531 .651 .755 pavlina petrou & areti panaoura 91 play contributes positively to the infants’ acquisition of the mathematical concept of "numbers" (0-10). play contributes positively to the infants’ acquisition of the mathematical concept of "spatial orientation" (up/down/inside/outside). play contributes positively to the infants’ acquisition of the geometrial concepts play contributes positively to the infants’ acquisition of the mathematical concept of "measurement" (small / medium/ large / little/ very). play contributes positively to the infants’ acquisition of the mathematical concept of “patterns". play contributes positively to the infants’ acquisition of the statistical concepts. play contributes positively to the children’s acquisition of the mathematical concept of "numbers" (0-10). play contributes positively to the children’s acquisition of the mathematical concept of "spatial orientation" (up/down/inside/outside). play contributes positively to the children’s acquisition of the geometrial concepts play contributes positively to the children’s acquisition of the mathematical concept of "measurement" (small / medium/ large / little/ very). play contributes positively to the children’s acquisition of the mathematical concept of “patterns". play contributes positively to the children’s acquisition of the statistical concepts. .737 .659 .728 .601 .822 .813 .815 .908 .882 .898 .880 .743 table 2. means and sds of the four factors which derived by nursery teachers’ questionnaire factors mean standard deviation f1: infants’ understanding of mathematical concepts 3.33 .505 f2: development of children’ s mathematical thinking 3.33 .440 f3: the role of play on children’s mathematical thinking 3.44 .520 f4: the role of play on children’s mathematical understanding 3.47 .484 the analysis of the parents’ responses at the items resulted in six factors with eigenvalues greater than 1 (kmo=0.736, p<0.05). those six factors explained the 75.401% of the total variance. the content analysis of the items resulted in the following up factors: f1: beliefs about the children’s mathematical thinking development, f2: beliefs about the acquisition of the mathematical concepts by their children in relation to their attitudes towards mathematics, f3: beliefs about the ways of developing children’s mathematical thinking, f4: the role of nursery teachers on the development of children’s mathematical thinking, f5: the contribution of play to the acquisition of mathematical concepts by infants and f6: the contribution of play to the acquisition of mathematical concepts by children. in table 3 the loadings of the items on the factors are presented. the means of the six factors were high (table 4) with only the exception of the second factor (1.70). however, the second factor underlined the role of parents to facilitate their children to take part in activities that engage in mathematics although their own negative experiences led them to have negative attitudes towards mathematics and probably low self-efficacy beliefs. the results underlined their expectations of nursery teachers to use play-based activities for the development of infants' and children’s mathematical thinking and understanding of mathematical concepts. table 3. the factor loadings of the items of the nursery teachers’ questionnaire statements factors 1 2 3 4 5 6 play based activities for mathematical thinking at infancy… 92 table 4. means and sds of the six factors which derived of parents’ questionnaire factors mean standard deviation f1: beliefs about the children’s mathematical thinking development 3.61 .373 f2: beliefs about the acquisition of the mathematical concepts in relation to their attitudes towards mathematics 1.70 .442 f3 :beliefs about the ways of developing children’s mathematical thinking 3.49 .421 f4: the role of nursery teachers on the development of children’s mathematical thinking 3.50 .417 f5 : the contribution of play to the acquisition of mathematical concepts by infants 3.72 .408 f6: the contribution of play to the acquisition of mathematical concepts by children 3.54 .459 during the interviews, parents expressed their beliefs that authentic activities which engage it is necessary for all the children to understand the mathematical concepts all children can learn mathematics. every child can learn mathematics through play. teaching mathematics at nursery education have to include the use of playful activities. it is necessary for me as parent to like mathematics in order to engage my child in mathematical activities. it is necessary for me to like mathematics in order to engage my child in mathematical games at home. i enjoy using toys at home in order to “teach” mathematics to my child. it is easier for me to use play in order to “teach” my child maths at home. i use fairy tales in order to “teach mathematics to my child. i teach mathematics to my child through our play inside and outside the home nursery teachers need to use the play in order to enable my child to understand various mathematical concepts. nursery teachers need to organize structured play-based activities on a daily basis in order to enable my child to construct mathematical concepts. nursery teachers need to provide the necessary feedback to my child when he / she performs mathematically organized playful activity in a wrong way. the role of kindergarten teachers during playful mathematical activities should be active and supportive for my child. play contributes positively to the infants’ acquisition of the mathematical concept of "numbers" (0-10). play contributes positively to the infants’ acquisition of the mathematical concept of "spatial orientation" (up/down/inside/outside). play contributes positively to the infants’ acquisition of the geometrial concepts play contributes positively to the infants’ acquisition of the mathematical concept of "measurement" (small / medium/ large / little/ very). play contributes positively to the infants’ acquisition of the mathematical concept of “patterns". play contributes positively to the infants’ acquisition of the statistical concepts. play contributes positively to the children’s acquisition of the mathematical concept of "numbers" (0-10). play contributes positively to the children’s acquisition of the mathematical concept of "spatial orientation" (up/down/inside/outside). play contributes positively to the children’s acquisition of the geometrial concepts play contributes positively to the children’s acquisition of the mathematical concept of "measurement" (small / medium/ large / little/ very). play contributes positively to the children’s acquisition of the mathematical concept of “patterns". play contributes positively to the children’s acquisition of the statistical concepts. .597 .767 .748 .706 .794 .477 .836 .882 .810 .582 .438 .894 .918 .849 .925 .890 .909 .895 .882 .739 .939 .907 .901 .905 .882 .764 pavlina petrou & areti panaoura 93 mathematical concepts contribute positively to the enhancement of their children’s mathematical performance in future. a father told us that during the age of nursery education “teacher offers to kids the first experiences with mathematical concepts which will understand in future”, while “parents try to enhance their children’s probabilities for future success. the knowledge of mathematics is necessary for the success”. the examples they proposed concentrated mainly on number acquisition, numerosity and the representation of symbols. they acknowledged the importance of all the mathematical concepts (with references to measurement, patterns, statistics); however, they admitted that they did not have the knowledge and the skills to use appropriate play-based activities. a mother claimed that she “tried to understand the content and the context of the activities at nursery school in order to repeat them at home. i have friends who are related to education and i asked them to suggest to me the most appropriate games in order to buy them for my kids. i do not feel comfortable asking the nursery teacher”. similarly, a father said that he tried to buy a few of the games that were used at the school as he did not know himself what was appropriate. all the parents seemed to ask for further communication with the nursery teachers in order to guide them to understand what types of games they could buy and what types of activities they could organize. they expressed the conception that their children have to “play” at this age and not to be engaged in typical or formal mathematical activities which could create negative dispositions about mathematics. “my older daughter finds mathematics as a boring subject with many symbols. i tried to follow the nursery teachers’ guidelines”. two parents said that they tried to relate everyday activities with the learning of mathematical concepts. one of them use “hide and seek” as an example of a simple play that enabled children to learn the multiples of 5. another one said that she asked her daughter to count objects (dolls, cars, blocks) as part of the play. all the examples of activities that they presented were related to counting and numerosity. on the contrary, very interesting and impressive were the activities which were included by the parents who accepted to keep and share with us a diary with the everyday activities they had with their kids for a week. the presented parents' activities could be divided into two main types: a) those which depended on games they bought for their infants by having in mind that there were expected to contribute to their development of thinking (figures 1, 2 and 3) and b) those which depended on everyday activities which were organized purposely by themselves in order to activate their children’s mathematical thinking (figures 4 and 5). in figure 4, a mother asked her son to spread together with the clothes and they counted together with the clothespins they had used. in figure 5, a grandmother found her grandaughter to put the snails she found in the yard in a queue and she counted them. additionally, as they mentioned there were activities that were organized with the contribution of their older children, as “the infants’ communication with brothers and sisters acted as a positive example of imitation. for example, a mother asked his older son to hide animal toys in a bowl of flour and her infant tried to find them. both of them count the animals (figure 6). the parents who kept the diary were asked to present us with different types of activities and they actually concentrated on numbers (figure 7) and shapes (figures 8 and 9). as it is obvious, even in the case of shapes, they were not able to present any activity organized by them. at the specific nursery school, as parents mentioned, they were informed by the teachers very regularly about their infants’ behaviour, performance and activities in different subjects, with emphasis on the learning of the greek language and mathematics. a mother was excited with her infant’s teacher as she understood that she organized interesting play-based mathematical activities: “my son acquired many mathematical concepts this year, and i recognize that the success is that this happened through play. everyday when i asked him to describe his day, he told me about games, tales and creative activities. i teach chemistry in secondary education and i would be happy to find ways to enable children to construct concepts through everyday activities”. three of the parents underlined their low self-efficacy beliefs in choosing the relevant activities for their infants as they did not have adequate knowledge. they believed that “nursery teachers could use plenty of ways in order to inform them further about their role and how to choose creative, interesting and attractive activities for their children”. they wanted to “invest” in their infants’ “future success in education through the qualitative time they spend together”. play based activities for mathematical thinking at infancy… 94 figure 1 figure 2 figure 3 figure 4 figure 5 figure 6 figure 7 figure 8 figure 9 figures 1-9. indicative examples of infants’ play-based activities conclusions and discussion many previous studies have shown that several mathematical skills develop gradually and simultaneously at an early age (parviainen, 2019). the present study confirmed that nursery teachers and parents believe in their vital role of organizing all the relevant activities in order to construct a rich learning environment for children. both of them need to ensure that the learning environment is meaningful and enjoyable for children with a sense of playfulness and fun (lee, 2010). learning could be enjoyable through play experiences. as dockett and perry (2010) underline play has long been regarded as a critical element of the early childhood curriculum. however, the lack of curriculum at the ages of nursery education seems to lead to limited experiences on how to use play-based activities for plenty of mathematical concepts. nursery teachers who participated in the study believed in the use of play-based activities for understanding and teaching mathematical concepts related to all the mathematical units. we had not examined their practices; however, parents who seemed to express what they learned through their communication with teachers, used examples that included only numbers and shapes. they were not able to present examples that included measuring quantities (with a weight scale or bowl), repeating patterns at songs, tales or objects etc. in early childhood, infants need opportunities to learn from both naturally occurring informal experiences and structured activities (anthony & walshaw, 2009). informal teaching and nonformal learning are parts of everyday activities in the authentic environment. especially parents need guidance and training on how their involvement can be productive and creative through play-based activities which offer fun, creativity, communication and indirectly learning. the present study indicated that they tried to imitate the activities which are organized by the nursery teachers and they would be grateful to have their guidance and support. having this in mind, nursery teachers can use everyday activities of sharing, cooking, completing puzzles, counting, estimating distances, producing musical rhythms and constructing patterns at school and as suggestions for home activities. our results indicate the nursery teachers’ positive disposition about the use of play and the necessity to teach mathematics in early childhood through interesting activities for the kids. however, there is a call pavlina petrou & areti panaoura 95 for further work by both researchers in the domain of mathematics and nursery education and teachers in the field of early childhood education in order to produce a policy for the development of a curriculum in mathematics and similarly in all other disciplines. as hachey (2013) underlines, after the increased recognition of the importance of early mathematics for later academic success, early childhood mathematics education is now a national (for the united states), and we added international at the same time, priority. we believe that the quality of the nursery school mathematical activities could be improved by constructing a curriculum for the specific ages. the policy of a play-based process under an interdisciplinary framework has to be the main characteristic of the curriculum which will be a helpful guide for nursery teachers for their work at school and their suggestions for parents. a curriculum poses the purpose of an educational system, the objectives, the teaching philosophy, the expected outcomes and the teaching practices. by this way, we will enable the policymakers who are responsible for the curriculum development to pose the goals and the researchers to suggest teaching methods and tools in order to use them for all students by respecting the cognitive, social and inter-individual differences. undoubtedly the development of a policy does not guarantee the implementation of a relevant and appropriate practice. aubrey and durmaz (2012) examined the relationship between policy and practice in the early years' mathematics curriculum and they indicated that teachers did not implement policy expectations as they brought their own values and understanding to practices. however, the development of a curriculum with the respective policy is at least the first necessary step. the present study, as a part of a project which relates the nursery teachers’ beliefs and actions with the parental involvement in infants’ learning, is a starting point for examining further the establishment of a framework for the teaching and learning processes that can influence positively the mathematics education during childhood ages. undoubtedly the present study has plenty of limitations which can be the main guide for the development of future studies on the same domain: (a) the sample of the nursery teachers was not representative as we had used social media for sharing the questionnaire, (b) we had examined their beliefs which had to be examined in relation to their real actions at the school environment, (c) the sample of the parents was not representative. especially the group of parents who had accepted to share their activities with us, they were probably parents with an extra interest in the domain, who had the time to organize many activities for their infants and who had been guided “unconsciously” by knowing the aim of the study to present activities which were related with the development of mathematical thinking (panaoura, 2021). a future study could examine nursery teachers’ knowledge, skills and practices to introduce mathematical concepts of a different domain at the age of infancy. an intervention program could examine the use of alternative training methods in order to explain to parents their role as facilitators in the learning processes of their infants. declarations authors’ declarations acknowledgements: we appreciate the contribution of all the anonymous nursery teachers and parents who had taken part voluntarily in this study. authors’ contributions: both authors contributed equally to the development of this manuscript. competing interests: the authors declare that they have no competing interests. funding: there was no funding. ethics approval and consent to participate: all the infants participate after the signed declaration of their parents. we respect in every case the anonymity of the nursery school, the infants and the parents. publisher’s declarations editorial acknowledgement: the editorial process of this article was carried out by dr. stamatios papadakis. publisher’s note: journal of childhood, 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(2017). young children’s number sense development: age related complexity across cases of three children. international electronic journal of elementary education, 9(4), 891-902. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.04.256 https://doi.org/10.37256/ser.212021547 https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2019.1617012 https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189x14553660 play based activities for mathematical thinking at infancy: nursery teachers’ and parents’ beliefs journal of childhood, education & society volume 3, issue 3, 2022, 322-332 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.202233195 research article ©2022 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. the impact of education reform in romania between 19892020 on the regulation and decentralization of early childhood education erzsébet habinyák1 abstract: romania inherited a tightly controlled and strictly regulated mass education system from socialism, which inevitably has gone through a systematic reform. however, transformation or change of any education system does not take place for its own sake, but it is intended to meet certain social and political challenges and requirements. therefore, the present study investigates the significant changes that have taken place in early childhood education (ece) in romania since the collapse of the ceausescu regime in 1989. specifically, the impact of the reform measures on ece provision is examined in relation to curriculum content and structure. explanation of how to investigate education have been central to the present research. the analysis of documentary data corpus identified three main themes reflecting the changes that took place: (i) the introduction of education reforms, (ii) the emergence of educational pluralism, (iii) the various iterations of the early childhood curriculum. findings suggest that decentralisation processes led to the spread of alternative pedagogies in ece add the findings about curriculum content change our investigation offers a detailed picture of the educational processes of decentralization and the changes it has brought in the early childhood curriculum. article history received: 31 march 2022 accepted: 09 november 2022 keywords romanian education reforms; education pluralism; early childhood curriculum introduction the dominant political and economic views of a society are reflected in the education policy of the country. romania was no exception. the political changes of december 1989 opened the way for democracy, which resulted in confusion and anachronism in the educational system that was built on communist ideals (papp, 1998). the communist education system operated under strong centralization until the beginning of the 1990s. activities in support of democracy and reform measures opened the door for decentralization processes, nonetheless, the romanian education system, including early childhood education, has retained its centralized character to this day. the main focus of the present study is not on processes in education policy and the sociology of education, but rather on how regulations, value construction, and processes related to change in the early childhood curriculum have impacted early childhood education. although preschool education is part of public education in romania, the literature in the field is rather scant and incomplete. on the one hand, this can be attributed to the fact that during the period of the communist regime, kindergartens operated attached to schools; on the other hand, until 2020, the first level of institutionalized education was not mandatory and early childhood education received little attention. therefore, in what follows, i will focus on the reform measures and decentralization processes that took place at the level of public education following the political transition. background to the study quality of education, innovation and the use of alternative preschool programs play a particularly important role in romanian preschool institutions of our time. in order to reveal the source of these, we focused our attention on the period following the regime change. in the communist era, the unified mass education introduced after industrialization can be considered the industrialization of knowledge transfer. the aim was to impart the same knowledge to all children within the framework of a centralized education system. the system was based on the principle that all children are the same and they were not deemed as _____________ 1 university of pécs, school of education, pécsi hungary, e-mail: zsikk10@yahoo.com, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1198-7800 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202233195 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:zsikk10@yahoo.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1198-7800 erzsébet habinyák 323 individuals. it was easier to treat everyone equally, using a uniform curriculum, similar schools and place a priority on factual knowledge. the education system during communism instilled discipline, obedience, and patriotism in the citizens. in order to achieve this, wearing a uniform, doing community service, and respecting teachers was mandatory (rădulescu, 2006). this study presents the economic, demographic, legal and educational changes that characterized the post-communist period, it also discusses how emerging preschool programs shaped preschool education in space and time, and the way educational pluralism gained ground. the regime change from an education policy viewpoint under socialism, the main goal of the eastern soviet-style system was to establish total control over the upcoming generations. this trend could be observed in education policy through the nationalization of parochial and private schools (sáska, 2016). in the eastern part of europe, including romania, education was highly centralized. pre-transition education policy in romania was rigid, lagging behind and obsolete (bârzea, 1993). following the regime change, the aim of renewing and reforming education became apparent through decentralization processes. this change took place not only in romania but also in other central and eastern european countries, through faster or slower decentralization processes. nevertheless, the steps taken towards decentralisation in romania show great diversity (radó, 2013). in what follows, we shall focus on the contents and processes entailed by this phenomenon in the education system. one can speak of a completely decentralized education system if all functional governance subsystems, i.e. funding, content regulations, quality assessment, system of service providers, etc., are decentralized (mcginn & welsh, 1999). decentralization solves old problems and creates new ones (cheng, 1997). one of the main aims of decentralization programmes is to provide more favourable conditions for the development of the system. partial decentralization does not necessarily improve governments’ ability to implement an education policy (radó, 2013). we fully agree with these claims as the process of decentralization did not solve all educational problems in any of the eastern european countries. romania was no exception as decentralization processes in the country further aggravated the problems and processes of the system. though the education policy in romania set off on a path of decentralization, the process has not been completed. investigating the phenomenon, we find that the initial period was not characterized by unified, straightforward efforts. comprehensive systemic changes appeared much later, starting from the mid ‘90s. after the regime change, a paradigm shift could also be observed in institutionalized education. while under the communist rule, the demand on the education system was to form well-educated, loyal, communist individuals following the political transition, the reform processes gave rise to such expectations as the comprehensive, free and harmonious development of the individual, and the development of an independent and creative personality. methodology the study has adopted a qualitative interpretive theoretical stance, where the researcher made sense of the documentary texts to develop an understanding and give meaning to the content of educational documentary materials through a close reading in a systematic way (punch & oancea, 2014). it is to be acknowledged here that the researcher is not separate from this process, rather, the meanings constructed are socially and culturally conditioned and they inevitably influence the researcher’s interpretations of the documentary content (krippendorff, 2019; o’donoghue, 2007). the main sources of data were educational laws and regulations from 1987 to 2019 providing official sources of data on educational matters in romania in the post-soviet era. subsequently, romanian early childhood curricula were also examined in a chronological order, in which the variables were highlighted that enabled the reform of preschool education to be tracked. altogether, twelve documents were selected for analysis: three documents of educational law, five regulatory documents and four iterations of the early childhood curricula between 2000 and 2019. the diachronic approach of the document analysis made it possible to examine the phenomena in the history of education in a chronological order. through the internal analysis and subjective study of the documents, the researcher highlighted the changes in legislation and education laws. during the external analysis, the social context of the documents and the changes in the reformed the impact of education reform in romania between 1989-2020... 324 curriculum in early childhood education were examined. the study employed qualitative descriptive content analysis, through which the researcher interacted with the selected documentary materials (krippendorff, 2019; kurkatz, 2012). through the multi-phase analysis, during which the ‘messages’ extracted from the documents were analyzed, thematic patterns were identified in the examined texts according to the combined deductive (a priori coding frame) and inductive logic. the aim was to identify relationships between the variables. the analysis resulted in three main themes, which reflected the changes that took place and also their chronologies: (i) the introduction of education reforms, (ii) the emergence of educational pluralism, (iii) the various iterations of the early childhood curriculum. presentation and discussion of the findings this section presents the educational reform processes that took place after the regime change. these were investigated in a systematic order, considering three different aspects: the introduction of the first reforms after the regime change, the emergence of educational pluralism, and changes in preschool curricula. there are a number of national and international approaches to educational reform, yet we can speak of a unified approach in terms of change, shift and restructuring. from a different point of view the democratization, modernization and development of the education system (kondakov, 1987). modern approaches take into account various factors 2 quantitative education reforms are replaced by qualitative ones. preparing an education reform entails the clarification of the following basic problems (murvai, 1998): • how much time is objectively devoted to developing and applying comprehensive ideas; • what assumptions and belief system serve as the foundation for the transformation and redesign of the education system; • is there a need for a complete reform or only certain components of the system need to be changed. any of the above basic questions can only be fully clarified if we also consider the dimension of time. a multi-perspective analysis of post-regime-change reform processes the three decades after the regime change, dedicated to the democratic reform of the romanian education system, can be examined and divided into different periods by using various indicators. under this aspect discusses three well-defined and structured periods (papp, 1998): a) the proclaimed reform period (dec. 1989 -1992) was characterized on the one hand by a sense of freedom promoted by the collapse of ceaușescu's regime and on the other hand by the lack of a comprehensive legal framework. the education system remained centralized during this period as many previous provisions remained in force. the chaos resulting from the collapse of the regime led to both ad hoc ministerial decisions and institutional initiatives. ministerial decisions, i.e. at the national level, mostly urged the discontinuation of the most obvious features of the communist education system, such as forbidding teacher mobility, the overwhelming number of compulsory working hours, the high number of students per class, compulsory uniform, the participation of pupils and university students in agricultural work, the politicization of textbooks, the strict inspections, etc. given the lack of legal provisions, a kind of individualization has developed at the institutional level. during this period, education was regulated by the education act, 1978, still in force and various government decrees. preschool education was also based on the preschool education and training program published in 1987. an interesting feature of the documents is that it plans and prescribes in detail every game and activity for the preschool teacher. it lacks creativity, child-centeredness, and freedom of choice, while it contains a strict routine of daily activities, very elaborate descriptions of games, and a weekly schedule. this preschool program consists of three distinct parts. the first part is an exhaustive presentation of the educational content and its implementation in the small, middle and big groups. the second part lists the party-political education of children, and the compulsory “șoimii patriei” [homeland hawks] activities and requirements, while the third part contains a collection of _____________ 2 http://learningportal.iiep.unesco.org/en/glossary/educational-planning erzsébet habinyák 325 socialist songs and poems. in the early 1990s, the issue of education lost ground to economic and political problems, and what is more, the urgent reform of the system was not put into practice for a very long time (bartha et al., 2011). b) the populist reform period (1992-1996). the long-awaited education act is published in 1995. everyone expected this to bring about the education reform. there are at least two reasons why this has not happened: on the one hand, education reform is not limited to one or two laws but is pushes through by a more comprehensive, coherent chain of actions and decisions. on the other hand, the laws mentioned above contained many provisions that were incompatible with the objectives of the reform. while the reform is aimed at making educational structures as flexible and open as possible and making the education system adapt to challenges easily and be able to meet local needs, the education act confers too much power to the ministry of education by authorizing it to coordinate and control the national education system. thus, characterizing the reform as being populist means that an institutional framework had already been established for it, however, implementation is rather poor, concrete changes in the system are rather scarce and as rita fóris-ferenczi argued about the reform as a concern of the ministry, the school inspectorates and advisory bodies is veiled in secrecy as opposed to being public as rightly expected (fórisferenczi, 1996). it was in the interest of the authorities of the time to commit to the reform as the country could receive financial assistance from the world bank on condition that it creates a democratic education system. c) extending the reform (from 1996). the reform of pre-university education was primarily aimed at bringing changes to the management and financing of public education. the main objective of the reform was to bring changes to the central administration, more specifically to decentralize it. the ministry of education would serve as a strategic decision-making body, while the inspectorates would ensure the quality of education as a tactical level of decision-making. at the same time, the autonomy of schools would increase and local authorities could be more actively involved in the financing of the schools in their area. when the government fell in 1997, andrei marga became the new minister of education in romania. he argued that the education reform must be implemented in six areas: 1. curriculum reform; 2. reforming university entrance examination, nationalizing the baccalaureate and taking into account the result for admission; 3. rethinking specializations and promoting academic and scientific achievements; 4. rethinking the relationship between schools and economic-administrative units; 5. the financial autonomy of higher education institutions; 6. a better, fairer distribution and use of foreign scholarships (papp, 1998). on january 21, 1998, the national education reform commission was established within the ministry of education. this marked the beginning of an amplification of the concrete reform processes at the national level. although the reform was based on top-down restructuring, the core curriculum shifted towards multipolar regulation, which presupposed the start of decentralization processes. progress in professional development (in-service teacher training, the training of trainers, the accreditation of in-service training programs, the reform in vocational training, the reform in internal, school-level evaluation) was complemented by regulations promoting the infrastructural development of schools, the decentralization of education management and financing as well as creating the conditions for school autonomy. these reform efforts strengthened the belief that the opportunity for institutional autonomy and local educational management provides a flexible framework for minority education as well in order for it to adapt to specific educational situations. in a european historically perspective, ecec attendance in romania was high, similar to many other countries in the region. provision was predominantly public and based on a centralised model. reforms in the early 1990s saw much of the public infrastructure dismantled and provision declined significantly. aware of the importance of ecec attendance for improving learning outcomes and in particular addressing inequities, romania is seeking to improve access to modern highquality ecec. while discussions about adopting a multi-sectoral strategy have been on-going for years, no such strategy is in place yet.3 _____________ 3 improving access to quality early education in romania http://www.oecd.ro/oecd3ro.html http://www.oecd.ro/oecd3ro.html the impact of education reform in romania between 1989-2020... 326 the rise of educational pluralism in romania the second theme from the documentary content analysis addresses the concept of educational pluralism, the rise of which manifested in adopting alternative approaches to education in general and specifically in early education. what is alternative education? how could it materialize in a centralized education system that followed rigid rules? in pedagogy, the term ‘alternative’ is associated with instructional and educational alternatives. in what follows, we are going to discuss the emergence of the concept, the modifications it has undergone, its connotations and the meanings associated with it. the meaning of the concept offers two optional, unusual, non-standard options. this meaning, however has significantly extended and enriched over time. the term ‘alternative’ has become very common in today’s public discourse, in fact, it has lost its original meaning derived from latin, i.e., ‘one of the two options’ (brezsnyánszky, 2004). in everyday use it can be replaced by the words ‘other’, ‘new’, ‘more interesting’, conveying the sense of ‘better’, ‘more modern’ and ‘more efficient’. the pedagogical connotation of ‘alternative’ is ‘optional, chosen way of action”. it is determined by two factors: alternativity, which offers the optional path, and autonomy, a subjective condition of alternativity entailing the possibility to choose (falus, 2013). those institutions can be considered alternative which provide an actual possibility for teachers, students and the education system to choose between pedagogically significantly different alternatives (brezsnyánszky, 2004). what they share is the focus on the child’s personality, striving to satisfy the child’s interests, needs and demands. as a result, the role of sheer knowledge transfer, the usual interpretation of knowledge, the intellectual, verbal effect is diminished in these institutions and the focus shifts primarily to affective and effective goals (sociability, empathy, tolerance and autonomy) (ballér et al., 2013). by contrast, in reform pedagogy and school reform németh and ehrenhard (1999) describe the goals and characteristics of traditional pedagogy as follows: teacher-centred, the prevalence of frontal instruction and corresponding classroom layout, homogeneous classes, same level of achievement, grade repetition, repetitive assessment, evaluation by grades, and using the carrot and stick method. in the years following the regime change, there was already a need to implicitly introduce alternative pedagogical programs from the west. within the ministry of education, initiatives for alternative education had already taken place after the regime change, yet these efforts became more structured in 1996, when the organization for the provision of services in private pre-university education was established. a year later, this organization was divided into subunits, one of which is called the education alternatives and still exist today. it has to be noted that the regulations and legislation in alternative education do not distinguish between different stages of pre-university education and the same regulations apply to education at all levels. the reform process gave rise to the first waldorf institutions; however, official regulations were introduced only several years later. cuciureanu distinguishes three well-defined periods along the provisions introduced with reform measures: a) a period of anomie between 1991 and 1995, before the education act was passed. in the years following the regime change, alternative educational institutions developed and operated without a regulatory framework. this period of turmoil led to the establishment of alternative kindergartens and schools not authorized by the ministry of education. in 1994, the first step by step kindergartens began to operate, and these brought forth the reformation of the norms of preschool education. they promoted child-centred education, i.e., considering the individual nature of each child and their own pace of development. great emphasis was placed on maintaining contact with parents and involving them in everyday educational activities. it took a decade for this child-centred approach and paradigm shift to enter the public consciousness and the national curriculum. b) the period of temporary operations the education act, 1995 and the “regulation of the establishment and operation of private and public alternative education institutions in romania” introduced by the alternative education committee, established in 2000. the institutions that started operating after the regime change obtained their operating license from the ministry of education in this period. key implementations include the procedures and expectations for alternative educational institutions. the erzsébet habinyák 327 accreditation and inspection process of alternative educational institutions was influenced by cyclical and other long-term factors. the former includes educational institutions established in a chaotic way after the regime change, the growing number of students, and the large number of schools and kindergartens offering alternative programs without a legal framework. long-term factors include the creation of competitive situations in education as a result of educational pluralism, the increase in financial resources and the performance-based allocation of resources to institutions, the creation of opportunities for students to study abroad and the homologation of degrees, as well as ensuring the quality of education in all schools in romania. c) the period of accreditations consolidation of alternative education, legalization of institutions. the accreditation of private and public alternative education institutions that met national requirements began in the 2000s. all alternative groups, classes, or educational institution that were authentic, efficient, and recognized were entered in a register. the turn of the millennium was a watershed for alternative educational institutions as well. the accreditation took into account the established system of criteria; thus, those institutions continued their activity which were viable and met the evaluation criteria. unlike other western european countries, romania did not enable alternative education to function on its own, but integrated it into the national education system. sections 16 and 59 of education act 2011/1, still in force, provide more detailed regulatory provisions on educational alternatives. accordingly, alternative institution can be established at any stage of pre-university education, provided they are licensed by the ministry of education and meet the established criteria. accreditation and continuous monitoring of institutions are carried out in accordance with the relevant laws and ensure their operational and organizational autonomy. since 2007, romania has been a member state of the european union (eu) and has been making efforts to harmonize and adapt legislations and standards to european regulations. in 2020, romania recognized the fundamental importance of the quality of early education in the development of society and took part in the european program “first years first priority”whose aim was to build a strong community of supporters in the european union and at a national level. representatives of alternative institutions compile the curriculum which is then approved by the ministry of education. all kindergarten groups and elementary classes have to have a teacher qualified for implementing the given alternative method (cuciureanu, 2011). two opposing directions were observed in the introduction of alternatives: one of them was represented by non-conventional alternative education, promoting freedom and the independence of children, the other one was the initiative of governmental organizations seeking to use traditional education and the traditional canon in alternative education. eventually, a compromise was reached, namely educational alternatives accepted the forms of assessment and examinations used in public education, and government organizations granted organizational and functional autonomy to alternative institutions. nonetheless, the biggest contradiction comes from the fact that in romania any alternative trend has to be integrated into the national curriculum. although in recent years, most county seats and small towns in transylvania and partium saw a rapid increase in the number of waldorf, montessori, and step by step kindergartens, schools, or even groups, or classes, not to mention home-education communities, these still account for a very small proportion, hardly 1 per cent of children enrolled in public education in romania. changes in the early childhood curriculum after the regime change following the regime change, the education system in romania saw structural and attitudinal changes, nevertheless, it retained its advocacy as well as its performance-oriented and controlling nature through a unified, nationally imposed curriculum. in romania, one can speak of a unified curriculum framework for early childhood education, to which all public, private or alternative institutions must adapt. in the years of socialism, the role of parents in early childhood education sank into insignificance. the development of children was left entirely to educators and professionals in the field. after the regime change, the ministry of education acknowledged the fact that parents, caregivers, nannies and early the impact of education reform in romania between 1989-2020... 328 childhood teachers play an equally important role in the physical and mental development of children. in order to achieve this, more and more emphasis was placed on the development of early childhood education. at the beginning of the 1990s, early childhood education was carried out based on the program left behind from socialist period. temporary educational program based on areas of development (petas) the first pilot program for preschool children was launched in 1992, with the support of united nations international children's emergency fund (unicef). its novelty lay in the fact that it established a closer relationship with parents, and education was carried out in smaller groups according to areas of development. the alternative program used in petas shows similarities to the one used in the step by step program launched in 1994. both programs introduced the implicit involvement of parents in preschool education and both used activities and games that contribute to the child’s individual development (preda et al, 2011). the next two decades saw the emergence and implementation of four national early childhood curricula. early childhood curriculum, 2000 after the regime change, the education policy in romania started to align with the european education policy. as a result, continuous curriculum development, adjustments and changes had to be carried out. the first early childhood curriculum was developed at the turn of the millennium, which can be considered a transitional period in the light of reform processes in romania. when it comes to examining the early childhood curriculum in romania, attention must be drawn to the terminological diversity found in the literature. immediately after the regime change, the official document used by early childhood teachers as a curriculum was called ‘preschool education and training program’. in the early childhood curricula used after the turn of the millennium, the terms ‘curriculum’ and ‘syllabus’ were used interchangeably. the international literature provides different interpretations for the term ‘curriculum’, some of them more straightforward, others more complex. according to mialaret, the curriculum indicates the educational content (mialaret, 2018), while according to walker, it also includes educational goals and organization (walker, 2021). there is no consensus in the pedagogical literature on the definition of the concept, yet some common features can be pointed out. it is the sum of the educational content of the educational activities carried out in educational institutions, which integrates teaching and learning processes and presupposes a systematic approach to educational processes (bocoș & jucan, 2019). the term curriculum was introduced into the romanian pedagogical literature only after the regime change. this change can be observed not only in the terminology used but also in terms of content. as part of the decentralization processes, the national curriculum was renewed and the curriculum was constantly reformed. according to the national curriculum published by the ministry of education, the term ‘curriculum’ is a key concept in education and it encompasses contemporary educational practices. the new approach was implemented within -‘’the organization of early childhood education’ program. preschool children learn and develop through play, the driving force behind preschool activities. the second most important actor in early childhood education policy is the early childhood teacher, their personality, style and behaviour patterns, which serve as an example for children. it is the responsibility of the early childhood teacher to create an environment for pre-schoolers that arouses their interest and by the introduction of external objects makes them feel at ease. we find several innovative changes in this curriculum. the number of activities was reduced and was divided into two levels, which are still used today. the first includes children aged between 3 and 5. at this level the focus is on creating the necessary conditions for socialization. the second level includes children aged between 5 and 7, these need to be prepared for school and social life. the number of activities was made dependent on the type of the institution and afternoon classes were introduced in institutions with a long-hours programme. optional activities, adapted to the needs of the children, were introduced in early childhood education. new programs were developed and long-term goals were set covering the entire period of early childhood education. the new curriculum also formulated some basic principles: creating a playful learning environment, development based on spontaneous experiences, laying the foundation of reading, the introduction of integrated activities and the introduction of projects. in september, the first two weeks of the new school year focus on assessment. the new curriculum also imposed some new regulations: erzsébet habinyák 329 interdisciplinary introduction of activities, reducing the number of worksheets, workbooks, exercises teaching writing, avoiding the excessive use of visual aids, organizing activities in smaller groups, eliminating homework, ensuring creativity through aesthetic activities and crafts and giving children the freedom to choose between optional activities. this curriculum already contained several innovations that have been part of early childhood education and the individual and free development of children to this day. early childhood curriculum, 2006 the year 2006 can be considered a milestone in the hungarian early childhood education in romania as this was the year when the curriculum for preschool education activities, approved in september 2000 by decree no. 8/4481 of the ministry of education and culture and revised in 2003, was published for hungarian-medium groups. this was an important stage of the early childhood curriculum reform. in addition to the curricula for different fields of education, the hungarian version also contained the curriculum for mother tongue teaching. the innovative part of the document is the curriculum for teaching romanian in hungarian early childhood education institutions. this sets out the requirements for learning a second language and details the skills a hungarian-speaking pre-schooler needs to successfully learn a second language, in the present case the state language. mother tongue serves as a foundation for acquiring romanian language, taking into account the transfer and interference between the two languages. the early childhood curriculum specifies the types of activities to be carried out and lists the proposed optional activities. for each type of activity, it determines the number of weekly activities corresponding to the groups of children aged between 3 and 5 and between 5 and 7 and to the shortand long-hour programmes. early childhood curriculum, 2008 the next early childhood curriculum was published in 2008, reflecting current trends in pedagogy, the positive and negative experiences of early childhood teachers, the current level of development of preschool children as well as modern communication and information technologies. the introduction of areas of experience, learning activities and topics to be covered during the school year, as well as reducing the number of activities also counted as important innovations. the introduction of the areas of experience made it possible to take an interdisciplinary, integrated approach to the proposed content and to ensure the freedom of the early childhood teacher to plan daily activities. the revised curriculum emphasized the importance of interactive methods, play, family, and the appropriate atmosphere for early childhood education. although this curriculum introduced several changes, it can still be classified as a performancebased curriculum. this allows for a synthesis of expectations by stages. the development requirements relate to the competencies that have to be developed during early childhood education in the following five areas of experience: language and communication, human and social sciences, aesthetics, creativity as well as psychomotor skills. these areas should be closely interlinked and grouped around integrated themes (stark, 2020). learning activities are a set of planned, organized, methodical activities led by the early childhood teacher in order to meet requirements. these activities can be carried out using the frontal teaching method or in small groups or individual work. despite the fact that teachers are given complete freedom in this respect, the majority opt for frontal instruction. the main reason for this is that teachers have to deal on their own with a group of 20-25 children. early childhood curriculum, 2019 based on the european education policy, this new curriculum offers a pedagogical framework for early childhood education that allows children to fully develop their personalities, and gives teachers the possibility to tailor the activities to suit the personal interest and needs of each child. in this new scenario, the nursery school age group forms an integral part of the curriculum, despite the fact that at the time the ministry of education was not yet responsible for the administration of nursery schools. the curriculum is structured based on developmental areas, developmental dimensions and behaviour patterns, of which developmental areas serve as a starting point for teachers. when planning learning activities, teachers first the impact of education reform in romania between 1989-2020... 330 choose the dimensions of development, they adapt the behaviour patterns to the age group, and then they design the appropriate learning activities (stark, 2020). the introduction of the new curriculum encouraged innovations in terms of terminology and content. previous ‘preschool teaching activities’ were replaced by the concepts of ‘early childhood education and care’ and the intertwining of these two. this was the first curriculum in which ‘preschool education’ was replaced by the term ‘early childhood education` (vargáné, 2017). changes were made to the number of instruction hours per week, and the emphasis shifted from lexical knowledge and information transfer to the social and emotional development of children. conclusion in the communist era, the unified mass education introduced after industrialization can be considered the industrialization of knowledge transfer. the aim was to impart the same knowledge to all children within the framework of a centralized education system. the system was based on the principle that all children were the same and they were not deemed as individuals. it was easier to treat everyone equally, using a uniform curriculum and schools placing priority on factual knowledge. after the regime change, it was a real challenge to change this attitude liberalization processes took place in most areas. however, in the field of education, this has not been accomplished to date. the state exerts such a highlevel control that traditional, public education has very little competition and this minimizes development. the introduction of educational pluralism has led to an increasing interest in alternative curriculum approaches, nonetheless, a strong vertical structure and a high degree of bureaucracy still prevails. this trend can also be observed in the field of early childhood education. the use of alternative pedagogies in early childhood education is permitted by law on the condition that these are integrated into the national curriculum. innovations can be observed in curriculum changes, which have been partly aligned with european standards, yet early learning is still rigid, uniform and mandatory for all children in early childhood education in romania. however, there appear to be signs of positive development: formal learning is replaced by play, the focus has shifted from the community to the individual, free play and activities designed for personal development have also become more important in the daily programme. this, to some extent, has reduced the gap between the rhetoric and reality, theory and practice in early childhood education and care. although the current curriculum reflects several reforms, it can still be regarded as an outcome -based curriculum. educational institutions were not given a sufficient degree of autonomy as the ministry of education transferred most of the decision-making responsibilities to the school inspectorates inherited from socialism. hence the influence of socialism lives on still today. in the past thirty years the education policy has been shaped by twenty ministers of education and education regulations have been amended more than sixty times, nonetheless the long-expected full reform and decentralization has not been implemented. in conclusion, i would argue that centralized systems of early education are no longer sufficient. preschool institutions should be given autonomy and more freedom to employ alternative approaches, so that they can create their own pedagogical program in accordance with their local circumstances, environment and needs. the study contributes to broadening our knowledge and understanding of the reform processes in education in romania. it also offers a systematic analysis of the processes that have been taking place in the past twenty years. the fact that the romanian public education system still bears the marks of centralization raises further research questions. declarations author’s declarations authors’ contributions: this is the sole work of the author. competing interests: the author declare that she have no competing interests. funding: no funding was used for this study. ethics approval and consent to participate: the research reported here does not involve human subjects. erzsébet habinyák 331 publisher’s declarations editorial acknowledgement: the editorial process of this article was carried out by eleonora teszenyi, anikó varga nagy, and sándor pálfi. publisher’s note: journal of childhood, education & society remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliation. references bartha c., nádor, o., & péntek, j. 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[public education reform in romania]. iskolakultúra, 9(1), 14-23. journal of childhood, education & society volume 3, issue 3, 2022, 249-259 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.202233181 research article ©2022 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. secondary analysis of qualitative data: hungarian minority kindergarten pedagogues’ perspectives of the new curriculum framework in serbia eva mikuska1, judit raffai2, eva vukov raffai3 abstract: secondary analysis is employed to address new research questions by analysing previously collected data. this paper reports on the secondary analysis of qualitative data where the original research investigated the preschool education reform in serbia from the perspective of hungarian ethnic minority kindergarten pedagogues. the choice to apply a secondary analysis fulfilled the aims of (i) investigating traces of socialism in early childhood education and care (ecec) provision in vojvodina, a northern region of serbia; and (ii) exploring the complexity of christmas celebrations in nurseries. in order to address the aims, a secondary analysis of 12 semi-structured transcripts was carried out. this analysis revealed important additional findings for the original study. in light of the education reforms in serbia we found that, first, there are strong connections between the ‘socialist past’ ecec practices and what these practices may look like in the future; and, second, the traditional celebration of religious holidays outside of church organizations, such as christmas, may change in the nurseries. this paper also offers insight regarding the importance of secondary analysis which provides an opportunity to making use of existing resources. article history received: 20 march 2022 accepted: 02 september 2022 keywords socialism; christmas; hungarian minority; kindergarten practices introduction there is a well-established tradition of carrying out secondary analysis of quantitative research data in the natural sciences, and a more recent interest in the secondary analysis of quantitative approaches to research within social science. however, this has not been as prevalent within qualitative research, though has been recommended as a valuable strategy (long-sutehall et al., 2011). according to hinds et al. (1997), secondary analysis of qualitative data is the use of existing data to find answers to research questions that differ from the questions asked in the original research. we applied secondary analysis to existing data to develop a new conceptual focus to the original research question which was ‘how was the new curriculum framework perceived by the largest ethnic minority group, hungarian kindergarten pedagogues, in northern serbia?’ detailed and rich data allowed us to pursue interests distinctive from those of the original analysis. the first part of the paper discusses the serbian educational milieu in which the hungarian minority group operates. this gives the background of the main study and for the secondary analysis of qualitative data. the second part of the paper reports on the methodological choice of applying a secondary analysis that fulfilled the new research aims of (i) investigating traces of socialism in early childhood education and care (ecec) provision in serbia; and (ii) exploring the complexity of christmas celebration in the nurseries. the secondary data analysis process as well as the new findings and possible implications for future practice are discussed in the latter part of the paper. hungarian ethnic minorities the largest ethnic minority group in the region of vojvodina (northern part of serbia), are the hungarians; _____________ 1 university of chichester, institute of education and social sciences, chichester, uk, e-mail: e.mikuska@chi.ac.uk orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2486-9643 2 university of novi sad, hungarian language teacher training faculty, subotica. serbia; institute of hungarian research, hungary, e-mail judit.raffai@magister.uns.ac.rs orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9206-2871 3 university of novi sad, hungarian language teacher training faculty, subotica, serbia, e-mail eva.vraffai@magister.uns.ac.rs orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8393-1748 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202233181 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:e.mikuska@chi.ac.uk https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2486-9643 mailto:judit.raffai@magister.uns.ac.rs https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9206-2871 mailto:eva.vraffai@magister.uns.ac.rs https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8393-1748 eva mikuska et al. 250 therefore, we examined the national reform in ecec in serbia from the perspectives of the hungarian kindergarten pedagogues. to understand the concept of early childhood practices in serbia where hungarian minorities are living and working, it is important to recognise the history of this region which shaped the contemporary early years’ provision and professional practices. after the breakup of the austro-hungarian empire, hungary was reduced in size, in that they lost the region of vojvodina. hungary regained some of its territories during the wwii, but inevitably lost them again after the war (including vojvodina) (chiva, 2006). this event contributed to the formation of the ‘involuntary’ ethnic minority groups in vojvodina, making them one of the largest minority groups in central and eastern europe (mikuska, 2021). according to the latest census of population (2011) an estimated 2.7 million hungarians live outside of the hungarian state, often called the motherland. in order to understand the function of the ecec for hungarians in serbia, major political decisions and events need highlighting. mikuska and raffai (2018) identified these major political and historical key events (see table 1). the significance of these periods for ecec in vojvodina was the opportunity for children to attend education using their mother tongue (raffai et al., 2018) which is fundamental for future educational success (lendák-kabók, 2020). the establishment of the first hungarian language nursery in vojvodina can be accredited to countess teréz brunszvik who opened the first kindergarten in 1828 named ‘angyalkert’ (garden of angels) in budapest, hungary (nagy varga et al., 2015). the educational approach mirrored the principles set by the englishman, samuel wilderspin, whose work ‘on the importance of educating the infant poor’ became increasingly popular amongst hungarian scholars (pukánszky & németh, 1997). in 1836, the hungarian society for the promotion of infant schools was founded, resulting in an increase in the number of infant schools in the country. this movement influenced the opening of the first kindergarten in vojvodina in 1843, by makk györgy from szabadka, vojvodina (mikuska & raffai, 2018). although this was a private setting, its funding was substantially supported by the town. the ecec field was first regulated in 1891 when the law on upbringing of young children was introduced, followed in 1899 by the development of the first curriculum, entitled programme of work in kindergartens (gavrilović, 2006). table 1. key historical events and the use of hungarian language the establishment of the nursery network in vojvodina which was part of the kingdom of hungary and the austro-hungarian monarchy; this is the time when the first nursery was opened in 1843 in szabadka, vojvodina. the official language was hungarian (1843 – 1918). kingdom of serbs, croats and slovenes (1919-1929) and the state of yugoslavia (1929 – 1941). the first ecec curriculum. the official language was serbo-croatian-slovenian. vojvodina as part of the kingdom of hungary during world war ii (1941– 1944). the official language was hungarian. vojvodina as part of the socialist federal republic of yugoslavia (sfry) (1945–1991). the official language was serbo-croatian. vojvodina during the milošević era and the formation of new states (1989–2000). the official language was serbian. hungarian as regional language is in official use by the provincial administration and education. vojvodina after the milošević era (2000 – today). the official language is serbian; hungarian as regional language is in official use by the provincial administration and education. the ecec field continued to develop under the governance of the state which was most obviously seen during the period of industrialisation and increased participation of women in the workforce that followed the second world war (bankovic, 2014). under the subsequent socialist regime, recognising the need to encourage women to stay in the paid workforce, the government invested heavily in early childhood education. in 2004, the government of the republic of serbia introduced the national action plan for children (savez za prava deteta, 2004) which defined the general childhood policy direction of the country. this document aimed to accomplish some of the country’s international responsibilities arising from its 1990 endorsement of the convention on the rights of the child (united nations, 1989), education for all (united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization [unesco], 1990), the united nations’ millennium development goals (united nations, 2000) and a world fit for children (united secondary analysis of qualitative data: hungarian minority… 251 nations international children's emergency fund [unicef], 2002) (bankovic, 2014). in 2007, a new government came into office in serbia which initiated large-scale reorganisations of education. spasenović et al. (2007) argued that the education system in yugoslavia undertook major reforms, especially after the breakdown of the country into several independent states when they transitioned away from socialism as a consequence. spasenović et al. (2007) further argued that these reforms were based on the modernization and reorganization of the school, supporting the country’s international integration. ecec was seen as part of the unified educational system (gavrilović, 2006) which was regulated under the law on the fundamentals of the education system (zakon o osnovama sistema obrazovanja i vaspitanja, 2009) and more specifically under the law on preschool education and upbringing (zakon o predškolskom vaspitanju i obrazovanju, 2010). these laws regulated the establishment and activities of ecec institutions including their aims and principles, record-keeping procedures, the organisation of kindergarten pedagogues’ work and role, financing, and language use in minority communities which meant that the use of the hungarian language in early education was in place (raffai et al., 2018). there are three types of ecec services in serbia: nurseries for children from six months to three years; kindergarten for children from three to five years; and the preparatory preschool programme for children aged six (mikuska & raffai, 2018). of these services, only the preparatory preschool programme is compulsory and it is free. it gives all children the opportunity to attend nursery from the age of five for a minimum of four hours a day for a minimum of six months (kopas-vukašinović, 2006). this rule reflects the official record of attendance specified by the national council of the hungarian national minority (magyar nemzeti tanács, [mnt], 2015), which claims that, in 2014/15, there were 71 hungarian language groups in the nurseries with 1369 children attending full-day care, and 121 groups with 2041 children attending half-day care settings. the other two services are part-funded by the state (80%) with parents paying the remaining 20% of the cost. besides the division between nurseries and kindergartens, children were further divided by their age, and language they speak (for example hungarian or serbian) (mikuska and raffai, 2018). this is also in line with the european commission’s/eacea/eurydice (2019) advice on the teaching of regional or minority languages in educational institutions. context of the main study and literature addressing secondary data analysis in 2018 a new, more inclusive, concept of preschool education was adopted in serbia with plans to implement the change from september 2019 to 2022. the new ‘fundamentals of the preschool education program’ (curriculum framework), also symbolically named ‘years of ascent’, is a result of cooperation with kindergarten pedagogues, the ministry of education, science and technological development and the institute for the improvement of education, unicef and the institute of pedagogy and andragogy of the faculty of philosophy of belgrade university (breneselović & krnjaja, 2021). the ‘ascent’ represents the quality and direction that is dependent on everyone who is involved with, and working in preschool education and care. the new curriculum framework focuses on children’s holistic development and wellbeing by taking an integrated approach to learning, play, curiosity, creativity and other activities. the programme also focuses on children building meaningful relationships with their peers and adults and creating inspirational nursery places. the biggest change is the introduction of more flexible ways of working with children, which should replace the more structured, adult led, and assessment based daily practices. the new integrated approach to learning involves developing topics/projects with children. children are encouraged to engage in the projects that are meaningful to them and where children are challenged to explore. the links between play and other activities are based on the children’s freedom of choice, creativity, variability, initiative, inquisitiveness and openness (breneselović & krnjaja, 2021). training courses were rolled out to encourage everyone who works with children to attend. these training courses were delivered by mentors, first in the serbian language and, at a later stage, also in hungarian. at the training courses the kindergarten pedagogues were encouraged to engage with the framework in such ways that it inspires and encourages ‘reflexive’ ways to work with children (davis, 2006). as breneselović and krnjaja (2021, p. 3) explain: …the curriculum framework does not entail merely to read the document but to engage in constant, recurrent processes … [it requires] re-reading and re-thinking one’s own beliefs and starting points and also to change the eva mikuska et al. 252 practice. at the same time, this is a means of deepening the understanding of the curriculum framework and developing a real curriculum based on its conception. there is a growing body of work exploring politics and education in (post)socialist societies, addressing reflexive and reflective practices (millei et al., 2021), which highlights that the shift from being the object of the state and political culture to a more democratic way to work with children is a long process (aydarova et al., 2016). in order to understand how the ethnic minority group sees the new curriculum framework it is also important to highlight the political situation and the concept of socialism in yugoslavia. in former yugoslavia, the concept of socialism was different to those countries which belonged to the so-called ‘eastern bloc’ (bogic, 2021). the term ‘eastern bloc’ referred to the former communist states of central and eastern europe, including the countries of the warsaw pact, along with yugoslavia. yugoslavia (unlike countries such as east germany, poland, czechoslovakia, romania, and hungary) was on the western side of the ‘iron curtain’, the line dividing the soviet-dominated zone from the rest of europe. spasenović et al. (2007) explained that, although yugoslavia stood outside of the soviet union sphere in terms of political influence, the serbian education system was built on the example of the soviet union. thus, the soviet ecec instruction to kindergarten educators of uputstva vaspitaču dečijeg vrta (instructions for kindergarten educator) was translated from russian to serbian in 1948, and it was in use across the country until 1966 when the government re-organised the pre-school institutions. a new ecec curriculum was introduced called ‘osnove programa predškolskog vaspitanja 1996’ (early years curriculum for preschool children 1996) which was later altered to the general foundations of the preschool programme (opšte osnove predškolskog programa 2006). this curriculum had approaches referred to as ‘a’ and ‘b’, and it was up to the pre-primary pedagogue’s discretion which one to use (bankovic, 2014; mikuska & raffai, 2018). traces of socialism elements of ecec practices in vojvodina reflect the practices that were in place in the soviet union. the promotion of the brotherhood and unity was a popular slogan of the league of communists of yugoslavia (bogic, 2021). this slogan evolved into a guiding principle of yugoslavia's post-war period of collectivism that promotes and prioritizes the good of society over the welfare of the individual (millei et al., 2021). the principle of universal equality was expressed in the collectivisation of everything, including children. equal rights for all children to access the same and free education was considered one of the most important achievements of socialism (bankovic, 2014). the slogan of a socialist regime, brotherhood and unity, also meant permitting individuals the celebration and expression of their own culture, religion and language. after wwii the slogan was used as a basis for policy makers in the socialist federal republic of yugoslavia, and it was part of the federal constitutions of 1963 and 1974. for the hungarian minority population, this was of high importance as this policy ensured the use of the hungarian language in education institutions including ecec especially when, in 1977, a new education law was passed which encouraged the use of the mother tongue (tóth, 1994; wright et al., 2000). this law enforced not only teaching which used the language of ethnic minorities but also that the textbooks were available in these languages. all ecec establishments worked on the basis of a ‘single approach’ that clearly distinguished age groups, identifying the number and content of lessons necessary for each age group as well as norms for children’s physical and psychological development such as what a child should know and be able to do at each age level (kopas-vukašinović, 2006). this included knowledge of the mother tongue (speaking skills), physical education, and knowledge of the environment, fine arts, music and fundamentals of mathematics. the formation of the current daily routine in early years’ settings features the individual needs of each child that must be met in a way that fits into a clearly understandable routine for the entire group, so that the children know what to expect. adult led and children centred approaches are interwoven and simultaneously exist alongside each other. the daily routine generally follows the same pattern in every setting of circle time, free play, breakfast, focused activities, lunch, free outdoor play, sleeping/resting, and tea (tóth, 1994). secondary analysis of qualitative data: hungarian minority… 253 celebration of christmas traditions to achieve national unity in the former yugoslavia, which was characterised, among other features, by religious diversity, in 1947 the communist party of yugoslavia banned the celebration of religious holidays outside of the church organisation (bogdanovic, 2018) and the state removed the traditional holidays of a religious nature (easter, christmas, all saints' day) from the list of public holidays (rihtman augustine, 1990). troch (2013, p. 233) argued that it was necessary to separate modern and secular national unity from religion, explicitly from ‘secular national ideologies which relegate religion to a marginal aspect of national identity, although they rarely discard and remove religion completely’. as troch (2013) identified, the tradition to celebrate christmas, despite all the efforts to be banned, remained. when the communist party took power in yugoslavia after wwii, they introduced a secular santa claus based on russia’s deda mraz (father frost). as in the soviet union, but not in parts of the rest of eastern europe, christmas in yugoslavia was combined with the new year, along with the usual christmas festivities. this included the decoration of the christmas tree, also called a new year’s tree, waiting for father frost, and for baby jesus (jezuska) who travelled the country on christmas eve, delivering presents to the children who had behaved well in the past year. children are taught that it is baby jesus who brings the decorated tree and gifts for all on christmas eve, traditionally in the afternoon of christmas eve. while adults secretly set up the christmas tree, children are banned from the room where the christmas tree is erected. rihtman-augustin (1990) explained how gradually some of the symbols of christmas were transferred to new year's day; thus, christmas was merged into the new year and lost most of its religious connotation. the official holiday was new year’s day, a staunchly secular festivity (rihtman-augustin, 1990). similar to other western countries who celebrate christmas and engage children in early years provisions (papatheodorou & gill, 1999), in vojvodina, kindergartens, schools and other education institutions have all been involved in celebrating this modified version of christmas traditions. methodological approach: secondary analysis of qualitative data the methodology underpinning the secondary analysis was driven by the quality and richness of the data collected for the main study. long-sutehall et al. (2011) suggested that, when doing a secondary analysis, an assessment must be made regarding the quality of the dataset available and whether the primary dataset has the potential to answer the questions of the secondary research. it is recommended that the research questions for the secondary analysis be sufficiently close to those of the primary research, as well as the data collection and analytic techniques in the primary dataset being similar to those that will be applied in the secondary analysis (johnston, 2017; vartanian, 2011). whilst some authors have re-used a complete primary dataset for their secondary analysis, it is more usual that some form of ‘sorting’ of data takes place (vartanian, 2011). sorting may be applied for different reasons such as to focus on one type of data so that analysis can be selectively limited to specific themes or topics. this was the case for the secondary analysis reported in this paper. despite having gained ethical permission for the main study from the relevant university ethics committee, it is advisable to revisit ethical considerations for secondary analysis (long-sutehall et al., 2011) such as whether permission had been gained from participants to reuse the data. previously obtained consent from participants covered the possibility of reusing the interview data for publication purposes, as long as careful reference was made to the ethical guidelines of the british education research association [bera] (2018); therefore, no new application was required, and no further approach was needed to the original participants. all of the original provisos were still in place as we continued to treat traceable and personal data (including participants’ names) confidentially. for the main study, hungarian kindergarten pedagogues were e-mailed by the researchers with the invitation to participate in the project. in total, thirty-five e-mails were sent out and twelve responses were received. online interviews using microsoft teams were conducted by one researcher (one of the authors) who was not living in serbia and who did not know the participants. all interviews were conducted in the eva mikuska et al. 254 hungarian language, recorded, transcribed and translated into english by the authors of this article. each interview lasted between one and two hours. all participants had a higher education degree level qualification, they were all working in the region of vojvodina, and came from nine different local authorities. they were all females and had substantial experience of working with children (see table 2). table 2. participants participants years of experience role programme they followed p1 24 kp old p2 10 ldl new p3 25 kp old p4 30 ldl new p5 23 ldl old p6 40 kp old p7 19 kp old p8 31 kp old p9 40 kp new p10 18 kp new p11 13 kp old p12 40 kp new kp – kindergarten pedagogue ldl local district ecec leader twelve transcribed texts from the recordings of the interviews were available from the main study, and each transcript was assessed for the quality of the data. as johnston (2017) suggested, in secondary data analysis we begin with an investigation regarding what remains to be learned about the research aims. we also considered previously collected relevant and supporting literature on the topics of how the past socialist regime still influences the current practice as well as celebrations of christmas traditions in the nurseries. the use of thematic analysis (riessman, 2008) for the secondary analysis was based on the process adopted in the original research, and it was during this initial analytic interpretation that the ideas explored in this secondary analysis were first identified. the decision to revisit the transcripts was based on the desire to take the analysis further and expand a developing category. this meant revisiting the transcripts, and searching for paragraphs that addressed the aims of the secondary research as previously described. these sections were colour coded and notes were made on the transcripts (riessman, 2008). findings of the secondary analysis secondary data analysis revealed that a more flexible way of working with children, that is the proposal to replace the mainly structured, adult led, daily routine, had been a concern for many participants. although participants talked enthusiastically about the job they love to do, they explained that their main concern was how to shape and modify the practice of collaborating with children and their families especially when parents and carers had other responsibilities. most participants had been in the ecec sector for decades (see table 2), and the ways in which the preschool education practices were run had not changed a great deal. the new curriculum framework was received with mixed feelings as participants in this project were still familiarising themselves with the change. use of hungarian language the slogan of a socialist regime, that is brotherhood and unity, meant permitting individuals the celebration and expression of their own culture, religion and language. therefore, it was not surprising that all participants in this study mentioned the use of the hungarian language in the training programmes. participants’ main concerns were regarding the training they attended which was mainly available in the serbian language. some participants specifically spoke about their concerns, stating that: secondary analysis of qualitative data: hungarian minority… 255 language… yes language is a massive issue. there are some pedagogues who don’t speak fluent serbian and for them attending these further training courses is not beneficial. (p2) the further training which was in the serbian language was about how to transit or shift from the old to a new programme; this is not necessarily an issue but when we need to express the practical element of the practice then the language nuances are really causing a concern as we may not be able to express ourselves precisely. (p4) i have attended two further education courses. both of them were in the serbian language which itself wasn’t a big issue for me. but there were other pedagogues present who didn’t understand everything and there was no translator available and they were very uncomfortable because it is not only that they didn’t understand the speakers fully, but these speakers were contradicting each other, causing concern and posing more questions than offering answers. (p11) these examples demonstrated the impact of the language segregation which was rooted in the 1974 constitution. the concern is not only about the language in which the presentation of the new curriculum framework occurred, but it was more about the future practices with preschool age children that are built upon the hungarian culture, folk music, rhymes and the tradition of storytelling. while the serbian and hungarian cultures are neighbouring cultures, and both stem from a christian civilization, they are culturally and linguistically different (todosijević, 2008). most serbians follow the serb orthodox church whereas most hungarians follow the roman catholic church, and the serbian and hungarian languages are not related. the following extract indicates how important it is for hungarian minority kindergarten pedagogues to endorse the learning of the hungarian language and hungarian traditions: personally, i really like the rhymes, folk tales and fairy tales as they are the basis of our communication. the trio of hungarian folk art, folk music and folk tales is what we teach; generations grew up on these folk tales, on benedek elek [hungarian great folk-tale teller]. kindergartens act as a place to promote the language and culture, to give a good foundation for children’s future and … and this is what i would like to continue to teach. sleeping ritual the new curriculum framework prompted participants to think more creatively about their roles and how to engage more with children and their families. while considerable attention was paid to changing the previously adult led activities, the non-individualised daily routine was generally overlooked. the daily routine represents a significant part of life for children in kindergarten. most participants described that the daily routine followed the same pattern, starting with the circle time (registration and linguistic routine), followed by breakfast, indoor focused activity, lunch, sleep, outdoor free play and snack time. the following extract is just one of many similar stories that describe the ‘sleeping ritual’. this particular participant worked across all age ranges from 6 months to children aged 7 in a rural nursery. she had 19 years of experience and holds a degree level qualification. when she was asked to talk about the daily routine, she described the sleeping ritual as follows: participant 7: every child needs a rest. especially those small children, they need a good sleep as they are in the kindergarten from very early hours and they are very small. interviewer: what about the 6 or 7year old children? participant 7: what do you mean? they need a rest too. interviewer: would they actually sleep? participant 7: not everyone, but it was never an issue and they know the daily routine. some of them are not sleeping but they are quietly resting which is also very important for their development especially after lunch. we do have our sleeping rituals, we sing lullabies, rocking some of them, or gently swaying the smaller children in our arms. part of the ritual is to get them into their pyjamas, and by repeating this ritual on a daily basis they learn the routine and they do this willingly, they never complain. now that you asked me specifically about the sleeping time, i was thinking whether we have had a child who wanted to go to play instead ... but i cannot think of a single case. santa claus called father frost the new curriculum framework suggests the creation of a relationship between an adult and a child where there is a responsibility for the adult to empower the child and her/his capacities. secondary data analysis exposed the concerns about how to involve children in continuing the celebration of the christmas traditions in nurseries. for many participants the issue was how to engage the child if they were not eva mikuska et al. 256 interested and how to ensure the continuing children’s language development through festive nursery rhymes and stories. participants raised their worries in relation to the change they would have to make in their practice under the new curriculum framework. participant 1 for example stated: my understanding is that it is not necessary to celebrate christmas in the kindergarten. children can attend and celebrate the festive season outside of the nursery… unless the child initiates it, these kinds of celebrations fall outside of our remit from now on. (p1) another participant was more concerned about the continuity of maintaining the tradition because it had been in place for decades. participant 8 said that: similarly to previous years, we organised father frost to come to our setting where children were able to pick up their presents. children have learnt a short poem or a song and they were singing this to father frost. although the presents were all the same and not kept as a secret we discuss home traditions too and this is what we aim to keep alive, the hungarian traditions. my family keeps the tradition of baby jesus bringing secretly the tree and gifts. in our family, once the tree is set up, a small bell is played as a sign that baby jesus has brought the tree and gifts and then the children run to find their presents. here in the kindergarten, all the gifts were organised by the local authority, and the bags are all the same. (p8) discussion as a result of the secondary data analysis, this provided an opportunity to revisit the quality of the dataset available which had great potential to address the new research aims (long-sutehall et al., 2011). in the socialist regime, it can be argued that, by teaching the feel of the collective experience of the same events, this transforms the children’s behaviour (millei et al., 2021). the christmas presents organised by the local authority demonstrate this very well by the promotion of a shared and similar experience for all, along with the common sleeping ritual which shows the collectiveness. while participants spoke in a gentle and caring way, focusing on children’s well-being, expressing the worry about the ‘fast life style’ in general, they all stressed the importance of rest. the ritual of sleeping shows the notion of teaching the collective, and teaching children to be compliant to the kindergarten’s pedagogue and through them to society. as millei et al. (2021, p.44) argued, the political socialisation is passed on to children ‘either through implicit or explicit socialisation and teaching’. at the same time, using traditional nursery rhymes (including lullabies and songs) and storytelling across a variety of early childhood education programmes encourages ‘multiple domains of child development such as language and cognitive development, communication skills and emotional maturity’ (mullen, 2017, p.51). therefore, the sleeping ritual has multiple benefits when it is practised effectively with children of different ages, yet it can be argued that, despite the benefits of this practice, it excludes the child and their views. songs, rhymes and storytelling play an important role in language development and can pave the way for young children to engage in the more cooperative learning of a second language, as argued by bodden (2010). the selection of the songs, rhymes and takes and how they should be implemented in the learning process is one of the roles of the hungarian kindergarten pedagogues (wright et al., 2000). the use of musical tales in ecec as a tool for teachers to learn how to communicate fluently the use of music (mullen, 2017), literature, and drama in the same activity makes the perfect combination to help children learn and develop their native language, as it improves vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, and the communicative competence in general (lendák-kabók, 2020). for the child to feel safe and empowered, breneselović and krnjaja (2021) argue, the ecec worker should build relationships based on active engagement, maintaining balance and respect for the child by following their interests. not only can they help boost the linguistic development of a child, rhymes are memorable, and as such can help children retain certain pieces of information. when linked with physical actions, they encourage the development of motor skills (mullen, 2017). through celebrating christmas traditions, children not only develop their culture, but also this enriches the mother tongue which is an important feature for future educational achievement (lendák-kabók, 2020; wright et al., 2000). therefore, it can be argued that the importance of language development, learning poetry and christmas songs, and festive storytelling plays a key role in children’s language development. christmas traditions were celebrated in the pre-school education institutions for decades (rihtman augustin, 1990). the participants’ extracts thereby demonstrate the secondary analysis of qualitative data: hungarian minority… 257 importance of celebrating and maintaining the continuity of christmas traditions. all children received presents that were subsidised by the local authorities and, as papatheodorou and gill (1999) explained, the magical experience and the feelings of excitement and wonder to which children are exposed via the celebration of this particular festive tradition are highly rated by parents. therefore, it could be argued that celebrating traditions has in the past and can have in the future positive effects on children and their holistic development. conclusion our aim for this article was to highlight how secondary analysis has potentially important implications for qualitative researchers especially when rich qualitative data were collected for the main project. making existing qualitative datasets available for secondary analysis could be a way forward to gain skills in data collection, data analysis and synthesis, as well as grappling with the epistemological and ontological questions generated by the use of this methodology. the question of ethics has to be considered in terms of asking permission from participants as well as considering if there are enough data about the topic of interest. this paper aims to offer some clarification of the processes involved and to encourage researchers to consider this methodology. furthermore, the new aims for the secondary analysis draw attention to some of the issue kindergarten pedagogues may face such as how to change the everyday practice of sleeping rituals. therefore, nursery pedagogues have to be prepared to provide new solutions for often complex and dynamic work with children in their setting. it was evident that those who participated in the main study worked hard and reflected on their practice, seeking solutions and new opportunities to address new ways to work with children. this element manifested when we explored the connection between the ‘past’, such as the celebration of christmas, with how it may look in the future. it is important to reiterate that the data for the main study were collected in the middle of the transition from the old to new curriculum framework, and it was expected that some participants would experience confusion and concerns. our plan is to conduct a second interview with each participant to see how, and if their views and experiences have changed. what we see so far is that such a significant transition should be a slower and more considered process with greater opportunities to access professional training that addresses localised culture, identity, language, and other ethnic characteristics with fully trained mentors. declarations author’s declarations acknowledgements: we would like to thank all the participants for giving up their valuable time and for sharing their information so generously with us and for the reviewers for their constructive feedback which helped to improve the paper. authors’ contributions: each author contributed equally. competing interests: the authors declare that they have no competing interests. funding: no funding was received for this project. ethics approval and consent to participate: ethics approved as well as consent collected to participate publisher’s declarations editorial acknowledgement: the editorial process of this article was carried out by eleonora teszenyi, anikó varga nagy, and sándor pálfi. publisher’s note: journal of childhood, education & society remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliation. references aydarova, e., millei, z., paittoeva, n., & silova, i. 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childled inquiries; zoo kinder; children’s questions introduction for young children, science is part of their daily lives as they explore their surroundings and try to make sense of their world. it has been suggested that “as soon as children realize they can discover things for themselves, their first encounter with science has occurred” (tu, 2006, p. 245). unfortunately, however, educators who work with these young learners often lack both the conceptual and pedagogical knowledge to confidently teach science and as a result implement science learning using formal methods which lead to one-off teacher directed experiences (gerde et al., 2018) that may be less meaningful to the children. through an exploratory research approach using an interpretive lens, this study aimed to provide an alternative to these experiences, by allowing children to take the lead on inquiries and therefore, encouraging the educators to develop inquiries that align with these interests. the research took place within an off-site schooling program that engaged children, aged between 3 and 7 years, one day per week in visits to a metropolitan city zoo. it is hoped that these examples from practice will inspire others to firstly notice, and then follow children’s questions in a shared learning experience focused on science, but that also incorporates other areas. young children are inquisitive and curious, and they learn through exploration with their senses and through asking questions of the adults around them. research has found, however, that often these questions go unnoticed by educators in the early years which results in missed learning opportunities for both the children and the educators “…it depends on the teacher’s awareness, to bring science to the surface, to make it visible for the children, because if they’re not made aware, then it will pass and it doesn’t go anywhere” (campbell et al. , 2015, p. 21). this lack of noticing can be caused by a number of factors including: lack of time in a busy early years’ environment; priority being given to other learning areas, such as numeracy and literacy; or educators lack of science content knowledge to firstly identify the science opportunity, then confidently _____________ 1 edith cowan university, school of education, early childhood studies, perth, australia, e-mail: pauline.robertsx@ecu.edu.au, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1641-1624 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202123120 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:pauline.robertsx@ecu.edu.au https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1641-1624 pauline roberts 304 follow this science learning opportunity through. in a widely cited study in 2006, tu identified that while 50% of the classrooms he visited contained a science area, 86.8% of the activities completed within the classrooms were not science related. there were no instances of incidental teaching of science and even when plants were present in 70% of classrooms, these were not there for science-related purposes. this led to the conclusion that “preschool teachers did not provide adequate science activities and preschool teachers also missed teachable moments” (tu, 2006, p. 251). similar research by saçkes et al. (2011) also identified that science learning was not typical in early childhood classrooms. both tu (2006) and more recent research by edwards and loveridge (2011) called for “teachers to rethink the purposes and practices of science teaching, inferring the importance of reflective practices” (p. 30) in examining why science may be missing. it has been identified that early childhood teachers lack confidence in teaching science to young children (edwards & loveridge, 2011) or lack self-efficacy in science teaching (oppermann et al., 2019). studies identify that teachers in early childhood settings may not be predisposed to teach science (reinoso et al., 2019), may not have had exposure to enough science-based courses in their training (saçkes, 2014), or lack of confidence in planning and demonstrating some science topics, which reduces focus in these areas (oon et al., 2019). it is this lack of confidence that inhibits the noticing of science learning opportunities within early years classrooms and is why this research focused on following children’s questions as the starting point for inquiries rather than relying solely on educators to plan the tasks. research has similarly identified that early years’ teachers lack the appropriate level of content knowledge to teach science concepts and skills (barenthien et al., 2018; brenneman, 2011; nilsson & elm, 2017). science concepts may be seen as difficult to understand (abdo & vidal, 2020), as may be the underlying constructs related to the nature of science (nos) itself as a starting point for teaching young children (akerson, 2019). while the science concepts in the early years often relate to the biological sciences as children explore their natural world (larimore, 2020), subject areas such as chemical or physical sciences may be seen as more difficult to understand and teach (abdo & vidal, 2020) despite being significant in young children’s sciencing of the material world (areljung, 2019). there may also be confusion that young learners cannot understand concepts when, in fact they can, but they are unable to articulate this understanding. (saçkes, 2015). teachers who feel inadequate in their science knowledge may lack efficacy (oon et al., 2019) to adapt content to the early years (akerson, 2019) which is another reason to rely on the children’s questions in setting the inquiry focus as they guide what they are interested in and the types of content that could be explored. the teachers can then complete research within the areas identified by the children to ensure they are learning concepts they can engage the children with at the appropriate level. in addition to knowledge of content, knowledge is shown to be lacking in the pedagogical strategies used to teach science (abdo & vidal, 2020; afifah et al., 2019; areljung, 2019). lee shulman (1986) is recognised as being one of the first to identify that effective teaching requires not only content knowledge (ck) but pedagogical knowledge (pk) which is significant in planning for science if either of these are lacking. researchers since shulman have used the concepts of content and pedagogical knowledges to examine educator’s abilities within these domains (nilsson & elm, 2017). teachers have been found to lack these two distinct types of knowledge and while some studies have focused on improving knowledge, there may still be a lack of confidence in utilising the full range of science teaching methods in early years’ environments. these findings further support the following of children’s leads in teaching science as the children can help to determine not only what they want to learn (the content) but also be engaged in deciding how they want to learn it (the pedagogical strategies). the children can ask to read books, to search the internet, to ask an expert or to try an experiment as part of their inquiry. the educator can follow this idea through, to provide the required resources for these explorations to happen and be adding strategies to their repertoire along the way. based on these identified concerns for educators in teaching science, and the natural connection young children have to learning science, this exploratory study set out to identify: • if child-led inquiry focused on children’s interest led to the learning of science concepts; and follow the leader: child-led inquiries to develop science... 305 • what role the educators had in these inquiries as a model for improving science teaching in the early years. to explore these questions, the researcher worked with one community-based school setting where the children attend off-site schooling one day each week. method the research reported here, utilised an exploratory research approach where the focus was on collecting large amounts of unstructured information to then interpret and discuss (check & schutt, 2012). the exploratory approach was chosen as the researcher had an idea of what would happen during the research (based on experience of off-site school) but had “no clear expectation of what to expect” (cohen & manion, 1994, p. 259). the goal was not to prove or disprove a hypothesis but to identify the roles played by the children and the educators in the process of learning science concepts (cohen & manion, 1994). through an interpretive lens, aligned with participatory research methods (denzin & lincoln, 2011), the research explored the interactions of children aged between 3 and 7 years, and their educators in an offsite schooling program to examine the social constructions of science learning that were being established (check & schutt, 2012). as the researcher was known to the educators and the children, they were able to engage in participatory observations of the normal activities that the children and educators undertook during their visits to the metropolitan zoo as part of their regular off-site schooling program. the data were collected through a range of observation methods and the inquiry projects were reviewed for the interaction patterns that developed from the children’s questions, answers, and explorations. participants the school that hosted this research is a community school that has a focus on science, technology, engineering, the arts and mathematics (steam) learning and inquiry. the school caters for children from pre-kindy (3 years old) through to year 1 (6 years old) and incorporates an off-site schooling day each week with the setting changing each school term. previous off-site days have been spent in local parks, alongside the river and a science centre. on the off-site day, the parents either deliver and collect the children from the external site or the group meets at the school and utilises spaces within walking distance of the school or catches public transport to visit specific sites. this study engaged with the children as they spent a term visiting the metropolitan city zoo that was close to the school and facilitated parents dropping off and picking up from the zoo site. the off-site group consisted of 12 children each day – 7 in kindy (4-5 years old); 3 in pre-primary (56 years old); and 2 in year 1 (6-7 years old); with 2 teaching staff each day although four different educators across the term. the educators held early childhood teaching qualifications so were generalist teachers although the focus of the setting meant they had completed professional learning on a range of science concepts and the inquiry process. three different parents also joined the group on separate observation days. these parents were professionals in their fields although none with a specific science focus – one was in marketing, one in law and the other ran his own business. the sample was selected based on school enrolment patterns, staff rosters and parent availability to attend on that particular off-site school day. informed consent for engagement in the research was provided by the principal, the educators and the parents of the children enrolled on that day within the school through a signed consent form at the beginning of the research project. assent was also given by the children within each interaction before notes were made or photographs were taken to ensure they were willing to be involved in the data collection for the project. this was a verbal agreement between the children and the researcher at the time of the observation or conversation taking place. data collection the data collection for this project utilised a mixed methods approach based on participatory methods of observation and discussion through interactions with the children and adults as they explored their zoo inquiries. the documentation of these observations and interactions took multiple forms within pauline roberts 306 the research process, including field notes, reflections, photographs, and educational documentation. • field notes were taken of the questions the children asked and the responses given by the educator and researcher during the time spent exploring the zoo. all children engaged at least once across the observation period with these data collection processes. • photographs were taken of the children interacting in inquiries as well as of the floorbook© pages that documented these inquiries during and after their implementation. • reflective notes were made of discussions with educators throughout the observation times and between visits when they wanted to discuss possible avenues for future inquiries based on the previous visits. the teaching staff varied in knowledge, skills, experience, and confidence in teaching science to this age group of children and as such, a culture of mentoring and ongoing learning was present within the staff team • additional reflective notes were taken of discussions with some parents who attended zoo kindy as a volunteer helper on some of the observed days. these often included questions about the philosophy of the inquiry-based program and why it was valued by the school. data analysis there were substantial amounts of qualitative data collected and documented through the observations and interactions completed on the zoo visits. analysis of the data began with the identification of factors based on “a hunch to the factors that might emerge” (child, 1970, cited in cohen & manion, 1994, p. 331) to examine the structures and relationships connected to the human experience (cohen & manion, 1994). these initial factors were initially identified as (1) questions, (2) interactions, and (3) resources. using these. factors, the data were sub-divided for descriptive analysis (denzin &lincoln, 2011). as the focus was on interpreting the specifics (cohen & manion, 1994) and relationship of these factors, the decision was made to review and present the findings in relation to the individual inquiries and how these factors were present in each. results across the term of observations with the children as they attended zoo kindy, multiple inquiries were undertaken based on questions from the children and interactions with the educators. for the descriptive discussion as results of this study, each inquiry is considered as a unique case and the data were reviewed with the factors of questions, interactions, and resources towards the research questions. a total of four explicit inquiries are reported on in this paper from across the term with some lasting for one visit, while others built upon learning from a previous visit to inform a future interaction – sometimes across several weeks. several additional inquiries were also completed across the term of visits to the zoo and while these were valuable, they are mentioned as one block rather than detailed as a unique inquiry due to less plentiful data or less children being engaged. inquiry 1: “the rickety bridge” each week at zoo kinder incorporated a ‘human vote’ where the children would vote by physically posing as the attraction they most wanted to see first. the results of this vote then determined the journey to be taken as the group moved around the zoo on that particular visit. across the first weeks of zoo kinder, the older children convinced the younger children that based on their prior experience, (they had experienced zoo kinder the year before) the rickety bridge was the best place to visit and should be completed first. the rickety bridge was erected across a waterway that flowed down through a bushy section of the zoo, and as the name suggests, it was a bridge that moved as you went across it. the questions associated with this zoo attraction related to the materials used in constructing the bridge rope, nets, wood, steel string; and how these materials led to the rickety nature of the crossing – it was hung from trees and posts rather than being fixed to the ground across the middle because there was no ground – just water. some of the younger children were very unsure of using this bridge to get across and this led to follow the leader: child-led inquiries to develop science... 307 interactions and investigations related to the ‘secret path’ that went behind some bushes and around a different way to avoid crossing the rickety bridge. the children discussed why the secret path was there – for safer trail through the bush, to avoid the bumpy bridge, for prams and trolleys to use, and to show different plants. on one visit after the rickety bridge had already been explored as the first stop, the group came across some workers constructing a new wooden bridge to get to the elephant viewing platform. the children again engaged in further discussions, this time comparing the materials being used for this bridge – different types of wood; and how this construction differed from the rickety bridge – it was fixed to beams that ran along the floor. this bridge was described as heavier because it was made of wood. this fixed design was considered much more appropriate for this bridge that had many more visitors accessing this area than the rickety bridge’s bush and there was no water to get over that needed the bridge to be suspended. connection to research questions this inquiry demonstrated the link to the children’s interest that led to science learning that was facilitated and supported by the educators. the learning for the children in this inquiry related to the properties of materials in terms of what to use in what situations as well as the engineering required for bridge design and the bridges being fit for purpose. comparison of plant life was also completed as the group of younger or less confident children avoided the rickety bridge and there was discussion of surfaces best suited for different types of zoo visitors and what this diverse group needed. the interactions with the educators extended the children’s thinking beyond the simple materials used to create the bridge to the engineering concepts that required the bridge to be constructed as it was. questions were posed, particularly when compared to the ‘other’ bridge about why these materials? why this design? the group that was less confident on the bridge were less engaged with this inquiry, but the older children did connect this to other experiences and led into the future inquiries back in the classroom in physics. no additional resources were required in this inquiry although the design of the bridge was documented in the talking and thinking floorbook © inquiry 2: “the reptile house” on a different day at the zoo, the children voted to visit the reptile house. within this area, there is a glass fenced enclosure in the centre of the room that houses numerous australian lizards that can be seen by the children at floor level. there are large heat lamps hanging from the ceiling and the lizards often congregate under these. from previous visits to this area, the 6-year-olds were able to tell the younger children that the lizards were in these spots because it was just like lying in the sun which the lizards did to “warm their body temperature”. as these lizards moved around, there were a range of tracks being made on the sand floor and a group boys began trying to follow the tracks to identify which lizard had made each unique track and how these were made. feet and tails were identified as the tools used in track making and so the width of tail and size of feet made a difference. “mr lizard is making a trail (squiggly lines) with his tail” was the conclusion. also, within the reptile house, there was one snake in a glass case fixed into the wall that was long and sleek except for a large bulge in one section at about the middle of the snake. the provocation was “i wonder why there is a big bulge” to which a 3-year-old responded that “the tummy has gotten bigger because the snake had eaten too much dinner”. this led to discussion of what the snake could have eaten, and the group used the information chart on the wall that detailed diets of reptiles. from this, it was decided that it was probably a bird, but a small one like a willy wagtail not a big one like a magpie. in another glass enclosure within the reptile house, there was a snake who was in the process of shedding its skin. one 4-year-old was particularly interested in this and concerned that this shedding process was painful to the snake. he had enough confidence to approach a zoo volunteer to ask if this process was painful to the snake and was relieved when the zoo helper reported that it was not. the discussion further ensued about what snakes ate and after initially guessing leaves, the discussion moved pauline roberts 308 to name mammals as the snake’s main food source and further conversation about what a mammal was and how it was different to a reptile who laid eggs and were cold blooded. the 4-year-old then asked how the reptile kept warm, and the volunteer pointed out that in their natural world they lived underground then came out to the sun to warm up, but in the zoo, they had the heat lamp which the volunteer then pointed out to the inquisitive child. the discussion between this child and the volunteer rounded out with confirmation that the snake used the heat to warm up enough so they had energy to hunt. this discussion made an impression on this young learner as the child was able to recall much of this learned information in the following week when he returned to the reptile house. connection to research questions biological sciences were the focus of these interactions and through follow-up questions deeper learning occurred. by revisiting the reptile house again in future visits, it became clear that the inquiry was led by the students and the learning that happened within these interactions was being retained by the young children as they could recall the content learned through the previous interactions. this allowed them to extend their own inquiry each time they returned to this environment. the reptile house provided several small child-led inquiry cycles to be implemented where the children identified the question and then identified resources available to find out the answers to these questions. while on some occasions the educator interacted to provide prompting questions, at other times the children utilised other resources such as the information charts on the walls within the reptile house or the zoo volunteer to answer their inquiry questions. the confidence to not rely on peers or teachers allowed for more detailed discussions of what the children were interested in by accessing ‘experts’ that were available. inquiry 3: “waterproof or not” a favourite part of each zoo visit was not related to the animals. the playground area adjacent to where the children had lunch incorporated a man-made stream where the water was pumped from a large ceramic bowl that filled and then created a waterfall at the top of the hill. the water then flowed through a curving channel to the ‘pond’ at the bottom where the water flowed into a grated drain and was recycled back to the top. the children loved getting completely drenched within this area before getting changed to do one more animal visit or complete the floorbook© documentation before going home. the play within this stream area opened possibilities for several inquiries connected to water and water use but the fact that the children’s clothes kept getting wet, led the children to ask questions about clothing selections and discussions that they should wear clothes that were waterproof – but what did this mean? the resulting waterproof inquiry ran over several weeks and incorporated numerous individual explorations. on one visit, based on the children’s lack of understanding of what materials were waterproof, the educator provided a bag of fabric scraps to the children who subsequently explored which pieces were waterproof or not. initially, there was a great deal of misconception about what waterproof meant, especially among the 4-year-olds. several the children submerged the material into the water and claimed, “its waterproof” and when asked why, they detailed “because it got wet”. the distinction some children made here was they described it as getting wet but not soggy as soggy things were not waterproof. one of the 5-year-olds came in at one point during the exploration and said that waterproof meant it helped people not to get wet – like a raincoat, while a 6-year-old added that waterproof things can go in the water and not get wet. this provided the language for the children to use in their inquiry practices. after further exploration, the 4-year-old then explained that some materials were not waterproof because they got wet in the man-made stream. this exploration clearly identified the developmental continuum at play within these open-ended inquiries and allowed the younger children to learn from older peers who were able to articulate what waterproof meant and this altered the younger children’s understanding of the concept. this learning was led by the children and although the educator provided the materials (resources), it was the interactions among the children themselves that facilitated the learning. to further develop the concept of waterproof in a future week, the educator took a large roll of paper, a roll of clingwrap and a roll of aluminium foil to the zoo. during the visit, the children engaged with making boots out of the different materials to see which ones were best in keeping their feet dry. this follow the leader: child-led inquiries to develop science... 309 exploration extended upon the concept of waterproof but also related the learning to children’s own experiences in terms of wearing boots and demonstrating the connection between learning and the children’s everyday lives – an important process in helping children to see the purpose in their learning. the teacher-directed interaction utilised additional resources based on the children’s questions. while there were issues with the design and construction of the boots – mostly related to the nature of the materials and difficulties with construction, the children were able to determine that the paper was the least effective material for boots, and the plastic wrap the most successful material to use when making boots to keep feet dry. the children also identified from this that this was why gum boots from the shops were made of plastic although they did acknowledge the plastic of gumboots was thicker than the cling wrap to effectively keep feet dry in the rain. at the top end of the stream, the children were also experimenting with stopping the flow of water from the waterfall/fountain at the top. on one visit, a 4-year-old boy spent most of the time allocated for the playground sitting in the bowl the water would flow from so that his bottom and legs blocked the stream of the water. this action meant the bowl collecting the water for the waterfall would fill to overflowing. he would use his arms to push his body up which would allow the water to flow in a rush “through a tunnel” and then he would drop down and block it off again. in discussion and through experimentation, he tried other body parts to block the flow of the water– his hands, his feet, his arms, but he identified that the bottom was the most effective as it slowed the flow of water to almost nothing. this led to a game where he would sit and wait until the bowl was full and then release the water in a rush and see how that impacted on his friends playing in the water further down the stream. connection to research questions in this inquiry, there were several points where the educator had a direct role in facilitating the inquiry. following from the children’s interest in the water, and the problem of wet clothing, they provided additional resources and planned specific interactions to extend the children’s thinking on the concept of waterproof. the different levels of understanding among the children meant that the inquiry had a broad scope but the interactions among the older and younger children allowed the shared learning to occur. the interaction with water allowed for chemical science explorations in terms of the properties of materials as well as technology related to choosing materials fit for purpose. the misconceptions about waterproof were corrected through interactions among the multi-aged group with older children supporting the learning of the younger ones. water allows for a great deal of topics to be examined and many open-ended explorations to take place. inquiry 4: “what do they wear?” the final distinct inquiry being detailed in this paper was the work the children did in relation to the coverings on the animals they visited. across several weeks of visiting the zoo, the children discussed whether animals were covered in fur, feathers, skin, or scales and why there were differences. the children identified that scales allowed heat to be absorbed through the skin, fur kept animals warm, the shells of the tortoises kept them safe, and the feathers on the birds were a light covering so that the birds could fly. the children documented the animals by body covering in the floorbook© and regularly enjoyed a game of musical stop just inside the zoo entrance where a play area incorporated large concrete pipes painted to represent different coverings of several animals, for example a zebra, a cheetah, a snake. through the game, the children had to identify what the covering was that they had selected to sit on when the music stopped, which animals had this covering, and sometimes why this was the best covering for that animal. an extension of this initial inquiry with some of the older children was to discuss the colours of the coverings too and identify why different animals had specific colours and patterns. this was highlighted when the group identified that many african animals – the painted dogs, the tiger, the giraffe, had patterned fur to hide in the grasses and jungle areas. connection to research questions the musical stop game allowed the educators to reinforce, in a fun way, the work completed in the pauline roberts 310 floorbook© on animal coverings and the reasons behind the type, colour, and patterns of these. the children’s inquiry started with questions about why animals had different coverings and the specific focus was determined by their preference for particular animals but also their understanding of climate, habitats and species of animals, depending on their age and interest. the use of the provided resource allowed connections to be made by the children with minimal additional resources being developed by the educators. these resources instead provided for alternate interaction patterns. different environments were identified as a key determinant of the type of covering animals had both in terms of type and colour. the biological concepts were learnt as the children explored why different coverings were more suitable in hot or cold climates as well as how coverings protected animals in terms of camouflage or physical environments. this learning occurred across multiple zoo visits and was reinforced through many other inquiries the reptile house, the water play, and the elephant encounter. other inquiries while these four case examples are more detailed interactions of the learning that occurred under the children’s direction, there were other inquiries across the term of zoo kindy. these included discussion of why emus had long strong legs and what the role of the short wings were – to turn when running fast; how the tortoise was eating the leaves, especially when the zoo keeper was using what looked like a toothbrush to sharpen the animal’s beak; what nocturnal means and how the building in the zoo enabled the animals to be seen during the day; why the baboons have red bottoms which is of course hilarious as any talk of bottoms is; how to keep the zoo area clean, including litter, plant materials and most importantly what does the zoo do with all the poo? in case you wanted to know the answer to that last question, they share it with local councils and other organisations to be used as compost in gardens. what was identified through these inquiries was the role of the questions, both from the children and the educators, to connect children’s learning with other inquiries and other ideas. sometimes educator interactions provided direction to the children to extend thinking or offering additional resources to answer increasingly complex questions. very little was added to the environment by the educators and the process of following children’s questions proved to engage all children in learning across the term of visits. discussion the inquiries detailed in the results section demonstrate the ability of young children to learn a range of science (and other subject area) content through their own inquiries. the educators interacted throughout these to assist in answering questions and seeking out resources to support the children’s developing understanding. much of this was done based on the children’s own interests and questions so they had control over what they were learning and investigating. throughout this process, the educators were able to follow the children’s lead, which reduced the pressure on the educators to identify areas for inquiry or to plan expansive activities that may have not related to the children in terms of age, interest, or current knowledge. the closing section of this paper focuses back to the research questions to provide support for the pedagogy of following the children’s lead as well as encourage educators to embrace early childhood science from this child-initiated inquiry perspective. can children learn from child-led inquiries? the examples presented as cases within the results section demonstrate that child-led inquiries can provide a multitude of learning opportunities for young children. the inquiries developed from experiences the children were engaged in through hands-on processes where they could ask questions and work towards identifying answers, the multi-age context allowed additional interaction and scaffolding of learning where younger children learned from their older, more knowledgeable peers and through this, misconceptions were clarified. the inquiries being undertaken were largely owned by the children which resulted in them being at an appropriate level of difficulty and focused on topics of interest. as some of the older children had experienced the zoo setting in previous years, they had already mastered these concepts and moved to follow the leader: child-led inquiries to develop science... 311 more complex ones. the open-ended nature of the inquiries meant that the children could step in and out of inquiries at their current level and then be extended incrementally by more learned peers – it was vygotsgy’s zone of proximal development (cited in tudge, 1992) in action. when the children were responsible for developing the questions and the focus was on their inquiries, they determined how to best adapt concepts to their developmental level (akerson, 2019). while much of the content covered across the term related directly to the biological sciences and the natural world (larimore, 2020), there was some exploration in other science areas as well as other subject domains. the inquiries were meaningful to the children and authentic as they controlled both the content and the process which is empowering to them and allows them agency over their learning (duncan, 2018). the retell of experiences on subsequent visits and documentation of the inquiries demonstrated the learning that was taking place for each child as they engaged with these inquiries. what role does the educator take in child-led inquiries? the main role of the educator throughout these inquiries was to ask prompting questions and to scaffold the inquiries identified by the children. the multi-aged groups and the peer social learning that was happening allowed the educators to deepen their understanding of the different stages of the learning of certain concepts through interactions with individuals and small groups to effectively facilitate and scaffold the children’s learning across these stages. the process of following children’s questions was also beneficial to the educators, particularly those with less experience with inquiry because interactions enabled them to relax and let the children problem solve for themselves. an example of this was the waterproof inquiry with one of the newer staff members. she had decided to bring the fabric scraps to the zoo for the children to engage with the experiment about what was waterproof, but during the exploration was unsure when to step in and if they should be providing the correct answers to the children or not. through providing the children with the resources and the time, the educator was able to observe the children’s problem solving and eventually the older children supported the learning of the younger ones. this alleviated the concerns on how to effectively describe what waterproof meant at a level the children could understand and allowed the educator to engage without having to be the expert in the situation. the interaction improved her confidence and selfefficacy (oon, et al., 2019) around this concept and led to her next scaffolded experiment with the paper, foil, and cling wrap to create boots to keep feet dry. by having the children take the lead, the educators were able to complete additional research and scaffold explorations to meet the needs of the children, but the process also assisted in identifying what content knowledge was required (abdo & vidal, 2020). in addition to this, the focus on the children’s questions including allowing them to decide how to answer the questions, decreased the reliance on the educators pedagogical knowledge (afifah et al., 2019). this allowed the educators to be co-learners in the process (henningson, 2013) and engage with the inquiry with more confidence, rather than being the director of the learning and working with limited strategies. an additional role of the educator was in relation to the provision of resources. while the. zoo environment itself provided many of the resources for these inquiries with little additional required. the more teacher-led inquiries such as those related to waterproof materials saw that the educator scaffold the experiment with the provision of firstly a bag of materials and secondly the paper, foil, and cling wrap to create boots to keep feet dry were really the only additional resources added too inquiries. the child-led inquiries mostly used what was already there including displays, such as the reptile house inquiry, where the children utilised the information posters available as well as the zoo helper’s expertise to answer their questions and were satisfied with that. the documentation was the other area where the educators added materials and other supports to the reporting elements of the inquiries, but again the children completed this in their own ways and often took over the process. their voices came through in the reporting of inquiries and this is an important part of the inquiry process (duncan, 2018). pauline roberts 312 conclusion the examples provided throughout this research have highlighted how much children can learn when they are given agency over their learning and are provided with the resources to make connections and apply their newly acquired knowledge into alternate contexts across numerous weeks of visiting the same setting. the depth of inquiries and the development of the educators’ science educational abilities throughout this process was also an outcome of the engagement with the zoo inquiries and provides support for the approach to be more widely implemented. the findings of the study support the implementation of child-led inquiries through multiple interactions within diverse contexts and demonstrate that repeated visits to the same location are important not only for children but the educators as well. by having the opportunity to revisit the site, the children could explore more deeply on each visit and reinforce their learning. the educator was also able to prepare based on previous interactions for additional facilitated discussions and resources. additionally, the findings support the interaction of children across multiple year levels where older or more experienced peers can support the learning of others and assisted the educators in mapping learning and will enable them to provide further scaffolding in future inquiries. research into this model and these processes will continue and is planned to involve additional educators and learning sites to further support the use of this process both within this school context, but also outside of it. further research will provide additional examples for other educators within the field of early childhood and primary school science in relation to how child-led inquiries can effectively support not only young children’s science learning but the development of 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(2012) identifies five types of play: physical play; play with objects; symbolic play; pretence/socio-dramatic play and games with rules. these five types of play reflect the piaget (1962) classification of play of practice play (linked to the sensorimotor stage); symbolic play (linked to the pre-operational and operational stage) and games with rules (linked to the concrete operational stage). the wide age range and developmental stages of the children have to be considered in the analysis of the data. piagetian (1962) theory outlines the different cognitive developmental stages as a stage-like process that still has its critics (feldman, 2004), particularly as initial observations undertaken by piaget were on their children. however, there are _____________ 1 swansea university, department for education and childhood studies, swansea, uk, e-mail: p.f.king@swansea.ac.uk, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0273-8191 2 independent researcher, isle of man, uk, e-mail: chrisgregoryplay@outlook.com, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3156-3204 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202231158 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:p.f.king@swansea.ac.uk https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0273-8191 mailto:chrisgregoryplay@outlook.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3156-3204 children’s views on social distancing and playing… 49 general characteristics of children’s play that do reflect the age and stage of development (garner & bergen, 2006), and this provided a framework for analysis considering the potential level and quality of the response between children aged 4 years and over 11 years of age. the adventure playground provides a unique space for children across a wide age range between 5 and 15 years (king, 2021a) to be able to engage in all the five types of play identified by whitebread and colleagues (2012). this would include climbing and running (physical play), using tools such as hammer and nails to make dens (play with objects), acting out roles (pretence/socio-dramatic play), use the resources in any way they want (symbolic play) or play sports (games with rules). chilton (2018) provides an overview on the types of play children engage in on an adventure playground and how this type of setting can support children’s development. the last estimated numbers of adventure playgrounds in england was around 180 (play england (pe), 2011), although this number has decreased with recent closures of adventure playground. there are two adventure playgrounds in wales and one in scotland. adventure playgrounds provide a play environment for children and young people, from as young as 4 and up to 17 years. adventure playgrounds provide a unique play space for such a wide age range for children and young people to be in the same environment. as well as the uk, there are still adventure playgrounds, for example, in the united states (almon & keeler, 2018) and in japan (kinoshita, & woolley, 2015) that provide a space for children and young people to play often in built-up urban environments. shier (1984) provides a revised description of a typical adventure playground in the uk as: …an area fenced off and set aside for children. within its boundary’s children can play freely, in their own way, in their own time. but what is special about an adventure playground is that here (and increasingly in contemporary urban society, only here) children can build and shape the environment according to their own creative vision (p. 3). adventure playgrounds provide a unique environment where children have ownership of the space (pe, 2017) where they are free to come and go, within what is termed in the uk as an ‘open access policy’. adventure playgrounds provide a wide range of play opportunities such as den building using tools such as hammers, large structures for children to climb and jump from, a fire pit to both keep warm and cook, small and large movable objects, now often categorized as loose parts (nicholson, 1971) which may include tyres and ropes, or just the open space to play traditional games in the uk such as hide ‘n’ seek or tag (chase). some adventure playgrounds may also have access to indoor space where more art and craftbased opportunities of play may occur. the adventure playground thus serves a wide age range of children and young people to engage and direct a variety of play opportunities. although adventure playgrounds are not set up for educational attainment (chilton, 2003), the diverse nature of this type of play provision will support children’s development at different stages. for example, for children aged 4 and 5 years the use of objects becomes more functional (garner & bergen, 2006) with an increase in fine and gross motor skills (johnson, 2006) and can be easily observed in den making where wooden structures are built using hammer and nails. construction and outdoor play have benefits for cognitive learning in areas of math and science (trawicksmith et al., 2017). for older children, the play often becomes more complete concerning physical play and social play (lee manning, 2006). although whitebread and colleagues (2012) refer to socio-dramatic play as one of their five types of play, hughes’s (2002) taxonomy of 16 play types defines social play where “experiences in which the rules and criteria for social engagement and interaction can be revealed, explored and amended” (p. 33). this can be observed with children and young people climbing higher structures and leaping and somersaulting onto large crash mats, or where the fire pit is being prepared, lit and food being cooked which becomes a very socially-based play opportunity. ward (1961) considered the adventure playground as: …a free-society in miniature, with the same tensions and ever-changing harmonies, the same diversity and spontaneity, the same unformed growth of co-operation and release of individual qualities and communal sense, which lie dormant in a society devoted to competition and acquisitiveness (p.201). pete king & chris gregory 50 adventure playgrounds often run after school (from 3 pm onwards in the uk) monday to friday, during the weekends, and during the day in the school holidays (king, 2021a). it is not uncommon for adventure playgrounds during the evening to have up to 60 children use the provision or during the holidays over 200, although not all at the same time concerning the open access policy of children being able to come and go as they please. open access refers to children and young people free to enter and leave the adventure playground of their own volition (welsh government (wg), 2014). in addition to providing a space to play, adventure playgrounds have also developed other provisional services by acting as a food bank (king, 2021b) and providing a base for children and young people engaged in the alternative curriculum (king, 2020). the alternative curriculum is where school-aged children are not following the national educational curriculum and may spend part of their education outside of the school. in march 2020, the uk went into lockdown as a response to the increasing spread of the sars-cov2 (covid-19) which occurs “through contact (via larger droplets and aerosols), and longer-range transmission via aerosols, especially in conditions where ventilation is poor” (alwan et. al., 2020, p.1). this resulted in all child-related provisions (schools, parks, adventure playgrounds, etc.) being faced with instant closure, and all play-related activities ceased and staff, not all, but most were furloughed (king, 2021a). where adventure playgrounds were able to run some kind of provision, this continued to be community-based by increasing or developing food bank services or providing a more mobile service delivering resources to children’s houses (king, 2020). the march 2020 lockdown in the united kingdom lasted for 3 months, and when adventure playgrounds re-opened in july 2020 restrictions about hygiene and social distancing were still in place (uk governemnt, 2020a; 2020b). however, there was no consistent approach throughout the uk of the “2 meters or 1 meter with risk mitigations (where 2 meters is not viable) are acceptable” (uk government, 2020a) being applied to all ages (uk government, 2020b). whilst england kept the 2-meter distance for all ages, there was leeway put in place for children under the age of 11 years in northern ireland (nidirct, 2020), scotland (scottish government (sg), 2020), and wales (wg, 2020a; 2020b). guidance on how adventure playgrounds could operate post-lockdown was developed by london play (2020) where: social distancing measures should be observed by anyone present who does not need to be in closer contact with the family group – maintaining a 2m physical distance where possible” and “limit the duration of playground stays to an hour at a time (p. 1). the guidelines produced by london play indicated parents and carers stay with the children (which would be included in the numbers allowed) where ‘bubbles’ of groups would have 1-hour time slots. with adventure playgrounds re-opening across the uk, the guidance by london play reflected the uk guidance in england where social distancing of at least 1m in england for all children was encouraged. in scotland and wales, the respective governments provided guidance where social distancing for children under the age of 12 was relaxed (e.g. wg, 2020). however, for older children and young people, the social distancing of 1-2 m still applied, as with the adventure playground staff. significance and purpose of the study the aim of this study was to obtain a child’s perspective on social distancing and play. the significance of the study was measures were being introduced on how children should play in relation to social distancing, however children’s views were not included, or considered when play-based settings were to re-open. for example, play is a social activity, for example, pretend play is common with 5-yearolds, chase games with 8-year-olds, and just ‘hanging out’ with 15 years, all involve close contact. adventure playgrounds have a wide age range of 5-15 years using the provision. this poses the question of how to socially distance children 12 years and older and who are playing with those 11 years and younger. how possible is it to implement social distancing in children’s play? in the isle of man, lockdown finished earlier, and social distancing was abandoned on 15th june (isle of man government (iomg), 2020a; 2020b). concerning the adventure playground provision, this meant with necessary hygiene precautions in place (concerning the cleaning of equipment, sanitising hands, etc.) there was no limit to the number attending, no bookable system put in place and the children and young children’s views on social distancing and playing… 51 people who used the provision could play in the way they did as before, not in ‘bubbles’ or designated age groups. children and young people were thus able to return to their unique play environment, not having to worry about playing in close physical contact with both other children and the staff. this provided a unique context to ask children and young people a hypothetical question on how they would be able to play once they were back on their adventure playground if social distancing had to be implemented? the benefit of the hypothetical question is children and young people could respond without these measures being imposed on them, thus responses were based on their anticipated experience, rather than direct experience. this study was undertaken after the first lockdown in march 2020 was relaxed, although in the uk there has been another two lockdowns and one further lockdown in the isle of man. method research with children requires different considerations when compared to adults. this consideration requires what punch (2002) refers to as using “research-friendly or ‘person-friendly techniques” (p. 337). the views of children on their play and social distancing on their adventure playground were collected when the provision reopened on 15th june 2020. this study provides a historical perspective in one period of time from the end of the first lockdown in march 2020 to re-opening in june 2020 where the study was undertaken. the research study undertaken was granted ethical approval from the ethics committee of the college of human and health science at swansea university. research design the research design used video to interview children who attended their adventure playground between the 13th and 23rd july 2020 after the first march 2020 lockdown had finished in the isle of man. interviews were undertaken using a ‘vox pop’ approach commonly used in journalism (beckers, 2019). this involves short interviews that are video recorded (beckers, 2019). this approach makes the data collection method more playful and less intrusive to children and young people in their play and makes the ‘interview’ process very informal. as children were returning after a period of lockdown, the interviews did not want to take up too much of their time playing on the adventure playground. interviews were undertaken between the 13th and the 23rd of july 2020, one month after the adventure playground reopened in june 2020 after the march 2020 lockdown. children and young people were recruited from the adventure playground with no social distancing restrictions by an advert put up at the adventure playground explaining the study. the children and young people who were interested in taking part had a signed consent form completed by their parent or carer, as well as it being stressed any participation was voluntary and would be anonymous. whilst the children and young people were playing, one of the adventure playground staff members went around with a video camera to undertake the short ‘vox pop’ interviews. the agreed procedure was set out where the purpose of the study would be explained to the child and clarification they were happy to participant. the researcher collecting the data used the same four questions below and all videos recorded were consistent with this approach. it was stressed to all the children any participation was voluntary and would be anonymous and they did not have to answer any of the four questions: 1. how old are you? 2. what is it like being back on the adventure playground? 3. what things do you do on the adventure playground? 4. how would you play if you had to stay 2m apart? the questions were specific to children who attend the adventure playground and were developed with a member of staff. this considers addressing the aspect of credibility (shenton, 2004). the questions were broad and open and did not have any covid-19 or lockdown-specific questions as the focus of the study was on social distancing and play. the impact of covid-19 can vary from individual to individual pete king & chris gregory 52 and to keep with the focus of returning to the adventure playground, children were not asking questions that could specifically related to their health and well-being. however, safeguarding procedures were put in place if any responses from the children and young people reflected any concern or distress as a result of covid-19 or lockdown, and relevant parties would be informed. although this did not occur, it was important to consider the safeguarding of research participants. although issues of ‘bias’ and ‘coercion’ always need to be considered in research, the video data were collected by a member of staff could raise issues of bias. however, it was not possible to interview the children and young people by an independent researcher as travel to and from the isle of man was prohibited. other methods of data collection such as recording interviews through platforms like zoom® were considered but would have been too intrusive as this would have required participants to leave their chosen play activity and be led to a laptop or computer. the use of zoom for interviews also relies on consistent connectivity. the use of recording the videos on a mobile device worked well. interviews lasted between 35 seconds to 3.03 minutes and were short enough not to disrupt any children’s play more than was needed. most interviews were done individually, although most had other children and young people around playing, or in three instances, this was done individually but in a group of two or three children. the use of video recording allowed analysis of non-verbal language, location on the adventure playground, and is a naturalistic study, the noise and activities taking place in the background provided a snapshot of how the adventure playground was running with no social distancing needed. interviews were all undertaken outside in a range of places including a picnic bench, wheelchair, dens, slides, rope swings, and standing in the grass area of the adventure playground. one interview was undertaken in the indoor space where children also play and socialize. some participants were holding objects such as hammers so although interrupted in their chosen play, the children and young people were able to return to it relatively quickly. participants the chosen sampling method of inviting children to take part who were already using the adventure playground used voluntary non-probability sampling. however, when children were taking part, this resulted in other children being interested reflecting snowballing sampling in addition. in total twentyfive children and young people took part in the study aged from 4 years up to 13 years. table 1. participants’ characteristic 2-6 years 7-10 years 11+ years girls 1 (4 years) 2 (5 year) 2 (8 years) 6 (11 years) 2 (12 years) boys 2 (5 years) (6 years) 1 (7 years) 3 (8 years) 1 (9 years) 1 (10 years) 3 (11 years) 1 (13 years) analysis the piagetian framework provided enabled a content analysis (marshall & rossman, 1995) to be undertaken. this enabled responses from the children to be coded (elo & kyngas, 2008) within the piagetian framework. the piagetian framework had three headings: pre-operational, concrete operational, and formal operational. this was all used to develop a framework to analyse the response and consider the age and developmental state of the children. this is shown in table 2. table 2. analysis framework on piagetian classification piagetian play (1962) pre-operational 2 to 6 years concrete operational 7 to 10 years formal operational 11+ years children are figurative or perceptionoriented and play is symbolic and uses creative imagination children are capable of thinking logically, but always with a basis in concrete or material things and includes construction games children are capable of abstract reasoning children’s views on social distancing and playing… 53 the framework enabled the coding of data to consider how each participant's play preferences and responses reflect their potential age and development. this included both verbal responses transcribed directly to what the children were saying as well as the non-verbal responses. transcription involved transcribing by hand each interview. this involved watching and re-watching each video. with the interviews being video recorded, non-verbal responses can be considered as “video offers an open invitation to the researcher to look beyond the spoken word and find meaning from other dimensions of participant activity” (ramsey et. al., 2016, p. 3) explained as “recursive transcription” (p. 3) where nonverbal responses in conjunction with the spoken (verbal) narrative can include: nonverbal, semiotic fields of interest as: gesture and pointing, gaze and attention, body position and movement, touch, tone and inflection, facial expression, and engagement with material objects (ramsey et. al., 2016, p. 3) the data collected by the adventure playground staff member was analysed by a second member of the research team who did not know the children. this enabled a separation of data collection and analysis to reduce bias and consider credibility (shenton, 2004) of the process. when the data was analysed, this was sent back to the staff member to check for accuracy and the confirmability of the results (shenton, 2004). the aspects of credibility and confirmability relate to trustworthiness (lincoln & guba, 1985). the responses were discussed between the researcher collecting the data and the second researcher analysing the interviews. it was agreed the use of piagetian classification reflected the responses, and the content analysis enabled capturing the views of the children. findings table 3 shows the content analysis using the piagetian framework to group responses from the different age groups. the piagetian framework used reflects three of the four stages and these are linked to two of piaget’s classification of play of symbolic play and games with rules. as the questions focused on how children use the adventure playground, the responses were more detailed with the older children, reflecting more cognitive thinking of their responses. this is considered when discussing the results below. table 3. responses within piagetian classification when returning to the adventure playground, all the children felt positive with the words fun and good being used the most. for the children 11+ years, their responses were accompanied by elaborate gestures such as giving a thumbs up. the content analysis is discussed about each of the three age groups. pre-operational (2-6) years when asked what it was like to return to the adventure playground, single-word answers of “good” pre-operational (2-6) concrete operational (7-10 years) formal operational (11+ years) return to adventure playground good (2) fun (6) weird (2) good (2) best awesome amazing great fun (8) good (4) okay amazing happy enjoying cool types of play slides (2) swings teddies build (5) play on slides (3) break stuff (2) explore (2) food building stuff (9) play with other people (5) food (4) slides (3) swings social distancing line up and take turns (2) bring in nerf guns to play with only play with people you know build standing apart not come in play carefully wear masks would not be here (3) would not do it (2) difficult to implement (2) non-verbal smiles smiles and gestures smiles and more elaborate gestures pete king & chris gregory 54 accompanied by a smile were consistent. when asked how they like to play on the adventure playground, a specific object was stated such as swings and slides. the responses on how they would play if they had to stay 2 m apart, it was clear there was an understanding of the distance, and the replies could be described as ‘compliant’ where the child demonstrated how turn-taking could be undertaken by queueing as illustrated in this response: “i would stand here, and they would be over there and then i would go on the slide and then they would go on the slide” (girl aged 4 years) concrete operational (7-10 years) as with the pre-operational responses, when asked what it was like to be back on the adventure playground, single-word answers of “fun” and “good” with a smile, where one child said: “really fun, i haven’t been here for a whole 3 months and i was sad i could not come” (boy, aged 7 years) the types of play included both object play (slides and swings) but also construction play of building dens, forts. this was evident where the children being interviewed had a hammer in their hands whilst answering the questions the responses were more detailed: “i like jumping off over there *points to the play storage container*, like having the food here. have fun with my friends, build and digging” (boy aged 10 years) when asked how they would be playing if they had to remain 2m apart, the responses would be described as ‘compliant and adaptive’ where again acceptance of 2m was reflected in their responses, however, the children would go into more detail on how they would adapt their play to maintain a distance: “i would build, but *uses stretched out arm to illustrate* one person would be on one side of the building and other person would be on the other side of the building” (girl aged 8 years) formal operational (11+ years) the responses on what it was like to return to the adventure playground were also single words such as ‘good’ and ‘fun’ and the use of smiles, however, these words were accompanied with distinct gestures such as a ‘thumbs up’ and exaggerated hand and arm movements: “fun *wide smile and stretching out their arms* (girl a, aged 11 years) the type of play included both objects (swings and slides) and construction (den building) but also specified the social aspect of meeting friends. there was also more emphasis in the answers using head movements and pointing to where the various activities take place: “i like hammering, cooking food, starting the fire, helping people out and i like playing” (girl b, aged 11 years) when asked how they would play if social distancing had to be adhered to, there was a distinct ‘confrontation’ in their responses from defiance (not do it) to would not come to the adventure playground. the responses included very clear gestures of shaking heads from side to side, shrugging of shoulders, and widening of eyes or curling of lips: “i wouldn’t be able to do that, it would be really stressful *shakes head from side to side* (girl, aged 12 years) one response around the issues of playing and social distancing was encapsulated in the response below: “it would probably feel weird, because you’re supposed to help people like, say you’re helping someone hammer, you need to hold the nail, but you can’t do that social distancing so it’s going to be pretty tricky” (boy, aged 11 years) what was evident from the video interviews was the snapshot of what happens in the adventure playground to support children’s and young people’s play. some of the participants were using the play resources whilst being interviewed, such as hammers or sitting on a slide or swing. for some of the interviews, particularly the 7-10-year age range, there was a playful interchange as often other children would do things like stand behind the interviewee and do ‘bunny ears’ or when pointing to an activity they like doing, children are making dens, jumping off structures or sitting around chatting. this playful children’s views on social distancing and playing… 55 interchange also included the interviewer who also had ‘bunny ears’ made behind them, having their hat stolen or children playing with their hair. this was all off-camera but mentioned by the children being interviewed. when summarizing the results, it was evident all the children were pleased to be back on the adventure playground to engage in their chosen play. the chosen favourite way children played on the adventure playground did reflect the piaget classification and types of play where pre-operational (4-6 years) were more object play focused. for the operational stage (7-10 years) this involved more construction whilst for the formal operational (11+ years) the responses from the children had more emphasis on the social aspect of play. when asked about social distancing (keeping 2m apart when playing), pre-operational children were more compliant, operational children were adaptive and formal operational were confrontational. the results will be discussed concerning the unique environment adventure playground provide in meeting the play needs of a wide range of children and consider how applying social distancing, particularly to the formal operational age range of 11+ years may need reconsidering in light of their social needs and expectations. discussion when adventure playgrounds re-opened in july 2020 in the uk, social distancing regulations were placed on all children in england (uk government, 2020b) and for children aged 12 years or over in years in northern ireland (nidirct, 2020), scotland (sg, 2020) and wales (wg, 2020). the restrictions imposed on social distancing and children’s play were asked to children and young people who returned to their adventure playground with no social distancing restrictions in place. this provided a unique study where children and young people could hypothesise how they would play if 2m apart, rather than it being imposed and having to do so. the study also provides an important historical context of playwork during the covid-19 pandemic. when children were asked about their play and social distancing using a piaget (1962) developmental classification indicated children’s understanding of the world differs between the preoperational (4-6 years), operational (7-10 years), and formal operational (11+years) stages where children at the pre-operational and operational differ on how they play and respond to questions compared to children in the formal operational stage. although critics of piagetian theory exists (feldman, 2005), the use of pre-operational, and formal operational did provide a framework where the responses on how they play, and how they would play 2m apart did reflect this piagetian classification. pre-operational children were more focused on object play, operational children with physical play and formal operational children preferred more social type focused play. a consideration of social play and social interaction reflects vygotsky’s (1978) view of the importance of play in children’s development and how this will differ in respect to the different piagetian stages. for example, for the formal operational (11 years and older) the social aspect may take more priority than what and how children play. for the pre-operational, children will play socially, but the object being played or the activity undertaken may take more priority. the variety of what happens in any play space indicates why adventure playgrounds are important as they do provide varied play spaces for play to meet children’s developmental and social needs across a wide age range. this varied play environment indicates how children’s understanding and acceptance of social distancing would be different as indicated in this study where children in the pre-operational stage were more compliant, operational children adaptive and formal operational confrontational about keeping 2m apart when playing. the ‘blanket approach’ of the social distancing policies of 1m to 2m for children in england (uk governement, 2020a) would have been met differently by the children in this study dependent on their age. where in scotland (sg, 2020) and wales (wg, 2020a; 2020b) the 2m social distancing only applied to those over 12 years, children within the formal operational stage in this study would have either not attended the adventure playground or ignored the 2m rule. for older children, the pete king & chris gregory 56 adventure playground would become a less attractive place to meet friends, and thus not be able to use their play environment. where restrictions were lifted for children under the age of 12 years, this study indicated they would be more compliant in maintaining the 2m rule, although if this was put into practice, this may not be the case when children are playing. the importance of considering children and young people’s views on social distancing and play reflects the wider issue of how play is important and the role of adventure playgrounds in providing space to play. during the march 2020 lockdown, and when adventure playgrounds re-opened, fears expressed in the uk in relation to a reduction to outdoor space have “endangered child health and widened preexisting disparities” (editorial, 2020, p. 1). guan et. al. (2020) stated children “obtain their daily physical activity” (p. 416) through a range of activities including active play. however, how children and young people play the stipulation of social distancing makes interaction with friends in outdoor activities problematic especially in spaces such as adventure playgrounds where children engage in many physical types of play. children in this study across the age range clearly expressed their pleasure in being back on the adventure playground, and with no social distancing, this did not restrict numbers or the type of play that engaged in before the march lockdown. children returning to their adventure playgrounds in july 2020 in the uk social distancing was put in place. however, numbers were reduced and where children did attend, social distancing was difficult to maintain, whatever the age of the child (king, 2021b). as with the views of the children in this study, there had to be some compliance, where for some children they were placed in ‘bubbles’ and some adaptation of both resources provided and the types of play that was still possible for children to engage in (king, 2021b). however, the enforcement of social distancing became harder to enforce particularly for the older-aged child (king, 2021b). the views of the children from this current study where social distancing was hypothesized reflected what happened with children and young people in adventure playgrounds with limited numbers and social distancing measures that were put in place. this indicates the importance of consulting with children concerning policies that have an impact on their dedicated play space. limitations and implications for future research there are limitations to this study that are acknowledged. firstly, children were asked questions by the adults in the adventure playground which could have influenced or biased their responses. as children were asked during their play, and only lasting between 50 seconds and 3 minutes, this did not take up too much of their time and the responses reflected the enjoyment that could be ascertained in the play activities in the background and the noise of children playing. the responses were reliable and not coerced by the interviewer. the sample of 25 children, although fairly small, was a good sample size for the number of children registered and using the adventure playground, especially as it had only been running for 2 months before the march lockdown. the third limitation of this study is the children left lockdown earlier in the isle of man and with no social distancing compared to england for example. since the lockdown, when the study was undertaken only one case of covid-19 on the isle of man had been reported and so the views of the children may not represent those who have returned to their adventure playground with social distancing requirements put in place. this would be a relevant follow-up study with children to see if social distancing had been implemented on their adventure playground and what impact did it have on their play. conclusion this study provided a unique opportunity to listen to children’s voices on their experience of returning to their play environment after a period of lockdown, and not having to worry about social distancing only hypothesis about it. the study shows how important play is to children and that careful consideration has to be put in place concerning how play environments, designated specifically for children, need to consider their views on social distancing, particularly older children the opportunity to children’s views on social distancing and playing… 57 meet friends and socialise may be impeded if restrictions are put in place. from this study, children of all ages enjoy and needed the adventure playground post lockdown. for the older child, aged 11 years or over, this social distancing would be ‘ignored’. if this is the case, then it has to be considered where will children meet and congregate? at least on specific play provisions for children, such as adventure playgrounds if children are meeting their friends and being able to play outside, it would be easier to track and trace if there are any covid-19 related infections. government policy and guidelines need to consider that children do not always diverge into two groups of primary (under 12 years) and secondary (12 years to 18 years), and careful consideration of the risk and benefits of adventure playgrounds as a safe space, away from vulnerable adults that may be more important than before when considering children’s health, wellbeing, and development. declarations editorial acknowledgement: the editorial process of this article was carried out by dr. mine gol-guven. acknowledgements: not applicable. authors’ contributions: this was collaboration between pk at swansea university and cg at the isle of play. competing interests: the authors declare that they have no competing interests. funding: no funding. ethics approval and consent to participate: the research study undertaken was granted ethical approval from the ethics committee of the college of human and health science at swansea university. references allen of hurtwood, m. 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(1961). adventure playground: a parable of anarchy. freedom press. welsh government (2014). wales – a play friendly country statutory guidance. accessed at https://gov.wales/sites/default/files/publications/2019-07/wales-a-play-friendly-country.pdf. welsh government. (2020). guidance for hubs and schools: provision for children of critical workers and vulnerable children. https://gov.wales/sites/default/files/publications/2020-04/guidance-hubs-schools-coronavirus-provision.pdf whitebread, d., basilio, m., kuvalja, m., & verma, m. (2012). the importance of play: a report on the value of children’s play with a series of policy recommendations accessed at https://www.csap.cam.ac.uk/media/uploads/files/1/david-whitebread--importance-of-play-report.pdf https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-meeting-with-others-safely-social-distancing/coronavirus-covid-19-meeting-with-others-safely-social-distancing https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-meeting-with-others-safely-social-distancing/coronavirus-covid-19-meeting-with-others-safely-social-distancing https://gov.wales/coronavirus-social-distancing-guidance https://gov.wales/protecting-staff-and-children-coronavirus-guidance-open-access-playwork-providers https://gov.wales/sites/default/files/publications/2019-07/wales-a-play-friendly-country.pdf https://gov.wales/sites/default/files/publications/2020-04/guidance-hubs-schools-coronavirus-provision.pdf https://www.csap.cam.ac.uk/media/uploads/files/1/david-whitebread---importance-of-play-report.pdf https://www.csap.cam.ac.uk/media/uploads/files/1/david-whitebread---importance-of-play-report.pdf journal of childhood, education & society volume 3, issue 1, 2022, 74-85 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.202231160 research article ©2022 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. preschool staff perceptions of leader capabilities during covid-19 early stage in iceland kristín dýrfjörð1, anna elísa hreiðarsdóttir2 abstract: in mid-march 2020, leaders of icelandic preschools faced a new reality: the task of leading and keeping their preschools open during the early stages of a pandemic. suddenly, everything changed, and dystopia became the “new normal”. the proximal closeness between unrelated people was forbidden, and everyone was supposed to practice social distancing. this article discusses the attitudes of preschool staff towards their leaders (principals) during that time. how successfully did the leaders handle the first weeks of the pandemic? data were drawn from an online survey conducted between 8 and 18 april 2020 during a time when feelings were running high. the results showed that staff felt that most of the leaders supported and did their best to take care of their staff members. leaders established new ways to communicate and get information from both staff and parents. they showed assertiveness and used their former leadership training and skills. however, staff perceived leaders had problems setting boundaries, and their insecurity affected their leadership skills. the unique contribution of this study is that its data were collected during the early stages, which may be helpful for later stages or other crises affecting preschools in the future. article history received: 17 december 2021 accepted: 15 february 2022 keywords covid-19; leadership; preschool staff; principal introduction the icelandic preschools, unlike in many other countries, did not close during the earliest stages of the pandemic (visnjic-jevtic et al., 2021), but were kept open for all children, with reduced hours for most students. unexpectedly, preschools’ leaders (principals) and their co-workers were defined as “frontline workers.” the leaders were hit with unprecedented situations and decisions to be made, all while simultaneously working to do their best to keep everyone safe and uphold the quality of education. the pandemic changed society’s worldview and had a far-reaching impact on communities’ infrastructures. iceland went into its soft lockdown with a public ban on social gatherings on march 16, 2020. this decision immediately affected the nation’s schools. in preschools, criteria were set calling for groups to be small and always kept separate from other groups (department of civil protection and emergency management, 2020). leaders were given the weekend of 14–15 march to reorganise their facilities based on the new criteria and to ensure that the new requirements for cleaning and daily disinfection were met (pálsson, 2020). the organisation of preschools and the working conditions of their staff underwent unprecedented changes. preschool leaders were in a situation that no one could have foreseen or been fully prepared for. they were faced with running schools where they had to regularly review both the daily logistics and the pedagogical work with all children. both leaders and their staff were under a lot of pressure, and the risk of becoming sick or carrying the infection home was real for most. on march 23, 2020 the ban on social gatherings was tightened, and again schools had to adapt to new and even more demanding circumstances (government of iceland, 2020a). on april 14, 2020, the government of iceland issued a statement declaring that all children could be in schools at the same time, beginning on may 4, 2020. on may 19, 2020, schools were exempted from the two-metre distance rule _____________ 1 university of akureyri, faculty of education, school of humanities and social sciences, akureyri, iceland, e-mail: dyr@unak.is, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1559-713x 2 university of akureyri, faculty of education, school of humanities and social sciences, akureyri, iceland, e-mail: annaelisa@unak.is, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-10941010 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202231160 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:dyr@unak.is https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1559-713x mailto:annaelisa@unak.is https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1094-1010 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1094-1010 preschool staff perceptions of leader capabilities… 75 between people (government of iceland, 2020b). this article discusses the attitudes of preschool staff towards their leaders. according to their staff, how did leaders manage to navigate between leading and administrating in the weeks after the pandemic hit iceland? this article is based on data drawn from a larger study conducted between april 8–18, 2020, a time when feelings were running high. the research aimed to examine preschool staffs experiences during the early stages of covid-19, with special attention paid to their working conditions and well-being. the special contribution of this study is that the data were collected during the early stages of the pandemics and should therefore give a fair representation of the situation in preschools across the country during that time. theoretical framework according to farazmand (2007), there are various kinds of crises, such as natural disasters or ones arising from social problems, human-made or otherwise. what they have in common is that “they disrupt the routine events of life and governance, disturb established systems, and cause severe anxieties; they produce dynamics that no one can predict and control” (p. 159). by their nature, they are rarely expected. baran and adelman (2010) note that with the growing need for crisis plans, school leaders have increasingly responded to and prepared schools for unexpected events. jones and paterson (1992) point out that it is essential for schools to be well prepared, to have a working response team that has received training and education, and to have response plans available and memos for staff and parents. according to drake (2018): these pre-existing written crisis management plans were universally praised […] as invaluable resources—providing detailed action plans that included specific steps to be taken by particular individuals; when faced with certain conditions during defined types of crisis events. (p. 180). jenkins and goodman (2015) argued that no matter how good a plan is, it is never possible to prepare a school for all the factors that may arise. schoenberg (2005) points out that, during a crisis, management and leadership skills are a combination of these strengths and are more important than response plans once in action. this view goes hand in hand with johnson’s (2018) writings. he defined crisis leadership as: the ability of leaders not to show different leadership competencies but rather to display the same competencies under the extreme pressure that characterise a crisis namely uncertainty, high levels of emotion, the need for swift decision-making and at times intolerable external scrutiny. it is this that will define success or failure. (p. 15). from johnson’s (2018) perspective, leaders must be prepared from the beginning with leadership skills that they can apply both in good times and in times of crisis. leadership skills, by this definition, are tools all school leaders need in their armoury. it is not enough to have a plan to fall back on. instead, the leader herself needs to be the plan on which she falls back. johnson (2018) also notes that leaders always need to show exemplary behaviour and establish a positive organisational culture because their followers will look to what they are used to, not what they are doing amid the crisis. leaders do not act alone during times of crisis; they need to be part of a team yet also able to take control if needed. johnson (2018) claims that, during a crisis, most organisations need leaders who can apply situational leadership. part of such leadership during a pandemic could be efforts “to get communities on board to help themselves wherever possible and make people face things that have to be faced, like social distancing and quarantine“ (grint, 2020, p. 2). mutch (2020) pointed out that even though schools have made crisis management plans, they often have not been updated or do not fit the crisis in question. she adds that school leaders report that they are not well prepared for crisis management, so they end up letting their instincts rule; while this may turn out to be useful, there are also examples of the contrary. mutch (2020) reminds us that crises have different stages or processes. in the beginning, there is a lot of solidarity, and everyone is willing to help and make things work. still, the manager must be visible and able to make straightforward decisions. mutch (2020) calls this the “honeymoon period”. kristín dýrfjörð & anna elísa hreiðarsdóttir 76 at the next level, leaders must be able to show empathy, have a broad view of the crisis, and make plans for the next steps. at the same time, leaders must be on their toes and skillfully share power and tasks. information sent out needs to be tailor-made. for example, parents and staff need different sets of information. when crises are long-lasting, there is a period of fatigue and a risk that it will erode people’s solidarity. during this time, the leader must pay special attention to the well-being of staff, but not least to her well-being, which leaders often forget. finally, mutch (2020) reminds us: along the recovery journey, the setbacks and secondary stressors wear people down. the goodwill that was seen in the honeymoon period starts to disintegrate. bureaucracy becomes tedious and interferes with our ideas of a swift and smooth recovery. tension starts to build as people feel that some individuals or groups are being favoured over others. the social ties that existed before the event have weakened. (p. 6). drake’s (2018) study found that leaders who successfully dealt with crises were characterised by sharing power, and the most effective way to do this is through communication, competence, credibility, decision-making and planning. hall (2020) says that employees assess the competence of managers based on five criteria: that the staff know they care, showing social responsibility, aiming for big goals, showing sympathy, and seeing the opportunities in the situation. yet another study of the same nature identified six themes leaders must address: dealing with the event, planning or preparing, conducting collaboration and communication, whether or team meetings are held and how meetings are conducted (nelson, 2019). boin et al. (2013) determined that leader’s performances in times of crisis are often assessed based on weak criteria. effective crisis management can save lives, protect infrastructure and restore trust in public institutions. they further point out that crisis management is, by definition, about planning, managing and implementing decisions, and the person in charge can be both a leader and a manager, a duality that is well known to school leaders. these are issues that have been under pressure testing during the covid-19 pandemic in many parts of the world, as has been shown in some leadership research done through the early stages of covid-19 (beauchamp et al., 2021; bush, 2021; logan et al., 2021; longmuir, 2021; thornton, 2021). logan et al. (2021) argues that leadership approaches that aim to support educator well-being are needed to protect the early childhood sector in the case of crises. longmuir (2021) declared that the work of leaders was complex and that leaders prioritised compassionate, humanising goals as a grounding for all other actions. they mobilised communication practices that were reassuring, as well as open and honest. thornton (2021) points out the importance of effective leadership practices that leaders may wish to reflect on during the pandemic, which are relevant during everyday leadership and can strengthen trusting relationships within schools, increasing their ability to recover. when summarising the results of the above research, it becomes clear that the human factor within leadership is essential—that is, cooperation, communication and information and responsibility, competence, and organisation. method this research builds on an online questionnaire aimed at icelandic preschool staff working with children. we used a mixed method in which both quantitative and qualitative data are used (robson, 2002). the quantitative data were used as a backdrop for this study. the qualitative data consisted of open-ended answers to two questions. an analytical grid (see table 2) was created with categories based on the theoretical data that are summarised and presented in table 1. the open-ended answers were coded using codes related to the theoretical background of the study by identifying patterns, themes, and similarities (miles & huberman, 1994). the questionnaire concerned staff well-being during the pandemic, how they felt, their views on keeping the preschools open, the daily schedule, and the information they received from different authorities. the questions were either open-ended, semi-open-ended, or closed-ended. we asked two open-ended questions to address the aim of this study, which explored preschools’ staff members viewed the performance of their leaders during the early stages of the covid-19 pandemic. the two questions are: “can you give an example of what you think your leader did well in your preschool during the early stages preschool staff perceptions of leader capabilities… 77 of covid-19?” and “can you give an example of what your leader could have done better?” selected members of the preschool community reviewed and commented on the questionnaire as part of the study’s preparation phase, as they were considered to have inside knowledge about the mindset of preschool staff. the research was funded by a grant from the university of akureyri research fund, and went through the official procedures of the research fund. research question this study focused on the attitudes and experiences of preschool staff regarding their leaders’ efforts during the ban on social gatherings during the early stages of the pandemic. we aimed to answer the following research question: according to their staff, how did preschool leaders perform their work during the early stages of covid-19 in iceland? data collection the survey was conducted using survey monkey. it was posted in two private icelandic-speaking facebook groups: play and preschool and preschool teachers chat. according to a public survey, around 92% of icelanders over 18 years of age have facebook accounts (market and media research, 2019). the play and preschool had over 5300 members and is accessible to all preschool personnel with facebook accounts. preschool teachers chat had almost 1800 members and granted membership to those with a teaching licence or in the process of obtaining one. a master of education is required to obtain a teaching licence in iceland. all responses were anonymous and untraceable. information concerning the intention of how the data will be used was part of an introduction to the questionnaire. as a limitation, the use of social media to collect answers can be problematic (tjøndal & fylling, 2021), as participants are selfselective, and the answers may mirror those interested in the topic. in all, 658 responses were received; the total number of preschool staff directly educating iceland’s children in 2018 was 5,698 (statistics iceland, 2020). the respondents had different backgrounds; the majority had a teaching licence (61% of respondents, which accounted for up to 25% of the population of preschool teachers in iceland 2018 (statistics iceland, 2020)). others (14.6%) had other university education, 6.9% were educated assistants, and 17.5% were unskilled staff. by age, 16% of the responses came from people under 30 years, 52.3% from people aged 31–50 years, and 31.7% from respondents over 51 years. overall, 123 respondents identified themselves as leaders/principals of preschools and, therefore, did not answer the questions about the leader’s performance. the questionnaire opened on wednesday, 8 april 2020, in the early stage of the first wave of the pandemic in iceland. a reminder was sent the following week, and the introductory text was changed to appeal more directly to those without a formal teacher’s education based on a lower response rate from that group. this resulted in more than 100 new responses. however, the ratio of those with a teaching licence to those without remained unchanged. data analysis in total, 464 people responded to the question that is the backbone of this study: can you give an example of what you think your leader did well in your preschool during the early stages of covid-19?, and 355 people answered the question, can you give an example of what your leader could have done better? after cleaning the data, 453 answers (7200 words) remained as responses to the former question, and 233 answers (4132 words) were retrieved as responses to the second question, all of which were subjected to the coding process. the responses were transferred to excel, read, and reread to identify recurring themes, followed by applying selective coding based on themes and theories. a theoretical frame based on the relevant literature was established during the analytical process to define and categorise the relevant and different aspects of crisis leadership skills (see categories in table 1. preferable leadership skills during a crisis). kristín dýrfjörð & anna elísa hreiðarsdóttir 78 table 1. preferable leadership skills during a crisis category task – analytical concepts literature prioritising reactions showing leadership skills and being able to prioritise action and deeds, showing grit boin et al. (2013); drake (2018); johnson (2018) making critical decisions being able to make difficult decisions and follow them through drake (2018); mutch (2020) trust and solidarity showing care; ‘we are all in the same boat’; empowerment drake (2018); hall (2020); mutch (2020) coordinating information being able to select and give appropriate information when needed boin et al. (2013); mutch (2020) communication being able to communicate and use different channels of communication drake (2018); mutch (2020); nelson (2019) assertive leaders having the self-confidence to stand by their own decisions and follow them through johnson (2018); mutch (2020) results based on the frame, preferable leadership skills during a crisis (see table 1), we created an analytical grid which also was partly built on boin et al. (2013) writings on leadership during a crisis and adapted to this research (see table 2). the qualitative data were projected into the grid to gain a deeper understanding of the emerging trends in the data. the answers were read and reread to identify patterns and similarities. special attention was given to quotes concerning how the leaders fared in the early stages of the pandemic—that is, the constraints they encountered and their triumphs. the grid was used to analyse the data, selecting, and marking quotes that were deemed relevant. at this stage, short codes and keywords were selected and placed on the grid. the grid was a helpful tool for forming and deciding how to present the results. table 2. analytical grid showing preferable leadership skills during a crisis and selected quotes from the data analytical themes triumphs constraints prioritising reactions showing leadership skills and being able to prioritise action and deeds, showing grit boldness and determination. good organisation, good flow of information, attentive to the staff. there was lack of cooperation. management showed powerlessness. making critical decisions being able to make difficult decisions and follow them through do well, do your best, difficult, miserable conditions. the administration could do better, show more support and understanding. instructions from public authorities did not fit the reality of the preschool. trust and solidarity showing care: ‘we are all in the same boat’ empowerment listens to staff, creates solidarity positivity, praise, understanding, support informed decisions, consideration, trust the preschool management powerlessness inform everyone and be careful that information is aimed at all groups of staff the message needed to be clearer and there was a lack of determination coordinating information being able to select and give appropriate information when needed coordinated decisions and actions consultation, flexibility diverse technologies used for communication utilising a variety of digital technologies would have been preferrable communication being able to communicate and use different channels of communication provides information, is good at planning quality communication there was chaos in providing information assertive leadership having the self-confidence to stand by their own decisions and follow them through shows flexibility makes decisions strength and balance takes a stand with the staff a step ahead of the municipalities shows determination lack of making just decisions be better at addressing the issues that came up stand firm the frame in table 1 and the grid shown in table 2 were used as tools to narrate a story of how leaders in icelandic preschools fared through the earliest stage of the pandemic, according to their copreschool staff perceptions of leader capabilities… 79 workers. it helped to identify what stood out as exemplary leadership behaviour, what problems the leaders encountered, and what lessons can be drawn from the experience. some of the data could fit into more than one category; therefore, we decided where the data fit best to tell a story. prioritizing reactions the ability to plan and be prepared for different scenarios and to prioritise tasks is always essential for leaders, and even more so during times of crisis. how did the leaders fare? the data showed that most of the leaders acted swiftly and split children and the staff into groups. they made rules about how parents and staff should conduct themselves during arrivals and departures from school, how the schools were sanitised and cleaned, directed teachers to remove some of the learning materials and so on. the staff realised that leadership in these circumstances is different from day-to-day management and requires leaders to make decisions and directives without, for example, consulting others. the leaders needed to show self-confidence and be visible—they had to be the ones who acted. one respondent said, “[i] think they have organised this well! this is good leadership in these circumstances, but not necessarily good leadership when the pedagogy is in focus.” the answers repeatedly stated the importance of careful planning, and 134 specifically mentioned organisation and the importance of reacting quickly in new and unexpended situations. many said that their leaders were solution-oriented and able to send a clear message to their staff. as one respondent said: they have informed us about the situation and acknowledged when they did not have information on some issues. they have tried to support the activities of all classrooms and strive to solve the problems that have arisen. the preschool leader is a real genius in giving words of encouragement to all members of the staff. the respondents were thankful for many things. one said this about prioritising children’s wellbeing at her school: we put the children’s well-being first. at first, there were few children of frontline workers, so no decision was made regarding them. they mixed with both groups [groups a and b, which showed up every other day]. we are a small kindergarten with four classrooms, and we divided the children into two groups and took turns working at home. after easter, some had the idea of putting all the priority children [of frontline parents] in one classroom together. but we decided that the mental wellbeing of the children was more important than the risk of infection. and putting children in a separate classroom away from their friends would not improve the children’s mental wellbeing. i am immensely grateful to the leaders who decided this and took care of the mental health of both staff and children at the same time. the results indicated that employees want school leaders to be firm, bold and determined, “take matters into their own hands immediately” and be “more persistent in decision-making”. even though most leaders appeared capable of this, there was also criticism, especially of local governments, that did not seem to understand both some procedures and feelings among the staff, such as how groups were divided and their fears of infection. some suggested that leaders should be persistent with the local governments, for example, “they could have stood firm against their superiors.” another pointed out, “the municipality could have consulted the schools, have a meeting with the leaders and jointly decide what should be done“. another said: [the leaders ought to] stand better with us and not sit and stand as the school board wanted us to do. most people who do not work within preschools do not know what it is like to be on the floor, let alone at times like this. so [they] should listen better. here, the schools’ unique position within the community crystallises; the leaders represent the local government and are under their authority. final decisions are not always in their hands, and the staff may become tense when what they think is best clashes with the government’s will or decisions. making critical decisions having decision-making power and making the right decisions are not the same. to make decisions in times of crisis, leaders need up-to-date information that is not always available. in these cases, leaders must be able to fall back on their training and decision-making procedures. according to our data, the kristín dýrfjörð & anna elísa hreiðarsdóttir 80 national emergency task force lacked sufficient working knowledge of preschools’ logistics, which likely made things difficult for the leaders in the preschool. one respondent stated that official directives from the task force were not based on first-hand knowledge of preschools: “[school leaders have] done well in following the instructions from the epidemiologist, which i found completely out of place“. another said: [the leader] tried to find a way out of all the vast amount of information received from the task force, [but] that information was often difficult to read and does not apply to all preschools. everyone is under the same that despite working in different types of buildings and accessibility. informed decisions are one of the basics of understanding and being able to cope with a situation. another respondent wrote: i just generally feel that in my school, everything has been done well. if they [leaders] have been asked questions that they cannot answer 100%, they have sought information to answer them. that way, i have 100% confidence in what we are doing and am therefore not nervous or stressed about this situation in general. these results highlight the aspects of school leadership that worked well early on. as one participant wrote, “principals have done well, done their best in difficult circumstances.” however, it seems that other aspects of the government did not always perform well. here is an example of such an experience: “[the leader has] tried to do her best in miserable conditions with little support from the municipality. the education council and the preschool leaders’ supervisors have sent unclear messages to parents.” another said, “[school leaders have] stood their ground in organising the schools, and they had to stand their ground against their superiors.” in a third example, the respondent said the municipalities could do better and act more swiftly, stating “… [school leaders] take action and plan everything despite the delay by the municipality.” trust and solidarity building a sense of collective understanding and shared values is vital for every school, and doubly so during a crisis. keeping people’s spirits up and helping them make sense of what is happening can be the difference between success and failure in a crisis. our results indicate that positivity, trust, encouragement, praise, understanding and support matter most to preschool staff. concepts connected to positivity and encouragement appeared more than 70 times in the leadership descriptions. one person described it this way: „my leader has been positive, encouraging and supportive of the staff through this situation. she/they deserve a lot of praise in my opinion.” another said, “[school leaders] were very active in providing information. they show us a lot of understanding. we were often praised for a job well done and regularly reminded of how important we are.” another reported, “good flow of information, [she] is positive and solution-oriented and tries to make the best of this situation, a lot of praise and encouragement.” thoughtfulness and understanding were words strongly connected to how the staff felt about the leaders; here is one example: [my school leaders are] thoughtful and calm, doing their best to provide important information without creating unnecessary stress, with too many stressful announcements. encourage staff to be positive, praise them and build good morale. it is important that leaders manage to create solidarity in times of crisis, and this is evident in the results. school leaders’ ability to develop shared values and to reach out to the children's families was important: “solidarity and that everyone has a voice. we call and take care of our families.” some respondents mentioned that the leaders cared for their staff’s mental health. “[they] encourage and support those who are depressed. […] we had a happy hour on friday through zoom.” encouragement and praise also went a long way towards strengthening the work ethic and creating calmness in the group. let us look at examples: one said, “she has done her best to keep everyone calm and always tell us how best to carry on and does a very good job at it“. “[she] provides all information and keeps the staff as calm as possible given the circumstances. it is crucial for the staff that leaders take care of their team and that everyone feels listened to. understanding the leader’s position was also noted among preschool staff perceptions of leader capabilities… 81 the answers: “everyone is doing their best and trying to walk in strange shoes along a footpath that no one has gone before“. being able to build and maintain morale, culture and trust is essential. trust is an issue important for staff, and they highlighted positive aspects of school leadership during the earliest stage of the pandemic. one said, “trusting staff in challenging situations and [being] ready to answer questions that arise about the job.” another put it this way: “good information flow, good cooperation, all employees are trusted. the leaders understand and take as much care as is possible of everybody’s well-being during these times.” being positive and not losing the ability to joke and have good times is also important: “solidarity, good information, respect for the feelings and wellbeing of employees. positivity, joy and general jollity to maintain morale.” not all leaders were up to the job, according to their co-workers. on a more critical note, some pointed out that it is necessary to consider giving necessary information to people in part-time jobs and not to forget that younger people may need more care from the leader than older, more experienced staff. one respondent said: it could have been both a more explicit message and confirmed. too much chaos, unclear decisions, and decisions changed from one hour to the next. messages on both facebook (an unprofessional communication platform for decisions) and via e-mail were inconsistent with each other. a reminder that within the preschool, there may be inequity between members of the staff that leaders must consider. coordinating information preschools are complex organisations that require leaders to coordinate and organise people, time, different departments or classrooms and connections with other institutions and local governments. during the soft lockdown, most preschools were divided into quarantine compartments, which people were not supposed to breach. within each compartment, staff and parents were also supposed to maintain a social distance. this layout required coordination. in some of the preschools on any given day, some of the employees worked from home. examples of such coordination can be seen here: they [the preschool leaders] come into the classrooms every day and hear from all the staff, saying “good morning“, which is very positive for the morale. then, employees get all the information they need through the staff’s facebook group. if you need to talk to or inform someone, they will do so. it is also good that they encourage staff to use the days they are at home to prepare and read academic material, which is then useful in the job. they have also been diligent in encouraging people to continue and thanking us for a job well done, making it clear to everyone that it is vital to come to work and that it is well valued. it was stated that the staff might also appreciate being involved in decisions when possible, and many mentioned that an understanding leader is important in times like these. ”flexibility“ and “listening to staff“ came up several times when discussing organisations. at the beginning of the pandemic, a considerable amount of information was sent to schools from various public institutions, and it was the leader's role to sift out crucial information at any given time. this was a task some leaders were not up to, as reflected in the words of one of the respondents: “too much information flow has increased the anxiety of some. it’s like walking on a tightrope“. it was important for the staff to make the flow of information about their work and its organisation manageable, and the leaders needed to be accessible, despite the pandemic. one respondent said: we have rapport between groups, so everyone knows how the days are. the leader is in one group, so she only meets half of the staff, but she calls the people in the other group to be able to chat about their well-being and other things. when respondents answered what could be done better, various things were mentioned. most commented that the flow of information could have been better. as one said, “information can always be improved, but it can be difficult if you [as a leader] don’t always have the best information yourself“, as this coworker understood was often the case. others said, “more information is needed“ or “information flow could be better“. at the same time, some felt it important for staff to receive different information from the parents: “the information flow to parents and staff should not be the same“. or they wanted kristín dýrfjörð & anna elísa hreiðarsdóttir 82 information before parents received it. they felt that teachers needed to be particularly well informed and instructions needed to be clear: [the leaders needed to] explain better what the staff need to do to ensure better hygiene. there were many examples of inconsistencies between classrooms. some people used the same toys for two days and then stored them for two days. others replaced their toys each passing day. still, others disinfected all toys and then stored them for two days. as may be evident, leaders must coordinate the information they give; not doing so can cause insecurity among members of the staff that in the long run can hurt the running of the preschool. communication breakdowns in the chain of communication during a crisis can be a real threat. it is critical to keep communication paths open and to establish and support communication. it was clear that some leaders had to jump unexpectedly into the 21st century, technology-wise, but luckily others were already there. many leaders use a variety of digital technologies to disseminate information or hold meetings. they used technology to strengthen connections with staff or between classrooms and to enhance the school’s culture. participants described different uses of phones and e-mail, as well as teleconferencing software such as zoom, skype, teams and messenger. providing everyone with information via snapchat and private facebook groups was also mentioned. in some cases, however, the participants reported that leaders could use technology in better ways. staff sometimes needed opportunities to meet colleagues who worked in other quarantine units. then, technology and various methods came in handy: “video conferences daily for all staff who want to “meet”, and there you can discuss issues and see co-workers we are not allowed to see during the day“. another said: “[there are] a lot of phone calls, a lot of talking about our wellbeing, good information about everything, listening to our voices, information about anxiety and insecurity sent to staff, beautiful messages and encouragement on social media“. very few criticised the use or methods of communication. most were both thankful and happy for the improvised and creative ways of communicating. assertive leaders and unruly parents being an assertive leader in a time of crisis is undoubtedly important. some leaders had problems showing this side, and that irritated some staff members who thought assertiveness was needed in dealing with some parents and staff who had problems following rules. most parents followed the rules, but there were exceptions. some parents had problems following directions, and the staff felt that leaders should take such matters seriously. some were concerned about the risk of infection. here is an example from one respondent: specific rules were established in the beginning, but they were not enforced and possibly not well enough introduced to staff or parents. many rules, such as, that parents should not come into the classrooms, were only words on a paper that no one followed. it would have been important for parents to respect these rules, especially the 2 m rule. great disrespect on the part of parents not respecting her with, staff, as preschools’ staff suddenly had to endure being close to many parents daily who do not respect the rules and are therefore at multiple risks of infection. lastly, some wanted their leader to address parents who showed up with sick children: “[they] could have taken much better care of children who came again and again with phlegm, cough and sneezing“. those examples shows the difficulty some leaders faced and their powerlessness against the situation they found themselves in. discussion the point of departure was, “how did icelandic preschool leaders fare in their jobs during the early stages of the pandemic?“ according to their co-workers, they seemed to have carried out their jobs professionally and mostly showed good leadership. they stood their ground, gave out information, showed solidarity and care, praised co-workers, and opened new communication lines and not at least they preschool staff perceptions of leader capabilities… 83 showed fairness. however, some struggled to set boundaries or were unable to organise or prioritise information, for example. they showed similar character as school leaders in many other countries (beauchamp et al., 2021; bush, 2021; logan et al., 2021; longmuir, 2021; thornton, 2021). many leaders showed skills that seemed to be an existing part of their professional role; they did not seem to change their leadership behaviours, but instead showed their ability to work under pressure and deliver in a new context, which is a sign of good leadership and professionality according to johnson (2018). some leaders skilfully empowered their staff, enlisting them to organise logistics and pedagogy. they were able to listen and show encouragement; they became the rock in a turbulent sea for many, an accomplishment during a pandemic when the leaders had to take care of the well-being of children, parents, the staff and, hopefully, themselves. overall, the staff reported that their leaders were considerate and showed solidarity. they were able to show empathy and generally look after their co-workers according to hall’s (2020) definition of good leadership, which is based on the importance of showing concern and empathy to staff. when the results are compared to the analytical table (table 1), it is apparent that staff members value leaders with the following competencies: being able to carry out critical decisions (johnson, 2018; mutch, 2020), being assertive and handling problems promptly (drake, 2018; mutch, 2020), and the ability to take good care of their staff and establish trust and solidarity (drake 2018; hall, 2020; mutch, 2020). with that in mind, supporting leaders who struggled is crucial, not only for their welfare but also for the interest of those who work with them and children and families at their preschool. it must be a priority for the municipalities that run the preschools to identify and support leaders that are struggling and supporting them in any way possible. it must however be pointed out that most of the municipality’s organisations are under pandemic pressure and identifying those that are struggling not an easy job. as stated above, this research was carried out in the early stages of the pandemic when the staff members were still in what mutch (2020) calls the honeymoon period, where unity and friendship run high; however, it was clear and worrisome that some people were becoming exhausted. the question remains: does the school system, including preschools, have the grit to follow through, or are school communities in danger of becoming fragmented, especially as younger children are getting the disease and becoming carriers of the virus. the next stages of the pandemic will be trying times that reveal leaders’ resolve, and some may crumble under pressure if nothing is done. it will ultimately be costly for society if preschool leaders are burnt out or leave their positions because of the unbearable pressure, fatigue and stress associated with it. to prevent this, preschool leaders must practise self-care and learn to prioritise their well-being. however, it is also society’s responsibility to offer necessary affordances to leaders, enabling them to practice essential self-care and support them to support others. this study did not ask the leaders themselves about their experiences during this difficult time. however, it is a worthy next step to get their views on how covid-19 has affected their work, well-being and their takeaways from the situation. it is also worth asking what kind of support the leaders received from their municipalities during the pandemic. at the time of this study most people hoped that the pandemic would soon be over. however, as history has shown, more was to come, and the long-term effect on the icelandic preschool system is something that is for later studies. declarations editorial acknowledgement: the editorial process of this article was carried out by dr. mehmet toran. acknowledgements: we acknowledge our participants’ engagement in our research study and appreciate their time. authors’ contributions: the contributions of authors are seamlessly integrated and equal; kristín dýrfjörð and anna elísa hreiðarsdóttir work more and less together during the writing process. competing interests: the authors declare that they have no competing interests. funding: this research was funded by a grant from the university of akureyri, iceland research fund, r-2102.the research fund is not otherwise 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(2021). policies and practices of early childhood education and care during the covid-19 pandemic: perspectives from five countries. journal of childhood, education & society, 2(2), 200–216. https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202122114. https://px.hagstofa.is/pxen/pxweb/en/samfelag/samfelag__skolamal__1_leikskolastig__1_lsstarfsfolk/sko01301.px/?rxid=67762319-517b-4fdc-9622-eab941318ba2&fbclid=iwar01hb8pev158543oo-vxbuebmw5w0jveifsjpmitd5nhpdnzrp_2lq3taw https://px.hagstofa.is/pxen/pxweb/en/samfelag/samfelag__skolamal__1_leikskolastig__1_lsstarfsfolk/sko01301.px/?rxid=67762319-517b-4fdc-9622-eab941318ba2&fbclid=iwar01hb8pev158543oo-vxbuebmw5w0jveifsjpmitd5nhpdnzrp_2lq3taw https://doi.org/10.1177/1741143220985110 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202122114 preschool staff perceptions of leader capabilities during covid-19 early stage in iceland journal of childhood, education & society volume 3, issue 2, 2022, 98-111 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.202232178 research article ©2022 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. diversity of assessment discourses in swedish and norwegian early mathematics education maria walla1 abstract: in many countries, including those in the nordic region, there has been a growing trend towards measuring students’ knowledge and understanding, a trend that is evident even in early education. this article presents a discourse analysis of mathematics assessment materials intended for six-year-olds in two neighbouring countries, sweden and norway. thus, the article presents an example of early assessment in two neighboring countries with similar culture and education system. the aim is to investigate the similarities and differences between the various meanings ascribed to their assessment materials, and to discuss how these assessment materials may both influence and be influenced by early mathematics education in these two countries. the results show a diversity of discourses – both between and within the assessment materials – indicating different views on students’ learning of mathematics, on when to assess, on what knowledge to assess, and on how and why to assess. thus, even though sweden and norway have similar cultures and education systems, there is no consensus when it comes to when, what and how to assess the mathematical knowledge of six-year-olds. article history received: 04 march 2022 accepted: 06 may 2022 keywords early childhood education; early mathematics; assessment; discourse analysis introduction the assessment and comparison of students’ knowledge have become common practices internationally, even when it comes to the education of young students (international association for the evaluation of educational achievement, 2019; organisation for economic co-operation and development [oecd], 2019). a possible reason for this is that international studies show a connection between young students’ mathematical knowledge and their later academic achievements (aubrey et al., 2006; aunio & niemivirta, 2010; duncan et al., 2007; sterner et al., 2019). meanwhile, other studies show that early focus on students’ individual shortcomings may affect their self-image negatively, which in turn can impede learning (reay & wiliam, 1999; räty et al., 2004). in this article, national assessment materials from sweden and norway – countries with similar cultures and education systems – serve as the starting point. according to lundahl (2017) the content of assessment material indicates the central content that teachers need to teach, and thus influences teaching form and content (burkhardt & schoenfeld, 2018; volante, 2004; wrigley, 2010). in sweden and norway, school is compulsory from age 6 to 16, and equal opportunity and inclusive schooling are important values (klette, 2018). within the context of the nordic classroom, students are encouraged to be heard and to formulate arguments, and both sweden and norway aspire to differentiated and individualised teaching methods (klette, 2018). in sweden, compulsory schooling starts with preschool class, which is a school form in its own right (national agency for education, 2018): there, creative work and play are central, and the aim is to facilitate the transition between preschool and primary school (ackesjö & persson, 2019). in norway, the so-called six-year reform (seksårsreformen) was implemented in 1997, which increased compulsory school from nine to ten years with students starting school at the age of six (ministry of church affairs education and research, 1996). since the reform, debate has been ongoing about the theoretical approaches used to conceptualise the teaching of six-year-olds (ertesvåg & ridar, 2018; johansson, 2010). one of the key issues in that debate is the connection and cooperation between kindergarten and _____________ 1 dalarna university, educational work, school of teacher education, falun, sweden, e-mail: wmr@du.se, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5842-5605 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202232178 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:wmr@du.se https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5842-5605 diversity of assessment discourses in swedish and norweigan early mathematics... 99 compulsory school (ministry of education and research, 2008). a similar reform is planned for sweden, which will also increase the number of years of schooling from nine to ten (ministry of education and research, 2020). currently, a culture of assessment is apparent in both sweden and norway, each having material to assess the mathematical knowledge of six-year-olds (national agency for education, 2019; norwegian directorate for education and training, 2017). the expressed purpose of these assessments is similar in both countries, to offer equal and inclusive schooling for all students (klette, 2018). thus, one could expect that these neighbouring countries, with their similar cultures and education systems, would view the context of assessment of six-year-olds similarly; however, their approach to assessment differs. while the swedish assessment material consists of four activities designed to be done orally in groups, the norwegian assessment material consists of text-based tasks that students complete individually in writing within a set time. this article presents an example of early assessment in sweden and norway – countries with similar cultures and education systems – its aim being to investigate the similarities and differences between the various meanings ascribed to their assessment materials, and to discuss the possible impact of these on early mathematics education. this study addresses the following question: • what meanings relating to mathematics education can be ascribed to the assessment materials of sweden and norway? literature review according to björklund boistrup (2017), the system of schooling through assessment takes on a role as gatekeeper, where students are selected based on their strengths, which contradicts what official documents state should be the case. in this context, björklund boistrup (2017) uses the word assessment in a broad sense that includes both feedback in classroom interactions and feedback communicated by way of testing. at the same time as assessments in mathematics can have an impact on students’ academic achievement, volante (2004) emphasises how assessment design can also influence teaching content. there is a risk that the expectations of politicians, school staff, administrators and the general public can affect how teachers prepare their students for tests (volante, 2004). teaching with excessive focus on items similar to test items is called teaching to the test (volante, 2004). according to burkhardt and schoenfeld (2018), “teachers will teach to the test”, and they connect this with “what you test is what you get”, which according to them was summed up in research long ago (p. 577). burkhardt and schoenfeld (2018) discuss the question of how to create a “test worth teaching to”. according to them, this is a question of combining so-called “short tasks” and “performance tasks” in a well-balanced way. while “short tasks” are described as “focused on one fragment of mathematics that takes only a minute or two”, “performance tasks” are described as “non-routine tasks involving substantial chains of reasoning” (p. 577). burkhardt and schoenfeld (2018) also highlight the importance of including tasks that have multiple solution paths to support classroom practices that engage students in mathematical problem-solving activities. palm et al. (2011) argue that it is much easier for teachers to assess students’ calculation skills than it is to assess students’ problem-solving skills. they compared what mathematical reasoning is required to solve test tasks in different types of tests, national tests and teachermade tests. in their study, only a small proportion of the tasks in the teacher-made tests required students to use mathematical reasoning. according to burkhardt and schoenfeld (2018), the doing and using of mathematics is not about a checklist of fragments to be mastered; rather, it “involves an integrated use of knowledge and practices” (p. 577). to provide opportunities for mathematical thinking, students need to be exposed to multiple approaches (burkhardt & schoenfeld, 2018). according to nortvedt and buchholtz (2018), the debate on how to design an assessment is about not only “what we assess, but also how we assess and what conclusions we can draw from our assessments” (p. 556). related to this, newton (2007) emphasises the importance of clarity in relation to what conclusions we can draw by thinking and talking about “assessment purpose”. illustrating a wide maria walla 100 range of uses, newton (2007) points out the importance of not locating multiple discrete purposes within a small number of misleading categories. when an assessment has multiple purposes, the result may be that these conflict with each other. according to newton, it is therefore important to define the primary purpose or an explicit prioritisation of purposes so as to avoid this. nortvedt and buchholtz (2018) argue that one sole summative assessment cannot fully reflect students' level of learning or development of mathematical thinking (nortvedt & buchholtz, 2018). a better test result does not necessarily mean that students have learnt more. according to volante (2004), if teachers focus their teaching on the content to be tested, the opposite may be the case. leder and forgasz (2018) contend that all assessment should consider different and multiple sources of individual student performance, including classroom-based performance, in order to contribute to fair assessment. they emphasise that the use of multiple tests with different types of tasks and formats might be more equitable. early assessment a common argument for the assessment of young students’ knowledge is the connection between their mathematical knowledge at a young age and their future academic performance in both mathematics and other subjects (aubrey et al., 2006; aunio & niemivirta, 2010; duncan et al., 2007; sterner et al., 2019). according to aunio and niemivirta (2010), students’ acquisition of counting and relational skills before compulsory schooling is an important indicator of their basic arithmetic and overall mathematical performance in their first year of school. their knowledge of early numeracy when they begin school is a greater indicator of future school achievement than such factors as gender, age and parental education (aunio & niemivirta, 2010). students who have early mathematical knowledge when they begin school benefit from this in their initial school years. such students are at an advantage, since numerical attainment with practical problem-solving as an element increases in importance by school year (aubrey et al., 2006). according to duncan et al. (2007), students’ early mathematical skills are a stronger predictor of later reading ability than early reading is of later mathematical achievement. however, they point out that this says nothing about what type of curriculum – “play-based” or “drill-and-practice” – best promotes these skills (duncan et al., 2007). an international study of the relationship between academic elements in the early school years and students’ later academic achievement shows that all students benefit from exposure to advanced mathematics in their early school years. however, students often encounter content they already master and do not benefit from basic content coverage (claessens et al., 2014). sterner et al. (2019) and vennberg and norqvist (2018) conducted studies in the swedish preschool class to investigate the effect of early focus on numbers and collective reasoning about representations. one study shows positive effects on students’ number sense, an effect sustained even nine months later in grade 1 (sterner et al., 2019). the other study shows that the same intervention can improve long-term mathematical performance and prevent at-risk students from performing poorly in mathematics (vennberg & norqvist, 2018). similar to this study, vidmar et al. (2017) have compared early mathematics assessments in two different countries. however, the comparison was not between different assessments, but the aim was to examine the same assessment in two european countries and to analyse how well this assessment is able to predict later academic achievement. together, the studies above indicate that early efforts to promote students’ mathematical skills benefit continued learning in both mathematics and other subjects. while there are arguments for early intervention in mathematics, challenges associated with the early assessment of students’ knowledge exist. international studies show that focus on their individual shortcomings can affect students’ self-image negatively as they may begin to regard difficulties with assessments as a personal trait (reay & wiliam, 1999; räty et al., 2004). in the long term, focus on students’ individual shortcomings can hamper their learning as they may experience the difficulties as constant (reay & wiliam, 1999; räty et al., 2004). furthermore, international research shows that students are vulnerable to the context of the survey and the social framework of assessment situations (zohar & gershikov, 2008). if assessment is conducted in a group, the grouping may affect the extent to which diversity of assessment discourses in swedish and norweigan early mathematics... 101 students dare to express their own knowledge (zohar & gershikov, 2008). together, the studies above describe issues with early assessment of students’ knowledge. method in this section, the context of the two assessment materials, theoretical and methodological framing, and ethics are described. the context of the two assessment materials the swedish assessment material was implemented in 2019 to assess the “mathematical thinking” (p. 1) of six-year-olds (national agency for education, 2019). the title of the swedish assessment material is “find the mathematics” (hitta matematiken), and its purpose is to identify “students who show an indication of not meeting the knowledge requirements”, “students in need of extra adaptations” and “students in need of extra challenges” (p. 3). use of the swedish assessment material is mandatory, and assessment takes place in the autumn term – that is to say, at the start of the first year of school (national agency for education, 2019). the swedish assessment material comprises four activities, pattern, dice games, sand and rice, and playground (p. 4), which are carried out orally in small groups of students with a teacher. the norwegian assessment material was implemented in 2011 to assess the arithmetic skills of sixyear-olds (norwegian directorate for education and training, 2017). the title of the norwegian assessment material is “mapping test in arithmetic” (kartleggingsprøve i regning) (p. 1), and its purpose “is to find students who need extra follow-up when it comes to developing basic skills in arithmetic” (p. 4). although use of the norwegian assessment material is voluntary at a national level, most schools do make use of it (nortvedt, 2018). assessment takes place in the spring term – that is to say, at the end of the first year of school. the norwegian assessment material consists of text-based tasks that students complete individually in writing within a set time. this study focuses on the national assessment materials implemented by the national agency for education (2019) and the norwegian directorate for education and training (2017). a systematic review of similar analysis comparing assessment materials from different countries was conducted, but no similar studies were found. other assessment materials are used with six-year-olds in sweden and norway, but these are not focused on in this study as these are not national assessments. for this study, an analysis was conducted of the teacher information from the swedish assessment material and the first chapter in the teachers’ guide for use with the norwegian assessment material. these were chosen as they are equal in the sense that they describe why, how and when assessments are to be conducted. thus, the discourse analysis was of written material. the assessment tasks were not analysed. theoretical framing – discourse analysis through the use of discourse analysis, this study focuses on how the structure of language can have an impact on early mathematics education by both reflecting and creating the existing reality (winther jørgensen & phillips, 2000). discourse analysis is what we all do more or less unconsciously when we notice “patterns of language in use and the circumstances with which these are typically associated” (trappeslomax, 2004, p. 133), and discourse analysis can be used as either a theory, an analytical tool, or both (trappes‐lomax, 2004; winther jørgensen & phillips, 2000). a critical evaluation of discourse research in mathematics education show many different traditions of using discourse analysis (ryve, 2011). discourse analysis in line with gee (2014a, 2014b) was chosen for this study as it offers both a theoretical view on and analytical tools for construing discourses. gee (2014a, 2014b) focuses on situational and cultural differences, and provides an explanatory view on discourses. based on gee (2014b), a study of written language and its use makes it possible to say something about the specific contexts in which opinions and views emerge (gee, 2014b). gee (2014b) distinguishes between two theoretical notions, big and small discourses: this study includes small discourses only as the focus is on language-in-use (gee, 2015, p. 1). “when we study language-in-use, we study language not just as an maria walla 102 abstract system (“grammar”), but in terms of actual utterances or sentences in speech or writing in specific contexts of speaking and hearing or writing and reading” (gee, 2014b, p. 19). in this study, discourses are seen as part of a dialogical process that constantly creates and reshapes the meaning of early mathematics and early assessment in mathematics. discourse analysis as an analytical tool as presented above, the discourse analysis focused on what gee (2014a) calls “small discourses”. small “d” discourse analyses focus on patterns and connections in stretches of language and how these can lead to interpretations and meaning (gee, 2015, p. 2). gee (2014a) offers 28 methodological tools by which to study such patterns and connections. each tool consists of questions intended for text or other forms of communication. gee points out that researchers must choose and adapt the tools to fit the selected data. in this study, nine of gee’s tools were chosen based on applicability to the research questions and the analysis of written material. each of the nine selected tools has, in accordance with gee (2014a), been reformulated based on the context of this study. the process of analyzing the assessment material initially, two tools were used to discern between significant content of the assessment materials of both countries. the significance building tool (#14): what is identified as being significant in the assessment materials of both countries? what is the importance of what is written? the fill-in tool (#2): what knowledge, assumptions and conclusions must be filled in by a reader for the text to be clear? three tools were then used to show how shorter sections of text relate to the whole context of the two texts. the diexis tool (#1): what is taken for granted, based on the context? the connections building tool (#19): how are choices and omissions justified in the assessment materials? the situated meaning tool (#23): what specific meaning do words and concepts have, based on the context? in the next step, two tools were used to discern between intentions and between relationships in the assessment materials. the why this way and not that way tool (#9): what intentions are identified in the assessment materials? the relationships building tool (#17): how is the language used to build and maintain relationships between students, teachers and head teachers? after this, one tool was used to show the purposes of the assessment materials: the doing and not just saying tool (#7): what purposes are stated in the assessment materials? finally, one tool was used to show which view of mathematics appears in the assessment materials: the systems and knowledge building tool (#21): how is the language used to describe mathematics in the assessment materials? table 1 illustrates an example of the gradual shift in focus of the discourse analysis, from significant words to a bigger picture. however, the table should be understood as circular, not linear. the questions from gee were used more iteratively in the discourse analysis than can be illustrated in a table. table 1. an illustration of the process of analysing the assessment materials. text and quotations in the table should be understood to be part of the iterative process and not the complete analysis that supports the construction of a discourse. tools: #14, #2 tools: #1, #19, #23 tools: #9, #17 tool: #7 tool: #21 the concepts of activity and activities are mentioned about 60 times in the swedish assessment material. activity is not defined. it is implied what activity is. activities should arouse curiosity and interest in mathematical content. assess how the student: shows curiosity and interest in the mathematical content of the activity (p. 4-5). the intention with activities is to arouse interest. students at this age are more dependent on the teacher arousing interest in the activity or that the activity itself is interesting (p. 4). purpose, to show knowledge. the activities are designed so that each student, in a playful way, will have the opportunity to show knowledge that is important for the development of mathematical thinking (p. 4). the activities are not named based on the mathematical content to be assessed. patterns, dice games, sand/rice, and playground (p. 4). an important aspect of discourse analysis as applied in this study is that it is not about evaluating – but rather about studying the written language. i, the researcher, am familiar with both the swedish and norwegian school systems. fluent in swedish and norwegian, i was born and raised in sweden, and lived 12 years in norway, where i qualified as a primary school teacher. furthermore, i have taught mathematics diversity of assessment discourses in swedish and norweigan early mathematics... 103 in both countries. in norway, i was a grade 1 teacher and therefore used the norwegian assessment material with six-year-old students. i have not taught in preschool class in sweden. results in the results, the discourses that were construed based on the nine tools above are presented. discourses in the swedish assessment material the following discourses are construed and described based on the swedish assessment material (figure 1): curriculum discourse, competence discourse, equity discourse, activity discourse and support discourse. in the swedish assessment material, reference to the curriculum for the compulsory school, preschool class and the recreation centre (national agency for education, 2018) is frequent. below, this will be termed “the curriculum”. curriculum discourse this discourse is construed based on the significance of the curriculum, a frequently recurring voice. both the design and the content of the assessment material are motivated with reference to the curriculum. for example: “the assessment is based on the curriculum for the preschool class and the abilities that the teaching should give students the opportunity to develop” (p. 3). the curriculum is mentioned several times, both implicitly and explicitly. however, only certain parts of the curriculum are apparent and the focus is on the “observation points” (p. 5) to be assessed. also, the expression “mathematical thinking” (p. 3) is often mentioned. this expression is used in the general section of the curriculum (section 2.2), and not in the section specific to the preschool class. competence discourse this discourse is construed based on the significance of competencies as three “observation points” (p. 5) in relation to the purpose of the swedish assessment material: “how the student shows curiosity and interest in the mathematical content of the activity”, “the ability to try and use different ideas” and “the ability to communicate and reason about mathematical concepts” (p. 4-5). these three observation points are in line with two of three competencies emphasised in the preschool class curriculum: “try to develop ideas and convert the ideas into action” and “use mathematical concepts and reasoning to communicate” (p. 19-20). in the swedish assessment material, the assessment of these is described as significant since they are considered important competencies for children to develop. at the same time, the assessment material describes how using it may also make other knowledge visible. of course, the activity can provide additional information about the students’ mathematical knowledge than what is described with regards to the observation points (p. 5). there is no mention of mathematical problem-solving as an observation point, despite its mention in the curriculum. nor is there an explanation as to why this competence is not to be assessed despite problem-solving being highlighted as a competence that students can develop through the assessment. by giving students the opportunity to encounter activities of a different kind, they can develop confidence in their ability to solve problems in different situations and contexts (p. 4). equity discourse this discourse is construed based on the significance of equity and the adaptations to be made for students who may not achieve the learning goals. in the teacher information, equity is explicitly referred to on several occasions. the first sentence in the swedish assessment material states that assessment needs to be conducted in the autumn term so that “the teacher can identify students at an early stage who risk not reaching the knowledge requirements to be achieved in year 3…”(p. 3). this appears several times and is always first mentioned in the descriptions of the purpose of the swedish assessment material. the assessment material also states that it should “support the teacher in identifying the students in need of extra adaptations” (p. 3). since students who risk not achieving the goals may need extra adaptations, these two aims may relate to the same students. the expressions students in need of extra adaptations and students maria walla 104 in need of extra challenges often appear together, which makes it seem that they are distinct groups. also, the purpose of identifying “students who show an indication of not meeting the knowledge requirements” always comes first, followed by “students in need of extra adaptations” and finally “students in need of extra challenges” (p. 3). the intention with the identification of these three student groups in the swedish assessment material is to contribute to equity, as those who risk not attaining the necessary knowledge can receive special support and extra adaptations (p. 7-8). the swedish assessment material does not define which students are included in students in need of extra adaptations and students in need of extra challenges. activity discourse this discourse is construed based on the significance of activity and activities in relation to the intention to arouse interest. in the teacher information alone, these two words appear about 60 times, but they are not defined. on several occasions, the word activity is associated with playfulness. the activities are designed so that each student, in a playful way, will have the opportunity to show knowledge that is important for the development of mathematical thinking (p. 4). furthermore, activities are linked to the observation point “how the student shows curiosity and interest in the mathematical content of the activity” (p. 4-5). the importance of curiosity and interest is motivated by references to the curriculum: “teaching should take advantage of students’ curiosity and give them the opportunity to develop their interest in mathematics…” (p. 18). the implication is that the activities in which students encounter mathematics should be designed in a way that makes them interesting. teachers are described as being responsible for adapting and replacing activities so that students find them interesting. students at this age are more dependent on the teacher arousing interest in the activity or that the activity itself is interesting (p. 4). the four activities “pattern, dice game, sand/rice and playground” (p. 4) have names that say more about the game than the mathematical content to be assessed. thus, mathematics itself does not seem to be what arouses students’ interest but rather it is the doing of the activities that is interesting. through the activities, students’ interest should be both aroused and assessed. as the quotation above illustrates, students may also need help from teachers to arouse their interest. support discourse this discourse is construed based on the significance of mandatory support in the assessment material. the mandatory support relates explicitly to teachers receiving assessment support to teach students mathematics, and also to teachers receiving support to identify students in need of extra support. for example: “the assessment is a support for the teacher’s continued teaching” (p. 3) and “the purpose is to support the teacher in identifying the students who… ” (p. 3). the fact that assessment is conducted early in the autumn term demonstrates how teachers should receive such support at an early stage. the teacher can also, with the support of the assessment, discover areas that further teaching needs to focus on. also, the material provides support in identifying the students who need extra adaptations, special support, or extra challenges (p. 3). because the assessment material is compulsory, all teachers must receive this support. discourses in the norweigan assessment material the following discourses are construed and described based on the norwegian assessment material (figure 1): framework discourse, arithmetic discourse, solicitude discourse, formative assessment discourse and management discourse. in the norwegian assessment material, frequent references are made to the framework for basic skills, and the national curriculum for knowledge promotion in primary and secondary education and training (norwegian directorate for education and training, 2013, 2017). in the text below, these are referred to as the framework and the curriculum respectively. framework discourse diversity of assessment discourses in swedish and norweigan early mathematics... 105 this discourse is construed based on the significance of the framework and the curriculum in relation to the intention of the assessment material. the test is anchored in the definition and progression description for counting in the framework for basic skills and competence goals in the curriculum (p. 5). how the competence goals mentioned in the quotation above are anchored in the norwegian assessment material is not clear. on the other hand, the curriculum is implicitly apparent, as basic skills are integrated into the competence goals. the design and content of the norwegian assessment material are justified based on how arithmetic is described in the framework. four areas of skills from the framework are described as starting points for the form and content: “recognise and describe, use and process, reflect and evaluate, and communication” (p. 5). the norwegian assessment material measures and is based on competence at the lowest level in two of the four skill areas: recognise and describe, and use and process. the test is adapted to this level. the assignments thus measure competence at the lowest level in the description of progression for arithmetic in the framework for basic skills (p. 5). the norwegian assessment material does not state why the two areas of reflect and evaluate and communication are not assessed. however, the omission of these skills is explicitly described in the norwegian assessment material. arithmetic discourse this discourse is construed based on the significance of arithmetic in relation to the purpose and the title of the norwegian assessment material, “assessment material in arithmetic” (kartleggingsprøve i regning) (p. 1). the purpose of the assessment is to find students who need extra follow-up when it comes to developing basic skills in arithmetic (p. 4). the tasks in the norwegian assessment material are connected to numbers, which is one of the four areas highlighted in the competence goals in the curriculum. there is no reason given as to why the other three areas (geometry, measurement and statistics) are excluded or why the norwegian assessment material deals with only one of four areas in the curriculum. however, there is a detailed explanation of how the selected area of numbers can, in turn, be divided into four themes: “counting skills, number concepts, number series and number line, and arithmetic skills” (p. 6). there is no explicit reason given as to why these four themes should be assessed or where they derive from, as they are not used in the same way as numbers is in the competence goals in the curriculum. solicitude discourse this discourse is construed based on the significance of solicitude in relation to the intention of comparing students’ results with a specific limit of concern. the norwegian assessment material states explicitly that it should not provide information about all students at different levels, only those “who need extra follow-up” (p. 3). the only thing we can say about the students who accomplish a lot, or everything, on the test is that they have sufficient skills as a basis for further learning, but we know little about how much they really know (p. 3). the purpose of the norwegian assessment material is to “find out if there are students who have not acquired the necessary skills in initial education” (p. 3). to find the students who need extra follow-up, teachers and head teachers are encouraged to look at students’ results in relation to the limit of concern (p. 3-4). students with results that place them as the lowest 20 percent in the country are defined as on or below the limit of concern. the norwegian assessment material states that the results of these students should be assessed together with other information about the student before a decision is made as to whether they need follow-up. this means that one fifth of all students may need some form of solicitude to be able to assimilate the continued teaching. formative assessment discourse this discourse is construed based on the significance of formative assessment in the norwegian maria walla 106 assessment material. the notion of formative assessment is used and described in terms of what teachers are expected to do before, during and after assessment. by assessing students, teachers acquire information that will benefit their future teaching. the test results can be seen in connection with other information about the students and as part of formative assessment and adapted teaching (p. 6). the voice that advocates formative assessment is the regulation to the education act, §3-10, where a model for formative assessment is described (ministry of education and research, 2009). in the education act, four principles are referred to as being particularly important in formative assessment, which is also described in the assessment as central to the work with assessment material. three of these four principles are highlighted as important in the norwegian assessment material. the students’ capability for learning can be strengthened if the students understand what they are supposed to learn and what is expected of them; if they receive feedback that tells them about the quality of the work or performance; and if they are involved in their own learning through assessment of their own work and development (p. 6). management discourse this discourse is construed based on the significance of management in relation to the responsibility of the head teacher to conduct the assessment. the head teacher is responsible for preparing, implementing and finishing work that relates to the norwegian assessment material at the level of both group and individual student. the head teacher has the overall responsibility for ensuring that all students are assessed (p. 3). it is also the head teacher who is described as being responsible for arranging the assessment material for students who have special needs. additionally, it is the head teacher who must be helped to identify students who need extra follow-up. this applies to both small schools with one class per age group and large schools with several parallel classes. conclusion and discussion according to gee, the study of written language and its use makes it possible to say something about the specific context in which opinions and views arise (gee, 2014b). thus, in this discussion, the discourses presented in the result will be discussed in relation to their context and different views on early mathematics assessment. this article focuses on assessment material from two neighbouring countries that have similar cultures and education systems (klette, 2018). although their assessment materials are for use with sixyear-olds, their content and context of implementation are somewhat different. the results show five different discourses in both the swedish and the norwegian assessment material, with slight differences between these discourses (figure 1). figure 1. the five discourses in the swedish assessment material and the five discourses in the norwegian assessment material. swedish assessment material curriculum discourse competence discourse equity discourse activity discourse support discourse norwegian assessment material framework discourse arithmetic discourse solicitude discourse formative assessment discourse management discourse diversity of assessment discourses in swedish and norweigan early mathematics... 107 the curriculum and the framework are central in both countries, while there are differences in when the assessment is to be conducted, what to assess, and on how and why to assess. implications of these differences are discussed in the next sections. when the assessment is to be conducted the swedish assessment is to be conducted at the start of preschool class, in the autumn term. this is described in the support discourse and equity discourse. based on when the assessment is conducted, it can be perceived that all teachers need external support before teaching. in contrast, the norwegian assessment takes place in the spring term, which means that teachers first teach the students and then assess them to identify those in need of extra support. based on the solicitude discourse and the time the assessment is conducted, possible problems are assigned to the students as individuals. the focus on students as individuals is strengthened by the formative assessment discourse and the management discourse. as a result of the timing of the assessment, the risk of teaching to the test is greater in norway than it is in sweden. according to volante (2004), preparing students for tests by focusing on items similar to test items is called teaching to the test. because the assessment in norway takes place in the spring term, teachers teach their students before conducting the test; meanwhile, assessment in sweden takes place at the start of the autumn term, most likely before teaching begins. in sweden, the greatest risk of teaching to the test is in preschool. what to assess a curriculum/framework discourse is apparent in both the swedish and the norwegian assessment material. despite the discourse analysis demonstrating that the national curriculum of each country is adhered to in the respective assessment material, it is notable that focus is only on selected parts of each one. the swedish assessment material assesses “mathematical thinking” of six-year-olds in the four activities “pattern, dice game, sand/rice and playground” (p. 4). the competence discourse describes how the assessment material assesses three “observation points” (p. 5): “how the student shows curiosity and interest in the mathematical content of the activity”, “the ability to try and use different ideas” and “the ability to communicate and reason about mathematical concepts” (p. 4-5). the norwegian assessment material assesses the arithmetic skills of six-year-olds, and the tasks are divided into four themes: “counting skills, number concepts, number series and number line, and arithmetic skills” (p. 6). the framework discourse describes how the assessment material measures competence at the lowest level in these two skill areas: recognise and describe, and use and process (p. 5). what is assessed in the swedish assessment material can be related to the activity discourse. playful activities are the “good” and “true” way to assess and teach mathematics to young students. furthermore, young students require that the teacher arouse their “interest in the activity or that the activity itself is interesting” (p. 4). even so, it is unclear what is being assessed. according to newton (2007), it is important to clarify “assessment purpose” and not use multiple discrete purposes within a number of different categories. multiple purposes may result in conflicting purposes, and thus, not knowing what conclusions it is possible to draw from the assessment (newton, 2007; nortvedt & buchholtz, 2018). in the swedish assessment material, it is not clear what is being assessed – the teachers’ ability to arouse interest among students and/or the activities ability to arouse interest in the students and/or the mathematical knowledge of the students? what is unstated yet taken for granted, is that students should show interest in the activities. according to the swedish assessment material, students who do not show an interest must be considered in the teachers' continued planning and teaching. what the norwegian assessment material assesses can relate to the arithmetic discourse and be justified with research on early numeracy. aubrey et al. (2006); aunio and niemivirta (2010) argue that the level of students’ numeracy skills increases in importance by school year, and early numeracy has a greater impact on later school achievement than factors such as gender, age and parental education. thus, focus on arithmetic is in line with research studies that show the importance of early mathematical skills (aubrey et al., 2006; aunio & niemivirta, 2010; duncan et al., 2007). to help address the differences in ability between children, the early identification of maria walla 108 students in need of extra support is essential. however, according to duncan et al. (2007), early identification does not say anything about which curriculum type is most effective: “play-based” or “drilland-practice-based”. the discourse analysis indicates a difference when it comes to the kinds of tasks in the swedish and norwegian assessment material. the swedish assessment material includes “performance tasks”, which can be described as “non-routine tasks involving substantial chains of reasoning” (burkhardt & schoenfeld, 2018, p. 577). the norwegian assessment material includes “short tasks”, which can be described as tasks “focused on one fragment of mathematics that take only a minute or two” (p. 577). neither of the assessments is what burkhardt and schoenfeld (2018) would call well-balanced – a combination of “short tasks” and “performance tasks” (p. 577). how to assess the discourse analysis indicates that there are differences between the assessment materials of the two countries in terms of how to assess. the swedish assessment material consists of four activities that are carried out orally in small groups of students with a teacher. the norwegian assessment material consists of text-based tasks that students complete individually in writing within a set time. the design of assessment material may affect teaching content. teaching with a focus on items similar to test items is called teaching to the test (volante, 2004). assessment with “short tasks” (burkhardt & schoenfeld, 2018) that are to be completed within a set time (as is the case with the norwegian assessment) may result in less teaching about complex mathematical problems with multiple solution paths. the risk of “teaching to the test” (burkhardt & schoenfeld, 2018; volante, 2004) is more apparent in the norwegian context of mathematics education for six-year-olds than it is in the swedish context. this is because the norwegian assessment tasks can be readily replicated for use with only minor variation. in the case of the swedish assessment material, the risk of teaching to the test decreases since tasks are completed orally in groups. nevertheless, one issue to be aware of in relation to the swedish assessment material is that research shows that working in groups may affect the extent to which individual students dare to show their ability (zohar & gershikov, 2008). in sweden, the greatest risk of teaching to the test is in preschool, since the swedish assessment material is used at the start of the autumn term. thus, the risk of teaching to the test exists in both countries, be it in different ways. at the same time, both the swedish and the norwegian assessment materials describe the abilities to be assessed, which may encourage teachers in both countries to focus their teaching on abilities rather than solely on specific tasks. why to assess the norwegian assessment material has a clearly defined purpose: the identification of students in need of follow-up and extra adaptations (p. 3). also, it specifies both what the results can be and what they should not be used for. the formative assessment discourse and the management discourse in the norwegian assessment material stipulate that the head teachers are responsible for ensuring that students at or below the limit of concern receive follow-up. in the swedish assessment material, several aims are stated: the purpose of identifying “students who show an indication of not meeting the knowledge requirements”, “students in need of extra adaptations” and “students in need of extra challenges” (p. 3). these different aims may make it unclear how assessment results are to be used. also, the discourse analysis indicates that the swedish assessment material is useful for the purposes of both assessment and learning. however, it is not clear whether the teachers should assess students’ mathematical knowledge from previous years and/or whether they should assess what the students learn during the assessment. according to newton (2007), several goals without a clear ranking can end up conflicting with each other. according to palm et al. (2011), it is much easier for teachers to assess students’ calculation skills than it is to assess students’ problem-solving skills. perhaps this is why the norwegian assessment material, which consists of “short tasks”, may be easier for the teacher to use than the swedish assessment material, which consists of “performance tasks” (burkhardt & schoenfeld, 2018). according to nortvedt and buchholtz (2018), however, one sole summative assessment cannot display learning or development of diversity of assessment discourses in swedish and norweigan early mathematics... 109 mathematical thinking. in order to contribute to fair assessment, all assessment should consider different and multiple sources of individual students’ performance (leder & forgasz, 2018). implications the results of this study provide a big-picture view, here and now, with awareness of the fact that the context of the assessment materials of both countries is constantly changing. for example, from 2022, the norwegian assessment material will be conducted digitally. furthermore, in 2020, a new norwegian curriculum was introduced (norwegian directorate for education and training, 2020): in it, play was given a more prominent role than in the curriculum referred to in the norwegian assessment material. a greater focus on play may be seen as a reaction to the theorising of the schooling of six-year-olds (ertesvåg & ridar, 2018; johansson, 2010). in sweden, an opposite development can be seen with the implementation of a 10year primary school education where preschool class will become grade 1 (ministry of education and research, 2020). in this study, similarities and differences between the various meanings ascribed to the assessment materials of sweden and norway are investigated and discussed. thus, the article describes an example of early assessment in two neighbouring countries that have similar cultures and education systems. the results show a diversity of discourses, which indicates different views on young students’ learning of mathematics in terms of when to assess, what knowledge to assess, and on how and why to assess. thus, insights from this comparative analysis can contribute to a more nuanced picture of early mathematics assessment. this article invites educators and policymakers to reflect on their assessment practices in mathematics classrooms with young children. even though sweden and norway have similar cultures and education systems, there is no consensus as to when, what, how and why to assess the mathematical knowledge of six-year-olds. declarations author’s declarations acknowledgements: not applicable. authors’ contributions: all research included in this article is made by the author. competing interests: the author declare that she has no competing interests. funding: the article is part of a phd project and thus founded by dalarna university. ethics approval and consent to participate: the research reported here does not involve human subjects. publisher’s declarations editorial acknowledgement: the editorial process of this article was carried out by dr. mehmet toran. publisher’s note: journal of childhood, education & society remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliation. references ackesjö, h., & persson, s. 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(2000). diskursanalys som teori och metod (vol. discourse analysis as theory and method). studentlitteratur. wrigley, t. (2010). the testing regime of childhood: up against the wall. in d. kassem, l. murphy, & e. taylor (eds.), key issues in childhood and youth studies: critical issues (p. 136-148). routledge. zohar, a., & gershikov, a. (2008). gender and performance in mathematical tasks: does the context make a difference? international journal of science and mathematics education, 6(4), 677-693. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10763-007-9086-7 https://doi.org/10.1080/0031383042000245807 https://doi.org/10.1080/00313831.2019.1600579 https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470757000.ch5 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-016-0294-9 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10763-007-9086-7 diversity of assessment discourses in swedish and norwegian early mathematics education journal of childhood, education & society volume 4, issue 1, 2023, 16-28 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.202341184 research article ©2023 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. is there a place for children in the making of public policy? insights from the research evidence elina stenvall1, marjo kurki2, petri virtanen3 abstract: article 12 of the un convention on the rights of the child stipulates that children have a right to express their views with this article being one of the most frequently cited principles in the convention. this scoping review summarises the existing research evidence on how children participate in the making of public policy. this paper concludes that a plethora of practical guidelines and gray literature are available addressing children as policy-making partners, but the empirical research around the subject is very rare. children’s participation should be planned prior to any planned public policy reforms – and to be supported by appropriate academic research integrated into the different stages of the policymaking processes. if policymakers are willing to develop mechanisms for children’s participation in the policy cycle, children’s role and agency will be clarified. it seems that there is a need for new sensemaking in terms of how adults treat the value of children´s participation and how to include children in the policymaking process around the subjects that matter to them. participatory practices should be co-created with children, not for them. article history received: 28 march 2022 accepted: 13 september 2022 keywords children’s participation; policy-making; public policy introduction from the perspective of everyday life, children´s participation in society takes place in different contexts. in everyday life, children express their views in their family life, at day care centres, schools, when using social and health care services, through their hobbies and among their friends (thomas, 2007). children´s views are also emphasised in other contexts, for instance as consumers of goods as well as increasingly in the making and development of public services through co-creation and co-design. this paper addresses children´s participation in the making of public policy and elaborates further the ongoing scholarly discussion and debate about children´s rights and children´s participation (e.g., arce, 2015; bosisio, 2012; byrne & lundy, 2019; cassidy, 2016; giesinger, 2019). the notion of human participation is rooted in the principles of democratic societies. participation is deeply incorporated in the united nations sustainable development goals (sdgs) and in the united nations convention on the rights of the child (crs). the sdgs consist of 17 goals (and 169 targets) which aim to contribute to the international commitment to achieve worldwide sustainable development in its social, economic, and environmental dimensions by 2030. glass and newig (2019) have pointed out that the issue of governance is embedded in the domain of the sdgs in a specific way: it is essentially about the diversity of participating actors contributing to common goals and the importance of participation in policy making, policy implementation and service delivery. their argument rests upon the idea that participation is useful, entailing that it is connected to the drafting of policy proposals and actions. further, participation must be linked to strategy formulations and academic research that are effective in terms of mutual learning and the bundling of resources. the analysis by byrne and lundy (2019, p. 362-363) provides an overview of children´s rights-based public policy making by disentangling the nature of children´s participation in policy processes, with _____________ 1 sos children´s villages, helsinki, finland, e-mail: elina.stenvall@sos.lapsikyla.fi, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1426-0367 2 itla children´s foundation, helsinki, finland, e-mail: marjo.kurki@itla.fi, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0737-2870 3 university of vaasa, vaasa, finland & itla children´s foundation, helsinki , finland, e-mail: petri.virtanen@itla.fi, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8403-937x https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202341184 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:elina.stenvall@sos.lapsikyla.fi https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1426-0367 mailto:marjo.kurki@itla.fi https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0737-2870 mailto:petri.virtanen@itla.fi https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8403-937x elina stenvall et al. 17 reference to a common understanding of participation that is rights-based and incorporates the actions being undertaken to enable ‘rights-holders’ to claim their rights. byrne and lundy (ibid.) further argue that a crucial dimension of participation is that children understand their rights (to participate) and that they have opportunities to be involved in influencing the decisions that will affect their lives. public policy is about planning and implementing government activities. according to hassel (2015), public policy is a set of decisions to influence, change, or frame a problem or issue that has been recognised in the political realm by policymakers and/or the wider public. birkland (2016, p. 8-9) holds the view that there is a strong possibility that a single definition of public policy will never be developed (because of the diversity of existing government and public administration systems), but there are certain common attributes that relate to public policy making regardless of the administrative system. to advance the theorisation of public policy and to link public policymaking to children´s participation can be done with the tools and distinctions provided by the analysis of the sdgs and in the crc. following the crc, in this review children are understood as people under 18 years. they are also recognised as agents who can participate in matters concerning them despite their age (see lister, 2007; moosa-mitha, 2005). this paper explores how children’s participation in policymaking processes is reflected in the existing research literature. the paper focuses on the role of academic research as it relates to children´s participation in public policymaking. to this end, this paper adopts the concept of participation from heinelt et al. (2002), who argue that participation in governing activities is not only a matter of being indirectly involved in governmental affairs (by voting, representation etc.,) but also through extended engagement in forms of policy making. the crc’s article 12, referencing various recommendations, statements and regulations shows how children should be involved but the existing research and empirical literature provides little evidence to indicate how this has been done (e.g., white, 2020). there are also models and operationalisations of participation, one of the best known is “the lundy model”, which was originally developed to clarify varying obligations related to participation (e.g., kennan et al., 2021) and which divides participation into five dimensions; safe space, a voice, an audience, influence and impact (lundy, 2010). nevertheless, there remains a lack of research evaluation in respect of how effective these models are or what kinds of participation there has been around them, although some evalution has been done (e.g., kennan et al., 2021). this paper is based on the literature review method (gough et al., 2012) and more specifically, it deploys the seven-step model put forward by fink (2013). the review process consisted of seven components, including selecting research questions, selecting article databases and sources, choosing search terms, applying practical screening criteria, applying methodological screening criteria, doing the review, and finally synthesizing the results. this paper progresses as follows. next, we describe the methodology part which includes the identification process for the research literature and the way in which we analyse the findings. then we report on the results of the review and continue by discussing our findings. finally, we present our conclusions based on the findings and suggest a research agenda taking forward the academic research of children´s participation in the making of public policy. methodology database search the review was compiled from the following electronic databases: proquest, scopus, wiley, ebsco, web of science, sage journals, emerald, sciencedirect, jstor and taylor and francis. these databases are the most relevant to the subject of the review and have been used in similar systematic reviews (hiilamo et al., 2021). the article search covered the period 2010-2020 which is the optimal period for summarising the existing evidence of such a phenomenon and its development. papers older than ten years wer viewed as irrelevant from todays’ perspective because of the proliferation of participation models and activity in the context of public policy practice in the past decade (e.g., kjørholt, 2007, p. 38; lister, 2007; moosa-mitha, 2005). the search was focused on academic peer-reviewed articles published in the english language. english was the primary language because it is the primary language used in the academic world. the is there a place for children in the making of public policy? insights... 18 search included research carried out in the oecd-countries because of the assumed similarities related to children´s position in society as well as in public policy-related political-administrative traditions. search terms were applied to abstract, titles and key word listings. only journal articles were considered. the search was carried out in october 2020. figure 1. the review process based on the prisma flow diagram the boolean search term combinations used were: "children’s participation" or “children's involvement” or “children's contribution” or "children's influence" or “participation of children” or "involvement of children" or "contribution of children" or “influence of children” and (strateg* or program or polic* and public. the main concept, children´s participation, was thus combined with the concepts such as strategy”, “policy”, “program” and “public” which refer to the context of children’s participation in this review. the search then excluded articles that used only terms such as citizenship or social change. screening process a three-step selection process was applied. in the first stage, the search produced 497 articles; this was reduced to 329 after removing duplicates (168) using refworks. the remaining 329 articles were scrutinised by reading their abstracts in the screening phase of the analysis. the selection process was conducted by two authors (reviewer m. k. and e. s.) to determine the paper’s relevance for the review as assessed by title and abstract. the articles were sorted into two file sets which were reviewed independently by the two authors (e. s. and m. k.). after independent scrutiny, the authors reflected on the set inclusion citerias and made decisions on the inclusion/exclusion, paper by paper. the focus was on empirical or theoretical studies addressing children’s and adolescents’ participation in public policy making processes or public reforms at the national, regional, and local levels of governance in the oecd literature search (proquest, scopus, wiley, ebsco, web of science, sage journals, emerald, sciencedirect, jstor, taylor & francis) screening of abstracts n = 329 screening of full text n = 32 studies included in data analysis n = 7 168 duplicates removed 297 records excluded 30 full-text articles excluded: 3 articles not available, 1 spanish, 26 were not met the inclusion criteria manual search n = 2 total records n = 497 in cl ud ed sc re en in g & e lig ib ili ty id en ti fic at io n elina stenvall et al. 19 countries. in the second stage, based on the screening of full-texts 32 articles were included as selected studies. both reviewers read all the full-text articles which were available (n=28) and assessed for the eligibility. in the second stage, 32 articles were included for detailed analysis. at this stage, both reviewers read all the full-text articles which were available (n=28) assessing the eligibility of each paper. after this process, altogether 23 articles were excluded since there were no explicit references to children’s participation in public policy or reforms. these articles did not meet the inclusion criteria (e.g., focus on children’s participation in service development, methodological or register study or literature reviews not guided by the research question). the reviewers then read all available full texts which were available and to confirm the validity of the selection process. a shared template was used (table 1). table 1. inclusion criteria for the articles criteria search terms • children’s participation or children's involvement or children's contribution or "children's influence or participation of children or involvement of children or contribution of children or influence of children • strategy or program or policy • public databases • proquest, scopus, wiley, ebsco, web of science, sage journals, emerald, sciencedirect, jstor, taylor & francis publication years • year 2010-2020 target group • children under age 18 year type of study • theoretical and empirical, peer-reviewed scientific articles language • english context • public strategy and program level and public policy making and processes in western countries after the screening process, five articles were included in the analysis since only these studies related to children´s participation in public policymaking and government reforms. since the surprisingly low amount of relevant research, an additional manual search (e.g., google scholar, reference lists) was undertaken to make sure that all the relevant research was included. this was conducted by two authors (e. s. and m. k.) to confirm that all relevant articles had been found. this resulted in two additional articles being included in the selected complitation of articles. these two additional articles were not initially found in the selected papers because they were not published in academic journals but were nevertheless considered important for our analysis. at the third stage, the reviewers then established the final sample, consisting of seven articles. these articles were scrutinised from several points of view to understand what participation could mean in policymaking. from these articles we collected information on who participated and how, what was the context, the research questions, methods, main findings and implications. with that information in hand, the review then focused on the threefold classification related to public policy participation: type of participation, type of policy-reform and outcome of participation. in analysing the article data, this threefold classification consisted of multiple participation dimensions, for example, an orientation towards the solving of societal problems and the government’s contribution, made on the public’s behalf, ostensibly for the betterment of society. of the reviewed articles, only one included both aspects, children’s direct involvement in public policymaking and an analysis of that. an additional three studies included evidence of children’s participation in policymaking or public matters while the final three were theory-based and did not analyse children’s participation in policymaking but instead created theoretical approaches to understand children’s participation as part of policymaking. we will briefly review these seven papers in turn. results the only article that fell into the category of public policymaking and included an analysis of direct children’s participation, was about children’s participation in political processes in israel’s knesset committee (perry-hazan, 2016). in israel, parliamentary (knesset) committees are policymaking ’arenas’ is there a place for children in the making of public policy? insights... 20 where different views and opinions are heard and where participants can bring issues and ideas to the table with the idea that these opinions can subsequently be taken into consideration in policymaking. every participant has a couple of minutes to promote their views. committee work is part of an ongoing pattern to promote children’s participation in israel. perry-hazan (2016) reviewed children’s participation in these meetings by looking at the meeting protocols and interviewing an advisory group of children. perry-hazan notes that although children have a role in policymaking meetings, power remains with the adults. adults can take children’s concerns into consideration or leave them out. children’s opinions can become part of the policymaking process, but, according to perry-hazan, the adults involved usually focused on evaluating the children’s appearance in committee more than on seriously considering their point of view. the article nevertheless enhances our understanding of children’s participation in policymaking: even though there is a clear pattern here in terms of children’s role in policymaking which remains, effectively, a ‘box-ticking’ exercise with no statuary need to take their perspectives forward into the policy making process. perry-hasan also notes that adults’ attitudes towards the children’s arguments need to be improved. attitudes are too often ‘fawning or dismissive’ and can ‘elicit extreme responses’ as perry-hazan puts it. the article does however provide several important insights into how practitioners, who specialise in children's participation, can improve effective practices for children’s participation. a second empirical article also concerned israel. uziely (2018) explored the difficulties of government reforms from the professional’s point of view. the israeli special education law determined that all pupils have the legal right to participate and uziely analysed the implementation of the educational reform that included young people’s voices. what was found was that adults’ attitude played the key role in implementation. uziely used an eight-step linear scale to measure pupil satisfaction. in the research uziely also analysed various socioeconomic, cultural and occupational variables. according to his findings, if adults do not already believe in children’s participation, there is little likelihood of such participation succeeding. as his main finding, uziely discovered that many of the adults responsible for the implementation of the reform did not believe in its core principles. as such, uziely noted that legislation alone is not enough when implementing a reform. additionally, the concept of child participation has itself to be promoted among those adults tasked with implementing it. the third empirical article is from forde et al. (2017) where they studied children’s and young people’s participation in communities. in their study, participating children were aged 7 to 17. they also studied adult’s perspectives in these same communities. in total 74 children and 34 adults participated. what they found was that children were involved in their communities in many ways but at the same time had little knowledge of how they can participate in local decision making. children had better opportunities to participate if they were part of youth clubs or projects. children also recognised negative or dismissive attitude in adults. at the same time, adults recognised community support as organised activities rather than spaces for children to participate. what is noteworthy here is that there is also a lack of communication between different adults in the community. adult attitudes towards children’s participation is also addressed in this article. if children’s participation is taken seriously and understood as a relational matter, adults should have more dialogue with children and other adults concerning the ways in which children can be involved. interestingly, forde et al. (2017) discovered that children and adults see participation very differently. whereas adults felt that there were a lot of opportunities for children to participate, children considered their opportunities to participate inadequate or superficial. from the children’s point of view, schools are hierarchical institutions where their opinions are not heard. forde et al. also pointed out that good relationships between students and teachers helps to create an atmosphere where the exercise of participation is possible. they also noted that in schools, children felt that they had at least some opportunity to participate. the findings also noted that if authentic participation is taken seriously, efforts should be focused on promoting structures at the policy making level, including children’s participation. in the fourth empirical article, vanhaeght and bauwens (2016) explored in a case study how children elina stenvall et al. 21 experienced their participation in a tv cultural policy project where children participated by performing on the tv show. the studied children were between 9 and 13 years old when participating and 10 to 14 when interviewed. all 17 participating children were from families with high-level cultural capital. their main finding was that children had little say in the production process. at the same time, they were concerned about how they and their art, such as songs, was used in the production but felt that there were few ways to influence the matter. children in general recognised that the decisions were made by adults, but they also criticised the situations where adults were disrespectful towards their art. as vanhaeght and bauwens (2016) showed, that while the tv cultural policy project was viewed as a participatory project, it nevertheless illustrated how the children’s role in participatory projects can be seen as paradoxical when they are, at the same time, given the opportunity to participate and but not given the power to impact decisions. the last three analysed articles were each theoretical in their approach. in these articles, the researchers focused on understanding where and in what ways children can be political actors (kallio & hakli, 2011), what the core-elements are in children’s rights-based politics (byrne & lundy, 2019) and how national strategy has improved children’s lives (hanafin et al., 2012). kallio and hakli (2011) concluded in their article that children can be conceived of as political actors in everyday life. they approached the ways in which children undertake political actions from a theoretical standpoint. they develop a theory-based conceptualised model that set out to ‘conceptualise children’s political agency’. they also look at spaces where politics can occur both in official settings and everyday spaces. in their analysis, children created space for their actions without adults’ approval. when considering children and policymaking together, adults should widen their perspective to understand children’s own ways of acting and participating in political matters. their paper is based on research concerning child and youth policies and the politics occurring in children’s everyday lives. kallio and hakli discovered three different ways through which children can act politically: first, children’s political agency unfolds in planning, decision-making and policymaking processes. they articulated that in these contexts children can be supported by educating them in relation to performing the democratic exercise and in promoting active citizenship. children can also be involved in official and semi-official politics, offering them opportunities to speak. second, children are engaged in events and issues known to have political significance in their lives, such as war or racial struggles. usually, children are seen in these circumstances as social or cultural actors but also as being unlikely to understand their actions as political. third, children practice politics in their ‘seemingly apolitical everyday environments’. they might for example try to challenge positions offered to them by adults. byrne and lundy (2019) discussed some of the core elements of children’s rights-based policy. they create a framework for understanding children’s rights-based approaches to policy based on the principles/provisions of the crc. rights-based understanding includes the core-elements in children’s participation which are: 1) making sense of crc’s participation principles, 2) the creation of a process to impact children’s rights, 3) putting participation and partnership into practice, 4) involving budgetary issues in the participatory process, and 5) raising awareness and enhancing publicity to make public policies better known to children. in their study byrne and lundy point out that the ways in which children can be part of the policymaking processes should rely on children and adults being partners in the same process. the hanafin et al. (2012) article shows how important it is to evaluate the impacts of public policies and service delivery on children after the policy planning phase. in their study, the authors deployed multidimensional and multi-methodological approaches. they discuss how the national children's strategy has improved children's lives and understanding of child wellbeing in ireland. they also analysed the actions undertaken to implement the national children's strategy. what was done here was to create an understanding of the different systems around children, identifying improvements in terms of evaluating and monitoring children's lives. hanafin et al. (2012) underline that the children´s role is essential in policy learning even though is there a place for children in the making of public policy? insights... 22 their role in policy planning remains minimal. the effects on children´s wellbeing is, nevertheless, significant, they argue. focusing on how, why and when children should be considered participants is important in generating a fuller understanding of the processes around children’s participation, although there is also a need here to widen the scope in policymaking to create practices supporting more structured ways for children to participate. table 2. a summary of included studies. study aim (including sample and methods) type of research results byrne & lundy, (2019). children's rights-based childhood policy: a six-p framework. aim: to discuss and clarify core elements of children’s rightsbased policy. theoretical a framework for understanding children’s rights-based approaches to policy based on the following six ‘ps’: 1) the principles/provisions of the united nations convention on the rights of the child (crc); 2) the process of children’s rights impact assessment; 3) the participation of children and young people; 4) partnership to ensure joined up working; 5) public budgeting to ensure that the resources are in place for implementation; and 6) publicity to make policies known to children and young people. forde et al. (2017). children and young people’s participation in the community in ireland: experiences and issues. aim: to study children’s and young peoples experiences about participating in their communities. sample and methods: (n= children 74, adults 34) were living in location, children age 7-17, parents with experience of children aged 7-17, community stakeholders working with children aged 7-17. empirical children and young people are active participants in the community. they express interest in having a greater voice and influence in their communities. they are in general dissatisfied with decision making processes. there need to be more spaces in communities for children’s participation and in public policy spaces for participation and children’s right to participate are uneven. there should also be a change in adults’ attitudes and there should be training for adults in different community settings. uziely. (2018). professionals’ attitudes toward children’s participation: implementing educational reforms. aim: to examine the implementation of the liberal reform that let young people’s voices be heard. sample and methods: the professionals (n=115) from all over israel who participated in the deliberations of placement committees. an online questionnaire was used to investigate desired and actual levels of children’s participation in the committee’s discussions, and the pupils’ satisfaction with the discussion process. empirical after four years the regulations were published, the new norms were not widely spread: about half of the professionals involved in implementing the reform were not convinced that every pupil has the right to voice his or her opinions or concerns in the course of the committee’s discussion. the major finding was that many of the adults responsible for the implementation of the reform do not believe in its principles and are even opposed to child participation. perryhazan.(2016). children's participation in national policymaking: “you're so adorable, adorable, adorable! i'm speechless; so much fun!”. aim: to examine children's participation in national policymaking meetings. sample and methods: 116 protocols of committee meetings in the israeli knesset that frequently discussed issues affecting children: the education, culture and sport committee and the committee on the rights of the children during the period jan 2012–jul 2015 were analysed. four semistructured interviews were conducted with two girls and two boys who had participated in meetings when they were 16 to18 years old. empirical the findings exemplify the potential benefits of children's participation in national policy discussions in promoting policy changes and contributing unique perspectives that contextualise the discussions and produce dialogue. children's contextualising comments can contribute important perspectives, exemplifying for the adults how policies are translated into practice, and can stimulate significant discussions. children's comments in national policy discussions may elicit extreme responses, expressed as either fawning or dismissive behaviour. patterns of children's participation in policy making meetings were clarified. the lack of minority participants was identified. vanhaeght & bauwens. aim: to explore in case study how children experienced a empirical children’s views were minimally involved in the production process. the children also expressed elina stenvall et al. 23 (2016). that’s my at: a case study on children’s views of cultural policy. participatory tv cultural policy project and, related to that, which views did they share on cultural policy matters? sample and methods: children (n=17) 9 to 13 years old when they participated in the show, a year later, eleven of the 17 children, all of who came from a family with a high level of cultural capital, were interviewed. concerns about how their art and cultural practices were represented. they showed a strong sensitivity about democratic access to culture and diversity of culture. quite a few children recognised their lack of decisionmaking influence and carefully criticised the disrespectful representation of their art form. children involved in this tv programme still held rather traditional ideas about cultural education and adults’ role in it. hanafin et al. (2012). advancing understandings of child wellbeing through the strategic development of a national children's research programme. aim: to discuss how the national children's strategy has improved children's lives in ireland and whether it is coherent with recent understandings of child wellbeing. theoretical strong evidence-base for policy makers; seek an understanding of the complexity of children's lives, incorporate understanding of the multiple systems surrounding children, improvements of evaluating and monitoring children's lives. kallio & hakli. (2011). tracing children's politics. aim: to conceptualise children’s political agency and the spaces of children’s politics by addressing children’s politics in official settings and everyday contexts. the study is based on research concerning child and youth policies and the politics played out in children’s everyday life practices. theoretical three distinct ways in which children can be found to act politically: 1) children’s political agency unfolds in planning, decision-making and policymaking processes. in these contexts, children are empowered by educating them in the democratic exercise and active citizenship, involving them in official and semi-official politics and offering them opportunities to voice their concerns publicly. 2) children are engaged in events and issues known to have political significance in their quotidian lives, such as war, political economy and racial struggles. 3) children practice politics in their seemingly apolitical everyday environments by exercising a degree of autonomy in their mundane practices, whichever they may be. a model for identifying different modes and spaces of children’s agency in terms of political involvement and political presence was proposed. the composition of the reviewed articles suggests that children´s role in the in policy making remains unclear and children´s participation often only takes place in the context of adult-led processes. if participation is considered important, policy planners and implementers should also consider the ways in which children’s participation in such processes could be included and evaluated more fully rather than simply being viewed as an element of functional or administrative practice. discussion one motivation for this paper – based on the seven identified articles was to make sense of how children’s participation in policymaking has been studied by reviewing the existing body of academic research and discerning what can be learned from that. at first, our search for research evidence related to articles where children actively participated in policymaking, but the lack of such articles was a surprise. consequently, we then focused on collating data about children’s participation in policymaking by looking at theories and conceptual models of children´s participation in public policymaking in various textbooks. to answer the questions around how children’s participation has been facilitated, it is clear that children’s participation in adult-led processes remains rare and that where it does exist, it is governed by adults. for instance, the case analysis concerning israel (perry-hazan, 2016) makes explicit the difficulty in finding the best and most appropriate way in which children’s views can be taken ‘seriously’ and included in, or incorporated into, the making of public policy. interestingly however, in the israeli knesset, is there a place for children in the making of public policy? insights... 24 children´s perspectives have produced reciprocal dialogues between adults and children and thus stimulated significant societal discussion (perry-hazan, 2016). drawn from the experiences reported in the perry-hazan (2016) and uziely (2018) articles it seems that if adults do not support children’s participation, even the most important reforms, from a children´s perspective, remain ‘untouched’. this view is supported by the analysis of forde et.al. (2017), and vanhaeght and bauwens (2016), who claim that children themselves are keen to participate but are not taken seriously by adults. as byrne and lundy (2019) note, in understanding children’s role in policymaking, it is also important to look at the issues and aspects guiding the adult’s perspectives. byrne and lundy (2019, p. 363) somewhat pessimistically conclude that even though there are now numerous examples of children and young people being involved in public decision-making, significant challenges remain. in their words (ibid.) “…participation is not always routine, nor is it always meaningful”. the lack of meaning in participation refers to the adults’ understanding of the process as children’s participation is generally viewed from the adult’s point of view, for instance through the sensemaking lenses of parents, professionals and adults in general (e.g., philips et al., 2019; schalkers et al., 2016; vogts et al., 2010). focusing on the adult’s point of view however narrows significantly our understanding of children’s participation and leans on adult conceptualisations of participation (see also kallio & hakli, 2011). even though formal models for children´s participation in societal activities exist (e.g., shrier, 2001), there is little evidence that these models are followed in practice – or that any significant body of scholarly research exists around this topic. arnott (2008), for instance, has argued that children have seldom featured in these kinds of policy analyses and that while children´s participation in public policy initiatives have been used as a means of (re)building ‘trust’ and ‘renewing democracy’, such endeavours are generally lacking in concrete efforts to incorporate children´s views in public policy formulations and strategy building. building upon perry-hasan´s (2016) conclusions, it seems that children’s participation should be approached and evaluated from at least two points of view. first, policymakers need guidance on the ways in which they hear children’s views and how best they can then take those views into consideration. second, there are multiple and diverse approaches through which children´s participation can be organised and maintained. furthermore, and from the israeli knesset case, it is clear that children also need guidance in terms of what kinds of matters can be brought into parliamentary committees or other policy-making arenas and what would be a kind of optimal way to accomplish this. perry-hazan (2016) advocates for the view that children’s participation does not happen on its own, nor does it take place automatically: instead, in policymaking, participation takes place when children and adults work together to create a common understanding related to what matters, what makes the difference and how different aspects are taken into consideration. as an example, in the home country of the authors of this paper, children were invited to participate in the making of the first national child strategy in late 2020 by creating a questionnaire and organising working groups in which children could participate. the questionnaire attracted 1 344 children to respond to the survey. moreover, more than 40 children participated in the working groups that put together the national child strategy document. the outputs of the workshops were presented to the parliamentary committee and were warmly appreciated by the members of the committee yet, despite this, there remains little academic interest in the process. another example relates to scotland, where the scottish government explored the nature of children and young people’s participation. however, the findings which were based on six case studies, were reported only as a national report (ross et al., 2018). this is an important point in terms of the need to better understand the role that children’s participation plays in both academic and political processes. a concerted academic research effort is therefore required to give children’s participation the mandate it needs to become part of every political process. researchers working with children have many good insights in respect of how, under what terms and in what ways, children can be involved but without the codification that academic research brings to the field, this knowledge remains elina stenvall et al. 25 piecemeal and ad hoc. in conclusion, children´s rights are an important element of societal development, promoting the betterment of society. this paper suggests, however, that significant gaps remain between practice (practical participation) and the ideals and commitments undertaken globally, particularly in respect of the crc. this is not to say that children´s participation in the making of public policies is non-existent or that it seldomly takes place. clearly however the body of relevant academic research around children’s participation at the strategic level remains scarce. it would, in this light, be interesting to know whether leading politicians and senior civil service staff have any real interest in developing children’s participation. it would also be interesting to know why academic interest in children´s participation in public policymaking is so limited. is it because, in existing policymaking processes there is, generally, so little room for any participation given the nature of complex societal problems and the turbulent time-cycles of public policy reforms (e.g., virtanen & tammeaid, 2020)? as government reforms are complex and multifaceted in nature, could it also be that children´s participation in policymaking is difficult to grasp for researchers because children’s participation simply takes a lot of time and effort, as highlighted in the scottish example (ross et al., 2018)? or is it so that children do take part in public policy making processes, but that scholarly research has simply neglected to view this as a research issue? it is also important to ask whether policymakers – leading politicians and senior civil service staff – have a genuine interest in developing children’s participation through different phases of the policy cycle and if so, in determining how the children´s role should best be clarified and how best to get academics to study it (on the practical problems related to this assumption, see alfandari, 2015). in summary, a plethora of practical, theoretical, and conceptual guidelines – or ideal models – already exist in terms of treating children as policymaking partners. this is clearly a positive thing. to improve further children’s role in policymaking, adults should however widen their perspectives both on what is considered ‘political’, including how children’s views can better be taken into consideration and on how best to research this. currently, for the professionals who work on the frontline in terms of public services, children’s participation seems to be merely something that needs to be executed – a ‘tick in the box’ exercise – rather than something that is happening based on an agreed pedagogic process. if there is no fundamental base knowledge of how children should be involved, children’s participation processes can, for practitioners, quickly come to be seen as ‘too difficult to execute’ in relation to wider political processes. it is important then to extend the scope of research related to children´s participation in policymaking processes to create a better collective understanding among policymakers of how to use academic research in the development of children´s participation. if participation is seen as being essentially unattached to policymaking, it will not be viewed as a vital part of the policy process and will not attract interest in terms of academic research. policymakers thus need convincing that children’s participation is something to invest in. conclusions according to article 12 of the crc, children have a right to express their views. for mccafferty (2017), this remains one of the most frequently cited principles in the un convention in question. reynaert et al. (2009) have stated that the focus of research on article 12 has concentrated on three specific topics: firstly, on autonomy and participation rights as the new norm in children’s rights practice and policy, secondly on children’s rights vs. parental rights and thirdly on the global children’s rights industry (i.e., on the diversity of conceptual dimensions regarding participation). from the perspective of public administration and public services then, the question of service-user involvement deserves further attention. the research literatures in respect of the abovementioned issues have proliferated over the last decade indicating the importance of considering service users´ views in upgrading and co-creating public service delivery (alves, 2013). the aim of this review was to focus on the role of academic research when discussing participation in order to discover how children’s participation in policy-making processes is analysed in academic is there a place for children in the making of public policy? insights... 26 research. the problem seems to be that although there is a lot happening in relation to children’s participation, there remains a lack of academic studies evaluating this participation. this leads us to question; what do we know about chidlren’s participation in policymaking processes? the answer being, not very much. do children take part as autonomous subjects in the making of public policies and are children recognised as partners in public policymaking in the various phases of public policy protocols? perhaps, but we cannot be sure because it is not documented by systematic research. although the analysis in this paper has limitations (e.g., comprising only a handful of studies published in academic journals, and confined only to the english language, focusing on western oecd-countries and with only a limited knowledge of the possible gray literature), this review suggests that the answers to both these questions are negative. the reviewed articles indicate that children are not part of policymaking process in ways that support and consider their views and opinions or their ideas around participation more generally. instead, children tend to have only a perfunctory/superficial role in participatory processes while adults retain the power to either take children’s views into consideration or leave them out. the issue of children’s participation does however have significant connotations for adult’s democratic and participatory methods but remains too often viewed solely from an adult point of view. there is evidence that participation is seen as something that adults are creating for children when it should perhaps be understood and calibrated through the topics children themselves want to be involved in. on the other hand, it seems that children’s participation depends on the attitudes, good will and understanding of the adults involved. how adults conceive of the value of participation and the opportunities it affords, as well as the connotations it has and how participatory practices are created, represent crucial decision-making ‘points’ in the future evolution of children´s opportunities to participate in the making of public policies. the main findings of this study can be summarised as follows. first, more systematic ways to explore and research children’s participation in policymaking processes should be adopted, since the topic (children as participants) in academic terms, clearly remains under-researched. second, based on the analysed articles, it is clear that policymakers need to change their attitudes towards children’s participation and acknowledge that children can be active agents within the policymaking process. children’s role in policymaking should thus be defined more clearly and systematically. to do this however we need more academic research. based on the articles reviewed for this research paper, it is obvious that the topic of children´s participation in policymaking processes is under-utilised as a research focus and thus that policymakers are unaible to easily access and test the pragmatic tools required to help improve children’s participation. a lot is going on in terms of actual participation but the lacuna in terms of academic research makes it difficult to evaluate what works and what does not. without the necessary embedding research effort the possibility exists that participation remains ad hoc, unscientific and unstructured. finally, it should be questioned why this is so: what explains this paucity in terms of participation studies as a part of public policymaking focusing on how and when children could and should participate? we believe we have identified a two-dimensional lacuna in relation to this topic: firstly, the scarcity of participation cases (as reported in reviewed articles) and secondly the scarcity in relation to the evaluation of already existing participation practice. declarations author’s declarations acknowledgments: we appreciate the work concluded by other researchers analysed in this article. authors’ contributions: all authors contributed equally to this manuscript. competing interests: the authors declare that they have no competing interests. funding: there was no funding. ethics approval and consent to participate: there were no participants in this research. elina stenvall et al. 27 publisher’s declarations editorial acknowledgement: the editorial process of this article was carried out by dr. mine göl-güven. publisher’s note: journal of childhood, education & society remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliation. references alfandari. r. 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(2020). rights of the children and young people in health care. journal of peadiatrics and child health, 56(4), 499-501. https://doi.org/10.1111/jpc.14802 https://doi.org/10.1080/13575279.2016.1264368 https://doi.org/10.1080/13621020500211354 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2016.05.015 https://doi.org/10.1080/13621025.2019.1620687 https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.13152 https://doi.org/10.1002/chi.617 https://doi.org/10.1163/092755607x206489 https://doi.org/10.1108/qae-04-2018-0049 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1440-1754.2010.01815 https://doi.org/10.1111/jpc.14802 is there a place for children in the making of public policy? insights from the research evidence journal of childhood, education & society volume 3, issue 2, 2022, 200-211 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.202232176 research article ©2022 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. what are singapore parents’ perception of play in the early years? nirmala karuppiah1 abstract: international research indicate that play is the most effective way for children to learn and develop physically, cognitively, socially and emotionally as well as reduces stress and enhances confidence, curiosity and creativity. despite the importance and benefits of play for children’s learning and development, play seems to be vanishing from preschool classrooms globally (and in singapore) for various reasons. it is believed that one of the reasons for this phenomenon could be the lack of parents’ support for children’s play due to their high expectations and demand for academic achievement and the lack of their awareness or understanding on the importance of play in children’s development. hence, the key purpose of this exploratory study is to gather data from parents on their perception of play and holistic development in singapore preschools. data were collected from 30 parents through interviews using a semi-structured questionnaire. the data collected were transcribed verbatim and coded and subsequently, organised by research question and analysed and interpreted constructively and reflexively. the findings of the study revealed that although most singapore parents understood and recognised the importance of play and holistic development in the early years, some of them wanted preschools to prepare their children academically for primary school. parents also shared a list of factors which supported or impeded their support for children’s play and some of them felt that they could benefit from parent education programmes. these findings highlight the importance of the school-family-community partnership in the education of young children in singapore. article history received: 10 february 2022 accepted: 12 july 2022 keywords play; holistic development; preschool education; parent education; teacher education introduction preschool education for children from birth to six years is not compulsory in singapore. however, most parents enroll their children in a preschool (kindergarten or childcare centre) to ensure that their children are well prepared for primary school (tan, 2007). in fact, it is reported that about 99 percent of children aged five and six years are currently attending a preschool (ministry of social and family development [msf], 2020). to ensure that children are provided with a quality preschool education, the singapore government identified four key areas for review which were regulations, teacher-training, research and curriculum in 1999 (ministry of education [moe], 2003). consequently, in 2003, the ministry of education launched the nurturing early learners: a curriculum for kindergartens in singapore (nel framework) to ensure that children proceed from preschool to primary school with a common set of knowledge, skills and dispositions (moe, 2012). the nel framework which was later revised in 2008 and further refreshed in 2012, in view of current and relevant local and international research on teaching and learning in the preschool years. subsequently, the early childhood development agency (ecda) provided the preschools with intensive training and comprehensive resource materials to support the implementation of the nel framework. the nel framework is the first official document for preschool education in singapore to identify best practices for teaching and learning and to emphasise on holistic development of children instead of _____________ 1 nanyang technological university, national institute of education, centre for research in child development, singapore, email: nirmala.karuppiah@nie.edu.sg, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2182-6560 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202232176 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:nirmala.karuppiah@nie.edu.sg https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2182-6560 what are singapore parents’ perception of play… 201 academic school readiness alone (tan, 2017). the underlying belief of the nel framework is that children are curious, active and competent learners (moe, 2012). based on this belief, teachers are expected to implement six iteach principles which is the acronym for integrated approach to learning, teachers as facilitators of learning, engaging children in learning through purposeful play, authentic experiences through quality interactions, children as constructors of knowledge, and holistic development (moe, 2012). purposeful play is defined as teachers intentionally planning the play experiences and organising the environment (based on carefully constructed objectives & facilitation) to enhance children’s learning in the preschool (moe, 2012). purposeful or guided play where adults scaffold children’s learning has been found to be valuable in preschool classrooms (resnick & johnson, 2020; toub et al., 2016). to ensure the holistic development of the children, there are six learning areas in the nel framework which are aesthetics and creative expression, discovery of the world, language and literacy, motor skills development, numeracy, and social and emotional development. each of these learning areas has its own set of knowledge, skills and dispositions which preschools are encouraged to help develop in the children through careful planning and facilitation of the purposeful play activities. however, three years later, many preschools are still facing challenges in implementing the nel framework (bautisa et al., 2016). some leaders and teachers in these preschools cite parents as a key challenge, claiming that parents place high emphasis on the acquisition of academic skills (e.g., language & numeracy skills through drill-and-practice & rote-learning) and are not supportive of a play-based learning (i.e., constructing knowledge through interacting with the physical & social environment) in the preschools (berthelsen et al., 2011). they also believe that some parents enrol their children in enrichment and tuition classes and hence, preschools are expected to raise the bar to keep up with the children’s higher levels of academic skills (yongbeon & fung, 2021). this, in turn, has placed pressure on primary schools to raise the bar as well, resulting in spiralling levels of stress placed on the children, parents and teachers in both the preschools and primary schools (bach & christensen, 2017; ebbeck & chan, 2011; ebbeck & warrior, 2008; lim-ratnam, 2013). an over emphasis on school readiness skills and employing primary school teaching methods has also led to the ‘schoolification’ of some preschools in singapore (gunnersdottir, 2004, p.1). consequently, children in singapore experience stress and have little time for play, rest and fun (bach & christensen, 2017; ebbeck & chan, 2011). according to ebbeck & warrior (2008), this phenomenon could be attributed to singapore being a “result-oriented, exam focused education system” (p. 248). similarly, lim-ratnam (2013) also believes that the pressures of singapore’s high-stakes examination system in schools have contributed to a strong emphasis on academic skills in the preschools and schools. this has resulted in parents expecting preschools to prepare their children for primary school academically (esp., how to read, spell & write as well as be able to count, add & subtract) through drill-and-practice and rote-learning (bach & christensen, 2017). parents become concerned, stressed and anxious when their children are unable to meet their expectations (yongbeon & fung, 2021). recent articles in the local media indicated that parents contribute to academic stress and anxieties which children face in singapore (qing, 2021). one of the reasons for the lack of parents’ support for children’s play in preschools could be due to their high expectations and demand for educational achievement, and their lack of awareness or understanding on the importance of play in children’s development (international play association [ipa], 2010). while parents in singapore want the ‘best’ for their children, they may focus on academic school readiness skills, and not realise the importance of both academic and non-academic skills, and the wellbeing of children for a smooth transition from preschool to primary school (dockett & perry, 2001; gunnersdottir, 2004). they may not also realise that holistic development of young children is important for future school, work and life (bach & christensen, 2017; tan, 2017). hence, this exploratory study intends to gather data on parents’ perception of play and holistic development in the early years as well as understand what their fears, anxieties and concerns are and more importantly, why they have such fears, anxieties and concerns about their children’s preschool education. nirmala karuppiah 202 concept of play while play has been universally accepted as important and beneficial to young children, it is difficult to define play precisely and concisely (whitebread et al., 2012). however, play is commonly viewed as pleasurable, voluntary, spontaneous, engaging and intrinsically motivating (bullard, 2017) and contributes to children’s happiness and mental well-being (fisher, 2008). children can participate in different types of play (e.g., exploratory, constructive, dramatic, etc.) which could involve the use of toys, books, blocks or other materials (bullard, 2017; fisher, 2008). children can play alone (solitary play) or with others (parallel, associative or cooperative play) (bullard, 2017; fisher, 2008). it is believed that childhood is a time where children build social skills, learn values and emotional intelligence through play (yongbeom & fung, 2021). besides providing children with opportunities to explore, learn and solve problems, play also helps to enhance their confidence, curiosity and creativity (malkovichuk et al., 2014) and reduce their stress (wang & aamodt, 2012). play creates powerful opportunities for children to acquire critical knowledge, skills & dispositions across various domains of development (including physical, cognitive, social & emotional) in their early years (moe, 2012; united nations children's fund [unicef], 2018). hence, play is pivotal in preparing young children holistically to succeed not only in preschool but also in later school, work and life (clouder, 2004; weisberg et al., 2014). relationship between play and learning play, learning and holistic development are intertwined and there are many benefits of play, learning and holistic development for young children (ducusin & dy, 2016). since play and learning are not dichotomous, many countries around the world have emphasised the explicit link between play and learning (and not play versus learning) in the early years (rentzou et al., 2019). these countries have deliberately made learning through play or play-based learning the central pedagogy for their early childhood education (bubikova-moan et al., 2019). play-based learning which is being universally recognised as a developmentally appropriate practice, involves child-centred learning, hands-on experiences and open-ended inquiry (moore et al., 2014). unlike direct or didactic teaching, children in play-based learning environments are encouraged to explore, express and make their own choices within meaningful, engaging and authentic contexts, through the holistic employment of their physical and intellectual capacities, and social-emotional abilities (bergen & fromberg, 2010; bullard, 2017, fisher, 2008; howard, 2010). however, progressing from direct teaching to play-based learning has posed challenges to preschool teachers and parents (keung & cheung, 2019). hence, it is essential for preschool teachers and parents to work together to nurture and support the development of the whole child (or holistic development of the child) through play-based learning (pyle et al., 2017). socio-cultural perspectives of play despite the importance and benefits of play for children’s learning and development, play seems to be vanishing from preschool classrooms in many countries (resnik & johnson, 2020; warash et al., 2017). in a report on the implementation of article 31 of the united nations convention on the rights of the child (uncrc), the international play association (ipa, 2010) has revealed that there is a lack of children’s play globally due to “excessive pressure for educational achievement” (p. 38) and a lack of parental “awareness of the importance of play in children’s holistic development” (p. 27). international research has also revealed that there are cultural differences in parents’ perceptions of play (babuc, 2015). while euro-american parents tend to view play as important for the children’s learning and development in the early years, asian parents tend to believe that there is little value in play (parmar et al., 2004). one of the key reasons behind asian parents’ perception that play has little value could be attributed to the tension between play and learning (howard, 2010; toub et al., 2016). while the dichotomy between play versus learning has been generally debunked, some asian teachers and parents continue to what are singapore parents’ perception of play… 203 hold the view that play is for fun and enjoyment, and learning is for acquiring academic skills (keung & cheung, 2019). they also believe that academic skills can only be acquired through drill-and-practice and rote-learning (yongbeon & fung, 2021). despite extensive research on the importance of play in the early years, many asian parents (including singapore parents) continue to place high emphasis on preparing their children academically for primary school as early as possible. they place undue stress and pressure on their children and preschools as well as enrol their children in various enrichment and tuition classes, believing that this would increase their children’s chances of succeeding later in school, work and life (bach & christensen, 2017; tan, 2017). school-family-community partnership play-based learning which provides an excellent environment for promoting young children’s academic and non-academic learning and holistic development, encompasses both free play and guided play (bullard, 2017; hui et al., 2014; weisberg et al., 2013). during guided play, teachers and parents can be co-players or take a participative role during children’s play activities (howard, 2010). they can also play an active role in preparing the environment, materials and activities as well as responding sensitively, asking open-ended questions and providing suggestions in order for children to reach precise or intended targets (peterson et al., 2017; pyle et al., 2018; pyle et al., 2020; toub et al., 2016). such guided play is also known as purposeful play in the nel framework (moe, 2012). if play and holistic development are crucial for children in the early years then, it is important for singapore parents to understand, appreciate and support play and holistic development (peterson et al., 2017; pyle et al., 2018) as well as the play-based learning presented in the nel framework (moe, 2012). in order to provide the necessary information, programs and support to help singapore parents, it is first important to stop and listen to them. hence, this exploratory study intends to gather data on parents’ perception of play and holistic development as well as understand what their fears, anxieties and concerns are and more importantly, why they have such fears anxieties and concerns. it also intends to identify factors that support or impede parents’ support for children’ play and holistic development as well as how they can be supported. the idea of schools and the community engaging and involving parents in their children’s education is based on joyce epstein’s school-family-community partnership model which was developed in the 1990s and remains influential in the field of education despite undergoing revisions over the years. hence, the research questions (rqs) for this study are as follows: rq1: what are parents’ perceptions of play and holistic development for their young children? rq2: what are the factors that parents’ consider contributing to or impeding parents' support for play? rq3: what are the kinds of assistance and support that parents think they need to support and guide their children’s play and learning? rq4: what are parents' goals for their children’s preschool education? what are parents’ overall goals for their children's education? the findings from this study will help inform preschools and the community (e.g., teacher-training institutes, employers, policymakers, etc.) on how they can support parents and their children in the early years. method this exploratory study is primarily qualitative in nature in order to obtain data from participants in a naturalistic setting which would be rich, thick, descriptive and insightful (bogdan & biklen, 2003; cohen et al., 2011; creswell, 2008). as such, the sample size was intentionally kept small in order to ensure that nirmala karuppiah 204 data collection and data analysis were both manageable and practical but yet meaningful and useful as well as fit for purpose of the study (cohen et al., 2011). prior to commencement of the study, approval was sought and obtained from the nanyang technological university institutional review board (ntu irb). participants a total number of 30 parents (fathers & mothers) with at least one child aged four to six years old, were invited to participate in the study through purposeful sampling (cohen et al., 2011; creswell, 2008). these parents were approached through the preschools (kindergartens or childcare centres) which were located in various parts of singapore. however, as the sample was small and comprised parents who were willing and agreed to participate in the study, it was not completely representative of the population in singapore. however, the demographic data were collected from the parents prior to the interview and summarised and presented in table 1. table 1. parents’ demographic data category number of mothers number of fathers total number of parents 21 9 30 type of service childcare 7 5 12 kindergarten 14 4 18 racial composition chinese 13 7 20 malay 5 1 6 indian 2 0 2 eurasian 1 1 2 highest education level tertiary 17 8 25 post-secondary 2 0 2 secondary 2 1 3 occupation type homemaker 9 0 9 teaching 6 1 7 non-teaching 6 8 14 gross monthly income na 3 0 3 $2000 and below 1 0 1 $2001 $4000 3 5 8 $4001 $6000 8 3 11 $6001 and above 6 1 7 type of housing public 19 8 27 private 1 1 2 other 1 0 1 data collection instrument data was collected from the parents through one-to-one, face-to-face interviews using a semistructured questionnaire. the duration of each interview which was about two hours long, was conducted at a venue which was convenient and agreed upon with each parent. during the interview, parents were asked open-ended questions as stated in the questionnaire. examples of questions asked to solicit their response are do you think ‘play’ is important in the early years? do you think ‘play’ is being supported in the early years in singapore? and what do you think preschools can do to support you or your child’s play and learning at home? parents were also asked probing questions to gain a better and deeper understanding of their responses. procedure prior written consent was sought and obtained from the parents who were willing to participate in what are singapore parents’ perception of play… 205 the study. the parents were briefed on the purpose of the study, data collection procedures and confidentiality of their responses. they were also informed that participation was voluntary, and that they could withdraw participation at any point of the study. the interview data which were audio-recorded, were then transcribed verbatim, organised and coded manually and carefully. personal information such as parents’, children’s and preschools’ names (if mentioned during the interview) were coded and anonymised. for example, c1p1 means centre 1 and parent 1. data analysis following data collection, the data were analysed inductively and reflexively by the research team comprising the principal investigator (pi) and research assistant (ra) with extensive experience in the field of early childhood education (hammersley & atkinson, 1983; lecompte & preissle, 1983). data analysis involved reading the interview transcripts multiple times to familiarise, examine and code the response of each parent (miles & huberman, 1994). once the responses of all the parents were coded, they were organised and grouped by research question (cohen et al., 2011). these groups were then reviewed, revised and re-grouped several times and further reduced and refined to identify clear themes, patterns, relationships and comparisons (braun & clarke, 2006; lecompte & preissle, 1983; miles & huberman, 1994; nowell et al., 2017). the final key categories were then, organized and presented as results. subsequently, the results were carefully analysed and interpreted constructively and reflexively by drawing on literature that was relevant to the study (hamersley & atkinson, 1983; kiger & varpio, 2020). results the results from the study will be summarised and presented as key categories to understand singapore parents’ perceptions of play and holistic development as well as the factors that support or impede their support for play, the kinds of assistance they need to support their children’s play, and the goals for their children’s preschool education. relevant and interesting quotes from parents (with little or no editing) will also be provided, whenever necessary or appropriate. perception of play and holistic development when asked about their perceptions of play and its role and importance in the early years, parents shared a variety of views. about half of the parents perceived play to be free play with children being given the choice to select their play activity or materials. they felt that play should be fun and enjoyable. for example, c1p7 shared that “play for a child, is to have fun. it’s something that they want to do, and they like to do”. another parent, c1p6 explained that play is “almost unstructured…children are free to explore whatever they want”. parents also had different perceptions about play and learning and their connection/interconnection in the early years. almost all parents felt that play and learning cannot take place simultaneously; and that play was for “fun” and “enjoyment”, and learning was for acquiring knowledge, skills and dispositions. only a few parents understood that learning can take place while children are at play. for example, c5p2 shared that “whenever they play, they learn something new. maybe the rules and regulations, maybe what is right and what is wrong”. parents were also divided about their expectations of what children would learn through play. some parents wanted their children to learn academic skills (e.g., numeracy & language skills) and other parents wanted their children to acquire non-academic skills (e.g., social skills & good values). however, only a few parents believed that children would learn both academic and non-academic skills through play. it is interesting to note here that these results could be linked to the earlier results on parents’ perceptions of play and learning, where play was for “fun” and “enjoyment” and learning was for acquiring knowledge, skills and dispositions. there were some parents who believed that play could help children relax and relieve stress, and that children should play in their early years as they would have less time to play when they go to school. for example, c5p2 observed that “there was lesser play time as children entered k1 and nirmala karuppiah 206 k2, with more focus given towards learning and the academics”. similarly, c10p4 whose child was enrolled in phonics lessons, felt that her child should “concentrate on learning rather than playing…start to prepare for primary one”. similar to play, parents had various perceptions of holistic development. while some parents perceived holistic development to be overall or all-rounded development, other parents felt that it involved development in either the academic/cognitive or non-academic/non--cognitive domains. there were also a few parents who did not know what holistic development meant or involved. for example, c8p3 shared that holistic development is “to grow up to be able to be resilient… to be able to accept setbacks and grow from that…to be able to deal and overcome challenges.” as all the parents were unaware of the nel framework, they could not make reference to the links between play, learning and holistic development in the framework. factors that support or impede play parents were divided on the factors which contribute or impede their support for play. many parents felt that they were well supported at the home and preschool, and in singapore. reasons cited included having more time during the weekends, seeing the child happy and having siblings to play with. the remaining parents shared that they were not supported at home and the preschool, and in singapore. reasons cited included lack of time, lack of resources, lack of play ideas, messiness of play, societal pressure on academic learning and academic expectations of primary school. for example, c1p3 shared that “i can play with my children whenever they want me to but for those working mums, i don't think they will have time to play with their children or teach them”. assistance and support when asked what sort of assistance and support parents needed for them to support play, they listed the following areas: 1) childcare expenses, 2) more time, 3) more resources, 4) talks and workshops, 5) less academic pressure in education, and 6) better facilities in neighbourhood playgrounds. additionally, parents also requested for preschools to provide assistance and support especially, in the following areas: 1) greater home-school partnership, 2) parent education on play and learning, 3) more play in preschool, and 4) more non-academic enrichment activities. for example, c1p7 requested that “it is good if you have more talks for parents”. goals for preschool and overall education parents were again divided between non-academic and academic goals for their children’s preschool education. while some of parents listed non-academic areas such as social and communication skills, good values and character, curiosity and enjoy school and learning; other parents listed academic areas such numeracy, language and other school readiness skills. for example, c9p3 explained that “academic goals like basic numeracy and phonetic skills…quite essential because when children enter primary school, they are required to read and write some sentences…will actually help them be more prepared”. discussion and conclusion incidentally, parents’ perception of play seems to be in line with the literature on free play which states that play should be fun and enjoyable, and that children should be given the choice to select their play activity or materials (bergen & fromberg, 2010; bullard, 2017; fisher, 2008; howard, 2010). however, parents did not mention other possible types of play and their importance in the early years, and their role in children’s play (howard, 2010; peterson et al., 2017; pyle et al., 2018). for example, these parents could either be unaware of guided play, or misconstrued guided play to be drill-and-practice or rote-learning (bubikova-moan et al., 2019). hence, it is important to provide programmes (such as talks, workshops, print or online resources, etc.) for parents to help them understand and appreciate the different types of play and their importance in the early years, and their role during children’s play. what are singapore parents’ perception of play… 207 interestingly, the perception that play and learning are dichotomous (i.e., play versus learning instead of play and learning) seems to be in line with the findings of some international and local studies (e.g., berthelsen et al., 2011; brownlee et al., 2009). these studies found that teachers with higher professional training in early childhood care and education (ecce) were able to perceive play and learning occurring simultaneously. hence, it is possible that parents without professional training in ecce could lack an understanding or possess a misconception about play and learning in the early years (howard, 2010; ipa, 2010; peterson et al., 2017, pyle et al., 2020). hence, as mentioned previously, it is vital to organise a variety of appropriate programmes for parents to help them understand the relationship between play and learning in the early years. it appears that while many parents supported play and understood its importance in the early years, some of them wanted preschools to prepare their children in the academic areas for primary school. as indicated in the local studies, parents in singapore seemed to be generally concerned and anxious about their children being able to cope with the academic rigours of primary school (bach & christensen, 2017; berthelsen et al., 2015; ebbeck & warrior, 2008; lim-ratnam, 2013; yongbeon & fung, 2021). they did not seem to be aware of the non-academic or soft skills which are also important for school, work and life (bach & christensen, 2017; weisberg et al., 2004; yongbeon & fung, 2021). they also did not seem to be aware that children could learn academic skills (e.g., numeracy & language) through play more effectively than drill-and-practice or rote-learning in the early years (gunnersdottir, 2004; keung & cheung, 2019; weisberg et al., 2013). hence, it is necessary to engage parents to help them understand the importance of equipping young children with both academic and non-academic skills, and that these skills could be learnt through play and are not only for school but beyond school as well (clouder, 2004; weisberg et al., 2013). there also seems to be a lack of understanding or a misunderstanding that holistic development involved either cognitive or non-cognitive (physical, social & emotional) domains (bullard, 2017; clouder, 2004; ipa, 2010). hence, it would be good to share information with parents to help them understand and appreciate the notion of play, learning and holistic development, and how they are related to each other in the early years. as all the parents were unaware of the nel framework, they could not make the links between play, learning and holistic development to the framework. hence, preschools could consider sharing and disseminating information (through newsletters & circulars) about their preschool programme (such as curriculum, child development & learning) as well as to involve parents in the care and education of their children (preston et al., 2018). parents seem to be divided on the factors which contribute or impede their support for play. for parents who need preschools to assist them in supporting their children’s play but have busy work schedules, preschools could consider planning a variety of parent involvement programmes to meet the different needs of parents (preston et al., 2018). these programmes could include talks on play ideas and transition from preschool to primary school; or workshops on making simple resources for play and how to use puppets and props for story-telling. additionally, employers could consider providing assistance and support for these parent involvement programmes in the preschools by providing time off for parents to participate in their child’s preschool activities, building partnerships/relationships with preschools in the vicinity or setting up workplace preschools (epstein, 2008). there seems to be an overlap in the list of goals mentioned by parents for both the preschool education and overall education of their children. parents seem to see preschool as preparation for formal schooling, and not on its own or beyond schooling. as indicated in the literature, parents in singapore seem to be generally anxious and concerned about their children being prepared academically for primary school (e.g., bach & christensen, 2017; ebbeck & warrior, 2008; lim-ratnam, 2013). they also did not seem to be aware of the non-academic or soft skills which are important for school and beyond (clouder, 2004; weisberg et al., 2013). research shows that when parents support their children’s education, these children perform better in school (jeynes, 2012; nunez et al., 2015), and have a positive attitude toward school (mcneal, 2014). research also shows that parent involvement in preschools can improve parent-teacher relationships, which is important in the education of young children (winton et al., 2008). through parent nirmala karuppiah 208 involvement programmes, parents can also become more aware of the resources and opportunities which are available both in the preschool and community (coleman, 1988). parents seem to look to preschools for advice, support and assistance which could indicate that they value the professionalism of the teachers and leaders. as parents require different types of assistance for supporting their children’s play, preschools could consider strengthening their partnership and relationship with parents through better sharing and dissemination of information as well as planning more creative and meaningful programmes for parents (preston et al., 2018). employers and policymakers could also consider adopting a more comprehensive, targeted and holistic approach in providing support and assistance to parents with young children (epstein, 2008). hence, it would appear that joyce epstein’s school-family-community partnership model could be adopted constructively to support and guide the development of effective parent involvement and engagement programmes in the singapore preschools. limitations the sample size for this study is small which could make generalizations challenging. however, sampling decisions were made within the constraints of ethics and fitness for purpose (cohen et al., 2011). information on data collection, analysis, interpretation and reporting of the data were also provided. hence, the ‘burden of transferability’ is left to the reader or user of this research to determine the degree of similarity between the setting of this study and the setting of the intended study (mertens, 1998, p. 183). the other limitation of this study would be researcher-bias in the interpretation, analysis and reporting of the data. however, all efforts were undertaken by the research team to keep researcher-bias to a minimum by being as reflexive and objective as possible and constantly referring to the literature when analysing, interpreting and reporting (hamersley & atkinson, 1983). hence, despite the aforesaid limitations, this study is a good start in capturing and documenting parents’ voice in research on preschool education in singapore as well as recognising parents as an important partner in the education of young children (epstein, 2008). implications and future research findings from this study could be used to inform preschool education, parent education and teacher education programmes. findings from this study could also be used to inform future research. for example, follow-up research could be conducted to track children’s performance and well-being in the primary years and beyond. the study could also ascertain if parents’ views about play and holistic development in the early years as well as their goals of preschool education and overall education change when their preschool children move on to primary school. declarations authors’ declarations acknowledgements: the author would like to thank the parents for their kind participation in this study. competing interests: i declare that there is no conflict of interest. the views expressed in this study do not necessarily reflect those of the university. funding: this study was supported and funded by the office of educational research, national institute of education, nanyang technological university, singapore (grant: oer 26/17 kn). ethics approval and consent to participate: prior to the commencement of the study, approval was sought and obtained from the nanyang technological university institutional review board (ntu irb). publisher’s declarations editorial acknowledgement: the editorial process of this article was carried out by dr. mine göl-güven. publisher’s note: journal of childhood, education & society remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliation. what are singapore parents’ perception of play… 209 references babuc, z. t. 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education & society volume 3, issue 2, 2022, 139-150 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.202232180 research article ©2022 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. social and emotional learning (sel): how it finds a place in an early childhood education curriculum in turkey merve özgünlü1, fetiye erbil2, mine göl-güven3 abstract: the study aims to identify the social and emotional learning (sel) skills as defined by collaborative, academic, social and emotional learning (casel) in the turkish early childhood education curriculum (tecec). recent studies have pointed out that gaining sel skills at early ages has many benefits for development. researchers in the sel area suggest that having a clear conceptual framework benefits both in research and practice. tecec document is examined based on casel’s framework. document analysis was used to identify how sel standards and objectives in tecec were conceptually designed. the findings show that out of 17 standards to support social and emotional development, only 10 of them are related to sel, meanwhile, 7 of them are identified as social studies standards. out of 53 stated objectives, thirty-one of them are related to sel skills. the current study will provide a tool for researchers, curriculum developers, and practitioners that feel the need to base their research and practice on a solid conceptual framework. article history received: 10 march 2022 accepted: 18 june 2022 keywords early childhood education; social and emotional learning; curriculum introduction there is a huge support of evidence-based research which identifies positive effects of providing social and emotional learning (sel), curriculum, and practices at schools (durlak et al., 2011; taylor et al., 2017). student outcomes are mainly observed in six areas: increase in sel skills, attitudes toward self and others, positive social behavior, decrease in conduct problems, emotional distress, and academic performance (weissberg, 2019). through developed sel skills, children’s self-efficacy gets higher; they develop a more comprehensive sense of community; the ethical values they have are enhanced (zins and elias, 2007). children demonstrate more prosocial behavior; they become more participatory in the classroom. in terms of academic achievement, their mathematics, language, and social studies scores improve along with their learning capabilities (zins and elias, 2007). recent research demonstrates that sel supports students’ academic performance; encourages positive behaviors and decreases negative behaviors like school suspensions and drug use (durlak et al., 2011; taylor et al., 2017). sel programs are built on systematic classroom instruction which aims to enhance children’s capacities to identify and regulate their emotions; develop an appreciation of different perspectives; strengthen children in terms of developing prosocial goals and problem-solving capabilities; and develop effective use of interpersonal and social skills (payton et al., 2000). sel programming enhances students’ social-emotional competencies through creating positive classrooms, school cultures, and climates. besides, it helps to maintain caring, cooperative, culturally responsive, participatory and safe learning environments (zins et al., 2004). moreover, teaching sel skills contributes to the future investment in human capital of a country. research carried out by columbia university shows that quality sel programs bring in an 11:1 return on dollars invested (belfield et al., 2015). when teaching sel at early ages is considered, the evidence supports many positive outcomes that are related to young children’s academic, social and behavioral achievement in school and well-being in _____________ 1 boğaziçi university, learning sciences doctoral program, istanbul, turkey, e-mail: merve.kose2@boun.edu.tr, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2134-0501 2 boğaziçi university, learning sciences doctoral program, istanbul, turkey, e-mail: fetiye.erbil@boun.edu.tr, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5270-3005 3 boğaziçi university, faculty of education, primary education, istanbul, turkey, e-mail: mine.golguven@boun.edu.tr, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2104-0381 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202232180 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:merve.kose2@boun.edu.tr https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2134-0501 mailto:fetiye.erbil@boun.edu.tr https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5270-3005 mailto:mine.golguven@boun.edu.tr https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2104-0381 merve özgünlü et al. 140 general (bierman et al., 2017; gol-guven 2017a, 2017b, 2019). immediate outcomes of sel programs on young children include better school adaptation, decreased problem behaviors, higher levels of perseverance, better results in following directions and being attentive in school (durlak et al., 2011; jones et al., 2015; mcclelland et al., 2017). in the long term, young children have better mental health; their graduation rates and employment opportunities increase; their self-regulation skills are enhanced and they become more engaged citizens and resilient adults (bierman and motamadi, 2015; schindler et al., 2015). early childhood education in turkey compulsory education is twelve years in turkey that does not include early childhood education (ece). starting from primary school years, schools are state-funded, regulated and free of charge. in the early childhood education, parents pay fees to cover stationary expenses and meals. turkish educational system is so centralized that programs, textbooks, and teachers’ recruitment and training are listed under the authority of the ministry of education (gol-guven, in press). in the ece curricula, teaching training, and practice, academic and cognitive skills are emphasized by transferring the knowledge by structured, teacher-directed, didactic methods (gol-guven, 2009). the turkish early childhood education curriculum (tecec) is the only document available for practitioners (ministry of national education [mone], 2013). in a 114-page long document, the framework presents the aims and principles, the importance of ece, standards and objectives, and some examples of classroom layouts, monthly plans, daily routines, and some assessment tools and strategies. out of 349 objectives; 118 of them are cognitive, 73 are language, 53 are social and emotional, 70 are motor, and 35 are self-care skills (gol-guven, 2018). accompanying is the activity book containing 40 in-class activities. another activity book for teachers was published in 2018 (mone, 2018) that was requested by the teachers who reported that the framework is not enough to plan classroom activities. the casel’s framework the collaborative for academic, social and emotional learning (casel) is an international organization which developed a framework presenting skills, attitudes, and values necessary to develop sel skills in schools (payton et al., 2000). casel defines sel as the process in which both children and adults acquire and implement the attitudes, knowledge and skills which are critical to identify and regulate emotions, create and achieve goals, feel and demonstrate empathy with other people, build and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions (casel, 2015). in casel’s framework, there are five core sel competencies in the domains of cognitive, affective and behavioral learning. these are selfawareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. table 1 shows the basic sel competencies and skills. table 1. sel competencies and skills self-awareness self-management social awareness relationship skills responsible decisionmaking identifying emotions impulse control perspective taking communication identifying problems accurate selfperception stress management empathy social engagement analysing situations recognizing strengths self-discipline appreciating diversity relationship building solving problems self-confidence self-motivation respect for others teamwork evaluating self-efficacy goal-setting reflecting organizational skills ethical responsibility social and emotional learning (sel): how it finds… 141 document-based analysis of sel in addition to providing well defined sel skills that led to numerous amounts of research, casel evaluates sel programs effectiveness by doing document-based analysis. document-based analysis is done to understand the extent to which programs, frameworks, curricula cover the sel competencies. studies that carry out such analysis review sel programs to document the specific sel competencies covered in the programs; to report the effectiveness of program implementations, and to demonstrate the methods that are used in the implementation of these sel programs. such analysis is carried out in mainly three categories: (a) sel programs’ effectiveness analysis, (b) analysis of state and/or national frameworks, and (c) independent evaluation studies of curricula and programs. document-based analysis aims to evaluate and report which sel standards and objectives are stated in general educational frameworks or in specific sel programs. sel program’s effectiveness analysis casel published three main guides in which sel prevention and intervention programs are evaluated based on some effectiveness criteria (casel, 2003, 2013, 2015). the guides review and select sel programs based on certain criteria in relationship with the program design, implementation, and evaluation. the programs are analyzed in terms of their alignment with casel five sel competencies, promotion of those competencies, design, length, the opportunities they provide for practicing sel skills, the quality of the training provided for the implementers, the assessment tools, evidence-based effectiveness studies. the guides also provide information on the targeted age-group, objectives and settings. the guides provide information for school and district-level administrators on how to match district and school level outcomes with the programs listed. analysis of state/national frameworks the organization for economic co-operation and development (oecd) report titled skills for social progress the power of social and emotional skills (2015) is an extensive review of policies and practices that promote sel skills in oecd countries and partner economies. the report examines the national education system objectives, curriculum frameworks, the curriculum and content of school subjects, and extracurricular activities related to sel skills. autonomy, tolerance, responsibility, critical thinking and intercultural understanding are the mostly targeted skills in the national curricula. countries under review integrate sel skills across subjects in their curricula at an increasing rate. in the national curricula of most countries, students’ sel skills are addressed in subjects like physical and health education, civic and citizenship education, moral and religious education. the recent report written by european network for social emotional competence (ensec) analyzes international and national curricula frameworks, policy and reports on sel education (cefai, et al., 2018) and it states that although the value of teaching sel is recognized in the educational documents, many areas that are related to sel are covered within the content of citizenship and health education. the report suggested that there should be a distinct place of sel in the curricula and adequate time and resources should be aligned for its teaching. casel carries out a state scan in which the quality of state sel standards are reviewed and analyzed across the united states of america (dusenbury et al., 2014). there are some states advocating that sel instruction needs to be a part of the core academic curriculum as opposed to standalone competencies. this scan shows that there are states which create guidelines or professional development opportunities to assist students’ sel skills whereas other states determine sel goals. there are also states making changes in their existing curriculum to include sel competencies (dusenbury et al., 2018). independent evaluation studies on curricula and programs studies are conducted to understand the effective components of psychological treatments (chorpita et al., 2005; forman et al., 2009; garland et al., 2008; lawson et al., 2019; mcleod et al., 2017). in these studies, various forms of documents on sel instruction and implementation are reviewed with several merve özgünlü et al. 142 aims; demonstrating the core features and effectiveness of sel programs so that practitioners and policymakers can benefit in their program selection; scanning the curricula and policy documents of states and countries in order to describe and revise the different approaches towards high quality implementation of sel skills; and mapping out the common core elements of sel interventions and programs to point an effective framework for assessment and evaluation of the current program, future program development, and research. one significant aspect of effective sel programs and curricula is that they have a clear theory base, well-structured frameworks, and measurable learning objectives. the common/core elements of these programs are; social skills, identifying others’ feelings, identifying one’s own feelings, problem solving and behavioral coping skills/relaxation. the current study is a combination of state framework analysis and evaluation of curricula that aims to identify to what extent turkish early childhood education curriculum (tecec) social and emotional development standards and objectives are related to sel. casel’s framework is used as a guide (casel 2017a) to evaluate how much of sel skills can be identified in tecec. the aim of the study is to (a) categorize the standards and objectives related to either sel skills or social studies, (b) identify how tecec standards and objectives are related to casel’s sel competencies and skills, (c) evaluate what is missing in the current form of tecec in relation with sel. this study contributes to the field by exemplifying a systemic evaluation of national curricula about the integration, coverage and matching sel skills. method this is a qualitative case study as the study focuses on understanding a single curriculum. the method adopted is content analysis as the study aims to study the topic of concern; integration of sel in tecec, in detail and to give a holistic, in depth and detailed description of the situation (fraenkel et al., 2011). the method is based on systematic analysis and interpretation of what is stated in and beyond the documents that are investigated. the documents that are used in this study are official documents (bogdan and biklen, 2007). in tecec, the general aims of the program are referred to as standards and the subcomponents of these standards are addressed as objectives. while referring to casel framework, sel competencies and skills are the chosen terminology in this study. specifically, tecec standards define knowledge, abilities, and competencies that should be reached by children. when it comes to the objectives, they are arranged from simple to complex and from concrete to abstract hierarchically to serve for the occurrence of learning standards. according to tecec, the objectives are observable versions of the standards (mone, 2013). when the number of standards and objectives are considered, it is seen that cognitive developmental area is focused the most, and it is followed by social emotional development, language development, motor skills, and self-care skills (gol-guven, 2017c). the procedure data coders of the current research are the authors of this article. the codes used for analyzing the tecec document are a priori codes, based on casel framework. this is done to relate these codes and bigger categories to an analytic framework in sel literature (creswell, 2007). after the first coding, the coders discussed the discrepancies and ambiguities. later, they reconvened with the first author of the article, and they brought their disagreements and consensus to compare codes. through discussion with the expert coder, discrepancies and ambiguities were resolved and the coders reached a mutual decision on a coding scheme. hereafter, the two coders met weekly to control for coder drift and to discuss questions and solve them. during the coding process, some common themes emerged, and they were used to make decisions in the following steps of the study (creswell, 2007). in the first step of the data coding, the coders congruently realized that some of the sel developmental domain standards and objectives of tecec do not directly address sel, but rather, they are more relevant to social studies. for doing this distinction appropriately, different educational curricula and their suggested standards and objectives were examined in detail. for identified social studies standards, illinois state board of education (isbe) (2010) and national social and emotional learning (sel): how it finds… 143 association for the education of young children (naeyc) (2018) were decided to be used for coding. to examine the social studies standards, isbe early learning and development standards (2010) have been selected because it is developed for the use of public schools in illinois in the us, which can be representative for examining the tecec which is basically used by public ece institutions in turkey. isbe early learning and development standards integrate language arts, mathematics, science, social studies, arts and social and emotional development, which makes it clear for the researchers and coders to distinguish sel standards from social studies standards. in isbe early learning and development standards document, social studies domain includes several sub concepts related to civic engagement, history, citizenship, the community the child grows in, economy and geography. the document plays the role of a benchmark to find corresponding social studies standards in tecec. naeyc (2018) explains how social studies learning lays the foundation for children to discover the world and society they live in, the interactions among the community members, roles, and responsibilities in a society and what it means to participate in the social life as members and citizens of the society. naeyc shows how different curricular approaches are taken in integrating the standards of social studies in early years. it also dwells on the linkage, overlapping points and differences between children’s social development and social studies. naeyc depicts the different ways social studies are represented in early years standards like citizenship education, character education, moral education, community learning, etc. so, the document has been helpful for the coders to understand how social studies differ from social emotional development standards. for identified sel standards, casel documents (casel, 2017a, 2017b) and sel standards of michigan department of education (mde) (2017) the rhode island council for elementary and secondary education (ride) (2017) are used as a guide for data analysis. an open and exclusive coding method is adopted specifically, and the coders worked on the coding separately. at the end of the separate coding process, firstly the two coders met and compared their codes. as suggested by creswell (2007), the contrasts and comparisons emerging out of the coding process are noted and used for analyzing how sel is conceptualized in tecec. the interrater agreement decision is reported in percentages like similar qualitative document-based studies in the field (forman et al., 2009; lawson et al., 2019). the data coders have 100% agreement on the distinction between sel or social studies. there is a 95% agreement on the evaluation of sel related standards and objectives of tecec between the two coders. low inter-rater agreements were addressed by discussing, and re-establishing consensus on the codes followed by another round of independent coding until the agreement has reached 100%. results tecec has 17 social emotional development standards and 53 objectives in total. all these standards along with their objectives are analyzed to see their coverage of sel skills and their alignment with casel framework. the analysis shows that out of 17 standards, 10 can be considered as sel standards whereas 7 standards can be categorized under social studies. out of all 53 objectives, 31 belong to sel objectives and 22 belong to social studies objectives. later, tecec standards are categorized into two groups: the compact and mixed sel standards. in the compact sel standards, the standard addresses only one casel competency, meaning it does not belong to another sel competency. on the contrary, standards coded as mixed refer to the standards that have one or more objectives that are stated under other sel competencies. out of 10 tecec standards, 6 of them are coded as compact whereas 4 of them are coded as mixed. overall, self-awareness is only addressed by 2, self-management by 6, social awareness by 14, relationship skills by 7, and responsible decision making by 2 objectives. in total, when social-awareness and relationship skills are considered together, social aspects are covered by 21 objectives out of 31. social studies social studies include the subjects that are history, geography, diversity and human rights, and arts. merve özgünlü et al. 144 the first analysis showed that seven standards directly referring to social studies are related to the learning of arts, civics and human rights, citizenship education, life skills, history, and national symbols (table 2). standards 1, 2, 3, 11, 13, 14, and 16 fall under the content of social studies. it is seen that standards 1 and 2 are related to life skills. standard 3, 13, and 14 are matching more to the objectives of an arts curriculum. standard 11 is more related to history and national symbols of social studies curriculum. standard 16 is categorized under objectives of social studies with a focus on civics and human rights education (isbe, 2010; naeyc, 2018). table 2. social studies standards standards social studies (1) introduces his/her own features. life skills (2) introduces family-related features. life skills (3) expresses himself/herself in creative ways. art (11) takes responsibility for activities related to atatürk. history (13) protects aesthetic values. art (14) realizes the value of works of art. art (16) explains that individuals have different roles and duties in social life. civics and human rights compact and mixed sel standards in review of tecec, standards 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, and 17 are found to be directly related to casel competencies and skills. further analysis showed that there are two groups that hold two distinct characteristics. compact sel standards are standards 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, and 17. mixed sel standards are 8, 10, 12, and 15. within 6 compact sel standards, 2 self-management, 3 social awareness, and 1 relationship skills are addressed. within 4 mixed sel standards, the objectives are scattered, not aiming directly to specific sel competencies. within 4 mixed sel standards 2 are related to self-awareness, 2 are related to self-management, 2 are related to social awareness, 2 are related to relationship skills, and 1 is related to responsible decision-making. table 3 shows the tecec standards either belonging to the mixed or compact category; the corresponding casel competency, tecec objective and the corresponding casel sub skill. social and emotional learning (sel): how it finds… 145 table 3. compact and mixed tecec sel standards compared to casel compact/ mixed tecec sel standards casel competencies tecec objectives casel skills c (4) expresses/explains other people’s feelings about a situation/case. social awareness 4.1 able to tell other people’s feelings. perspective taking 4.2 able to tell the reasons for other people’s feelings. 4.3 able to tell the consequences of other people’s feelings. c (5) demonstrates his/her positive and negative emotions related to a situation/case through proper/appropriate ways. self-management 5.1 able to explain his/her positive and negative emotions verbally. stress management impulse control 5.2 able to demonstrate negative emotions through positive behaviors. c (6) protects his/her own and other people’s rights. social awareness 6.1 able to tell his/her rights. appreciating diversity 6.2 able to tell that other people have rights, too. 6.3 able to tell what he/she can do when faced with unfairness. 6.4 able to tell what to do to be able to protect other people’s rights. c (7) motivates himself/herself to achieve a task or duty. self-management 7.1 able to start a task without adult guidance. self-motivation self-discipline organizational skills 7.2 tries to finish a task on the assigned time. c (9) explain different cultural characteristics. social awareness 9.1 able to tell the cultural features of his/her own country. appreciating diversity 9.2 able to tell the similar and different features of his/her country and other countries. 9.3 able to tell the different features of different countries. c (17) solves his/her problems with others. relationship skills 17.1 able to solve his/her problems with others through talking to them. communication 17.2 asks adults for help when he/she cannot solve his/her problems with friends. social engagement 17.3 makes a compromise when necessary. relationship building m (8) respects differences self-awareness 8.1 able to tell that he/she is different. accurate self-perception social awareness 8.2 able to tell that people have different characteristics. appreciating diversity 8.3 able to take part in activities with children who have different characteristics. m (10) fulfills his/her responsibilities. self-management 10.1 shows that he/she is willing to take responsibility. self-motivation responsible decision making 10.2 fulfills the responsibilities he/she undertakes. ethical responsibility 10.3 able to tell the consequences of not fulfilling responsibilities. reflecting evaluating m (12) follows the rules in different settings. social awareness 12.1 gives his/her opinions when rules are determined in different settings. persevering in addressing challenges 12.2 tells that rules are necessary. self-management 12.3 adheres to the rules when his/her wishes and rules conflict. impulse control relationship skills 12.4 follows the etiquette rules. communicating clearly m (15) has self-confidence. self-awareness 15.1 tells what he/she likes about himself/herself. accurate self-perception relationship skills 15.2 able to express himself/herself in front of a group. social engagement 15.3 able to give his/her different opinions when necessary. 15.4 takes the leadership role when necessary. teamwork *c stands for compact and m stands for mixed sel standards. merve özgünlü et al. 146 compact sel standards standard 4 corresponds with perspective taking of casel social-awareness skill. to express and respond to others’ feelings and to express reasons and consequences of others’ feelings, one needs to understand one's own and others’ emotions. there is no standard or objective addressing this skill. standard 5 overall corresponds with self-management, specifically addressing impulse control and stress management. without any prior focus on identifying emotions, controlling them could be difficult. standard 6 corresponds with appreciating diversity of social awareness. however, it only refers to promoting the rights of all individuals. understanding, accepting, and recognizing rights and differences of all individuals need to be addressed as well. standard 7 is mainly about self-motivation, self-discipline, and organizational skills related to self-management. however, a very limited version of self-management is provided with the two objectives: starting a task without adult guidance and finishing it on time. standard 9 corresponds with appreciating diversity related to social awareness. the main aim of including appreciating diversity in sel is to help children understand differences based on values, beliefs, and perspectives starting from their own cultural contexts (e.g., within the groups in schools). standard 9 only deals with children telling the similarities and differences between their own and other countries. standard 17 corresponds with relationship skills (i.e., communication, social engagement, and relationship building). the objectives are only about managing conflicts, but they do not cover the ability to have a clear communication, listen carefully, cooperate with other people, and refuse improper social pressure. mixed sel standards when mixed standards are considered, the following points were found. standard 8 corresponds with self-awareness (accurate self-perception) and social awareness (appreciating diversity). “being able to tell that he/she is different” needs to address strengths and limitations. other two objectives related to appreciating diversity need to include attitudes and values as well. standard 10 corresponds with self-management (self-motivation) and responsible decisionmaking competencies (ethical responsibility, evaluating, and reflecting skills). it seems that the standard addresses “taking responsibility” but many aspects of controlling impulses and problem solving were not stated. standard 12 “following the rules” involves many competencies such as self-management, social awareness, and relationship. in one learning standard, three different sel competencies and skills are stated. standard 15 “having self-confidence” corresponds with self-awareness (accurate self-perception). three objectives are directly related to relationship skills (social engagement and teamwork) that could be only observed as a result of self-confidence. what is missing? self-awareness and responsible decision-making are the two competencies addressed at the lowest rate. only 2 objectives were presented aiming for accurate self-perception. identifying emotions, recognizing strengths, self-confidence, and self-efficacy were not represented by any objectives. same wise, responsible decision-making requires many steps such as identifying problems, analyzing situations, evaluating, reflecting, taking ethical responsibilities. they were either missing or not identified in an organized way. on the contrary, social awareness is the most addressed competency; still, empathy and respect for others are missed. although other competencies found themselves a place, they were not addressed fully. for instance, rather than addressing proactive self-management such as goal-setting and organizational skills, reactive skills such as emotion and impulse control were given more importance. relational skills are not provided to build and maintain social relations but could become handy when conflicts arise and good behaviors in a group are needed. social and emotional learning (sel): how it finds… 147 conclusion and discussion the study aims to examine to the extent to which tecec has qualities of sel standards and objectives identified by casel. the findings showed that tecec does not have a well-designed sel framework. first, tecec covers both sel and social studies. second, while some standards are wellstructured and their objectives aim for the same sel skill, some are not in alignment with each other. lastly, some sel skills are not addressed at all. first, having well-structured standards that have corresponding objectives might help practitioners to address certain competencies and skills more comprehensively. three approaches are suggested by dusenbury and colleagues (2011): (a) sel standards that are free-standing and comprehensive/extensive, (b) free-standing standards targeting one or more dimensions of sel (c) synthesis of goals and benchmarks linked to sel in other sets of learning standards (e.g., english language arts, health, social studies). when tecec is reviewed, it is clearly seen that some standards are a combination of objectives in other majors such as social studies, referring to arts, history, civics, and life skills majors. developing sel standards that are free-standing, comprehensive/extensive, and clear is suggested (dusenbury et al., 2011). second, both designing standards and objectives conceptually and lining them up with gradual scaling are important. to demonstrate, certain skills are prerequisites of others, for instance self-awareness precedes social awareness. for developing responsible decision-making, social awareness and relationship skills of individuals need to be supported. from a developmental perspective, being aware of one’s own emotions and thoughts is an ability that develops prior to being aware of other people’s feelings and ideas (bronson, 2000; mcclelland et al., 2015). same wise, being aware of one’s own emotions and thoughts is an ability that develops prior to expressing, controlling, and managing feelings and stress (bronson, 2000; mcclelland et al., 2015). also developing self-management competency could not be left without teaching children the self-regulation cycle; planning, monitoring, controlling, reflecting and evaluation (pintrich, 2000; zimmerman, 2002). bailey and colleagues (2019) in their recent article propose a developmental model that suggests that we introduce recognizing and communicating feelings before managing feelings that could serve as a foundation for empathy, perspective taking, conflict resolution, and relationship skills. these suggestions would help tecec reformulate its current state of non-ordered sel skills. third, the analysis reveals that what is not stated in the curriculum is as important as what is stated. self-related competencies are covered by only one third of overall sel. this finding could be the result of the cultural values related to collectivism, which is heavily observed in turkish culture. collectivism and interdependence are the features of traditional cultures as theorized by kağıtçıbaşı (2005). in such cultures, there is less focus on individual development in upbringing children. rules, rights, responsibilities, and roles (e.g., within family and society) are the concepts that are addressed more frequently. this seems to be the case for other european countries (cefai et al., 2018). appreciating diversity that is another skill related to social awareness was only addressed by focusing on respecting differences. yet, the term diversity suggests that differences are complementary and commonality of needs, feelings and wants among individuals or groups are cherished. understanding the wholeness of humanity is the first step of respecting differences. the clear emphasis is placed on responsibility, not on responsible decision-making. before taking the responsibility of one’s actions, children need to acquire "the ability to reflect on and evaluate the results of his/her actions and decisions" in the problem-solving process. without provisions of responsible decision-making and problem-solving skills (i.e., identify/analyze/solve/evaluate problems), children might experience difficulties to assume responsibilities in certain areas. children need to have conditional knowledge (if-then) to evaluate current situations and to make predictions about the consequences of their decisions before choosing to apply them (winne and azevedo, 2014). overall, a possible explanation of missed and overemphasized aspects of sel in tecec could be found on the basis of perceptions of children and childhood. as reminded by james and prout (2015), children have long been regarded as passive individuals who have limited or no capacity to manage their merve özgünlü et al. 148 lives; thus, they need to be controlled by adults. in such cultures, what is expected from children is staying obedient and silent, maintaining the social order and hierarchy. however, conceptions of children are also changing in other cultures which accept that children have agency, rights to make their decisions; they are strong and capable; and they can fulfill many roles and responsibilities in the society when given adequate opportunities and support (james and james, 2012). in tecec, there is no sign of an agent, right-holder, active, participating child who is independent and receives support from the family and school to reach his/her potential. in tecec, it is seen that (child) self is valued as long as it is social, responsible, and managed. the lack of “self” focused sel standards and objectives can be considered a base for this interpretation. this can be accepted as a compromise of healthy social emotional development in exchange for socially adaptive behavior. the aim of teaching sel skills is not only supporting children in school but also developing their skills that will be necessary for them in life (zins and elias, 2007). it is appropriate to teach sel skills to children at school because schools are places which welcome all children and contribute to their social, emotional, and academic development (zins and elias, 2007). according to cefai and colleagues (2018), countries need to develop a framework for the integration of sel skills into the curricula. it is highlighted that sel education needs to be structured and integrated into the curriculum. based on the comprehensive framework they suggest, the curricula need to include both intra and inter-personal sel competencies; sel skills should be instructed regularly, these skills need to be supported by activities across the curricula besides the classroom atmosphere and by using a whole-school approach. the study examined tecec to investigate whether it carries out proposed sel standards based on the casel framework. one major contribution of this study is proposing document analysis as a method to investigate other curricula or educational materials used in other grade levels to see how much they incorporate sel and what is left out. in depth analysis will allow policy makers, curriculum developers, and teachers to effectively integrate sel standards to educational policies and classroom practices to support children’s sel. one of the key implications of this study can be that any systems or structures need to review sel objectives, the framework it adopts and learning outcomes. if done so, this will give a clear view to the teachers willing to provide sel skills to their students, to tie their practices to sel that will in return help them evaluate their practices on a theory basis. having a look at the tecec will help us observe the real classroom practices in ece classrooms to match the curricula and the actual work done. it can also shed light on how to make appropriate revisions based on the discrepancy between basic sel competencies and sel objectives of tecec. the effective inclusion and integration of sel skills at the national level will pave the way for schools to adopt its implementation. in the design of the national sel curriculum, importance should be given to creating mechanisms for effective planning, delivery and quality implementation and evaluation of the sel instruction. it is also suggested for the effective school implementation that school administrators and teachers also need ongoing support and guidance in addition to theoretically sound curricula. declarations authors’ declarations aacknowledgments not applicable authors’ contributions: mine göl-güven conceived the original idea; designed and directed the project; supervised the findings of this work; contributed to the final version of the manuscript. merve özgünlü and fetiye erbil did the literature review, analyzed the data, and wrote the manuscript in consultation with mine göl-güven. all authors discussed the results and contributed to the final manuscript. competing interests: the authors declare that they have no competing interests. funding: not applicable. ethics approval and consent to participate: the research reported here does not involve human subjects. publisher’s declarations editorial acknowledgement: the editorial process of this article was carried out by dr. carmen huser. social and emotional learning (sel): how it finds… 149 publisher’s note: journal of childhood, education & society remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliation. references bailey, r., stickle, l., brion-meisels, g., & jones, s. m. 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https://www.ride.ri.gov/studentsfamilies/healthsafety/socialemotionallearning.aspx social and emotional learning (sel): how it finds a place in an early childhood education curriculum in turkey journal of childhood, education & society volume 3, issue 3, 2022, 218-232 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.202233193 research article ©2022 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. are you listening to me? understanding children's rights through hungarian pedagogic practice natalie canning1, eleonora teszenyi2, sándor pálfi3 abstract: hungarian pedagogues agree that children should be listened to, have their rights recognised, and their voices heard. the uncrc recommends that children’s rights should be part of early childhood education, but this is not typical in hungarian kindergartens and there is little pedagogical material to support the education of children about their rights. this paper focuses on 5 kindergartens each typically accommodating over 150 children between the ages of 3-6 years old across hungary. six pedagogues worked with multi-age groups (4 kindergartens) and same-age groups (2 kindergartens). the research adopted participatory methods to gather children’s views recognising them as valuable collaborators. children provided insight into their own lives through play based creative activities that focused on eliciting children’s thoughts and feelings. pedagogues collected video data using a ‘toolkit’ of children’s play activities during a 6week period of the covid-19 pandemic. pedagogues reflected on children’s play through a series of online focus groups with emphasis on how children expressed their views and preferences through play. participants were encouraged to examine the power relationships between children and adults and analyse their role in knowledge production rather than knowledge extraction. six themes emerged through thematic analysis, mapped to the 4 guiding principles of children’s rights: participation, survival, development and protection. the findings highlight the juxtaposition between children’s life-as-experienced and life-as-told by adults; the skill of pedagogues to hear and sensitively interpret children’s voices based on their play and the challenge to slow down and reflect on practice. article history received: 31 march 2022 accepted: 06 june 2022 keywords children’s rights; thematic analysis; participatory research; power dynamics introduction the complex and multi-layered issue of children’s rights and its meaningful implementation in early education practices is a widely discussed topic worldwide (herczog, 2012; lundy, 2007; 2012; visnjić-jevtić et al., 2021; yoon & templeton, 2019). the central concern to give voice to children and to listen attentively to their views in matters that concern them has become increasingly urgent (de sousa, 2019; facca et al., 2020), particularly in light of the rights of the child being fundamental in achieving sustainable development with targets to be achieved by 2030 (specifically sustainable development goals (sdg) (zamfir, 2019). children’s rights are enshrined in the united nations convention on the rights of the child (uncrc) (united nations, 1989), which imposes an obligation to fulfil on all state parties to respect children’s rights to protection, provision and participation (murray et al., 2019). key to realising children’s rights in their everyday lives is their right to be heard, their right to have a say and their views to be taken seriously on matters that are important to them, as articulated in article 12. children express their views in a variety of ways and key to listening in early childhood is the ability to harness children’s preferred modes of expression including verbal and non-verbal means (clark, 2017; clark et al., 2011; elfström pettersson, 2015; palaiologou, 2013) as well as taking account of silences and dissenting voices (spencer et _____________ 1 the open university, wels, education, milton keynes, uk, e-mail: natalie.canning@open.ac.uk, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7683-400x 2 the open university, wels, education, milton keynes, uk, e-mail: eleonora.teszenyi@open.ac.uk, orcid: http s://o rc id.o rg/ 000 0 -00 01 -74 65 -4 988 3 university of debrecen, faculty of education for children and special educational needs, hajdúböszörmény, hungary, e-mail: palfis@ped.unideb.hu, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0819-0235 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202233193 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:natalie.canning@open.ac.uk https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7683-400x mailto:eleonora.teszenyi@open.ac.uk https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7465-4988 mailto:palfis@ped.unideb.hu https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0819-0235 are you listening to me? understanding children's rights… 219 al., 2020). hungary signed the un convention on the rights of the child in 1991 and pedagogues agree that children should be listened to, have their rights recognised and their voices heard (pálfi et al., 2019). developing practice that addresses these fundamentals is significant in contributing to children’s learning and development. however, practice does not exist in a vacuum, it is rooted in the cultural, social and pedagogical values of the people and places in which it takes place and is intrinsically tied to previous histories. in hungary, ratifying the convention came at the end of the soviet regime, when children’s rights were only understood in terms of protection, and participation was still seen as compulsory in activities that met the needs of a socialist society. in this context, due to the ‘unfinished business of socialism’ the rhetoric of understanding children’s rights and embedding them in kindergarten practice continues to be challenging (jelača & lugarić, 2018, p. 1). the uncrc recommends that children’s rights should be part of early childhood education (uncrc, 2005). although it is claimed that every aspect of the national core programme for kindergarten education (hungarian ministry of culture and education , 1996) incorporates consideration for children’s rights, implementation in practice is not typical in hungarian kindergartens and there is little pedagogical material to support the education of children about their rights (pálfi et al., 2019). this paper examines the issue of children’s rights and voices in early childhood education and care (ecec context) in response to the research question: in what ways are children’s rights explored and expressed in hungarian kindergartens by children? and how can pedagogues and kindergartens support a rights-based approach to values and practice? the research used thematic analysis to distinguish between how children’s views are sought, expressed and understood. it was important to identify young children everyday concerns and to highlight how recognising and valuing children’s meaningful communication and expressions contribute to building knowledge about them and things that matter to them. this in turn, has the potential to inform right-respecting pedagogic practices, laying the foundations for child-centred pedagogy. consequently, this can transform practice and thinking in nurturing children’s learning, development and understanding of the world. children’s rights in hungary understanding children’s rights in present day hungary requires looking back to the past and the country’s socio-cultural history. the 1990s brought with it a sharp decrease in birth rate partly due to the collapse of the socialist economy, which prompted the new government to look after its children through providing full-time, fully funded early education and care provision for three to six-year-olds, whose parents were employed (teszenyi & hevey, 2015). kindergartens provided conditions for healthy development (including, nutrition, paediatric care, and specialist services on site), which aimed to acknowledge children’s rights to survival and development (pálfi et al., 2019). rights to protection and social security dates back to the first european kindergarten established by teréz brunszvik in budapest in 1828. its emphasis on a protective function of kindergartens as an institution laid the foundations for children’s rights to be understood primarily in safeguarding and legal terms today. children’s rights to participation and play, however, reflected (and to some extent still does) the enduring influence of socialism. early childhood had an ‘iconic status’ in the 1970s and 1980s (penn, 2011, p.16). children were placed in the centre of the social, political and economic re-making of society and they were viewed as an embodiment of a new social order, where kindergartens nurtured a new generation of soviet citizens (silova et al., 2017). children were perceived to be shaped by adults through instilling socialist political ideals, values and beliefs (millei et al., 2019; millei & imre, 2016) including expectations of discipline, orderly and unquestioning behaviours which continued into the 1990s. consequently, children had very limited opportunities, if any, to understand, learn and realise their rights and needs. although children’s right to play was declared with hungary ratifying the uncrc in 1991, the content of children’s play in kindergartens continued to be heavily censored and led by pedagogues under the controversial pretext of ‘teaching children to play’, which inadvertently led to the ‘right to play’ being curtailed. natalie canning et al. 220 the socialist ideology, that any change to society started with the collective upbringing of children with conformity and group goals as priority, was replaced by an individualised approach in the late 1990s (kirschenbaum, 2001; penn, 2014). this gave way to westernised ideas flooding the country (millei, 2011; molnár et al., 2015; nagy varga et al., 2015) and the introduction of the national core programme for kindergarten education in 1996 (ministry of culture and education, 1996). it established statutory requirements for all aspects of care and education to be in accordance with fundamental human rights and with respect for children’s rights (pálfi et al., 2019). however, the social and cultural phenomenon of socialism did not disappear overnight and still has influence at each level of the education system in hungary (józsa et al., 2018). in this context, the rhetoric of understanding children’s rights and embedding them in kindergarten practice is challenging. focus on children’s play play is important for children; it is where they explore, try out new things, and voice their opinions. it acts as a vehicle for nurturing their interest and provides a platform for exploring curiosity and creativity (canning et al., 2017). children’s active engagement in play supports their cognitive and physical development as they bring what they already know to the situation and build on or experiment with their knowledge through play. children also come to play situations with experiences from home, their family, and community (keung & cheung, 2019). when children are able to set their own agenda in relation to how they play, who with and to some extent be able to control the environment they are able to explore new ideas, concepts and experiment with their own understanding (canning, 2020). children also use the knowledge and experience they already have with regard to how they approach play situations, how they act within them and how they respond to other children. consequently, play is the ideal platform for listening to children’s voice and understanding their emotional responses to what is happening around them as well as how they understand their own experiences. a mosaic approach the mosaic approach combines reflections on a range of ways to listen to children’s voices, and to gather their views and experiences through child-led methods and observations, in order to inform pedagogy and research (clark et al., 2011). each element of the mosaic approach is valued and recognised as making a significant contribution to knowledge generation about children and the things that matter to them. central to this is listening which is an ‘active process, involving, interpreting, constructing meaning and responding’ (clark, 2017, p. 26). pedagogues work with information which can be seen and heard out of context – for example, the things children say and aspects of play that reflect learning and knowledge from home. therefore, it is important for pedagogues to step back and recognise how children feel and see the world. rinaldi (2005, p.19) terms the development of collaborative understanding as ‘interpretative theory’, that ascribes significance and meaning to events and objects that are shared, layered and revised on ‘intellectual, affective and aesthetic’ levels. this research represents children’s voice, their interpretations and views on the world, through their play and conversations, whilst recognising and drawing upon interpretations and reflections made by pedagogues who know the children. play activities which promoted conversation, projects that produced artefacts such as drawings and models and conversations with pedagogues were the mosaic ‘tools’ utilized in this research. theoretical framing in this research understanding what children bring to play situations and how they interact with others or in particular spaces, draws on a socio-cultural perspective of learning and development. sociocultural theory suggests that learning is inherently a social process mediated through interpersonal interactions (vygotsky, 1978). for example, sharing the same cultural background means that children enter play with similar expectations of what might happen. pyle & bigelow (2015) consider that play, learning and development cannot be isolated from contextual influences such as the home and kindergarten. they all influence the process of playing and learning and developing a holistic picture of children’s preferences and how those preferences support the expression of voice and rights. consequently, the role of the pedagogue is significant in interpreting and supporting children’s are you listening to me? understanding children's rights… 221 interactions. their understanding of the balance between social exchanges and the knowledge and experiences that children bring to play situations requires sensitive pedagogical innovations (clark, 2017). pedagogues have greater knowledge of social and cultural traditions within the community and therefore are not only able to impose these on children through behavioural expectations but are also able to occupy a sense of power over children because they can control the kindergarten environment and what happens in it (burke, 2008). therefore, in considering children’s rights, pedagogues’ skill in providing space, time and flexibility for children’s self-expression alongside giving opportunities for new experiences, choice and preference is critical (brunson & vogt, 1996). method the study followed a qualitative ethnographic narrative design exploring the opinions and experiences of children in kindergarten as they explored their rights through specific play from a toolkit of activities which were video recorded. it specifically looked at the way in which children expressed themselves through their play and how that play linked to the uncrc rights of the child. a unique element of the research was that data was generated by pedagogues in the kindergartens because of the restrictions imposed by the covid-19 pandemic. consequently, a clear framework was in place for pedagogues generating the data to understand the purpose of the research, how a toolkit of activities could be utilised, the ethical implications, data generation procedures, the method of analysis, and potential for future research. this paper reports on the first phase of a larger project and therefore it was essential that each stage of the data generation process was carefully considered. the research question asked: in what ways are children’s rights explored and expressed in hungarian kindergartens by children? and how can pedagogues and kindergartens support a rights-based approach to values and practice? a narrative methodology sought to understand children’s ‘in the moment’ lived experiences and emotions (chase, 2017). play experiences for the children in the five kindergartens that participated was different in terms of context, yet they also had commonalities. these included a sense of freedom within their play to express views and opinions and to build on their own stories. children’s play was captured by pedagogues through video footage and electronically transferred for analysis. their narrative contributed to a portrayal of experiences and linked with pedagogues’ reflections, enabling a layered picture of children’s rights to emerge. knowledge created through this type of analysis constantly evolves and understanding is situated within a context; it is not value-free or independent of interpretation (hammersley & atkinson, 2019). however, there is richness in the detail and insight provided through narrative data and the nature of shared experiences. a toolkit of activities pedagogues were asked to contribute to designing a toolkit of play activities through a series of online workshops. the toolkit not only focused on different types of play, but the ability of pedagogues to choose from a mosaic of possibilities for data generation. the activities included 9 core areas: drama/role play; talking circles; dance/movement; story making; projects; daily routines; cooking; arts and crafts; photo/drawing elicitation. although some of the activities were familiar to children and pedagogues, the toolkit provided suggestions on how to make them rights focused and for children to lead and shape the conversations around things that mattered to them. once an activity was selected, pedagogues made written and/or video observations of children’s engagement and participation. they provided written reflections of their observations of children’s play in relation to how children expressed themselves and the potential links between play and rights. the combination of this data and artefacts produced by children provided a mosaic of experiences and a creative framework for sharing children’s perspectives. the toolkit mitigated to some extent pedagogues’ subjective interpretation of the data. in hungarian kindergartens there is an assumption that research is a judgment on practice and pedagogues generally have extensive freedom in interpreting any data generated (pálfi et al., 2019). using a toolkit provided natalie canning et al. 222 pedagogues with a structure and focus. it afforded a limited choice of activities but ensured pedagogues could not compare directly with others. participants and data generation kindergartens and pedagogues were recruited through the hungarian national pedagogues’ network after initial interest was expressed at an online conference. pedagogues were introduced to the research, children’s rights and the positioning of children with regard to understanding freedom of expression within play activities during an initial online meeting. after this, pedagogues were asked to make a commitment to the research and a total of five kindergartens and their lead pedagogues agreed to proceed. pedagogues talked to their children about the activities that they wanted to do with them as part of the research and how they would feel about participating. they explained that they wanted to find out about their views and opinions about subjects that were important to them. pedagogues explained that through play, the children would naturally reveal what was important to them because they would want to include the topic in their game or engage in conversation about it. the pedagogues emphasised that the children were not being judged or tested, but they were interested in their views because they had forgotten what it was like to be a child and what kinds of things mattered to them. pedagogues allowed children time to think about whether they wanted to participate and if they were happy for the pedagogue to film their play as part of the research. pedagogues answered any questions the children had in circle time at various points throughout the weeks leading up to the generation of data. it was important that children were respected in their views on taking part in the research and that their voice was captured authentically through their play. video was not edited by the pedagogues or researchers, play artefacts were unchanged and children’s conversations in play were captured naturally as part of the game they were engaged in. the participating kindergartens were diverse in size and pedagogical thinking. they also represented different local pedagogical programmes and were located throughout hungary. local pedagogical programmes are a feature of hungarian practice. it essentially means that a kindergarten follows a bespoke curriculum that has a particular focus on a theme or pedagogical influence. table 1 indicates the size, scale, pedagogical programme and particular ‘tool’ each kindergarten used during the research: table 1. research participants, focus and toolkit activity kindergarten detail tool used 1 109 children in 4 multi-age groups; affluent small-town location rich in cultural heritage; church run setting; catholic faith; local programme focuses on nurturing talent. circle-time/ talking/story circles led by children 2 216 children in 8 same-age groups; affluent county town kindergarten maintained by the local authority (la); the local programme is designed to develop citizenship with the added foci on environmental issues and sustainability; accredited ‘green kindergarten’; achieved a cultural award in 2019 for nurturing old (mainly folk) traditions. drama, role-play taking photos and making drawings 3 185 children in 7 multi-age and 1 same-age groups; la run city kindergarten with mixed socio-economic background; the local programme focuses on citizenship, preparation for contributing to society. picture cards that provoke discussion amongst children 4 137 children in 5 multi-age and 1 same-age groups; la run setting town with mixed socio-economic background; local programme focuses on the cyclical, natural rhythm of the four seasons and folk tradition. cooking and baking 5 186 children in 8 multi-age groups (3-6 years); mixed socio-economic background; la run; town location; local programme focuses on relationships and the development of the mother tongue through play and stories. arts and crafts including model making are you listening to me? understanding children's rights… 223 video data video of the toolkit play activities were considered the most appropriate way of capturing children’s peer interactions and self-expression rather than relying on field notes or written observations made by pedagogues (haw, 2008). this meant that the video data were open to interpretation. however, the advantage of using video as a non-participant observational tool was that it enabled repeat viewing and opportunities for detailed analysis and alongside pedagogues’ reflections enabled a layered picture of children’s lived experiences in relation to their rights to emerge. pedagogues recorded multiple short (approximately 2 minute) video clips of the toolkit activity and uploaded the files to be shared with the researchers. short video sequences were essential to limit the file size being shared, the upload time and internet bandwidth needed. pedagogue reflections and children’s artefacts pedagogues’ reflections were collected in the form of written accounts of what they observed children doing in the toolkit activities and through online focus groups organised after the data had been collected. the online focus groups were necessary because of the research being conducted during the covid-19 pandemic and the geographical spread of the kindergartens across hungary. reflections were linked to the artefacts that children produced whilst participating in the toolkit activity, for example, a clay model from kindergarten 5 or the cakes made in kindergarten 4. the artefacts prompted pedagogue reflections in relation to the socio-cultural understandings they attributed to children and their families. the social relationships between children prompted pedagogues to reflect on the conversations children engaged in and how those conversations could be seen through a rights-based lens. the online focus groups to facilitate pedagogues’ reflections were led by a researcher and asked pedagogues to share the toolkit activity they focused upon, how they had found filming the activities, what they found interesting or surprising in what they heard children express and how that linked to previous knowledge they held about that child or group of children. pedagogues did not necessarily know each other, but they were willing to share their experiences and reflect on what they observed children doing and saying linked to a rights-based approach to practice. ethics ethical considerations included processes that provided pedagogues with the confidence and freedom to enable them to collect data and gain children’s and families’ consent. this was important, given the aim of gaining insights into children’s voice through self-expression and lived experiences via specific play activities. alongside adhering to the british educational research association (bera) revised guidelines (bera, 2018), hungarian ethical approval and protocols were followed (hungarian academy of sciences, 2010). families consented for their child to participate through signed consent managed by the pedagogues, and they had the opportunity to withdraw from the research before a set date. the children, aged between 4 and 6 years old, were asked for their assent rather than full informed consent (hill, 2005). this mitigates against not knowing whether children understand the context in which the research will be presented or the implications for them later. the research was explained in child-friendly terms and children were asked if they were willing to be part of the study and help adults understand their views and opinions. they were asked several times over a period of 2 weeks leading up to the start of the research and any questions that they had were answered by pedagogues. in the planning of the study children were at the heart of the process and the motivation to action change. therefore, it was essential they be part of the process in deciding if they wanted to participate, the level at which they engaged with the activities and if they wanted to talk about their experiences with pedagogues during or after the study. this approach also supported a rights-based pedagogy enabling children to have ownership and voice in decision making. parents/carers and pedagogues acted as ‘gatekeepers’ for children’s wellbeing and gauged if they were happy to participate in the toolkit play activities. pedagogues submitted video, reflections and children’s artefacts electronically which were stored securely and all names of participants in this study are pseudonyms to protect their identity. there were no withdrawals from the research during the process. natalie canning et al. 224 time before the project began was given to ensure that pedagogues, parents and children had information, time to ask questions and time to reflect on whether they wanted to participate. data analysis thematic analysis was used for data interrogation (braun & clarke, 2021). from the video of the toolkit activities, pedagogue reflections and focus groups, a systematic review was conducted identifying patterns of reoccurring words and topics relating to children’s rights. these were identified as the codes. from the codes themes were identified and analysed in relation to the research question, whilst reflecting on the theoretical framing of socio-cultural theory. thematic analysis as a flexible method enabled focus on analysing meaning across the entire data set of children’s play experiences and pedagogue reflections. findings from the analysis, three examples are presented relating to how children explored and expressed their rights. the synopsis of video data, where children controlled and led their play, exemplify the narrative affordances of the toolkit for drawing attention to and conveying children’s interests, and what is important to them. the layered approach of including pedagogues’ reflections supports the sensitive need to understand children’s expression and context in relation to their knowledge and understanding of their immediate environment. example 1: being a television reporter from kindergarten 2 where the toolkit activity was role play: sara aged 4 years is standing behind a large cardboard box with a square hold cut out which represents a television set. it is balanced on a table and sara is framed by the ‘television’. she is talking out to an audience of 3 boys who are watching as if she were on television. she starts by pretending to be a weather reporter, but her description contains a narrative of what she is thinking, feeling and wishing for: it could happen that the corona virus comes to an end… and … and ….and we are allowed to go everywhere… to the seaside, to parád (an open air spa) and it will be the summer and we will be allowed to go anywhere and the sun will shine… and …and… we will be able to leave our homes and then we can go to the play park and then we are allowed to go everywhere and there won’t be corona virus any more. pedagogues’ reflection after thinking about approaching practice from a rights-based perspective and allowing children time and space to play: i discovered how much i am able to lead by following the children. when i have a helpful and supportive attitude, i am able to support children's self-affirmation. example 2: playing with dinosaurs from kindergarten 5 where the toolkit activity was arts and crafts: six children aged from 3 to 6 years are standing around an elevated plastic water tray. the tray does not contain water, but a variety of materials including fabric, cotton wool and polystyrene shapes. there is a plastic bowl on the edge of the tray that contains water and each child has hold of a small plastic animal toy. they are taking turns to dip their animal into the bowl of water and then into the tray to explore the different materials. as they do this, the conversation, initiated by one of the children explores whether dinosaurs clean their teeth. ava: but what shall we dry this on? david: i am a real spring (as in, spring water) ava: what shall we dry his hair on? tomas: do animals brush teeth? bella: animals don’t brush teeth. tomas: animals don’t. india: this has not even got teeth. bella: so animals do not have to brush teeth then. are you listening to me? understanding children's rights… 225 india: yes, because they don’t even have toothbrushes. tomas: yeah…this one (dinosaur) also fits in there. we are putting them in the water. oh… yuppy (as he dips the dinosaur into the water) ava: look, this is still black. tomas: me coming here…. argghhh bella: i am brushing my toothie tooth tomas: see, this dino is not brushing teeth because it has not got any. pedagogues’ reflection after reviewing the video: it came as a surprise to me that a little girl who had not opened up much in kindergarten before did in this situation, and a boy from the younger children's group also revealed a lot about the things that were important to him. example 3: what can you see? from kindergarten 3 where the toolkit activity was picture cards: this activity is based on adultchild interactions with the focus on images of different situational contexts. the pedagogue asks questions to find out what the child is thinking and feeling about the situation. in this example, elba is shown a photograph of two children pulling a teddy bear in opposite directions. pedagogue: i’m going to show you a picture. can you tell me what you see? elba: two boys (he’s visibly very excited and curious. he answers as soon as he receives the picture) pedagogue: what are they doing? elba: they’re pulling the teddy pedagogue: and why is that? elba: because they’re arguing pedagogue: and what do you think? who could have that teddy? (elba thinks about this and names one of his groupmates) elba: aisha! (a little girl from his group) pedagogue: and of the two of them, who could have it? (pointing to the picture) elba: him (pointing to the younger child). and he’ll play with it a little bit, and then he’ll give it to the other one too. (he replies quickly, confidently, and decidedly) pedagogue: how do you think they’re feeling right now? elba: well…they’re feeling that…good, but they’re arguing about the teddy pedagogue: who do you think could help them? elba: their mummy pedagogue: how could their mummy help them? elba: she could put the teddy away and give it to them later when they’re not arguing. pedagogues’ reflection after reviewing the video: after reviewing the video and the way i was asking the questions, i think i could have done it better. it wasn’t a conversation; it was questions and answers which maybe elba thought he had to answer because i am the adult. i understand now that i need to be more gentle in my approach. give children the time to think and speak, not question them so hard, but explore with them what they are thinking and feeling. assumptions video data was the predominant form of data generation and as such was important to remember at the analysis stage that it was not ‘neutral’ because it is a snapshot based on the pedagogues’ decisions around what is significant to record. pedagogues’ values and beliefs influenced not only what was filmed but also when it was filmed. consequently, understanding the theoretical framework of a socio-cultural approach, the research question and acknowledging impact of the decisions made in filming selections shows awareness of the interpretive nature of the research. these considerations are important because natalie canning et al. 226 within different social and cultural contexts there are many common practices that occur based on unquestioned assumptions about how things are done or roles that different people occupy. corsaro (2018) suggests that these assumptions not only influence pedagogues’ actions and decisions, but also shape children’s cultural understanding and influence their contribution to the adult world. therefore, common or taken-for-granted practices are often reaffirmed through actual experiences, for example, what has been seen or heard or emphasized through physical actions. therefore, how children relate to the world is largely a function based on what they know of their own cultural context and the influence of wider societal norms (greene & hill, 2005). this is significant in relation to understanding research around children’s rights and hearing children’s voices so that as adult researchers we question our assumptions and are led by the data that the children have generated and have richly contributed to. this is exemplified by a pedagogue from kindergarten 4 where cooking and baking were the toolkit activity focus: it was very useful for me to be part of this project because, i have started approaching our daily activities from a children’s rights perspective. thematic analysis the discussion and actions initiated by the children, generated through their play, enabled the process of thematic analysis. from example 1, sara is talking about what she wants to do with her family, where she wants to go and why she is unable to because of the pandemic. the video was coded as: play park; family holiday situations; and covid-19. these codes were then grouped, developing the themes of ’special places’ and ’events important to children’. the ’playing with dinosaurs’ was coded as: personal hygiene and conributions, resulting in the themes of ’health and wellbeing’ and ’caring for others’. the discussion amongst the children is important as they ask each other questions, seek clarification and different opinions alongside ’playing out’ the actions of cleaning the dinosaurs teeth. this process is signifiant to the children in making sense and creating their own narrative around personal hygiene expectations as well as shared cultural experiences. table 2 outlines all of the codes and themes generated from the research: table 2. codes and themes from the data codes emerging theme extended family members parents and siblings the kindergarten pedagogue friends arrival of a new baby significant people play park family holiday destinations grandparents house holidays special places the difference between child/child and child/adult interactions conflict choice/own decisions vs. rules winners being rewarded power relations medical help covid-19 and the effect of the pandemic relaxation/rest and sleep personal hygiene nutrition health and wellbeing helping each other acceptance contributions showing affection the presence of home and home life in the kindergarten caring for others – community feeling left behind love being cross or angry longing feelings are you listening to me? understanding children's rights… 227 discussion listening to children’s voice the examples from the findings demonstrate how children’s play can open up opportunities for other topics that children are concerned about to be expressed. this reflects article 12 of the uncrc; yet, this was a revelation to hungarian pedagogues who had not approached children’s play from a rightsbased perspective before. in the ‘being a television reporter’ role play, sara had freedom within her imagination which facilitated her to have a voice. because that particular ‘snapshot’ of play was recorded, it alerted the pedagogue to her anxieties. in this way, there was an opportunity for sara’s voice to be heard and this created further possibilities and generated discussion around activities that might address those concerns. article 12 expresses the right for children to voice their views and sets the expectation that their opinions are given due weight (united nations, 1989). practice in hungarian kindergartens reflects children’s voice within a particular frame of reference set by pedagogues and is limited by what they understand as a ‘right’. this reflects an adult-centred view of children, where they hold power in decisions such as developing rules and boundaries without consulting or including children’s ideas (sutton smith, 1997). consequently, the reality of practice reflects the rights of adults more than the rights of children. the findings of the research show how children are expressing their voice through the play decisions they make and the way they communicate them, however pedagogues are at the initial stages of moving away from tokenistic opportunities to a listening approach that actively seeks, recognises and acts on children’s views (lundy, 2007). children’s rights in hungary are typically seen in terms of protection or safeguarding and so putting children at the centre of practice in a democratic, inclusive position of power is an alien concept. the national core programme provides the foundations for practice that enables children to realise their rights. the programme affords a significant degree of autonomy to pedagogues in all aspects of their work with children. but respecting children’s rights varies across practice. for example, physical and physiological needs are consistently met and children’s rights to provision and survival is respected. however, children’s social, emotional and cognitive needs are largely overlooked with development understood in relation to biological age and stereotypical characteristics. slowing down practice pedagogues’ voluntary participation in the research induced and required a slower pace; both through participating in the research and in reflecting upon practice. slow participatory research includes re-awakening skills and senses that may have become lost in a busy kindergarten environment (clark, 2021). these include time to think and reflect, talk and consolidate with colleagues, listen to what children are actually saying when they play and interact with other children or adults. the pedagogues were the drivers of their own thinking with the focus on the children rather than their practice. consequently, because they were thinking about the children, it made them reflect on their practice. the slow pedagogy employed led to ‘in between time’ which enabled pedagogues to process the ideas shared between them and develop a renewed understanding of the toolkit activities and their purpose. how time was perceived and used during the data generation period was influenced by the culture and historical values of the kindergartens as well as individual personality and pedagogic beliefs. some pedagogues experienced time and pace as pressure, whereas others as a reassuring expansion (cuffaro, 1995). both reflect what pedagogues consider meaningful and significant, which includes the time children need to frame their own views on matters that are important to them. those pedagogues, who afforded children with ‘experience stretches’ (cuffaro, 1995, p.58) claimed that they got to know children better as they used their chosen toolkit activity to elicit children’s views. others were governed by the deeply engrained habit of setting out time for asking children’s opinions. in these situations, time was dictated by adult pacing and direction (lipari, 2014). embedding slow pedagogy where significance is given to time and space for children and pedagogues to develop interests and to notice details that concern children natalie canning et al. 228 require a ‘slow lens’ (clark, 2021). although greatly rewarding when slow pedagogy is employed, it can be challenging for pedagogues to step back, observe and allow children to lead their play. an adult planned activity always has a hidden agenda in that there is always a planned outcome (hughes, 2001). the adult then dictates the pace and direction of children’s engagement and involvement. for the power dynamics to shift so that activities follow children’s pace and rhythm pedagogues have to feel comfortable with the notion that where children undertake an activity regardless of the outcome, it is still worthwhile and valuable, even if pedagogues envisaged it differently. however, in hungarian practice this is a challenging concept. it is hard for pedagogues to give up control and slow down. nevertheless, pedagogues did reflect through the online focus groups that they were surprised to find out something new about their children and to understand them better. this is potentially due to having no expectations of an outcome for children’s play and a realisation that children have the capacity to engage with activities without adult direction. this is the beginning of a process to learn to trust and respect children’s choices. pedagogues have seen through participating in the research that they do not have to be the gatekeepers of the content of children’s play, but if they listen to children to find out what themes dominate their play, they can plan more open-ended activities where outcomes are flexible which better reflect children’s interests. this is considered a breakthrough in thinking about practice and supporting a rightsbased pedagogic approach. this considers how teaching and learning can be centred around children’s rights and how children can be empowered to contribute to their learning environment. it ensures that children’s voices are not tokenistic, but valued as a way in which to enhance and inspire activities and teaching that children can actively participate in. let the activity and environment do the work if pedagogues understand and embrace a rights-based approach, the space and resources available in kindergartens will reflect children’s explorations, ideas and interests. artefacts created will be individual and spontaneous. children will be able to move freely in the space where they are able to express themselves through verbal interaction and non-verbal cues. the flow of the environment will be with the children, created and maintained by their curiosity and motivation for learning. the environment will respond to the continuum of children’s experiences, enabling different experiences to be had for individual children within the same space. findings suggest hungarian kindergartens do not reflect this ideal. the content of activities provided for children are very important to pedagogues. they see it as a personal failure if not all children want to do an activity that was painstakingly, precisely and carefully planned. the culture of kindergartens supports a tradition where the pedagogue feels that it is only them who can teach children about what is important. the term ‘important’ in this context relates to what pedagogues have planned through a scheme of work that is thematically designed, such as ‘spring and new life’. however, this research has begun to break down some of the embedded approaches to practice. the toolkit activities forced pedagogues to tune into children’s spontaneous play and leave activities open-ended. pedagogues embraced this approach because they were taking part in research seen as significant. but through the process of championing the toolkit activities and allowing them to do the work in terms of supporting children’s voice, engagement and discussion about what is important to them, pedagogues acknowledged they gained a deeper insight into children’s preferences and passions, laying the foundations for meaningful interactions. this ‘new’ emerging approach to pedagogic practice provides foundations for honouring children’s rights and for children to have the opportunity to learn and experience their rights through interactions with other children and adults. their relationships with the environment and the way in which play and activities may be directed by children, developing a deeper connection with their interests, supports child-centred meaning making. are you listening to me? understanding children's rights… 229 creating a layered approach to practice in the same way that children are not one dimensional, hungarian practice has many layers and functions. a holistic approach to practice requires tuning into children’s expressions and patterns; the variations they create form an integral part of a listening pedagogy (ingulfsvann et al., 2020). how and what children express is likely to have connections to the world outside the kindergarten which is reflected in example 3 in the conversation between the pedagogue and elba. the pedagogue is learning about what elba understands and how he makes sense of the world around him. awareness of children’s various contexts are crucial in interpreting their views. children’s uniqueness is understood in the context of their relationships with and the environments they inhabit as the codes of the themes ‘significant people’ and ‘special places’ suggest. building knowledge about the children within and outside kindergarten is integral to understanding their individual circumstances; their starting point in how they are empowered and how introducing the ideas of rights could support their learning, development and confidence. it is not a ‘one size fits all’ approach, but requires sensitive planning, putting the needs of the child at the centre of practice and building around the four foundations of children’s rights: participation, development, survival and protection. the themes that emerged from the findings of this research map onto these areas and create a layered view of where issues central to children’s lives intertwine with their rights. acknowledging the themes as things that concern children, that emerged from their play and listening to their conversations demonstrates how a rights-based pedagogy, whether recognised or not, already exists in practice. figure 1 illustrates the mapping of themes onto the 4 foundations of children’s rights. figure 1. findings themes mapped to children’s rights the challenge therefore is to recognise the rights-based practice that already exists and build on that so that pedagogues can view children’s learning and development through a child-centred, listening lens, where rights form the foundation of pedagogues understanding. conclusion this paper has argued for a rights-based approach to underpin practice in hungarian kindergartens based on the data generated by children participating in open-ended play activities and pedagogues’ reflections. however intertwined with the routine of daily practice are influential forces that present potential barriers to adopting change. these include the power relationships that exist as an underlying current between children and pedagogues and the cultural and historical weight of expectation that shapes values and beliefs. this paper has argued that children already demonstrate their ability to articulate what they think and feel; their views and opinions when engaged in play that is open-ended without prescribed outcomes. however, there is need for greater awareness of children’s rights and the articles of the uncrc so that natalie canning et al. 230 rights are not seen as formulaic or offered as a tokenistic activity. it is also important that children recognise the importance of having rights and what that means in their everyday lives. understanding their contribution to their community in terms of their rights and responsibilities supports wider ideals of cohesion, accountability and inclusive relationship building. pedagogues require support to achieve these goals and a willingness to acknowledge that rights can be built into the foundations of their practice. pre and in-service training could provide a way to support pedagogues’ engagement in rights-respecting pedagogic practice and raise the awareness of the need to listen to children’s voices. the uncrc articles are legally binding and in particular, article 12 requires children’s rights to be realised in their everyday lives (lundy, 2007). consequently it is urgent that the way in which children’s rights are viewed and implemented into practice are recognised, celebrated and drive a change in approaches to acknowledging what is important and transformative for children. declarations authors’ declarations acknowledgements: thank you to all participating kindergartens, children and pedagogues who were part of this initial phase study. authors’ contributions: all authors contributed equally. competing interests: the authors declare that they have no competing interests. funding: not applicable ethics approval and consent to participate: ethical considerations included processes that provided pedagogues with the confidence and freedom to enable them to collect data and gain children’s and families’ consent. this was important, given the aim of gaining insights into children’s voice through self-expression and lived experiences via specific play activities. alongside adhering to the british educational research association (bera) revised guidelines (bera, 2018), hungarian ethical approval and protocols were followed (hungarian academy of sciences, 2010). publisher’s declarations editorial acknowledgement: the editorial process of this article was carried out by dr. mehmet toran. publisher’s note: journal of childhood, education & society remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in 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(2019). children’s rights and the un sdgs: a priority for eu external action (briefing pe 642.285; memebers’ research series). european parliamentary research service. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10643-014-0666-1 are you listening to me? understanding children's rights through hungarian pedagogic practice method creating a layered approach to practice figure 1. findings themes mapped to children’s rights conclusion references journal of childhood, education & society volume 2, issue 2, 2021, 154-166 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.202122102 research article ©2021 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. in-between spaces of policy and practice: voices from prince edward island early childhood educators gabriela arias de sanchez1, alaina l. roach o’keefe2, bethany robichaud3 abstract: over the course of the past decades, the discourse, pedagogy, scope, and delivery of early learning and child care (elcc) has undergone myriad significant changes internationally, nationally, and at local levels. prince edward island (pei), the smallest canadian province, has not been exempt from these transformations. by situating early childhood educators (eces) at the centre of ecological multilevel environments (bronfenbrenner, 2005), this qualitative study explored how a system-wide change implemented through the prince edward island preschool excellence initiative (peipei) has impacted and is being impacted by eces over time. purposive sampling was used to invite seven early childhood educators working on provincially regulated early years centres (eycs) to participate in individual interviews. findings indicated that eces have been striving to navigate and merge the space in-between policy and practices and that after ten years, they remain in this liminal space where they continue to navigate unravelling transitions as they search for their professional identity. article history received: 21 may 2021 accepted: 03 july 2021 keywords early childhood educators; policy; transitions introduction over the course of the past decades, the discourse, pedagogy, scope, and delivery of early learning and child care (elcc) has undergone myriad significant changes internationally, nationally, and at local levels including massive government financial investments, changes of elcc government responsibility from health and social services to education portfolios, and an effort to connect childcare with education which has resulted in the creation of curriculum frameworks and an intent to standardize educators’ training. prince edward island (pei) has not been exempt from these transformations. located on canada’s east coast, the country’s smallest province has emerged as a leader of the shifts that have started to transform the canadian elcc context (akbari & mccuaig, 2017). in 2006, the organization for economic co-operation and development (oecd) revealed that canada’s public expenditure on early childhood programs were the lowest of the twenty developed countries that were part of an international review (oecd, 2006). at the same time, an investment narrative that challenged the underfunded and forgotten canadian elcc sector started to emerge. this narrative was supported by economic-returns paradigms (bennet & newman, 2004; heckman & cunha, 2000; mitchell, wylie, & carr, 2008; oecd, 2011) and by new understandings about neuroscience and brain development, which sustained the brain’s malleability, experienced a peak during the first five years of human development (mccain & mustard, 1999; mccain, mustard, & shanker, 2007). the investment narrative resonated strongly in pei and as a result, unprecedented and rapid transformations reformed the early childhood sector from a focus on childcare to a system with a focus on early learning (arias de sanchez, doiron, & gabriel, 2012). some of the initial changes included moving early childhood programs from the departments of social services and seniors to education and early _____________ 1 university of prince edward island, faculty of education, charlottetwon, canada, e-mail: gsanchez@upei.ca, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1408-413x 2 university of prince edward island, faculty of education, charlottetwon, canada, e-mail: aroach@upei.ca, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9892-7370 3 university of prince edward island, faculty of education, charlottetwon, canada, e-mail: brobichaud@upei.ca orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4837-6926 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202122102 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:gsanchez@upei.ca https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1408-413x mailto:aroach@upei.ca https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9892-7370 mailto:brobichaud@upei.ca https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4837-6926 gabriela arias de sanchez, alaina l. roach o’keefe & bethany robichaud 155 learning and transferring kindergarten to the school system (human resources and skills development canada, 2012). this last move was fundamental for the overall early childhood structure, mainly because close to over half of certified early childhood educators (eces) who worked in kindergarten at that time were provided the option to move to the school system and to obtain a bachelor of education degree. given that this transition resulted in experienced eces leaving the early childhood sector, provincial government authorities recommended that an exhaustive review of early learning be conducted to devise “a plan for a sustainable, high quality, accessible early childhood system” (mella, 2009, p. v). the early years report (flanagan, 2010) was a response to that call. the report gathered data from families and parents as well as from some leaders and educators to develop a vision for pei children and a framework for early childhood. the plan to re-design and re-vitalize the early childhood system across the province was then put forward and in may 2010, the government announced the prince edward island preschool excellence initiative (peipei). according to the provincial government, “the plan provides[ed] the island’s largest ever increase in investment in early learning for children from birth to age four” (government of pei, 2010, p. 2). the peipei was set forth changes across the sector, including a designation of and funding for early years centres (eycs). while eycs remained privately delivered, either for-profit or non-profit, this major change resulted in new provincial policies that managed centres in a more public manner (government of pei, 2010; human resources and skills development canada, 2012). the new policies included regulated fees for parents, required spaces for children from infancy to school entry age, children with special needs, a compulsory parent advisory committee, a wage scale and benefits for staff, a new provincial early learning curriculum, revisions to certification and training requirements for early childhood educators, and a formula-based funding approach for centres with an early years designation (human resources and skills development canada, 2012). changes to the elcc system have been extensively examined across canada, particularly concerning their impact on young children and parents (arias de sanchez et al., 2012; heydon, moffatt, & iannacci, 2015; leherer, 2012; peterson, morrison, & morrison, 2012; vogler, cravello, & woodhead, 2008) and on the system’s professionalization (baldacchino, gabriel, doiron, roach o’keefe, & mckenna, 2015; roach o’keefe, hooper, & jakubiec, 2019). however, little is known about how system-wide changes have impacted eces practices and their roles. this study explored this void. the study is framed within bronfenbrenner’s theoretical work (1979, 2005), which proposed that development cannot be separated from social and cultural multi-level environments. bronfenbrenner represents these multi-levels through concentric systemschronosystem, macrosystem, mesosystem, and microsystemthat impact and are being impacted by an active individual at a particular historical time. this bidirectional dynamic implies that individuals experience shifts when changes happen at any layer of the multilevel environments. we also draw from (tilleczek, 2011 2014) cultural nesting approach to interpret the shifts and transitions described by participants. rooted in bronfenbrenner’s work, tilleczek (2012) understands that “transitions often imply issues of identity fit and development” (p. 13) or what this author described as processes of being, becoming, and belonging (2011, 2014). by situating eces at the centre of ecological multilevel environments, the study explored how the peipei impacted and is being impacted by these educators as they navigate the transitions within system-wide changes over time, which bronfenbrenner asserted was important in understanding proximal processes and the complex reciprocal interactions between systems (bronfenbrenner & morris, 1998; roach o’keefe, 2018). the following questions guided the study: (1) what has changed in pei early learning and child care during the last ten years? (2) what are the strengths of the pei early learning and child care system? (3) what limitations still exist in the pei early learning and child care system? and (4) what are the opportunities for the early learning and child care system to continue to develop? by critically examining the experiences of eces who have worked within the peipei for the last ten years, the study also provided a space for better understanding how their silent voices of knowing (basler in-between spaces of policy and practice: voices from … 156 wisneski & reifel, 2012; canella, 2005) permeate early childhood education’s history. with a focus on strengths and limitations, the study will contribute to unpacking and better problematizing how systemwide decisions influence the evolving canadian and international early learning and child care agenda. method this research employed a qualitative research design (sandelowski, 2010). after receiving ethics approval, purposive sampling (patton, 2015) was used to invite pei early childhood educators to participate in individual interviews (fontana & frey, 2000; tierney, 2002). recruitment took place through the pei early childhood development association (ecda) membership list. a letter of invitation was sent to 10 eces who held the following participation criteria: (a) that the educator has been working in the pei early learning and child care for at least ten years, and (b) that the educator worked in a provincially regulated early years centre, and (c) that the educator held at least a two-year diploma that was certified under the provincial government’s regulatory board. additionally, recruitment compromised at least one participant from each of pei counties, in order to garner a wide variety of perspectives from educators representing the island rural and urban areas. seven eces (six female and one male) from different eycs agreed on participating; three of them held a supervisor role. researchers considered a post-modern interviewing stance (fontana & frey, 2000) in which the interview allows for co-construction of understanding, and the enrichment of the data, between participants and researcher (tierney, 2002). two of the researchers developed separated interview protocols that aligned with the study’s purpose and the research questions. with the understanding that each other’s feedback increases the opportunity to comprehend how well participants might understand the interview questions and whether their understanding is close to what the researcher intends or expects (patton, 2015), the two researchers revised and refined the individual interview protocols and together, constructed the final one. supported by krueger and casey interviewing model (2009), the final protocol included introductory questions (i.e., “tell me about your professional background”); transitory questions (i.e., “ten years ago when the peipei was announced, what was your initial reaction?”); key questions (i.e., “in your opinion, what are the strength of the peipei?”); and closing questions (i.e., “how would you like to see the early childhood field evolve in pei?”). participants signed a written consent form and also provided verbal consent prior to the interview. each interview lasted approximately one to one and a half hours and were fully recorded and transcribed. participants were provided with a copy of a transcript of the interview to check for accuracy and to provide credibility to the study. researchers also made detailed and descriptive notes concerning their observations, reactions, direct quotations, insights, inspirations, and questions (patton, 2015) promptly after the interviews. researchers worked independently to conduct a thematic analysis approach (babbie, 2010). recurring consistencies and inconsistencies (patton, 2015) were then identified and organized in individual shared folders for each of the study questions. researchers then compared their analysis to identify trends, similarities, and differences (patton, 2015) across the interviews. the university of prince edward island (upei) ethics board approved this study research protocol. results the peipei initiative was built to provide the youngest islanders with "the strongest start possible” (government of pei, 2010, p.10). undoubtedly, the peipei also offered fundamental changes for children, families, early childhood centres' owners and operators, and early childhood educators. with a focus on strengths and limitations, the goal of this study was to unpack how the peipei system-wide decisions have impacted eces practices and roles. in response to our research questions, our analysis resulted in the emergence of two main themes: (a) unraveling transitions, and (b) searching for professional identity. unraveling transitions is discussed below and responds to research question (1) what has changed in pei early learning and child care during the last ten years? (2) what are the strengths of the pei early learning and child care system? highlights include reflections on infant care services, the curriculum document, and curriculum implementation. gabriela arias de sanchez, alaina l. roach o’keefe & bethany robichaud 157 professional identity is subsequently discussed in response to research questions (3) what limitations still exist in the pei early learning and child care system? and (4) what are the opportunities for the early learning and child care system to continue to develop? reflections are discoursed on expectations and professionalism, loss: leadership and mentorship, wage grid, recruitment and retention; and opportunities for advanced learning and development. unraveling transitions participants discussed the unravelling and negotiation amongst several transitions, including: horizon of change, infant care services, and negotiating the curriculum and its implementation. these transitions are described below. horizon of change "the peipei was the right thing to do. yes, it's been a long journey...the process is going on and on, and there is no finish line... but we are on the right path" (ece 3, february 2021). the launching of the peipei was accompanied by the feeling that something "good" was happening in prince edward island. consensus existed among participants that the assurance of receiving financial support was a fundamental turn-around point for most early childhood centers when deciding to become provincially regulated. participants agreed that with the peipei, values and beliefs about equity, sustainability, and accessibility were finally "put on paper" (ece 1, january 2021). “finally, … it was kind of like a ‘finally’... i was very excited” (ece 2, january 2021). as a sector that has long experienced transitions, government effort to redesign and revitalize the early childhood system sparked a sense of empowerment and pride amongst eces. while participants reflected on some of the challenges that accompanied the implementation of the peipei, they also pointed out that they soon adapted and that they "were up for the challenge" (ece 7, march 2021). for example, when asked about the announcement of the peipei initiative, eces agreed that the implementation happened rapidly and felt like "a whirlwind" (ece 1, january 2021) that created panic and a certain level of discomfort. "peipei came quickly, and it had to be implemented fast…the intent at that time was to make it smooth… but it was chaotic" (ece 6, march 2021). it was kind of like a two-fold. we were excited about some positive changes coming our way but we were terrified at the same time because we were losing a massive component of our programming and we were losing a lot of educators (ece 5, february 2021). participants' quick adaptation to the changes was also indicated regarding pedagogy: "all of a sudden they were telling us we have to do emergent curriculum" (ece 1, january 2021). while participants shared that training sessions, workshops, and centre visits by the then department of education and early childhood development supported that shift, a sense of urgency permeated the process through those initial months. "i definitely remember there was a lot of training sessions… i remember doing a lot of the training around the elf and going to various workshops." (ece 2 january 2021). infant care services prior to the implementation of the peipei, access to quality infant care services was reported as a primary challenge for parents and families (government of pei, 2010). the early years report noted that at the time, “of the 2948 estimated full time spaces, only 192 full time equivalent spaces [were] available for children younger than two years of age” (mrsb group, 2009, as cited in flanagan, 2010, p. 76). given this, a key feature of the peipei brought about changes to infant care services to provide new and expanded options to parents for infant care and learning in licensed eycs and infant homes (government of pei, 2010). under pei’s early learning and child care act regulations (government of pei, 2018), “the maximum group size for infants receiving services at a licensed centre is six infants” (p. 16). these changes have increased the number of infant spaces across pei from 192 reported in 2010 to 407 reported in 2020 (akbari, mccuaig, & foster, 2020). according to participants, even though this inclusion raises particular challenges, the policy was and continues to be one of the strengths of the initiative, in-between spaces of policy and practice: voices from … 158 the infants, there’s always been a little bit of a challenge because it dramatically changes how the centre runs in the sense that all of a sudden, if even it’s only six children, they can only be with these ones for a certain amount of time. so, it changes how your staff, the shift times, who can go where, and when… but at the same time, it’s also enriching (ece 1, january 2021). taking in infants was a change because we hadn’t had infants before. i mean, it wasn’t really a big deal. there was a little bit of figuring out about how we would do that and where, for the space and all that. but it worked for us (ece 3, february 2021). the curriculum document the creation of the early years' curriculum document was consistently highlighted as the most critical strength of the peipei. rooted in social pedagogy, the pei early learning framework (elf) (flanagan, 2011) became the first early childhood curriculum guidelines for the province. rather than prescribing pedagogy, the elf curriculum design offers a broad and holistic model, and its emergent approach allows and challenges educators' reflexivity. the pei elf three learning principles are built around relationships, the consideration of the environment, and children’s experiences (flanagan, 2011). rooted with a social pedagogical approach, the elf promotes the idea that young children’s learning is influenced by quality interactions between children and adults and by the experiences that children have through play and exploration. participants pointed out that the elf gave a common language to the field and created a certain level of consistency about pedagogy. eces indicated that since its implementation, the elf had deepened their understanding of the whole child and provides a sense of credibility among parents and the overall community, “we have something with substance that we can show and use to show this is why we’re doing what we’re doing” (ece 2, january 2021); the curriculum has changed the public perception.... we are somebody that has a specialized base of knowledge. we’re not babysitters, we don't just provide supervisory care, we are actual teachers who have a clue [about] what we’re doing (ece 2, january 2021). despite recognizing the importance of having a curriculum framework for the first time, participants also indicated that the lack of prescriptive statements in regards to goals, strategies and assessment still creates confusion. overall, eces agreed that this confusion jeopardizes the provision of quality practices as educators are challenged to make pedagogical interpretations; this issue seems to become more complex when practitioners do not hold a two-year diploma. curriculum implementation struggles with the implementation of an emergent curriculum were reported in regards to planning, documentation, and assessment. as the elf indicates, eces working in early years centres are required to plan and develop emergent programming that is relevant to the children and their interests, create learning stories and portfolios to document children’s ongoing learning and growth, and develop and carry out assessment strategies such as continuous and thoughtful observation of children’s interests and development (flanagan, 2011). to effectively engage in this iterative process of emergent planning, ongoing documentation, and authentic assessment, eces must also meaningfully and thoughtfully reflect on their pedagogical practice both individually and as a team (flanagan, 2011, p. 173) while participants spoke positively about the shift to emergent curriculum and acknowledged the importance and necessity of the iterative planning process, even ten years later, they explained further that time and resources to engage in and complete this essential work is a persistent issue. one participant reported that while eces are meeting the requirements laid out in the elf regarding planning, documentation, the creation, and maintenance of portfolios, and engaging in reflective practice, “it’s always been a challenge to allow staff to be off the floor [to complete these expectations]” (ece 3, january 2021). when asked about the logistics of scheduling planning time for eces, another participant expressed that “[eces] get an hour and a half a week… you pray that the kids will sleep for at least 30 or 45 minutes… because that’s [their] paid planning time. when do [they] get [their] supplies? just on the run?” (ece 1, january 2021). gabriela arias de sanchez, alaina l. roach o’keefe & bethany robichaud 159 the elf also indicates that, eces are to “... reflect on their observations at a later time, and… analyze their observations based on their knowledge of the child, and their professional interpretation of what they see” (flanagan, 2011, p. 155). findings from this study reveal that the time required for eces to meaningfully and intentionally engage in reflective practice is an ongoing struggle. as one participant shared, “you need to reflect on your own pedagogy, on your own work… and that’s again, more time. and we don’t have that… there’s not a lot of time for that sort of reflection” (ece 2, january 2021). in discussing a solution to the pressing issue of time, one ece suggested that additional funding should be made available to hire and pay an additional staff person to relieve eces for their paid planning time each week. from this eces perspective, additional funding would ensure that eces are treated “... like professionals within the model so that they have time for planning, observation, [and] documentation, just like other educators do for other children” (ece 3, january 2021). aligned with previous research (roach o’keefe, hooper, & jakubiec, 2019), these sentiments connect to the broader issue outlined previously concerning the disconnection that eces feel between the early childhood sector and the publicschool system in pei, i think that there’s a disconnection with all the work that we’re doing here. when the children go to school, i feel like there’s a disconnect between what we’re doing here and what is going on in the school system… i’ve always felt that that was kind of a disconnect and disservice to the children that we’ve had here (ece 2, january 2021). searching for professional identity participants discussed how they continue to search for professional identify amidst the transitions, and they discussed: an increase in their work expectations, a loss of leadership and mentorship, the wage grid, recruitment and retention, and the appetite for advanced learning and development. these points will be described in subsequent sections of the paper. expectations and professionalism since the peipei implementation, expectations for the early learning and child care field rapidly grew. despite that accountability was perceived as necessary, eces concurred in that paperwork and pedagogical demands escalated, “they want more, and more, and more from us, but the financial resources were not put there (ece 7, march 2021). interestingly, eces also reported that parents' expectations have also increased, “parent expectations have gone up a lot… because we told them “hey, we’re professionals! we’re available to you…” (ece 1, january 2021); “... the expectations keep growing because we keep, rightly so, building ourselves up as being absolutely fabulous” (ece 5, february 2021). after ten years of the peipei implementation, most participants explained that the initiative is still in transition. participants agreed that despite of consistently having to experience sudden changes they are always ready for new challenges, “you get things thrown at you all the time. so, i always say, and it’s terrible, “adapt or die”. as a profession, you either adapt or you leave, right?” (ece 5, february 2021); you have to be able to take things on a moment’s notice. and i feel like that’s really stayed in the sector. they made an announcement today; we have to implement it by two weeks from now… we’re all pretty quick on our feet (ece 2, february6 2021). loss: leadership and mentorship the peipei initiative was parallel to two significant changes in the early childhood workforce: a massive movement of certified and experienced eces to the school system, and a new wage-grid for eces who stayed within early learning and child care services. participants shared the same upsetting discomfort when talking about losing the most experienced educators, who were often described as mentors and leaders,“... all of a sudden all of these new changes were coming in and that people that we looked up to were gone” (ece 7, march 2021); “i feel like some of our pedagogy was lost because some of our long-standing members left and then it was a lot of newbies” (ece 6, march 2021). this finding is consistent with previous research exploring the professionalization of the field (roach o’keefe et al., 2019). in-between spaces of policy and practice: voices from … 160 wage grid, recruitment, and retention the peipei described eces as professionals and indicated that the implemented measures were going to maintain a stable workforce (government of pei, 2010). one of the most important changes was the creation of a new wage grid for those eces who stayed in early childhood. this particular change encompassed a sense of excitement but also nervousness, “the idea was great because it didn’t matter where you work across the island but you knew that we were having the same working situation” (ece 3, january 2021). in 2010, the wage grid proposed a five-year strategy that combined eces education and job position. the 2010 wage grid included: (a) entry level (which included three courses); (b) level 1 (which included a one-year certificate); and (c) level two (which included a two-year diploma) (government of pei, 2010. between 2010 and 2017 the language of the wage grid changed to ece level 1 (entry level), ece level 2 (one-year certificate), and ece level 3(two-year diploma). by 2019, two new levels were included at the bottom of the grid: a 3 three 30 hours course level, and an uncertified staff level (government of prince edward island, 2019). since 2010, directors have always been paid the highest at the top of the grid. the impossibility to move beyond that step was certainly manifested as a serious concern, and limitations on ece’s career development and progression, which has the potential to impact recruitment and retention of staff. overall, participants agreed that the grid and its amendments appear to better fit the new staff, “is good to have a grid…but for people with more training and experience it is a slap on the face... we are capped” (ece 5, february 2021); i think it’s good that eces were given raises. i think it’s good that there are levels. the frustration is for those of us who have been in the field for a very long time, it meant we were capped right away… the wage grid did not reflect anyone that has been in [the field] for a long time (ece 4, february 2021). in fact, eces retention and recruitment have fallen since 2010 and continue to be a serious struggle for the overall system (flanagan, 2019; flanagan & beach, 2016). “they thought we were having new people, we were going to attract more people...well, it did not happen, on the contrary…” (ece 7, march 2021). participants pointed out that despite being part of the department of education and life long learning, the early childhood working situation is fragile and unequal, “yes, we are now under the government umbrella, but we’re not in the same position like the schools are”(ece 5 february 2021); there’s a fair bit of inequity in terms of how ece is treated within the whole pei education system when you compare their training and level of responsibility. all of the eces here have the two-year college diploma, yet they’re paid less than educational assistants in the school system, who have the same level of training. even though we’re all part of the department of education [and life long learning], there’s a lot of inequity there. and the staff is aware of that… they say the department says that they recognize the importance of early childhood education and yet there’s a pay inequity there. mixed messages. (ece 3, january 2021). participants also indicated that issues with recruitment and retention affect the consistency and the quality of their services, i think when there’s always that turnover you’re always training someone new. so, it makes really hard to get into a good rhythm. and then all of a sudden somebody’s gone and then you have to train somebody new. i feel like that’s something. and then the children always have to get used to somebody new. and you’re starting over with building those relationships (ece 4, february 2021). the interviews revealed that eces feel empowered about their work, particularly when discussing their pedagogical role, “what we do might change a child’s life” (ece 2, january 2021). yet, there was also a need to consistently having to justify and advocate about the importance and the professionalism of their work, “you can’t be a so-called professional if you don’t have the work environment that supports that professional practice” (ece 3, january 2021). advanced learning and development in 2010, the peipei introduced revisions to eces and directors’ certification and training requirements: “with government’s assistance, new training programs are being developed to allow all gabriela arias de sanchez, alaina l. roach o’keefe & bethany robichaud 161 program staff to become certified over the next several years and to create an integrated career ladder for staff from the entry level through to post-diploma and degree training. this initiative will put prince edward island at the forefront of canadian provinces” (government of pei, 2010, p. 3). however, revisions to director’s training were not followed up and as participants indicated, “... they’re not requiring the person who is in charge of the whole centre to have any more education than the people they’re supposed to be mentoring” (ece 1, january 2021); “you can meet the requirements and have 30 years of experience but still get paid the same as another director on their first day on the job” (ece 7, march 2021). participants noted the need to develop their professional training further. even though they enormously appreciated the possibility to participate in the local early childhood conferences twice a year, participants also concurred on the need to have different options for ongoing training, particularly for experienced eces, workshops are great for our novice teachers, the people who are still learning, who are still struggling, who need those ideas. but when we get up to the teachers who are at the expert [level]... we need something deeper than two and a half hour workshops. we need time to dig deep (ece 3, february 2021). having more levels of non-certified staff was also pointed out as a struggle for quality and service provisions, “i would love to see a minimum of a diploma but headed towards a degree. no more of these three courses or one year or whatever.... it’s got to go to a minimum of two years” (ece 1, january 2021). overwhelmingly was the claim for a career path, “the thing about ece… beyond being a director, it doesn’t feel like there’s any place to go. it feels like, okay, i’m an ece, but what next?” (ece 6, march 2021); “there’s not really room to move up. i think that’s frustrating for a lot of people” (ece 4, february 2021). sometimes i feel that there’s not a big career ladder in this field. you’re kind of an active floor staff or you’re a director, or you move up maybe to a higher position such as working with the department as a coach. but… there’s no inbetween (ece 4, february 2021). discussion for decades authoritarian perceptions that viewed eces as unskilled practitioners (basler wisneski & reifel 2012; osgood, 2011; urban, 2010) rested unexamined within the social and multi-level environments (bronfenbrenner, 1979, 2005) that framed early learning and child care services. the investment narrative that emerged in the early 2000s provoked a disruption of these historically constructed perceptions and brought hope and optimism to a sector that started to be described as professional (brock, 2012; dalli, 2008; lazzari, 2012; urban, 2008). with these changes in the discourse, early learning and child care emerged as a panacea for solving social problems (mactavish, 2012; moss, 2008) while eces were pushed to forge a new identity (arias de sanchez et al., 2012; roach o’keefe & moffatt, 2013; shaw, 2015). although system-wide changes happened quickly in pei, eces indicated that after ten years these changes continue to be in transition. although transitions are recognized as processes rather than events (peters, 2010), statements such as "there is no finish line" revealed feelings of incompleteness and frustration. tilleczek (2012) described these motions as "nested transitions'' (p. 12) and explained that they create constant tensions in individuals' processes of being, becoming, and belonging. our findings indicated the existence of unrevealing tensions faced by eces as they try to negotiate their status within the contradictory discourses of becoming professionals while still working in a system that offers precarious employment conditions. what was particularly concerning were the ways in which our experienced participants manifested the feeling of walking in-between policies and opportunities, which in turn conflicted with their professional processes of being, becoming, and belonging (tilleczek, 2011, 2014). this in-between experience emerged within the policy expectations to become professionals while at the same time having (being) to advocate for what their profession entails. in our study, eces showed in-between spaces of policy and practice: voices from … 162 the consistent need to have to validate and justify who they are and who they can be (being and becoming); this theme emerged as an exhausting endeavour that reveals a fragile sense of belonging within a system that keeps changing and asking them for more. statements like "we are not babysitters" and "what we do matters and affects children's lives day-by-day across the country" are evidence of this conflict. paradoxically, our data also indicated that educators felt empowered by their ability to figure out how to accommodate change and by consistently demonstrating that they were resilient and “up for the challenge” (ece 2, february 2021). we questioned if this sense of resilience has become a taken-for-granted discourse that plays against the profession by sending the message of being "absolutely fabulous" and by promoting the idea that "whatever happens, we will make it work.” similarly, the in-between paradox emerged also when participants discussed the curriculum guidelines. although the pei curriculum framework provided a common pedagogical language that empowered educators and aimed at fostering their critical thinking, reflective practice, and professional autonomy, participants pointed out that the alternatives for these professional demands are limited and create the never ended feeling of "be a so-called professional, but without having the work environment that supports that professional practice" (ece 1, january 2021). while participants made clear that the pei early learning framework is one of the key strengths of the changes over the past ten years, their reflections indicated that there remains a disconnect between the pedagogical demands of working with an early learning framework and with the supports made available to ensure professional reflexivity. undoubtedly, this ongoing tension continues to blurry the pathways for developing (becoming) a highly qualified professional workforce. data also demonstrated that educators felt a sense of being in-between when discussing their working conditions. the experienced eces who participated in this study understood that changes in the provision of “honourable” (ece 4, february 2021) wages and benefits are a must for the system’s improvement. however, they also understood that an increase in wage policies alone would not solve the overall “early childhood problem” (ece 5, february 2021). working conditions, including ece wages, have been recognized as important indicators of quality in early childhood education programs (atkinson centre, 2017). highlighted as a positive change within pei’s early childhood sector, the introduction of and amendments to the wage grid (i.e., in 2016 and 2019) provided eces with a pay increase based on education and years of experience. however, challenges remain as pay is still low (flanagan, 2019) and as wage increases stop after five years. for directors, this is compounded as there is only one pay step. as a result, recruitment and retention of trained eces persists as ongoing issue which in turn problematizes quality and program consistency as early years centres are continually hiring and training new educators. the limited possibilities for educators' career pathways present a serious issue of professional equity when comparing educators that have chosen to work in early learning and child care to those that work in the formal education system. once more, our data presented how eces move inbetween paradigms as it is debatable to be called a professional if the career pathway stops in a grid that only focuses on five years of work experience with no options for additional education or future career development. it also exemplifies the lack of recognition of lifelong learners – those who want to continue learning and contributing to the creation of new knowledge, which goes beyond in-service skills training (national association for the education of young children, 2011). as this study has illuminated, the positive aspects of the peipei have been met with persistent challenges. notably, and despite eces consistent efforts for having to validate their professional being, becoming, and belonging (tilleczek, 2011, 2014), the experienced educators that participated in our research showed little compliance and offered professional suggestions to the many issues they faced daily in their practices. the participants of this study have demonstrated that their individual and collective experience and knowledge offers important insight on a path forward. these educators have also provided a glimpse of the bidirectional dynamic of bronfenbrenner’s (2005) multi-level environments: they were at the centre of many of these changes, and while they experienced these on a microsystem level, they were also using their voice to influence their exosystem (what had influenced them on a societal/ policy level) and through the chronosystem. they were both influenced by the changes and they were exerting their gabriela arias de sanchez, alaina l. roach o’keefe & bethany robichaud 163 power to potentially influence their future in the system. at the outset of the peipei implementation, the transition of experienced kindergarten teachers to the public-school system resulted in a sense of loss for the field; however, those that continued and those have since joined the sector have themselves grown and flourished as mentors, pedagogical leaders, and advocates for the system. not surprisingly, their recommendations focused on the improvement of the work conditions, particularly regarding wages and benefits. but they also offered suggestions pertinent to their daily needs, such as adding a full-time staff that allows educators to take time off the floor to complete the heavy demands of planning and documentation. participants also offered important insights in regards to professional qualifications and training for directors and educators, i believe that if you’re going to be a director, you should have to have a degree; i would love to see a minimum of a diploma for eces but headed towards a degree. no more of these three courses or one year or whatever. it has to get to a minimum of two years (ece 1, january 2021). conclusion: navigation of the space in between the findings from this study have shed light on the strengths and limitations of the preschool excellence initiative as reported by early childhood educators working in early years centres across pei. participants of this study expressed that the sector and those that operate within it (e.g., eces, ece supervisors and directors) are still experiencing this transition. as a result, eces described that the changes brought about by the introduction and implementation of the peipei have resulted in an ongoing tension between the strengths and limitations of the initiative; tension that has and continues to impact the early learnings and childcare system across the province. the participants' reflections revealed further that as these changes unfolded and expectations rose over the past decade, those working within the early learning and childcare system have been striving to navigate and merge the space in-between the strengths and gaps of the preschool excellence initiative. at present, eces describe feeling that they remain in this liminal space where complex and contradictory systems and discourses continue to build barriers and interrupt the fluidity of a system-wide change. while the peipei impacted and changed the day-to-day reality and practice of early learning and childcare across the province, eces have equally impacted this system-wide change, effecting a bidirectional dynamic between policy and practice (bronfrenbenner, 2005). for instance, the peipei brought about rapid changes to areas such as funding, accessibility, and curriculum. moreover, and perhaps most importantly, passionate, knowledgeable, and experienced eces across pei also impacted these shifts as they carried out the new peipei system, embraced a new pedagogical approach, and became advocates for themselves and the sector at large. yet, as the participants of this study have demonstrated, the limitations of the peipei have kept eces in this in-between space as their individual and collective capacity to impact the policies that guide their practice has been hindered and their voices unsought. this study presents some limitations. a small sample was chosen for this study, however this is the norm in qualitative studies. the investigation represents the responses from a small sample of educators who live in pei. in addition, a second limitation of this study is the lack of culturally diverse representation by participants; while pei has become very diverse in the last decade, sample of participants does not represent the diverse nature of educators living on the island. readers from elsewhere must read this research with their own context in mind, to determine if results might be applicable in their environment. the findings from this study may contribute to the discourse and approach to system-wide decisions and may further influence the evolving early learning and child care agenda both in canada and around the globe. as the experienced eces who participated in this study have suggested, the changes first set in motion by the peipei must continue to progress and promote equity and growth within the early learning and childcare system. with the recent announcement by the government of canada (2021) regarding plans to create and implement a national childcare system over the next five years in mind, we hope that the findings from this study have demonstrated that the voices and perspectives of eces must be meaningfully sought, heard, and considered going forward as they offer significant insight, knowledge, and suggestions in-between spaces of policy and practice: voices from … 164 for an equitable path forward. declarations acknowledgements: not applicable. authors’ contributions: arias de sanchez & roach o’keefe, conceived, designed and conduct the investigation; robichaud transcribed the interviews; arias de sanchez & robichaud analyzed the data and wrote the paper; roach o’keeffe provided feedback and editing. competing interests: the authors declare that they have no competing interests. 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(2010). rethinking professionalism in early childhood: untested feasibilities and critical ecologies. contemporary issues in early childhood, 11(1), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.2304/ciec.2010.11.1.1 journal of childhood, education & society volume 2, issue 2, 2021, 139-153 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.202122104 research article ©2021 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. defining turn taking in intervention for young children with autism: a review of the literature kwangwon lee1, ashley staggs2 abstract: turn taking is a form of preverbal, dyadic, reciprocal communication that may support key areas of development, such as language and joint attention, and may serve different functions depending on each communicative partner’s intent. as such, it has been incorporated in interventions targeting various outcomes in young children with autism. however, there is inconsistency in how researchers define turn taking and explorations on how turn taking is defined across these interventions have not yet been reported in the current literature. therefore, the purpose of this review was to investigate how turn taking is operationally defined based on communicative intent in the current literature on interventions for young children with autism and to explore additional intervention content to provide fuller context to how turn taking has been promoted. a search was conducted across databases to identify intervention studies for young children with autism that incorporated an embedded turn-taking component. peer-reviewed articles were then coded based on turn-taking communicative intent, and additional intervention content was categorized. findings across 14 studies indicate variability among turn-taking definitions both in communicative function and form. the results also reveal that turn taking has been promoted through different intervention approaches that incorporate diverse agents, settings, and methodology. researchers and practitioners should consider specificity and clarity when defining turn taking to most optimally meet the developmental needs of young children with autism in future interventions. article history received: 22 may 2021 accepted: 02 july 2021 keywords autism; early childhood; intervention; preverbal communication; turn taking introduction children with autism often display core challenges in social communication and restrictive repetitive behaviors (rrbs) that may be present throughout the lifespan (american psychiatric association [apa], 2013; gillespie-lynch et al., 2012; moriuchi, klin, & jones, 2016). symptom severity levels vary among individuals with autism, who may have symptoms ranging from mild to more severe manifestations that may require varying degrees of support (apa, 2013; kim et al., 2019). the most recent report from the centers for disease control and prevention estimates that 1 in 54 children in the united states has autism, a prevalence rate that has been increasing since 2002 (maenner et al., 2020). as the prevalence rate increases, so too does the need for developing early interventions that support the unique needs of young children with autism. for many young children with autism, the core challenge in social communication is evident early in life, before children with typical development begin using verbal communication (moriuchi et al., 2016; poon, watson, baranek, & poe, 2012), and is often one of the first indicators that a child has autism (curcio, 1978; mundy, 2016). infants who later receive an autism diagnosis have been observed exhibiting challenges in preverbal forms of social communication, such as eye gaze and head orienting to parents’ bids for attention (moriuchi et al., 2016; poon et al., 2012). these challenges may become more distinct as children progress in development, when important milestones that are seen in children with typical development, such as competency in joint attention and use of expressive and receptive language, are not _____________ 1 eastern connecticut state university, education department, willimantic, ct, usa, e-mail: leekw@easternct.edu, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7956-1895 2 russellville independent school district, administration, russellville, ky, usa, ashley.staggs@russellville.kyschools.us, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8927-454x https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202122104 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:leekw@easternct.edu https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7956-1895 mailto:ashley.staggs@russellville.kyschools.us https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8927-454x kwangwon lee & ashley staggs 140 reached (e.g., delehanty, stronach, guthrie, slate, & wetherby, 2018; mundy, sigman, ungerer, & sherman, 1986). preverbal turn taking in intervention to support their social communication needs, various interventions have been developed that promote outcomes in young children with autism who require support in key areas, such as play, relationships, and language (e.g., greenspan, & wieder, 2006; rogers, dawson, & vismara, 2012). a commonly embedded intervention component is turn taking, a form of dyadic, reciprocal, preverbal communication that children begin using early in life with other people (clifford & dissanayake, 2009; schertz, odom, baggett, & sideris, 2018). an example of turn taking might be observed when a child is stacking blocks on a playroom floor and their parent sits next to them, stacks a block, and then allows the child to take a turn stacking another block. in this example, the child and their parent are engaging in a simple, back-and-forth turn-taking exchange centered around a certain activity. turn taking may have important implications in supporting later developmental outcomes, and some researchers theorize that dyadic, preverbal turn taking may help children develop competency in more complex, triadic forms of preverbal communication (i.e., joint attention) and later language (schertz, odom, et al., 2018; trevarthen & hubley, 1978). it may also help children share in the perspectives of others (harrist & waugh, 2002). for many young children with autism, however, engaging in dyadic turn-taking exchanges may be challenging, particularly for social purposes (chiang, soon, lin, & rogers, 2008; clifford & dissanayake, 2009). chiang and colleagues (2008), for instance, found that, when compared to children with typical development, children with autism showed fewer instances of turn taking when it centered around actions with another person (e.g., teasing, or tickling games). because of this potential challenge in turn taking, children with autism may have difficulty learning it on their own and may require support in this form of preverbal social communication. given its importance in childhood development, turn taking has been incorporated as a component of multiple interventions for children with autism, such as floortime (greenspan & wieder, 2006), joint attention mediated learning (schertz, odom, et al., 2018), and behavioral approaches (e.g., isaksen & holth, 2009). in a study by isaksen and holth (2009), for instance, children received intensive behavioral training in turn-taking use. schertz, odom, and colleagues (2018) also incorporated a turn-taking component in intervention to promote joint attention learning in toddlers. in addition to being a component of intervention, turn taking is a defined task on the early social communication scales, which is used to measure children’s use of preverbal communication and helps in identifying potential developmental delays (mundy et al., 2003), further indicating the importance placed on this form of preverbal communication in childhood development. distinguishing turn taking by function turn taking at its broadest definition is a simple, back-and-forth communicative exchange between partners (lee & schertz, 2020); however, it may also serve varying functions (i.e., social, or instrumental) depending on the intent behind the interaction (e.g., alpert & kaiser, 1992; greenspan & wieder, 2006; isaksen & holth, 2009; schertz, odom, et al., 2018). the social function has been defined as a sharing of attention through common interests with another person, such as can be observed during joint attention overtures, or while commenting (cochet & byrne, 2016; schertz, call-cummings, horn, quest, & steffen law, 2018). the social function may be observed, for instance, when a child engages in block building with a parent, during which time the child shows playful intent by smiling and clapping their hands with excitement. in this example, the child is displaying signs of active, meaningful engagement with the parent. the instrumental function, on the other hand, is marked by requesting or following the request of a communicative partner and serves the purpose of achieving a goal for the purpose of the self, rather than the partner or for mutual interest sharing (cochet & byrne, 2016; schertz, call-cummings, et al., 2018). the instrumental function may be observed, for example, when a child points to request a desired toy from a parent and the parent responds to that request by handing the toy to the child. in this scenario, the child is defining turn taking in intervention… 141 seeking to obtain the toy for their own purposes and is not pointing to share interest or to engage socially with the parent. although the instrumental and social communicative functions are distinguishable, there is limited research exploring the differences in turn-taking functions. other forms of preverbal communication, such as eye gaze and pointing, have been differentiated by social and instrumental function (e.g., cochet & byrne, 2016; mundy et al., 1986). cochet and byrne (2016), for instance, analyzed the differential relationship of social vs. instrumental pointing on later language and symbolic gesture use and found that the social function was related to later development, but the instrumental function was not. determining the function behind a turn-taking exchange in intervention may be especially relevant for children with autism, who have a core challenge in social communication and who may also have less difficulty with and who may favor instrumental over social communication (adamson, mcarthur, markov, dunbar, & bakeman, 2001; klin, lin, gorrindo, ramsay, & jones, 2009; mundy, 1995; sigman & ruskin, 1999). while not all interventions for children with autism employ the same strategies or follow the same approach and design, when the goal of an intervention is to support social communication outcomes through a turntaking component, how turn taking is being used by the child and their partner (i.e., its function), should be carefully considered. even though turn taking is well established as a component of intervention and is regarded as having important developmental implications, there remains general inconsistency among the current intervention literature in how turn taking is defined based on function, with some interventions defining turn taking socially (e.g., greenspan & wieder, 2006; schertz, odom, et al., 2018) and some defining it instrumentally (e.g., isaksen & holth, 2009; koegel et al., 1989), warranting a need for further, more exhaustive review of how turn taking is operationally defined by function in the current autism intervention research. prior to the present study, there have not been any such reported explorations of current literature. therefore, the purpose of this review is to determine how turn taking is operationally defined based on communicative function in studies on interventions for young children with autism. similar review methodologies have revealed key variations across study terminology that ultimately affect study transparency and replicability for future research and practice (kamenopoulou, ali, & ockelford, 2021). a secondary purpose is to explore other intervention content, including participants, autism assessment data, settings, agents, design, strategies, and target outcomes to provide context to how turn taking is promoted in each identified intervention study. method the authors searched the online databases psychinfo and academic search premier, two of the foremost databases in the social sciences, to identify relevant peer-reviewed journal articles published in english. additionally, online first articles were searched on the following journal sites: autism, focus on autism and other developmental disabilities, journal of autism and developmental disorders, journal of early intervention, research in autism spectrum disorders, and topics in early childhood special education. dates of publication were limited to the 10-year span between 2010 and 2020 to ensure that the most recent research was included in the review, particularly studies that define autism under the current diagnostic criteria published in the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders-v (apa, 2013). specific keywords used in identifying potentially relevant studies include autism or asd and intervention and (turn taking or reciprocal or dyadic). the terms “reciprocal” and “dyadic” were searched since not all researchers use the same terminology to describe back-and-forth exchanges. this initial search yielded 439 potentially relevant studies. inclusion & exclusion criteria after an initial search of the chosen keywords filtered by the initial inclusion parameters, the first and second authors independently screened articles for adherence to additional inclusion criteria. to be included in the current review, identified literature must meet the following criteria: a) be an intervention study involving young children diagnosed with or at risk for autism between the ages of 0 to 8 (following kwangwon lee & ashley staggs 142 the definition of early childhood provided by the division for early childhood of the council for exceptional children [dec] 2014); b) include an embedded preverbal turn-taking component; c) describe turn taking between two communicative partners and not between a child and a non-human entity (e.g., a robot or a tablet application); and d) present turn taking in the methods section as an operational definition, such as in study coding criteria, measures, or the intervention description, and not in the introduction or literature review. for the present study, a turn-taking component is defined as any use of turn taking in the intervention for the promotion of targeted outcomes. for example, in the study by schertz, odom, and colleagues (2018), turn taking was promoted in conjunction with other components in intervention to help children build their competency towards joint attention. of the 439 originally identified studies, most were excluded because they were not intervention studies (e.g., literature reviews or essays), did not have participants with autism, or had participants that were older than 8 years of age (n = 359). to maintain consistency with inclusion criteria, studies with children older than 8 years of age were excluded, even if some of the children were under 8. fourteen studies were excluded because children engaged exclusively with a non-human entity during intervention; however, one robot-involved study had a human turn-taking condition and was included (david, costescu, matu, szentagotai, & dobrean, 2020). if a study was a replication of another identified study, only the most current study was included; however, if the replication study referred to the original study regarding specific intervention procedures and definitions, the definition of the original study was considered for this literature review. studies included in this review were not limited by research design if the intervention had a turn-taking component. it is important to note that turn taking may be defined as verbal communicative acts that involve children initiating or responding to turns verbally (mcfadden, kamps, & heitzman-powell, 2014); however, the present study focuses on preverbal turn taking. therefore, interventions that only used a verbal turn-taking component to promote later outcomes were excluded from the review. studies that incorporated both preverbal and verbal turn taking were included, however. numerous studies (n = 74) were excluded because only a verbal turn-taking component was defined and/or preverbal turn taking was not an embedded intervention component. after independent screening procedures were conducted, the authors met and conducted additional screening for duplication, and agreed that a total of 14 studies met the inclusion criteria for this review. coding the first and second authors independently reviewed and coded each of the 14 articles based on the following established coding criteria. we then met virtually to discuss our findings and address differences in coding until agreement was met, a coding method commonly reported in rigorous literature reviews (e.g., cooper, 2010; pennington & delano, 2012; schertz, reichow, tan, vaiouli, & yildirim, 2012). to code turn taking by function, the authors followed the definitions of social and instrumental communication as described by lee and schertz (2020) and schertz, call-cummings, and colleagues (2018). studies with operational definitions describing back-and-forth exchanges for the purpose of sharing interest, such as in an object or activity, and engaging socially with a communicative partner were coded as “social” (lee & schertz, 2020; schertz, call-cummings, et al., 2018). indications of the “social” function may include positive affect (e.g., smiling, or facial excitement), child-led interactions, and a lack of agent instructions or requests (lee & schertz, 2020; schertz, call-cummings, et al., 2018). studies with operational definitions describing back-and-forth exchanges for task-oriented purposes, such as by following or initiating a direct instruction or request, or to acquire something without consideration of the communicative partner’s interests were coded as “instrumental” (schertz, call-cummings, et al., 2018). the “instrumental” function may be identified by a focus on completing a task, such as taking turns as part of following rules in a board game or responding to an agent’s directions (e.g., “your turn” or “my turn”) (schertz, call-cummings, et al., 2018). for the current study, a third coding criterion was applied. studies in which the turn-taking function was unclear were coded as “undetermined.” the turn-taking function was unclear if the study: (1) described a back-and-forth exchange without indicating if the purpose was for instrumental or social defining turn taking in intervention… 143 purposes or (2) the term “turn taking” was used, but the form (i.e., the back-and-forth nature) was unclear. additional intervention features, including participants, autism assessment data, settings, agents, design, approach, and target outcomes, were explored in the literature to give fuller context to each intervention study. results the findings from the 14 studies coded for the present literature review are presented in (table 1). table 1. intervention content and turn-taking functions intervention features turn-taking function study participants n (age)/m:f setting s assessm ents agents design approach target outcomes david et al. (2020) 5 (3-5 years)/3:2 clinic ados 7.2 (1.7) therapist multiple baseline alternating treatments behavioral turn taking (undetermined); preverbal social communication (e.g., positive affect, engagement, eye contact); changes in some behaviors undetermined dawson et al. (2010) 24 (18-30 months)/3.5: 1a home ados 7.2 (1.7) parents and therapist s rct combined reduced symptom severity (including improved overall social communication); changes in cognitive & adaptive behavior; language social gengoux et al. (2019) 22 (2-6 years)/18:4 clinic ados 7.7 (1.4) parents and therapist s uncontroll ed trial developm ental reduced symptom severity (including improved overall social communication, & changes in rrbs); language social green et al. (2017) 28 (7-10 months)/12. 5:1a home aosi 10.04 (4.6) parents rct developm ental turn taking (social); reduced symptom severity (including improved overall social communication, & changes in rrbs) social kwangwon lee & ashley staggs 144 intervention features turn-taking function study participants n (age)/m:f setting s assessm ents agents design approach target outcomes kemp, stephenso n, cooper, & hodge (2019) 3 (all under the age of 5)/3:0 childca re centers n/a peers multiple probe across participan ts behavioral turn taking (instrumental) instrumental kim & clarke (2015) 2 (4 years)/2:0 home n/a research er multiple baseline across participan ts behavioral turn taking (instrumental) instrumental raulston, hansen, frantz, machalice k, & bhana (2020) 3 (3-6 years)/2:1 home cars-2 35 (4.44) parents and peers multiple probe across participan ts behavioral verbal & nonverbal communication (e.g., mands & response to mands) instrumental rieth et al. (2014) 6 (ages 2 to 4)/4:2 clinic/ home ados 2 asd & 4 autismb therapist s multiple baseline alternating treatments behavioral requesting; commenting; play instrumental rollins, campbell, thibodea u hoffman, & self (2016) 4 (all under 36 months)/4:0 home cars-2 44.62 (3.54) parents multiple baseline across participan ts combined turn taking (undetermined); eye contact; social engagement; verbal turn taking undetermined schertz, odom, et al. (2018) 73 (ages 1630 months)/ 58:15a home ados-t 16.36 (3.45) parents rct developm ental preverbal social communication (i.e., facial focusing, turn taking, & joint attention) social shire, shih, bracaglia, kodjoe, & kasari (2020) 50 (mean age 32.42 months)/40: 10 childca re centers n/a paraprof essionals and peers rct combined preverbal social communication (e.g., joint attention, joint engagement); play; language instrumental therrien & light (2018) 5 (3 to 6 years)/5:0 childca re centers cars-2 34.9 (5.85) peers and intervent ionist multiple probe across participan t behavioral turn taking (instrumental); preverbal social communication (e.g., joint engagement) instrumental thompso n, mcferran, & gold (2014) 12 (mean age 43.92)/8:4 home srs-ps 87.42 (15.84) parents and therapist s rct developm ental social interactions & responsivity; improved parent-child undetermined defining turn taking in intervention… 145 intervention features turn-taking function study participants n (age)/m:f setting s assessm ents agents design approach target outcomes relationships; language wang (2017) 4 (2-4 years)/3:1 home n/a parents multiple baseline across participan ts behavioral turn taking (undetermined); decreased refusal behaviors undetermined note: rct = randomized controlled trial; rrb = restrictive and repetitive behaviors; combined = contains aspects of both behavioral and developmental approaches; ados = autism diagnostic observation schedule; ados-t = autism diagnostic observation schedule-toddler; aosi = autism observation schedule for infants; cars-2 = childhood autism rating scale; srs-ps = social responsiveness scale-preschool; n/a = assessment data not provided. aapproximate ratio, actual numbers not reported bonly ados classification available intervention features participants & autism assessment data among the 14 studies reviewed, children ranged in age from 7 months to 6 years at the start of intervention. most child participants (n ~ 195) were male, but exact figures could not be determined across studies since not all articles reported the exact participant numbers (i.e., dawson et al., 2010; green et al., 2017; schertz, odom, et al., 2018). while all studies included children in the early childhood stage of development (up to 8 years old), only eight of the studies would be classified as early interventions (i.e., included children under the age of three) under part c of the individuals with disabilities education improvement act (2004), a united states special education law that mandates rights and protections for children with disabilities. all studies indicated that child participants had or were at high risk for a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder as determined by one or more of the following tools: the autism diagnostic observation schedule (ados) (lord et al., 1999), the autism diagnostic observation scheduletoddler (ados-t) (lord, luyster, gotham, & guthrie, 2012), the autism observation schedule for infants (aosi) (bryson, zwaigenbaum, mcdermott, rombough, & brian, 2008), the childhood autism rating scale, second edition (cars-2) (schopler, van bourgondien, wellman, & love, 2010); the social responsiveness scale-preschool (srs-ps) (constantino & gruber, 2005), and clinical expertise (i.e., kemp et al., 2019; kim & clarke, 2015; shire et al., 2020; wang, 2017). agents & settings most of the interventions were implemented by parents to some degree (i.e., as the sole agent or as a co-agent) (n = 8). peers as intervention agents were involved in four of the studies as sole agent or coagent. five studies incorporated therapists as agents. one study was partially implemented by classroom paraprofessionals (shire et al., 2020), one study was partially implemented by an interventionist (therrien & light, 2018), and another study was conducted by the researcher (kim & clarke, 2015). the agents of one intervention included therapists and a robot (david et al., 2020); however, for the purpose of the current review, only the human therapists were considered intervention agents. most interventions took place in participants’ homes (n = 9). of those, one study was conducted in the home setting and the clinic setting (rieth et al., 2014). two interventions were conducted exclusively in clinical settings, which included therapy clinics and autism treatment centers (david et al., 2020; gengoux et al., 2019). three interventions were conducted in childcare centers, which included early childhood classrooms and day care settings (kemp et al., 2019; shire et al., 2020; therrien & light, 2018). design most of the studies in this review (n = 8) used single subject designs to test interventions. of these, three reported the use of a multiple baseline across participants design (i.e., kim & clarke, 2015; rollins et kwangwon lee & ashley staggs 146 al., 2016; wang, 2017), three used a multiple probe across participants design (i.e., kemp et al., 2019; raulston et al., 2020; therrien & light, 2018), and two used an alternating treatments design (i.e., david et al., 2020; rieth et al., 2014). five intervention studies were randomized controlled trials (i.e., dawson et al., 2010; green et al., 2017; schertz, odom, et al., 2018 shire et al., 2020; thompson et al., 2014), and one study was an uncontrolled trial (i.e., gengoux et al., 2019). approach the majority of studies reviewed (n = 7) implemented behavioral approaches to intervention, which follow the principles of applied behavior analysis (i.e., david et al., 2020; kemp et al., 2019; kim & clarke, 2015; raulston et al., 2020; rieth et al., 2014; therrien & light, 2018; wang, 2017). of these, two studies employed prompting and reinforcement to elicit turn taking from participants (i.e., kim & clarke, 2015; therrien & light, 2018). david and colleagues (2020) implemented discrete trial training, a technique that breaks down behaviors into smaller components, to teach turn taking to children with autism. in raulston and colleagues’ study (2020), parents used a coaching model to encourage turn taking in their children during game play (e.g., while pretend fishing or in proprietary games that require give and take) while at playdates with peers. rieth and colleagues (2014) used pivotal response training to increase use of turn taking, communication, and play through a turn-taking component. in one study, peers with typical development were trained on how to teach children with autism to engage in turn taking through a peer mediated intervention (kemp et al., 2019). wang (2017) utilized video modeling supplemented by book reading in intervention to demonstrate turn taking to parents and their children with autism. developmental approaches follow the principles of developmental science, are designed to follow the developmental trajectories of young children, and emphasize the importance of child-centered approaches to learning (rogers & wallace, 2011). of the studies reviewed, four followed a developmental approach. specifically, developmental parent mediation was solely implemented in two studies (green et al., 2017; schertz, odom, et al., 2018). in schertz, odom, et al. (2018), parents were supported with the guidance of an interventionist on how to promote turn taking in their young children in daily routines. green and colleagues (2017) used a video program to guide parents in promoting social communication, including turn taking, in their young children. in conjunction with parent mediation, therapist modeling was used in one study to demonstrate intervention procedures to parents, who then implemented what they observed with their children (gengoux et al., 2019). only one study reported the use of music therapy that followed a developmental approach to intervention. specifically, thompson and colleagues (2014) promoted turn taking through family-centered music therapy sessions which alternated between highly structured sing along sessions to less structured activities that involved playing music to elicit turn taking. combined approaches, also known as comprehensive program models, integrate aspects of developmental and behavioral approaches in intervention (odom, boyd, hall, & hume, 2010). a combined approach was used in three studies. one study combined behavioral intervention with parent training under a comprehensive program model called the early start denver model (esdm) (dawson et al., 2010). rollins et al. (2016) combined parent mediation and an early intensive behavioral intervention. finally, children engaged with peers as one condition of intervention and with paraprofessionals in another condition in a classroom-based setting in one comprehensive program model (shire et al., 2020). target outcomes interventions that included turn taking varied in their targeted outcomes. most interventions (n = 9) targeted improvements in preverbal forms of social communication, such as eye gaze, joint engagement, joint attention, and turn taking, all of which serve the purpose of sharing interest with a communicative partner and engaging socially (i.e., david et al., 2020; dawson et al., 2010; gengoux et al., 2019; green et al., 2017; rollins et al., 2016; schertz, odom, et al., 2018). one study sought to improve verbal commenting, which also serves a purpose of sharing interest with another person (rieth et al., 2014). through three of the interventions, researchers targeted increased instrumental turn-taking frequency (i.e., kemp et al., 2019; kim & clarke, 2015; therrien & light, 2018). instrumental verbal and preverbal forms of communication, including requesting, and responses to and initiations of mands were sought in two studies (raulston et defining turn taking in intervention… 147 al., 2020; reith et al., 2014). turn taking with an “undetermined” function as an outcome was sought in three studies (i.e., david et al., 2020; rollins et al., 2016; wang, 2017). two interventions targeted play competencies, such as pre-symbolic play and cooperative block building (rieth et al., 2014; shire et al., 2020). improvements in expressive and receptive language were targeted in four studies (i.e., dawson et al., 2010; gengoux et al., 2019; shire et al., 2020; thompson et al., 2014). five interventions addressed behavioral outcomes as well, such as avoidance and aggression, and outcomes associated with restrictive and repetitive behaviors, another core challenge for individuals with autism (i.e., david et al., 2020; dawson et al., 2010; gengoux et al., 2019; green et al., 2017; wang, 2017). wang (2017), for example, used video modeling not only to promote turn taking in children with autism, but to also decrease refusal behaviors. lastly, dawson and colleagues (2010), in addition to their other targeted outcomes, sought improvements in cognition. turn-taking function social. of the 14 studies reviewed, four defined turn taking as having a social function. schertz, odom, and colleagues (2018) defined turn taking as synchronous, back-and-forth engagement between a child and their parent for the purpose of sharing social interest. turn taking in this study was child led and parents encouraged reciprocal engagement by following the child’s interests and using positive affect (e.g., smiling, excited facial expressions, and praise), rather than directly instructing children in what to do (schertz, odom, et al., 2018). similarly, gengoux and colleagues (2019) define reciprocal turn taking as being child led and based on child interests, is supported by use of positive affect and praise, and as occurring in natural play settings. dawson et al. (2010) implemented the esdm in their replication study and the definition of turn taking was not directly quoted in the article; however, the esdm defines it as having a social function, in which turn taking is not prompted or requested, but is natural, synchronous, and often play-based with children (rogers et al., 2012). finally, green et al. (2017) defines turn taking, which they term “dyadic interaction,” as back-and-forth synchronous engagement, that is nondirective (i.e., unprompted and occurring naturally), and is child led. instrumental. most of the reviewed studies (n = 6) defined turn taking as having an instrumental function. kemp and colleagues (2019) defined turn taking as a back-and-forth exchange involving opening and closing graphics of animals in a tablet application; therefore, the goal of the exchange was to accomplish a specific task (i.e., using the application) rather than sharing interest with a communicative partner. additionally, children in this study could be verbally instructed to take turns by peers. similarly, kim and clarke (2015) utilized a tablet to encourage turn taking with different toys in their participants; however, children were not allowed to touch the tablet and it was only used for prompting purposes. like kemp et al. (2019) and kim and clarke (2015), raulston and colleagues (2020) defined turn taking as part of engaging with toys or taking turns in a game with the main purpose of completing a task. in therrien and light (2018), interventionists implemented continuous prompting (e.g., “your turn”) and modeling to teach children how to initiate and respond to turn taking with their peers, the focus being on accomplishing the back-and-forth exchange rather than on social engagement. rieth and colleagues (2014) also used modeling and contingency to teach turn taking to children, such as by requesting a turn from the child and then asking the child to respond with a turn, rather than having the children initiate and respond for their own interest and volition. finally, shire et al. (2020) used modeling, prompting, and fading to teach children to take turns with the help of their peers. the authors use the following example to illustrate what their turn-taking component may look like, “if a peer were to hand a block to the child and the child did not notice, the (paraprofessional) may point out the peer’s initiation and provide environmental, verbal, or physical support for the child to receive the block from the peer” (shire et al., 2020, p. 2145). in this example, the child is engaging in a back-and-forth exchange, but for the purpose of achieving a task-oriented goal of taking a turn rather than for engaging socially and sharing interest with a peer. undetermined. turn taking was coded as “undetermined” in four studies because the function of turn taking could not be determined based on the operational definition provided. wang’s (2017) study, which was further categorized as “function unclear,” defined turn taking as “a pair of one initiation, either kwangwon lee & ashley staggs 148 verbal or non-verbal interaction, and one response, either verbal or non-verbal interaction” (p. 7). this operational definition of turn taking is defined as back-and-forth engagement, but the purpose behind the interaction is unclear. three of the four undetermined studies were categorized as both “function unclear” and “form unclear” (i.e., david et al., 2020; rollins et al., 2016; thompson et al., 2014). rollins and colleagues (2016) defined their nonverbal turn-taking coding criteria as any instance “when the child took a turn with an object following the partner’s initiation” (p. 224). from this definition, the function, or communicative partners’ intent, could not be determined and the child’s initiation, which completes the reciprocal exchange, was not included. thompson and colleagues (2014) defined turn taking in a music therapy context, in which turn taking was defined as instances when “the music therapist would play a predictable harmonic structure that ended with an unresolved cadence, and then pause to wait for the child to respond” (p. 844). again, the function behind the exchange, or why the child is responding to this initiation, is not clear, and the child’s initiation is not defined. similarly, turn taking as defined by david et al. (2020) was categorized as “undetermined” because their definition only considers the child’s response to the partner’s initiation. turn taking in this study was primarily defined as “the performance of the child to wait his or her turn” (david et al., 2020, p. 34). from this definition, neither the form nor the function is clear. conclusion and discussion previous studies have explored the differential effects and relationships of instrumental vs. social preverbal communication on later developmental outcomes, such as language and joint attention, and identified differences in each function, thus indicating the importance of considering communicative intent (e.g., cochet & byrne, 2016; mundy et al., 1986). the present literature review focused on turn taking, a form of preverbal communication that is incorporated in intervention for children with autism, and how it is operationally defined based on communicative function across studies. the results of this review indicate that there is variability in how turn taking is defined in the current literature on interventions for young children with autism. specifically, most of the studies provided clear definitions of instrumental turn taking. social turn taking was also clearly defined in four of the reviewed studies. however, four of the studies included in this review defined turn taking in ways that left the function undetermined. for instance, the author of one study defined the form of turn taking (i.e., a back-and-forth exchange), indicating that turn taking required both an initiation and response from the child, but the function, or the intent behind the interaction, was not clear (wang, 2017). additionally, although the term “turn taking” was used in david et al. (2020), rollins et al. (2016), and thompson et al. (2014), their definitions only consider the child’s response and not their initiation. turn taking involves a level of give and take from both communicative partners and may be a form of dyadic synchrony that promotes children’s awareness that their partners have their own thoughts and interests, and, through intersubjectivity, children may share in their partner’s interests (harrist & waugh, 2002). therefore, consideration of each partner’s response, as well as their initiations, should be accounted for when defining and including turn taking in an intervention for children with autism, who may have inherent difficulty in turn-taking exchanges, particularly for social purposes (chiang et al., 2008; clifford & dissanayake, 2009). these findings indicate that greater clarity and specificity is needed when defining turn taking not only by function, but also by form in intervention research. clarifying turn taking by form (i.e., the back-and-forth exchange) can be accomplished by defining how children initiate turn taking with a partner and how they respond to a partner’s turn-taking bid. to clarify turn taking by function, researchers should detail if the child and their communicative partner are engaging in a turn-taking routine for social or instrumental purposes based on the coding criteria presented in this article and by other researchers who have studied communicative intent (e.g., cochet & byrne, 2016; schertz, call-cummings, et al., 2018). additionally, among the articles on intervention for young children with autism published within the last decade, only 14 incorporated a preverbal turn-taking component defined as an exchange between two human communicative partners. of these, only four defined turn taking socially. given the developmental implications of turn taking on defining turn taking in intervention… 149 later outcomes, especially those related to social communication (e.g., joint attention) (schertz, odom, et al., 2018), socially defined turn taking should be included more often as a component of interventions for children with autism in future research. among the studies reviewed, the intervention approach seems to correspond with how turn taking is defined by function. five of the 6 interventions that defined turn taking instrumentally followed a behavioral approach to intervention (i.e., kemp et al., 2019; kim & clarke, 2015; raulston et al., 2020; rieth et al., 2014; therrien & light, 2018). three of the 4 interventions that defined turn taking socially followed a developmental approach to intervention (i.e., gengoux et al., 2019; green et al., 2017; schertz, odom, et al., 2018). these findings are not unanticipated given the nature of each intervention approach. behavioral interventions are primarily designed to increase an observable skill and/or decrease some behaviors (rogers & wallace, 2011), which aligns well with the task-oriented nature of the instrumental function (schertz, call-cummings, et al., 2018). developmental approaches, on the other hand, focus on how children develop naturally and have an especial importance in helping them to gain competency in preverbal social communication, such as social turn taking (wetherby & woods, 2008). the interventions that followed combined approaches varied in how turn taking was defined, with one defining it socially (i.e., dawson et al., 2010), one defining it instrumentally (i.e., shire et al., 2020), and one defining turn taking with an undetermined function (i.e., rollins et al., 2016). this variation among the combined approaches to intervention in how turn taking is defined is also expected given that these interventions contain aspects of both behavioral and developmental approaches (odom et al., 2010). in addition to the variability in intervention approach, research designs varied across the studies we reviewed. our search was not limited by research design and could have included qualitative studies, but research following qualitative designs was not identified. qualitative research has numerous benefits to understanding social phenomena (mohajan, 2018) and could enrich our knowledge of how children engage in turn taking through in-depth studies of the individual child and their communicative partner. future qualitative investigations can further our insight into children’s use of the different turn-taking functions. most studies in this review (n = 8) followed single subject designs, and five were randomized controlled trials. although randomized controlled trials are often considered the “gold standard” in intervention research, studies with single subject designs have the potential to be evidence-based practices (hume et al., 2021; what works clearinghouse, 2020). in the future, explorations of the literature should consider the efficacy of turn-taking interventions and which interventions may be considered evidence based to better inform practice. while this review was not concerned with intervention results and effects, it identified other intervention content. most children included in the interventions were male, an expected finding given the current prevalence estimates of autism (maenner et al., 2020). this finding may also be attributed to sex and gender differences in meeting current diagnostic criteria (wilson et al., 2016; wood-downie et al., 2021). all studies reported that children had or were at risk for autism; however, four studies did not report diagnostic focused assessment data (i.e., kemp et al., 2019; kim & clarke, 2015; shire et al., 2020; wang, 2017). researchers should consider clear reporting of participant characteristics, such as formative assessment data at pre-intervention, which may provide further understanding of the study and can help to inform directions for future intervention research. although a variety of settings and agents were identified across studies, most interventions were conducted in participants’ homes and with some level of parental involvement. additionally, most interventions sought social communication outcomes to some degree, indicating consistent awareness of the importance of supporting this competency in young children with autism. the dec (2014), an internationally recognized organization that provides guidance for early childhood intervention and special education, recommends a series of practices when working with young children who have or who are at risk for disabilities. the dec (2014) recommendations most relevant to the present literature review are family involvement, natural environments, and practices that promote social emotional development through active learning. family-centered interventions recognize the family as important agents, experts, and decision-makers in their child’s life (dec, 2014; wetherby & woods, 2008). a natural environment, most notably the home setting, is one in which children engage in everyday routines and activities and are most comfortable and familiar with (dec, 2014; wetherby & woods, 2008). in intervention, children should be actively engaged in their own learning and encouraged to initiate and kwangwon lee & ashley staggs 150 respond to meaningful, social communication with others, such as may be found in a turn-taking routine (dec, 2014; wetherby & woods, 2008). this recommendation is especially relevant to children with autism given the core challenge they have in social communication. many of the interventions reviewed in the present study meet the recommended practices of the dec (2014) to some degree. however, only three studies, which defined social turn taking (i.e., dawson et al., 2010; green et al., 2017; schertz, odom, et al., 2018) most optimally incorporate the dec (2014) recommended practices indicated above. future turntaking interventions should endeavor to fully incorporate these recommended practices to optimally promote outcomes for young children who have or who are at risk for autism. in sum, the results of the present study indicate that turn taking may serve different functions depending on how it is being promoted in intervention and the intervention approach being followed. furthermore, there remains a need for eliminating ambiguity in defining turn taking by form and function when incorporated in interventions for children with autism and to align intervention content with developmentally appropriate practices. the study findings should be interpreted cautiously because of the limited number of articles that were included in the review. more exhaustive, systematic reviews of the literature that incorporate additional methods, such as manual screening of reference lists and searching numerous databases, may have resulted in the identification of other relevant studies. the current review also used limited search terminology to keep the scope narrow; however, search terms were carefully chosen for relevance to the present study. additionally, the authors served as independent coders in the present study, which may increase risks for inter-rater bias, and including coders who do not serve as authors may decrease these risks. however, because authors commonly serve as coders in literature reviews (e.g., kamenopoulou et al., 2021; pennington et al., 2012), we see this as a minor limitation. finally, because this review relies on how turn taking was defined by researchers in published articles, unpublished materials, such as intervention protocols and coding manuals, which may offer more insight into the intended turn-taking function of an intervention, could not be explored. overall, this literature review provides valuable information on the current state of turn-taking components in intervention and potential areas of study in future research and practice. declarations acknowledgements: not applicable. authors’ contributions: kl conceived and designed the study, contributed to all portions of the manuscript, and conducted literature search, screening, and coding procedures as defined in the methodology. as also conducted literature search, screening, and coding procedures, and contributed to all portions of the manuscript. all authors have read and approved the final submission. competing interests: the authors declare they have no competing interests. funding: this study was not funded. references adamson, l., mcarthur, d., markov, y., dunbar, b., & bakeman, r. 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(2021). sex/gender differences in camouflaging in children and adolescent with autism. journal of autism and developmental disorders, 51, 1353-1364. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04615-z https://doi.org/10.1111/1540-5834.00004 https://doi.org/10.1044/2017_ajslp-17-0104 https://doi.org/10.1044/2017_ajslp-17-0104 https://doi.org/10.1111/cch.12121 https://doi.org/10.1177/1362361315611381 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04615-z defining turn taking in intervention for young children with autism: a review of the literature journal of childhood, education & society volume 3, issue 1, 2022, 60-73 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.202231153 research article ©2022 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. evaluating the practice in swedish school-age educare: issues and contradictions helena ackesjö 1 abstract: this article reports how teachers in swedish school-age educare evaluate (saec) their practice. the study was conducted within a researchand development programme and is based on 47 teachers’ written reflections about performing evaluations. the reflections have been analysed using various neo-institutional logics. the results indicate that the teachers’ focus, regarding both the children and the practice, is directed differently when they are guided by different logics. when guided by the market logic, teachers focus on customer preferences and customer satisfaction. guided by the professional logic, teachers focus the collective as well as the activities and the organisation around them. guided by the bureaucratic and state logics, the teachers focus on the formal teaching, the individual child, and the school-age educare goal fulfilment. the results also show issues and contradictions concerning how to evaluate, what to evaluate, and when to evaluate. one possible claim is that the learning processes at the school-age educare are broad and complex, and thus difficult to “mould” to fit into evaluation schemes. article history received: 19 november 2021 accepted: 18 january 2022 keywords school-age educare; evaluation; neoinstitutional logics; teaching; learning introduction this article focuses on how teachers in the swedish school-age educare (saec) evaluate their practice. the swedish saec offers education and cares for children aged 6-12 years old, before and after school when their parents work or are engaged in studies. saec is an institution with more registered pupils than upper secondary school. approximately 83% of all six to nine-year-olds attend saec (the government official investigations, sou 2020, p. 34). most countries offer childcare for school children, but the forms and organisation vary. of the nordic countries, only sweden and denmark employ higher educated staff in saec (dahl, 2014; pálsdóttir, 2012). sweden is the only nordic country with a specialised teacher education programme at the university level aimed at working in saec. historically, the swedish saec has been based on a social pedagogical tradition, largely centred around a care-focused assignment combined with attention to children’s fostering and development. this value system is based on the nordic educare model, which emphasises humanistic aspects, such as wellbeing and social development, volunteering, play and rest (gustafsson nyckel, 2020; johansson, 1984; pálsdóttir, 2012). however, the mission of the saec has changed during the last decades. since the late 1990s, the ministry of education is responsible for the saec in sweden, and this programme is integrated into the school curricula. since the beginning of the 2010s, more emphasis has been placed on teaching and learning in saec, which is related to the global discourse of knowledge efficiency and economic aspects of education (andersson, 2013; holmberg, 2018; swedish school inspectorate, 2010; 2018). this value system is based on an educational pedagogical tradition and can be demonstrated, for example, by the 2010 school act and the 2016 revision of the current curriculum (swedish national agency for education, 2019). in the curriculum, the saec teaching assignments have been clarified and highlighted in a specific chapter, in addition to the skills, children are supposed to develop during their time in the saec. in terms of ensuring both children’s learning and quality instruction, the saec teaching must be evaluated. this article concerns how this evaluation is done. _____________ 1 linnæus university, department of pedagogy and learning, kalmar, sweden, email: helena.ackesjo@lnu.se orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9523-6379 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202231153 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:helena.ackesjo@lnu.se https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9523-6379 evaluating the practice in swedish school-age educare... 61 global movements indicating change to a more evaluation-based discourse it is safe to say that the changes in the swedish saec mission and the shift towards an increased focus on knowledge efficiency and teaching can be understood in the light of global movements towards a learnification of education (biesta, 2009). during the last 20 years, education has become subject to policy overload as a result of ‘travelling educational policies’ (ball, 2017). policy ideas change as they move around the world, which indicates that global and local policy logics are intertwined and entangled to such an extent that it can be difficult to determine where the developments begin or end (pettersson et al., 2017). oecd is one of the major global policy influencers promoting national policy change through their reviews and recommendations. however, policy ideas change as they spread around the globe, and they take shape in different ways and for various reasons depending on the context. as a result, there will be compromises in balancing global policy with national interests, and historical and contextual traditions (ackesjö & persson, 2019; ball, 2017). processes such as decentralisation, deregulation, professional accountability, and marketisation (nordin, 2012; wahlström & sundberg, 2015) are ways to adjust and restructure national to global educational policy (lindblad & popkewitz, 2004). this process has been called the global education reform movement (germ) (sahlberg, 2016), and it illustrates how countries have changed to a more evaluation-based discourse of governance with an emphasis on monitoring, inspection, and assessment. these changes have created a new evaluation-based educational landscape (pettersson et al., 2017) and an efficiency discourse that puts results in focus. biesta (2011; 2017) calls this an era of measurements and warns that this development risks eroding the democratic dimensions of education and pushing professionals into a role of being standards-driven, evidence-based service providers (biesta, 2017). policy changes at the national and contextual levels behind the policy changes and reforms concerning the swedish saec aimed at making it more about teaching and learning, there are arguments about increasing all pupils’ achievement results in school. references to international knowledge assessments (timss, pisa, pirls) motivate these investments and reforms. when the swedish national results in pisa and other international knowledge assessments fell during the beginning of the 2000s, focus in the educational policy arguments shifted towards knowledge rationality and teaching, knowledge effectiveness, and goal achievement at all levels, namely, preschool, saec, and school1. the earlier focus on the intertwining of early childhood education and care in preschool and saec was transformed into policy discourses where goal-orientation were moved to the foreground (ackesjö & persson, 2019). from a political standpoint, there are several reasons to invest in education for young children. these reasons are related to the financial and economic investment paradigm that emphasises the profitability of strengthening education for young children. it is widely held that young children’s experiences of participating in early learning environments of high quality influence their chances in life (heckman, 2004), and research findings suggest that participation in extra-curricular activities, such as the saec, is associated with improved academic performance (guilmette et al., 2019). increasing children’s academic performance and positively influencing children’s life chances are the main national political arguments behind the policy changes in saec, which come together in the revised curriculum with a clarified teaching mission and prescribed skills that children are supposed to develop. given this background, the saec now has the task to contribute to children’s development and learning at a general level (ludvigsson & falkner, 2019). these movements illustrate the shift from the historical, social pedagogical tradition of the saec to the educational pedagogical tradition and its current focus on learnification. due to the global and national policy movements, the teachers in saec are positioned in a field of tension between tradition and new educational policy intentions. in the saec, children are to be offered meaningful free time before or after school, including care, rest, and creative activities. at the same time, _____________ 1 the swedish saec is included in the school curricula, and in this way becomes a part of the school system, even if parents, based on the family’s needs, can choose whether or not their children participate in this educational programme. helena ackesjö 62 the saec shall be understood as an educational arena and should be focused on the prescribed skills that children are supposed to develop. teachers try to navigate between these two different value systems (ackesjö & haglund, 2021) as they adapt to the educational policy intentions presented in the revised curriculum, new school law descriptions, and a new teacher education programme (ackesjö et al., 2020; andersson, 2013; gustafsson nyckel, 2020; haglund, 2015; 2016; holmberg, 2018). the time that children spend in the saec shall include activities that support their school achievement and complement primary school teaching (ludvigsson & falkner, 2019). as a result, children’s time in the saec seems to have become increasingly institutionalised (andersson, 2010; saar et.al., 2012). the same trends are found in norway and denmark (øksnes et al., 2014) as well as in countries outside the nordic countries and europe. the development has led to an increased focus on learnification of children’s time outside the compulsory teaching, and how this can benefit both learning in general and children’s school performance. the challenge is how teachers in the saec handle the dilemma between their teaching contributing to goal fulfilment and measurable results, at the same time as it creates meaningful and voluntary activities based on the children’s interests and willingness (ludvigsson & falkner, 2019). as the assignment to teach has been added to the saec mission during the last years, it can be assumed that the concept of teaching is not yet well established. research shows that due to the saec traditions, saec teachers seem to hesitate to absorb and implement the new way of thinking and rather use other concepts to describe what happens in the saec (andersson, 2013; närvänen & elvstrand, 2014; saar et al., 2012). in doing so, teachers also mark the distance to the school ways of teaching and views of knowledge (haglund, 2016). it is still uncertain how teaching in the saec should and can be conducted. neither the teaching practice nor the evaluation practice in saec is particularly researched. it also seems to be difficult to capture the teaching in the saec, since it is dominated by informal learning processes (boström et al., 2015). the teaching is often embedded in everyday activities, and a common expression among teachers in saec is that they “try to catch the learning and teaching situations in the moment,” which also means that it only involves the children who happen to be in place at that time. in addition, teaching in saec is also complicated by the fact that the saec is voluntary for children to participate in. it is therefore not possible to assume that the teaching in the saec reaches all, or even the majority, of the children enrolled. this complicates the teachers’ teaching assignments (ackesjö & haglund, 2021), but also complicates how to evaluate the teaching, if it should be evaluated, and how this can be done. teaching in saec, as in the compulsory school, is to be considered a goal-oriented process. being a goal-oriented process, the teaching needs to be evaluated to ensure quality in the children’s learning. however, since the concept of teaching in saec seems to be undefined, criteria for an evaluation in the saec are lacking, and research on this topic is minimal. therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate how the evaluation of the teaching in the saec is conducted. the research question guiding this study is, which institutional logics are teachers guided by when evaluating the teaching in the saec? the neo-institutional perspective using a sociological neo-institutional perspective, this study involves an analysis of saec teachers’ reflections about their work with evaluations. this perspective focuses on how the institutional order affects both actors and organisations and, conversely, how the actors’ strategic actions, in turn, affect the institutional order (eriksson-zetterquist, 2009). earlier institutional theoretical perspectives placed greater emphasis on institutionalisation processes at an organisational and societal level, which meant the actor perspective fell into the background and the actors were constructed as passive (dimaggio & powell, 1991). in the present study, the actors (the teachers) and their stories about their evaluation practice are placed at the centre. the concept of the institution has been defined in many different ways based on what is considered to be in focus. in this study, the institution is defined as a… “more-or-less taken-for-granted repetitive social behaviour that is underpinned by normative systems and cognitive understandings that give evaluating the practice in swedish school-age educare... 63 meaning to social exchange and thus enable self-reproducing social order” (greenwood et al., 2008, p. 4– 5). institutions are built by normative and regulatory systems which scott (2014) defines as the institution’s pillars. these pillars make sense and are produced and reproduced in different ways by those working within the institution according to the norms, values and rules on which the institution is based (friedland & alford, 1991; thornton, 2004). thereby, these pillars form the basis and create stability and meaning in the institutional order (scott, 2014). the concept of logics has become central to this theory, and logics have been defined as the guiding principle. actors in an institution meet different and varying requirements, and to deal with these, the actors (consciously or unconsciously) are guided by different logics (friedland & alford, 1991). logics are about rules of action, interpretation, and interaction (thornton & ocasio, 1999) and emphasise the importance of social context. attention to the societal level of institutional orders is necessary to understand individual and organisational behaviour. logics shape the behaviours of social actors (friedland & alford, 1991) and provide conventions for deciding which issues may be important enough to be worth solving. this theory provides tools for analysing how individuals and organisations are affected in an interinstitutional system, such as the institutional order of family, state, market and profession (thornton et al., 2012). friedland and alford (1991) have developed five logics; market, bureaucratic state, democracy, family and christianity. thornton (2004) then developed these into six logics; market, state, profession, company, family, and religion. of particular interest in this paper are the market logic, the professional logic, and the bureaucratic state logic. all these logics are contained under the umbrella of institutional logic. within the market logic, free and unregulated competition with consumer preferences and choice are what determine success (friedson, 2001). this logic has competition and individualisation as means and goals, and schools are seen as parts of a market that competes with students, teacher resources, and academic results. within this logic, school and education are viewed through a market lens, and a customer-oriented view of the students is visible. it is possible for teachers to regard children and parents as customers, which in turn means that children and parents are given power and influence over pedagogical decisions. the customer or consumer preferences govern what services are available (fredriksson, 2010). discourses about efficiency, competition and performance culture may, however, stand in opposition to a profession’s freedom of action and its professionalism, as the professionals can take on a controlled, service-oriented role in this market (lundström & parding, 2011). within the professional logic, professionals rely on abstract knowledge to conduct their practice solely or in partnership with others of the same profession. within the professional logic, it is possible to take control over the content and organisation of the work (goodrick & reay, 2011) as the profession “monitors” its professional knowledge both within the profession and vis-à-vis other professions (brante, 2014; friedson, 2001). the control is based on teachers’ knowledge, judgment, independence, and the pursuit of a certain autonomy springing from jurisdiction. professionals practise within a framework with a specific scope, norms, and values in their field of work (brante, 2014). this means that this logic emphasises a bottom-up perspective, as the professionals’ experiences and autonomy, as well as their unique knowledge, guide them (brante, 2014; friedson, 2001). within the bureaucratic state logic, the government takes responsibility for professional work as opposed to ratifying professional desires. hence, professionals are seen as employees of the state, and the state controls the credentials for professional practice and the organisation of their work (goodrick & reay, 2011). focus in the state logic is equivalent education and how the pupils can contribute to the development of society, but it also includes values such as democratic principles, political ideology, welfare, and power (thornton, 2004) which guide the teachers’ work. teachers’ work is politically steered through regulations and instructions stemming from the state control as well as centralised and formalised to ensure standardisation within the institution (friedson, 2001). the logic implies loyalty to the regulations rather than to the professions (fredriksson, 2010). this means that this logic emphasises a top-down perspective, as results and documentation shall be delivered “upwards” according to a pre-determined supply chain. helena ackesjö 64 the logics used in the present study are illustrated in figure 1 below. figure 1. illustration of the logics used in this study. logics are one way of understanding the human organisation, but they do not constitute a direct description of reality. instead, they are abstract generalisations, refined and modelled in a way to appear precise and contrasting. however, logics can create contradictions and/or be competitive; when guided by logics, professionals are often forced to prioritise. professionals are likely to identify more strongly with one or more logic in their field of work than with others (ackesjö, 2021). logics can also be hybrid, as the professionals are guided by several different logics at the same time in order to maintain the legitimacy of their actions, but also to challenge the institutional order (scott, 2008). contradictions within an institution, and the different value bases of these logics, contribute to making different logics predominate in different ways depending on situations and actions as this paper will show. method this study was conducted within the research and development programme entitled saec’s pedagogical assignment2. this was a three-year programme which included both saec teachers, principals and heads of educational administrations in 31 schools in four different municipalities/districts. the aim of the development part of the programme was to a) increase and develop knowledge about how the saec’s activities and collaboration with the compulsory school can contribute to good conditions for students' learning, and b) increase knowledge about the principal's responsibility to lead and manage the saec. out from this focus, the aim of the research part of the programme was formulated to describe and define how teaching in the saec can be conducted and how the concept of teaching can be understood in relation to the saec. the research and development parts of the programme were intertwined and conducted in close collaboration with the involved saec teachers. the work can be described as participant-oriented and was based on ellström (2010) model on how participant-oriented research becomes relevant to the participants, at the same time as it can contribute to a build-up of research-based knowledge and theory formation and provide a basis for and support development work in the participating schools. ellström calls it interconnected learning cycles, which consist of a practice system and a research system. researchers, teachers and principals define problems in a joint process, carry out different activities and jointly try to interpret and understand the results and effects that arise (ellström, 2010). one such defined problem was how to plan, conduct and evaluate teaching in the saec. with support from the researchers, the participating teachers focused on developing their teaching at their schools for a number of weeks until the next meeting in the programme. as the program lasted for three years (2019-2022), the number of participating teachers varied. when data for this study was gathered, 73 saec teachers were involved in the programme. the work experience within the teacher group ranged from a few months (newly graduated saec teachers) to several decades _____________ 2 a three-year research and development project funded by ifous (innovation, research and development in school and preschool) 2019-2022. evaluating the practice in swedish school-age educare... 65 (saec educators with a degree from the 1980s). in the present paper, all respondents are called saec teachers, regardless of educational background. the study conforms to the swedish research council ethical principles (2017). the respondents were informed at the start of the research and development programme about the purpose of the research, about the research was going to be published, that confidentiality was guaranteed and that they may refrain from participating. since this research and development programme started just before the start of the covid-19 pandemic, only two physical meetings with the participants could be conducted. the rest of the meetings (3-4 per year) were digital. the data used in this study consists of written reflections upon the question: how do you evaluate learning in the saec? to collect the written reflections in a way where confidentiality was guaranteed, a web-based system was constructed in the sunet survey program. by logging in and writing their reflections, teachers gave their consent. the questions were e-mailed to all participants along with an individual login to the system, which was used to enter and write their reflections. after a few reminders, reflections from 47 of the participating teachers were received. the collected empirical material was handled with confidentiality according to the swedish research council ethical principles (2017). even though the respondents in this study were predetermined, and the questions were e-mailed to the respondents, i did not know who answered the questions. the data have been stored on the university server and only made available to the researchers in the project through password-protected computers. the raw material was stored digitally and password-protected in the digital system sunet survey. all research data has been handled in accordance with the university’s guidelines for data management and the gdps ordinance. ethical considerations have been present throughout the research process as it has been presented honestly, openly, fairly, completely and in an objective way. the dataset was analysed as inspired by a combination of what reay and jones (2016) call pattern inducing and pattern matching. first, the empirical data was carefully read through. all individual written reflections were given a number representing the individual teachers (marked with 1-47). then, with an inductive technique, empirical patterns were identified in the raw data using a bottom-up process (reay & jones, 2016). at this stage, patterns such as formal/informal evaluations, evaluation of activities and/or teaching and goal-related evaluations were induced. thereafter, these identified patterns were matched to the predefined logics described in the theoretical section. for example, the formal/informal evaluations were matched to the market logic based on the focus on customer satisfaction. thereby, the content in the text segments could be analysed and meanings could be revealed in each logic. in addition, nuances in the local practices can be highlighted, and the results can be visualised (reay & jones, 2016) as in the following results section. finally, some considerations about this study’s validity and reliability. internal validity is concerned about what the researcher can really say something about based on their data. the credibility of the interpretations is all about the researcher's craftsmanship, about critically relating to his interpretations in order to avoid distorting the results (kvale, 1997). the validity is thus dependent on whether the statements presented hold the test against other alternative statements. the validity in this study has been strengthened by reporting the analysis process as carefully as possible. elements from the theoretical base and previous research also reappear in the results analysis and discussion, which helps to highlight the new knowledge that has been constructed. external validity is concerned about how the results can be generalized to other cases or situations (schofield, 1993). the aim of this study has been to offer as clear and detailed descriptions as possible so that the reader can determine whether the results can be generalized. i humbly face the fact that the empirical data does not provide a comprehensive picture of evaluation in the saec. nevertheless, it can be argued that the statements described in the study are by no means unique; the reader may find recognition in parts of the data and the results. the selected excerpts have been discussed at a more general and theoretical level, which contributes to that the examples can gain value even outside the described national context. helena ackesjö 66 findings the written reflections that have been collected for this study indicate that evaluations do not always take place, since teachers seem to find it difficult to evaluate what is going on in the saec. these difficulties may be related to the saec’s recurring situation-driven informal learning and experience-based activities. there seems to be an ambiguity in how learning at the saec can be captured, what it is that actually should be evaluated when this evaluation should take place and how: we find it very difficult to evaluate the learning at the saec. should we even evaluate? when should we evaluate? (21) we agree that informal learning takes place all the time at the saec, but it is more difficult to evaluate than formal learning since the goal is not as clear. (35). in addition to this, the teachers also seem to be limited in their professional assignment. they often do not have time set aside to evaluate, but rather to look ahead and plan for the coming week. these reflections go in line with previous research (ackesjö & haglund, 2021; boström et al., 2015;) that has shown that the teaching in the saec often is not organised, but rather embedded in the everyday life and therefore rather hard to both plan and evaluate. however, even if there seems to be ambiguity and some confusion about how and what to evaluate, the teachers also describe how they proceed with the evaluation work. the following sections will illustrate the logics these teachers seem to be guided by when evaluating the teaching in the saec. the market logic customer satisfaction one common way to evaluate is to ask the children what they think about the activities in the saec. what is evaluated is above all the children’s satisfaction and engagement, but not necessarily what they have learned or what development the teaching has contributed to. in the written reflections, mainly two forms of evaluation appear, informal and formal. a common informal way to evaluate informally is to let the children show whether they liked or disliked an activity with thumbs up/thumbs down: we usually do “thumbs up” and “thumbs down” after the activity as we talk about the activity. (44) sometimes, for example, if you have been in the sports hall, you can do a quick check with “thumbs up or down”. then you’ll get the children’s opinions. (41) we ask the children after each activity, listen to them and their views and wishes. (38) a more formal way of evaluating together with the children is to let them grade the activities and/or fill in questionnaires: we usually do simple evaluations together with the children after the activities. they use post-it notes and may give stars or similar things based on certain questions. (31) every week we have a children’s council with the whole group. sometimes we evaluate our activities with them. we have also had small student councils on fridays with two children from each class. … they have written [aspects of the saec activities] in stars that we put up in our hall for all children and parents to see. (27) the above-described evaluation methods are focused on children’s opinions, views, and wishes. doing an evaluation seems to be about getting information about whether the children thought the activity was fun; a five-star activity is a really fun activity. embedded in this evaluation work appears to be an underlying ambition to make sure that children are satisfied and also to illustrate performatively and visually to outsiders (parents, other teachers, school management, etc.) what is going on at the saec. these empirical examples illustrate how teachers are guided by the market logic which holds consumer preferences and choice (friedson, 2001) in the centre. when guided by this logic, teachers hold the process and the customer (child) in focus. if the customer is pleased, all is well. the evaluation can be seen as a way for the teachers to evaluate their contribution in relation to the children’s satisfaction and how the children experienced their contribution. the aim here is not to evaluate if any learning took place or to evaluate teaching towards set goals; it is not even certain that the activities have any clear intentions evaluating the practice in swedish school-age educare... 67 or learning goals to begin with. rather, the focus is customer satisfaction. in addition, when teachers are guided by the market logic, it may be possible to identify the historical, social pedagogic tradition of saec, a value system which emphasises aspects such as freedom, well-being, and children’s play (gustafsson nyckel, 2020; johansson, 1984; pálsdóttir,, 2012). within this logic, individualisation and the individual’s free choices are seen as means and goals. nowadays, the saec and the school are parts of a market that competes with resources. hence, through a market lens, a satisfied customer is preferred. the professional logic activities, not teaching another way to evaluate is through collegial reflections within the work teams. in these conversations, the teachers evaluate the activities that have been carried out in terms of how things worked out: in our work teams, we present and discuss what activities we do in our various departments. (31) during our weekly planning meetings, we evaluate the past week and the activities we have done. (43) we evaluate when we have our planning meetings. we highlight what is going well and what we can/could develop/have done differently in the different activities. (39) the focus of these evaluations seems to be to make a situation assessment over the past week. the colleagues give each other feedback on the various initiatives and discuss how the daily work can be built upon. the evaluation of the week thus forms the basis for discussions on how to develop and plan next week’s work together. notable is how the teachers talk about what is being done during the week. the focus in the evaluation does not seem to be about making the children’s learning visible or directing the upcoming activities towards set goals, but rather appears to be about the practical organisation and informing each other about various completed activities and what went well. that the focus is on how teachers themselves have carried out the activities rather than on children’s learning is indicated by the use of ‘we’, what we can/could develop/have done differently, what activities we do and activities we have done. these excerpts can be related to how teachers are guided by professional logic. guided by this logic, teachers rely on their traditional knowledge about how to conduct their practice with others of the same profession. this logic allows them to take control over the content and organisation of the work (goodrick & reay, 2011) based on the pursuit of a certain autonomy. this is implied with the way in which the teachers most frequently describe their work as activities and not teaching, which lies partly embedded within the norms and values (friedland & alford, 1991) in their institutional, social pedagogical tradition and culture in the saec. this is also in line with previous research that shows that saec teachers’ hesitation about the teaching concept is rooted in the traditions and willingness to use other concepts to describe what happens in the saec (see andersson 2013; närvänen & elvstrand, 2014; saar et.al., 2012). this may also be a way to set some distance from the school’s teaching and views of knowledge (see haglund, 2016). saec teachers rather seem to use other words based on their specific norms and values from their field of work in describing how they evaluate what happens in the saec. in line with the saec traditions, norms, and values, they also reflect upon and evaluate practical and organisational aspects of the activities rather than the learning aspects of their teaching. the bureaucratic state logic goal-focused quality management a third way to evaluate is carried out in relation to the set national goals for the saec. these evaluations seem also preferably to be made as collegial reflections within the work teams: every week the work team evaluates how we have completed our work before making a new plan. we consider the children’s participation and if we saw any visible learning as well as what we can develop and move forward with. we work according to a year cycle of pedagogical plans, so that we can ensure that we cover the skills [the children ought to develop at saec] and the central content [which is prescribed] in the curriculum. (20) in the evaluations, previous evaluations carried out together with the children can also be included: helena ackesjö 68 we evaluate the learning process through a clear purpose and set goals. we also document the learning through written notes. we inform the children about the purpose and goals of the activity before the start and tie the knot after the activity by asking what they have done/trained. we also have dialogues with the children during the activity to make the learning visible to the children in order to increase the learning. we then use all this as a basis for assessing learning at the end of each selected focus area. (40) these reflections indicate how teachers are guided by the bureaucratic state logic, which stresses how the state controls the credentials for professional practice and the organisation of their work (goodrick & reay, 2011). teachers’ work is politically steered through regulations and instructions to ensure standardisation and equivalent education within the institution (friedson, 2001) and the excerpts show how professional desires do not seem to be in focus, rather the fulfilment of the state’s national goals set for the saec. the teachers describe how they draw guidance and direction from the national governing policy documents when they plan their teaching. it is towards these set goals that the saec teaching is evaluated. this indicates goal-focused quality management of the teaching in the saec, based on a kind of technical rationality in line with the bureaucratic state logic. the focus in teachers’ descriptions, guided by this logic, seems to be centred on children’s learning, which is in contrast to the focus on activities when guided by professional logic. the teachers seem to have developed templates for the plans and the evaluations, templates that are based on the set national goals for the saec. this implies that templates and written evaluation documents can be made necessary in order to visualise the learning that takes place at the saec. the visualisation seems to be directed both towards the children in order for them to be able to become aware of and increase their learning, and towards the work team in order to illustrate what needs to be developed and further worked on. in addition, guided by the bureaucratic state logic, the templates and visualisation emphasise a top-down perspective, as the results and documentation shall be rendered, as well as the teachers’ loyalty, to the state regulations (fredriksson, 2010). the analysis shows that the teachers are guided by different logics while performing evaluations in the saec. interesting to note is that the question the teachers were asked to answer was, how do you evaluate learning in the saec?, but very few answers contained reflections about evaluating learning. instead, the answers focused on evaluating teaching or organisation (or not evaluating at all). the results are illustrated in figure 2 below. figure 2. illustration of the results. the results show a variation in how the evaluations are done and what they focus on. guided by the market logic, customer preferences and the satisfied customer (child/parent) are in focus. guided by the professional logic, the collective, the group as well as the activities (perhaps based on the saec social pedagogical traditions) and the organisation around these are in focus. guided by the bureaucratic state logic, evaluating the practice in swedish school-age educare... 69 the formal teaching, the individual child and the learning and development of certain prescribed skills, the child’s visible learning and the saec’s goal fulfilment are in focus. thus, the results indicate that teachers’ focus, regarding both the children and the practice, is directed differently when they are guided by the different logics. different logics lead to different evaluation practices since professionals act differently depending on which logic they are predominantly guided by (friedson, 2001; goodrick & reay, 2011; thornton, 2004). this may not be an issue if the teachers are aware that different logics put different aspects in focus. different logics coexist, and some logics dominate others (ackesjö, 2021; friedson, 2001; goodrick & reay, 2011; thornton, 2004). it is safe to say that the saec teachers are guided by a coexisting mix of logics, which all are based on different values. logics express and manifest themselves differently and leave different traces in the institution (thornton, 2004). teachers’ actions are responses to the state’s demands, but also to their tradition and culture in the saec, at the same time as their actions also are “responses” which produce new conditions. in other words, teachers are institutional actors and contribute to creating institutional logics at the same time as they are created by them (see ackesjö, 2021). the analysis also shows that germ, the global education reform movement (sahlberg, 2016) and its worldwide movement of restructuring education, does not dominate the saec. even if some of the teachers, when guided by the bureaucratic state logic, put formal teaching, the child’s visible learning, and evaluation of the saec goal fulfilment in focus, this does not dominate the teachers’ collective descriptions of how they evaluate. even if the saec at the policy level is positioned in an evaluation-based educational landscape where monitoring, assessment, efficiency, and results are central aspects (biesta, 2011; pettersson et al., 2017), this seemingly has not changed the practice in the saec in a radical way. it still appears to be important to ask for children’s opinions, to focus on making children and parents happy and satisfied, to use democratic ways of working involving children, and to maintain the saec social pedagogical traditions. pedagogical implications – issues and contradictions the results show that there seems to be ambiguity in how learning at the saec can be captured in order to be evaluated, what it is that actually should be evaluated, and when this evaluation should take place and how. the teachers are also apparently limited in time to be able to evaluate. there are no nationally formulated standards to be used in evaluation in saec. there are no formulated knowledge requirements for children in the saec, only the skills the children should be given the opportunity to develop and these are not limited in time, but apply during all the years the children are enrolled in saec. this may explain why teachers ask questions about what is to be evaluated and when evaluations should be done. this may also explain why teachers are guided by several different (and maybe contradictory) logics when evaluating. but most of all, these results highlight the need for developing professional knowledge about how to evaluate formal and informal learning at the saec. in addition, there are some notable issues to discuss. for instance, what happens if the saec is mainly regarded as a quasi-market where children are customers with the right to choose whether or not they want to be present or not? based on the market logic, the children thus gain power over the teachers; the focus is to make them satisfied and not change the school or saec. if so, there may be a risk that the teachers mainly adapt to the children’s wishes, and they downplay quality and professionalism in order to satisfy them (see lundahl et al., 2014). one risk identified in the results is that customer preferences may govern how the teaching is conducted (see fredriksson, 2010) and what the teaching should focus on at the saec, which could lead to the teachers becoming more service-oriented personnel than professional teachers (see lundström & parding, 2011). another issue to discuss is the possible need for national evaluation models in the saec. based on the state and bureaucratic logics, it would be natural to consider increased national control of what is to be evaluated and how this is to be done to ensure higher quality in the saec. however, one pitfall with national evaluation models is that they tend to become normative glasses, through which all activities will helena ackesjö 70 be filtered. thus, there would be the risk that both the collegial reflections and the importance of the children’s experience, satisfaction, and engagement would be lost if national and normative evaluation models directed towards nationally set standards were implemented. another risk is if the national evaluation models determine the content of the teaching. within a bureaucratic state logic, the templates and a top-down perspective with a focus on delivering results (fredriksson, 2010) are a natural part. but would this benefit the saec? the results highlight contradictions concerning evaluations in the saec. it is safe to say that the teachers in saec are positioned in a field of tension between tradition and new educational policy intentions. the political reforms have converted the saec into a practice that is goal-oriented and voluntary at the same time (holmberg, 2018). the teachers must conduct a school law-regulated education with goal-directed and planned teaching, while at the same time also offering meaningful free time for the children based on their interests and needs. the practice must be professionally managed, but at the same time be open to the children’s interests and suggestions. it is still voluntary for children to participate in the saec program. as previous research has shown (ackesjö et.al., 2020; ackesjö & haglund, 2021; andersson, 2013; gustavsson nyckel, 2000; haglund, 2015; 2016), the teachers try to navigate between these two different value systems as they adapt to the educational policy intentions presented in the revised curriculum, new school law descriptions, and a new teacher education programme. this may explain the ambiguity that teachers expressed in, for example, what concepts to use (activities or teaching?) and what and when to evaluate. we may need to think differently about evaluation in the saec. it could be possible to claim that the learning process that is staged and made visible in the saec is broad and complex and cannot be “moulded” to fit into evaluation schemes. at the saec, it may not be enough to have the nationally prescribed central content and abilities as the norm for the evaluation. the child at the saec develops a number of abilities and skills, both those that are teacher-steered, goal-directed and those that are selfinitiated. these may be hard to evaluate. at the saec, learning often takes place at the moment, in different rooms, and in various social contexts with or without teachers present or engaged. these learning processes are sometimes both difficult to plan in advance and difficult to capture in an evaluation. thus, evaluation may take on a different meaning in the saec, a meaning that cannot be compared to the goal-rational model that dominates the view of the evaluation-based education that, for example, germ in the era of measurement proposes. the results show a variation in how evaluations are done in saec and what they focus on, but also that teachers’ focus regarding both the children and the practice is directed differently when they are guided by different logics. this creates a variation of evaluation practices with different focus and intentions. thus, the implications for practice have the urge to continue discussing what evaluation in the saec is, how it should be carried out and what should be evaluated. if the saec is to be expected to contribute to children’s development and learning, these issues must be constantly present and discussed in all work teams. declarations editorial acknowledgement: the editorial process of this article was carried out by dr. mine gol-guven. acknowledgements: i acknowledge and appreciate the participants’ engagement, time and contribution to this study. authors’ contributions: this is the sole work of the author. competing interests: no competing interests. funding: the study is part of a research and development program financed by ifous (innovation, research and development in school and preschool) 2019-2022. references ackesjö, h. & haglund, b. 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[a theory based evaluation of the curricula lgr11.] ifau-rapport 2015:7. ifau. https://www.ifau.se/forskning/publikationer/rapporter/2015/en-teoribaseradutvardering-av-laroplanen-lgr-11/ https://doi.org/10.1086/210361 https://www.ifau.se/forskning/publikationer/rapporter/2015/en-teoribaserad-utvardering-av-laroplanen-lgr-11/ https://www.ifau.se/forskning/publikationer/rapporter/2015/en-teoribaserad-utvardering-av-laroplanen-lgr-11/ evaluating the practice in swedish school-age educare: issues and contradictions journal of childhood, education & society volume 3, issue 2, 2022, 151-167 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.202232168 research article ©2022 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. exploring humour within the early childhood period from children’s and teachers’ perspectives betul yilmaz1, feyza tantekin erden2 abstract: the purpose of this study was to examine humour from the perspectives of 60-72-month-old children and their teachers in turkey. a phenomenological method was used to collect data through semi-structured interviews, which included each child making a drawing about something they thought was ‘funny’. teachers were also interviewed via semi-structured questions related to children’s humour. data collected from 22 children and five teachers were analysed using mcghee’s humour development theory and martin’s descriptions of four humour styles. the humour produced by our sample mainly included items related to incongruity. teachers described children’s humour development in terms of how the children behaved within their social group, and some believing that children who do not make jokes about their peers, have no humour development. our findings pointed to a lack of awareness of the benefits of humour to the learning process and early years’ education, particularly with teachers needing to account for age, developmental level and cultural differences. article history received: 24 january 2022 accepted: 23 june 2022 keywords early childhood education; humour development; humour styles; humour in early childhood introduction any change in a person’s lifestyle and environment affects the problems they face (pala & gönen, 2018). therefore, at various times in their lives, people need to utilise different types of strategies to deal with their problems and find ways to be happy. one of these strategies is humour, which mcghee (2002) defined as a source of providing a variety of benefits in people’s life. humour helps people to develop a more positive perspective when dealing and coping with negative emotions such as fear, insecurity and hopelessness (samson et al., 2014). in addition to engaging in social relationships and connecting with other people, humour can be a facilitator because it helps people better express themselves and develop selfconfidence (mcghee, 2002). it can be defined as a tool that performs different functions in people’s lives by focusing on amusement and joy. even when the context of humour that people use changes, its practice can be considered a lifelong necessity. culture is another dimension that influences children’s humour (mireault & reddy, 2016). understanding or production of humour may differ in different cultures. to illustrate, in western cultures humour is seen as an indicator of intelligence and creativity (sternberg, 1985), whereas in eastern cultures such as in chinese culture, this situation is perceived in an opposite way (jiang et al., 2011; yue, 2011). this cultural difference related to humour is also observed in seeing humour as a coping mechanism. that is why, in eastern countries, humour is not accepted as a way to cope with problems (abe, 2006; chen & martin, 2005; nevo et al., 2001). therefore, the need for studying humour and trying to develop further understanding related to humour in different cultures may arise to make more accurate explanations related to humour in children. _____________ 1 tokat gaziosmanpaşa university, faculty of education, department of elementary and early childhood education, tokat, turkey, e-mail: betul.yilmaz@gop.edu.tr, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0278-3689 2 middle east technical university, faculty of education, department of elementary and early childhood education, ankara, turkey, e-mail: tfeyza@metu.edu.tr, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6060-1877 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202232168 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:betul.yilmaz@gop.edu.tr https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0278-3689 mailto:tfeyza@metu.edu.tr https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6060-1877 betul yilmaz & feyza tantekin erden 152 humour and young children humour is considered to contribute to children’s intellectual, physical, moral, social and emotional development (bergen, 2003; loizou & recchia, 2019; mcghee, 2002). for example, to understand the alternative meaning of something or concrete humour, children need to reach for more complex thoughts, and this process requires the development of cognitive skills (mcghee, 1974. in addition to cognition, humour has benefits in terms of social development, as it readily facilitates interactions between people of different ages, genders and backgrounds (klein & kuiper, 2006; loizou & recchia, 2019). humour is also thought to benefit children’s moral development. according to mcghee (1974), children in the heteronomous stage laugh at actions in stories with humorous punch lines, whereas children in the autonomous stage might also laugh at the unintentional actions of a protagonist. as they grow older, children develop the ability to better judge what is right, wrong and funny. this affects their ability to make moral judgements and decisions (bergen, 2018). in addition to the child’s development, when integrated into educational settings, humour can benefit children’s learning (chabeli, 2008). several studies have also suggested that the use of amusing cartoons or jokes promotes learning in the classroom by supporting the development of children’s memory (schmidt, 2002; schmidt & williams, 2001; ziv, 1988). thus far, several ideas have emerged concerning the specifics of how humour, evidently beneficial during a child’s early years, actually affects their development. many of these are based on a theory established by mcghee (1979). mcghee’s humour development theory in explaining how children understand, appreciate and produce humour, mcghee (1979) provided a detailed description of how children develop humour and argued that incongruity that is about the abnormalities in an ordinary situation is the main source of children’s humour and that the humour behaviours exhibited by children differ from those exhibited by adults. mcghee (1979) also stated that cognitive development is important for humour development; he was highly influenced by piaget’s cognitive development theory. like piaget, mcghee defined the humour development of children in four stages: incongruous actions towards objects (18–20 months), incongruous labelling of objects and events (20–24 months), conceptual incongruity (2–7 years) and humour with multiple meanings (7–11 years). the 60-72-month-olds considered in the current study were thus assumed to be in the third stage of humour development; hence, the focus of this research was to investigate the characteristics of conceptual incongruity among them. conceptual incongruity suggests that children make jokes not only about themselves but also about others. the jokes that children make at this stage can also be abstract and complex. moreover, because of the development of skills related to previous actions, children begin to make more jokes about themselves. mcghee described this period by saying that children appreciate and produce humour by being aware of the ‘violations of the perceptual appearances of things’ (mcghee, 1984, p. 230). in contrast to mcghee’s explanation of humour in terms of the cognitive perspective, martin et al. (2003) focused on the socio-emotional outcomes of humour. martin’s humour styles theory people’s humour styles can differ, and in martin’s (2007) theory, four different humour styles are presented: two adaptive and two maladaptive. within the adaptive styles, the first type is self-enhancing humour, in which a person makes jokes about themselves but not about others, and these jokes are not humiliating. people who exhibit this humour style have a positive outlook towards life and can laugh about themselves, particularly when they are experiencing difficult situations (martin, 2007). because children with self-enhancing humour become confident and self-assured, they can develop a more desirable position within their social group, and their feelings related to self-worth can result in increased pro-social behaviours (james & fox, 2019). the other adaptive style is affiliative humour, which facilitates relationships between people, and those who have this type of humour love to make others laugh without exploring humour within the early childhood period… 153 resorting to sarcasm (martin, 2007). thus, children who have this humour style tend to have a high level of social acceptance and popularity within their social group (klein & kuiper, 2006). maladaptive humour consists of two styles: self-defeating humour and aggressive humour. the former can be used to establish social relationships and be part of a social group by denigrating oneself by revealing weaknesses and making jokes that humiliate oneself. however, in the long term, this type of humour damages a person’s emotions and self-esteem (martin, 2007). this humour style can cause low self-esteem and inner neediness, which in turn may cause one to be unappealing to others (klein & kuiper, 2006). the second type of maladaptive humour is the opposite of self-defeating humour, in which people adopt an aggressive humour style by enhancing themselves and making humiliating jokes about others. in the long term, as such jokes damage a person’s relationships, this humour style can be harmful to the person (martin, 2007). even if in the short term, exhibiting aggressive humour can bring acceptance within their social group, in the long term, these children might have a difficult time developing affiliative humour and ultimately experience group rejection (klein & kuiper, 2006). thus, it is necessary to consider the effects of humour styles on the physical adjustment and social competence of children and, consequently, to examine young children’s humour styles. klein and kuiper (2006) stated that martin’s humour styles theory does not provide an explanation for the development of children’s humour styles. however, they did suggest that humour styles begin to develop in the early years of human development. for example, infants’ and young children’s interactions with caregivers, peers and teachers can provide clues about the children’s current and possible future humour styles (klein & kuiper, 2006). therefore, this theory is focused on the different ways in which people use humour. for example, some children use humour to cope with stress, while others use it as a way to show aggression (führ, 2002). others, such as halfpenny and james (2020), stated that martin’s adaptive and maladaptive humour styles can be used to explain children’s cognitive empathy, affective empathy and sympathy. moreover, erikson and feldstein (2007) sought to investigate the relation between the psychometric properties of children and different humour behaviours using martin’s humour styles. fox et al. (2013) also emphasised the importance of the early years of development in determining humour styles among children because this allows parents and teachers to better understand children’s needs in terms of humour and to support them in developing adaptive humour styles. for example, by providing the necessary modelling, activities, environment and classroom management, parents and teachers can support children’s humour development. in addition to theories which try to explain children’s humour, several other studies also improve the understanding related to children’s humour. for example, loizou (2006) tried to understand children’s humour by examining their responses to pictorial humour. in another study conducted in 2011, she analysed children’s humour via the photos children took with disposable cameras. also, loizou and kyriakou (2016) analysed children’s production and appreciation of verbal and visual humour. studies in the literature not only try to provide a better understanding of children’s humour but also attempt to explain the importance of humour regarding children’s development and argue that humour is highly related to children’s cognitive, social, emotional and language development (bergen, 2021; gidwani et al., 2021; martin & ford, 2006; oppliger, 2003; shultz, 2017). from this point, including humour in classrooms becomes an important question. for example, studies which discuss the importance of humour within classrooms emphasise the positive effects of humour in promoting children’s learning and creating a positive classroom atmosphere (bryant & zillmann, 2014; lovorn, 2008; oppliger, 2003). while ağçam and ünsal (2019) found that teachers believe humour contributes to children’s self-esteem, attitudes toward school and communication with their teachers and peers. finally, humour differences between cultures and the importance of broadening the approach to humour by considering cultural differences is another important research area. to illustrate, jiang et al. (2019), guo et al. (2011), and yue (2011) explained how humour differs among chinese students in comparison to students from western cultures. similarly, sahayu et al. (2022) stated that even if indonesian children exhibit similar humour characteristics to mcghee’s humour development theory, different patterns of children’s humour behaviours are actually betul yilmaz & feyza tantekin erden 154 observed. thus, even if universal theories of humour provide a useful guide, culture-specific humour explanations are necessary. in the current study, during the data analysis process, both mcghee’s and martin’s explanations of humour were used to present the data more meaningfully. mcghee (1974 2002) is one of the theorists who has explained humour development from a constructivist perspective. his theory provides developmental stages and explains incongruity humour (james & fox 2019). according to james and fox (2019) and martin et al. (2003), the strong links between humour styles and psychological adjustments ultimately provide a valid explanation for understanding humour styles. therefore, these theories can be used to explain the study findings through a theoretical framework. data about children’s humour development and styles are necessary to understand what humour means in the classroom and how teachers can meet children’s needs by learning about what makes them laugh. whereas data from children can help to develop a better understanding regarding children’s humour, the data collected from teachers can also be an extremely valuable source to learn about their views, knowledge and approach to the humour of children. therefore, the current study provides teachers, parents and researchers with insights that will enable them to better understand children’s humour and offer appropriate environments and experiences in accordance with children’s humour development. in this study, the researchers examined how children appreciate and produce humour as well as how early childhood teachers’ view the humour presented by children. to achieve this aim, the researchers obtained data through interviews with the participating children and teachers to determine what made the children laugh as well as what the teachers knew about the humour produced by the children. the following research questions were addressed in this study: rq1: what humorous elements do 60-72-month-old children include in their drawings? rq2: how do 60-72-month-old children explain the humorous/funny "things" represented in illustrations of books presented? rq3: how do teachers describe the sense of humour and humour styles of the children in their classes? method study design using a phenomenological approach, this study aimed to collect in-depth data from children about their understanding and production of humour and to gather teachers’ views on humour in the classroom and the children’s use of humour. according to creswell (2007), phenomenological research enables researchers to collect data regarding the experiences of an individual or their views on a specific concept or situation. therefore, in the current study, the researchers used phenomenological research, and as suggested by creswell (2007), interviewed the participants to obtain direct responses on the topic. participants both children and teachers of early childhood education participated in the current study. convenience sampling, in which the participants are selected according to their accessibility and proximity to the researchers, was adopted (creswell, 2007). in all, 22 normally developed children in the age group of 60–72 months (10 female; 12 male) were selected. the median of children’s age was 66 months. the reason for including only 60-72-month-old children in this study lies in their developmental characteristics. also, the participating children were living in the city centre and were from families of middle and high socioeconomic status. according to fabian and mould (2009), children grow, develop and mature due to the effects of nature and nurture. in this regard, older children normally show more developed language and cognitive skills compared to younger children, and as a result, can be more comfortable expressing themselves within the data collection process. the children in this study were chosen from five classrooms of a public preschool that provided permission and was suitable for researchers’ access in tokat, a small exploring humour within the early childhood period… 155 city in the black sea region of turkey. consent for their participation was obtained from their parents and teachers. these children attended preschool either in the morning or in the afternoon. three of the five classrooms were morning classrooms, and the other two were afternoon classrooms. four or five children from each classroom participated in the study. in addition, five teachers who taught these participating children were included in the study. the age range of the teachers was 26 to 39 years old, and all five had graduated from public universities with a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education. their teaching experience varied from 4 to 16 years. all five participating teachers who taught 60-72-month-old children knew the participants and were able to observe them in terms of humour appreciation and humour production; therefore, these teachers could provide the anticipated data. instruments for data collection, the researchers utilised semi-structured interview questions for both the children and teachers. after a review of the relevant literature, the first version of the questions was formulated. after conducting a pilot study and gaining expert opinions, interview questions for the children and teachers were adapted to make them more understandable in terms of sentence structure, wording and the number of questions. thus, the researchers developed the final version of the interview questions. expert opinions were obtained from three professors from the early childhood education department of a public university within turkey. in addition to the questions, a humorous illustration was chosen from a children’s picture book according to the evaluation form of humorous factors in children’s books developed by johnson (2010) and adapted to turkish by pala and gönen (2018). for the illustration, approximately 80 books were examined, and the final book chosen was ‘ben sandalye değilim’ (i am not a chair), written by ross burach and translated by nuran hatırnaz (2018). in addition to expert opinions regarding the book and illustration choice among books, a pilot study was conducted with six children from a private kindergarten in tokat. given the pilot study results, no changes were made to the interview questions used in this current study. however, the manner in which the researchers started the data collection process changed from that used in the pilot study. for example, the children were shy to talk to the researcher, so a story-reading component was added at the beginning of the research to help the children develop a closer relationship with the researcher. also, because the term “humourous illustration” was not meaningful for children in the pilot study, the researchers decided to instead use the word “funny” when talking to children participating in the main study. in the pilot study, the choice of illustration was also included. for this process, five illustrations from each category of johnson’s evaluation form were chosen based on expert opinions, and the final illustration was selected after a process of elimination based on the children’s ideas about whether the illustration was funny and what they had understood from the illustration. finally, as a result of the experiences gained through the pilot study, the final version of the main study was prepared. table 1 presents examples of the interview questions posed to the participating children. table 1. interview questions for children category of question example questions views on drawing what do you see in the picture? do you think that it is funny? why is it funny? or what is it not funny? what are the factors that make this picture funny? what would you add to this illustration to make it funnier? for the teachers’ interview questions, a pilot study was conducted with two teachers who taught the children during the pilot study period, as it was confirmed that these teachers understood the questions and would provide relevant answers to the research questions. table 2 presents a sample of questions posed to the teachers. betul yilmaz & feyza tantekin erden 156 table 2. interview questions for teachers category of question example questions demographic information which university did you graduate from? how many years of teaching experience do you have? have you ever taken any courses or seminars regarding humour? views on humour development of their students how do you define the humour development of c*? data collection procedure and ethics before data collection, necessary permission was obtained from the ethics committee of a state university in ankara, turkey, and from the turkish ministry of national education. then, the researchers contacted the school principal and teachers for access to the children. a consent letter was sent to the parents, informing them about the study and its procedures. parents were then asked to sign a document stating that they consented to their children’s participation in the study. the children were also verbally asked whether they would like to participate in the study and that their willingness to participate would significantly help (fraenkel et al., 2012). the classrooms where the data was collected included 60-72 months old. thus, the ones who provided necessary permissions were included to the study. the data were collected by the first author of the study. thus, the author began to develop rapport with the participant children by introducing herself to increase their willingness to join the main study by telling them, ‘today, i will tell you a story, and after that, we will do an activity. by doing so, the researcher was able to gain some information about the children, including their names, which allowed her to get to know the children better and create rapport. the researcher started to tell the children a story with the help of props, such as clothespins and rope, to attract the children’s attention as well as to provide a more enjoyable experience. the text of the story presented to the children is provided in the following paragraph: ‘there is a child called ali. his most favourite activity is drawing, and every day, he draws a lot of pictures about what he sees around him. in the morning, he draws himself by looking at the mirror. one day, ali takes his pencils and paper and goes outside. first, he looks at the sky and sees a lot of clouds, so he decides to draw the sky. after a while, he sees a car, a tree, and a house, and he draws all of them. then, he gets tired and decides to go home, but on his way home, he sees something interesting. what do you think it can be?’ at the end of the story, the children were encouraged to offer ideas about what ali saw on his way home. after recording their ideas, the researcher asked, ‘the event was very funny. what could it have been?’, thus encouraging the children to think about a funny incident. rather than directly asking the children to create a funny drawing, this approach helped them think about funny incidents that they could illustrate in their drawing. the researcher then explained that ali tried to draw what he saw, but he could not because he did not know how to create a funny drawing and therefore needed help from the children to draw the picture. at this point, the researcher asked the children if they could draw a funny picture of ali. the story was read to all children in the classroom, and they were all involved in the drawing activity, but only the drawings created by the participant children and by children who wanted to share and talk about their drawings and created a drawing considering the ‘funniness’ concept was included in this study. some of the children created drawings that were not connected to the story, and the researcher eliminated those drawings. the storyline is provided in the pictures shown in figure 1. exploring humour within the early childhood period… 157 figure 1. storyline used in the data collection process the data were collected with the teacher present in their classroom to ensure that the children felt comfortable communicating with the researcher. the audio recording method was used to avoid the risk of missing any data. the researcher also took notes during the interviews about her interpretations and additional questions to ask (creswell, 2007). after the children completed their drawings, the researcher asked each child to talk about the funny elements and the story behind the drawing in the one-on-one interviews. the researcher asked questions such as ‘what did you draw in your picture?’, ‘why did you include those things?’ and ‘why are they funny?’. thus, the researcher had a chance to learn what the children laughed at by asking them questions related to their drawing. as the children drew their pictures in the classroom, the researcher asked for their responses to the questions in a quiet part of the classroom, and this process was carried out just after the drawing process to avoid losing the children’s attention on the topic. the word “funny” was used rather than humorous because the word “funny” is usually more familiar to children. thus, to avoid confusing them, the children were asked for their funny drawings rather than humorous drawings. this process, which included the story reading, drawing, and child interviews, took approximately 30–40 minutes to complete. the researcher showed the illustrations taken from the picture books in the second part and presented the interview questions. this activity was conducted after the drawing activity to avoid the influence of illustrations on the children’s drawings. children’s answers were taken during the one-on-one interviews in a separate room to remove any distractions. this process took approximately 10–15 minutes for each child. for the final part of the study conducted with the teachers, the researcher asked semi-structured interview questions, but before this, she provided information about the confidentiality of the research. to avoid missing important data, the researcher asked the teachers to permit audio recordings; all participants agreed to it. the researcher also took full notes during the interviews, recording the points that required additional questions and her interpretation of the participants’ answers (creswell, 2007). the one-on-one interviews were conducted in a separate room to avoid distractions and took approximately 10–15 minutes for each participant. data analysis first, the audio recordings of the participant interviews were transcribed by the first author. in qualitative research, coding offers an understanding of chunks of data and allows for the capturing of the major points provided in the respondents’ answers (fraenkel et al., 2012). therefore, in the current study, the main points from the teachers’ and children’s responses were coded. this coding process was undertaken by two different coders. one of the coders was the first author of the study and other coder was another researcher both of whom hold master’s degrees in early childhood education and work as research assistants in education faculties at public universities. deductive coding, in which the researcher begins by developing the codes and then afterwards conducting the analysis (rivas, 2012), was used for the coding process in the current research. almost all the codes were matched between the two coders; however, for some codes, the words and phrases were replaced by more generic terms to facilitate better understanding. the codes were determined using the evaluation form of humorous factors in children’s books developed by johnson (2010) and adapted to turkish by pala and gönen (2018). thus, the categories under mcghee’s conceptual incongruity stage related to humorous illustrations were applied to the items in the children’s drawings, as listed in table 3. in addition, to create codes related to teachers’ views on children’s humour behaviours, martin’s explanation related to adaptive and maladaptive humour styles was used. tables 3 and 4 provide a detailed explanation of the categories and codes used in the analysis of the data collected from children and teachers. betul yilmaz & feyza tantekin erden 158 table 3. types of humour appreciated at different developmental stages age corresponding stage(s) pictorial humour types verbal humour types situational humour types 1-2 years mcghee’s stage 1 and stage 2 piaget’s sensorimotor non-language sounds nonsense words rhyming erroneous labelling of objects pretend play with objects tickling and body contact 2-7 years mcghee’s stage 3 piaget’s preoperational objects with incongruous features physical deformities caricature and exaggeration masks, clowns joke telling repetitious rhyming slapstick mastered skills body parts and potty humour pranks and mischief clumsiness 7+ years mcghee’s stage 4 piaget’s concrete operations puns knock-knock jokes irony satire riddles teasing social mistakes made by peers practical jokes note. retrieved from humour in children’s picture books by johnson (2010). table 4. martin’s humour styles type of humour style name of the humour style adaptive humour styles self-enhancing: positive humour toward self affiliative: positive humour toward others maladaptive humour styles self-defeating: negative humour toward self aggressive: negative humour toward others findings humorous elements included by 60-72-month-olds in their drawings to encourage the children to produce humour, the researcher asked them to create a ‘funny’ picture, and when they finished, the researcher asked questions, such as ‘what are the things in your drawing?’, ‘what are they doing in the drawing?’, ‘what are the things that make this drawing funny?’ and ‘why do you think that they are funny?’. the findings from the children’s drawings and comments in terms of their humour production were categorised and coded, as shown in table 5. table 5. factors included in funny drawing categories codes conceptual incongruity big/little people giving human features to unloving things giving animal features to people unusual physical features unusual combination of things physical deformity unusual size and number of body parts unusual shape-colour of body parts caricature hurting somebody else unusual/unappropriated behaviours of things exaggeration exaggerated number of things exaggerated little or big size of things costume clown nurse the categories were prepared in accordance with the evaluation form of humorous factors in children’s books developed by johnson (2010). table 3 shows that there were children who produced humour in every category within the form; however, they primarily produced humour using conceptual incongruity. the following drawings and statements from the children offer an understanding of their humour. exploring humour within the early childhood period… 159 figure 2. c13’s drawing there is a weird girl with a moustache. she also has more than one leg and a bottom on her belly. this is funny. as illustrated in figure 2, some of the children chose to include unusual physical features for the characters in their drawings. when asked why they drew such a picture, they most often responded that giving people different and weird features makes them funny. in the second category, adding unusual features to objects or people was another way that the children created humour, with some of the children making absurd changes in terms of the colour, shape, size or number of something, as illustrated in the drawing below. figure 3. c17’s drawing there are two men in the drawing. one of them has very big ears. he tries to lower his head, but he cannot because his ears are too big. the other man also has big ears and is very tall. he tries to touch the floor with his hands but cannot do so because of his height. the example in figure 3 reveals that some of the children thought that they could create funny situations by assigning unusual features to their characters. therefore, in their drawings, they created imaginary events caused by these unusual physical features and used these cause-effect situations to produce humour. in addition, the children created situations in their drawings that they thought were funny. betul yilmaz & feyza tantekin erden 160 figure 4. c21’s drawing in the drawing, there is a girl whose hair is caught in the car door. the girl is crying, and the entire car is getting wet because of her tears. the boy outside the car is laughing at the girl, because he was the one who had closed the door. this scenario could be viewed as a negative situation. however, when the child was asked to talk about the drawing, he argued that the interaction between the two characters was funny. this was accepted as evidence that children use caricatures to produce humour. in the analysis process, mcghee’s humour development stages were used to offer interpretations of the children's responses related to their production of humour. mcghee (2002) offered a similar explanation for this age group, stating that children can produce humour in this age group based on the third level of his theory (i.e., conceptual incongruity). explanation by 60-72-month-old children of the humorous factors in the illustrations provided after asking the children to create funny drawings and then explain their drawings, the researcher showed one humorous illustration and asked questions to obtain the children’s ideas about the picture. in the picture, there was a giraffe that was illustrated like a chair with a rabbit and hippopotamus sitting on the giraffe, who looked surprised. the children were asked questions about the illustration, such as ‘what do you see in the drawing?’, ‘what do you think about this drawing?’ and ‘is this funny? why?’. the illustration that was presented to the children included a conceptual incongruity theme. to provide a clearer understanding, the illustration was presented separately. all children could describe the characters in the drawings and talk about the animals depicted. except for one child (c4), all the children stated that the giraffe illustration was a funny picture. the children were asked why they found the drawing funny; their responses are provided in table 6 according to the categories from the literature. table 6. children’s views on the humorous illustration categories codes conceptual incongruity chair giraffe caricature amazed face while commenting on the illustration, children primarily focused on the absurdity of the giraffe being a chair because, ordinarily, this is not possible. the comments from some of the children are presented below. the hippopotamus is reading a book, and the rabbit is sleeping. however, they are doing this on the giraffe. a giraffe is not a chair. this is funny. (c2) in addition to the incongruity within the illustration, some of the children found the facial expressions of the animals humorous. this situation falls within the caricature category (johnson, 2010). for example, c7 (pointing to the giraffe) said, ‘the giraffe’s face is very funny and shows amazement when the animals sat on the giraffe’. however, c4 did not find the drawing funny, explaining that exploring humour within the early childhood period… 161 the hippopotamus is just sitting, and the rabbit is just reading a book. here, the rabbit is laughing. these are not funny things. they are usual. because they are sitting on the giraffe, it may be a little funny, but not that much. (c4) these extracts show that the children appreciated the humorous illustrations by realising the incongruity and explained this through differing aspects of the incongruity that they recognised, such as the giraffe being a chair or having different facial expressions. teachers’ description of the sense of humour and humour styles of the children in their classes for the teacher interviews, the questions focused specifically on the children within their classroom who had participated in making funny drawings as part of the study. the aim of these questions was to determine whether there was an overlap between the way in which children produced humour and the way in which the teacher explained the children’s humour. therefore, the question, ‘what are the humorous characteristics that c* shows in the classroom?’ was asked to the teachers in each classroom. in their responses, the teachers mainly focused on how the children used humour rather than commenting on the children’s development in terms of humour understanding, appreciation or production. mcghee (1974) described the use of physical humour that negatively affects relationships in two main styles: adaptive and maladaptive. maladaptive humour concerns the use of humour that harms the self or others, whereas the aim of adaptive humour is to provide joy to oneself and others. there is no sarcasm, humiliation or negative criticism in adaptive humour. table 7. teacher’s views on their students’ humour behaviours categories codes maladaptive humour uses physical humour that affects relationships negatively adaptive humour likes to laugh and make jokes uses humour on his/her own shares humour with others reflects usual things in a funny way no humour does not use humour according to the teachers’ descriptions, some children showed both adaptive and maladaptive humour (table 7). however, some of the teachers described some children as having no humour at all. to explain maladaptive humour in children, the teachers stated that children sometimes used physical humour, but because this humour hurt others, it adversely affected their relationships, and these children were not chosen by others to play with. an example of this situation concerning c7 was given by t2: his physical development is better than his classmates’. he makes a number of physical jokes, and this is too much for the other children. their relationships are affected adversely. he causes pain to the other children. my warnings help to restrict his behaviour. for the second category, adaptive humour, the teachers described different ways, such as sharing humour with others and reflecting humour in a funny manner; for example, some of the children used humour within their social group. to create humour, they needed to have others around them, and as a result, they liked to make other children laugh and enjoy things with them. in this context, t5 described c19 as follows: she has a good sense of humour. she gets on well with her friends. her social abilities are developed, and her relationships with friends are strong. when playing with classmates, she enjoys role-playing and makes jokes and calls her friends to join her. after creating a play or humorous situation, she includes her friends in it. the final category that was created from the responses to this question included children who were perceived by their teachers as having no sense of humour when they were found not to incorporate humour into their play and communication. the teachers stated that they had not observed humour from these children and were not sure what they would laugh at. for example, c2 was described by t1 as: i have not seen any humour in him. he does not use humour in his relationships or play. betul yilmaz & feyza tantekin erden 162 finally, t4’s ideas on c15 for this code were as follows: he is a sweet-natured child. some children can laugh at inappropriate things. however, c15 does not participate in this kind of humour. he smiles at everything, but i did not observe any humorous behaviour in him. summary several findings were revealed from the data of this current study. first, the children showed humour behaviours parallel to mcghee’s humour development theory, and in producing humour in their drawings, they used related items. in the explanations of their drawings, the children also explained the logic of their humour. while commenting on the humorous illustration, the children could understand the main idea of the illustration and explain why the illustration was funny, identifying the conceptual incongruity within the illustration. in the teacher part of this current study, the teachers generally identified humour as a source of joy and satisfaction and argued that humour must be part of every aspect of people’s lives. in early childhood education, humour can benefit children’s development, learning and communication. the teachers commented that humour should be utilised within the classroom; however, they did not think about including humour within their lesson planning, teaching, classroom management and/or communication with children. for them, humour had to occur spontaneously within the classroom. when asked about their students’ humour behaviours, the teachers primarily commented on the humorous behaviour observed while the children interacted with one another. if no humorous behaviour was observed for a specific child, the teachers described this child as exhibiting no humour behaviour or lacking humour development. these findings reveal how children and teachers approach humour in early childhood education. in the next section, the findings of the related literature are discussed. discussion the aim of the current study was to examine how children appreciate and produce humour, as well as what the views of early childhood teachers were regarding humour in children within their classroom. an analysis of the findings revealed that the children exhibited humour behaviours in parallel with mcghee’s theory. furthermore, an examination of the teachers’ views revealed that they primarily focused on whether the children socially exhibited humour behaviours. that is, having humour development was related to the children’s observable humour behaviours within the classroom and among their peers. regarding the findings of the current study, there is related literature that provides both contradictory and parallel ideas. humour from children’s perspective an examination of the categories created from the children’s drawings revealed findings similar to those reported by certain previous studies (e.g., loizou (2011)). rather than asking the children to draw, loizou asked them to take photographs of funny things and then explain why they were funny. her results indicated that children’s humour is mainly based on incongruity; this finding is supported by our current investigation. moreover, loizou and kyriakou (2015) noted that children use incongruities such as colour violation, humorous symbols, feature violations and violence. similar categories also emerged from the current study. violence, for example, was observed in some of the drawings produced by a sample of 6072-month-old children from a preschool in tokat, turkey. their explanations for why their drawing was funny included ‘making somebody else hurt’, which illustrates similar humour production patterns. in addition, a notable feature of the violation category was the unusual presentation of the various elements of their drawings. according to mcghee, humour capacity develops with the development of cognitive skills. cognitive changes affected by age result in changes in children’s humour appreciation and production (johnson, 2010). in the current study, the children produced drawings related to the categories described for their age group and developmental stage. mcghee (2018) stated that, with age and developed cognitive abilities, children begin to understand more complex humorous situations. from this perspective, the exploring humour within the early childhood period… 163 results of the studies support each other. in addition to humour production, humour appreciation was considered in the study. almost all children focused on the incongruity within the illustration presented to them. this revealed the children’s capability to understand humour. similarly, loizou (2006) found that young children can recognise and appreciate humour by understanding the incongruities of a provided situation. this situation can be utilised to test children’s schema development because children laugh when something does not fit their schemas. with age, the number of schemas increases and children’s understanding of humour develops. loizou (2006) explained this situation using mcghee’s description of the conceptual incongruity stage and brown’s visual incongruities category, as they provide a suitable explanation for how children understand the humorous items in a picture. in terms of understanding children’s ideas about what is funny in a provided illustration, chik et al.’s (2005) findings can be used to corroborate the ideas expressed by the children in tokat regarding their understanding and appreciation of humour within the illustration presented to them in terms of its incongruities. the universality of humour is also provided in the evidence from the present study, given that previous studies conducted in different countries with differing cultures regarding their sense of humour have reported that incongruities are a common element found in the appreciation of humour across cultures. guo et al. (2011) stated that culture is an effective factor in humour along with cognitive development and that people adapt their humorous behaviours to the expectations of society. for example, in some cultures, children typically change their humorous behaviours with age to show that they are mature. thus, humour develops with improvements in cognitive skills, but the effects of culture are undeniable. children’s humour from teachers’ perspectives the final findings of the current study revealed how the teachers explained children’s humour behaviours. in the maladaptive humour category, the teachers explained that some of the children used humour in a negative manner. for example, they used physical jokes that their peers did not like, and because of these jokes, these children became undesired peers within their social environment. according to oberjohn (2002), while humour increases the level of peer acceptance and friendships, when used in a negative manner, such as teasing, acceptance among peers becomes more difficult and friendship bonds are weakened by these negative behaviours. martin (2007) also explained this process in his studies, in which the children use maladaptive humour to feel better, but as a result, harm both themselves and others. veatch also referred to the relationship between violence and humour in his theory (as cited in sayar, 2012). because children are aware that violence is an inappropriate action, it is considered humorous to them. as this goes against expected behaviour, even if humour is seen as a powerful tool for developing positive social relationships (kuipers, 2010), it can negatively affect such relationships, depending on the way it is utilised. while describing children’s humour and how it is produced, the teachers also mentioned the use of adaptive humour that was not aimed at harming others but served instead to heighten their enjoyment. according to mcghee (1979), children start to produce humour at the age of 3–6-years-old, depending on the level of their cognitive processing. while morrison (2008) explained humour with linguistic abilities, lang and hoon (2010) and ghayas and malik (2013) argued that the production of humour requires creative abilities. finally, some of the teachers in the current study described some children in their classroom as having little or no humour development. in explaining the reasons for this, they stated that such children were silent, sweet-natured and calm; while the relatively active and social children had a more developed sense of humour. however, when their drawings and statements on the drawings were examined, all the children were seen to produce humour, as described in mcghee’s humour development stages. when the descriptions from the teachers regarding humour development in their children were examined, it appeared certain that their observations reflected their cultural attitudes. in their study of greek and chinese children, guo et al. (2011) exemplified how culture affects humour. they found that, particularly betul yilmaz & feyza tantekin erden 164 in china, children’s humour responses decrease with age and the development of cognitive skills. clearly, children are affected differently by their cultures (greenfield et al., 2003; wellman et al., 2006). therefore, even when children go through similar processes in terms of cognition and humour development, differences in their cultures affect their humour. conclusion the current study revealed that the participating children exhibited characteristics similar to mcghee’s description in terms of humour. even if humorous behaviour changed depending on gender, culture or background, the source of humour was similar in all children. this finding was the same for both children’s appreciation and their production of humour. in addition to the data collected from the children in this study, the teachers provided data regarding what they understood about children’s humour. there were some concerns about the teachers’ explanation of the children’s humour behaviours that occurred within their classroom, in that they evaluated the children’s humour development solely by observing the children’s social relations with their peers. therefore, it could be said that the teachers needed more information in terms of observing the children’s humour development, even when the children exhibited these humour behaviours within their social interactions. to conclude, there are ways to not only understand but also support children’s humour development, and certain teaching practises within the classroom can enhance the development and use of humour among the students. further research the current study can be utilised as a basis for future research that can include a larger sample including participants from differing schools, locations and age groups. by doing so within turkey, children’s humour development can be examined more comprehensively. in addition, parents can be included in similar future studies because they play an extremely vital role in their children’s overall development, which includes humour development. furthermore, as seen in the current study, culture plays a role in people’s humour development. thus, collaborative studies can be conducted with members of other cultures. in the current study, semi-structured questions and qualitative methods were used to obtain a sufficient understanding of the participants’ views; however, to reach more participants, quantitative research methodologies can be utilised. only in-service teachers were included in this study, and in the process of learning more about their views regarding humour, it was revealed that they had not received any formal training in this area. therefore, it should be considered relevant to better determine how the views of teacher candidates in turkey regarding humour can be more fully developed and utilised in their future teaching careers. in doing so, how best to enable them to utilise what they have learnt about children’s humour use and development within their future lesson planning, teaching, classroom management and/or communication with children should be determined. declarations authors’ declarations acknowledgements: this article is derived from the thesis of the first author entitled “examining humor in early childhood period from teacher and child aspects” conducted under the supervision of the second author. authors’ contributions: both authors have equal contribution, first author wrote first draft, collected data and analysed the data; second author revised first draft, contributed conceptual framework. both authors read and confirmed the paper’s last version. competing interests: the authors declare that they have no competing interests. funding: not applicable. ethics approval and consent to participate: the ethical permissions were taken from middle east technical university’s ethical committee (2018, decision no:28620816/396) and ministry of national education (2018, decision no: 27001677-44-e.17131340). publisher’s declarations editorial acknowledgement: the editorial process of this article was carried out by dr. aileen s. garcia. publisher’s note: journal of childhood, education & society remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliation. exploring humour within the early childhood period… 165 references abe, g. 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(1988). teaching and learning with humor. the journal of experimental education, 57(1), 4-15. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220973.1988.10806492. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.49.3.607 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01830.x https://doi.org/10.1515/humr.2011.026 https://doi.org/10.1080/00220973.1988.10806492 exploring humour within the early childhood period from children’s and teachers’ perspectives journal of childhood, education & society volume 3, issue 1, 2022, 12-27 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.202231130 research article ©2022 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. integration of education for sustainability in the preschool curriculum: a comparative study between the two latest swedish curricula anders ohlsson1, niklas gericke2, farhana borg3 abstract: the aim of this study is to provide a content analysis of the new swedish preschool curriculum in comparison with the previous preceding curriculum to investigate how sustainability and education for sustainability (efs) have been described, and whether there have been any changes in terms of the scope of their inclusion in the new curriculum. the study adopts a holistic view of sustainability, meaning that the environmental dimension, social dimension, and economic dimension, along with a pluralistic and transformative view of efs, form the analytical framework. using content analysis, the frequency of explicit and implicit descriptive words for sustainability and efs in both curricula were investigated. a contextual analysis was also conducted that involved an interpretation of the meaning of the implicit words. two main findings could be identified in the new curriculum in comparison to the previous curriculum. the first was that the term sustainability is now used from an explicit and holistic perspective that includes all three dimensions. the second was that the new curriculum provides guidance as to how to incorporate efs where such words as investigating, participation, collaborate and develop are used. together with the context in which these words appear, a picture forms of a pluralistic teaching tradition in preschool curricula. overall, the analysis provides a picture of change in the swedish preschool curriculum that is in line with the intentions of international policy and research relating to a need for increased focus on sustainability and efs. article history received: 14 september 2021 accepted: 30 november 2021 keywords curriculum analysis; education for sustainable development; preschool; sustainable development; sustainability introduction on july 1, 2019, a new curriculum for preschool in sweden (rev. 2018) was introduced that incorporated substantial changes when compared with the previous curriculum (rev. 2016). new to the swedish curriculum for preschool 2018 are the word teaching and the fact that sustainability has been explicitly referred to under the heading “sustainable development, health and well-being” (swedish national agency for education, 2018, p. 9). sustainability is also mentioned in other goals that are formulated in the new preschool curriculum (swedish national agency for education, 2018). these changes make it interesting to study in more detail any possible differences that exist between the new curriculum and the previous curriculum when it comes to sustainability and the way in which education for sustainability (efs) in preschool is formulated. efs is an important part of the 17 sustainable development goals of the united nations (un) (2015) that form the basis of agenda 2030. these global goals provide a roadmap for sustainability efforts until the year 2030 and apply to the countries that signed the agreement, of which sweden is one. talk about a holistic view of sustainability refers to the three dimensions that form sustainability: the environment dimension, the economic dimension, and the social dimension. the environment dimension is about the ecosystem and biological diversity, which includes natural resources and the climate. the economic dimension covers the division of human and material resources, while the social dimension refers to human rights, cultural differences, health, and democracy (atkinson et al., 2007; world commission on _____________ 1 dalarna university, educational work, school of teacher education, falun, sweden, e-mail: aoh@du.se, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6727-2196 2 karlstad university, department of environmental and life sciences, karlstad, sweden, e-mail: niklas.gericke@kau.se, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8735-2102 3 dalarna university, educational work, school of teacher education, falun, sweden, e-mail: fbr@du.se, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4937-8413 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202231130 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:aoh@du.se https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6727-2196 mailto:niklas.gericke@kau.se https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8735-2102 mailto:fbr@du.se https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4937-8413 anders ohlsson, niklas gericke & farhana borg 13 environment and development [wced], 1987). the question addressed here is how this holistic approach is apparent in the preschool curriculum. a specific teaching method, efs, is presented in both policy (unesco, 2005; 2017), practice (naturskyddsföreningen, 2017), and research (eilam & trop, 2010) as a way to develop the competence of school pupils to act in relation to sustainability. the importance of efs has also been established in preschool teaching because it can affect the development of young children’s attitudes and future behaviour relating to sustainability issues (inoue et al., 2016) and in more recent years has been highlighted as an important aspect of research on preschools (borg & gericke, 2021; gericke et al., 2020). another question thus raised is whether this teaching perspective is reflected in the new swedish curriculum. previous studies of the presence of sustainability issues in earlier swedish preschool curricula show that the sustainability perspective has been left out (elliott et al., 2017; weldemariam et al., 2017). in this study, a comparison is conducted of the new curriculum (rev. 2018) with the previous curriculum (rev. 2016) to investigate whether there have been any changes when it comes to sustainability and efs. the absence of sustainability is a shortcoming identified in studies from an international perspective as well; indeed, according to weldemariam et al. (2017), there is a lack in the curricula of most countries of a broader view of sustainability in terms of how human beings can affect the future of the planet. weldemariam et al. (2017) argue that curricula need to be analysed to investigate whether there is place for efs, and they pose this question: ”what might an early childhood education curriculum, that manifest explicit language of sustainability, views children as world citizens and portrays a unified world view with entangled human and more-than-human others, look like?” (p. 349). this is an interesting thought, and the question is whether or not sweden’s new curriculum for preschool meets that requirement. in a previous study, borg and pramling samuelsson (in press) investigated how children’s participation and agency in efs are presented in the new curriculum. they concluded that the new curriculum conveys a perspective of children as competent and active participants in their own learning. the results of the study demonstrate that certain expressions appear that point towards transformative learning, that is to say, learning in which children think, act and learn in relation to sustainability (borg & pramling samuelsson, in press). the picture presented by the study shows there to be a changed perspective of children in the new curriculum compared with that in the previous curriculum. this indicates that one of the criteria that weldemariam et al. (2017) highlight – the child as a world citizen – is acknowledged in the new curriculum, yet there are no studies on how the terms sustainability and efs have changed nor how they are presented in the new curriculum, and this is what this study aims to investigate. indeed, this study aims to investigate and compare how the different dimensions of sustainability are expressed in the new swedish preschool curriculum compared with the previous curriculum, and also whether there are any indications as to how efs can be implemented. the aim of the study is to investigate if the new swedish curriculum (rev. 2018) provide the incentive needed to stimulate preschool teachers and childcarers to educate for sustainability and in that way make children aware of sustainability related issues. this study addresses the following questions: • how do the new swedish curriculum for preschool (rev. 2018) and the previous curriculum (rev. 2016) differ in terms of their description of the term sustainability? • does the new swedish curriculum for preschool describe how efs can be implemented, and if so, how? literature review – sustainability in preschool current research on the presence of sustainability and efs in the swedish curricula for preschool is limited when it comes to the new curriculum. however, some research, both national and international, presents a picture of the research field that will be addressed in the following sections. integration of education for sustainability in the preschool curriculum... 14 presence of sustainability in curricula and practice according to eidevald and engdahl (2018), the role of the preschool in terms of a sustainable lifestyle in society has been very significant. according to the previous swedish curriculum (rev. 2016), children must learn how to look after nature and respect all living things (pramling samuelsson & park, 2017). the environmental dimension of sustainability in the curriculum has, according to weldemariam et al. (2017), dominated curricula in many countries, something that according to davis (2009) and ärlemalm-hagsér (2017) is evident also in practice, where focus on sustainability has been on ecological sustainability or – as it is termed in everyday talk and in the curriculum – nature and the environment. the strong focus of the preschool on issues relating to nature and the environment have, on the other hand, limited the interest in including other dimensions of sustainability – that is to say, the economic and social dimensions. outdoor visits in nature, composting and recycling are common activities in most preschools, whereas discussions and activities with a social and economic focus on sustainability are few and far between (borg et al., 2017; eidevald & engdahl, 2018; engdahl & ärlemalm-hagsér, 2014). an increased presence of sustainability in the curriculum, where a holistic perspective is adopted, is an important way to demonstrate a will to build on efs in preschool. elliott and mccrea (2015) state the importance of the inclusion and clarification of the term sustainability in the curriculum if the preschool is to develop its education accordingly. to gain an overall view of the place sustainability has in preschool education, studies have been conducted where comparisons are made with the preschool curricula of several countries and where there is a close look at the way in which the issue of sustainability is dealt with (elliott et al., 2017; weldemariam et al., 2017). in their study, weldemariam et al. (2017) examined the curricula of five countries, namely australia, england, norway, sweden, and the usa. these were analysed with a view to four areas of comparison, of which sustainability was one. the countries that featured sustainability most strongly in their curricula were norway and australia, followed closely by sweden with its previous curriculum (rev. 2016). the respective curriculum of the usa and england had limited links to sustainability according to the study. elliott et al. (2017) interviewed preschool teachers and studied the curricula of four countries: australia, south korea, sweden, and the usa. the results of their study demonstrated that of the three dimensions, sustainability predominantly concerned the environment dimension. they argued that the social and economic dimensions, as well as even the environment dimension, need to be given more focus in the curricula of all the countries. they further identified the need to increase teachers’ competence in all the countries when it comes to efs. when preschool teachers have better knowledge and understanding, then this has been shown to increase opportunities for better understanding among children (borg, 2017a; elliott et al., 2017). efs in the curriculum teaching methods and the perspective of the child are interdependent because teaching develops according to our view of children (jonsson et al., 2017). ärlemalm-hagsér and davis (2014) analysed and compared the swedish curriculum (rev. in 2010) with the australian curriculum for preschool in terms of their incorporation of the term sustainability with focus on three aspects: recognition of humans’ place in nature and environmental stewardships; critical thinking for sustainability; references to children as active agents and citizens for change of the term sustainability. their study showed that neither country’s curriculum explicitly recognised children as active citizens with the agency to work towards sustainability – that is to say, global citizens. this, they argue, is a failing, adding that preschool teachers and childcarers must involve children’s knowledge, questions and thoughts more in their teaching so that children, at a deeper level, can build their understanding of sustainability and thus be able to have a voice on matters concerning it. further, in their study of the view of the child in the curricula of five countries, weldemariam et al. (2017) concluded that there were failings in the described view of the child and that the view of the child in the previous swedish curriculum (rev. 2016) was closest to that of the child as a “global citizen”. according to borg and pramling samuelsson (in press), the new swedish preschool curriculum includes the child’s perspective such as ärlemalm-hagsér and davis (2014) felt was lacking in the previous curriculum, namely the agency of the child. borg and pramling samuelsson (in press) argue that the active anders ohlsson, niklas gericke & farhana borg 15 participation and influence of children are evident in the new curriculum, where children are presented as active agents for change in relation to sustainability practices. as well, the issue of global citizenship is identified in the new swedish curriculum. borg and pramling samuelsson (in press) mention that it is not enough simply to recognise children’s agency; rather, there is a need to investigate how children’s agency can be developed in relationship to sustainability. like engdahl and ärlemalm-hagsér (2014), pramling samuelsson and park (2017) determined that children’s participation, knowledge, questions and thoughts are important in efs. in their analysis of the previous swedish curriculum (rev. 2010) and unesco goals, they concluded that children need to be able to act on their own initiative, to think and to reflect so that they can learn and form a knowledgebase. according to pramling samuelsson and park (2017), first efs needs to be included in lifelong learning and second staff need to be educated so that they know and understand children, children’s learning and sustainability if efs is to be of any quality in the preschool. for this to be possible, they maintain that the section in the previous swedish curriculum about sustainability must be revised and improved (pramling samuelsson & park, 2017). efs in preschool education studies show that what children learn remains with them in later years. quality preschool education has a positive effect on children’s well-being, health, and intellectual and social behaviour – especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds (muennig et al., 2011; siraj-blatchford et al., 2008). preschool education can also greatly affect the development of young children’s attitudes and future behaviour in relationship to sustainability issues. therefore, it is important to integrate efs into preschool education so that children, the future citizens of this world, are aware of the serious environmental situation currently facing earth and are prepared to be part of the solution to the problems, which often relate to economic and social issues (eriksen, 2013; grindheim et al., 2019; pramling samuelsson, 2011). all in all, it can be argued that the presence of sustainability in sweden’s previous curriculum was weak and that any duty to educate for sustainability was absent. sustainability in preschool has been about the environment, the result of which has been the lower prioritisation of the other dimensions. yet the question is whether the new swedish curriculum presents another picture in which sustainability connected to the three dimensions is evident and whether it supports efs (this is something that previous curricula did not do according to previous research), and as such whether it can form the sound basis that preschool teachers and childcarers require if it is to be possible to implement efs in preschool. these questions are explored in this study. theoretical starting points this study analyses the curriculum from a holistic perspective on sustainability as well as a pluralistic and transformative view of efs. to describe these theoretical starting points, an explanation is crucial as to what is meant by a holistic perspective on sustainability and how the human relationship to the holistic perspective. the pluralistic and transformative perspective of efs has been clarified based on the literature on environmental and sustainability teaching traditions. sustainability the term sustainability is used throughout this article as a general term covering similar concepts such as sustainable development; however, the term sustainable development is also used in the citations when referencing others who specifically use that term. however, here no distinction has been made between the meaning of these two terms. according to the literature, sustainability is described as usually consisting of three dimensions: environment, economic and social, all of which are interdependent (elliott, 2013; giddings et al., 2002). often, the relationship between these dimensions is presented in a venn diagram (figure 1). the figure shows how all three dimensions together create what is required for sustainability to be achieved, which is what happens where the dimensions (circles) overlap. the dimensions connect to the relationship people integration of education for sustainability in the preschool curriculum... 16 have with nature, themselves and other people. figure 1. when the three dimensions overlap, sustainability is achieved (giddings et al., 2002). one example of how these dimensions come together in questions connected to the relationship of people to nature is the importance of nature on people’s health. nature that is accessible provides us with a place to meet others while having a beneficial effect on our health. better health means less of a financial burden on healthcare services. the result of this is that money saved in healthcare can contribute to creating and maintaining our natural surroundings, which then become a social arena (giddings et al., 2002). what this exemplifies is that each dimension affects the other and that all are important for both people and sustainability. a further example, one in which the different dimensions can conflict with each other, is when a new preschool is built that because of economic factors limits/affects both environmental and social sustainability. economic resources are not always enough to provide for a good ecological environment and for a safe social environment for children. as such, the model (figure 1) demonstrates a holistic perspective on sustainability where people are dependent both on each other as well as on nature, and vice versa. sustainability issues are often complex, and it is difficult to predict how one action within one dimension will affect the outcome in another. often, conflicts can arise between the interest in preserving and the interest in developing the different aspects within the dimensions (elliott, 2013; wals & corcoran, 2012). despite the model (figure 1) appearing static and not showing how the dimensions vary in terms of participation in different situations, giddings et al. (2002) maintain that the model provides something to relate to in an understanding of how sustainability arises in collaboration that overlaps between the three dimensions. to achieve a balanced development of sustainability, all dimensions need to be developed together and there needs to be an understanding of how they affect one another (siraj-blatchford et al., 2010). the discussion between child and adult is an important element of preschool in making children aware of the complexity that comes with sustainability (borg, 2017a). therefore, it is important that the curriculum has a holistic view of sustainability and that preschool teachers and childcarers have the knowledge required to have discussions with children about sustainability that lead to an increased understanding of how the dimensions are mutually dependent and this becomes a part of their education. to know, to do, to live together and to learn to be a human being, according to lawale and aline (2010), are the four pillars of efs. they believe that the synergy between these four, along with efs, is essential. here, the role of people in sustainability is evident as is the way people as agents of all the sustainability dimensions are important in the sense that human beings can use their knowledge and actions to work to achieve sustainability. for preschool teachers and childcarers to be able to increase understanding of the importance of efs in preschool, the curriculum must also demonstrate this (weldemariam et al., 2017). this is the basis to the choice of categories in this analysis, where it is possible to connect every dimension to people. sustainability economic social environment anders ohlsson, niklas gericke & farhana borg 17 the human being – environment relationship (environment). the connection between human beings and the environment is important, and the way in which people as individuals can affect the environment is an aspect of the environment dimension. the environment covers both the indoor and the outdoor environment where ecology is an aspect; however, the dimension includes other types of environments influenced by human activities. this relationship includes natural resources, climate change, rural development, sustainable urbanisation, disaster prevention, and mitigation (unesco, 2006). the human being – human being relationship (social). social sustainability concerns people’s lives together and the way in which they are affected by social, cultural and political dissimilarities in society (siraj-blatchford et al., 2010). this relationship includes human rights, peace and human security, gender equality, cultural diversity, and intercultural understanding and health (unesco, 2006). the human being – resource relationship (economic). according to unesco (2014), consumption lies closest to children’s everyday lives when it comes to economic sustainability. what this means is that an understanding of the value of money and economic value is crucial for children as future consumers (borg, 2017b). in preschool, recycling and reusing are two important aspects of economic sustainability as are discussions about resources and consumption in relation to the environment and people’s different life conditions (ärlemalm-hagsér et al., 2018). this relationship includes poverty reduction, corporate responsibility, accountability and market economy (unesco, 2006). education for sustainability. teaching is a new concept in the new swedish preschool curriculum (rev. 2018) despite the fact it has been included in swedish education law since 2010 (sfs 2010:800). there has been no prior analysis of the concept of teaching in the preschool curriculum from a sustainability perspective. this study is based on efs as it is described according to a pluralistic teaching tradition that öhman and östman (2001) identified in the swedish compulsory school curriculum lpo 94. öhman and östman (2001) identified three teaching traditions: fact-based, normative, and pluralistic. the fact-based teaching tradition conveys prepared facts and concepts that pupils/children are expected to take a position on and act on. the normative teaching tradition has its basis in scientific fact, and this creates norms and affects the attitudes of children, the underlying idea being that this will lead to a change in action. central to the pluralistic teaching tradition is the participation of children in their learning, where dialogue supports them as they actively and critically evaluate alternatives where various scientific understandings as well as moral and ethical aspects are given place (öhman & östman, 2001). the pluralistic teaching tradition has been identified as having a basis in efs and holistic perspectives on sustainability (öhman, 2008), which is why this teaching tradition is the starting point of this study of the swedish preschool curriculum. making use of children’s knowledge and thoughts through dialogue is what characterises the pluralistic teaching tradition, which has the advantage of highlighting values and avoiding indoctrination by developing different views and perspectives on sustainability issues. therefore, a pluralistic teaching tradition should be made visible in the curriculum so that preschool teachers and childcarers are able to develop an understanding of efs, maintains öhman (2008). hedefalk (2014), who in contrast to öhman (2008) has the preschool as her research field, also believes that the pluralistic teaching tradition provides children with the best means to act critically and to develop action competency for sustainability because children themselves must take a position on matters and be given the opportunity to influence their learning. yet she argues that for pluralistic teaching to work for young preschool children, it needs to include factual knowledge and norms as well (hedefalk, 2014). lijmbach et al. (2002) view social pluralism as a tool with which children can together create facts and norms using each other’s experiences and the help of an adult. in child-to-child discussions and childto-adult discussions, there is an understanding that not everybody thinks the same way; at the same time, children must be able to argue for what they feel is right. mezirow (1991) terms this reflective learning transformative, which, unlike instrumental and communicative learning, is learning that occurs by way of reflection on experiences that together create new, useful knowledge. this means that it is important to give children time for reflection in preschool, where children’s opportunities to reflect on new experiences integration of education for sustainability in the preschool curriculum... 18 also become an important part in their learning, actions and personal well-being. transformative teaching allows children to reflect and to develop facts and norms by way of their own experiences and those of others, with the support of active preschool teachers and childcarers. this means that facts and norms become a product in the process in which there is a pluralistic teaching tradition. this reasoning strengthens the relationship between efs and a pluralistic teaching tradition as facts and norms become a tool in the learning process that is created through reflection with others. in this analysis of efs, it is assumed that efs and the pluralistic teaching tradition are closely related, and that transformative learning must be in place for children to increase their awareness of sustainability and how they can be involved and influence. the curriculum is important in terms of how preschool teachers and childcarers relate to efs, which is why it is important that it relates to the pluralistic teaching tradition. methodology this is a comparative study with a deductive research design, which according to robson and mccartan (2011) means employing a theory in a new observation. the study used a directed content analysis as its method (cohen et al., 2018), where categories were created with reference to the three dimensions of sustainability, as well as the term teaching, so as to answer the questions put forward in this study. for this study, a process of analysis was used in the six steps that according to cohen et al. (2018) should be followed in a content analysis, such as described below: 1). choice of text: the texts that were analysed in the study were from the previous curriculum (rev. 2016) and the newly revised preschool curriculum (rev. 2018) in sweden. 2). division of text for analysis: like elliott and mccrea (2015), this study looked for explicit and implicit descriptions of sustainability and efs in the curricula for the text analysis. in the analysis, the suggestion by elliott and mccrea (2015) that in an analysis of policy documents, researchers should study both the direct language use (that is to say, explicit expressions), and the indirect language use (that is to say, implicit expressions), was followed. this analytical approach is important when conducting a comprehensive content analysis of the message of a text (elliott & mccrea, 2015). the explicit words provide a meaning or a direct connection to the subject/area that is relevant, and the implicit words are directly linked to the explicit words or replace them in the text as concrete examples; furthermore, through the context in which they are included, they can provide a greater understanding of the message the text is trying to relay. 3 and 4). suitable categories were selected, and category placement: the explicit terms form a category of their own, whereas the implicit words were categorised according to the context that was identified. the explicit and implicit words were analysed relating to both of the research questions. related to the first research question, an inventory of the explicit words that stand for sustainability and its dimensions, i.e. sustainable development, social, economic, ecologic and environment was established. ecologic is an explicit word here since in preschool education, it is often used for representing the environment (elliott et al., 2017)1. implicit words were coded if the meaning of the word by implication includes, or can be traced to, sustainable development and its dimensions. related to the second research question, an inventory of the explicit word teaching was created, and for the implicit words, verbs indirectly used to describe how teaching is to be conducted in preschool were coded as an indicator of efs. after identifying the implicit words, the context in which they appear was analysed related to both research questions, so as to understand the meaning they have in the text. the context allows for a deeper understanding of the curriculum and the way sustainability and efs are presented. _____________ 1 in the implicit analysis, we view the term ecologic as a part of the environment dimension. anders ohlsson, niklas gericke & farhana borg 19 a number of identified implicit words belong in more than one category; however, the most frequently occurring context that the word appears in were reported. though, words that were categorised according to sustainability (first research question) can also appear in the categories related to efs (second research question). for a systematic and valid study, in this analysis an iterative research process was employed, where the selection of implicit words and definitions of contexts were discussed and reanalysed within the research group, first by a researcher and thereafter independently by another researcher. throughout this process of pinpointing implicit words and the context in which they were found, colour coding was used to show and categorise the words. 5). word frequency: after categorising the words according to whether they were explicitly or implicitly used in the respective curriculum, the frequencies were compiled quantitatively. this also shows how both explicit and implicit words are divided according to the three dimensions of sustainability and those that describe efs. 6). overall analysis: this involved conducting a concluding analysis of the text and finding answers to the study’s research questions where frequency analysis and context analysis work together and lead to an overall conclusion. results the explicit words are presented first, and after that the implicit words are presented as this allows for a general comparison. finally, the results are presented in more detail in each respective category, with excerpts from the new curriculum that clarify the results of this study in relation to the context. explicit words relating to sustainability and efs in the new preschool curriculum (rev. 2018), more explicit words are used than was the case in the previous curriculum. the previous swedish curriculum (rev. 2016) did not contain the explicit words sustainable development or sustainability, economic and teaching at all: these can, however, all be found in the new curriculum (rev. 2018) (see figure 2). the term sustainable development, for example, appears eight times in the new curriculum. the social dimension is the most prominent of the sustainability dimensions in both the new curriculum and the previous curriculum, while the economic dimension is used twice explicitly in the new curriculum (figure 2). figure 2. explicit words for sustainability and efs in the two curricula rev. 2016 and rev. 2018. in the swedish preschool curriculum rev. 2018, the word sustainable development is used instead of sustainability. ecologic is taken as an explicit word here. 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 rev. 2016 rev. 2018 0 88 7 0 21 1 7 7 0 14 16 39 sustainable development social economic ecologic environment teaching summation integration of education for sustainability in the preschool curriculum... 20 sustainability is often associated with environment and nature, but the new curriculum uses it from a holistic perspective where it describes all dimensions as shown in this quote: ”education should be undertaken in democratic forms and lay the foundation for growing interest and responsibility among children for active participation in civic life and for sustainable development – not only economic, but also social and environmental” (swedish national agency for education, 2018, p. 5). the explicit word that appears most frequently in the new curriculum is the word teaching, which was not used in the previous curriculum. this word appears 14 times in the new curriculum. implicit words relating to sustainability and efs the implicit words are relevant since they provide meaning to the text and are important for a deep analysis of the message in the curriculum when it comes to sustainability and efs. besides looking at the presence of words, an analysis was conducted of the context in which they most often appear as this helps with understanding. the context allows for a deeper understanding of the word’s meaning in the curriculum and its relation to sustainability and efs. implicit words for sustainability appear in the previous curriculum 302 times and 337 times in the new curriculum (figure 3), that is to say, there is a slight increase. here, it is words in the social category that dominate: the difference is 263 times in the previous curriculum and 298 times in the new curriculum. in the other dimension categories, environment and economy – the implicit words – appear the same number of times in both curricula. the implicit words that dominate in the previously revised curriculum (rev. 2016), and the newly revised curriculum (rev. 2018), are, respectively, development/develop/be developed (82/69 times) as well as learning (40/47 times). words that appear more frequently in the new curriculum compared with the previous curriculum are, for example, health, care, understanding and challenge, all of which may belong to the social category. what this shows is that the new curriculum not only demonstrates a holistic view of sustainability but also gives more room for social perspectives on sustainability. figure 3. implicit words for sustainable development divided into the three dimensions and efs in the respective curriculum and the total. when it comes to implicit words related to efs, there is an increase from 131 to 188 in the new curriculum, which demonstrates an increase in the focus on the teaching perspective (figure 3). the most frequent implicit words that relate to efs in the new curriculum and that mark the view on learning and teaching are develop, create and promote. other implicit words related to efs that appear often are challenge and understand. these are words that can be related to the pluralistic teaching tradition in the new curriculum (rev. 2018). 0 200 400 600 rev. 2016 rev. 2018 anders ohlsson, niklas gericke & farhana borg 21 the synthesis of the analysis shows some recurring patterns that the new curriculum reinforces (see table 1). in both curricula, social and environment as explicit words for sustainability dominate; however, in the new curriculum, the holistic term sustainable development and the word economy are used as explicit words, something that is new. the implicit words that are most commonly used to express sustainability are similar in both curricula. in the analysis of efs, teaching is a new explicit word in the new curriculum, and new implicit words such as stimulate, promote and challenge have been added in relation to the term teaching. for a broader contextual understanding of how the various explicit and implicit words are used in the new curriculum, every category is exemplified with excerpts in the review below of the categories from the new swedish curriculum. table 1. synthesis of the explicit and implicit words for sustainability and efs in both curricula areas curriculum sustainability efs rev. 2016 rev. 2018 the explicit words that appear in the previous curriculum are social and environment, which characterise the preschool culture that has long existed in which care and nature/environment are important elements. the explicit words that do not appear are sustainability and economy, which demonstrates an absence of a holistic view of sustainability. the social dimension features in the previous curriculum, where development and learning are the implicit words that appear most often. environment and economy have few implicit words. the explicit word that is looked for here is teaching, which never appears in this curriculum. the implicit words for efs that are most used are develop, learn, understand, create, and investigate. explicit words in the new curriculum are significantly more common than in the previous curriculum and demonstrate a holistic view of sustainability. sustainability and the social and environment dimensions are the most common explicit words. economy features a couple of times; however, it does not appear to be an area that is prioritised. the social dimension has place in the new curriculum, where development and learning are the implicit words that appear most often. environment and economy continue to have few implicit words. the explicit word that is sought is teaching, which is also the explicit word that is used most frequently among all explicit words in the analysis (14 times). the implicit words for efs that are most used are develop, create, promote, learn, challenge, and stimulate. overall analysis relating to sustainability and efs the environment dimension environment appears as an explicit word seven times in both the previous curriculum and the new curriculum, and is prominent in both. implicit words for environment do not appear as frequently, although they do appear twenty-five times in each curriculum. such words as environment, natural environment, learning environment and natural sciences were included in the analysis. the compound noun natural sciences appears four times in both curricula (rev. 2016 and rev. 2018), and in this study it is viewed as a term to indicate that children are made aware of the ecological aspect of environmental sustainability: “an understanding of natural sciences, knowledge of plants and animals, and simple chemical processes and physical phenomena” (swedish national agency for education, 2018, p. 15). the previous curriculum contains words such as habitat once and learning environment once, but these do not appear in the new curriculum. the perspective of the new curriculum is that different environments create situations for learning. this is a recurring theme that is exemplified by this excerpt: “the environment should be accessible for all children and inspire them to play together and to explore the world around them, and support the children´s development, learning, play and communication” (swedish national agency for education, 2018, p. 8). integration of education for sustainability in the preschool curriculum... 22 the social dimension the dimension that the implicit words most frequently refer to is the social dimension. these words appear 298 times in the new curriculum compared with 263 times in the previous curriculum. this demonstrates the increased focus on the social sustainability dimension in the new curriculum. through the more frequent use of such words as health, rights, care, well-being and understanding, the new curriculum stresses the role of the social dimension in children’s development. the new curriculum also has more focus on children’s participation and their own social qualities when it comes to the development of knowledge and skills, as exemplified by this excerpt: ”the social development of children presupposes, according to their ability, that they can assume responsibility for their own actions and for the environment in the preschool” (swedish national agency for education, 2018, p. 17). other words that frequently appear in the social dimension are norms, games, challenge, development and understanding. these words appear 125 times in the new curriculum. the word raising (as of a child) appears four times in the previous curriculum but is completely absent in the new curriculum. the word care went from appearing nine times previously to fifteen times in the new curriculum, which indicates a shift in perspective towards greater reciprocity. the new swedish preschool curriculum (rev. 2018) also reflects changes taking place in society and talks now more about national minorities. the focus in the curriculum has changed from supporting minority groups – “the preschool can help to ensure that children from national minorities and children with a foreign background receive support in developing a multicultural sense of identity” (swedish national agency for education, 2016, p. 6) to a focus instead on giving all children a basis on which to develop an understanding of minority groups ”education in the preschool should lay the foundation for children´s understanding for different languages and cultures, including the languages and cultures of the national minorities” (swedish national agency for education, 2018, p. 6). the economic dimension the economic dimension is explicitly absent from the previous curriculum but appears twice in the new curriculum, both times in a context where the three dimensions of sustainability are mentioned. ”children should also be given the opportunity to develop knowledge about how the different choices that people make can contribute to sustainable development – not only economic, but also social and environmental” (swedish national agency for education, 2018, p. 10). this confirms a more holistic view of sustainability conveyed by the new preschool curriculum (rev. 2018), yet further descriptions are lacking as to how the preschool should relate to the economic dimension. this is apparent in the fact that only fourteen implicit words for the economic dimension of sustainability can be found. efs in preschool the explicit word for efs, teaching, that was chosen does not appear at all in the previous curriculum (rev. 2016) but does so 14 times in the new curriculum (rev. 2018). of the implicit words that were analysed, an increase from 131 in the previous curriculum to 188 in the new curriculum was identified. aspects of efs are thus pointed out more frequently in the new curriculum. the implicit words that were identified are verbs that relate to the pluralistic teaching tradition, such as experience, challenge, stimulate, create, converse, play and participate. it is interesting to note that the word teaching does not appear in the form of a verb. one word that is associated with preschool and the way children learn is play, which appears more often in the new curriculum than in the previous curriculum. twelve of the sixteen implicit words that we analysed in the new curriculum fit within the social category, which shows how children’s participation in learning is emphasised. these words can be linked to the pluralistic teaching tradition and transformative learning. when we analyse the frequency of first and foremost all the implicit words for sustainability, they are often words that also describe efs, which is apparent in the following quotation: “education should give every child opportunity to explore, ask questions and discuss phenomena and correlations in the world at large and thus challenge and stimulate their interest in health and well-being, and also in anders ohlsson, niklas gericke & farhana borg 23 sustainable development” (swedish national agency for education, 2018, p. 10). the words explore, ask questions and discuss demonstrate participation in the view of children’s learning in the curriculum. other formulations that can be linked to efs in the new curriculum are democratic forms, active participation in society, and create conditions for children to understand how their own actions influence and contribute to sustainable development. according to what is written in the curriculum, it is important to divide knowledge into four forms: ”knowledge is expressed in various forms – such as facts, understanding, skill and familiarity – that presuppose and interact with each other” (swedish national agency for education, 2018, p. 11). for children to be able to create understanding, the suggestion is that they themselves need to experience and talk about what is relevant for their understanding and creation of a world view, which paints a picture of a pluralistic approach to teaching and transformative learning. the goals in the curriculum make clear the importance of children’s participation, and the curriculum suggests teaching strategies by describing how children should talk about their experiences so that they can create an understanding of society and nature, and how they can be influential in sustainability. the tradition that exists at preschool, where play is central to education, is strengthened in the new curriculum. it is expressed that play is the tool that will challenge and stimulate motor skills, imagination and creativity, and further that it is here that the preschool teacher and childcarer by way of being actively present can teach, as demonstrated in the following quotation: ”an approach by everyone who is part of the work team and an environment that encourages play confirm the importance of play for children’s development, learning and well-being” (swedish national agency for education, 2018, p. 8). the central place that play has in preschool education can thus be understood as also being a tool by which to create understanding of sustainability. conclusion and discussion in a comparison of the previous curriculum (rev. 2016) with the new curriculum (rev. 2018) for preschool in sweden, two differences regarding sustainability become apparent. one is that the term sustainability is now used and the other one is that teaching and efs has now gained a clear place in the preschool curriculum. compared with studies that analysed the preschool curriculum revised 2016 (ärlemalm-hagsér & davis, 2014; elliott et al., 2017; weldemariam et al., 2017), this study shows that sustainability has a greater presence in the new curriculum: not only is it given mention, but it is also included in terms of a holistic view of sustainability where all dimensions have a place and where the teaching perspective and efs are given place. sustainability in the curriculum the analysis of explicit and implicit words for sustainability in this study demonstrates an increased presence of sustainability in the new swedish curriculum (rev. 2018) compared with the previous curriculum (rev. 2016). compared with previous studies that showed the environment dimension to be the most dominant dimension in preschool (ärlemalm-hagsér, 2017; davis, 2009; elliott et al., 2017), this study shows that the social dimension is given more place in the new swedish curriculum. the environment dimension remains among the explicit words in the new curriculum, but an analysis of the implicit words reveals another picture, which is a contribution of this study. the economic dimension is mentioned twice in the new curriculum, and it contributes by the fact its intention is a more holistic view of sustainability in the new curriculum. however, the economic dimension does not appear in any of the goals, and a clear picture is lacking as to what economic sustainability can mean for teaching in preschool. the presence of sustainability in the new swedish curriculum means, in concrete terms, that preschool in sweden has now been tasked with conveying a holistic perspective of sustainability and increasing understanding of how the different dimensions are dependent on each other, which the literature presents as important (elliott, 2013; giddings et al., 2002). engdahl and ärlemalm-hagsér (2014) state that sustainability and efs have been seen as important for the swedish preschool previously, but that a critical political awareness has been lacking, something that the analysis of this study now indicates has integration of education for sustainability in the preschool curriculum... 24 changed and become clearer by the fact that sustainability is defined and presented more clearly in the new curriculum. the new swedish preschool curriculum (rev. 2018) proves that sweden is a pioneer when it comes to formulating sustainability goals in the preschool curriculum from a holistic perspective. the analyses carried out in the past of the curricula of several countries reveal an absence in terms of sustainability (weldemariam et al., 2017). what our study shows, however, is that it has now been included in the learning goals in the swedish curriculum, making it an example for other countries to follow. the influence of the curriculum on preschool education that the sustainability perspective is stronger in the new swedish curriculum is important for demonstrating the will to strengthen efs in preschool (elliott & mccrea, 2015). this study shows that children’s participation in preschool is now more clearly expressed in writing than it was in previous curriculum and that children, just as borg and pramling samuelsson (in press) conclude, are now viewed as active citizens with a participatory role. the implicit words for efs are also dominated by words that belong to the social dimension, which demonstrates a social perspective more than an environment perspective if the whole curriculum is considered and not just the few explicit wordings. even if teaching as a term did not appear in the previous curriculum, it has nevertheless, from a preschool perspective, been part of the swedish preschool in previous years, where children, through participation and discussion, were able to learn and develop according to their circumstances (hedefalk, 2014). one step in the introduction of efs in preschool is to make the term teaching understood in the context of preschool and to give it meaning in that context too. jonsson et al. (2017) believe that teaching at preschool has a basis in the discourse on rights for children, wherein play is an important feature and a pluralistic view on teaching prevails. the perspective in the new swedish curriculum, that the term teaching is to be used, serves also to strengthen the inclusion of efs and the potential of preschool to increase children’s awareness of sustainability. those changes that have been made in the curriculum when it comes to sustainability do not necessarily mean that preschool teaching will change in practical terms. to implement a curriculum means that it must be translated from text to context and action, which is a complex matter (ball et al., 2012). for this to happen, the context needs to be right, and there needs to be resources, interest, motivation and time that allow for the curriculum to take effect in teaching in preschool (ball et al., 2012). knowledge about sustainability and the way the sustainable dimensions interrelate are not a given component of preschool teacher competence, maintain elliott et al. (2017). in their study, they establish that the environment dimension is the dimension that until now has dominated preschool, which may mean that preschool teachers’ knowledge about the other dimensions, as well as a holistic approach to sustainability, may be lacking (elliott et al., 2017). this means that preschool teachers can lack both subject knowledge as well as didactic and pedagogical competence that is required to include sustainability issues in their teaching, and that this can prevent the curriculum as it is intended from being realised. it is not only knowledge about sustainability that may be required but it can also be a question of school culture. every preschool has a culture and, as ball et al. (2012) argue, it is the work towards change that dictates and affects how the policy documents are interpreted and implemented. in particular, the school culture can be a hindrance when new teaching practices related to efs are to be established or changed (redman et al., 2018), which might be the case here as shown in this study of the new curriculum, which differ regarding efs from the previous one. one way in which to change a culture of a preschool can be to provide professional development for teachers (dyment et al., 2014). professional development on the subject of sustainability as well as efs can be one way for the intentions of the new swedish curriculum to be put into practice in preschools. as such, one implication of this study is that the revised swedish curriculum should be accompanied by a powerful initiative when it comes to professional development relating to both knowledge about the concept of sustainability and its three dimensions; however, more importantly, efs anders ohlsson, niklas gericke & farhana borg 25 needs to see development at a local preschool level. previous research has shown that teachers in schools find it difficult to change their teaching practices and to adopt more transformative teaching with links to efs (redman et al., 2018). these difficulties are also indicated in sweden in a review of implementation research on efs (gericke et al., 2020). however, few such studies have been within the field of preschool research. a recently published case study, meanwhile, shows that teachers’ professional development can have an effect on pluralistic teaching, in particular in connection to the social dimension (borg, 2019; borg & gericke, 2021). for example, children’s agency was identified in pluralistic educational activities that supported children’s active participation. moreover, the study found that professional development for teachers had a positive effect in terms of their understanding of the complexity of efs from a holistic perspective and that the teachers were able to put efs into practice while connecting to sdgs (borg & gericke, 2021). as can be seen from these examples, it is possible to put the more pluralistic and transformative oriented efs from the new curriculum into practice; however, there is a great need for studies that can investigate this issue further. the opening section of this article cites the question posed by weldemariam et al. (2017): “what might an early childhood education curriculum, that manifest explicit language of sustainability, views children as world citizens and portrays a unified world view with entangled human and more-than-human others, look like?” (p. 349). the answer provided by this study demonstrates that the new preschool curriculum (rev. 2018) in sweden has made good progress in this area. however, as described above, this is but one part of the work that needs to be done. for the curriculum to make real progress in practical terms, the other part is that preschool staff should be made aware of the goals relating to sustainability and receive professional development and resources so that they have the means to work towards them. here, areas for future research can be identified: for example, studies on how preschool teachers manage to meet the objectives of the new preschool curriculum that relate to efs in their teaching: this is a very important question to investigate in future studies. declarations editorial acknowledgement: the editorial process of this article was carried out by dr. mehmet toran. acknowledgements: the authors acknowledge the contribution of ms. mandy bengt in translating the manuscript from swedish into english as well as conducting language review. authors’ contributions: aoh has analyzed the curricula and led the work on the article by writing a foundation for the abstract, introduction, theoretical starting point, methodology, results and conclusion and discussion. nsg has written parts of abstract, theoretical starting point, methodology and conclusion and discussion. fbr has written parts of introduction, theoretical starting point, conducted parts of data analysis and rechecking, and conclusion and discussion. competing interests: the authors declare that they have no competing interests funding: this study has been funded by the swedish research council, dr. nr. 2018-04445 ethics approval and consent to participate: the research reported here does not involve human subjects. references ärlemalm-hagsér, e. 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(1987). wced our common future. oxford university press. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2010.200063 https://cdn.naturskyddsforeningen.se/uploads/2021/05/11103131/lhu_rapport_2017_0.pdf https://doi.org/10.1007/s13158-011-0034-x https://doi.org/10.1007/s13158-017-0197-1 https://doi.org/10.1177/2455133318777182 https://doi.org/10.1080/03057640801889956 http://en.unesco.org/themes/early-childhood-care-and-education https://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=a/res/70/1&lang=e https://doi.org/10.1007/s13158-017-0202-8 the human being – human being relationship (social). social sustainability concerns people’s lives together and the way in which they are affected by social, cultural and political dissimilarities in society (siraj-blatchford et al., 2010). this relat... the human being – resource relationship (economic). according to unesco (2014), consumption lies closest to children’s everyday lives when it comes to economic sustainability. what this means is that an understanding of the value of money and economic... education for sustainability. teaching is a new concept in the new swedish preschool curriculum (rev. 2018) despite the fact it has been included in swedish education law since 2010 (sfs 2010:800). there has been no prior analysis of the concept of te... in the new preschool curriculum (rev. 2018), more explicit words are used than was the case in the previous curriculum. the previous swedish curriculum (rev. 2016) did not contain the explicit words sustainable development or sustainability, economic ... implicit words relating to sustainability and efs for a broader contextual understanding of how the various explicit and implicit words are used in the new curriculum, every category is exemplified with excerpts in the review below of the categories from the new swedish curriculum. table 1. synthesis of the explicit and implicit words for sustainability and efs in both curricula overall analysis relating to sustainability and efs the environment dimension environment appears as an explicit word seven times in both the previous curriculum and the new curriculum, and is prominent in both. implicit words for environment do not appear as frequently, although they do appear twenty-five times in each curricu... the previous curriculum contains words such as habitat once and learning environment once, but these do not appear in the new curriculum. the perspective of the new curriculum is that different environments create situations for learning. this is a re... conclusion and discussion the influence of the curriculum on preschool education journal of childhood, education & society volume 3, issue 3, 2022, 260-274 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.202233197 research article ©2022 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. the second parent: ideologies of childhood in russian pedagogy manuals amy austin garey1 abstract: the collapse of the soviet union saw deep reforms in the educational system and, with the new market economy, in the presuppositions about training and employment that underpinned it. but this article argues that contemporary russian teacher training materials nonetheless reproduce soviet understandings about childhood, education, and the state. comparing discourses about teaching in russian, soviet, and american resources for prospective teachers reveals that differences between russian and american teaching practices stem not from economic differences, but different conceptions of the social purpose of education. discourse analysis identified patterns in representations of children and teachers in widely-used russian teacher training textbooks, mainstream american teacher training textbooks, and soviet pedagogical writings. this analysis revealed that contemporary russian textbooks, in contrast to their soviet counterparts, represent the function of education as helping prepare a child to enter society qua capitalist workforce. but the materials differ from american textbooks in their depictions of the responsibilities of teachers, the role of the state, and the rights of children in primary schools. in these respects, russian textbooks sound much like soviet ones. article history received: 31 march 2022 accepted: 04 october 2022 keywords education; childhood; pedagogy; russia; soviet introduction a russian saying goes, “the teacher is the second parent” (“uchitel’ — vtoroi roditel’”). this view blurs the lines between government onus and family sovereignty, and echoes soviet calls for the state to play a central role in moulding emergent citizens. the collapse of the ussr (union of soviet socialist republics) saw deep reforms in the educational system and, with the new market economy, in the presuppositions about training and employment that underpinned that system. but this article argues that contemporary russian teacher training materials nonetheless reproduce soviet understandings about childhood, education, and the state. while american teacher-training manuals discuss curriculum planning and how to conduct lessons, russian manuals, like their soviet predecessors, characterize these tasks as only half of a teacher’s responsibility. teachers must also guide upbringing—a word the oxford english dictionary defines as, “the treatment and instruction received by a child from its parents throughout its childhood.” in russia, upbringing remains a sphere where experts, licensed by the state, manage a child’s overall conduct, moral orientations, and worldview. i used discourse analysis to identify patterns in representations of children and teachers in three popular russian teacher training textbooks, mainstream american teacher training materials, and soviet pedagogical writings. contrasting russian with american textbooks helps throw what is unique about the russian approach into sharper relief; comparing russian and soviet textbooks reveals taken-for-granted assumptions that have remained constant. this analysis revealed that contemporary russian textbooks, in contrast to their soviet counterparts, represent the function of education as helping prepare a child to enter society qua capitalist workforce. but the materials differ from american textbooks in their depictions of the responsibilities of teachers, the role of the state, and the rights of children in primary schools. in these respects, russian teacher training textbooks sound much like soviet ones. these findings indicate that the end of the soviet regime did not signal the end of soviet-era _____________ 1 university of pennsylvania, critical writing program, philadelphia, pennsylvania, usa, e-mail: agarey@sas.upenn.edu, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4995-8546 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202233197 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:agarey@sas.upenn.edu https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4995-8546 the second parent: ideologies of childhood… 261 influence, at least not in all spheres. they also illustrate how perduring cultural commitments can remain, even in the face of changing economic incentive structures. as alexei yurchak observed, soviet citizens did not experience life in the binary categories western analysts often foist upon them—pro-state vs. antistate, repression vs. freedom, propaganda vs. truth (yurchak, 2005, p. 5). instead, people found meaning in practices that held value for them and found ways to skirt or subvert activities they would not have chosen. so, they may have listened half-heartedly at komsomol2 meetings while still believing in soviet ideas about right and wrong, proper and improper, civilized and savage (yurchak, 2005, p. 24). ending aspects of a political and economic system people did not like, then, did not mean individuals had to change their overall value systems (cf. garey, 2020). in a world where russian pedagogical theorists can choose not to hew to soviet understandings about the function of education, they instead reinforce them. these ideas, then, must still hold importance, at least for textbook authors. russian education comes from a different place, historically, than that in much of the u.s. the soviet state wanted literate, creative, educated builders of socialism. whatever soviet pedagogy was, it was not capitalist. whatever russian public education is, now, approaches training young minds with different objectives than american systems. investigating these differences offers insight not only into representations in teacher training textbooks, but into the way state-run institutions reproduce discourses about morality—the rights and wrongs of educating children. scope and context i discuss key ideological differences about childhood and education imparted to teachers training to become public school educators in russia and the united states. i chose these two countries because i have worked as an educator of school-age children in both places. thus, i could draw on contextual knowledge beyond the texts themselves in thinking about how pedagogy might be practiced in classrooms. i do not present any observational data here, but having this professional experience provided a check on left-field conclusions about the two educational systems. i also chose russia and the united states because pedagogical mismatches struck me as fiercely as january wind gusts when i was working in moscow, for many of the same reasons that developmental psychologist urie bronfenbrenner observed in the 1960s (bronfenbrenner, 1970). bronfenbrenner wanted to investigate how the two most powerful countries in the cold war world trained subsequent generations, and discovered key differences in educational approach. i sensed alterity first, as an instructor working in russia, and began this project to pinpoint where ideas diverged and why. my analysis shows that contemporary russian and american textbooks present perpendicular, if not exactly opposed, presuppositions about the relationships between children, teachers, parents, and the state in these two countries. there is no guarantee, of course, that teachers in either the u.s. or russia believe what they’re told or incorporate state-mandated perspectives into their practice. however, standard curricula help set the bounds for a teacher’s normative understanding of duty. these findings matter not only for those seeking to understand the contemporary russian educational landscape, but also those interested in the political economy of ideological commitments; in this case, long-held beliefs about state responsibility for child development. this approach draws on the observations of silova et al., who argue that researchers on education in post-socialist countries often cast socialist educational methodology as part of a more primitive stage that will someday lead, as all things must, to western-style neoliberal models. silova et al. instead advocate viewing pedagogy in former socialist countries as tensions between value systems that became prominent, often through state intervention, at various points in time (silova et al., 2017). though russia did undertake educational reforms designed to turn a soviet cash sink into a market in the 1990s, attempts to “bring schools in line with european and american practices” saw little success (eklof, 2005, p. 1). elena minina, further, has demonstrated that a historically-conditioned clash of values accompanied reform pressures on education. for many russians, moving education from a public good to a for-profit commodity profaned _____________ 2 all-union leninist young communist league amy austin garey 262 the educational process (minina, 2013, 2018). as minina quoted one pedagogical theorist as saying on the talk radio program moscow’s echo (ekho moskvy) in 2005, “…if education is to be a service market, as has been imposed on us recently, then [the model] is that of a grocery store…cash for product” (minina, 2018, p. 442). many russian teachers and parents, instead, view moral upbringing, or vospitanie as the foundation of education in russia. as a call-in parent on the same radio program put it, “…one cannot compare education with an assortment of sausage…we are talking about the human soul here, how can one not understand this?” (minina, 2018, p. 442). in a cultural imagining that remains largely hegemonic in russian society, money and the soul can’t mix (cf. pesmen, 2000)3. while minina (2018) and alexander (2001) identify vospitanie (moral upbringing) as specifically russian, a contrast between upbringing (vzgoja) and mere education (izobraževanje) also underpinned pedagogical theory in slovenia from 1945 to 1990, when slovenia was part of socialist yugoslavia (lesar and ermenc, 2017). lesar and ermenc locate the shift from a politics-free, radically child-centered slovenian theory of education to one that stressed the ability of a society to shape a child’s moral and political outlook in marxist thought and sociological research (lesar and ermenc, 2017). for as marx said, “men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly found, given and transmitted from the past” (marx, 1978). socialists wanted to dictate the circumstances that would create proletariat subjectivities-qua-subjects of the future (etkind, 2005; fitzpatrick, 1999; lunacharsky, 1928). though socialist countries cannot all be lumped together like tokens of a type, soviet pedagogy, also influenced by marxist theories of socialization, began to pay systematic attention to methods of moral upbringing after the 1917 revolution (dzhurinskii, 2011, lunacharsky, 1928). schools, in concert with soviet youth organizations like the oktobrists, pioneers, and komsomol, were meant to create an environment of vospitanie where the soviet child would learn how to be a soviet person (gilev, 1973; koldunov, 1969). in his seminal research about the differences between education in the united states and the ussr during the cold war, urie bronfenbrenner identified vospitanie as the most important difference between american and soviet schools. in addition to teaching “subject matter,” soviet educators explicitly sought to provide “upbringing” or “character education” (vospitanie) (bronfenbrenner, 1970, p. 26). “vospitanie has as its stated aim the development of ‘communist morality,’” bronfenbrenner wrote. when the need to train the new soviet man disappeared in the collapse of the soviet union, vospitanie lost some of the prominence it had previously held in russian curricular models (alexander, 2001, p. 77). but the concept still organizes pedagogical thinking in russia. in an observational study of russian schools in the the 1990s, for instance, alexander found that teachers still thought of vospitanie as foundational to educational practice. he identified the following common educational goals across interviews with teachers and school directors: “education as the development as the person and the citizen; the school as a self-governing community in which both teachers and pupils have responsibilities as well as rights; the fundamentally moral purpose of both education in the classroom and the school beyond it” (alexander, 2001, p. 217). the russian concept of vospitanie bears surface resemblance to the german educational idea of bildung, translated into english as “education” or “formation.” like vospitanie, education as bildung seeks to prepare students for life in society instead of merely imparting information. but vospitanie is development of the social self; bildung is development according to a personal inner core (horlacher, 2016, p. 3; hotam, 2019) or, as horlacher phrased it, “inward ennoblement of the soul” (2016, p. 5). the goal of bildung is for individuals to understand commonly-accepted values, but then to transcend moral prescriptions laid down by others through self-knowledge (anderson, 2021, p. 40; hotam, 2019, p. 619). vospitanie is socialization to adopt certain moral orientations; bildung represents a questioning. leo tolstoy, who pioneered his own schools in the mid-19th century, outlined a similar, though more negatively-valenced, understanding of vospitanie. he described vospitanie as a violent process to bend _____________ 3 russian people tend not to directly hand each other money. instead, even in stores, shoppers place their money on a tray in front of the teller, who then picks it up, makes change, and returns money to the tray. forgetting this habit momentarily, i once went to hand my landlady rent money. “no, no,” she corrected me. “put it on the table. like we do” (“kak u nas”). she would no sooner accept a wad of bills i’d handed her than a clod of dirt. the second parent: ideologies of childhood… 263 an individual to the moral codes of another and education (obrazovanie) as a free exchange of ideas. “education,” he wrote, “is a free relationship of people [who gather] to acquire information, while [vospitanie] is communicating what has already been acquired (tolstoy, 1936, pp. 215-216). soviet pedagogical theorists latched on to vospitanie’s shades of marxist determinism: change the conditions, transform the person (boldyrev et. al, 1968, p. 6, p. 24; koldunov, 1969). as long as schools (and youth organizations, and clubs, and parents) created the correct upbringing environments, young people would develop appropriate moral dispositions. “soviet pedagogy,” wrote boldyrev et al., “is the direct extension and development of marxist-leninist teachings about the commuist upbringing (vospitanie) of the person” (boldyrev et al., 1968, p. 18). russian pedagogy, to be sure, no longer aims to train young socialist selves (alexander, 2001; halstead, 1994). contemporary legislation instead seeks to instill qualities that will make students successful in contemporary russian society. but the russian government’s emphasis on moral training, not just teaching subject matter, remains significant. current russian educational standards list vospitanie and the development of students’ social selves (lichnost’) 4 as explicit aims of the national curriculum (ministry of education 2020 [2009]).5 and just like their soviet counterparts, russian textbooks distinguish between upbringing (vospitanie), education (obrazovanie), and instruction (obuchenie), with upbringing cast as the most important piece of the educational process (boldyrev, 1968; bordovskaia and rean, 2006; il'ina, 1968; kraevskii, 2003; krivshenko et al., 2010). the american textbooks analyzed here don’t mention upbringing at all. vospitanie’s content has changed in post-soviet russia, but its form has not. russian pedagogy shows continuity with soviet pedagogy because in both cases the state, not parents, bear responsibility for upbringing. a few fundamental oppositions between u.s. and contemporary russian approaches have emerged so far: neoliberalism vs. the soul, commodity vs. nurturing, control vs. development. these representations come from researchers working with a variety of kinds of data, from mass media to government documents to classroom observations. but russian and american textbooks, the core statements defining what teaching is and what teachers do for pre-service students, do not reproduce these dichotomies. instead, tracing representations across these texts reveals different points of tension and contrast, ones framed not polemically but in taken-for-granted understandings about children and the state. data and methods i tracked representations of teachers and teaching across three types of texts: (1) post-soviet russian pedagogical textbooks; (2) training materials in the contemporary united states (textbooks and the praxis k-6 licensing exam); and (3) soviet pedagogy textbooks. what follows is discourse analysis of depictions of obligation, authority, and rights in three educational contexts (russian, american, and soviet). here, i take discourse analysis to be the systematic analysis of patterns that emerge across texts, time, and social contexts (paltridge, 2008, p. 1). i used coding, or assigning categories to various chunks of discourse, as part of this interpretive process. 6 first i excerpted out passages in the textbooks that discussed childhood, the function of education, teachers, and parents, then overlaid secondary codes about morality, responsibility, and rights of various stakeholders onto these passages. the codes, rather than bounding pieces of text objectively, served as tools to help me analyze representations; that is, the labels i applied to the data allowed me to spot areas of overlap, variation, and contradiction. coding can be done in a word document, or index cards, or any number of software programs. i used the qualitative analysis software _____________ 4 lichnost’ is best translated as “personhood” or “social self” (cf. bird, 2009). personhood, as opposed to “personality,” refers to a culturally-conditioned self (cf. rosaldo 1980). alexander (2001) rendered lichnost’ as “personality culture.” 5 russia’s federal government education standards for general primary education, order of the ministry of education no. 373 (2020 [2009]), describe the fundamental goal of the educational standards to be “… [the] upbringing and development of qualities of the social person (lichnost’) that meet the requirements of the information society, innovative economy, the the tasks of building a democratic civil society based on tolerance, dialogue of cultures and respect for the multinational, multicultural and multi-confessional composition of russian society.” 6 qualitative methods theorist johnny saldana defines codes as “a word or short phrase that symbolically assigns a summative, salient, essence-capturing, and/or evocative attribute for a portion of language-based or visual data,” further noting that codes operate as “invitations and openings” rather than definitive categorizations (saldana, 2021, pp. 5-6). amy austin garey 264 atlas.ti to organize my data. the first editions of the russian textbooks analyzed here were all published after 2000, and the first editions of the american textbooks were published in the 1990s. i tried to approximate the influence of given textbooks by choosing those that had gone through a number of reprints. the american textbooks are in their 8th and 11th editions, respectively, with first editions published in 1998 and 1992. of the russian textbooks, kraevskii went through four editions between 2003 and 2008 (and is still in print); bordovskaia and rean went through at least four reprints between 2000 and 2015; and krivshenko et al. has gone through two editions and eleven re-printings between 2004 and 2017. all of the russian textbooks, then, circulated with minor changes for between (at least) five and fifteen years in the post-soviet era. though not an exact one-to-one match for publication dates, the russian and american textbooks chosen have been circulating concurrently for the past ten years. since soviet policies fluctuated depending on the leader in power, all the soviet materials selected come from the brezhnev era (1964-1982). this period also represents the time when the teachers of current teachers would have received their professional training (those who were university students under brezhnev are nearing retirement age now). many of those writing textbooks now could have also written textbooks or other pedagogical materials as soviet educators. the corpus for analysis, then, consisted of the following texts: russian textbooks • v. kraevskii. (2003). obshchie osnovy pedagogiki. uchebnik dlia studentov vysshikh pedagogicheskikh uchebnykh zavedenii. [general foundations of pedagogy. a textbook for students of pedagogical higher education institutes.] akademika. • n. bordovskaia and a. rean. (2006). pedagogika: ychebnoe posobie [pedagogy: a textbook]. piter. • l. krivshenko et al. (2010). pedagogika: uchebnik dlia studentov vysshikh uchebnykh zavedenii, obuchaiushchikhsia po pedagogicheskim spetsial'nostiam. [pedagogy: a textbook for students of higher education institutions studying in pedagogical specialties.] prospekt. american textbooks and materials • s. wynne. (2010). praxis principles of learning and teaching (k-6) 0522. xamonline inc. • p. burden and d. byrd. (2019). methods for effective teaching: meeting the needs of all students. 8th edition. pearson. • f. parkay. (2020). becoming a teacher. 11th edition. pearson. • educational testing service. (2022). “principles of learning and teaching: grades k-6 study companion.” https://www.ets.org/s/praxis/pdf/5622.pdf soviet textbooks • n. boldyrev et al. (1968). pedagogika: uchebnoe posobie dlia studentov pedagogicheskikh • institutov [pedagogy: a textbook for students of pedagogical institutes]. prosveshchenie. • l. dodon. (1968). zadaniia po pedagogike. posobie dlia uchashchikhsia pedagogicheskikh uchilishch i studentov pedagogicheskikh fakul’tetov {pedagogical exercises: a textbook for students in pedagogical schools and departments]. prosveshchenie. • t. il'ina. (1968). pedagogika. uchebnoe posobie dlia studentov pedagogicheskikh institutov. [pedagogy: a textbook for students of pedagogical institutes.] prosveshchenie. teacher responsibilities so give [the teacher] great resources, confess that with his hands you are growing that healthy branch for which we are fighting, for which we exist, without which it would not be worth living and fighting. this is the most important thing in our struggle. we do not yet have this consciousness. we must have this consciousness. only then will it be possible to develop the new [soviet] person. anatoly lunacharsky, “upbringing of the new person,” 1928 contemporary russian pedagogy textbooks describe two goals of education: instruction (obuchenie) the second parent: ideologies of childhood… 265 and upbringing (vospitanie). sections on instruction address the content, methodology, and organization of courses (bordovskaia and rean, 2006; kraevskii, 2003; krivshenko et al., 2010). near the end of their textbook, krivshenko et al. define “teaching” as “a purposeful activity of a teacher to shape students’ desire to learn, to organize their perception, to [help them] comprehend the facts and phenomena presented, to give students the ability to use the knowledge they acquired, and to [help] students use that knowledge independently” (krivshenko et al., 2010, p. 166). on the face of it, this description aligns with the responsibilities american educational theorists describe for teachers: “planning, implementing, and assessing” curriculum mastery (burden and byrd, 2019, p. 2). that is, both russian and american understandings of teaching assume that a teacher should teach students skills and information. but “teaching” (prepodavanie), or instructional delivery, makes up only half of a teacher’s responsibilities in russian manuals—and a lesser half at that. rather than steering students to meet learning objectives, the russian teacher must manage vospitanie (upbringing); they must train students’ social selves. kraevskii defines vospitanie as, “…activities associated with the formation of value orientations of schoolchildren— their emotions, the world of feelings inherent in humans, attitudes towards life, people, nature, and the world as a whole” (2003, p. 20). vospitanie, as a concept, organizes the constituent categories of instruction (obuchenie) and schooling (obrazovanie) in russian textbooks (bordovskaia and rean, 2006, p. 25; kraevskii, 2003, p. 19; krivshenko et al., 2010, p. 183). if teaching guides students to obtain and use information, vospitanie focuses on the overall socialization of the child. the teacher-instructor (prepodavatel’) tracks students’ cognitive development and helps them gain knowledge and skills (krivshenko et al., 2010, p. 166). but as an upbringer (vospitatel’), the teacher must (1) transfer knowledge accumulated by [generations] of mankind (2) introduce students to the world of culture (3) encourage self-development (4) help students understand difficult life situations and find a way out of those circumstances (bordovskaia and rean, 2006, p. 25) the student, in turn, “(1) masters interpersonal relationships and the fundamentals of culture; (2) works on themselves; (3) learns ways of communicating and manners of behavior” (bordovskaia and rean, 2006, p. 25).7 the importance of culturedness, development, and “working on the self” show clear continuity with soviet ideas of becoming a cultured person, or kulturnost’. becoming cultured meant actively learning, developing the mind, and re-fashioning the self into a politically aware, bureaucratically capable soviet political subject. as described by sovietologists vera dunham and sheila fitzpatrick, kulturnost’ began as a stalinist emphasis on manners, to include basic hygiene and not spitting in public (dunham, 1990; fitzpatrick, 1999). eventually, though, kulturnost’ came to denote the educated individual, not just the “civilized” one (fitzpatrick 1999, 82). schools, then, played and play a vital role not only in exposing students to the “world of culture,” perhaps imparting information about art and literature (instruction), but in socializing students into a milieu that values continual personal development (vospitanie). vadim volkov included the following competencies in his definition of kulturnost’: to become a cultured person one must read classical literature, contemporary soviet fiction, poetry, newspapers, works by marx-engels-lenin-stalin, as well as attend the cinema and exhibitions with the purpose of self-education. a cultured person must have a broad cultural horizon (broad within the frame set up at a given historical moment) and a cultured inner world (volkov, 2000, p. 225). periodicals even featured “are you a cultured person?” quizzes (volkov, 2000, p. 224). if questions on a quiz stumped a reader, the magazine ogonek offered this advice: “remember, if you are not able to answer any one of the ten suggested questions, you, apparently, know very little about a whole sphere of science or arts. let this compel you to work on yourself (porabotat’ nad soboi)” (caps in original; cited _____________ 7 in his 1990s observational study, russian teachers described being “cultured” (kul’turniy) as an educational goal (alexander, 2001, p. 217). amy austin garey 266 in volkov, 2000, p. 224). vospitanie, unlike instruction, has this sense of training the entire person for life in society—not the student for academic achievement. like contemporary russian texts, the soviet teacher training textbooks analyzed here draw clear distinctions between upbringing (vospitanie) and instruction (obuchenie), with discussions of vospitanie making up half or more of chapters. comparing the tables of contents of russian, soviet, and u.s. teacher training textbooks is one way of illustrating how soviet/russian and american systems treat instruction and upbringing differently. to compile figure 1 below, i tallied the number of chapters devoted to instruction, surveys of educational theory, and upbringing in two soviet, two russian, and two american textbooks (boldyrev, 1968; bordovskaia and rean, 2006; burden and byrd, 2019; il’ina, 1968; parkay, 2020; krivshenko et. al, 2010). books from all three countries describe instructional techniques and the history of pedagogical theories. but only russian and soviet textbooks include chapters about upbringing or moral training at all, and they devote more chapters to these, proportionally, than to instruction. figure 1. comparison of tables of contents in russian, soviet, and american teacher training textbooks what soviet and russian textbooks considered upbringing to consist of emerged as remarkably similar, as well. krivshenko et al. listed the following five aspects of upbringing under the russian teacher’s purview: moral upbringing and worldview; civic upbringing; labor upbringing and professional competency; aesthetic upbringing; and fitness upbringing (krivshenko et al., 2010, pp. 78-88). il’ina’s soviet manual named four of these five categories exactly. krivshenko deviated from the soviet model in relabeling “upbringing in soviet patriotism and the international proletariat” as “civic upbringing,” however. the soviet manual also included “intellectual upbringing” and “scientific-atheist upbringing,” both left out of krivshenko’s description (il’ina, 1968, pp. 570-571). despite these rhetorical similarities, the soviet and russian texts orient towards different ultimate outcomes for upbringing. il’ina, for instance, defines the goal of communist upbringing as “the preparation of fully developed citizens capable of building and protecting communist society” (1968, p. 54). the state wanted to create homo sovieticus, the new soviet man (etkind, 2005; fitzpatrick, 1999). to do this, they needed to train not only laborers—as, in il’ina’s characterization, capitalist societies did—but a wellrounded and comprehensively-educated working class (1968, p. 47). russian textbooks kept the soviet emphasis on teaching the entire person instead of just relaying skills, but portray self-realization as the ultimate goal of vospitanie, not building socialism. in this model, students need vospitanie so that they can function as accepted and effective members of society (bordovskaia and rean, 2006, pp. 33, 171; kraevskii, 2003, p. 47). the russian curriculum for vospitanie has now expanded beyond its borders. residents in occupied melitopol, ukraine, for instance, were told they could be “stripped of parental rights” if they do not send their children to russian-run schools (devlin and korenyuk, 2022). contemporary russian “civic the second parent: ideologies of childhood… 267 upbringing,” then, has increasing relevance for both russians and ukrainians living in russian-occupied territories. “the upbringing [vospitanie] of patriotism,” write krivshenko et al., “is a traditional task for russian pedagogy and schools…content about patriotism in school includes study of history, the culture of their country, and activities to preserve the culture of their people” (krivshenko et al., 2010, p. 82). ukrainians would be taught russian versions of history, russian culture, and love for the russian motherland. one young ukrainian boy said before the start of the school year in 2022, “i’m more scared of the fact i'll have a new [russian] teacher than of the war” (waterhouse, 2022). instead of moral education to build the soviet state, vospitanie may well play a role in constructing the soviet nation. one of the american textbooks analyzed here does briefly discuss teachers’ responsibilities to teach moral principles. parkay writes that, “although promoting students’ academic progress has always been their primary responsibility, teachers are also expected to further students’ social, emotional, and moral development and to safeguard students’ safety, health, and well-being” (2020, p. 16). parkay does not elaborate on these kinds of development beyond that sentence, but, in a later discussion of the “character development” movement in american education, cites teaching children empathy and the ability to control impulses as the keys to preventing violence, not least gun violence, in schools and in the wider society (2020, p. 299). this seems like moral upbringing of a very different kind than the russian examples; it’s geared not towards the development of the self, but towards preventing the most extreme forms of aggression towards others. the more salient facet of moral training in american materials, and one not prominent in russian textbooks, is social justice. according to the authors, teachers have a responsibility not only to adopt principles of social justice in their teaching practices, by, for instance, creating safe and equitable learning environments, but they have a duty to teach students tolerance for various categories of social diversity (burden and byrd, 2019, pp. 25-33; parkay, 2020, pp. 17, 76). u.s. author parkay even quoted a statement by the southern poverty law center that said, “if you aren’t teaching social justice and tolerance, you aren’t really teaching at all” (2020, p. 76). all three of the russian textbooks mentioned tolerance, as well, but generally in the context of interpersonal differences rather than diversity of ethnic, national, religious, or sexual identity (kraevskii, 2003, p. 36; bordovskaia and rean, 2006, p, 180). krivshenko et al., for instance, address nonviolence in general terms: the culture of peace should be understood as a global school in which everyone learns to live together in peace and harmony, to root in people's minds the idea of protecting peace, not to use violence, to assert justice and democracy. the upbringing of such qualities as tolerance, non-violence, conflict-free communication skills, the ability to listen and hear, to argue with an opponent without turning him into an enemy, should be brought up from early childhood (2010, p. 143). this position, unlike social justice approaches, glosses over historic, systematic, and structural disadvantages. the russian and american texts come to the same conclusion: teach tolerance. but the u.s. textbooks also acknowledge societal conditions that undergird discrimination. in addition to american textbooks, i examined the contents of a standardized teaching certification exam, the praxis principles of learning and teaching: grades k-6 8 exam (plat k-6), which eighteen out of fifty states (plus the district of columbia) require prospective teachers to pass. states outside of these eighteen either require subject-specific praxis exams (e.g., language teaching, mathematics), their own, state-developed standardized tests, or choose to count only coursework and teaching practica towards certification. together, the teachers required to take the plat k-6 teach over nine million american schoolchildren per year, or 18% of the public elementary school population (u.s. department of education, 2022). since this exam assesses core pedagogical competencies, it offers a good representation of what, according to the u.s. government, teachers need to know and do. like the other american materials analyzed here, the plat k-6 only deals with knowledge about instruction and professionalism, not what russian theorists would call upbringing or moral training. the _____________ 8 kindergarten through the 6th grade, or students from around five to twelve years old amy austin garey 268 first section, “students as learners,” tests overall knowledge of human development and educational theory, from freud to john dewey. the next two sections cover lesson and curriculum planning, classroom interactions, and assessment. the last section asks about professional development opportunities, school and community resources (speech therapists, social workers), and laws relevant to teachers (confidentiality, liability, child abuse reporting) (educational testing service, 2022; mometrix, 2021; wynne, 2010). the exam, thus, assesses whether someone can effectively teach students content. this summative pedagogy exam focuses entirely on what russian teacher training textbooks cast as the least important responsibility of a teacher. rather than bringing up the child—morally, civically, professionally, aesthetically, and physically—an american teacher’s only responsibility is to help students achieve content objectives. this likely suits american parents well, as most would be loath to cede their child’s moral upbringing to the state. role of the state “a human stream flows, muddy and dirty, a fetid stream, but powerful at the same time. it flows in generations, and new generations perceive the experience of the old, they stand on the shoulders of the old, perceive everything valuable acquired by many thousands of generations, but at the same time they perceive prejudices, and diseases, and vices all the dirt, all the filth and stench. somewhere you need to put a filter, somewhere you need to put a net that would allow everything of value to pass through, all the mighty flow with all its skills and acquisitions, but would not let through turbidity, dirt and stench. this filter can only be a school.” anatoly lunacharsky, “upbringing of the new person,” 1928 it’s often said that russian has no word for “privacy.” it’s true. you can speak of “confidentiality” or “secretiveness,” or “isolation,” but these words imply either withholding information or acting antisocial, not simply freely minding your own business. in the same way, when upbringing becomes a social concern rather than a family one, parents do not get to cordon off home life as a sphere of private activity. one russian textbook maintained, “the function of education, and in everyday life this is closer to upbringing, lies in every person, regardless of education or profession. upbringing is a mission for parents and for everyone who has relations with the younger generation” (bordovskaia and rean, 2006, p. 17). if for american feminists “the personal is political,” these pedagogical theorists claim that “the personal is public.” as gal and kligman argued, the division between public and private, and negotiations over its boundaries, carries enormous social power. the public/private binary can “recurse” to larger or smaller scales of discourse—from the institutional to the interpersonal—as people assign obligations to themselves and others (gal and kligman, 2000, pp. 40-41) hewing to the notion of vospitanie changes understandings of the relationships between schools, parents, and the state—between personal and collective responsibility. one of the russian textbooks analyzed here (bordovskaia and rean, 2006) and one of the american textbooks (burden and byrd, 2019) feature “what would you do?” sections that present pedagogical situations and ask readers to reflect on possible responses. the selection of problems in these texts, and their implied solutions, point to different degrees of state involvement in students’ lives outside of the classroom. bordovskaia and rean introduce their section on what teachers do (“teaching in practice”) with the following scenarios: (a) a child is rude and does not study well. how will the teacher change the student’s attitude towards learning and make sure that the child is not rude to the teacher, parents, and comrades (tovarishcham)? (bordovskaia and rean, 2006, p. 15) (b) a child has fallen under the influence of a bad crowd. who will help them get away from this influence, and how? (bordovskaia and rean, 2006, p. 15) (c) the school learned that a group of young men and women often gathers at tatiana r.’s apartment overnight: they drink, play cards, smoke, and stay over. tatiana’s parents are on a long business trip, and her grandmother is sick and cannot come check on her granddaughter. what can teachers do in this situation? (bordovskaia and rean, 2006, p.16) the second parent: ideologies of childhood… 269 bordovskaia and rean present all of these situations as pedagogical problems that the teacher must solve (“what kinds of problems and tasks are called pedagogical?”) (2006, p. 15). they are pedagogical precisely because they involve upbringing, even if not instruction directly. the authors do not tell us what they see as possible solutions. but even framing these problems as the teacher’s responsibility crosses a line between state and family prerogative that is differently drawn in the united states. in the u.s. a teacher only seeks to regulate in-class behavior. so, an american teacher might address rudeness directed towards other students by deploying focused methods of behavior modification and error-correction, but they would not try to change the child themselves, such that they would also not be bratty to their parents. vospitanie means bringing up the person (lichnost’), in all aspects of their social selves. the state, then, in the person of the teacher, gets to intervene when developmental processes go awry (wherever that may occur). in situations like b and c, above, american textbooks recommend getting in touch with the parents and contacting “community resources” like social workers or the police if a child is in danger. ultimately, the american teacher has a duty to help students meet curricular objectives and a duty to report neglect and abuse. but they aren’t tasked with raising, transforming, or morally bringing up young people. one of the reasons russian teachers have authority to act as “second parents” is because, unlike parents, they’ve been trained in upbringing. “of course, parents carry out upbringing, solve problems of upbringing,” write krivshchenko et al., “but not as professionals (alas, even if they are teachers by profession)” (krivshenko et al., 2010, 63). but a teacher’s dispassionate professional gaze can attenuate a non-optimal family pedagogical environment. in a section called “interrelation between families and schools in the upbringing process,” krivshenko et al. talk about the need for schools and parents to work together in educating children. then, though, after pointing out that pedagogical attention can focus on the family as well as students, they write, “assistance in learning is aimed at preventing problems that arise in the family and due to the formation of the parents’ pedagogical culture” (krivshenko et al., 2010, 156). the parents’ “pedagogical culture,” or upbringing environment, might not serve the student’s best interests. parents may, for instance, employ “incorrect” upbringing strategies, like overprotection, undue pressure to perform, or emotional coldness (as well as neglect and abuse) (krivshenko et al., 2010, pp. 153-154). by law american parents can do anything they would like in the child’s pedagogical environment as long as a child isn’t verifiably harmed; overprotection does not meet that standard. i cannot imagine a u.s. teacher stepping in and informing parents that they were raising their kids “incorrectly,” but that is what krivshchenko et al. propose. they argue for a school-parent partnership, yes, but one in which the teacher knows best. they continue, “in the process of mutual communication, not only should teachers draw parents’ attention to shortcomings in the methods and content of family upbringing, but parents should also point out similar ‘failures’ in the work of the school” (2010, p. 156). this sentence assumes that teachers should correct parents. that parents should advise teachers represents a move towards cooperation, not deference to parents who, after all, are ill-equipped to identify ‘failures.’ a case study called “challenges with homework” in an american textbook provides an example that resonates with russian moves to address issues in the home learning environment, but the authors ultimately locate both the problem and the solution in home life, not with the school.9 burden and byrd describe a situation in which a student, deshawn, finds himself living in cramped quarters with his brothers, sisters, and cousins, and his homework grades have begun suffering. ms. hutton did not initially reach out to deshawn’s family when his grades dipped, but learned about his changed home situation from a casual conversation with deshawn’s track coach. then ms. hutton took the initiative, as russian educational theorists would advocate, to get in touch with deshawn’s mother and offer advice. however, ms. hutton did not call as someone authorized to correct a home pedagogical environment, but as a teacher _____________ 9 “when talking with deshawn’s track coach, ms. hutton learned that deshawn’s aunt and cousins recently moved in with his family, which includes his mother and four brothers and sisters. deshawn now shares a bedroom with two of his cousins, and he has complained about how crowded his home is now. ms. hutton called deshawn’s mother to confirm the home living conditions and to tell her that deshawn is talented and bright but struggling with his homework reading assignments. deshawn’s mother was concerned and asked how she could help her son. first, ms. hutton recommended that a consistent time each day be set aside for homework. second, she suggested that deshawn find a favorite spot in the house where he can comfortably complete his reading without distraction. third, she recommended that deshawn’s mother have a brief conversation with deshawn once a week about the books he is reading. in fact, deshawn’s mother asked for the reading list and said that she might read some of the books along with deshawn" (burden and byrd, 2019, p. 178). amy austin garey 270 concerned about a student’s grades. in this hypothetical scenario, the teacher also did not give recommendations until the mother asked for them (burden and byrd, 2019, p. 178). both american and russian textbooks discuss how home situations can affect students at school. but the american pedagogical concern stops with helping children reach curriculum objectives. american teachers—in the idealized discourses about teaching analyzed here—do not try to influence a child’s upbringing, especially if the philosophy of the teacher conflicts with that of the parents. american teachers work to create classroom environments that help children develop academically; russian teachers work to create environments that help children develop social selves. pupil’s rights “if you take a closer look at this old type of person that dominates the bourgeois world, you will see that he has an incredible narrowness. he is connected with big questions through the newspaper, which he receives daily, reads with indifference and then throws away. and in this short hour in which he reads a newspaper, the man comes into contact with the rest of the world, and then again goes into his shell—into his jacket, as obligatory for him as a house for a snail, and there he lives out his narrow daily interests.” anatoly lunacharsky, “upbringing of the new person,” 1928 in the educational discourses examined here, russian textbooks represent teaching as a process of training the entire child and american textbooks focus on helping students meet grade level objectives. the converse of these positions is the assumption that american students have the right to reach their academic potential and that russian students have the right to develop their lichnost’, or their “social person.” to ensure that those things can happen, teachers in both countries must take particular kinds of action that aren’t directly tied to teaching course content. but the recommended actions look very different in the russian and american cases because teachers pursue different ultimate objectives. american teachers are told to alter variables in the classroom environment to make sure students can learn, while textbooks instruct russian teachers to influence a child’s entire pedagogical environment—school life, home life, extracurricular life—to make sure students can develop (properly). u.s. textbooks therefore discuss how to make opportunities to learn equal. some children speak english as a foreign language. the ordinary subject teacher, therefore, must learn—and prepare to be assessed on—special methodologies for teaching this population, such as the cognitive academic language learning approach (calla) or the sheltered instruction observation protocol (siop) models of lesson planning, delivery, and observation (burden and byrd, 2019, pp. 16-17). students may also have any number of “special needs:” physical challenges such as paralysis or blindness; intellectual disabilities such as down syndrome; speech impairments; or unusual talent in reading, analysis, and memory tasks (burden and byrd, 2019, pp. 30-33; parkay, 2020, pp. 309-315). the teacher should integrate these students as fully into courses as possible and refer them to specialists within the school when they reach the limit of their expertise. if students live in poverty, the teacher must adjust classroom activities and assignments to make sure they have the resources to learn effectively (burden and byrd, 2019, p. 34). american students also have the right to study without discrimination due to a variety of social categories. parkay writes that, “providing an equal educational opportunity to all students means that teachers and schools promote the full development of students as individuals, without regard for race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, religion, abilities, or disabilities” (parkay, 2020, p. 270). to ensure this, teachers must (1) educate themselves about inequality and (2) constantly monitor their teaching process to make sure their actions don’t contribute to discrimination (burden and byrd, 2019, p. 27; parkay, 2020, p. 270). while many of the problems these authors describe are social, even structural, the american teacher faces these challenges by changing their instructional practices, not society or, more importantly, the socialized person of the child. instead of equality of opportunity to learn, russian textbooks talk of equality of opportunity to develop—to be “brought up” as a social person. children have a right to self-actualization, a right to fulfill their “cultural needs,” a right to develop their creative potential, and a right to develop a spiritual world (bordovskaya and rean, 2006; kraevskii, 2006; krivshenko, 2010). they have, in other words, the right to develop a lichnost’, a social self, that will allow them to be successful in life, not just in school or employment the second parent: ideologies of childhood… 271 contexts (bordovskaia and rean, 2006, p. 171). kraevskii, for instance, argues that education should mirror social experience in “structural completeness.” since life requires people to employ creativity and build relationships, writes kraevskii, classes should include training in these skills as well as “ready-made knowledge” (kraevskii, 2003, pp. 43-44). this, he argues, “allows a person not only to function successfully in society, to be a good performer, but also to act independently—not only to ‘fit’ into the social system, but also to influence it” (kraevskii, 2003, p. 44). this is not to say, of course, that russian teacher training programs as a whole do not attend to teaching students with special needs or issues of discrimination. but these topics do not factor into the textbooks analyzed here, core statements about what teaching is and what teachers do. managing accommodations for academic success is a subset of effectively teaching content, after all, which these texts represent as a task secondary to upbringing. the american pedagogical materials represent students as having rights to measurable kinds of resources with clear success-failure metrics. in practice, students who speak spanish as a first language often get slotted into clasess for those with intellectual disabilities, students face discrimination from teachers and other students, and gifted children get bored. but in the ideal classroom depicted by the textbook authors, every child has a right to fulfill their academic potential, and teachers have a responsibility to adjust their instruction to make sure this happens. administrators or other observers can assess what students learned, what teachers did, and evaluate the performance of both teachers and learners. the russian textbooks, in contrast, spend many hundreds of pages describing the importance of upbringing, possible approaches, and example cases, but there is no discussion of upbringing assessment. activities and rubrics could easily be designed to test students’ growth in social-emotional development over the course of a year. i doubt this will happen. vospitanie, as minina pointed out, is linked to the soul in the russian imagination (minina, 2018, p. 442). vospitanie cannot be bought and sold, like sausages, and teachers and parents may also object to reducing it to a score. conclusions: reproducing ideology the russian focus on upbringing, like the soviet one, gives public school teachers authority over more aspects of a child’s development than american textbooks recommend or, in most cases, than parents and local legislation would allow. it is not just that russians and americans organize educational experience differently; in these textbooks, education’s purpose is conceived differently. but if the soviet state championed upbringing (i.e., developing the new soviet person) so that students could go on to serve the communist project, russian textbooks advocate upbringing for the good of students themselves—so that they can lead successful lives as competent members of society. discourses about communism, the proletariat, and the importance of atheism no longer feature in teacher training manuals, either. but the fact that contemporary textbooks repeat so much of the rhetoric associated with vospitanie, even down to lifting most of the types of vospitanie word-for-word (moral upbringing, aesthetic upbringing, etc.), means that pedagogical institutions emulate soviet-era discourses about the rights and wrongs of educating children even if they are not advancing soviet political ideology. russian vospitanie, like soviet vospitanie, aims to socialize the child into a worldview, not promote academic achievement. while the contents of political vospitanie has changed in the post-soviet era, the responsibility of the teacher to provide moral upbringing remains constant from the russian to the soviet contexts. this may represent an institutional carryover rather than a conscientious ideological or values-based choice, but that fact still matters: institutions’ taken-for-granted emphases socialize people into moral worldviews—or at least present them as normative. people could have decided that teachers no longer have the right to intervene in parenting, just as “comrade’s courts” no longer have the right to reprimand party members about adultery (cf. cohn, 2009). the public/private, child/state, parent/expert divisions could have been redrawn, but they were not. state vospitanie experts manage vospitanie. in instructing prospective teachers how to mould young moral selves, these textbooks, in turn, shape teachers’ outlooks amy austin garey 272 on children, childhood, and education. nearly twenty years ago caroline humphrey revised her classic soviet-era ethnography, karl marx collective, under a new title: marx went away—but karl stayed behind (1998). the book describes changes to collective farm life after socialism, but notes structural continuities, as well. at least in 1998, there were no good alternatives to collective farms in the rural areas humphrey studied. tradition persisted because it was economically easier. it is possible, too, that it is easier to make surface-level changes to educational doctrine created in the soviet union, perhaps by replacing “upbringing in soviet patriotism” with “civic education,” but leaving much foundational theory intact. the writers of russian textbooks were likely trained in the soviet union, so it makes sense that they would express ideas fairly close to what they themselves were taught. this means, though, that key ideas about what childhood is and what childhood is for in contemporary russian education are rooted in soviet conceptions about developing lichnost’, or the social self. a theory of vospitanie is, after all, a theory of socialization. russian students may now be socialized to consider different kinds of moral calculations and to make different kinds of aesthetic judgments than they would have in the 1960s. but they are still taught about some spheres of things not considered the american teacher’s responsibility. the socialization of children aside, the textbooks examined here reproduce the soviet perception that upbringing is the teacher’s duty and the state's domain. declarations author’s declarations acknowledgements: though i did not conduct research at moscow pedagogical state university, my experiences teaching there led to this project. i would like to thank my students and the staff and faculty of the institute of international studies, and hope for the chance to do research together in the future. i would also like to thank the open research laboratory at the university of illinois urbana-champaign’s russian, east european, and eurasian center for access to research materials and collegial discussions. authors’ contributions: this is the sole work of the author. competing interests: i was a salaried lecturer at moscow pedagogical state university from september 2019 march 2022. i continued teaching after russia’s invasion of ukraine, but declined my salary. my opinions are my own; no government influenced the collection or analysis of data presented here. funding: no funding was used for this study. ethics approval and consent to participate: the research reported here does not involve human subjects. publisher’s declarations editorial acknowledgement: the editorial process of this article was carried out by eleonora teszenyi, anikó varga nagy, and sándor pálfi. publisher’s note: journal of childhood, education & society remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliation. references alexander, r. 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(2005). everything was forever, until it was no more: the last soviet generation. princeton university press. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d13/tables/dt13_203.20.asp https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62738150 journal of childhood, education & society volume 3, issue 2, 2022, 122-138 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.202232170 research article ©2022 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. agency as assemblage: using childhood artefacts and memories to examine children’s relations with schooling julie c. garlen1, debbie sonu 2, lisa farley3, sandra chang-kredl4 abstract: in this article, we explore how childhood artefacts and memories might help us think retrospectively about children’s agency and its relationship to schooling and teaching. across four university sites in canada and the united states, we asked undergraduate students in teacher education and childhood studies programs to choose an artefact or object that encapsulates contemporary conceptions of childhood and to discuss them in a focus group setting at each site. building on three participants’ descriptions of how they remembered and reflected upon school-oriented objects – a progress report, a notebook, and a pencil sharpener – we explore how participants used their artefacts in ways that allow us to theorize children’s agencies as assemblages, where agency is relational and contingent on multiple social and cultural factors. drawing on our participants’ interpretations, we consider how a reconceptualized concept of agency may expand our understanding of the possibilities of children’s agencies in school and raise new questions about the meaning of childhood within contexts of teacher education and childhood studies. article history received: 29 january 2022 accepted: 11 may 2022 keywords childhood; agency; schooling; memories; artefacts introduction since the emergence of the “new paradigm” of childhood studies (james & prout, 1990), scholars of childhood from a range of disciplines have called for “children to be seen as social actors shaping as well as shaped by their circumstances” (james et al., 1998, p. 6). as alan prout (2011) observes, “the agency of children as actors is often glossed over, taken to be an essential, virtually unmediated characteristic of humans that does not require much explanation” (p. 7). yet while naturalized as a human characteristic, agency tends to be regarded in practice as a property of adulthood. when it comes to school, where so much of one’s early life is spent, we continue to see school policies and practices that “construct adults as developed, mature, intelligent, and experienced, based solely on their age,” a perspective that justifies the continuation of adult control over children’s subjective experiences and decision-making (dejong & love, 2015, p. 490). particularly, as the world struggles to cope with and recover from the global covid-19 pandemic, deep concerns about the future of schooling have led to new, urgent efforts to regulate teaching and evaluate learning in ways that perpetuate this deficit perspective toward children’s agency. in spite of calls for more holistic, flexible, and student-centered approaches to teaching and learning (garlen, 2021; mitchell, 2021; whitley et al., 2021), as well as existing research that has demonstrated the need to include young people in educational decision-making (irizarry & welton, 2014; quijada cerecer et al., 2013), the panic over learning loss has resulted in strategies that recentre neoliberal values around evaluation, accountability, and competition (betebenner & wenning, 2021; mcshane, 2021). in new york, for example, this has resulted in a barrage of new testing that requires teachers to administer a 43-question assessment to screen the social and emotional wellbeing of children (lebuffe et al., 2009). called dessa, for devereux _____________ 1 carleton university, faculty of arts and social sciences, institute of interdiscplinary studies, canada, e-mail: julie.garlen@carleton.ca orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-22245688 2 hunter college, faculty of education, department of curriculum and teaching, new york, united states, e-mail: dsonu@hunter.cuny.edu, orcid: http://orcid.org/0000-00031420-1885 3 york university, faculty of education, toronto, canada, e-mail: lfarley@edu.yorku.ca, orcid: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4907-1120 4 concordia university, faculty of arts and science, department of education, montreal, canada, e-mail: sandra.chang-kredl@concordia.ca, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-00031754-9860 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202232170 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:julie.garlen@carleton.ca https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2224-5688 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2224-5688 mailto:dsonu@hunter.cuny.edu http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1420-1885 http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1420-1885 mailto:lfarley@edu.yorku.ca http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4907-1120 mailto:sandra.chang-kredl@concordia.ca julie c. garlen et al. 123 student strengths assessment, this likert-type scale reports a composite score used to measure socialemotional competence and support “good outcomes in spite of serious threats to adaptation or development” (masten, 2001, p. 228). how, then, can we reconcile the fundamental belief that children have the capacity to choose, act and influence matters in their everyday lives (james & james, 2012) with the overwhelming evidence, both current and retrospective, that children’s lives, particularly their relations with schooling, are so deeply affected by adult decisions? in this article, we grapple with this tension between childhood agency and adultism by considering how childhood artefacts might help us think about children’s agency and its relationship to schooling. amid a growing number of studies featuring the perspectives and experiences of children themselves, we suggest that adult memories of having once been children can be read as important archives chronicling childhood agency. that is, we speculate that adults' memories of their own childhood agencies – including times when they were disciplined and/or discouraged in these efforts – represent an untapped resource in the larger agentic turn within childhood studies. across four university sites in canada and the united states, we asked undergraduate students in teacher education and childhood studies programs to choose an artefact or object that encapsulates contemporary conceptions of childhood and to discuss them in a focus group setting at each site. while in a previous publication, we analyzed the entirety of the artefacts and drew findings along the contours of nostalgia and melancholia (farley et al., 2022), here we examine how three of the 15 artefacts, presented as outliers within our larger study, inform our understanding of how adults remember childhood agencies in the context of school. building on our participants’ descriptions of how they remembered and reflected upon these schooloriented objects – a progress report, a notebook, and a pencil sharpener – we explore how participants used their artefacts in ways that allow us to theorize children’s agencies as “something that happens in the relations between the different bodies within a given assemblage” (gallagher, 2019, p. 190) – where agency is contingent on multiple social and cultural factors. by assemblage, we refer to the theoretical construct attributed to gilles deleuze and félix guattari (1987), which we understand as “a set of relations in which elements appear to be meaningfully related” (nail, 2017, p. 25). assemblages are abstract in that they are not concrete “things” with specific, fixed characteristics, “but rather something that lays out a set of relations wherein concrete elements and agencies appear,” (nail, 2017, p. 24). here, we consider agency within the assemblage of school, the “emergent potential” of which is produced by the “flows of life, people, materials and ideas” that circulate within it (dovey & fisher, 2014, p. 50). with these insights in mind, we consider how a reconceptualized concept of agency may expand the “conditions of possibility” (foucault, 1966, p. xxiii) that exist within schools and raise new questions about the meaning of childhood within contexts of teacher education and childhood studies. in the next section, we revisit the construct of children’s agency and its critiques to situate our analysis in relation to michael gallagher’s (2019) recent articulation of agency as “something that arises from the relations within heterogeneous assemblages” (p. 188). schooling practice as neoliberal adultism the response to the pandemic’s impact on student learning illustrates the extent to which the conditions of schooling are shaped by neoliberal aims that construct children as future adults whose education is directly linked to the promises of economic progress. while many have called for a radical transformation of schooling in ways that prioritize the physical and emotional needs of children and their families (darling-hammond & hyler, 2020; mckinney de royston, & vossoughi, 2021; sonu et al., 2022), such demands have largely gone unmet in north america due to the widespread focus instead on responding to the purported “learning loss” incurred by school closures (betebenner & wenning, 2021; dorn et al., 2020; kuhfield et al., 2020; whitley et al., 2021; zhao, 2021). business analysts and policy makers have asserted that these losses will lead to decreased literacy rates, lower test scores, and wider achievement gaps, all of which predict a less stable world economy (economist leader, 2020; world bank, 2021). when such neoliberal priorities drive education, teachers are cast as “instrumental means to commercial ends” whose purpose is to produce “predetermined, desired effects—namely, the agency as assemblage: using childhood artefacts and memories… 124 improvement of student test scores on international comparative tests” (phelan & hansen, 2021, p. 2). through the mobilization of developmental frameworks, literacy levels, and career readiness, schooling practices focus on educational outcomes that may have less to do with what children, families, and teachers want or need now and more to do with the demands of a competitive global market. the very meaning of childhood is profoundly shaped by the political and economic priorities underpinning educational outcomes in western capitalist countries, such as canada and the united states. as debbie sonu and jeremy benson (2016) observe, “these outcomes symbolize imagined expectations of the child, not as a being with tangential thoughts, curiosities, or psychic particulars, but as an empty vessel, first carved out, then refilled by curriculum standards, practices, and policies” (p. 237). educational policies and practices that perpetuate outcomes and assessments illustrate the ways that schools overwhelmingly reflect neoliberal interests, even as individual teachers work to attend to the immediate social and emotional needs of their students. the persistence of schooling practices that centre economic priorities not only perpetuate neoliberal values, but reflect the hegemony of adultism, which john bell (1995) defines as “behaviors and attitudes based on the assumption that adults are better than young people, and entitled to act upon young people without their agreement” (p. 1). according to bell, “except for prisoners and a few other institutionalized groups, young people are more controlled than any other group in society” (p. 1). within this context, objects – inorganic materials that populate school spaces – often become mechanisms of control, especially when they are animated by children’s affected attachments (jones et al., 2012). in relation to this idea, sara ahmed (2019) traces how, from the early 19th century, education was used to redirect working class children away from mischievous tendencies and toward activities that were deemed more useful societal aims. proposed as crime prevention, ahmed (2019) demonstrates how the notion of useful knowledge took on a moralistic dimension that required children to assume a particular station in the social hierarchy, organized and administered by the circulation of certain objects including assignments, school work, selected books, and progress reports. while school is just one of the many adult-created bureaucracies that children must endure, it is certainly one of the most influential and restrictive. at the same time, such a pessimistic view of the overdetermination of childhood by adult economic concerns seems inconsistent with the focus on agency that has informed the field of childhood studies from its inception. childhood agencies and assemblages as dierdre horgan, catherine forde, shirley martin and aisling parkes (2017) note, childhood studies, with its focus on children’s agency and relationality, has contributed significantly to a growing awareness of the “participative child” (p. 274). most often conceived from a global north perspective, the limits and possibilities of children’s participation in society have been explored by a range of scholars in recent decades (percy-smith, 2010, 2015; raby, 2014; roche, 1999; smith, 2007) and has been highlighted as an emerging issue within children’s geographies (horton et al., 2008; jones, 2008). across this body of work, agency is generally understood as the capacity of a child to assert their subjective views and take action in shaping the world. in the specific context of schooling, margaret vaughn (2021) defines agency as “a student’s ability to have ideas, intentions, and to exert influence and take actions in the learning context” (p. 4) and argues that students who enact agency are more likely to be engaged as active learners. while recognizing that agency is relational co-constructed with teachers and students in the complex social environment of the classroom vaughn (2021) views agency as “part of the fabric of who we are as individuals” (p. 1). such contemporary constructions of children’s agency have been criticized for their proclivity “to treat children’s agency in a celebratory, uncritical, a-theoretical, non-relational, locally-bound and nonreflective manner” (huijsmans, 2011, p. 1308). shadowed by the blissful and innocent child of the western imagination, notions of deservedness around agency can reproduce the western trope of an individualized subject who single-handedly affects the world through autonomy and rationality. this construction of agency also reproduces a history of raced, classed, and gendered inequality propelled by the colonial engines of progress and civilization, societal aims to which childhood has always been tethered. scholars julie c. garlen et al. 125 who work in the new sociology and reconceptualist strands of childhood studies show how this reduction of agency to individual capacity reinforces humanist ideals that distribute privileges along produced definitions of normalcy, leaving great numbers of minoritized children the subject of adult anxiety and intervention. this uneven distribution of agency not only disregards the complex social realities of children in diverse cultural and political contexts (canosa & graham, 2020; de castro, 2020), but orders a system designed to determine which child comes to be recognized as deserving the gifts of willful agency and which are to be limited by their need for management and guidance. likewise, recent critiques launched within critical childhood studies reveal how a universalized understanding of agency can reduce notions of freedom to a personal attribute or, returning to ahmed (2019), an object of ‘useful’ possession. while agency has become a much-needed focal point to understanding children’s relationships to institutional structures such as school, arguments that rely on an overly-powerful theory of the individual can flatten, instead of expand upon, ideas of action and activity that can account for the myriad relational ways that children act upon the world. post-colonial and poststructural thinkers refuse the modern dualism of individual-society as a remnant of the western imperial episteme, arguing that there is no identity uncontaminated from the condition which dominates it. from this perspective, agency refers to actions that bend and alter in ways that can subvert dominant authority and that are simultaneously intrapersonal, interpersonal, and socio-political. agency is thus tangled rather than clear-cut. it refers to the ways we are always critiquing from within a structure that we are also complicit in perpetuating. in response to debates over the meaning of agency in childhood studies, gallagher (2019) draws on michel foucault’s theorization of power, deleuze and guattari’s (1987) concept of assemblages, and jane bennett’s (2010) vital materialism to rethink common notions of child agency through four entry points: 1. agency is not a staid attribute of human nature, nor a force for liberation 2. agency arises from and is contingent on specific relations and assemblages 3. agency spans a range of inventive forms 4. agency is continually unfolding and reconfiguring, producing new assemblages and combinations of effect again, careful not to think of agency as simple opposition to defined structures and institutions, this reconceptualization of agency is central to challenging liberal humanist terms that define individuals as autonomous beings with a set of choices in their own freedom. who we are is not solely determined by the choices we make from an infinite world of options. instead, we become that which we are not-yet through a paradoxical and dual process of both reaffirming the conditions that make the recognition of ourselves possible, while practicing what bronwyn davies (2006) calls a “radically conditioned agency” which can subvert and eclipse the very dominating discourses that act on us (p. 426). thus, while subjectivity arises from within existing frameworks and discourses, “regimes of truth” (foucault, 1977, p. 23) do not determine the ways one can exercise their minds, the beliefs they can adopt, or the actions they can attempt to perform. within this tangled web of agency, the child is subject to “conditions of possibility” (foucault, 1966, p. xxiii) that require a reflexive turn towards what is expected of them and what can be created within the epistemological and discursive limits of our own existence (gallo, 2017). for foucault (1966), the production of scientific knowledge, which can be extended to include the “nature” of the child, is underpinned by latent underlying structures that shape what it is possible to know. applied to a child subject, we might say that existing knowledge about childhood “grounds its positivity and thereby manifests a history which is not that of its growing perfection, but rather that of its conditions of possibility” (foucault, 1966, p. xxiii-xxiv). similarly, what it is possible to do is not a fixed human characteristic but agency as assemblage: using childhood artefacts and memories… 126 rather a potential that is continually renegotiated in relation to established and emerging patterns and structures. therefore, returning to gallagher (2019), agency does not exist prior to acts of agency, nor does it float around outside of specific relations and assemblages. instead, agency is produced from mutually constitutive relations that are embedded in discourse, but also through our encounters with other, both human and non-human, material entities. for timothy ingold (2011), agency appears as an intentional movement of humans and non-humans, where the idea of ongoing change is central to our ontological and mutually constituted relationships with each other, an entangled condition of being alive in the world. agency, then, is not just an event that involves an action; it is the very event of becoming itself, an event that changes both the acting subject and the world, an act that expresses our transformation (grosz, 2010). far from a celebration of a child’s right to do as they please, agency is an assemblage. the concept of assemblage, drawn from the work of deleuze and guattari (1987), offers a more expansive concept of agency that considers how children are situated within their social and cultural contexts. we understand an assemblage as a collection of like and unlike entities, including bodies and objects of any kind. according to gallagher’s (2019) interpretation, the defining features of assemblages include: contingency (interdependent relations between bodies), continuation (perpetually forming relations), and disunity (reconfigurable parts that do not constitute a whole). gallagher’s articulation of assemblage as it applies to children’s agency acknowledges that “in any significant action, there are always many bodies and forces at work, both internal and external to the analytical unit of ‘child’” (p. 192). this approach to childhood agency not only enables an investigation into the conditions that lead to specific kinds of agentic moves by children, but also relies on a belief that agency is contingent on multiple factors that are themselves continually in flux and subject to change. significant to our interests in education, “schools are complex and sometimes incoherent social assemblages” (ball et al., 2012, p. 2). set within the mechanisms of neoliberal governmentality, many schools around the globe reinforce dispositions of grit, resilience, self-determination, and advocacy, which download collective responsibilities to individual efforts (au, 2016). yet as argued by noah de lissovoy (2012), agency can also be considered as a “horizon of integrity” (p. 480) through which students consistently refuse the deficit-oriented characterizations of them, exercising their own creative methods to assert themselves on terms not always recognized or even known by schools and teachers. jonathan silin (2006) recalls and reflects on his own creative methods as a child, and specifically, how he transformed “the teacher’s lessons into personally meaningful ideas” (p. 236). silin’s analysis of childhood memory foregrounds the ways children can and do shape curriculum – despite teachers’ aims and intentions. his work calls for teachers to notice and support children’s creative efforts to use school texts to “unlock interior rooms” made from desire (p. 237). paula m. salvio and gail boldt (2010), too, underscore the creative methods of “play and fantasy” at work in children’s agentic uses of symbols, objects, and words to facilitate their personal and social reconstructions of meaning that productively refuse the “utilitarian demands” of school contexts (p. 203). as a creative method and horizon of integrity, agency is, then, a critical, although sometimes quiet, bending of the hegemonic forces that schools impose, and it works persistently in times of both self-formation and public-facing protest, particularly for students who experience marginalizing school contexts. our study draws from these varying frameworks on agency, including the ubiquity of agency within the assemblages of schooling, to analyse what chosen artefacts of childhood might mean to three undergraduate students and their future work as primary school teachers. method across four major urban cities in canada and the united states, including toronto, ottawa, montreal, and new york city, this project investigates how undergraduate students entering professions and fields of study devoted to working with children draw on personal and popular discourses to think about the meaning of their future roles in relation to children and concepts of childhood. to this end, we asked participants to bring a cultural artefact or object they believed represented contemporary views on childhood to discuss in a small focus group of approximately 3-5 participants. our initial focus groups, julie c. garlen et al. 127 conducted in-person before the pandemic, yielded 17 participants across the four sites and a range of artefacts. the following year, we conducted a second round of virtual focus groups with 15 new participants. in planning for the virtual focus groups, we took into account several ethical considerations, which were presented to and approved by the research ethics board of each institution. to protect participants’ anonymity and eliminate any potential for coercion, we utilized the assistance of student research assistants to recruit participants and conduct the focus groups. participants were not recruited from courses that we were teaching or those of colleagues where there might be crossover with our current students. in order to protect participants’ anonymity, participants provided the research assistants with pseudoyms, and only the research assistants had access to the participants’ personal information. the audio transcripts of the virtual focus groups were rendered by zoom and then edited for accuracy and anonymized by the research assistants before being shared with the faculty researchers. photos of the artefacts were also provided by the research assistants. the artefacts from the second set of focus groups, conducted during the covid-19 pandemic, were not dissimilar from the artefacts of the first set of focus groups, which took place before the pandemic. across both focus groups, the main artefacts of choice were stuffed animals, cherished books, tools and toys, expressions of creativity, and symbols of achievement. for the purposes of this paper, we decidedly focused on three participants who brought to the group artefacts that showed direct connections to school. to note, we were quite surprised that of all participants, only three chose to represent schooling experiences even as school is considered a formative part of a child’s growth and development. although some participants chose items that could be perceived as having some relationship to school, only the three items featured here were discussed in relation to experiences that took place in school. for example, participants who brought books spoke of them in relation to family time or reading with loved ones at home, while one participant’s presentation of a graduation cap and gown focused on the societal pressure placed on children to be future-minded and achieve success. since the essence of these artefacts did not reflect experiences in school, we did not include them in the final analysis. before the focus group, participants completed a short online questionnaire that asked for demographic information, an uploaded photograph of their chosen artefact, and written responses to two questions: 1) why did you select this item? 2) how does your artefact represent childhood and what meanings of childhood (in terms of age, gender, ability, innocence, interest, futurity etc.) does it convey and assume? focus group sessions, conducted by research assistants at each site, ran approximately 60-90 minutes and were held on zoom during the early months of 2021. at the end of the session, participants were also asked to provide a brief written response in which they reflected further on the meaning of the artefact. all submitted materials, including transcripts of the focus group sessions, were read and all researchers, including assistants, met on multiple occasions to analyse the data. in keeping with our previously established approach to data analysis (chang-kredl et al., 2021; farley et al., 2020, 2022; garlen et al., 2020; sonu et al., 2020), we conducted a thematic content analysis to discover what insights were surfaced through the focus groups. we first utilised nvivo to conduct a word frequency analysis in order to generate initial codes and familiarize ourselves with the data. then, working in teams with the research assistants, we manually coded the transcripts with an inductive approach that sought to map out the content of the discussions and identify relevant themes for further analysis. for this particular study, the authors returned to the discussions of these three artefacts for further deductive analysis that sought to identify what, if any, insights the artefacts held for children’s relations to schooling. following a close thematic analysis of each participants’ words, we also considered the nature and form of each artefact as it related to larger social and political contexts. twelve of the 15 participants were between 18-24 years of age and three participants fell above this range: 27, 31, and 44 years. they ranged in the ways they described themselves by race and sexuality, with all the participants identifying themselves as female, except for one non-binary and one male individual. the three participants who are the subject of this paper are denise, sky, and liza, all residing in canada agency as assemblage: using childhood artefacts and memories… 128 and of asian descent. sky is an 18-year-old, pansexual non-binary filipina who attends university in ottawa; denise is a 24-year-old vietnamese female who attends university in toronto; and liza is a 21year-old bisexual asian female who also attends university in toronto. all three of them also preferred to teach children who were older than the typical age indicated by most undergraduate students enrolled in such programs. while childhood studies and teacher education programs for elementary school teachers usually draw university, students interested in working with young children, these three participants were outliers in their intention to work with young people between the ages of 10-18. findings: agentic artefacts while acts of resistance in school tend to be thought of through episodes of acting out or forthright protest, the three artefacts we present in this paper demonstrate how children draw from their own creative capacities to re-claim their own sense of agency amid the disciplinary measures and normative pressures of institutional life. returning to gallagher (2019), these artefacts represent times when “the inventive tendency of agency can be seen on the rarer occasions when children and young people repurpose assemblages in unforeseen ways” (p. 195). each of these artefacts stands out as an example of how participants used objects that were intended to manage them along the values of schooling and usurped their function to create “unexpected eruptions that disturb the status quo” (p. 195). such transformations of use may not carry the force to change entire structures of schooling, and they may indeed feel quotidian or “small” compared to the penetrating discourses of schooling and its function to govern society (bamberg, 2006, p. 2). however, each artefact captures the significant ways that children invent new uses of school things to express when their own needs and desires come into contradiction with authoritative demands, illustrating the converging and conflicting relations at work within the school assemblage. the tensions between the child’s agency to create and the institutional aims of these artefacts urge us to attend to the meanings children make through their intimate and personal uses of school objects and artefacts, meanings that often exceed school expectations. indeed, this agentic work should also extend into adulthood, insofar as adults reflecting on early life experiences may recall the many and complex ways they acted on the world as children, which in turn, may also be applied to their conceptualizations of childhood today. the progress report drawing the artefact that denise brought to the focus group was her kindergarten progress report (figure 1) that featured a drawing she produced and the pre-printed words “watch me grow . . .” in capital letters at the top. at the bottom of the page, typed instructions, seeming to address the adult evaluator, read: “child’s comments on learning at school (pictures and/or words).” denise’s drawing can be read as a commentary on her experiences of learning at school, or a response to the request for such commentary. denise explained that she chose the picture because she was looking for a drawing that was similar to what she used to draw as a child. since the mid-twentieth century, drawings have been used in schools and clinical settings to evaluate intellectual development and diagnose mental disorders (goodenough, 1926; harris, 1963). in the late twentieth-century, when identifying individual factors associated with low achievement became increasingly common, drawings were used to determine which kindergartners should be considered “at risk” (goldman & gilbert, 1992). as neoliberal educational reform took hold in the 1980s, children, as learners, were increasingly classified by the “ability to inscribe oneself and selfgovern through the language of levels and assessments” (sonu & benson, 2016, p. 242). beginning in preschool, students are continually evaluated to determine their academic progress in relation to external benchmarks, and drawing prompts are frequently used as a method to assess motor and cognitive skills in children whose reading and writing skills are still developing. outdoors as an agentic site denise’s drawing depicts an outdoor scene featuring a stick figure person, an animal, flowers, and some unidentifiable objects of various shapes and sizes bordered by green grass at the bottom of the page. above the figures are three squares divided into four parts to represent windows, likely indicating the julie c. garlen et al. 129 school in the background of the scene. in the open section just below the picture the words “i like to by” fill up most of the available space, with the words “pants” appearing above in the picture itself, suggesting that denise might have run out of space for the sentence she wanted to write. reflecting back on the drawing as an adult, denise did not recall her exact intention, but shared her assumption that it was meant to be a picture of herself and an animal. denise explained that nature-oriented scenes were something she remembered well from her childhood, particularly as she grew older: ...when i got to grade four and five, i would draw like faces on . . . flowers and like the grass and like the sun and stuff, so . . . i was really fascinated with nature. denise also described the significance of her artefact both in relation to its school function as well as the insight it could offer into her perspective as a child. as she explained, the drawing was ..personal because it . . . is like a grade report so it . . . tells me like the skills that i had at the time when i was younger . . . and . . . the way i was evaluated and how i like saw the world at that time of my life. at that particular time of her life, denise explained, she rarely had access to drawing supplies at home, a fact that highlights the specialness of her artefact as something that grew out of and represented a relationship to the school environment. taking the drawing as a reflection of how denise “saw the world,” we might consider her response to her teachers’ prompt as an illustration of her relationship to school. her positionality in relationship to the yellow windows suggests that what matters to denise about learning exists, ironically, outside of the classroom. as denise explained, her drawing shows “how secure and safe i felt as a child, of this sense of wonderment . . . also like exploration of nature.” also notable is that while denise located the matter of learning outside of the classroom, she also acknowledged her use of school supplies to which she “rarely” had access. denise speculated further with contemplative hesitancy, suggested by her halting speech: ...children that, um, like have, um, like um, are growing up in low socioeconomic um standards or backgrounds, they don’t really have access to these, um, tools. this observation, that children who may not have access to supplies use school tools to enact agencies that exceed the aims of the institution, repeats in all three participant narratives under discussion in our paper. denise underscored precisely this point in noting the discord of her drawing, specifically, that it depicts “a lot of things that doesn't [sic] really make sense” but that are “put together.” figure 1. progress report drawing rewriting relations to schooling instead of functioning as a medium through which denise’s academic skills can be directly measured, the progress report, as she describes it, is transformed into a refusal of school as the central concern of her child life and a celebration of her “vibrancy,” which flourished in spite of the demands school agency as assemblage: using childhood artefacts and memories… 130 placed upon her. as denise explained, for her, the picture reflected children’s need for play, which makes recess “a really valuable thing.” she also noted how her choice of bright colours speaks to “a sense of imagination that you still have and a sense of playfulness” as a child. the “innocence,” “youth,” and “happiness” that denise saw reflected in the picture seem to defy the assessment tool’s narrow evaluative purpose. denise explained further that she saw in the picture a message that children “need . . . time to play . . . they need time to . . . explore the world. they have like a very . . . huge imagination.” reflecting on what denise’s artefact might tell us about children’s agency in and relations to school, we might consider it as an example of routine agencies, which, according to gallagher (2019) “happen wherever bodies or forces act in ways that develop or reproduce conventions, comply with rules or follow patterns” (p. 195). in responding to the prompt as a kindergartner, denise was complying with the demands of the assignment, at least to the extent that she was asked to draw a picture and she did so. however, as gallagher (2019) further explains, “routine agency is not slavishly deterministic; even with ingrained patterns of action, for something to constitute agency, there needs to be room for a degree of indeterminacy and improvisation” (p. 195). denise’s response, which seems to suggest that what was most important to her about learning at school happened outside of school, reflects a certain measure of playfulness that works within established patterns of response to circumvent, but not fully contravene, the force of evaluation. her drawing reminds us, as gallagher (2019) notes, that “children find ways to exercise something that looks like agency despite or against the dominant orientations of the power relations within an assemblage” (p. 193). we would add that denise’s reflections tell us something about how adults reflecting on childhood artefacts may hone these early resistances to regard the critical capacities of children they will one day teach. the stolen notebooks for sky, a small, black sewn composition notebook (see figure 2) became an object that surfaced for her the tension between their embodiment of gender and sexuality and learning to write in school. when asked to explain the significance of the notebook, sky recalled the familiar school routine of writing in similar notebooks for at least fifteen minutes a day. the prompts were determined by the teacher, who, in sky’s words “was always like, go and write about so and so,” and sky remembers being expected to write even if they weren’t “very qualified to write about some of the topics.” sky recalls that at some point in this routine of daily writing, they eventually started taking notebooks home. “this sounds bad,” they said apologetically, “but i would like . . . steal some of these notebooks and then i would just bring them home.” at home, freed from the directives of the teacher, sky filled the notebook with pictures, notes on gender and sexuality, as well as short stories and poems. figure 2. black notebook julie c. garlen et al. 131 writing as routine agency as an artefact of childhood, the composition notebook reflects the importance that is placed on writing as a primary focus of early education. it also reflects the influence of neoliberal values on writing instruction. as shari stenberg (2015) observes, when the purpose of education is understood as preparation for economic futures, writing is viewed as “a masterable, commodified skill whose purpose is deployment in the workplace,” and therefore other purposes of writing such as personal inquiry or the exploration of new and different perspectives are diminished (salvio & boldt, 2010). as stenberg (2015) notes, “since neoliberal logics value a streamlined approach to predetermined outcomes or competencies, there is little tolerance for learning processes that entail engagement of (an often recursive) process, collaboration and dialogue among learners, and reflection” (p. 8). this tendency is reflected in the way that sky’s teacher asked students to write to a specific prompt, even if it wasn’t something they were interested in or informed about. although the students were not allowed to choose what they wrote about, we can assume that they could choose how they responded to the given prompt, as journal entries are not typically assessed for accuracy in primary classrooms. by gallagher’s (2019) definition, the act of responding to the prompt could also be considered routine agency, which he describes as acts that function through “patterns of response” that “comply with rules or follow patterns” (p. 195). stealing as inventive agency in describing this daily writing routine, sky explains that: not everyone in my class loved the writing thing, either, because . . . it was mandated, like you had to write for 15 minutes. we weren't going to do anything else unless you wrote a certain amount of words in 15 minutes. as they elaborate, such rigid schooling directives were not conducive to self-discovery or personal disclosure: i didn't really talk about my . . . ideas very much in class mainly because i couldn't . . . articulate it. however, sky circumvents this rigidity by taking notebooks home in order to enact a wholly different purpose: it was really only until i started stealing notebooks and just like writing on my own like on my own time that it actually like meant something to me. so, i also think that like, it shows how like maybe . . . there's many ways to kind of like utilize things that are supposed to be like standardized or like normal and make our own meaning out of it. for sky, the stolen notebooks became a space where they were able to explore themselves in a way that felt out of place at school or with other adults. specifically, sky, who identifies as non-binary and pansexual, shared that even though sexuality and gender identity were “way out of [their] realm as a kid,” they remember writing about liking girls and acknowledging that it seemed taboo at the time. ultimately, sky’s reappropriation of the notebooks ignites their love for both girls and writing, and becomes “a way to write to this invisible person that i guess i needed in my life.” reminiscent of silin’s (2006) creative use of school texts to ‘unlock’ desire, sky’s repurposing of the notebook from a tool for writing instruction to a private medium of self-discovery and exploration can be understood as an act of inventive agency. as gallagher (2019) explains, “bodies through which this kind of inventive agency flows are transformed by it, and in turn transform the assemblages in which the body participates” (p. 195). sky’s act of stealing the notebook from the school setting and repurposing it redirects the restrictive hegemonic forces of schooling to produce a different relationship, with the object, with the act of writing, and, retrospectively, with their perception of childhood itself. in taking the notebook, sky may also have been attempting to secure a much-deserved corner of the world for themselves. when asked in the focus group by another participant whether the stealing of the notebooks might be seen as “the opposite of innocence,” sky responded by saying, “yeah, i sucked as a kid. [laughs]. it was not cool. [shakes head and laughs again].” sky’s statement suggests that there is something about the act of stealing the notebook that was not “kid-like” when viewed through a normative lens. when the participant pressed sky about whether the stealing was an intentional act of rebellion, sky said that although it was “one of the more riskier agency as assemblage: using childhood artefacts and memories… 132 things” they did as a kid, they saw the stolen notebook as an opportunity “for something good.” with this interpretation, sky resists a normative construct of the “good” school child, embracing their transgressive act as an agentic move to create a viable existence for themselves in a space where they were otherwise silent. if identity is, as judith butler (1988) tells us, “instituted through a stylized repetition of acts” repeated so commonly that they come to be seen as natural (p. 519), then we might say that sky used the notebook to engage in “a different sort of repeating” (butler, 1988, p. 520) that broke away from the school routine and allowed them to enact different possibilities for themselves beyond the constrictive measures of school routines and expectations. the pencil sharpener when liza was in the fourth grade, she snuck out of her tutoring centre and made her way to the store. she drew out her allowance and bought herself a pencil sharpener (figure 3), an object she would hold well into her adulthood. when asked to bring an artefact to the focus group, liza was worried that her artefact, in comparison with the others, wouldn’t be “professional enough,” but she chose it anyway because it symbolized for her “innocence, joy, and hope” during the “not so nice time” of school. having been bullied “a lot,” liza recalls the “mental health issues” she had experienced during childhood and how she “always got really anxious and just hated school in general.” on occasions when she would “not feel welcome” or “very scared,” she would pull out her notebook, take her pencil sharpener and jot down her thoughts and ideas. “i dream of, like, the future, um, that would be better,” liza shares. figure 3: pencil sharpener liza grew up in hong kong and moved to canada at the age of 17. during the focus group, she described this transition as a time when she realized that “things can have different meanings.” in hong kong where she remembers school as a “bank” with too many students, teachers were just “stuffing them with the information without caring about mental health.” she shares her observation that children in hong kong, unless they were “on the edge of being suicidal,” were rarely approached by adults about emotional matters. whereas in western countries, liza continues, children speak openly about emotions so that when there is an issue, “you’re both doing it together.” a deep contrast to her representation of hong kong, she finds that in canada, “there is a lot of talk about inclusion...and promoting positivity.” this stark distinction seemed to serve a reflexive purpose for liza and she shares her surprise in learning that even canadian universities offered mental health support for their students. “it was all new to me,” she exclaims, having learned firsthand how the very chance of where one grows up can make a world of difference in how “you see the world ... like how you see yourself.” agentic self-protection like sky’s notebook, the pencil sharpener signals a place of calm amid the turmoil of school. while sky found refuge from the hegemonic structures and dominant discourses that constricted their writing and identity, liza came to writing as a way of protecting herself from the emotional despair left by bullying. in liza’s case, she anchors her experience of school violence in the cultural mores of hong kong where she julie c. garlen et al. 133 grew up as an only child with two working parents who, as she described, were rarely home. even as she did not have direct experience growing up in the canadian context, she presumed that the western approach to child-rearing would have supported her in her time of emotional need. indeed, we see her taking up the discourse of care as central to the work of teaching, albeit through the cultural split of her immigrant experiences. on the one hand, she seems to reinforce well-being as a result of care in the west and on the other hand, characterizes the support she needed as a child as unavailable to those in the east. about her own role as a teacher, she remarks “how important it is for a child to be comfortable in the school area...to feel welcome in the environment that they're in and feel included.” liza’s act of splitting seems to create certainty from difficulty, offering her an anchor to work through the losses of her childhood and perhaps also to support her efforts in learning to teach within a “new" school system of the west. however, the bullying that liza endures does not only dwell in the personal. rather, acts of school violence emerge from within broader institutional forces and pressures that continually sustain the possibility of and for such injury. built into the culture of schooling, perhaps across the globe, such violence is connected to a host of schooling practices that encourage competitive behaviors among children, using achievement and compliance as predictive markers of success that students must fight to obtain or setting up conditions where some children enact a need to dominate and make themselves recognized over others. agentic resistance the assemblage of forces that pressed down on liza involved bullying by other students, but also included judgements made by her childhood teachers, the absence of her laboring parents, and the disheartening consequences of using tests to measure a child’s developmental progress and worth. as she explains: i did not do well in school so my teachers did not like me. um, some of the teachers actually joined the students to bully me as a kid, so i did not have like a very good experience, um, from school, um. and i guess that's like, because i didn't have good teachers, um, my teachers did not believe in me when i was a kid... um, so growing up, i like when i was doing tests and stuff, i did not have any motivation of like studying, um, because i like never believe in myself, i don't think i would succeed, um, because no one ever believe in me, not even my parents. even as a young adult who is now studying to be a teacher herself, this childhood memory haunts liza during times when she undergoes a test or is required to turn in a class assignment. “it's the first thing that comes to my mind is mostly, the [teacher] is just being good to me. it's not that i'm that good.” each time she receives a good grade, she is undermined by an inner voice that questions her deservedness. perhaps the pencil sharpener, a symbolic representation of liza’s need for safety, can be understood as part of a larger context in which bullying is sustained through the demoralizing effects of a hidden curriculum that privileges relations of competitiveness and judgment, rather than care and compassion. the pencil sharpener, then, together with sky’s notebook and denise’s drawing, all illustrate ways that children are creating spaces through which they push against the instrumentality of school, and albeit seemingly small, can serve as powerful reminders of how children sharpen their agentic revolt against the aims and effects of schooling they find too debilitating to bear. both sky and liza’s narratives demonstrate how even in the most authoritative or disavowing of circumstances, children are exercising their own agencies. if we consider the imposing quality of education’s evaluative imperative, we can also see a similar, albeit more routine, form of agency represented in denise’s drawing. all three artefacts show how such agentic moves can be existential to the formation of an identity that is continually being tested within the institutional space of schooling. the prescribed logic of outcomes is now reconfigured as a space of expression and self-identification in denise’s drawing and sky’s notebook, and the pencil sharpener becomes the tool through which liza tries to defend herself from the targeted abuse of her peers. these artefacts provide the ontological material from which acts of agency and self-formation unfold within constrictive schooling contexts. they set into motion the invention of hidden, even secretive and stealthy corners of expression created for and by children themselves. agency as assemblage: using childhood artefacts and memories… 134 conclusion and discussion many of us may recall from our own childhoods the school objects from above: the official script of school progress reports, the scribbled-on pages of composition notebooks, the grinding of the pencil sharpener rising above the classroom din. none of these objects appear in memories as detached or solitary. they conjure up entire social scenes that open up a world of possibility; uses that exceed the expectations of their intended purpose in school, as illustrated by the artefacts presented here. the progress report, typically used to record academic levels and grades, ironically becomes a window to explore the joys of being on the other side of the classroom wall. the composition book, stolen from the school site, hides away the intimate feelings and secrets otherwise discouraged or silenced in school. the pencil sharpener inspires dreams of the future, a life away from the despair of bullying. in all cases, ordinary school objects are transformed into agentic critiques of schooling itself. with these critiques in mind, we suggest that the stories these artefacts tell present an opportunity to interrogate the binary construction of agency as something that either is or is not possessed or realized, moving individualizing conceptions toward more contextualized perspectives that acknowledge the range of ways that children are shaping relations among themselves and within school spaces. in teacher education, directing our focus toward what agency does and how it operates within the assemblage of bodies, objects, and forces could create opportunities for teachers to better understand how agency becomes initiated within classroom settings as a complex relation, and not simply an individual achievement. karen guo and carmen dalli (2016) suggest, too, that children enact agency through their “clear attempts to bond with others and establish a sense of belonging” (p. 264). the argument for agency as relational also holds for our analysis of childhood artefacts. each of the meanings the participants attached to these school-related artefacts spoke to their need to develop and express a sense and understanding of themselves within the school and sociocultural context. for all three participants, that need was made urgent by a sense of rejection and containment of who they were as children. taken together, the artefacts remind us that children take active part in negotiating their relations within the school assemblage of rules, expectations, materials, teachers, parents, and peers. they urge us, as teachers and teacher educators, to acknowledge that, as gallagher (2019) notes, “children’s decisive actions always happen in relation with other kinds of beings and objects,” and children are “key players in shaping these relations – never the only players, but certainly players worth taking seriously” (p. 193). the demand to “take children seriously” can, however, lead to an oversimplified conceptualization of agency as a property of the individual. the three participants described above tell us otherwise: that agency is entangled, fluid, and transgressive. while efforts to ‘manage’ children in classrooms may inadvertently support their unquestioned compliance to the rules of schooling, an overly determined critique of how children’s capacities are diminished by educational demands may not be the most generative approach for teachers or students. rather, if we appreciate children’s vulnerabilities to outside demands as an opening for further understanding, rather than a closing – if we treat them as an invitation into the unresolvable tensions that circulate in school spaces – then we may be able to see that agency emerges not in spite of but through contexts that otherwise aim to manage and even control their very actions (gallagher, 2019). drawing on the work of butler et al. (2016), gallagher (2019) suggests that such a view of agency enables us to consider vulnerability not as something to be overcome, but as “a radical openness to being affected by events, which is fundamental to the ability of life to feel, grow, change and act” (p. 193). perhaps it is in this tension between school and student that a focus on agency can instruct, not at the extreme ends of freedom and control, but rather as contextualized experiences from which we can further support human dignity and growth. for us, a key question raised in and through the above narratives is how a critical focus on teachers’ childhood memories might support a theory of children as agentic subjects with the capacity to resist the demands of school, without also leaving them to their own devices. that is, while agency can emerge in and through difficulty, and while the participants of our study recall their own efforts to that end, we are left with a question of how memory can remind teachers of the need for a supportive context in which to julie c. garlen et al. 135 try out disruptive or experimental ideas and actions. as outi ylitapio-mäntylä (2013) found, memory work offers a way to “contemplate constructions of caring and power and develop critical ways of thinking about truth and knowledge” (p. 274). zsuzsa millei et al. (2019) assert that memories offer insight into how children both reproduce and resist normative roles and produce “their subjectivities with, within, and against dominant narratives” (p. 10). for gannon (2015) collective memory work can help us identify the “historically and culturally specific processes whereby one is subjected to particular discursive regimes and regulatory frameworks and through which individuals and their social contexts are constructed” (p. 62; see also davies & gannon, 2006). as the artefacts remind us, discursive regimes that mark children as innocent and lacking in agency do not reflect the participants’ remembered experiences of childhood. instead, they urge aspiring teachers to expand and reconfigure the lenses through which they view the children with whom they work, including of course, the social, political, and material particulars of their own classroom settings. as we have written elsewhere (farley et al., 2022; sonu et al., 2020), memory can serve as an important vantage point from which to examine not only one’s history, but how our own recollections of being children reflect or disrupt dominant cultural beliefs about what childhood should be. we hope that engaging in the kind of active and critical memory work featured in this study can encourage beginning and experienced teachers to take notice of and challenge the ways that they might be neglecting, resisting, or inviting a range of children’s agencies. as these moments of resistance and invitation frequently occur at the microlevel, such deliberate reflections may require us to engage in the “repurposing of classroom moments” (stenberg, 2015, p. 11) as opportunities to recognize and foster spaces of contravention. drawing on louise archer’s (2008) insights on neoliberalism and identity, such an approach embraces the notion that children and teachers are not simply “inevitable neoliberal subjects” but agentic actors with the capacity to “carve out new spaces for being otherwise” (p. 272). the inventive meanings and critiques that emerge from these artefacts of schooled childhoods remind us, as gramsci (1971) writes, that hegemony is never absolute. while we can never really know the experiences of those we care for, and therefore cannot strive for certainty, complete protection, or total control, rethinking the converging and conflicting relations at work within the school assemblage opens possibilities for working both within and against current structures, and in effect, invites the imagination of practices that can subvert the repetitive and normalizing processes of school in order to create space for the unforeseen and the agentic to emerge. declarations authors’ declarations acknowledgements: the authors would like to acknowledge the research assistants who facilitated focus groups and assisted with data collection: amanda dunbar, emilie hill-smith, christina jane, lauren jervis, dragana mirkovic, katherine pauls, van ahn tran, ellie vanberkel, farah virani-murji, and cindy wiltshire. competing interests: the authors declare that they have no competing interests. funding: this research was funded by an insight development grant from the social sciences and humanities research council of canada (sshrc). sshrc had no role in the design of the study and collection, analysis, and interpretation of data or in writing the manuscript. ethics approval and consent to participate: this research was approved by the board of ethics at each researcher’s university. publisher’s declarations editorial acknowledgement: the editorial process of this article was carried out by dr. carmen huser. publisher’s note: journal of childhood, education & society remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliation. references ahmed, s. 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volume 2, issue 2, 2021, 178-193 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.202122108 research article ©2021 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. women and children's well-being in indian nuclear families during the covid-19 pandemic richa rana1, ridhi sood2, sonali bhardwaj3 abstract: the culture of living in a nuclear family setting, a norm of modernisation, has been badly shaken by the outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic. this hit has created many pauses and changes in women's lives who live in nuclear families with the responsibility of taking care of very young children. despite the various discussions related to women during the pandemic, there seem to be negligible efforts to understand the lived reality of nuclear family women having the responsibility of child care. the idea of living in this type of family is based on the thinking that it provides ample opportunity to develop individual talents and lead an unrestricted life. however, it can have a very adverse effect on women and children during the pandemic due to the closure of essential support systems such as child care centres and schools. thus, this situation has a negative effect on the lives of women, which in turn, affects their young children's lives too. this study explored the lived experiences of a purposively selected sample of six women regarding challenges to deal with an office job, domestic work, and child care during the ongoing pandemic. data were generated by conducting the telephonic semi-structured interview and thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. results indicate the curtailment of freedom and choices, adverse impact on the mental and physical health of women and their children. article history received: 31 may 2021 accepted: 12 july 2021 keywords childcare; covid-19; education; mental health; women introduction the covid-19 pandemic has induced an unprecedented, uncertain, and frightening condition worldwide, including in india. here, from march 2020 onwards, a newly chaotic world has developed where lockdown, unlock down, mounting infection cases, and human casualties all affect life and survival. the lancet (2021) pointed out that till 4th may 2021, more than 20.2 million contagious cases have been reported here. moreover, the slow process of vaccination and no provision of vaccination for children has created an acute panic and a grim reality for everyone. this crisis has put india in a very vulnerable situation, especially for women and children. the recent united nations development programme ([undp]2020) “covid-19 global gender response tracker” indicates unequal policy response to women’s economic security and unpaid caring at the global level. it may moderate progress on gender equality earned in recent decades, and that work-related gender inequality may be heightened. further, it claims that many countries are not successfully able to shield women from the negative social and economic repercussions of the current pandemic. during all these lockdown phases, women and young children have emerged as a salient vulnerable group. a united nations ([un]2020) report "policy brief: the impact of covid-19 on women"asserts that women have been carrying a heightened burden of caring in this pandemic due to the closure of early childhood care and education centres. correspondingly, children’s development and care are also on the verge of a big new crisis that may be responsible for multifarious types of changes and challenges in young _____________ 1 jawaharlal nehru university, zakir husain centre for educational studies, new delhi, india, e-mail: richarana.121985@gmail.com, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-64779381 2 jamia millia islamia university, department of educational studies, new delhi, india, e-mail: ridhisood22@gmail.com, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8503-5506 3 jawaharlal nehru university, zakir husain centre for educational studies, new delhi, india, e-mail: sonalibhardwaj78@gmail.com, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-83197579 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202122108 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:richarana.121985@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6477-9381 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6477-9381 mailto:ridhisood22@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8503-5506 mailto:sonalibhardwaj78@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8319-7579 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8319-7579 richa rana, ridhi sood & sonali bhardwaj 179 ones’ lives. these changes are atypical, create helplessness and vulnerability and jeopardise the overall well-being of individuals. a recent report of the united nations (gromada, richardson, & rees, 2020) also call this pandemic a global childcare crisis, where women are very less likely to receive social protection due to the closure of early childhood care centres (international labour organization [ilo], 2020) and complex gender norms. all these circumstances have also been presenting additional tasks and challenges in families, especially to women. in the present scenario, various forms of families exist in indian society, where the nuclear family type is the most prominent one. living in a nuclear family has become a norm of modern indian society (singh, 2003; verma, 1995 cited in suppal & roopnarine, 1999). with no consensus over the definition of multilayered nature, it has emerged as a salient type of family in urban india (chakravorty, goli, & james, 2021; singh, 2003); such as single-headed family, stem nuclear family, nuclear family in urban areas having a joint family as a fountainhead, represent its varied silhouette (singh, 2003; uberoi, 2014 cited in chakravorty et al., 2021). the nuclear family exists in between traditionalism and modernity and highly embraces the egalitarian principle. in this type of family, individualism and personal interest diminish traditional roles and disintegrate kinship and relationship. increased healthcare opportunities, extended control over mobility, and power resulting in safer matrimonial homes for women are some features that popularise the nuclear family concept (allendorf, 2013; chakravortyet al., 2021; narayan & bhardwaj, 2005). however, there is another side of the reality, where women are entirely dependent on outside agencies to pursue their familial and professional goals. these women also comprise the most vulnerable group and are supposed to be filled with fluid personality characteristics every time (scharff, 2015), even during the pandemic. although they differ on the basis of their socio-economic status, work, and family structure; but, childcare is unanimously viewed as their sole responsibility. therefore, women belonging to a nuclear family with young children in india can be understood as a highly vulnerable group. they have less support and totally depend on the child care centres and maidservants to take care of children, household works, and continue their profession (tuli & chaudhary, 2010). as these facilities are no longer available due to lockdown, women’s and their children’s well-being are more prone to get adversely affected by the current pandemic. thus, a unique and urgent call is emerging to understand the impact of the pandemic-induced lockdown on women's and their young children's overall well-being. this type of exploration may help to recognise how women and children are best assisted by identifying their reciprocal nature of changes and challenges. therefore, based on the mentioned understanding, we can operationalise that a nuclear family is the convergence of a married woman with her spouse and unmarried children, both dual earners, relied on outside agencies for childcare, external services, and support systems. a scarcity of research can be noticed (for example tiwari et al., 2020) in understanding nuclear family women’s experiences having child care responsibility during the pandemic. given the situation of studies in this area, the present study attempted to explore nuclear family women's experiences related to childcare. method the present study explored women's lived experiences with child care during this pandemic. it adopted a qualitative research design. the data were collected by using the semi-structured interviews personally by each of the three researchers. this type of interview facilitates the researcher to know about a specific aspect of participants’ life or experiences (willig, 2013). before conducting the interview, each participant was requested to read and fill in the consent form, and permission for recording the interview was obtained from the participant before starting the data collection process. allthe interviews were conducted using mobile phones with a recording facility. this study is based on the lived experiences of six purposively chosen women from nuclear families (age range 30-37 years) having at least one child in the early childhood stage. these male-headed nuclear families consisted of married women, husbands, and unmarried children. out of six families, four families consisted of four members, and two were having five and three members, respectively. bothpartners employed and depended on outside agencies, friends, or relatives for childcare and other household women and children’s well-being in indian nuclear families… 180 support. out of six participants, five were from the middle social class and one from the lower social class. for ascertaining the social class of the participants, subjective indicators were used. the subjective view about social class is the perception of a person's position compared with other members of the society (anderson, kraus, galinsky, & keltner, 2012). three participants lived in their own homes, two were residing in rented accommodation, and one was availing a government service apartment facility. these participants worked in different job sectors before the pandemic, but two out of six had to decide to quit the job due to exacerbated child caring responsibility and closure of early childhood facilities. the one participant from a lower social class, including her husband, was hit hard by job loss during the pandemic. all these women belonged to three cities of india, namely delhi, bengaluru, and lucknow; delhi is the country's capital, and the other two cities are the state's capital. these cities were severely affected by the coronavirus in the second wave in april-may 2021. the questions for the semi-structured interviews were formulated after carefully reviewing the relevant literature. the questions were sequenced to get information about the nature of responsibilities, activities, and various management strategies these women undertook during the pandemic. as countrywide lockdown and people were practising physical distancing, telephonic interviews were considered suitable for collecting data. the researchers asked the question in hindi and english as per the participants' needs. the participation of all women was voluntary, and they were given a complete choice not to answer any specific question or all the questions. socially desirable responses were carefully observed, and wherever there was evidence of this kind of response, the researchers tried to get the responses based on real experiences by constructing the questions differently. identity-sensitive words and leading questions were avoided. the pseudonyms were used to maintain the confidentiality of participants (see table 1 for background information of participants). table 1.demographic characteristics of women, their children and spouse no. women children spouse pseudo name age education socioeconomic class state working status occupation number of children age class school type working status of spouse 1. nia 36 postgraduation middle karnataka unemployed housewife 1 7 2nd hfs employed 2. sana 37 phd middle uttar pradesh unemployed housewife 2 2, 8 2nd hfs employed 3. joya 35 phd middle delhi employed teaching 2 5.5, 2 1st hfs employed 4. priya 37 postgraduation middle delhi employed teaching 2 3,13 pp,7 hfs employed 5. rita 30 primary lower delhi unemployed housewife 2 7,9 2nd, 4th lfs unemployed 6. soni 35 postgraduation middle delhi employed administration 2 3,13 pp,7 hfs employed (hfs*: high fee school, lfs*: low fee school, pp*: pre-primary) data analytic strategy the thematic analysis method was suitable to analyse the responses of this study as it "included questions about people's conceptualisations or ways of thinking about particular social phenomena" (willig, 2013, p.183). it is a method of analysis that is used to understand and organise qualitative data. it has also been used to understand people's perception of other infectious diseases like aids and the ebola virus (joffe, 1999 and joffe & haarhoff, 2002, cited in willig, 2013, p.183). so, it was also well suited to explore women's experiences about child care during the covid-19 pandemic. in its six-step process, researchers identify meaningful patterns and themes by consciously interpreting, discussing codes, and keeping the central research question in mind (braun & clarke,2006; clarke & braun, 2013; willig, 2013). therefore, we applied all six steps suggested by virginia braun and victoria clarke (2006, 2013). we transcribed recorded interviews and subsequently translated them into english. all researchers read each interview separately to understand women's experiences and backgrounds fully. then initial codes were generated, reviewed, refined by mutual discussion. afterwards, we generated broader themes and richa rana, ridhi sood & sonali bhardwaj 181 subthemes and found patterns in all themes. over a series of online meetings, we reached a consensus about three generated themes with underlying sub-themes finally chosen to discuss the findings. results and discussion in this section, we present the themes identified by us and the discussion of the same, keeping in mind the objectives of this study. multi-layered disruptions and changes in behaviour the covid-19 crisis has caused multi-layered disruptions and behavioural changes in women’s and children's lives. on the one hand, numerous challenges have popped up in front of all the parents, especially women, due to the closure of the early child care centres, work from home, loss of jobs, and online classes. on the other hand, mounting infection cases and deaths in india, the spread of misinformation, poor management in hospitals, scarcity of medical resources, slow vaccination process, and news of the third wave of infection where children may be more susceptible to an infection created chaos for everyone, particularly to the women having young children. though challenges of women about childcare are argued in various researches (del boca, oggero, profeta, & rossi 2020; guy & arthur, 2020; weaver & swank 2021), there is a dearth of research highlighting the challenges of nuclear family women having young children and facing the pandemic. based on exploring these women's experiences, the study result shows that both women and children were intolerably entrapped in covid-19 induced labyrinths. the situation becomes more complicated in the indian urban nuclear family context, where child care is a complete responsibility of mothers, paid or unpaid, and fathers are generally late entrants in early care (das & zumbyte, 2017). the findings show that they have been facing manifold disruptions and changes in their behaviour. under the theme, participants reported three types of significant disruptions: changed notion of home, exacerbation in responsibility, and unemployment, which further changed the behaviour of women and children in the play and social interaction domain. these are discussed below: changed notion of home the covid-19 pandemic has blurred boundaries of home, work, family life, and child care. along with positive experiences, it has hard-pressed negative experiences. chung, seo, forbes, and birkett (2020) suggest that the working capacity of mothers who have children has dropped more than those without children. one reason for the decline in working capacity can lie in the changing concept of home due to the ongoing covid-19 pandemic. most women's responses show a similar pattern about the changed notion of home. in their views, due to lockdown and the threat of infection, a home has become a parallel site of office, school, and playground. in this case, they face problems ranging from the execution of multiple institutional activities at one place to the availability of limited space led to chaos, reduced discipline, and disruption of routine. they were having all activities like kitchen work, e-office of either one or both spouses, or having virtual classes of children simultaneously in the same location created hassle for the women. as priya, a teacher, having the responsibility of looking after two children and whose husband recently recovered from covid -19, states, "the classes of my children are conducted at the same time when i have to teach online.” the availability of limited physical space and electronic devices with internet connectivity is the major challenge.sana, a 37-year-old, migrated from delhi to lucknow due to covid, left her postdoc job due to the responsibility of taking care of two children without the support of her husband, who is on covid testing duty, states: “i wake up around five before the kids wake up because i have to make some arrangements, i have to clean home and sanitise groceries; i am afraid that kids may touch here and there, especially small ones. it is very tough for me to keep him away; they neither understand nor listen to my advice. so, i am very tired, very-very tired.” the majority of women show similar concerns about completing work within time in limited space, along with childcare and sanitisation of items purchased from the outside. although home retained its safe women and children’s well-being in indian nuclear families… 182 status during the pandemic for everyone, the pandemic has created many challenges for women who live in nuclear families and have young children. the above narration reflects how the absence of a boundary between home, work, school, and playground escalated the tensions between work and family roles and added responsibilities of the woman. when everyone, including the pet animal of the family, shares the same room, office duty, domestic works, and the responsibility of young children intrude on each other, causing disruption (olekalns & kennedy, 2020). it also clarifies that home is also changing its meaning to a considerable degree for women of nuclear families during the pandemic. the underlying properties of a home, as its size, structure, spaciousness, freedom, roles, responsibilities, silence and tranquillity, are responsible for making people comfortable during the pandemic (yalçın & düzen, 2021), are missing in the lives of the participant women. exacerbation in the women's responsibilities the covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated many fault lines for women with young children. during the lockdown period of more than one year, from increased pressure of childcare to absence of domestic support to increased attention andmultitasks, all have created a distrusted lifestyle for women, further painting a poor childcare picture for children. many research and recent reports (chauhan, 2020; guy & arthur, 2020) show that women usually share a load of childcare and domestic responsibilities. in india, societal norms of a good wife, mother, and motherhood exert pressure on women to keep their childcare responsibilities on the top. the women who cross these norms especially working mothers, are discriminated against and negatively evaluated for paying less attention to their offspring (boudet, petesch, & turk, 2013). furthermore, the pandemic has thrust more childcare burden on women's shoulders and other responsibilities with unexpected changes. the pandemic's exceptional and high risky nature has created a situation where mothers feel depleted and lacking in their childcare engagement resources. nia, a 36-year-old, left her job due to the responsibility of a child, states: "i think it was a great decision for me because, during this pandemic, you know my god! what burden increased like anything." considering quitting the office job as a great decision shows her conformity to existing gender norms, where patriarchy favours men and limits women's chances of returning to the job sector. the use of the word “burden” just at the beginning of the interview shows how much she carries the weight of extended responsibility on her head. it can be inferred that the pandemic has aggravated social structural oppression. and in a very shrewd way, it brings back patriarchy, where household and care work are only assigned to women and kept in the downgraded category. all other participants also talked about their extended roles and responsibilities. their narration shows how they have been trapped in a labyrinth of multiple responsibilities. the imposition of different roles at the same time caused their lives almost havoc. women show their depository of roles as becoming a mother, wife, domestic worker, carer, child's teacher, and employee. having young children creates more challenges for women, as sana shared how her two-year-old child starts rolling and moving up on the bed. along with that, children of early childhood age are less attentive, create difficulty in following safety measures, naughty and annoying, and need more energy consumption on the part of women. work during the night has also emerged as a new pattern for some of these women. it explicitly reflects that there is hardly any distinction between personal and professional lives as both are limited to the household, which means women have to take up their professional commitments and domestic duties concomitantly. it can have an adverse impact on women's progress and wellbeing. consequently, women have less time to invest effectively and strategize their career-related progress (chauhan, 2020). mainly, all women reported increased tiredness and sometimes inefficiency in tackling multiple tasks together, including childcare. exacerbating responsibility for a long time may take a toll on women's health where chances of less focus on tasks haveincreased and engagement in multitasks also drain cognitive resources, and reduce the productivity of human beings (american psychological association, 2006). the state of unemployment richa rana, ridhi sood & sonali bhardwaj 183 a un (2020) report titled "policy brief: the impact of covid-19 on women" suggests that women's lives can be affected differently and disproportionately on finances and productivity. it is crucial to admit that women have lagged in securing formal and high-paid jobs, receiving low wages, and having low social security even before the pandemic. but the covid-19 pandemic risks rolling back the already achieved low progress of women in labour participation and constraining their presence due to lack of childcare support and increasing care demands at home. at the same time, women belonging from the middle and lower sections of society are more prone to bear the risk of reduced income, job loss, low self-safety, and increased and unpaid child care burden, which can negatively impact their overall well-being and also affect children's development. the findings of the current study affirm the above statement. by reviewing the data, unemployment also has emerged as another significant issue in the interview. three out of six respondents had to experience forced unemployment due to the full-time responsibility of childcare as childcare centres were closed during the pandemic. women respondents are facing a different degree of impact due to their socioeconomic class position. sana, who belongs to the middle class, was working as a postdoctoral fellow, having the responsibility of two children aged two years and eight years shared her experience of leaving the job as: “little, very tough to explain because it is very hard. from the past 15 years i was working continuously without a break, and it is more of financial independence for me that i am working, getting a salary. after the pandemic, if the situation goes over and even after i want to go and look for a job, there is no job first. second, i am from life sciences, so there are only covid testing positions in the lab. that i cannot do it because of small kids.” it shows how women from nuclear families and having no childcare support are vulnerable to economic insecurity and experience loss of self-esteem. the adverse circumstances and tortured mental health of women can harm children's care and development too. rita, having two children and educated at the primary level, worked in a factory, was unable to go for the job due to lockdown, and her spouse also became unemployed due to similar reasons. she shared with the researcher, "we are not able to go to duty, so we are even not getting the salary. our room rent keeps on increasing as we are not in a position to pay it." her silence and murmuring in response to some questions during the interview indicated her hardship. her condition reflects that she has less protection against dismissal from the job and doesn’t have the benefit of paid leave due to her employment in an informal job sector (rivera, hsu, esbry, & dugarova, 2020). the narration also reflects that living without a job is an odd experience for her. moreover, the unemployment of both parents is putting a greater risk for their children's developmental and educational opportunities as survival has become a significant issue in this case. emerging research, for example, finnegan (2015), also indicates that mother and father's involuntary job loss could affect children's development, such as academic achievement and future aspiration. simultaneously parents may be less supportive and engage in children's homework and school-related activities. mari and keizer (2021) and hill, morris, castells, and walker (2011) also argued a similar concern about the linkage between parents' job loss and child development. results show that income loss of parents triggers depression, and it leads to negative maternal parenting, which resulted in problem behaviour in children and reduced verbal ability during the early childhood period. it shows how lower social class, less education, and job loss have created the most brutal punch on women and children and pushes their lives at risk. the play during the pandemic the covid-19 situation has forcefully twisted the play behaviour of all young children. the united nations educational, scientific, and cultural organisation (unesco,n.d.-a) report argues that play is a "powerful, scalable and effective" (p.1) way to maintain children's learning, health, and well-being during the covid-19 pandemic. however, our study findings suggest that covid-19 pandemic induced lockdown and fear of infection has served limited play opportunities, reduced physical activities, shrunk friends' circle, crafted less interaction, lack of learning, and low prosocial behaviour for children who fall women and children’s well-being in indian nuclear families… 184 in the early childhood stage and also denoted with the age of play. this change has affected women and children differently, where on one side, women's multiple roles have become more complex and burdensome due to additional and unpaid labour (cook, 2021) and the absence of children's lost play space and missing support of their playmates. on another side of this, the changed and complex notion of home, loss of finances, and other aggravating responsibilities during the pandemic are concurrently meditating with children's lives and affecting their play behaviour, social interaction, and development differently. for example, a participant, soni faced too much difficulty managing children's play behaviour when her husband was hospitalised due to the coronavirus infection. her experience of managing children's play behaviour becomes complex due to the intersection ofmultitasks, nuclear family type, and closure of early childhood centres. therefore, at the primary level, the challenge of channelizing children's energy in the absence of their teachers, friends, peer group, and play space while living in a nuclear family setting has been a significant issue for all mothers. about play behaviour in the pandemic, a participant, sana, narrates about her child that: "…sometimes he cries that mamma you don't allow me to play outside, but i tell him to maintain a physical distance. i allow him when there is no kid outside. if there are kids, i always say to him, ‘no’." it reflects how the pandemic has made outdoor play space perilous for children, and playing without friends and just waving hands to each other has become a new normal during this challenging time. even an uncertain pause is to continue going on indoor play activities with friends too. the analysis also suggests that the multi-story apartment's lives further reduce the children's chances of play in the absence of extra space, even those who have availability of roofs, their congested location and fear of coronavirus in the air has deprived them of free play opportunities. nia observes that children starved of the playground and stared at it while standing in their balconies and reports, "we couldn't allow them, so that's why it's very frustrating. twenty-four hours with the same routine, same room and all, so it is very boring for us as well as for them also." it clearly shows children's inactivity and hopelessness, and their silence can be a worrying sign for their future. after the analysis, we can say that “pandemic play” has become more troublesome for all children, but children belonging to disadvantaged families face a significant threat as all the activities are operationalised under a single rented room. in addition, younger children's play has taken a unique shape in the ongoing pandemic. online gaming and digital mode of play have totally replaced friends and playgrounds now. the majority of participants reported how their children became more addicted to online games and videos. moreover, the mobile phone has become a new toy for almost every child. the high indulgence in digital devices is creating health issues for children's majorly eyesight issues. one reason for increased involvement in online gaming is reportedly multitasking and the busy schedules of women. this type of zero-free play zone or partial play, and total dependence on online play mode, can have a unique, harmful, and destructive impact on children's future lives. the ongoing pandemic situation can toll on children's physical health, social interaction, and various developments. play with other children provides the opportunity to show off big feelings like anger and other emotions (rushton, 2011,cited in unesco, n.d.-a). it helps in the development of language, learning of cooperation, and sharing (piaget, 1999; vygotsky, 1986), help in dealing with uncertainty, do coping with stress, learning of adult role and simultaneously also facilitates discoveries and problem even by searching some 'frivolous problems' (chu & schulz, 2020, p.332). bongiorno and quinn’s (2021) statement that "play is a part of a child's resilience toolkit" has been almost missing and leaking from the pipeline in the pandemic. stuart brown argued that the catastrophic impact of play deprivation during the early years is linked to less flexibility in thoughts, poor anger management, and fragility in interpersonal relationships (brown, 2014, cited in hanscom, 2021). the social interaction during the pandemic richa rana, ridhi sood & sonali bhardwaj 185 children are also missing other kinds of social interaction during the pandemic with play deprivation, especially with nature and their close surroundings labelled as the “meso system” in urie bronfenbrenner's ecological system theory. it is an established fact that peer talk, sibling talk, doing things together, going outside, observing their surroundings, and learning the symbolic language all play an essential role in meaning-making among children. the meaning-making process needs an active engagement on the part of children to transform their knowledge with the help of language. through this process, they understand the social reality. social interaction with others is also helpful to build social and communication competence. in social interaction and play, children resist, negotiate, and achieve a state of inclusion in the peer group. however, the current covid-19 pandemic has forcefully put a pause on all these types of social interaction among children, especially among younger ones. the study results show that children are experiencing unique effects of lack of social interaction in the pandemic, responsible for producing some novel social behaviour in themselves. we interviewed about children's social interaction, and participants explained the high level of decline in this domain. almost all interviewed women mentioned a drastic change in children's social interaction during the pandemic. the findings of this study suggest that pandemic-induced social changes experienced by children are loss of their soft and friendly nature, deteriorating social skills, including no routine, poor discipline, and lacking basic etiquettes. the lack of social interaction may generate an unusual type of social development. a participant, sana, discussed how her two-year-old child confronted touching and showed disgust in meeting someone. she added, "if someone is smiling, so he is very strange, why is he smiling at me? he doesn't give a smile back. he gives a weird expression because he has not seen this. he has grown up in the pandemic." it shows the social deprivation effect on a child's behaviour where the child has been showing irritability due to human contact. it also shows that being isolated, lonely with less interaction may have a different prospect for children. toran, sak, xu, şahin-sak and yu (2021) also affirm our study's findings, where researchers revealed how turkish and chinese parents noticed children's changed behavioural characteristics during the quarantine process. the compromised caregiving environment, cold attitude of parents, low warmth, less and unsupportive interaction may aggravate adversity for some children who may show low verbal ability and affect their socio-emotional well-being (odgers & jaffee, 2013). the findings of our study show that women face multiple types of adversities that, in turn, may affect the children in the form of less support and disrupted caring and may also create an environment of low social interaction. consequently, less support and women's overall well-being may significantly influence overall childcare patterns and children's social interaction. it can be inferred from the above discussion that social interaction, which is part of a child's immediate neighbourhood and the child's school, has been plucked from their lives due to the pandemic. consequently, children are not only missing classes or school but are also missing uncomplicated everyday interactions like walking to class together, eating lunch together, playing, learning and creating together. the long-term closure of educational institutions in india has put children into inexorable circumstances, leading them into unusual experiences beyond normal. as a result, they experience stress, anxiety and seized freedom. remote learning: an emerging concern coronavirus pandemic has also wreaked havoc and brought education to a halt by school closures and brought new normal learning for the students, particularly remote learning. this type of learning is globally promoted and presented as an alternative to face-to-face classroom learning. although there were specific online learning platforms available before the pandemic in india like byjus, meritnation, vedantu, and more, they were optional and not forced. however, now forcibly, whether desirable or not, every child must go through remote learning to study. this no-choice approach of changing homes to classrooms in a women and children’s well-being in indian nuclear families… 186 hurry presents mammoth challenges for parents and children, both human and technical. unesco(n.d.b) also highlighted the adverse consequences of school closure. women with children from the early childhood stage have to face the brunt of this pandemic more. the women have to go through various challenges of remote learning as the covid-19 pandemic has made digital technologies the only lifeline for education. however, the pandemic has not come with a hierarchical approach in spreading the infection to the privileged and non-privileged, but remote learning accompanying those socio-economic differences and thus shone a stark spotlight on the educational disparity (gross, 2020). the pandemic induced sharp and sudden alteration in learning mode presented various concerns for everyone. like various scholars have also insisted that online learning is not a good exposure for young children, limiting the socio-emotional readiness of children for school (edwards, skouteris, rutherford, & cutter-mackenzie, 2012). the parents are not happy with this type of learning due to several subjective reasons. researchers also explained that young children have a short attention span, thus unable to engage them in online learning (dong, cao, & li, 2020). most participants complained about the non-engagement of the children, talked about their inactiveness, and spoke about the “zero discipline” during these online classes. according to nia, "…remote learning was totally a ‘flop show’with my son as he didn't want to sit in one place. in the beginning, we had to struggle a lot, i had to sit with him, it was really horrible". the findings of our study confirm the above narration that most of the mothers have to sit with their children during the online classes as sometimes they are unable to understand, face difficulty noting down homework for each day, and need help in submission. owing to the nuclear nature of the family and the existence of skewed gender norms in society that a child's education and care is a woman's responsibility, the situation becomes more typical. the present research reports that remote learning is loosening parents' purse strings as they have to purchase an extra phone or device for online classes. hence, the families who cannot buy an extra phone have to make their children attend classes from their phone only, so if they have to go outside, they have to wait for their work. they also have to arrange wi-fi, a webcam, and other necessary resources for taking the classes. almost every school is giving now online classes on “zoom,”“google meet,” and “microsoft teams” except some low fee schools providing study material for online classes through “youtube” links and messages on “whatsapp”. so, one can imagine the quality of education of those low fee schools that are teaching by just sending messages and study material on whatsapp. the child is just copying the material from it and not understanding anything, nor the illiterate parents can make them understand. thus, it is proving more typical for low ses children whose parents are uneducated, on the verge of losing their job, and have fewer learning opportunities beyond school. in addition, prolonged screen time also has been putting a high level of strain on young ones' eyes. emerging research also notes that the effect on children's eye vision is the most prominent one during this time (dong et al., 2020). another study also identified that three to six-year-old children stayed for a long time with mobile phones and electronic screens during the covid-19 (toran et al., 2021). almost all the participants showed their serious concerns regarding their child's eyes due to these online classes. according to priya, "…first my son started to get water in his eyes and had to put on specs and then my daughter who just took admission in the preschool started to get problems in her eyes." so, it is clear that one has to study at the cost of eye strain, face headaches, blurred vision, and adjust to the condition of dry eyes (peterson & salem, 2021). the study's findings show that the online learning device is drowning the throat by the pandemic, and getting universal acceptance has also created more psycho-physical disturbances among children. united nations children’s emergency fund ([unicef], 2020a) report has pointed out the harmful content available on the internet, leaving the child vulnerable and tortured. some interviewed women tried richa rana, ridhi sood & sonali bhardwaj 187 to overcome this problem by replacing the mobile with desktop and smart tv. the reason was to give a big screen instead of a small one and check whether the child is taking the classes or opening something else. like soni states: "…now, due to smart tv, i can watch what the child has opened, as sometimes the child used to open something that is not good for their mind." on the one hand, it shows that women have to be highly vigilant about the harmful content on the internet and the risks of unrestricted digital use to sail in this new reality. the proliferation of internet access and mobile technology is also stressing to implement the unicef (2020b), “guidelines for industry on child online protection” which offers protection of child rights from sexually abusive material, create an age-appropriate and safer online environment, to educate children, parents, and teachers about the safe and responsible use of ict. the other side also exposes the need for secure and appropriate age kids' content on digital media platforms in this pandemic time that can join the people instead of shutting them out (hasinger-das, brennan, dore, golinkoff, & hirsh-tasek, 2020). as for many women and children, it also becomes a source of engagement with their friend circles. in the long run, this type of learning will also be a challenge for low ses children as it increases the probability of pushing out more than the retention of them. it can result in much more disruptions that exacerbate the already present gap in our education system. mental health and well-being of women and children mental health and well-being of women the mental health and well-being of women and children have received the worst hit during the covid-19 pandemic. all the above-discussed themes have been filled with an abundance of disruptions, typicalities, hassles, insecurities, and inefficiency in strategising on the part of women. consequently, it may paint a poor picture of women's mental health and well-being. the causal relationship of the mentioned challenges is grounded in our society's social structure, which compels only women to bear the burden of caring responsibilities. the study's findings revolve around three central lived realities of women belonging to nuclear families. these are heightened psycho-socio-economic anxieties, compressed existing support systems, and fragile coping strategies. for each woman we have interviewed, fear of infection, work-home balance, extended child care, education, and reduced income have taken a toll on their mental health and well-being. as sana, unemployed during the pandemic, having two children, states, "…for the first time in my life, i have to depend on anxiety tablets, even during the hardest times i have tackled it all the way, but never –ever i have seen such time, but this time i break down." her weepy voice during the interview shows tremendous pressure on her mind due to unexpected added responsibilities and the risky job of her spouse, which she metaphorically related to the feeling of “constant sitting on the dynamite”. the pandemic-induced lockdown forced all the family members to stay together 24 hours; this situation presented a panorama of challenges, especially for women. consequently, many respondents elucidated significant changes in their mental health in the form of frustration, tiredness, disappointments, extended fear, anxieties, and aggravated conflicts with their spouses. the fear of deterioration in participants' age and unsuccessful attempts to get a job in the pandemic also exacerbates the tension level of some participants. simultaneously, the pandemic provoked a monotonous routine, and restriction on movements also has a toll on women's psychological well-being. most of them reported a general feeling of boredom. it shows how due to deprived social interaction and engagement, women have been facing solitude. campbell (2020) also mentions that fear of infection, social isolation, inadequate health, less communications, and the loss of jobs or income are responsible for generating negative emotions in human beings. support system contributes to the psychological wellbeing of individuals (reblin & uchino,2008). getting support in the time of stress can have a boosting impact on the overall wellbeing of a person. there women and children’s well-being in indian nuclear families… 188 are various support systems that a woman having children is looking up to, like schools, day-care centres, domestic help, or help from the spouse in household chores and childcare responsibilities. however, where on the one side covid-19 pandemic has extended the anxiety level of women, on the other side, it has restrained all the possibility of getting support. the findings of our study reflect the grim side of support of women during the pandemic. due to the gendered nature of housekeeping work, women are compelled to bear this burden alone. the analysis of lived experiences of nuclear family's women explicitly shows that they are not getting any institutional, family, financial, and market-based support during the pandemic. nia expresses the pandemic phenomena as a "horrible experience" just at the beginning of the interview. she states: “pandemic obviously is not good, it is horrible, but we can say that all the work pressure is there on my shoulder whether it is the education of my son and the domestic work… all totally on me. i have to do it. i have to finish all the work early then only the other work starts on time.” it shows the bleak picture of women juggling many family responsibilities, and with no constant support from any source, their well-being is in danger. however, it is also an emerging fact that humans thrive for survival in any conflict setting and prolonged deprivation of support. the neuro p5, power, pleasure, profit, pride, and permanency that drive the nature of a person induced a desire for human survival and extending life. these drives also make people feel good (al-rodhan,2019). given the above fact, lazarus and folkman's (1984) theory also emphasised how individuals constantly change their cognitive and behavioural efforts to manage inner and outer threats and warnings. the analysis of women's narration also gives a clear picture of their thriving and surviving through the use of fragile coping strategies. during the ongoing covid-19 pandemic, all women were learning to use approach-avoidance in frightening situations, taking breaks from watching news stories, gradually accepting and adjusting with lockdown-induced uncertainties, connecting with close ones using digital technology, and adapting meditation practices. joya’s expression gives the impression of her coping strategy to mitigate negative experiences and stress. she listens to music, talks to friends over the phone, gives “me-time” to practice self-care to maintain her fluctuating mood. another participant, a teacher, used her acquired academic skills like role-playing with her children to minimise boredom during the pandemic. however, it is essential to admit that all listed coping strategies are only in their hit and trial phase, subjective and contextual. one of the participants, sana, mentions, "i will say i don't cope with it; i am still struggling." her state shows how coping in the pandemic is fragile in nature, where a person is still wrestling to find a state of contentment and well-being. mental health and well-being of children not only women have faced multiple stressors which adversely affected their mental health and well-being in covid outbreak, but also children can face more adverse effects even in the coming years of their life (singh et al.,2020). it is a comprehensive fact that early experiences contours the blueprints of the developing brain; they also prepare the way of sound mental health (chen, 2016). therefore, any disruptions to this developmental process can impair a child's capacities for learning and relate to others which have lifelong implications. the national institute of mental health and neuro sciences (n.d.) (which run under the aegis of the government of india) came up with an essential document for children's mental health; likewise, the childline india foundation and unicef collaborative efforts for the production of essential children's mental health resource toolkit, signify the inevitability of crisis in some sense. despite such interventions, various researches show the harsh truth of children's mental health and well-being. for example, a 50 percent spike has been seen since lockdown to avail pandemic-related information on the richa rana, ridhi sood & sonali bhardwaj 189 childline, a child service helpline of the ministry of women and child development, india (childline & unicef india, 2020). on these notes, our study findings also show various kinds of mental health-related challenges among the children. there is a noticeable change in the behaviour of children. interviewed women inform a diverse range of psychological discomforts of their children, such as boredom, heightened anguish behaviour, increased clinging, increased disobedience, becoming much stubborn, and showing tempertantrum. lee (2020), liu, bao, huang, shi and lu (2020), and zhai and du's (2020) study results also confirm our findings. having two children aged 2 and 5 years old, joya briefs how it has become too difficult for her to manage her child's crying behaviour, who every time insists on going outside. it creates more typicalities in front of the mother as the child's young age comes ahead as a barrier to understand the importance of safety measures during the lockdown. the analysis also suggests that the child's young age also creates communication barriers, making it difficult for mothers to engage in playful activities with them, leading to loss of interest and unwillingness in children, resulting in reduced interaction and indulgence with adults. the impoverished parent-child interaction may profoundly impact children's development (odgers & jaffe, 2013). women also reported that children have an enhanced inactive and silent state during the pandemic that is covertly disturbing children's mental health, which is generally unrecognised and ignored by the parents due to their limited knowledge in child development. however, it is essential to mention that even confronting such multi-layered responsibilities with tensed mental resources, women have been taking various forms of initiatives to engage their young children. examples of such activities are reading books, gardening, cooking, baking, role-playing, yoga, meditation, and more. the online mode of learning has also emerged as an essential engagement strategy. for example, a participant's son uses email and hangout to chat with his friends. it reflects that some children whose mothers have sound knowledge about using electronic communication quickly learn these skills and adapt to the changing environment. nevertheless, women are not entirely successful in utilizing their greater energy levels due to their time-bound work, unconfident children engagement plan of action, and extended responsibilities. conclusion the purpose of the present study was to achieve a better understanding of nuclear family women's childcare experience in the face of the covid-19 pandemic. usually, in no part of the world parents had raised their children in secluded nuclear compartments as they are compelled to do now. due to the outbreak of this pandemic, women from a nuclear family got a barrage of responsibilities, causing confusion and feeling of helplessness in them. undoubtedly, the pandemic weighs heavily for all of us, but it has revealed how shaky our nuclear family foundation is. this study provides an opportunity to comprehend the lived reality and significant perspective of women and is able to gauge how the pandemic situation has changed the notion of home for women and children both in different ways. on the one hand, living continuously at home has presented different struggles for women, especially in nuclear families, where under one roof with young age children, increased diverse roles and responsibilities, heightened helplessness and vulnerability, readjustment with job loss, with less support system and spoiled mental health they are living almost a miserable life. consequently, women's childcare trajectories are becoming gruelling and further limiting the chances of optimum development. on the other hand, children's lives also come under a tattered umbrella with the imposed covid restrictions and the changing ecology of home and mother. zero-free play zone reduced social interaction, forceful remote learning, vulnerable mental health, almost caged childhood, and much more disruptive behaviours are the prominent endowments of the covid-19 to children in the early childhood stage. all these adversities are spreading their wings silently, putting little ones into caged childhood and leaving them with burdensome childcare experiences. our study results are meaningful in such a way that it not only understands the interconnecting and reciprocal nature of pain and gain of women of nuclear families but also maps explicitly the impact of women and children’s well-being in indian nuclear families… 190 changing nature and nurture on developmental opportunities for early childhood during the pandemic. the outbreak realises that the demand for a stable support system for childcare is not a luxury on the women's side. however, it is essential to achieve and maintain gender equality while simultaneously providing holistic developmental opportunities to children. in this connection, remote learning has also become a new normal as it has added a new dimension in early childhood education. a complete makeover is experienced in children's play behaviour where the phone has closer proximity in children's minds. it can be inferred that the digitalised world has become more knowledgeable for children than parents. results also show that the pandemic affects individuals differently based on their underlying social context and social class positions. comparatively, low socio-economic security and less education have a more drastic effect on the overall well-being of women and children, reflecting the urgent need for meaningful interventions to provide sustainable support to them. contributing to the original knowledge, research shows that women and children are becoming more resilient even with the gruesome reality of the pandemic. they are adapting differently to the changing environment, and somewhere their capacities have also increased to handle such shocks in the future. this crucial time also provides some new choices to rethink parents, teachers, and policymakers about how early childhood education and development can be saved from the flood of digitalisation and marketisation. we suggest that there is a need to find out contextual measures to develop children's competence. moreover, children and women's mental health and well-being emerged as an important area to be taken care of seriously, individually and collectively, by all stakeholders. it is vital to admit that this study is not without limitations. we think three main initiatives could provide a more nuanced picture of women's and children's overall well-being. this strategy will include the need for closer observation of children's overall behaviour, direct visits to the research fields, and listen to men's perspectives. in the end, we will say that women's lived experiences about child care provide us with a critical lens to understand the struggles of their real social world. they are also crucial for setting the foundation of a progressive society. but the big question remains: how will we really change this scenario in the coming future? one hopes that at present, lies in collective efforts and togetherness. declarations acknowledgements: thanks are due to our respondents who have given their valuable time to the study. the authors also would like to express deep gratitude to their mentor, dr. arvind kumar mishra, for reviewing and editing the paper. however, the authors are solely accountable for any lapse. authors’ contributions: all authors have contributed equally to this paper. competing interests: the authors declare that they have no competing interests in this paper. funding: this research was not supported by any funding. references al-rodhan, n. 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(2020). mental health care for international chinese students affected by the covid-19 outbreak. lancet psychiatry, 7(4), e22. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2215-0366(20)30089-4 https://doi.org/10.1177/1066480720969194 https://doi.org/10.1007/s42087-021-00185-3 https://doi.org/10.1016/s2215-0366(20)30089-4 women and children's well-being in indian nuclear families during the covid-19 pandemic journal of childhood, education & society volume 2, issue 3, 2021, 287-302 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.202123115 research article ©2021 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. preschoolers’ use and exploration of concepts related to scientific phenomena in preschool annika åkerblom1, kristina thorshag2 abstract: the study described in this paper concerns science education in preschool, more specifically how young children in preschool settings invent, develop and explore science and scientific concepts in problem-solving and communicative situations. the aim of the paper is to discuss young children´s concept creation and draw conclusions for early science education. the method used was a secondary analysis of empirical material drawn from three previous studies carried out by the authors. examples of preschool children’s use of language were extracted and was, for the purpose of this study, analyzed with a new focus on children’s use of concepts. the re-analysis draws from vygotsky’s theoretical framework on children’s conceptual development and appropriation of new concepts (vygotsky, 1934/1999; åkerblom, 2011) and from the later wittgenstein (1986) on the role of language meaning in understanding. the findings underline the importance of allowing preschool children to invent, develop and explore science and technology concepts, as well as implications for preschool teachers to create dialogic spaces for the children to do so. the limitations of the study are however that it is based on a limited number of examples and even though it can give implications and point out directions, is not conclusive and should be followed by further research. article history received: 20 july 2021 accepted: 27 november 2021 keywords preschool; early science; making sense; concept creation introduction an important reoccurring issue in ecec concerns how to make it possible for young children to make sense of basic science. in particular, one domanin emphasized in the curriculum involves supporting and developing children’s understanding of concepts in natural sciences (eg. fleer, 2009; gomes & fleer, 2018; siry & kremer, 2011). policy-documents in science education internationally emphasize that there is a large value in teaching science to children already in preschool (siry & gorges, 2020). in the swedish curriculum for preschool (curriculum for the preschool [lpfö 18], 2018) and the educational programme for preschool class (curriculum for the compulsory school, preschool class and school-age educare [lgr 11], 2018) there are goals that aim to contribute to children’s abilities to express scientific knowledge in different ways. furthermore, the children in preschool class and preschool should be supported to develop abilities to discuss, ask questions about and explore scientific phenomena and technology processes. however teaching children about scientific knowledge, actualizes a dilemma, since scientific explanations and procedures both have to be presented in a form that makes experiential sense to preschoolers but is at the same time true to scientific knowledge (åkerblom et al., 2019). another important issue is the role that science concepts play, both as they are invented by children themselves in their attempts to make sense of the world around them; in addition to the way in which preschool teachers teach about scientific concepts. it is, however not clearly stated in the goals if, how, or for what purpose the preschool teachers should teach scientific concepts to the children. the research literature on early science and technology point to the value of providing young children with opportunities to engage in science and technology (eg. fleer, 2009; fleer & pramling, 2015; _____________ 1 gothenburg university, faculty of education, department of education, communication and learning, gothenburg, sweden, e-mail annika.akerblom@gu.se, orcid https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4125-9775 2 gothenburg university, faculty of education, department of education, communication and learning, gothenburg sweden, e-mail kristina.thorshag@gu.se orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4742-783x https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202123115 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:annika.akerblom@gu.se https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4125-9775 mailto:kristina.thorshag@gu.se https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4742-783x annika åkerblom & kristina thorshag 288 mawson 2010; milne & edwards 2011; robbins 2005; rogers & russo 2003;siry, 2013; ). in a longitudinal study that explored early science experiences in preschool, saçkes et al. (2011) suggested that availability of science materials and time to explore those facilitated children’s participation in science activities. however, the results of the longitudinal study also indicated that those early science experiences were not predictive for the children’s later science achievements in school (ibid.). the results could be interpreted that access to learning materials and time for exploration are not the only factors that matter for children’s science understanding. in a swedish study about what shapes science activities in preschool by sundberg et al. (2018), two factors were found to be of particular importance; the structure and educational culture of the preschool practice. when the preschool community was characterized with joint understandings of the purpose of the science activities this allowed the preschool teachers to frame the science content and support the children’s science learning in child-responsive science activities. furthermore, fleer (2009) argues for the importance of an adult mediating science concepts to children to pay attention to in preschool settings. to be able to distinguish the scientific concepts and make scientific sense of science materials, the teacher must support the children’s concept creation. preschool children’s opportunities to make scientific sense of preschool activities are closely related to the teacher’s perspective on science and how they view the children’s capacities for learning (saçkes, 2014). gomes and fleer (2018) showed that if the teacher had a ‘sciencing attitude’ and could see how the affordances of the environment could enable science learning for the children. the significance of considering the diverse ways that children express and make sense of scientific experience has been stressed by a number of researchers (eg. åkerblom, 2015; siry & gorges, 2020; siry & kremer, 2011). one example was provided by siry and gorges (2020) who conclude, based on a study of a multilingual child, that children need to use multiple resources to express what they understand. the girl in their examination used multiple modalities, bodily language to enact her science understanding. furthermore, dialogues with children can provide opportunity to shed light on how children conceptualize science and technology phenomena (rogers & russo, 2003). everyday conversations with children about their understanding are critical to explore how they interpret their experiences according to siry and kremer (2011). the authors further highlight that children should be given opportunities to share their understandings through discussions in relation to science activities (ibid.). saçkes (2014) concludes, based on a study on children’s understanding of the day and night cycle, that science teaching in preschool should be inquiry-based and playful, with hands-on activities that allow the children to be active participants in the learning environment. pramling and pramling samuelsson (2011) emphasize the role of language and linguistic mediation of a child’s experiences by a more competent partner, and the use of children´s different understanding as a resource and as a pedagogical principle. while the role of preschool teachers for children’s learning scientific concepts are emphasized in research, there are at the same time a number of studies showing that preschool teachers have difficulties supporting young childrens conceptual development (e.g. gomes & fleer, 2018, saçkes et al., 2011; siry & kremer, 2011; tu, 2006). this may have to do with the preschool teachers lacking formal science and technology knowledge (saçkes et al., 2011), and that preschool does not have a tradition of teaching science and technology. the gaps of knowledge acombined with the lack of tradition to teach science may create a sense of insecurity. this insecurity may also have to do with a lack of knowledge about how young children invent, develop and use science concepts in everyday preschool activitites. to illuminate these issues this study aims to contribute to the discussion of how young children use concepts through a reanalysis of empirical material of children using science/technology concepts in communicative situations in preschool settings. the aim of the paper is to discuss young children´s concept creation during exploring activities and reflection over their own language use, and to draw conclusions for early science education. the significance of this study thus lays in the potential to provide preschool teachers with insights about children’s concept creation. preschoolers’ use and exploration of concepts… 289 questions: 1. how do preschool children themselves invent basic sientific concepts? 2. how do preschool children develop basic sientific concepts? 3. how do preschool children explore basic sientific concepts? 4. how can children´s concept development and scientific sense-making be supported in earlychildhood settings? early science in swedish preschool and preschool class most swedish children between 1-5 years attend early childhood education, or preschool as it is generally called. swedish preschool is regulated in the national preschool curriculum (lpfö 18, 2018) and the municipality is required to provide pre-schooling for all children residing in sweden from the age of one. preschool is voluntary but as the children turn 6 they go on to obligatory preschool class for one year, before entering compulsory school. the educational programme for preschool classes stipulates that it should ‘…contribute to the continuity and progression of the pupils’ development and learning as well as prepare the pupils for continued education’ (lgr 11, 2018, p.19). the educational programme for preschool class should provide education that is play-based and emanates from the child’s interests. children should be given opportunities to develop understanding of the surrounding world as well as making sense of scientific concepts (lpfö 18, 2018). furthermore, the curriculum states that it is the preschool teacher who is responsible to support children’s attempts of making sense. when it comes to contents such as science and technology, there are specific goals in both curricula. the goals of the preschool curriculum concern the ability to express scientific/technological knowledge in different ways. it also stipulates that children should develop their ability to discuss and ask questions about these issues. in the educational programme for the preschool class, it says that teaching should: ‘…contribute to the development of the pupils’ interest in and knowledge of nature, technology and society, by giving them the opportunity to explore and pose questions on and discuss phenomena and relationships in the world at large.’ (lgr11, 2018, p.20). however, to be able to explore, discuss and understand science, children in preschool and preschool class need to be provided with conceptual knowledge. however, it is not clearly stated in the goals what scientific concepts preschool teachers should teach. altogether the combination of ambitious science teaching objectives with unclear guidelines of how to organize activities and spaces for these activities constitute large challenges for preschool teachers (nordén & avery 2020). previous research on children making sense of science and technology – an exploratory literature review the purpose of the exploratory literature review was to find research with relevance for preschool science education and particularly on the role of children’s scientific and technological concept development in preschool contexts. piaget (eg. 1971, 1973) was probably one of the first scholars to show that young children had their own, often rich and creative conceptions of the world around them. piaget (1973) also saw, through numerous interview studies where children were invited to reason about different natural phenomena, that their intuitive conceptions about different aspects of the world would often be diverse from the ‘scientifically accepted’ way of thinking (saçkes, 2015b). piaget (1969; 1971; 1973) was mainly interested in finding aspects that were stable and general in children’s thinking. since then, a lot of studies have been carried out to explore children’s intuitive conceptions and the way they may differ from scientifically accepted ideas (e.g. driver & easley, 1978; osborne & freyberg, 1985; for an overview see duit, 2009). the results of these early studies have been known as children’s science (fleer & pramling, 2015), and for almost 30 years those studies shaped how science education was viewed and implemented (saçkes, 2015a). in annika åkerblom & kristina thorshag 290 some of these studies children’s intuitive ideas and thinking was considered as something to overcome and as obstacles to learning the ‘right scientific ideas’. however other studies have been seeking answers to why the challenges to learning and teaching science to preschool children occur (sundberg et al., 2018; andersson et al., 2020) and obstacles to conceptualization of abstract science concepts (güneş & şahin, 2020; hobson et al., 2010; saçkes et al., 2011; saçkes, 2014). the idea of children having to overcome the obstacles of alternative conceptions is in contrast to more recent research, where children’s rich conceptualization is emphasized and considered important to listen to and value (e.g. robbins, 2005; siry, 2011; siry & gorges, 2020). siry (2011), suggests with reference to joe kincheloe, that science teaching in ece should start with the assumption that even young children can produce new and creative knowledge about scientific phenomena. consequently, the way children and their knowledge about science and technology are viewed, have large impact on how early education is organized for and related with them. when piaget’s studies were critically examined, this have opened up for a discussion about how the child was viewed in experiments and interviews (e.g. donaldson, 1978; hundeide, 1977; pramling, 2006). güneş and şahin (2020) found in a study of five-year olds’ epistemic thinking about the concept of time, using children’s drawings, that in contrary to piaget’s (1969) interpretations, five-year olds could demonstrate abstract thinking in conceptualization of time. this research points at the importance of considering aspects such as the situation and discursive factors as well. siry (2011) further claims that when children’s science is studied when they interact and a with a research focus on their embodied enactment, rather than just verbal speech this can support a new view on children and their investigations as rich of resources instead of as lacking something. furthermore, to express their understandings, young children often include a broad repertoire of multimodal and other signs so make their ideas visible (siry & gorges, 2020). as an example, kalogiannakis et al. (2018) showed in a study of preschool children’s understanding of magnetism that drawing allowed the children to express their understanding of the phenomenon, and thus give their teachers an opportunity to get insight into children’s thinking about magnetism. in dialogues with children around their investigations and explanations it is possible to uncover how they learn and think (fleer & pramling, 2015) and when asked to reflect over the meanings of words they used in their explanations, this could provide opportunities for the children to become aware of their thinking and use of language (åkerblom, 2011), and metaconceptual awareness, also stressed by saçkes (2014). andersson and gullberg (2014) showed that conceptions about children and their thinking abilities also have impact on how their activities and speech are interpreted. a teaching episode in preschool, with the aim of developing children’s conceptual understanding about floating/sinking, was analyzed from two different analytical perspectives. when the activity was analyzed with a focus on whether the children developed their scientific thinking, the result did not indicate that they had appropriated scientific concepts or that their scientific thinking had developed. however, when the activity was viewed from a different perspective, with a focus on children’s feelings as participants of a science activity, the result showed in contrast, that the activity of speaking and thinking about density had been a positive experience. so, the two analyses of the same preschool activity showed a difference in how science was constituted that was related to how the children were viewed (andersson and gullberg 2014). a pedagogic conclusion to draw from this research is that if children are perceived as resourceful, teaching must be based on children’s experience and their conceptions as resources when developing children’s thinking further. another way to handle the relation between children’s experience and scientific concepts is to organize drama-activities and role-play to support children’s abstract thinking and make science meaningful to them. according to ødegaard (2003), the use of drama can be a way to support children’s meaning making of science concepts for which they lack words, or for abstract explanations of phenomena imperceptible to the senses. in a study carried out by åkerblom and pramling (2019, 2020) dramatizing was discussed as a form of teaching chemistry concepts and processes to young children, responsive to how they make sense. six-year old children (n=11) from a preschool class were interviewed after they had participated in a workshop where they were invited to dramatize certain chemistry concepts and processes. dramatizing was in the study understood as role play in an imaginary dimension (as if). åkerblom and preschoolers’ use and exploration of concepts… 291 pramling (2019) argue that central to dramatizing is how participants distinguish, relate and shift between engaging with the phenomena and the processes of ‘as if’ and ‘as is’. also, the way that the children spoke about their participating in the activity indicate that they have viewed themselves as agents, rather than being recipients of information. based on the results of a study of one pluri-lingual child´s meaning making in a science activity, siry and gorges (2020) argue for the value of considering the richness and diversity of resources children use to make sense of science. this is especially important in multilingual preschool settings, since using nonverbal resources can facilitate communication, not only between the children, but also for teachers to gain deeper insights in meaningmaking processes of children. this research underscores the claim that science education for young children should aim to create dialogic spaces where children and their teachers can negotiate and develop meanings about science phenomena and use a variety of resources to do so. theoretical framework the notion of language has different meanings in different contexts, and how language or the activity of languaging is viewed, have great impact on how teaching languages is organized and structured. how language is understood also influences the views on scientific concepts and how those are to be mastered by children. the language philosopher wittgenstein (1953/1968) distinguished in his writings two very different ways of viewing the function of language; one view was language as a structural, focusing language as a system of meanings and the other view was language as expressive, focusing the activity of expression. with a structural view, the main function of language is to name and describe objects and aspects in the world. every word can be perceived as containing its meaningthe object for which the word stands. the process of learning to understand a concept means to establish the correct relationships between objects and words. the structural conception of language is in many ways in line with the common sense understanding of what language is and how language works and can also, to some extent be identified in the cognitive research tradition (e.g. vosniadou, 1994) and in the work of chomsky (golumbia, 2014). from a structural perspective on language, to learn scientific concepts, the main problem to address lays in the meaning those concepts are given and the presence of alternative meanings and competing systems of meanings. from a cognitive perspective the unit of analysis is the individual and consequently the purpose of teaching is to make the child change from alternative frameworks to scientific concepts (åkerblom, 2011). with an expressive view, language is understood as activity of expressing something, and language meaning is seen as constituted in its use rather than something stable that exists beforehand. language, from this perspective is seen as something open and mobile (åkerblom, 2011). to emphasise the activity of using language, the notion of ‘languaging’ is often used. the notion of languaging refers to communication and includes the processes of making sense of, and shaping experience through language (lewis et al., 2012). according to (wittgenstein, 1953/1968), with an expressive conception of language, it is learnt during the engagement in and living in the world. language is created and it arises in practice and could be described as both subjective (as in understanding) and intersubjective (as in communication). when vygotsky (1934/1999) studied the connections between language and thinking and how they were established in the child’s development, word meaning was his unit of analysis. word meaning, according to vygotsky is at the same time both language and thinking. appropriation of word-meaning is a complex process and starts as the child understands that there is a relation between things and words. according to vygotsky (1934/1987) a major result of his numerous studies was the result that wordmeanings are something highly dynamic and changing. word meanings are dynamic rather than static formations. they change as the child develops; they change also with the various ways in which thought functions. (vygotsky, 1934/1987, p. 217) vygotsky (1934/1987) saw the relation between two aspects, such as language and thinking, as in itself an activity and spoke of the activity of thinking as generalisation of concepts. according to vygotsky conceptual development implicates phases of different generalisation. this is similar to vygotsky’s annika åkerblom & kristina thorshag 292 (1930/1995) work on imagination and creativity as the ability to combine and interpret different impressions, a mode of thinking. in vygotsky’s work the dynamic relation between two aspects were always in the fore and he used different notions to describe the aspects. his notions were sometimes overlapping and sometimes through his work used somewhat differently. those notions have consequently been interpreted and translated in different ways (eg. veresov, 2004). for the purpose of the present article, some of vygotsky’s concepts will be presented and used for the analysis of children´s reasoning one such distinction that vygotsky (1935/1998) made in his work on children’s concept formation, was the distinction between what he refers to as pseudo concept and concept proper. pseudo concept implies that the child can give a number of examples of the same thing, but without necessarily being able to verbalize what these examples have in common. concept proper, on the other hand refers to when the child is able to discern, and also express what the examples have in common so that they can be summarized under a label based on their characteristics. another distinction made by vygotsky (1934/1987) was between spontaneous and reflected concepts. a spontaneous concept is something drawn from children´s bodily experiences with aspects of the world, and it is not reflected over. normally in those cases, the children are not conscious of how they think, whereas reflected concepts are something the children can speak about and see as ‘something’. when a concept is reflected over it gives the child opportunity to understand that this ‘something’ can be conceptualized in many different ways, something that opens up for learning to see differently. vygotsky (1934/1999) distinguishes everyday concepts from scientific concepts, and he viewed the relation between those two as particularly fruitful in relation to science education. everyday concepts relate to children´s empirical experience and the consequences that can be drawn from experience. in contrast scientific concepts are concepts with specific and socially agreed upon meanings, connected to a certain field. vygotsky (1934/1987) also explored the relation between the sense of a word and its meaning and made a distinction between them. the meaning of a concept is according to vygotsky closely related to what we would call the agreed on definition of a word. the sense of a word, however, can be described as the personal, creative aspect of it. it is something that ‘enriches’ or creates a deeper meaning, and it is depending on the context of use. meaning and sense could further be connected to what vygotsky spoke of as scientific and spontaneous concepts (vygotsky, 1934/1987). a scientific concept would thus be associated with the notion of meaning and everyday concept with the notion of sense. vygotsky (1934/1999) emphasized the relation between everyday and scientific concepts as necessary for children’s learning. scientific concepts are those that in a meaningful way for the children can be related, but not reduced to the children’s everyday experience and concepts. vygotsky argues, much like wittgenstein (1968) that learning to use language (for example scientific concepts) implies to play with its function, and to reflect on its meanings within an activity. new concepts must also be developed and created in activity as the child actively reflects over it while using the concept. when children’s experiences meet scientific terms with specific, agreed upon and established meanings, children learn new ways to conceptualize the world and aspects of it (vygotsky, 1934/1987). but this does not happen without some tension, since children then have to leave their spontaneous and intuitive ideas. the encounter between the child’s own experience and new and scientific concepts requires active and creative elaboration of those concepts (åkerblom, 2011). method the present study consists of a secondary analysis (sherif, 2018) of empirical material retrieved from three previous studies carried out by the authors. this particular method was selected since it was appropriate for the research objective of the present study. since the data was originally created for different purpose, a secondary analysis was performed based on a new theoretical framework with the aim to inform new research questions (smith, 2008). the original data consisted both of video-recordings of technology activities (thorshag, 2019) and from dialogues with six-year-old children about physical phenomena and chemical concepts (åkerblom, 2015; åkerblom et al., 2019). from the empirical material, a preschoolers’ use and exploration of concepts… 293 number of examples of preschool children’s use of language and conception creation were extracted. for the purpose of this study, those examples were re-analyzed with a new focus on children’s use of concepts. theoretically the re-analysis draws from vygotsky’s theoretical framework on children’s conceptual development and appropriation of new concepts (åkerblom, 2011; vygotsky, 1934/1999) and from wittgenstein (1953/1968) on the role of language meaning in understanding. the original studies will be shortly described below. technology study the overall aim was to study how children work and explore technology in buildingand construction play in preschool (thorshag, 2019). the activities were both planned by teachers and initiated by the children. to conduct the study and to be able to document the verbal language as well as the body language, video observations were chosen as the main tool. field notes were taken at the observations to document gatherings before and after the activities, and to give background and context to the activities. in all 11 preschool teachers and 49 children, in the age of 4-5, participated in the study. every preschool was visited at three occasions. the video recordings were transcribed both regarding speech and action (heikkilä & sahlström, 2003) children making sense of physical motion and basic astronomy the overall purpose of the original study was to explore, analyse and describe how children between six and 14 years old (n 64) use language to express and make sense of physical phenomena (åkerblom, 2011). the empirical examples for the present study were drawn from dialogues with six-year-old (n 18), who all attended preschool class at the time. the children were asked questions intended to point out a problem that could be explained in classical mechanics and basic astronomy: ‘what happens when a ball is thrown slantingly up in the air?’ ‘why does not the moon fall down?’ a dialogue structure was used to encourage the children to reflect on their use of language when explaining the process. chemistry study the study was an empirical investigation of how concept young children form chemistry concepts. 22 6-year old children from one preschool class participated in a chemistry activity that was playfully enacted at a culture centre for children (åkerblom et al., 2019). pre-and post-interviews were carried out with the children and the activity was digitally recorded. still pictures showing the chemistry activity and the children participating in it was made from the recording and were then used in the post-interviews to create mutual ground for talking with the children about what they remembered from the activity. they were also asked about how they understood the activity that they had participated in and what they thought the activity had intended to illustrate. the empirical material, consisting of the pre-and postinterviews was analyzed with a focus on how the children made sense of basic chemistry processes and concepts like water, molecule and chemistry (as such). ethical considerations the ethical aspects related to the original studies were handled according to current ethical principles for research (codex.vr.se). this meant that the care-takers of the children that participated in the studies had given their written consents prior to the video-recordings and interviews. the participating children were informed about the studies, that they could choose whether to participate or not, that they could interrupt their participation at any time. the researchers (who both have a background as educators for young children) were also mindful of children’s body language and whether it implied that they were not comfortable being interviewed or filmed. in accordance with the ethical guidelines for research by the swedish research council, every child was promised confidentiality, which meant that the names used in the excerpts are fictive. secondary analysis the analysis was carried out by the two researchers in collaboration. each researcher selected a number of extracts from their previously transcribed empirical material, consisting of video transcriptions, annika åkerblom & kristina thorshag 294 field-notes and transcribed dialogues. the selection of excerpts to re-analyse, was done collaboratively, with the specific aim to find as rich as possible insight into the participating children’s use of concepts. all the selected extracts had in common that they showed different cases of children using concepts to solve problems, explore phenomena, describe processes etc. from the first selection, seven extracts were picked out to serve as an example of a certain way of using concepts. those examples were thematized and analyzed with a focus on children’s use of concepts. results in this section, the results from the re-analysis will be presented closely to excerpts from the empirical data. the findings are structured as examples of children’s use of concepts and as situated in a communicative practice. each theme is presented through one or more excerpts from the data. invention of new technology concepts in building and construction activities example 1. the extract below from a video recording from a preschool show how four children and a preschool teacher play at the building space: four children and the preschool teacher janne (j) are playing in the building space. janne and agnes (a) (5:6) start to construct towers with kapla1 rods. agnes wants to build a high tower and janne proposes a competition about who can build the highest tower. the researcher (r) is also participating while documenting the activity. j: (to agnes) think about trying to make it straight. look at it, how does it look? a: it is a little bit slanting. j: it is a little bit slanting, yes… which one is the highest? a: mine is the highest. /…/ j: agnes, how will this end, do you think? a: yes.. (laughter) yes… the one who has the most, i have a whole lot of kapla-rods! /…/ r: how should you do to make it high, the tower then? agnes, how do you think you should build to hold together and become that high? a: you need to be concentrated and then you must be calm. /…/ j:if you now look at your tower and then you look at mine too, how does your look do you think, how does it look? a: a bit slanting… j: yes, what should you think about when you build? that you should build… a: (interrupts) …straight! in the extract agnes uses established and shared concepts like straight and slanting when she explains to janne. when she looks at her first tower she can see that it is in danger to collapse and she says: ‘my tower can be even higher. it can get more slanting-high!’ this is her own concept slanting-high (snedhögt sw.) to talk about a relationship, ie when the tower is tilted; it falls more easily when it gets high. her use of the concept indicates that she is aware that to construct a stable tower, the placement of the rods and how to stack them, is critical to create a large supporting area to keep the equilibrium. also, she is aware of that the higher the tower gets, it is a greater risk that it will collapse as the centre of gravity shifts. slanting-high is a technical concept that she invents since she needs it for her explanation. according to vygotsky (1934/1999) it is only when the child has understood the meaning that it needs a concept. concepts are used for explaining or understanding something. a short while after that she has climbed the chair to continue building, the tower collapses. she starts, with enthusiasm, to build another tower and when building her third tower she stacks the rods very carefully to get her tower straight. example 2. david (4:3) has less experience of constructing towers with kapla rods. he gets inspired to join in and he studies agnes and listens to her reasoning with the teacher about the importance of equilibrium and to build carefully, adjusting the rods all the time. david puts some rods aside and the _____________ 1 kapla is a construction set consisting of identical wood planks preschoolers’ use and exploration of concepts… 295 researcher (r) asks him why: d: uhh, so thick. r: why didn´t you take those rods? d: they are not good. you can´t use them. r: why is that? d: because they are too thick...too fallish a: they are too thick. then it doesn’t work, the whole construction could collapse. here david uses the concept fallish (rasiga sw.) to explain to the researcher what will happen with the tower when building with rods of different dimensions. the tower gets unbalanced and the construction might collapse. david is talking about the function of the rods and he has created his own concept fallish. the meaning of this concept is shared between david and agnes, which indicates that it is reflected over. the concept is created and connected to the activity of building to be able to communicate in the specific situation. it can be interpreted as a concept proper in vygotsky’s sense since david is able to verbalize what fallish rods have in common (that they are too thick). example 3. at the time of the study, an ongoing thematic work about dwellings was carried out in the preschool. in this example, three children are constructing house models. the preschool teacher introduced the children to some ideas how they could build and she presented what materials (such as ice cream sticks, flirting balls, cardboard, clothespins, rounds of juniper wood, round sticks) they could use. tor (5:6) has decided to build a fairly large house of cardboard. when tor starts to cut the cardboard with the small scissors for children, he has problems to get through. he tries to use both his hands but fails. after a while, he says: ‘i´m not so strong with these scissors…’ his statement indicates an understanding of the function of the scissors, a two-armed lever. the larger the shears' legs, the more force there will be to cut. he needs more power to cut in the thick cardboard. the researcher then helps him to cut and they take a larger pair of scissors to help get through. here tor uses the expression strong when he talks about the function of the scissors. he talks about something that corresponds to the concept of force. he does not say that the scissors are not strong, but that he does not become strong with the scissors, which shows an understanding of the tool principle and the technical content in the concept strong as tor uses it. using body enactment and everyday concepts for explaining physical motion the examples under this heading are drawn from reflective dialogues where 18 children in a preschool class were asked questions intended to point out a problem that could be explained in classical mechanics and basic astronomy. the reflective dialogues were used to encourage the children to reflect on their use of language in their own explanations of what happened. example 4. in the sequence below, ove (o) below was asked by the researcher (r) about what happens when he throws a ball slantingly up in the air. the researcher follows up the introducing question by asking about the reason for the ball to ‘go up’. r: what makes it go up? o: that…i think it is the force, it has, sort of… like we take a force, as if we throw a pillow, then we have a force, as if we throw a pillow, then we have a force, and then, and so that, it just flies with that force, and then downwards…then. r: yes? o: because then, then, then, it doesn´t have such away-force, so just it goes down. r: you say that it has no away-force. what is it that gives it, this away-force then? o: i think, perhaps, here if you throw it, then maybe it, it here, so that you oouum (pointing at his arm muscle) r: you mean that muscle…or? o: mm. r: aha, so it is the muscle in your arm that gives it force? o: mm. r: yes, this with force, what do you think of when you say force? o: force…almost nothing. r: no? could you have said it in another way, with another word? o: no i can’t come up with anything. r: so it is what you think fits best, when we speak about throwing a ball slantingly up in the air? annika åkerblom & kristina thorshag 296 o: mm. r: yes. you said force and away-force. is it the same kind of force? o: yes. r: so all force is sort of away-force? o: yes all as if you have force to lift a table… and then you have the force here, like, and then it lifts upwards. ove uses the notion of force when he explains what causes the movement of a ball. the way he uses the notion can be interpreted as an everyday concept, in vygotsky’s sense. an everyday concept relates to children´s empirical experience and the consequences that can be drawn from experience. in the sequence, ove is invited to reflect on this concept that he uses as an explanation for the movement of a ball. the explanation involves the idea that force is something given (from the muscle) to an object (like a ball), and then contained within the ball, maintaining its movement, until the away-force as he puts it, ends, and the ball falls down. this idea is consistent with ove’s experience of physical movement. the notion of awayforce is his own concept, an aspect, or synonym of force. when he says that he means ‘almost nothing’ with force it can be interpreted that he has not reflected on his ideas. in his explanation, ove uses, besides verbal resources, bodily and non-verbal expressions to make sense of the phenomenon. example 5. evy (e) in the sequence below was asked by the researcher (r) about what happens to a ball that is thrown slantingly up in the air. evy gets up from where she was sitting and starts to show the researcher how her understanding of how a ball starts to move, saying: e: yes, it goes up just because… i will show you on the floor… r: yes? e: it goes up just because you do like this (mimic kicking a ball). you take it, it is so light so you can kick it, then it just flies and does what you want it to do. evy’s explanation is almost entirely bodily when she makes sense of how the ball moves, something that applies to how vygotsky denotes the sense of a word as the aspect that is personal, creative and something that ‘enriches’ meaning. the sense of a word also depends on the context where it is used. earlier in the same dialogue when she told the researcher why she thinks that the moon is not falling down, she says that the moon is not falling because it is held by ‘invisible tentacles’, and in the extract below, she is asked about what she means with invisible tentacles: e: …so they hold…for example, if this is the moon (shows with her hand), let´s pretend, then this is the globe, and then it seems small but it is actually giant… […] r: okay… you said the earth flies around…? e: yes, it is to say it flies here and there, without you noticing it, the earth spins… r: yes? e: …around. when telling the interviewer why the moon doesn´t fall, evy uses her hand to explain what she means by the metaphor of ‘invisible tentacles’. using metaphors can be seen as a way to relate something new and partly unknown, to something that is more familiar (pramling, 2015). also, by using the words ‘let’s pretend’ she makes it clear that she is speaking ‘as if’. this indicates that she is aware that what she says should not be interpreted literally (as is). through those meta-markers evy communicates about the conceptual content in terms of something that is more familiar and easier to express. later in the same sequence she speaks about phenomena that cannot be experienced with one’s senses, like the movement of the earth or the ‘actual’ size of the moon: she says that: ‘it seems small but it is actually giant….’, which implies that she is aware that the moon can be experienced differently, depending on where it is viewed from. this can be interpreted that she is aware of the difference between how it seems and how it is, something that might imply that she is on the way of appropriating an abstracted, scientific conception. children’s reasoning and use of chemistry concepts in the space between ‘as is’ and ‘as if’ the examples below come from dialogues with children who had visited a culture centre and attended a drama activity about chemistry. the children were subsequently interviewed about what they remembered, how they had understood the activity that they had participated in and what they thought that the activity had intended to illustrate. in the dialogues, pictures from the activity were used to create mutual ground for talking with the children preschoolers’ use and exploration of concepts… 297 example 6. in the following sequence, kristoffer (k) was asked by the researcher (r) about a photo taken from above as the group of children acted as water-molecules that were mixed: r: there, what were you doing there? k: there we put on caps and then we became water molecules and then we pretended to be water molecules. r: yes, and what did you do then, pretending to be water molecules? k: they were standing so close, in a round ring and then we were to walk around and move, room temperature, just moderately, moderately and then we walked around, around around and bounced and when we came to somebody, to glass…pane or another water-molecule, then we bounced in another direction. then kristoffer is shown another picture by the researcher and asked if he can see ‘what it is’: k: it is when they hold in a round ring, the hands, and then it is us the children who move and collide into one another and bounce away in another direction. r: aha. i have another picture here, with some red hats, what was that, do you remember that? k: sugar molecules. r: do you remember why they stood that close, kind of? k: because we were, because it…the sugar molecules they keep themselves… because our water was cold and then the sugar molecules moved slowly and then, and then they keep together because a piece of sugar is built by sugar molecules and then they were a piece of sugar and all the sugar molecules and the one that it was cold water, then it sort of took long time, then it held…so that they were stuck quite a long time. kristoffer identifies the picture of the children wearing blue hats in terms of here ‘we pretended to be water-molecules’. using the word ‘pretend’ shows that he is in on the premise that this activity is characterized by imagination (as if), and because of this should not be interpreted as how something is in some sense is (as is). kristoffer’s explanation also implicates that he has made sense of the relation between movement and temperature. excerpt 2: in the extract below from the same dialogue, kristoffer was shown pictures from an experiment carried out by a character acting as a chemist in the drama activity, trying to show how molecules move by pouring a coloured sugar mix in water of different temperatures. kristoffer was and asked about what the picture was showing: k: it became green. r: and what did it mean then, when it became green? k: that it had spread. and, it like water…the water was cold, then it becomes as a beam down, but if it was warm, then it becomes almost like a cloud… then it becomes almost like smoke. r: do you know why that happened like that then? k: it was because the water was warm! r: yes, you said molecule, what is a molecule? k: a molecule is a small, tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny… tiny, tiny, tiny part of something. r: of what? what can it… k: of just anything! when speaking about the green coloured sugar mix that is squirted into the water, kristoffer says that if the water was cold: ‘then it became like a beam down’ but if it the water was warm ‘then it becomes almost like a cloud… then it becomes almost like smoke’. by using everyday phenomena and observations kristoffer speaks about something that could be difficult to explain in other terms. he uses similes like ‘beam’, ‘cloud’ and ‘smoke’ and meta-communicates by using markers like ‘as’ and ‘almost like’. those markers indicate that he is aware that what he says should not be interpreted literally (as is). through those meta-markers kristoffer communicates about the conceptual content in terms of something that is more familiar and easier to express. when asked about the concept of molecule (that he himself introduced earlier in the dialogue) and answering that a molecule is a small, tiny (used eight times) part of anything, he shows that he is close to appropriate a scientific understanding of one aspect of the concept of molecules, that it can be seen as the smallest particle in a chemical compound or element that has the chemical properties of that compound or element, and that it is too small to be seen. additionally, when kristoffer states that molecules are ‘parts of anything’, this could be interpreted as he is generalizing over a set of cases and uses the notion of molecule as a concept proper in vygotsky’s (1998) sense. example 7. in the dialogue with carla (c) after the activity, she reflects on what she said to the researcher when asked about her conceptions of water (r) prior to taking part in the chemistry activity. at annika åkerblom & kristina thorshag 298 that point she used the word monopoles denoting molecules. c: i remembered that i told you the last time that it was water ’monopoles’ but it was water molecules. r: it is just water molecules that are… c: …no, there are sugar molecules, apart from that i don’t know much more about molecules. there is a molecule in us that has been in the dinosaur, so there might be a water molecule from a dinosaur. r: do you remember where we can find molecules? c: in the air, air molecules. and if water starts to boil it turns to mist that goes up in the air. they can go up there in the clouds and then they rain down. when carla speaks about molecules and states that she does not know more about molecules she shows that she is aware that that there might be more to know. in doing so, she has identified a learning gap, what is still not known to her. to identify learning gaps about something, can be particularly productive when trying to learn more. she understands that there are not just one, but different kinds of molecules, and she refers to as sugar molecules and air molecules, and she adds that there can be water molecules in the air as well. the way she uses the notion of molecule implicates that it is a reflected concept and that her experiences from the learning activity has supported her to appropriate the scientific concept of molecule. later in the same dialogue carla was asked to reflect on the notion of chemistry, and if she knows what it means: r: do you know what chemistry means? c: chemistry is surface tension. r: how do you mean? c: chemistry makes the water striders float. r: the water striders float? what are water striders? c: they are small animals living on top of the water. they have small feet and glide on the surface tension. when the surface tension disappears, they go down from the water… carla here answers, a bit surprisingly that chemistry is surface tension, which is consistent with an earlier experience from watching water-striders on an outing with her family. when she connects chemistry with surface tension she is making sense of previous experiences from different contexts and creates something new. this is consistent with vygotsky’s (1930/1995) view on imagination as the ability to combine and interpret different impressions, a mode of thinking. carla’s answers in this dialogue implies that she is on the way to appropriate a scientific conception of chemistry, as the study of how different substances are constructed and their properties and reactions. findings and discussion the aim of this paper was to contribute to the discussion of how preschoolers invent, develop and explore science concepts, related to preschool activities and to shed some light on how they do so. children´s conceptualization has in previous research (eg. åkerblom, 2015; siry & gorges, 2020; siry & kremer, 2011) been shown to be rich, dynamic and creative when they attempt to make sense of science, and when empirical examples are viewed through a lense of vygotsky´s theorizing on concept creation, the findings can shed some light on how some pre-schoolers make sense and shape their experience through language. the results show that children in some of the examples invent their own basic scientific concepts, like agnes and david who are participating in an activity of building towers with building blocks, inventing concepts like ‘slanting-high’ for the relation between the height and inclination of a tower. when david uses the concept ‘fallish’ rods to explain that rods with different dimensions might cause the tower to collapse he uses a concept that is invented, but also shared by the other children taking part in the activity. when the children invent concepts they also, in addition to the use of verbal expressions, use sensory and bodily expressions, like david in the described example who shows with his body that the rod is not useful. also, in the example when ove shows how a ball is falling he uses bodily enactment, which have been showed by siry (2011) as a critical aspect when children make sense of science. this example suggests that those concepts are invented by the children in the activity when they experience technology preschoolers’ use and exploration of concepts… 299 and share this experience with the other children. this is in accordance with vygotsky’s (1934/1999) insights that it is not until a child has understood its meaning that s-he will need a concept, and the concept can be expressed in any way, as long as it is shared with others. and, as the later wittgenstein (1968) proposed, language meaning is experienced in use. the results also show how preschoolers develop basic scientific concepts, like when ove uses the concept of ‘force’ as an everyday concept (vygotsky, 1934/1999) in his explanation to a researcher about what happens to a ball thrown slantingly up in the air. when using the concept, he relates it to his own experiences of balls being thrown and the consequences that can be drawn from his experience. the way ove uses ‘force’ in a sense that is not consistent with the scientific concept, but can rather be seen as one of the steps of generalization until he will be able to use it as a scientific concept (vygotsky, 1934/1999). ove, like evy in another example use, besides verbal expressions, also bodily and non-verbal expressions in the explanation. evy shows in her explanation that she is able to distinguish between what can be experienced with the senses and a more general abstract way of conceptualizing. this is in line with other studies that show that young children often include a broad repertoire of multimodal and other signs so make their ideas visible (åkerblom, 2015; siry & gorges, 2020; siry & kremer 2011). in the empirical material, there are also examples of how preschool children explore basic scientific concepts through reasoning and reflection. in one of the examples, when kristoffer is asked about how he experienced a drama activity about chemistry, he shows that he can distinguish between what in the activity is to be perceived as imagination – ‘we pretended to be water-molecules’ and what should be perceived as chemistry, the movement of molecules as an explanation of temperature. he is also using abstract metaphors and similes, indicating that those should not be interpreted literally. also carla reflects over the concept of molecules in relation to the experiences she made in the drama activity. the way carla and kristoffer are making sense of ‘chemistry’ and ‘molecule’ is consistent with vygotsky’s (1930/1995) writings on imagination as a mode of thinking and being able to combine different impressions. the way they children explore the concepts implies that they both are on the way to appropriate scientific concepts. those findings are consistent with research by siry and kremer (2011) who highlight that children should be given opportunities to share their understandings through discussions in relation to science activities. also, pramling samuelsson and pramling (2011) emphasize the role of language and linguistic mediation of a child’s experiences by a more competent partner, and the use of children´s different understanding as a resource and as a pedagogical principle. this is also in line with several studies where the usefulness of aestetic expressions is pointed out as a way for children to explore scientific knowledge (eg. kalogiannakis et al., 2018; güneş and şahin, 2020; ødegaard, 2003). conclusions to sum up, the results of this investigation show that the children’s elaboration to make sense of scientific and technology concepts appear as creative and sensible. the preschoolers are forming and sharing their own concepts, as well as using disciplinary concepts for problem solving and communication. the difference between the varying contexts bring light to the situatedness of conceptualization by young children. in the study about technology the children use concepts to make their insights about building common, in dialogue with their peers or teachers. it shows that concepts are closely linked to practice are created in the activities because they fill a concrete part, to be able to share them and solve technical problems together. whereas the dialogues about physical phenomena between children and a researcher had a different purpose, that was to reflect over their own used expressions. the form of dialogues, where the interviewer shifted between asking about physical phenomena and about the language the children had used to speak about the phenomena provided another kind of insight in the process of conceptualization. the conclusions for how children’s concept development and scientific sense-making could be supported in early childhood settings that can be drawn from this very limited study is that central to science education in preschool is that the children are afforded with rich opportunities to use disciplinary concepts and create concepts themselves to make sense of scientific phenomena. the findings are consistent annika åkerblom & kristina thorshag 300 with vygotsky’s (1934/1987) conclusions that scientific concepts are not learned in final form, but develop, and wittgenstein (1953/1968) that language meaning cannot be formulated at a general level, until/unless it is experienced in use. this means that conceptualization and development of abstract thinking is something that is experiential first; then becomes abstract. this means that, which is also highlighted in previous research, there must be science materials available and time to explore the materials in preschool settings (saçkes et al., 2011), but also and maybe even more critical, there must be a joint understanding among the educators about the purpose of the science activities, and they should be able to frame the science content of children’s experiences in a child-responsive way (sundberg et al., 2018). our study, and recent research (eg. güneş & şahin, 2020) also shows that children are more able to generalise and abstract scientific phenomena in a way that was previously not expected (piaget, 1971). for the preschool teachers, a consequence of this study as stressed by andersson and gullberg (2014) could be that it is more important to provide a positive and permitting environment for the children, than avoiding to work with science and concepts due to lack of knowledge and insecurity. this study contributes in particular to knowledge about children’s concept creation that points at the importance that science education for preschool children should aim to create dialogic spaces where children, with the support of their teachers can invent, develop and explore science and technology concepts in a context where the phenomena are experienced. limitations and implication for future research although this study has the potential to shed some light on children’s conceptual development, it suffers from limitations as well. first, since the empirical material was drawn from studies with different purposes and not with the specific aim of studying children’s conceptual development, the material could be difficult to analyze and information that would be interesting in relation to this study may be lacking in the material. also, the study is very small, which means that the results are not in any way, conclusive. the way the examples were chosen, with the aim to show a rich material and examples of a variety of concept creation should be seen as examples with the purpose to discuss the matter of conceptual development. therefore, implications for future research would be to make a larger study and to create the empirical material with the aim to answer the research questions from the beginning. for such a study, the present study could be seen as a guiding pilot study. declarations acknowledgements: not applicable. authors’ contributions: both of the authors have equal contribution. competing interests: the authors declare that they have no competing interests. funding: not applicable. references åkerblom, a. 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(original work published 1953) https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-005-0092-x https://doi.org/10.1080/1350293x.2012.704305 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9505-0_3 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2010.01.001 https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.20395 https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-19.2.2821 https://doi.org/10.1080/09500693.2019.1625495 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11422-011-9353-3 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-013-9364-z https://doi.org/10.1007/s10956-011-9320-5 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8527.2008.00405.x https://doi.org/10.1080/09500693.2018.1518615 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-005-0049-8 https://doi.org/10.1016/0959-4752(94)90018-3 journal of childhood, education & society volume 3, issue 3, 2022, 275-292 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.202233191 research article ©2022 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. deinstitutionalisation in hungarian child protection: policy and practice changes in historical contexts erzsébet rákó1 abstract: the aim of the study is to present the historical changes in child protection in hungary and the process of deinstitutionalisation, which is still shaping child protection work in this country. the research seeks to answer the question of how the process of institutionalisation and deinstitutionalisation was implemented in hungary in the socialist era and after the introduction of act xxxi of 1997 on the protection of children and on the directorate for guardianship (act xxxi of 1997), which was a milestone in the hungarian child protection for the 0-3-year olds. the study employs a case study methodology with secondary data corpus including legislation and data provided by the central statistical office in hungary. the scientific approach of the study is mainly historical, presenting the main features of child protection in three distinct periods 19501970, 1980-1995 and 1996-2018. the findings indicate that the socialist era has had a prevailing influence on child protection for many decades, but the years following the transition into democracy brought major transformation in child protection, a "transition of the child protection system", paving the way for the process of deinstitutionalisation and the emergence of alternative forms of care. article history received: 31 march 2022 accepted: 06 october 2022 keywords institutionalisation; deinstitutionalisation; children’s home; infant home; foster parents; socialist ideology introduction different models of child protection have developed throughout history. one of these is the model of western european countries, where the transformation of large institutions, the development of small group homes and the strengthening of foster care began in the late 1960s (gottesmann, 1991; petrie, 2006; trede, 1993). in contrast, the countries of central and eastern europe constitute the other model, which was characterised by the belief in the socialist era that institutional community placement was the best solution for children in care. the western european model only began to appear in hungary in the late 1980s (rákó, 2014). the study illustrates the changes in hungary mainly through the history of the development of infant homes, the institutions that provide protection for children aged 0-3 years. the choice of the age range can be justified by the fact that all international research draws attention to the fact that institutionalisation is particularly harmful for 0–3-year olds (browne et al., 2006; finelli et al., 2018; zeanah et al., 2017). the study is a descriptive case study of hungary in terms of analysing the road it took from institutionalisation to deinstitutionalisation the years (yin, 2018). its main contribution is to a more nuanced understanding of present policies in hungary and other countries in similar socioand geopolitical contexts, which can help and guide researchers in the field of early childhood education (ece) to focus their attention to similar processes within their native countries. nevertheless, we have not undertaken a detailed description of the entire child protection system, as this would go beyond the scope of this study. instead, the focus is on the factors that influence deinstitutionalisation of the processes of child protection over a sixty-five year period spanning across the socialist era and what followed in its wake. _____________ 1 university of debrecen, faculty of education for children and special educational needs, department of social pedagogy special education institute, hajdúböszörmény, hungary, email: rakoe@ped.unideb.hu, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0456-5829 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202233191 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:rakoe@ped.unideb.hu https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0456-5829 erzsébet rákó 276 historical background institutional care is referred to care that is in (often large) residential settings that are not built around the needs of the child nor close to a family or small-group situation, but display the characteristics typical of institutional culture (michela, 2012). it is hard to outline a common definition of ‘institutions’ applicable to the wide diversity of national contexts across europe. however, a few recurring features seem to characterise institutional care and constitute what has been referred to as ‘institutional culture’, like depersonalisation, rigidity of routine, block treatment, social distance. dependence, lack of accountability and social, emotional and geographical isolation are also typical of this kind of care. size and number of residents are not the only elements to classify a residential care facility as an institution, although they do appear to be proportionally related to the presence of an institutional culture: “the larger the setting, the fewer the chances are to guarantee individualised, needs-tailored services as well as participation and inclusion in the community” (european commission, 2009, p. 9). in 2009, the united nations general assembly drew attention to the serious gaps in the application of the convention on the rights of the child to children living outside their families or at risk of being separated from their families. therefore, the international community has come together and developed the methodological guideline, called “guidelines for the alternative care for children”. the guideline distinguishes the following forms of alternative care: 1. kinship care or family-based form of care within the child’s extended family; 2. foster care, when the child cannot be cared for in the family and is placed in a foster family prepared for the task for alternative care; 3. other forms of family-based or family-like care; 4. residential care, provided in a non-family-based, group setting, such as care that provides safe accommodation and care in crisis situations, temporary residential care, and other types of shortand longterm residential care, including residential care homes; 5. supervised, independent housing for children (united nations general assembly, 2010). in western european child protection models, alternative forms of care are implemented in the context of deinstitutionalisation. the concept of deinstitutionalisation in the field of child protection encompasses several factors. it is not only about transforming large institutions and placing children in family-like settings, but also about strengthening family education and developing community-based services at the same time and helping young people, who have come of age in the child protection system to leave institutions and integrate into society (michela, 2012). policy-driven process of reforming a country’s alternative care system, which primarily aims at: decreasing reliance on institutional and residential care with a complementary increase in family and community-based care and services; preventing separation of children from their parents by providing adequate support to children, families and communities; preparing the process of leaving care, ensuring social inclusion for care leavers and a smooth transition towards independent living (michela, 2012). deinstitutionalization has been defined as a change in the organization of the provision of services that is implemented in three stages: (a) release of service users from residential institutions, (b) directing potential users to alternative institutions, and (c) development of community services (baghragh, 1996). davidson et al. (2016), in contrast to baghragh (1996), distinguish two dimensions of deinstitutionalisation. de-institutionalisation policy focuses on two broad areas: (a) developing family support measures to prevent the separation of children from their family; and (b) developing family-based care placements in order to move children out of the institutions, and to provide options for children who will need ‘alternative care’ placements in the future (davidson et al., 2016). our study focuses on the factors of deinstitutionalisation identified by baghragh (1996) and davidson et al. (2016) and does not examine the third element identified by the michela (2012), which is the facilitation of social integration of young people as they reach adulthood. the child protection aspects of institutionalisation-deinstitutionalisation are summarised in table 1, based on the literature. deinstitutionalisation in hungarian child protection: policy... 277 table 1. the child protection aspects of institutionalisation-deinstitutionalisation* institutionalisation deinstitutionalisation physical environment large institutions of 100-200 people, isolated environments often on the outskirts of the municipality small-scale, family-based care, placing children in foster or adoptive families integrated housing within the municipality place of care the place of care may vary more often according to age or other factors striving for permanence, avoiding unnecessary changes in the place of care educational services meets the child's basic needs but does not focus on individual needs family and community-based services, according to the individual needs of the child characterised by a focus on community education, moving children around in a group at the same time, performing daily routines (eating, dressing, etc.) at the same time, uniformity community education is implemented, with children meeting their needs on a flexible schedule, similar to family life rigid agenda, house rules, rigorous rules, sometimes over-medicalised approach, on-site kindergarten, school may also operate in the institution typically flexible daily schedules and rules, but these can be adapted to individual needs; separation of residence, education and leisure activities according to the principle of normalisation frequent hospitalisation and its various manifestations, impersonal treatment, attachment difficulties personal, differentiated treatment, less hospitalisation, attachment patterns experts difficult to ensure the stability of carers, educators, educational attitude striving for permanence of carers and educators keeping in touch with family strive to work with the family, but it is sporadic intensive efforts to foster contact with the family *own adaptation based on literature, source: michela (2012), european commission (2009), majoros, (2015) during the era of socialism, the hungarian child protection system was based on total institutions, where the specific features of institutionalisation were clearly visible. among the total institutions, goffman (1961) includes children's homes for orphans and children in need. the specific functioning of total institutions is characterised by the fact that they operate according to formal rules, and institutional functioning is governed by institutional bureaucracy and it is also characterised by strict order. in the design of children's homes from the 1950s onwards, there was a tendency to operate them mainly in mansions and manor houses located in the outskirts of cities. the buildings themselves were not suitable to accommodate children. the peripheral location reinforced the isolation of the children, and the isolation was further increased by the operation of the so-called on-site kindergartens and schools. the onsite schools were an integral part of the child protection institutions, but the school requirements often lagged behind those of the external schools. there was a wide variety of child protection institutions, both in terms of accommodation and educational provision. however, all institutions have two aspects in common: a low standard of living compared to the national average and poor pedagogical quality. the main criterion for selecting teachers was not professional performance but political credibility. the foster homes mainly employed staff with teacher training, nevertheless the educational conditions were not favourable for the children. conditions for differentiated work based on children's needs were not provided (gergely, 1997). since the 1950s, in hungary there were a number of large children's homes with total institutional characteristics. the era was characterised by the placement of children in foster homes according to age. that means that there were infant homes, homes for pre-school children (3-6 years), homes for primary school children (6-14 years) and youth homes for children over 14 years (rákó, 2011). following the outline of the methodology in the subsequent section, the findings of the secondary data analysis are presented, which provide a more detailed overview of child protection as part of the institutionalisation-deinstitutionalisation processes of the period, and present the child protection provision for 0–3-year-olds through providing an overview of the history of the development of infant homes. erzsébet rákó 278 method the paper takes a historical approach to understand the current policy and processes of institutionalisation and deinstitutionalisation in child protection in hungary, informed by foucault’s (1977) idea of interrogating the past in order to illuminate the present. interpreting and evaluating past policies of child protection and practices of institutionalisation is informed here by knowledge and understanding of the present, which reveal key features of discourses and practices regarding out-of-home, alternative care for the youngest of children. the risk of revisionism – revisiting and re-evaluating matters of the past from a present perspectiveis to be acknowledged here (foucault, 1977). attempt are made to minimise the risk, therefore, a mixed-methods approach was adopted working with both qualitative and quantitative data (creswell & plano clark, 2017; onwuegbuzie, 2012). qualitative data (policy and legislation documents) was interrogated corroboratively with statistical data from the central statistical office in hungary for the examined period. secondary analysis of child protection statistics, as well as the analysis of the statistical data and content analysis of relevant legislations took place (white & marsh, 2006), using statistics to aid the interpretation of policy and legislation. this enabled a clear focus on the question that frames this paper: how did the alternative forms of care develop in hungarian child protection for 0-3year-olds during socialism and in the following years. interrogation of the data corpus helped identify three distinct historical periods of child protection, each with features that are identified as typical during those years. these are presented in the next three sub-sections. child protection in the 1950s-1970s: the proliferation of children’s homes and the decline of foster care the socialist era of the 1950s and 1960s was characterised by the strengthening of institutional education. this is illustrated by the data in table 2. children were mainly placed in institutions. the year 1955 was the first year in which the proportion of children in foster care fell significantly compared to the proportion of all children in state care. at that time, the proportion of children in foster care had fallen to 39.2 per cent compared with 50 per cent in 1954. by 1958, the decline in foster care service was even greater with only 25.2 percent of children in foster care, 30 percent fewer than in 1953. from 1960, the number of children in state care increased steadily. while in 1960 there were 23,408 children in state care, by 1968 the number of children living in residential care or foster care increased to 35,396, an increase of 50 per cent in just eight years. this trend continues throughout the 1960s, so that the proportion of children living in foster care compared to all children in state care was 27.2-33.9 per cent in the period 1960-68. in the socialist era, the institutionalist tendencies intensified, and it became a general trend to create as many orphanages and children's villages as possible, because of the bad experiences in foster care and in the spirit of the ideology of community education. it was felt that the foster care network was not beneficial, and that the best solution for children's education was a children's home. there was an unprecedented proliferation of children's homes (veczkó, 1990). table 2. child and youth protection institutions* year child and youth protection institutions total number of children in state care of which in children's home in foster care children placed in care as a proportion of the total number of children in care number of children placed number of people in hosted in state care 1953 15 25 055 11302 54,8% 13753 1954 15 23314 11644 50,0% 11670 1955 15 19327 11748 39,2% 7579 1956 15 19153 12368 35,4% 6785 1957 14 19931 14455 27,4% 5476 1958 14 21542 16107 25,2% 5435 1959 14 22600 17038 24,6% 5562 1960 14 23408 17213 26,4% 6195 1961 14 25340 18537 26,8% 6803 deinstitutionalisation in hungarian child protection: policy... 279 1962 17 27277 19844 27,2% 7433 1963 18 29365 21150 27,9% 8215 1964 19 31380 21243 32,3% 10137 1965 19 33420 22181 33,6% 11239 1966 19 33584 22175 33,9% 11409 1967 19 34483 22939 33,4% 11544 1968 20 35077 23710 32,4% 11367 1968 20 35396 24076 31,9% 11320 * own adaptation based on literature, source: central statistical office (1961) (1970). statistical yearbook 1960. p. 331, statistical yearbook 1969. p. 396. for children removed from their families, priority was given to institutional care, and these children could only be placed in foster care if there was no room in institutions. “the five-year plans included efforts to create child protection institutions. ngos have not been given any form of child protection functions, which have been primarily provided by the state. the government's efforts were characterised by the creation of large institutions, children's towns, where hundreds of children were placed. the development of children's homes became increasingly important. at the same time, the foster care network is being eroded.” (rákó, 2011, p. 47). during the period of socialism, education in the children’s homes was based on the documents programme for the further development of foster care education i and the programme for the further development of foster care education. the programme included the main content elements of community education, education for a healthy life, moral-political-ideological education, education for work and also leisure and cultural education (bábosik, 1976). typically of the period as a whole, the process of moralpolitical-secular education was implemented in all levels of institutional education, including child protection. in ideological education, considerable emphasis was placed on moral social orientation, the development of the moral-political-ideological qualities of the child, education in socialist humanism, socialist patriotism, a socialist attitude to work, and education to discipline (bábosik, 1976). institutional education for 0–3-year-olds was provided in infant homes. the first infant home in hungary was established by emmi pikler in 1946 in budapest, on lajos lóczy street, and was therefore often referred to as “lóczy”. the number of infant homes in hungary increased steadily, while in 1951 24 infant homes accommodated 1,288 persons with an occupancy rate of 87.1 per cent, in 1961 there were 43 infant homes with 3,591 places and an occupancy rate of 98.4 per cent, higher than in previous years (central statistical office [cso], 1961). the ministry of health was responsible for running infant homes. the infant homes were managed by a paediatrician, which in some cases reinforced the excessive medical approach and the relative rigidity of the infant homes. in infancy and toddlerhood, the daily routine is much tighter, and keeping to the children's daily routine is essential. because young children are more susceptible to infections, they need to be protected more carefully than older children to safeguard their health (révész, 2007). infant homes fulfilled several functions within the child protection system. on the one hand, they were responsible for the care and upbringing of children under the age of three, whose parents were temporarily or permanently unable to take care of them, or whose environment endangered their development. on the other hand, they also allowed the mother to be present during breastfeeding. a pioneer in the field of institutional childcare, emmi pikler (1976) has developed a unique approach to infant and early childhood education based on her experience collected as a paediatrician and in the nurseries, which has made her internationally recognised. the essence of his approach is that the children's needs should be taken into account when designing their life, providing maximum autonomy and autonomy for the children to develop their abilities. “when designing the structure of the institution, it was important for her from the beginning that the children stayed in the same room (group), where they were placed when they arrived until they left, and that they were always looked after by the same carers. although she did not yet know the results of bowlby and spitz's studies, she instinctively felt, knew, that babies needed a lot of personal attention and care, and that only adults who knew them well could provide it” (majoros, 2015, p. 131). erzsébet rákó 280 in spite of the predominance of institutional education in the period under study, innovative ideas appeared as early as the 1970s although they were not implemented in practice in many places which drew attention to the dangers of institutional education and the need to transform institutions. in the 1970s, pikler's research in infant homes drew attention to another form of over-hospitalisation, the lack of volitional manifestations: “more than once you see whole groups of children around two years old building with the same movements, the same blocks, the way they've been shown. if they are given the string in their hands and prompted, they pull the toy. the child is a passive puppet in the hands of the adult, acting only on explicit command, not on his own initiative. even a child who is able to sit still will allow himself to be fed with arms dangling, passively lying down, until the adult puts him on a bench or chair, hands him a spoon and tells him to eat alone” (pikler, 1976, p. 442). the period of socialist child protection between 1950 and 1970 is primarily characterised by institutionalisation. it is typical that foster care has declined alongside large institutions of 100-200 children. for many decades, foster parenting was not seen as professional work, work in the home and family was devalued, in contrast to the family large communities were considered the primary socialisation arena, and the need for specialised educational skills for children who were removed from their families was emphasised (homoki, 2011). care for 0–3-year-olds was also provided mainly in institutional settings, in nurseries, rather than in care. the basic needs of the child were met in the institutions, but individual needs were not the focus. community education, the uniformization of children, the movement of children in groups were all characteristic of the era and also the emergence of classic and newer forms of hospitalisation. alternative forms of care were not common in this era. the 1980s and 1990s rudimentary forms of deinstitutionalisation and renewed emphasis on family care the 1980s brought new changes in child protection. the changes were opened up by the fact that it became clear that socialist society could not eliminate the factors that disrupted children's development. thus, the political attitude towards child protection issues became more “permissive”. in 1979, as a result of the social crisis phenomena, national research was launched as an interministerial research priority under the title “complex study of social integration disorders” (hereinafter referred to as “sid”). this then played an important role in all the efforts to modernise child protection before the political regime change in 1990. the results of the sid research provided a theoretical background and reference for the reform efforts of child protection workers, which “legalised” these efforts (domszky, 1994). the research on social integration disorders was launched in 1981 on 6 themes and nearly 40 topics. the aim of the research was to explore deviance, although this term was not used. the rationale for the research was that these social phenomena were occurring on a massive scale, causing significant harm to both individuals and the society. and the institutions to deal with the problems were not in place during this period (rákó, 2011). in 1978, 8.9% of the population aged 0-17 years received some form of public care. this year, 33,411 children were in state care, placed in various institutions. the data show that, in terms of living conditions, most of the children concerned lived in state foster care, with around 12048 children, and a further 8995 children in foster care (miltényi & münnich, 1980) thus institutional placement was still preferred to foster care. institutionalisation of children in state care did not only mean placement in state foster homes. there were also a significant number of people placed in infant homes and special educational institutions, totalling more than 3,000. in the 1980s and 1990s, the number of infant homes and the number of children living in infant homes decreased. while in 1980 there were 3,759 children in infant homes in nurseries, in 1989 there were 2,376. the number of infant homes had fallen by six by 1989 (31) compared with 1980 (37). the situation of these infants is well illustrated by a study carried out by the national association of infant homes, founded in 1990, which involved 134 children in 35 infant homes. according to the research, children were placed in a deinstitutionalisation in hungarian child protection: policy... 281 children's home for a variety of reasons, including neglect, poor physical condition and malnutrition. they came mainly from their own biological families. as a problem in the functioning of the child protection system, they highlighted the slow administration of the authorities in settling the fate of these children, and in the case of placement in foster care the lack of preparedness of the whole process. the research has explored the ambition to expand the scope of activities of infant homes. for example, the admission of mothers to the infant home regardless of the duration of breastfeeding. hevesi et al. (1993) found that there was a growing push to extend the age of placement in infant homes to six years of age to avoid placement in another institution and to place children with their biological family or in foster care instead (hevesi et al., 1993). from the 1980s and 1990s, the elements of institutionalisation began to change, and deinstitutionalisation efforts began to appear, albeit in a rudimentary form. in the 1990s, the number of institutions and the number of children in their care continued to decline. in 1990, 31 institutions cared for 2147 children, by 1996, 27 institutions were operating and caring for 1670 children. from the 1980s onwards, there was a renewed emphasis on family care. in hungary, until the second half of the 1990s, the placement of children in foster care was determined by mt decree 2111 of 1954 about some organizational issues of child and youth protection and the placement was only possible if there was a shortage of places in educational institutions (boarding schools). professional foster parents were introduced in 1986 and their position was already regulated by law. professional foster carers were employed by the child and youth protection institutes. the working hours of a full-time foster carer are 6 days a week, with a part-time or retired professional foster carer or childcare worker on days off. professional foster carers look after a minimum of five and a maximum of ten children in their own home. the number of children to be accommodated is determined by the employer on the basis of the age, condition and development of the children. if they are caring for a child with a disability or a serious behavioural problem, they must be responsible for at least three children. – in professional foster care families, the mother became a full-time employee of the child and youth care institute, while the father or a family member became a part-time employee. professional foster carers may also work part-time, in which case they are assisted by a child carer if the number of children is at least eight. once the child reaches the age of adulthood, he or she can stay in the professional foster carer's household (mm decree xxviii of 1986 on the employment relationship of professional foster parents). in addition to professional foster parents, there were so-called traditional foster parents, who were not paid for their work, and who had an agreement with child and youth protection institutions. in contrast, professional foster carers were employed and carried out their work on a salaried basis. innovatively, in hajdú-bihar county, a crisis programme was launched in 1995 as a tender programme, which was integrated into the system of foster care services. as a result of the initiative it became a practice that newborn babies, who used to be placed into infant homes from the hospitals, were placed with foster parents until they were reintegrated into the family or adopted (rákó & bagdács, 2011). initiating radical change has also been difficult in the field of institutional education. towards the end of the 1980s began the development of the so-called family models within the foster home, children's city structure and the organisation of family-like groups (veressné gönczi, 2002). the socio-economic-political changes of 1990 contributed significantly to the transformation of the child protection institutional system. the socio-economic processes that developed in parallel with the end of the socialist era had an impact on the living conditions of children, and the existing care and institutional system could no longer deal effectively with child protection problems. hungary committed itself to renewing child protection by being among the first countries to ratify the united nations convention on the rights of the child [uncrc], 1989, in 1991. it states that a child who has been temporarily or permanently deprived of his or her family environment is entitled to special protection from the state. the convention sets out the possible forms of substitute protection, which may be placement with a family, adoption or placement in an appropriate children's institution (uncrc, 1989). in terms of child protection, the period 1980-1995 is still characterised by a strong institutionalisation, erzsébet rákó 282 although by the end of the period some elements of deinstitutionalisation appear, including the creation of smaller residential units within large institutions to provide family accommodation, and the emergence of professional foster parents. the uncrc (1989) emphasises the importance of deinstitutionalisation for the child protection systems of signatory countries, including hungary. during this period, the first steps were taken to prepare for deinstitutionalisation. among the alternative forms of care, the possibility of professional foster care emerged. child protection between 1996-2018: the increase of placement in foster care? the act xxxi of 1997 brought significant changes to the hungarian child protection system, and at the same time the living conditions of children living in institutions also changed. in the case of placement of a child removed from the family, the law gives preference to placement back in the biological family, foster care or adoption, and lastly, placement in a children's home. the aim is for children to live in a family environment, rather than an institutional one, even if this is not possible within their own family. another important aspect for children is to spend as little time away from their families as possible. the existing network of child protection institutions was also modernised in 1997. in the context of deinstitutionalisation, large institutions have been continuously restructured, smaller, more familyoriented residential homes have been created, and foster care has been expanded. in the remaining part of the paper, we present a comparative analysis of the characteristics of child care before and after 1997. we will focus on the main stages of deinstitutionalisation and present the changes/trends affecting children aged 0-3 at each stage. after 1997, the first phase of the process involved the creation of small residential homes to provide family-like conditions for children. the second phase of deinstitutionalisation started in 2004, when more children were placed in foster care than in children's homes. the third phase of the process started in 2014, when more than 90 percent of children under 12, two-thirds of all children in specialised care, were placed in foster care. the 1st phase of deinstitutionalisation dates back to the years after 1997. at that time the infant homes, homes for pre-school children (3-6 years) and school-age children (6-14 years) which provided ageappropriate care for children, have been discontinued. after 1997, 3-6 year olds were placed in foster care, special children's homes and residential homes. 6-14 year olds were mainly living in foster care, residential care homes and children's homes in co-educational mixed-age groups in the years after 1997. the highcapacity children's homes have been constantly transformed, replacing them mainly by residential homes, which provide continuous care for 12 children. the general children's home accommodated up to forty children in a small community. children's homes and residential care homes have differentiated according to the needs of children, and children's homes and residential care homes specialising in the care of children with special needs and specific needs have also appeared (according to act xxxi of 1997 no 53 §). there are two categories of residential care in hungary: one category includes children with severe psychiatric or psychosocial symptoms, children who use psychoactive substances and children suspected of being victims of human trafficking this category is called “special” in this study. another form of special care must be provided for children under three years of age and who are chronically ill or disabled this category is called “specific” in the study.) the special children's homes and residential care homes are for children aged 0-3 years with a persistent disability. children with antisocial behaviour, psychoactive substance abuse, delinquent behaviour, dysfunctional behaviour and severe behavioural integration difficulties were placed in special children's homes and special residential care homes. the aftercare home can provide additional care if the child has reached the adult age but still meets the conditions (act xxxi of 1997) support for the foster care network was already growing in the 1980s and after 1997 this was the preferred form of accommodation to ensure family accommodation. in these years there were traditional, professional and special professional foster parents. the system was restructured in 2014, with new categories of foster carers, special and specific foster carers, better adapted to the needs of the children, and all foster carers now working on an employed basis. deinstitutionalisation in hungarian child protection: policy... 283 table 3. number of places and children by type of care in 2005* title number of places authorised temporarily placed transitional foster care permanen tly fostered total recipient of aftercare temporary care in total number of children children's home children's home 3651 376 2429 107 2912 392 29 3333 residential home 4608 105 3019 291 3415 832 2 4249 special children's home 384 2 270 26 298 19 317 aid and children's home 1032 16 603 83 704 177 879 aftercare home 571 2 2 449 451 specific children's home 607 58 334 67 459 62 521 * source: central statistical office (cso) (2006). information on family, child and youth protection. szmm department of child and youth protection. p. 53. the placement options for children are illustrated in table 3. the data clearly show that in 2005, residential homes provided the largest number of places for children in need 4608 in total. accordingly, the majority of children (4,249) were placed in this type of institution, i.e. many more children were placed in institutions providing family-like conditions. after the introduction of act xxxi of 1997, foster care became more preferred. up to the second half of the 1990s, the number of foster parents showed a decreasing trend, according to cso (2004), in 1990 there were 5373 foster parents, in 1997 there were 4809, while in 2002 there were 5020. between 2002 and 2005, there has been a small but steady increase in the number of people taking on the task. the number increased from 5020 in 2002 to 5323 in 2005. table 4. number of foster parents in 2005* number of foster parents with professional foster parent traditional foster parent total 0 child in need of child protection 2 474 476 1 16 1867 1883 2 31 1189 1220 3 40 783 823 4 57 384 441 5 84 167 251 6 or more 17 59 229 total 400 4923 5323 *source: central statistical office (cso) (2006). information on family, child and youth protection. szmm department of child and youth protection. p. 59. table 4 shows that in 2005 there were 400 professional and 4,923 traditional foster parents in hungary. typically, foster carers were most likely to foster 1-2-3 children. fewer took on the task of fostering 5 or more children, with 480 foster parents in 2005. the national study, which also covered foster carers, found that foster parent networks cannot be developed indefinitely due to a lack of suitable foster carers. between 1999 and 2002, the number of foster carers increased from 4789 to 5020, according to the survey. the slow growth in the number of foster carers is due to the low number of applicants and the ageing of foster carers. the survey shows that many people apply to become foster parents in order to solve their existential problems, for lack of other options (state audit office of hungary, 2004). erzsébet rákó 284 figure 1. changes in the number of places in infant homes (source: tóth j. n. (ed.) (2004). the state of child protection specialized care in the 20th century. cso, p. 18.) according to révész (2007), the act xxxi of 1997 “forgot” about infant homes. the previous division of children's homes according to age has been abolished, with children aged 0-18 being placed in children's homes until the age of 24, subject to certain conditions. children are placed in co-educational, mixed-age groups in different types of homes. after the introduction of the act xxxi of 1997, the number of infant places decreased and the number of maternity places increased (figure 1). according to the data in the figure 1 while in 1990 there were 3,690 places for infants and 144 places for mothers, in 2002 there were 1,399 places for infants and 94 places for mothers. placing mothers together with their children helps to strengthen the mother-child relationship, and in many cases it is the only option for the mother, as some mothers have been institutionalised themselves. “it is mainly under-age mothers, in need of state care, who are placed with their newborn babies in special children's homes and residential homes. in some places, it is also possible for an adult mother, who may be working, to be admitted to the children's home with her newborn or oneor two-year-old child. in this case, the children have a place in a group for their age group, but spend all or most of the day with their mother.” (majoros, 2015, p. 151). until december 2005, infant homes in hungary were under continuous restructuring. special children's homes have been set up to accommodate children who need special care because of their age (03 years old), children who are permanently ill and children with disabilities, who are defined by law as having special needs. the special children's home also provides early development, care and education for children under the age of 6, with disabilities and developmental delays. children's homes can accept children aged 0-3 if they can provide the necessary conditions for their placement. the average number of people in these homes was 8.4 at its highest and 7.1 at its lowest in the period 1980-1997. the child protection act capped the number of children in these homes at 8. foster care, which would be particularly appropriate for children under three, could not always be provided. “for foster parents, fostering a small child is not a general task, but one that requires very specific knowledge and skills. in addition, some social work professionals stress that for a significant proportion of children, who are placed in specialised care at a young age, if the mother or parents receive special help and support during their visits to the nursery, they are more likely to be able to take the child home after a relatively short period of time” (révész, 2007, p. 38). the year 2004 was a milestone in terms of deinstitutionalisation, when for the first time more than half (51.3 per cent) of the children in child protection care were placed with foster parents. this proportion has steadily increased every year according to table 8, and by 2018 the vast majority of children, 68.3 per cent, were living with a foster parent (cso, 2019). efforts to place children in families have steadily increased, with the creation of foster parent networks and intensive recruitment of foster parents. in 2018, 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 2002* 2000* 1990 1980 1970 places for mothers places for children deinstitutionalisation in hungarian child protection: policy... 285 49 foster parent networks were operating in hungary. a network brings together ten foster parents and is supported by a variety of professionals special needs teachers, psychologists, development teachers, etc. foster parents who look after children under three years of age or children with long-term illness or disabilities, i.e. children with special needs are included in the special foster carers group. there are significant inequalities in the distribution of foster parents across counties, some of which result from inequalities in foster parent networks. 4% of settlements with more than 30 000 inhabitants had foster parents. two-thirds of the foster carers lived in small settlements with fewer than 5,000 inhabitants. in certain counties and regions, the “population density” of foster parents is high in the north-east regions in hungary. the vast majority of these regions and municipalities are considered to be at high risk of poverty and are correlated with the presence of a roma population (babusik, 2009). there are therefore significant differences in the number of foster parents between counties and regions. the capital and the counties in the north-east regions have a high number of foster parents, nearly 60 percent of all foster parents are living here (cso, 2019). in the public sector, from 2013, specialised care was placed under the responsibility of the directorate general for social protection of children, part of the ministry of human resources. as well as being run by the state, church and non-governmental organisations are also involved in running the foster care networks. in terms of proportions, there is a tendency for state involvement to decline, with civil society networks only participating to a small extent, while church involvement has increased significantly in recent years (boros, 2021). in 2000, there were 4,858 foster parents, rising to 5,753 in 2013. this is partly due to the recruitment of foster parents. the number of traditional foster carers is significantly higher than that of professional foster carers. while their number is only a fraction of that of traditional foster carers, the number of professional foster carers as mentioned earlier, they are employed is on the decline. while there were 400 professional foster carers in 2005, there were only 293 in 2013 (cso, 2014). the third major phase of the hungarian deinstitutionalisation process started in 2014. this year has seen a number of significant changes in child protection, which have helped to achieve deinstitutionalisation. one such change is the restructuring of foster care. the foster parents are employed, for which they receive a salary, and this is accompanied by the deduction of length of service, sick pay entitlement and family tax allowance. foster parents can be special or specific foster parents depending on the needs of the children they care for. the number of foster parents decreases in the years after 2013, except in 2018, when the number of foster parents increased minimally, 20 persons compared to 5753 in 2013. the number of special foster parents is much smaller in relation to the total number of foster parents, between 17 and 21 per cent. the exception is 2020, when the number of special foster parents increased by 278 compared to 2019 (cso, 2021). this increase in numbers could be due to the introduction of a cash benefit for foster parents, the childcare allowance in 2020, which foster parents can claim up to the age of two of the children. this is another way the government is trying to help increase the number of special foster parents. caring for children with special needs is no small task for foster parents. based on the literature, the most significant problem is the foster care of children under three years of age with a permanent illness or disability. “foster parents rarely take on the care of young children with a severe disability, permanent illness or health impairment because they lack the material resources and specialised skills to provide for them safely and professionally. a further problem is the difficulty of access to development and therapy services in the area” (gyarmati et al., 2018, p. 79). in a study conducted by gyarmati et al. (2018), they found that most of the children with special needs aged 0-6 years in the study were directly introduced into the foster care network from the biological family, and secondarily directly from the hospital. the move from foster care to institutional care is usually triggered by a deterioration in the child's condition. and in the case of a transfer from another foster family, the most typical is the difficulty of care in that foster family. in institutions for children under three with erzsébet rákó 286 special needs, 60% of children come from the hospital. foster parents are less willing to take care of children with disabilities or long-term illnesses, and it is often only at the foster parent's home that it is discovered that the child has a problem or developmental delay. “by disability, the largest number of children in foster parent networks are those who show a lag in healthy development. second in the order of frequency is persistent illness, and third is mental or psychological impairment. children with sensory and locomotor disabilities are the least numerous. in 76 per cent of cases, the child's disability is diagnosed after placement in foster care, and in more than half of the children (51 per cent) the disability was first noticed by the foster parent” (gyarmati et al., 2018, p. 83). the number of children aged 0-3 living in child protection care has been steadily increasing since 2013. in 2013, there were 2512 children aged 0-3 living in foster families or children's homes, a number that increased by almost 1000 to 3464 in 2018. in 2013, the proportion of children aged 0-3 years was 13.4% of the total number of minors under 18 living in child protection, rising to 16.3% in 2018. this tendency is less prevalent among 4-5 year olds, but is also very strong among 6-9 year olds, who are not in our target group. overall, it is also true that the number of children entering child protection has been steadily increasing since 2013. in 2013, there were 18674 children under the age of 18 living in child protection by 2018, rising to 21,210 (cso, 2019). this is despite the fact that act xxxi of 1997 aimed to reduce the number of children living in institutions and foster care. the “hintalovon” child rights foundation's 2019 report on children's rights states that not only is the number of children in specialised care increasing, but also the number of children under 3 years old entering children's homes (306 in 2018). the report states that the idea that all children under 12 admitted to specialised care should be placed in foster care by 31 december 2016 has not been achieved (there is a module specifically for special and particular foster parents) (balogh et al., 2021). a higher proportion of parents give up children with severe disabilities and special needs. children's homes have more children with special or specific needs, persistent illnesses and children aged 0-3 than foster families. few children are placed in foster families, because the number of applicants for special and specific foster parent status is even lower and is steadily decreasing. an important shortcoming mentioned in the report is that the current foster parent training does not include a module specifically designed for special and specific foster parents (balogh et. al, 2019). among the alternative forms of care, family placement would be absolutely justified for 0-3 year olds. a number of studies (browne, 2006; finelli et al., 2018; zeanah et al., 2003) have shown that children's development both physical and mental is significantly affected by being raised in a family rather than in an institution. one of the basic studies, which started in 2000 is the bucharest early intervention project (beip), which is the only study to use a randomised controlled design to study the benefits of deinstitutionalisation. following an extensive baseline assessment, 68 of the 136 children in institutions (aged 6-31 months) were randomly assigned to a high-quality foster care programme that was developed and financed by the investigators. the other 68 children were randomly assigned to care as usual, which initially meant that these children remained in institutional care. all children were followed up at 30, 42 and 54 months of age, and also at the age of 8 and 12 years. the development of children living in foster care was compared with that of children randomly selected to stay in the institution. the foster care intervention was broadly effective in enhancing children’s development, and for specific domains, including brain activity (eeg), attachment, language, and cognition, there appear to be sensitive periods regulating their recovery. that is, the earlier a child was placed in foster care, the better their recovery. although the sensitive periods for recovery vary by domain, our results suggest that placement before the age of 2 years is key. quality of caregiving, which was objectively coded from videotaped observations, was higher in the children in beip foster care than children who received care as usual (zeanah et al., 2017). in hungary, the number of foster care placements for 0-2 year olds has increased in line with the changes required in 2014 which provided that children under 12 must be placed with a foster parent and by 2018, nearly 90 percent of 0-2 year olds were living in foster care (lux & sebhelyi, deinstitutionalisation in hungarian child protection: policy... 287 2019). the process of deinstitutionalisation started in the period 1996-2018 and has continued steadily, and is still ongoing today, 25 years on. from 1997 onwards, three significant periods of deinstitutionalisation emerged. a particular feature of the post-1997 period has been the transformation of large institutions into smaller-scale, family-style residential care homes, which has promoted the spread of alternative forms of care. in residential care homes, the principle of normalisation is applied, which provides for the separation of living, education/work and leisure. the normalization principle also implies a normal routine of life. most people live in one place, work or attend school somewhere else, and have leisure-time activities in a variety of places (nirje, 1994). discussion in this research we sought to answer the question of how did the alternative forms of care develop in hungarian child protection for 0-3-year-olds during socialism and in the following years. taking into account the features of institutionalisation and deinstitutionalisation in the historical approach, three periods emerged: 1950-1970, 1980-1995, 1996-2018. institutionalisation strengthened by socialist ideology the socio-economic determinants of child protection are well reflected in the overview of the three periods. the socialist ideology of the 1950-70s had an impact on child protection. the socialist system of plan guidance and central prescription also prevailed in child protection, which further strengthened institutionalism. the period was characterised by the regression of foster care, given the socialist era's lack of trust in foster parents. it relied much more on institutional, community education, where children received a uniformed, ideologically expected moral-political-ideological education. socialist-style education also had an impact on the 0-3 age group we studied. among other things, the children were given uniform clothes and performed routine activities in groups at the same time. the impact on children's development, in addition to hospitalisation, is that the individual needs of the child were ignored. the beginnings of deinstitutionalisation from a socio-economic-political point of view, the period 1980-1995 was characterised by a significant "softening" of socialism in hungary. the economy has started to move from a planned economy to a market-based economy. various studies were published to draw attention to social problems, and it was no longer possible to hide the existence of difficulties such as poverty, disadvantage, etc. the changes have also affected child protection, with the first cautious attempts at reform, such as the introduction of professional foster parents. this gave foster carers a choice, as they were also allowed to work as employees. however, institutional education continued to dominate child protection institutions were the most trusted partners of the paternalistic state. the ideological upbringing of children, the socialist ideal of man, could still be realised in institutional education, where ideological education could presumably be better controlled and kept under control than in a foster family. however, towards the end of the period, reforms were also introduced in the institutions, with small family groups being set up in children's homes as an experiment. the living conditions of children in institutional education continued to be characterised by communal education and a disregard for individual needs. the isolated location of the institutions outside the settlements created a sense of isolation for the children, which was further aggravated by the operation of on-site kindergartens and schools within the child protection institutions. institutionalisation remained strong in this period. reforms in child protection and care practices the transition to democracy has significantly transformed the socio-economic structure in hungary, the multi-party system and the transition to a market economy were established. a number of social problems also needed to be solved during these years. parallel to the change in the social system, there has also been a significant change in the approach to child protection, with the beginning of the “change of the erzsébet rákó 288 child protection system”. more and more innovations have been introduced and after many years of preparatory work and summarising practical experience, the act xxxi of 1997 on the protection of children has been introduced, which forms the basis of the deinstitutionalisation process. when the law was introduced, the expected impact of the targeted programmes was to reduce the number of children living in institutions and foster care by half in the first instance and by two-thirds in the longer term (herczog, 1997). to achieve this, child welfare services to strengthen families were regulated by law. however, even in 2018, an unjustifiably high number of children were still in need of institutional care, especially children with disabilities and children with long-term illnesses. unfortunately, in recent years, the number of children in child protection care in hungary has increased, despite the original objective of reducing the number of children in care. this may be due, among other things, to child poverty, disorganised family backgrounds and the fact that primary child welfare services have few tools to strengthen families. among the alternative forms of care, first residential care and then, gradually since 2004, foster care have played an increasing role in the protection of children. in addition, the forms of placement that take better account of the needs of children, like residential care, foster care and, in particular, special forms of foster care have been further strengthened the emergence and effectiveness of alternative forms of care. the working conditions of foster carers have also changed since 2014, from this year onwards they are working on an employed basis. in addition to this, child protection care has seen the emergence of deinstitutionalisation features such as the tendency to have stable care places, flexible daily schedules, a family atmosphere, individualised and differentiated treatment, stronger attachment to the foster parent or carer and the development of a system of private carers in institutions for 0-3 year olds. contacts with biological parents are regulated and every effort is made to help the child return to his or her biological family. following the amendment of the law in 2014, children under the age of 12 were mainly placed in foster care. the proportion of children in foster care is currently close to 90 per cent among the 0-3 age group we studied. deinstitutionalisation has brought significant changes for the institutions. with the restructuring of the institutions, their location has been integrated within the municipality. the institutions are smaller and more open. in line with the principle of normalisation, the place of residence, the place of education and the place of leisure are separated. on-site kindergartens and schools have been abolished. the individual needs of children are taken into account more than before. children's sense of security can be enhanced by seeking stability of the staff, carers/caregivers and promoting contact with the biological family. it is clear from the above that socio-economic changes have a significant impact on the development of child protection. the socialist are has had an impact on child protection for many decades. the years following the democratic transition also brought a major transformation in child protection, a “transition of the child protection system”, paving the way for the deinstitutionalisation process and the emergence of alternative forms of care. conclusion the study findings suggest that the process of deinstitutionalisation is underway in hungarian child protection, but it is not yet complete. hungarian child protection has been trying for a long time at least 25 years to use alternative forms of care and to strengthen deinstitutionalisation. the ratification of the un convention on the rights of the child, which took place in hungary in 1991, was a major step forward in the process. looking at the different eras, it is clear that a number of laws and amendments have been passed, but some of these are still to be implemented. legislation alone is worth little, the implementation is the key issue. hungarian child protection was significantly influenced by the ideological aspirations of different periods, which affected the social policy of the time and the child protection system within it. this article highlights the development of alternative forms of care, which has made significant progress, particularly in the recent period, i.e. 1996-2018 including the pikler method, which gained early recognition deinstitutionalisation in hungarian child protection: policy... 289 internationally whereas its spread in hungary came later. alternative forms of care emerged mainly after the introduction of the child protection act in 1997, but their potential has not yet been fully exploited. right now in the hungarian system alternative forms of care are clearly characterised by a preference for foster care. at the theoretical level, there is a need for comprehensive research that could explore the current situation of foster carers. in general, empirical research is scarce in hungary, despite the fact that foster care has become a widespread form of care in recent years. there is a need for more research into the coping skills and training of foster carers and the stability of this form of placement. a further research topic could be the emergence of a significant role for church-based providers in alternative forms of care, including foster care, and their impact on the child protection system. the research findings could be used to develop intervention guidelines and policy decisions that could lead to the improvement of practical work within a complex child protection approach. the limited number of places in foster care is still a challenge, while the number of children in need of child protection is increasing, especially in the 0-3 age group. a sobering fact is that the number of foster carers cannot be increased indefinitely. there are several reasons for this: on the one hand, not everyone is suitable for foster care, and on the other hand, our study shows that foster parents find it more difficult to care for children aged 0-3 years and children with long-term illnesses and disabilities. various legislative and social policy measures have tried to change this situation in recent years, such as the possibility for those, who work as full-time foster parents to also receive childcare allowance for children aged 0-3. more favourable working conditions, employment opportunities and benefits as well as specialised training could potentially increase the number of foster carers. more attention should also be paid in their training to the care and education of children aged 0-3 years and children with long-term disabilities. in addition, recreational leave can also influence the effectiveness of foster parenting. as regards the alternative forms of care, taking into account the theoretical, practical and policy aspects, it would be worthwhile to develop a complex child protection concept based on the needs and age of children, which would help practical work based on research. as an element of the concept, primary prevention should be emphasised, i.e. the prevention of children being removed from their families. intensive family preservation services (bányai, 2015), which means intensive social work and assistance with the family, would be one way to do this. this includes educating parents about child-rearing and the needs of their children. this service is currently underused in hungarian child welfare services, mainly due to a lack of human resources. the next element of this concept is the development of foster parent networks and the training of foster parents, based on the research presented above. among the alternative forms of care the family-based, family-like care could be improved, which is already an applicable method in hungary. the law allows children to be placed with a third person, who is not necessarily a relative. this solution is not widespread now, but could bring a significant increase in capacity, especially for 0-3 year olds. however, to do this, it would be necessary to make this opportunity more widely known, and to raise public awareness. the concept could include a presentation of the role of ngos and churches in child protection, as well as a presentation of international good practices and an analysis of their potential for adaptation in hungary. this paper also argues that all types of alternative care may be needed, to varying degrees, bearing in mind the needs of children. thus, in some cases, placement in a children's home or in a residential home may be just as necessary as foster care in order to ensure that individual needs of the child are catered for. the effectiveness of child protection work can be improved by increasing the resources allocated to child protection and by expanding the range of services that strengthen families (thus avoiding the use of foster care and institutionalisation), which could be made even more effective by inter-professional cooperation and a more co-ordinated approach between services. declarations author’s declarations authors’ contributions: this is the sole work of the author. erzsébet rákó 290 competing interests: the author declare that she have no competing interests. funding: no funding was used for this study. ethics approval and consent to participate: the research reported here does not involve human subjects. publisher’s declarations editorial acknowledgement: the editorial process of this article was carried out by eleonora teszenyi, anikó varga nagy, and sándor pálfi. publisher’s note: journal of childhood, education & society remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliation. references act xxxi of 1997 on the protection of children and on the directorate for guardianship. 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(2017). alternatives for abandoned children: insights from the bucharest. early intervention project. current opinion in psychology, 15, 182–188. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.02.024 https://doi.org/10.1353/lib.2006.0053 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.02.024 deinstitutionalisation in hungarian child protection: policy and practice changes in historical contexts table 3. number of places and children by type of care in 2005* table 4. number of foster parents in 2005* journal of childhood, education & society volume 2, issue 3, 2021, 267-286 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.202123118 research article ©2021 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. science starts early: a literature review examining the influence of early childhood teachers’ perceptions of gender on teaching practices erin e. hamel1 abstract: women are underrepresented in science fields as compared to men and although much research has been dedicated to understanding this disparity, most has been conducted on older aged children. however, this excludes the youngest and arguably most impressionable group of students: preschoolers. this study reviewed the literature to investigate how early childhood teachers’ perceptions of gender influence their teaching practices. qualitative analysis and coding of 31 articles resulted in five main categories: teacher perception, curriculum, teacher interactions, gender identity, and social standing. results are discussed in the context of early childhood science teaching practices to better understand the role of the teacher and gender bias in young children’s preschool science experiences and how it may impact their future science interests. article history received: 30 july 2021 accepted: 09 november 2021 keywords early childhood; science; preschool; gender introduction it is widely known that girls and women are underrepresented in science fields. one explanation for the noted discrepancy are gender socialization processes and societal attitudes that encourage traditional gender roles (eccles et al., 1993; eccles, 2007; haworth et al., 2009; leibham et al., 2013). gender roles are believed to be socially constructed through values and beliefs present in relationships, society, and institutions (davies, 2003). gender roles are acquired early in life and have the potential to influence both males and females (bigler & liben, 2006). developmental intergroup theory (bigler & liben, 2006) aims to explain children’s acquisition of stereotype and prejudice by proposing that “biases may be largely under environmental control and thus might be shaped via educational, social, and legal policies” (p.162). this idea is supported by a study of interactions in the home environment, finding that mothers’ perceptions of their child’s math abilities predicted child beliefs about their math ability (gunderson et al., 2012). the family context has been a focus of research in developing gender roles. a study analyzing the conversations of parents and children during science-related tasks indicated that parents perceived science activities as more difficult and less interesting for their daughters than their sons (tenenbaum & leaper, 2003). as a result, interactions with daughters and sons differed, indicating that differential treatment in regards to science occurs in the home environment. further, research indicates that opportunities for science learning also varies, with parents of young boys ages 4 to 7 years old reporting more science-related opportunities for their child than parents of young girls of the same age (alexander et al., 2012). yet these differences are not confined to the home environment. in a study of interactions between parents and their children at a museum exhibit, researchers found that boys were three times more likely to receive science explanations from their parents than girls despite equal amounts of conversation (crowley et al., 2001). likewise, it is conceivable that early childhood teachers, knowingly or unknowingly, exhibit similar gender bias in their interactions which may impact the children in their care. teachers are largely in control of the quality of the classroom. this is particularly noteworthy because for young children, preschool is the _____________ 1 university of georgia, mary frances early college of education, department of communication sciences and special education, athens, ga, usa, e-mail: erin.hamel@uga.edu, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9890-8484 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202123118 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:erin.hamel@uga.edu https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9890-8484 erin e. hamel 268 first experience in a formal educational setting and sets the stage for development, future interests, and learning. therefore, it is important to understand early childhood teacher’s attitudes and perceptions of gender and how it may influence teacher practices. teachers may explicitly or implicitly demonstrate gender biased views or stereotypes that influence their interactions, management, and pedagogical decisions in the classroom. exposing young children to early gender stereotypes has been shown to influence children’s long-term interests and ideas about intelligence (bian et al., 2017). the present study systematically examines the literature using the research question, how do early childhood teachers perceive gender and how does this influence their teaching practices? developmental intergroup theory this research is guided by bigler & liben’s (2006) developmental intergroup theory (dit), an approach to understanding and explaining how children develop stereotyping and prejudice. other theories have attempted to explain children’s acquisition of biases, dit furthers those understandings by describing why some traits and not others become the focus of bias (bigler & liben, 2006, 2007). many variations of human dimensions exist, such as handedness, skin color, gender, and eye color; yet not all of these features are prominent factors in stereotyping and prejudice. dit addresses this difference by combining concepts from social identity intergroup theory and cognitive theories of constructivism offered by piaget to propose that stereotypes and prejudice are attained largely through explicit and implicit biases displayed in the environment coupled with children’s developing ability for categorizing salient attributes (bigler & liben, 2007). dit suggests that three main processes occur for individuals when forming social stereotyping (bigler & liben, 2007). first, the child establishes psychological salience of attributes that differ across people. next, children categorize individuals by salient traits which is part of a cognitivedevelopmental process, constructivism, in which the child attaches meanings (positive or negative, true or untrue) to the categories they have created. finally, this results in the third process of developing stereotypes and prejudice related to salient features. given that the purpose of this paper is to explore children’s preschool experiences related to adult perceptions of gender, the first process of dit is particularly relevant. understanding how children are establishing psychological salience of personal attributes, which is largely based on their experiences, may provide insights on how to prevent the formation of social stereotypes and prejudice. bigler & liben (2007) suggest children’s formation of psychological salience of attributes occurs in four ways: proportional group size, perceptual discriminability, explicit labeling and use, and implicit use. proportional group size is relevant when working with populations that form a minority. in the case of this study, it is less important and was not a focus of my analysis as males and females make up roughly equal amounts of the population. for this study, the factors of perceptual discrimination, explicit use, and implicit use are most relevant. perceptual discrimination it is important to consider how children might be receiving messages from their environment and interactions and then subsequently shaping these messages into thoughts about their own or others gender. perceptual discrimination refers to noticeable features, which young children tend to focus on, such as noticing hair color instead of less-noticeable handedness. early childhood educators who intentionally draw attention to gender defining features, clothing, or traits would make gender more salient for children. while categorization is an important skill for children to learn and an almost infinite amount of ways exist for categorizing, some are more prevalent than others, such as gender. a continuous emphasis on gender categorization by a teacher may signal to children that this is an important bases for classifying people. this is significant in relation to science because children are forming ideas about their own gender and others gender which may unintentionally serve as a foundation for science-related stereotypes regarding who does and does not do science and who belongs in scientific fields. beyond science, this raises ethical concerns for gender nonconforming children who would benefit from gender neutral language and deserve a supportive environment that respects their most authentic self. gender nonconformity is beyond the scope of this paper, but warrants further research and consideration. science starts early: a literature review examining the influence of early childhood… 269 explicit labeling and use early childhood educators may explicitly categorize gender through their daily routines and practices (playing a song during music and movement that requires girls to move in one way and boys to move in another). educators can explicitly enforce gender roles by managing the classroom with a focus on traditional gender behavior, such as intentionally leading girls to more feminine centers in the classroom to practice gender roles such as “playing house” or “cooking.” this type of explict labeling and use could draw children’s attention to and reinforce stereotypes that deter children from playing outside of their perceived gender role, potentially limiting girls’ play and exploration of science-focused centers. implicit labeling and use implicitly shaping gender stereotypes in the early childhood classrooms occurs when educators make gender unnecessarily salient (instructing a child to “ask the man if the mail has arrived”). another aspect would be grouping children by gender without explicitly labeling the groups but then segregating the groups. this approach shows that when groups are segregated by a feature, although the feature is not labeled, higher bias occurs (bigler & liben, 2007). teachers implicit labeling has the potential to introduce or reinforce bias making it vital that teachers are aware of their own prejudice and biases related to children’s gender and science. overall, dit helps explain factors that may be contributing to the formation of social stereotypes and prejudice in young children. early childhood teachers’ perceptions of gender may influence their classroom teaching practices which could impact children’s science learning opportunities and subsequently children’s science-related interests and experiences. thus, it is important to understand early childhood teachers’ perceptions and attitudes about gender and how it influences their practices. literature review a generous amount of effort has been dedicated to studying gender inequality in science, technology, engineering, and mathematical (stem) fields, most conducted at the middle-school, highschool, and college levels (riegle-crumb et al., 2012; robinson-cimpian et al., 2014; wang, 2013). even extensive reviews of the literature on girls and science are comprised largely of studies on older students, with only a handful of articles on elementary schools identified (brotman & moore, 2008). unfortunately, this overlooks the youngest and arguably most impressionable population of students: preschoolers. findings on science achievement are at odds. in elementary school, girls show less interest in science than boys with girls’ interest continuing to decline with age so that by ages 10-14 a marked difference in science attitudes by gender appears (catsambis, 1995). unfortunately, not only does interest wane for girls, but they perceive science as uninteresting and boring (jones et al., 2000). although some research indicates girls have a less positive attitude and interest in science, there is evidence that they perform equally as well or better than their male counterparts in science class (catsambis, 1995; greenfield, 1996; jones et al., 2000). however, more recent literature reveals a gender gap in science achievement beginning as early as first grade (curran & kellogg, 2016) and persisting over time, resulting in a call for intervention at an earlier stage of development, such as preschool (morgan et al., 2016). one area of consensus between early childhood and the science field is on the suitability of teaching science in the early years. most agree that children have a natural curiosity of the world around them which motivates them to explore scientific concepts and topics in authentic ways. in addition, research supports science education beginning early on in life as a way to develop positive attitudes towards science, expose children to scientific concepts through language and teachable moments, and develop scientific thinking (eshach & fried, 2005; morgan et al., 2016). there is increasing evidence that children’s early interests (including those that are science-related) can persist over time and influence the course of learning (alexander et al., 2012) underscoring the importance of providing early opportunities for exploring science. the early childhood environment may be ripe for children’s science exploration but barriers exist to teaching science. teachers report lack of confidence and content knowledge (gerde et al., 2018; kallery & psillos, 2001; park et al., 2017), time (greenfield et al., 2009; park et al., 2017), and materials (tu, 2006) as erin e. hamel 270 factors impeding science instruction in the classroom. notably, these reasons impact both structural and process quality indicators. structural indicators refer to a characteristic of the environment and process indicators refer to interaction between individuals (cassidy et al., 2005). structural and process indicators are concepts by which the quality of early childhood environments are often assessed. barriers in both of these areas are likely to affect the amount and quality of science teaching and subsequently, children’s science interest and learning. if the quality and quantity of science teaching in preschool is low for all children, it is especially detrimental for young girls who benefit when teachers foster their sustained science interest (leibham et al., 2013). for preschool-aged girls, an intense science interest predicts a significantly higher science self-concept at 8 years old (leibham et al., 2013). science self-concept is defined as “an understanding of their attributes, abilities, and values” (leibham et al., 2013) and can be constructed through daily interactions such as play (chafel, 2003). for preschool-aged boys, early interests are not predictive of science achievement as they are for girls (leibham et al., 2013). this underlines the importance of fostering girls’ early interests in science during the preschool years. an important component of early childhood education is the foundational relationships upon which subsequent experiences and knowledge are built. research implicates teacher attitude as a contributing influence on developing gender stereotypes in children (beilock et al., 2010; robinson-cimpian et al., 2014). whether implicit or explicit, teachers’ actions and words can convey gender bias and influence the types of activities and interests’ young children develop, even shaping later career choices (bian et al., 2017). gender bias has the potential to negatively and inaccurately influence young children’s image of themselves and their capabilities. in summary, gender differences in preschool science experiences and science achievement are less understood than those that occur at other levels of education. reported differences in science achievement could mean two things: girls are either as capable as boys in science but do not select science careers, or that girls’ lack of interest and/or achievement is identifiable early on and persists. either way, this warrants further investigation of classroom processes, such as teacher and child interactions in the preschool years, which have been identified as an ideal time for teaching and exploring science concepts. science teaching is lacking, in part, because early childhood teachers feel unprepared to teach science activities (greenfield et al., 2009). while children are naturally curious about the world around them, developing scientific reasoning skills requires both engagement and interaction around science content and materials (gelman & brenneman, 2012; morris et al., 2012). science materials, a structural component of the early childhood environment, are selected and displayed for use by classroom teachers who lack confidence in their science abilities (greenfield et al., 2009). teachers identify several reasons that science instruction is lacking in early childhood such as their lack of confidence and instructional time but research to date has not included teacher perceptions of gender that may also impact their interactions with children in the classroom (greenfield et al., 2009). these perceptions may implicitly or explicitly influence both structural and process quality in the early childhood environment. a clearer understanding of how teachers’ gender perceptions may influence their teaching practices and subsequently impact children’s learning opportunities and experiences in the preschool classroom is needed. the purpose of this paper is to address this gap in the literature. method the goal of this paper is to examine research on early childhood teachers’ perceptions of gender in the classroom. i used several search strategies to identify studies. first, a discovery catalog and database proquest educational resources information center (eric), were searched using two combinations of terms: 1) preschool teacher and gender; and 2) teacher attitude, gender, and preschool. this resulted in 37 articles and 31 articles, respectively. these terms were selected with a goal of including early childhood articles related to teacher perception and gender in any domain of learning. to identify articles related specifically to gender topics in education and science content in preschools, the search was narrowed to a selected set of journals (brotman & moore, 2008). seven specific journals were searched that focus on science in education: journal of research in science teaching, international journal of science education, journal of science science starts early: a literature review examining the influence of early childhood… 271 teacher education, science education, and research in science education. a review of two other journals were also included because they are not limited to the field of science but might provide insights into the research topic: gender and education and american education research journal (brotman & moore, 2008). these efforts resulted in an additional 4 articles specific to gender at the early childhood level. lastly, a search was conducted of psychinfo using a combination of the terms early childhood education, teacher attitudes, teacher perceptions and gender. this resulted in an additional 32 articles. in total, 104 articles were originally identified. after reviewing the collected articles, it was apparent that several of the articles were beyond the scope of this paper and did not meet the purpose of the study. in order to address the proposed research question in a systematic way, three main inclusion criteria were established for the review. first, the article must be published in a peer reviewed journal; this eliminated doctoral dissertations, master theses, and other articles printed in news-type magazines. second, the article must be relevant to the topic of early childhood teachers’ perceptions of gender and children 6 years old and younger. third, the article must be in english. this led to research contributions from the following countries: australia, canada, denmark, finland, indonesia, israel, japan, norway, poland, qatar, spain, sweden, turkey, and the united states. specific interest included the teachers’ practice influencing children, teacher perceptions of gender, and teacher values about gender for children kindergarten age and younger. articles that were excluded from the review were those that did not meet the purpose of the research. this included studies on efforts to increase the amount of male preschool teachers employed in the early childhood field, transgender and non-binary research and trainings for early childhood teachers, the development of sexuality in preschool, parent gender perceptions and influence, and articles reporting gender differences among various academic domains or interventions. after categorizing articles using established inclusion and exclusion criteria, 27 articles were identified for review. as recommended in methodological literature, a secondary search was conducted using references lists from recent literature reviews (fraenkel et al., 2016). this resulted in an additional four articles that met inclusion criteria. a complete summary of the final 31 articles analyzed for this review is available in table 2. data analysis a thorough review was conducted using content analysis (saldaña, 2015) to systemmatically examine articles for purpose, participants and setting, methodology, and major findings. major findings were manually coded by the reported overall effect on young children. articles that were primarily focused on teacher attitudes towards gender but did not include child outcomes made up their own category. three articles included a child outcome based on parent perception but not teacher perception. these were removed from the final analysis. fourteen initial codes were then combined and reduced to five overall categories that signify the findings in the literature (saldaña, 2015). articles were organized into established categories demonstrating the range of results in each category. another aspect of the articles analyzed included the date of publication of the studies to identify potential patterns or trends in how this topic has been explored both recently and historically. in the sections that follow i discuss the major findings and implications related to science learning in the early childhood classroom. it is noteworthy that the articles originate from multiple countries, adding complexity to the synthesis of findings, but strengthening the emphasis on the importance of the need to understand the impact of gender on children in early childhood classrooms world-wide. results the five categories that emerged from data analysis were: teacher perception, curriculum, teacher interactions, gender identity, and social standing. each of these categories was created by combining the initial codes (see table 1). erin e. hamel 272 table 1. categories and underlying codes teacher perception curriculum teacher interactions social standing gender identity teacher perception teacher attitude awareness play opportunities for play selection of activities materials for play behavior adult relationships engagement with teacher discipline interactions with peers social standing understanding of identity teachers’ perceptions of gender were the focus of most of the research studies (see figure 1) and established the category teacher perception. teachers’ perceptions of how they view young children by gender provides insight into teacher thoughts and opinions but it is not possible to infer how this translates into practice and pedagogical decisions without further evidence. studies that reported child outcomes suggest that an early childhood teacher’s perception of gender influences four areas, which generated the other remaining categories: curriculum, teacher interactions, social standing, and gender identity (see figure 1). figure 1. proportion of articles by category the oldest publication in the review was categorized in the curriculum category; however, this category also contained recent publications as well. the curriculum category includes articles related to children’s learning, play, along with the materials and environment that create the curriculum. young children’s work is often considered their play and learning through play is a foundational element of early childhood education which has been studied for many years, so it is not surprising that this category contained the oldest publication. results show that chronologically the category with the most recent publications was teacher interactions. this could in part be due to an emphasis in the field on process quality indicators and improved measures of teacher interactions. teacher perceptions of gender early childhood teachers’ perceptions of gender were investigated through surveys, questionnaires, and semi-structured interviews (see table 2). one of the articles in this category was a review of articles related to sexism in the context of early childhood. in that review conducted by duke and mccarthy (2009), nine articles (39%) identified that some teachers were uncomfortable with non-stereotypical gender behavior by children and eight (26%) of the articles described ways that early childhood education curriculum 29% teacher perception 32% teacher interactions 29% gender identity 3% social standing 7% science starts early: a literature review examining the influence of early childhood… 273 programs reinforce traditional gender roles. in one study, teachers thought that gender stereotypes were reinforced through the use of children’s literature and even television programming. other articles included in this category shed light on teachers experiences, perceptions and classroom practices. for example, early childhood teachers recall playing in gender stereotypical ways in their own childhood (sandberg & pramling-samuelsson, 2005). interestingly, erden (2004) found that although teachers reported an egalitarian view on gender, when asked whether they agreed or not with gender traditional statements such as, “girls are more emotional than boys,” up to 40% of teachers agreed. this indicates that teachers perceive the genders as having traditional differences while also reporting a belief in gender equality. in the classroom, teachers who held egalitarian attitudes had also adopted egalitarian discipline styles indicating that at least in one way teacher perception is related to teacher practice (erden, 2004). how teachers perceive appropriateness of children’s behavior, especially aggression, by child gender showed differences as well. for example, female teachers differed from male teachers in their identification and ratings of children’s aggression (pellegrini et al., 2011). male teachers identified more aggression in the classroom than their female counterparts (pellegrini et al, 2011). in addition, one study showed that male teachers thought that a child displaying aggressive behavior would perform better and be less likely to be excluded in play (bosacki et al., 2015). in summary, early childhood teacher’s perceptions of children’s gender is influenced by the teacher’s own previous experiences and their own gender. perceptions of gender can influence the meaning that teacher’s assign to children’s behavior and how they respond to behavior through discipline style. while this is informative, the extent to how these perceptions influence children in the classroom is less clear. curriculum in the literature addressing curriculum, a variety of qualitative and quantitative methods measuring learning and play in the classroom were used (see table 2). researchers examined both structural and process quality to address children’s classroom experiences. structure quality was investigated by measuring aspects of the environment such as the types of books and toys available to children as well as where in the classroom the teacher most often played. processes of play were measured through examining the types of activities and the interactions children had with teachers in the classroom, which were investigated using observations, interviews, and focus groups. one study in this category explored the environment and culture of the classroom. borve and borve (2017) studied the classroom physical environment and conducted interviews with teachers and assistant teachers (15 female and 3 male) at a kindergarten in norway. they found that the environment was primarily designed by the female teachers, leading to an environment described by the teachers as “feminine”. areas were designed based on how teachers felt children would use the space which led to teachers creating and designing the classroom in a traditionally gendered way. for example, teachers identified boys as playing in ways that were rougher and louder and consequently, required more space. girls, on the other hand, were thought to play in more quiet and gentle ways. this resulted in areas designed for boys taking up more space than those designed for girls. and although children occasionally crossed into all spaces, teachers thought that children used the spaces differently based on child gender. authors suggest that spaces were not designed and set up for gender neutral play and that the intention for play impacts how children used the space. this resulted in play practices that mimicked adults’ ideas of gender (borve & borve, 2017). similarly, interviews with teachers during focus groups in spain revealed gender division in areas of the classroom consistent with their views on how boys and girls play (rodriguez et al., 2006). in these focus groups, teachers noted that they had expectations for girls’ play that was mothering and nurturing and when boys played in this same caring way, some of the teachers even responded with surprise. it is important to note that while teachers voiced an expectation for gendered behavior, they did not negatively reinforce nonconforming play. in fact, they used moments of unexpected nonconforming play to talk about equity (rodriguez et al., 2006). another structural component of the environment and important part of the curriculum is literature, including the books available within the classroom and those selected and read by the teacher. in a study of 618 book readings, 433 unique books were presented to children across six preschools in sweden. results erin e. hamel 274 showed that significantly fewer girls were main characters than boys (lynch, 2016). both teachers’ and children’s choices for books to read were significantly more likely to have a male main character. gender equity in literature is deficient in preschool classrooms (lynch, 2016). this is problematic because children may perceive girls as less important because they hold a lesser role in literature than boys. when children view less minorities, including females, in literature, they may internalize that they have less value in society (lynch, 2016). it is important to note that teachers’ selections of children’s books are limited to books in publication and the lack of children’s books with female main characters is largely out of their control. toy selection is another important aspect of play. one study conducted by trawick-smith and colleagues (2015) showed that teachers and parents select toys that engage boys more than girls. researchers asked teachers and parents to nominate nine toys that they felt would benefit child development. observations of the toys being used in the classroom indicated that child gender was an influencing factor in children’s selection of toys and the quality with which it was played (trawick-smith et al., 2015). results showed that when boys played with the toys, the quality play score was higher (trawick-smith et al., 2015). quality was measured in seven areas: thinking and learning, problem solving, curiosity and inquiry behaviors, sustained interest, creative expression, symbolic representations, and interactions, communications, and collaborations with peers. this finding could be problematic because it indicates that teachers and parents may not select toys that can engage both genders in equally beneficial ways. children selected items they enjoyed but their play with these toys didn’t automatically result in high-quality play. thus teachers may need to carefully consider how to enhance or scaffold play with a preferred toy. teachers’ careful observations of play should go beyond child preference and include a focus on quality of engagement. rodriguez and colleagues (2006) found that teachers gave children the freedom to select and engage in play without adult intervention and that it was not necessary to address gender stereotypes in the classroom because children are choosing their play preference. as mentioned earlier, teachers expected children to play in traditional gendered ways and therefore create an environment conducive to gendered play (borve & borve, 2017). it is also plausible that children have been socialized to play in gendered ways via media, society, and other influences and that early childhood environments perpetuate the stereotype by not disputing them. another study found that a teacher’s presence in areas of the classroom, including the science area, drew children to the area to play (tomes, 1995). early childhood teachers are also responsible for planning activities. planning is influenced by how teachers view gender roles, as shown by interviews and observations in a study of teachers and children in australia (chapman, 2016). using observations of the classroom and interviews with four teachers, researchers found that teachers who held more egalitarian views on child gender and play appeared to acknowledge gender issues in the classroom and implement strategies to counter gender roles or stereotypes (chapman, 2016). the idea that teachers perceive play differently based on child gender is not new and was supported in a study by logue and harvey (2010) where teachers shared their belief that boys participate in more superhero play and girls participate in more nurturing activities, such as “playing house” or “family”. teachers then self-reported stopping dramatic play almost half the time (48%) for boys and only 29% of the time for girls, and intervening in social conflict more frequently for boys than for girls. the same teachers thought that their own plans for dramatic play were more productive than children’s own imaginative play (logue & harvey, 2010). taken together, these findings suggest that teachers’ perceptions of gender play can influence how teachers plan for play and may result in differences in how children engage in and are supported in their play. outside of planned activities, teachers have the opportunity to use everyday experiences as teachable moments. granger and colleagues (2017) observed children’s free play and found that teachers facilitated gender-typed activities based on the gender make-up of the group. for example, 27 female teachers in head start classrooms working with girls facilitated masculine and gender-neutral activities significantly more often than feminine activities. this same study found that gender-neutral activities were implemented more frequently with groups of girls than with groups composed of boys (granger et al., 2017). science starts early: a literature review examining the influence of early childhood… 275 teacher interactions with children early childhood teachers have countless interactions with children each day. most research in this category indicates that a child’s gender influences the interactions he or she has with the teacher (see table 2). interactions include classroom conversations, responses, directives, and engagement between the teacher and the child. for example, in-service and pre-service preschool teachers in sweden thought “headstrong” and “disobedient” behavior from girls was less allowable than similar behaviors from boys (hedlin & aberg, 2018). this led to the teacher interacting in a dismissive way towards the student who was then labeled as “very troublesome” (hedlin & aberg, 2018). another study showed a comparable finding when staff members at 80 kindergartens in demark responded to gender-related dilemmas. teachers’ responses to the gender dilemmas differed by child gender, but not by teacher gender, indicating that regardless of teacher gender, teachers consistently treated boys and girls differently (olsen & smeplass, 2016). a similar outcome was found in a study in indonesia, where informal and formal interviews with teachers, conversations with children, and field notes of daily classroom activities were analyzed to explore care from staff. results indicated that teachers cared for children in stereotypical ways that likely preserved gendered behavior in children (adriany & warin, 2014). for example, in the annual school musical celebrating diversity and uniqueness, the female children were assigned feminine roles of flowers, fairies, and a princess; while the male children took on the role of fish. the message of respecting differences and celebrating each individual was lost in the expectation for children to perform traditional gender roles. overall, teachers reported that cultural diversity was celebrated at the indonesian school; however, gender was not openly addressed and traditional gender behavior was encouraged (adriany & warin, 2014). in a study conducted in the united states, differential treatment in four teaching practices (physical interactions between children, verbal and physical directions of body, voice control, and behavior management) contributed to gender differences in 5-year-old children in 5 preschool classrooms (martin, 1998). differences included how the teacher interacted with a child through restricting a child’s voice, dressing-up, limiting physicality, or instructing children how to physically be with one another (martin, 1998). still, some hope for gender equitable interactions in preschool classrooms exists. in a large study of 342 children aged 34 – 63 months from 100 classrooms in the united states, children’s positive engagement with their teachers was analyzed for associations with individual child factors (age and gender). researchers found that neither age nor gender were significantly associated with children’s positive engagement with their teachers (vitiello et al., 2012). notable differences from this study as compared to the older martin (1998) study include the number of participants, the extended child age range, and the measure of engagement. in the latter study, a standardized observational assessment, the inclass, was used to measure interactions; whereas the former used a semi-structured observation with field notes. in summary, support exists to suggest early childhood teachers’ interactions with young children are influenced in some ways by child gender. social standing the social standing category was created by combining studies indicating that a child’s perceived popularity, relationships, or social competence was influenced by adult gender perceptions. only two articles belong to this category (see table 2). the purpose of the first study was to explore the impact of gender stereotyping on young children. researchers found that teachers rated girls and boys who conformed to gender stereotypes as more likable than their non-conforming peers (sullivan et al., 2018). in fact, teachers rated girls more likable than boys and boys were likely to experience criticism for violating gender stereotypes (sullivan et al., 2018). one aim of the second study was to assess and compare gender differences in prosocial behavior among preschoolers in a middle eastern country. while gender differences in prosocial behavior are well documented, this research was unique in that it was the first in doha, qatar (al-thani & semmar, 2017). teachers were asked to complete a questionnaire regarding their interactions with students and observations. findings indicated that teachers perceived boys as displaying less prosocial behaviors than girls. significant gender differences were found in subscales of teacher preferred behavior, peer preferred behavior, and school adjustment indicating that teachers of preschool children in doha, qatar, rated boys as underperforming girls in social competence (al-thani & semmar, erin e. hamel 276 2017). child gender identity the category of gender identity contained only one study, which was conducted in japan (see table 2). gender identity is viewed as an individual’s perception of who they are and how they characterize themselves in terms of culturally defined male and female roles (wood & eagly, 2015). for example, a study of private day care teachers in tokyo was conducted over the course of one year, in which researchers observed one to two times per month for how children and teachers used the word kawaii (cute, lovable). teachers used kawaii as an indication of gender and described girls using this term which led to girls using kawaii to describe or refer to themselves (burdelski & mitsuhashi, 2010). this research found that female, but not male, children adopted kawaii as part of their identity. science starts early: a literature review examining the influence of early childhood… 277 table 2. articles by category author(s) (year) purpose of study participants and setting method major findings curriculum borve, h.e. & borve, e. (2017) explore teacher perception of the impact of the physical environment on the culture of play in the classroom private kindergarten in norway consisting of 73 children and 18 lead and assistant teachers case study using recorded staff interviews teachers arranged the environment with expectations and intentions of learning in mind that often led to gender influenced design. chapman, r. (2016) explore how gender roles might be displayed or supported without the teacher being aware 2 preschool teachers, 2 assistant teachers, 39 children ages 4-5 years old from australia interviews with teachers and observations of children teachers’ planning of activities is influenced by how they viewed play and gender roles. rodriguez, mdc., pena, j.v., fernandez, c.m., & vinuela, m.p. (2006) investigate gender discourse used by nursery school teachers 35 teachers of children aged 3-6 years old in spain semi-structured interviews of 7 focus groups teachers reported a gender division in areas of the classroom where children play that is consistent with their expectations that children play in traditional gender defined ways. granger, k., hanish, l., kornienko, o. & bradley, r.h. (2017) explore the frequency that teachers facilitated gender conforming and gender-neutral activities during free play 37 female teachers in head start classrooms observation of teacherstudent interactions and group composition during free play teachers facilitated gender-typed activities based on the gender make-up of the group. teachers facilitated gender-neutral activities with all girls groups more frequently than with all boys groups. logue, m.e., & harvey, h. (2010) understand preschool teacher’s views and practices on pretend play 98 teachers of 4-year-old children mailed questionnaires teachers reported significant differences in play for boys and girls. teachers intervened in social conflict among boys more often than girls. lynch, m. (2015) explore how teachers discuss gender in social media 7 online message boards 7 kindergarten teachers netnography of data collected from social media and semistructured interviews. the most prevalent theme, “dramatic play is for girls.” results of interviews indicated that teachers’ views of gendered play are projected onto their students. lynch, l. (2016) analyze the content of teacher selected children’s literature in preschools in sweden 618 book readings of 433 unique books across 6 preschools in sweden to children aged 3-6 years teachers recorded the books read during group story times over a period of six months significantly less girls were main characters than boys. teachers’ and children’s choice of books to read was significantly more likely to include a male main character than a female. sniegulska, m., & pisula, w. (2013) analyze children’s free play with a new toy 189 preschool children aged 3-7 years old from private and public kindergartens in poland video recorded, 15-minute observation of child with a new toy no gender differences were found in exploration of toys. tomes, r. (1995) explore teacher influence on children’s selection of activities and areas 58 children aged 3-5 years old and their teachers observations during free play once a week for 6 weeks. students were drawn to areas of art, block, library and science if the teacher was present. boys preferred large blocks and girls preferred to play in the art area. teacher perceptions erin e. hamel 278 bosacki, s., woods, h., & coplan, r. (2015) explore early childhood teacher’s perceptions of rough and tumble play based on the gender of the child 22 teachers of young children in canada online survey collecting demographics and beliefs and attitudes related to hypothetical play scenarios physical play is perceived differently by male and female teachers. male teachers reported that boys who were more physically aggressive in their play would perform better academically and would be less likely to be excluded. female teachers held the opposite belief. dewar, b., servos, j., bosacki, s., & coplan, r. (2013) explore early childhood teacher perceptions of how gender impacts the classroom. 41 teachers throughout canada semi-structured telephone interviews themes of professional development, critical selfawareness, and critical thinking emerged. teachers saw reflection as a way to become aware of their own biases and promote more inclusive gender roles. duke, t.s. & mccarthy, k.w. (2009) lıterature review of sexuality and sexism in the context of early childhood education 31 articles published between 1975-2007 coding system based on publication type, research design, and emergent themes eight articles described ways that programs in early childhood and elementary school reinforce gender roles and the oppression of women noting children’s literature and television programming as a source for stereotypes. erden, f. (2004) explore early childhood teachers’ attitudes toward gender roles and discipline 130 female public school teachers of kindergarten and first grade attitudes toward gender roles scale (agrs) and attitudes toward discipline scale (ads) up to 40% of teachers agreed with gender traditional statements and researchers found a statistically significant relationship between teachers’ attitudes towards discipline and their attitudes towards gender roles. hyland, n. (2010) review of research on developing practices that address equity in the classroom review of two approaches: culturally relevant teaching and critical pedagogy to develop equity describe research showing how two pedagogies have been use in early childhood classrooms to address race, gender, and sexual orientation research identifies ways to reconstruct gender stereotyped messages, which can be detrimental to both boys’ and girls’ development. teachers role is to address power imbalances across race and gender through empowering underrepresented children. hyvonen, p. (2008) explore teachers’ perceptions of mixed-gender play activities 14 preschool and primary teachers in finland teacher interviews teachers noted a goal of education should be to overcome gender boundaries. teachers intentionally do not separate gender in their classrooms and they question gendered behavior and ask children to reflect on it. lundeberg, m.a. (1997) investigate how preservice teachers’ perceptions of gender compare with teacher and student interactions 48 preservice teachers analyze data on participates in a discussion of gender bias in classrooms majority (71%) of preservice teachers thought that classroom discussion was equal. more males contributed comments in class discussion. preservice teachers reflected on the importance of creating equal experiences for both genders. pellegrini et al. (2011) explore the differences in observations and ratings of preschool children’s aggression 89 preschool children 5 five teachers daily observations of children teacher checklist to measure child aggression trained female researchers rated children’s aggression the same as female teachers who had not been trained. trained male researchers recorded more aggression compared to females. sandberg, a., & pramlingsamuelsson, i. (2005) investigate the different ways male and female preschool 20 preschool teachers in private and public in-person, semi-structured interviews preschool teachers reflected their play as children was gender stereotyped. female teachers had no play science starts early: a literature review examining the influence of early childhood… 279 teachers think of play preschools in sweden willingness and avoided playing with children as they thought they would disturb the play. male teachers were more playful. trawick-smith, t., wolff, j., koschel, m., & vallarelli, j. (2015) examine the effects of toys on play, including factors that enhance learning and development four classrooms of 60 children aged 3-4 years old. parents and teachers nominated 9 toys for the research project. observations of toy use recorded using hidden cameras and microphones. toy quality was assessed using a play quality with toys (pqt) measure most of the toys received the highest quality scores when boys were engaged with them, suggesting that parents and teachers need to identify toys that can engage boys and girls in equally beneficial ways. teacher interactions adriany, v. & warin, j. (2014) explore the relationship between care and gender in an early childhood environment 4 teachers, 1 principal, the school owner, and 28 children between 2 and 6 years old in indonesia ethnographic research using field notes, interviews with adults, child conversation, and artifacts teachers care for children in stereotypical ways that likely perpetuate gendered behavior in children. while most differences were celebrated at the school, gender was not outwardly addressed. benozio, a. & diesendruck, g. (2017) assess how children are influenced by an authority figure in behaving toward others 111 children aged 3-6 years from 5 kindergartens in israel teachers randomly assigned to demonstrate a preference and child behavior assessed on their response related to teacher’s preference children age three to four years old distribute items based on being fair or equal, regardless of teacher’s preference. children aged five to six, distributed items based on teacher preference and matched gender of recipients. teacher interactions may impact how children respond. bigler, r. s. (1995) explore how the use of gender categorization in the classroom attributes to gender stereotyping 66 children ages 6-11 in three classrooms classroom teachers randomly assigned to exhibit three categorization styes: gender, color group, and control group. children in a classroom where the teacher used gender as a categorization method increased their gender stereotyping. children in these classrooms were more likely to categorize occupations as appropriate for male or females along traditional gender stereotypes. hedlin, m. & aberg, m. (2018) researchers investigate the conditions of stereotypes in teacher training and their influence on children in the classroom 10 female and 10 male preschool teachers in sweden 7 teachers working with preservice teachers semi-structured interviews lasting 30-60 minutes. ethnographic observations and interviews with preservice teachers. researchers identify that teachers and staff found girls demonstrating headstrong and disobedient behavior as less permissible than boys demonstrating similar behaviors. girls acting this way were dismissed and perceived as “very troublesome.” martin, k. (1998) investigate the development of the gendered child in preschool 5 preschool classrooms serving 5-year-old children qualitative semistructured observations and field notes of classrooms four teaching practices (behavior management, voice control, verbal and physical directions of body, and physical interactions between children) and one parenting practice (clothing selection) created gendered differences. olsen, b. & smeplass, e. (2016) researchers report and reflect on 671 teachers and staff questionnaire of 13 teachers’ response to dilemmas were nearly identical, erin e. hamel 280 gendered attitudes of kindergarten staff members members at 80 kindergartens from 2 danish municipalities pedagogical dilemmas, 2 specific to gender regardless of the teacher’s own gender. staff, regardless of gender, treated boys and girls differently. owens, s., smothers, b.c., & love, f.e. (2003) examine gender bias in schools related to access of education and gender inequalities systematic review of literature three areas of focus: history of women and education, schools encouragement of gender inequality, and solutions for equity in schools gender bias or sexism in the classroom is subtle and often unconscious. differences in how boys and girls are treated results in a learned pattern of how to behave early on in life. şahin-sak, i̇. t., sak, r., & tezelşahin, f. (2018) investigate the perceptions of preschool teachers related to behavior management 310 preschool teachers in turkey questionnaire female preschool teachers were more likely to use techniques for behavior management involving listening, relationship building, and comforting children. vitiello, v.e., booren, l.m., downer, j.t., & williford, a.p. (2012) investigate the source of variability in child engagement between child factors and classroom settings 342 preschool aged children (34 – 63 months) from 100 classrooms in 40 urban schools 84 female teachers classroom observation of activity settings and inclass observational system child gender was not significantly associated with children’s negative or positive engagement with their teachers. social standing al-thani, t., & semmar, y. (2017) assess prosocial behaviors of preschool children and differences in teacher perceptions of gender 472 children and 22 teachers from 10 schools in doha, qatar teachers completed the prosocial behaviors of children-teachers’ perceptions instrument teachers perceived that boys displayed less prosocial behaviors than their female peers. significant differences in gender occurred in teacher preferred behavior, peer preferred behavior, and school adjustment. sullivan, j., moss-racusin, c., lopez, m., & williams, k. (2018) explore the impact of gender stereotyping on young children study 1: 635 adults study 2: 697 adults all recruited from amazon mechanical turk. study 1: online task to rate typical or desirable characteristics for 3 year old by gender study 2: online task of gender conforming and non-conforming vignettes of preschool applications study 1: researchers developed a list of traits for each gender. study 2: stereotype conforming boys and girls were more likeable than their non-conforming peers. girls overall were more likeable than boys. gender identity burdelski, m. & mitsuhashi, k. (2010) explore how teachers and children use the word kawaii (cute, loveable) and how it impacts social interactions in the classroom private day care classroom with 14 children and their female teachers in japan recorded observations of the classroom taken 1-2 times a month over one year children learn the meaning of kawaii through social interactions. teachers use kawaii as an indication of gender. teachers assessed girls using the term. female children used kawaii more when referring to themselves and female peers. science starts early: a literature review examining the influence of early childhood… 281 conclusion and discussion several notable ideas emerged from this review of early childhood literature related to gender. first, teachers’ perceptions of gender are influenced by their own gender and prior experiences (borve & borve, 2017; bosacki et al., 2015; pellegrini et al., 2011; sandberg & pramling-samuelsson, 2005). second, to some degree interactions in the classroom contain bias and stereotypes and implicit gender bias may be present in how activities are designed and what materials are selected for use in the classroom (borve & borve, 2017; rodriguez et al., 2006; trawick-smith et al., 2015). third, children receive gendered messages from early childhood teachers which may impact their own view of themselves (adriany & warin, 2014; burelski & mitsuhashi, 2010; granger et al., 2017; olsen & smeplass, 2016). next, these ideas are interpreted while considering implications for science teaching and learning in the early years. when applying a lens of science learning to findings in the curriculum category, it is important to remember that an intense early interest in science for girls is related to a higher self-concept in science later in childhood (leibham et al., 2013). young girls may self-select play that is more nurturing in nature but the teacher’s planning could also be contributing to traditional gender play in the classroom. early childhood teachers are influential in fostering science interest through their presence and planning of activities that increase opportunities for science play for children (leibham et al., 2013; tomes, 1995). research shows that early childhood teachers do not feel confident teaching science and that they would prefer to play with children in other areas of the classroom instead (gerde et al., 2018; kallary & psillos, 2001). as a consequence, the science area of the classroom may not be selected for play as often and science content may be addressed less frequently than other content areas which could be especially detrimental to igniting and fostering young girls’ early interests in science. further, not all early childhood programs are equally focused on science. nature-based preschool programs have a special focus on environmental education and spend large amounts of time in the outdoors. such programs may provide more frequent opportunities for science learning yet little is known about the role of gender in such experiences. it is possible that nature provides an optimal backdrop for equal science learning for both genders. children enrolled at nature preschools may accrue less gender bias and gendered beliefs about themselves and their science abilities when immersed in a natural outdoor learning environment as compared to a traditional early childhood setting that contains gendered play areas and gendered toys. more research on environment and curriculum is needed to answer these questions. in early childhood education, research shows that interactions between children and teachers have an important role in predicting child outcomes (early et al., 2007). the results from this review indicate that teachers interact differently with children based on their gender (granger et al., 2017; olsen & smeplass, 2016). the impact of differential treatment on science learning is still largely unknown and represents a gap in the literature for future researchers to investigate. interactions during science activities and exploration in the early childhood classroom could be a key element to understanding later differences in science achievement and interest between boys and girls. and although the focus of the review is constrained to perceptions of early childhood teachers, it is worth noting how interactions with other authority figures, such as parents, could be contributing to the divide. in a study of interactions between parents and their children at a science museum, parents used more explanatory conversations with their sons than with their daughters (crowley et al., 2001). in fact, conversations with sons were three times more likely to include explanations and this held true at all ages (1-8 years) even though children who heard explanations had rarely asked questions (crowley et al., 2001). it is not a far leap to suggest that similar differences in interactions could be happening in early childhood classrooms given the research presented in the teacher interactions category showing that child gender impacts teacher’s responses and teaching practices (adriany & warin, 2014; martin, 1998; olsen & smeplass, 2016). fortunately, a recent study found that of 755 questions asked during preschool science lessons, no significant differences were found regarding gender of the child recipient (hamel et al., 2021). further, granger and colleagues (2017) found that gender-neutral activities were implemented more frequently with groups of girls than boys. while it is promising that teachers are engaging with young girls in gender-neutral activities, it stops short erin e. hamel 282 of crossing into more stereotypically masculine activities, which are often associated with science. providing stereotypically masculine activities to all genders is an opportunity to counter stereotypical gender activities by providing a variety of experiences to all children regardless of gender. findings from the social standing category are relevant to the topic of gender and science because girls (and boys, for that matter) may be more inclined to conform to gender stereotypes to achieve approval or be liked. masculinity is often linked to traits of objectivity, lack of emotion, and rationality, which frequently are associated with the subject of science (brotman & moore, 2008). exhibiting feminine nurturing behaviors such as building relationships, creativity, and showing emotion can be viewed as incompatible to science (brotman & moore, 2008). unfortunately, these associations may lead children to conform for the sake of acceptance or contradict gender stereotypes with the risk of being rejected. of course, it is important to note that real differences may exist in social behaviors of boys and girls. some researchers have found that relational aggression is more common in girls in early childhood and boys show more physical aggression than girls, although not significantly (ostrov et al., 2004). while difference between social behaviors may exist, teachers should encourage all students to engage in science activities and content. attempts have been made to contradict associations of masculinity and science including a program coined “creative expression in science” (meyer, 1998) aimed at elementary science teachers. early childhood teachers could also benefit from professional development and training that emphasizes acceptance and encouragement of all students to engage in science topics. lastly, language is powerful and has the ability to influence how children view themselves. the use of the japanese word kawaii is an example of explicit labeling that impacts how children identify themselves by gender (burdelski & mitsuhashi, 2010). explicit labeling is an important facet of dit which provides an explanation of core processes responsible for contributing to young children’s understandings of bias and stereotype, including gender. dit posits that four factors may influence the formation of gender bias or stereotypes in young children, one of which is explicit labeling and use (bigler & liben, 2006). if children, especially young girls, are forming (mis)understandings of themselves and their science abilities during preschool, it is important to understand not only where and from whom these messages originate (parents, teachers, and society), but how children receive and internalize them as part of their identity. these findings also have implications for early childhood teacher preparation programs who can apply and share the results within required coursework on gender equity and science pedagogy. early childhood teachers’ awareness and understandings of their own biases and perceptions can help them to reflect on their pedagogical choices and the subsequent impact on children’s learning opportunities in the classroom. policymakers and administrators should also consider offering professional development for early childhood teachers on promoting gender equity by eliminating gender bias and stereotypes as a way to enhance teacher practices. it should be emphasized here that this review included research conducted in international settings which requires special consideration of socio-cultural influences of gender development. therefore, the cultural norms and context of each unique early care program should be thoughtfully considered. limitations this review explored how teacher perceptions related to gender influenced teachers’ practices. limitations of the review include the small number of articles collected. although efforts were made to encompass all relevant articles in the early childhood literature, it is possible that some studies were missed. a wider search to include other areas of male-dominated domains and careers, such as math, might also provide additional insights but was beyond the scope of this review. in addition, the body of literature analyzed relied heavily on self-report measures such as questionnaires, surveys, and semi-structured interviews of teachers to identify their perceptions and gender bias. for these types of measures, social desirability may play a role in how teachers reported their perceptions of gender and lead to answers that were not true depictions of actual perceptions. one form of bias termed implicit bias, is based on the notion that unconscious beliefs or processes can impact our actions. for teachers, this is particularly important because implicit biases may affect teachers’ “understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious science starts early: a literature review examining the influence of early childhood… 283 manner” (staats, 2016). a well-intentioned teacher may unconsciously interpret a situation or behavior in a way that is biased therefore observations of children and teachers during science activities may provide a different perspective. future directions the results of this review highlight future avenues for research. first, it would be useful to use measures that can reveal implicit gender bias. the desire to respond in a more socially acceptable manner may play a role in how teachers report their perceptions and feelings about gender. a second direction for future research would be an increase in observational data collection to observe teacher and child behavior in natural classroom settings. only one-third (34%) of the articles in the review included classroom observations, with others focusing instead on surveys and interviews. additionally, preschool aged children are capable of answering questions related to their perceptions, interests, and experiences and could provide insight into preschool science activities. looking forward, it is also important to recognize that separately, the fields of science and early childhood education have made valuable contributions to understanding this topic. gender gaps in science fields and occupations are widely acknowledged and continue to be investigated. at the same time, early childhood researchers are dedicated to understanding the teaching and learning of science in early childhood (silby & watts, 2017). however, exploring science teaching and learning in early childhood specifically for gender bias or differential treatment by gender is lacking. expanding the field to include more investigations at the early childhood level could provide a more complete understanding of the issue of gender inequality in science fields prior to formal schooling. it also has the potential to provide valuable information about the teacher’s role in counteracting or contributing to gender differences in science with an overarching goal of increasing the participation of women in the science field. further investigation into this topic may prove mutually beneficial for both the fields of science and early childhood education. an area of importance for further research is examining how gender bias in the classroom impacts all children, including gender-nonconforming children. early childhood classrooms 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journal of childhood, education & society volume 2, issue 3, 2021, 365-391 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.202123122 research article ©2021 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. are preschoolers expected to learn difficult science constructs? a content analysis of u.s. standards ana ocasio1, talia waltzer2, camilla caudy3, heidi kloos4 abstract: in the current paper, we report on the recommendations for preschool science put forward in the educational standards of u.s. states. our focus was specifically on whether educational standards recommend abstract science constructs—constructs that are difficult to learn. in study 1, we focused on science constructs related to inquiry (i.e., activities geared towards the generation of scientific knowledge). and in study 2, we focused on science constructs related to facts (i.e., established scientific knowledge). in each study, we developed a coding scheme to distinguish between concrete and abstract constructs and then determined the relative prevalence of each. our findings show that preschoolers are indeed expected to learn abstract science constructs. at the same time, educational standards varied considerably across u.s. states. implications for the field of early science learning are discussed. article history received: 21 august 2021 accepted: 01 december 2021 keywords early science learning; readiness standards; educational policy; abstract reasoning; content analysis introduction with science education becoming increasingly popular in preschool classrooms (educational development center, 2013; national center for educational statistics [nces], 2021), many have hailed this development as a positive move toward supporting science learning in later grades (guo et al., 2016; piasta et al., 2014). in the current paper, we seek to further contribute to this development by asking a simple question: what is actually meant by preschool science? our research was motivated by perceived points of tension in the field of early science learning. in what follows, we describe these points of tension and illustrate why they might need to be resolved before preschool science education becomes commonplace. tensions in the field of early science learning research on early science learning has increased substantially over the last three decades. for example, a search for the keyword “early science learning” on google scholar shows a three-fold increase in scholarly work over the years from 2000 to 2013 (from 250,000 to 850,000 entries). the search term “preschool science” reveals an even more dramatic increase during that time frame (from about 8,000 to 40,000 entries). this increase in scholarly work has led to important insights in the field (for reviews, see guo et al., 2016; kloos et al., 2012). yet, the amount of scholarly work has decreased visibly recently (e.g., from about 40,000 to 29,000 “preschool science” entries in the years from 2015 to 2020). upon surveying the literature about what might be the issue, one finding was striking: preschool teachers often have reservations about teaching science to young children (park et al., 2017). for example, many teachers report that they do not have enough mastery of science content (blonder et al., 2014; oppermann et al., 2021). in turn, they might feel underprepared when using science materials (kloos et al., 2018). many also report lacking the confidence to organize the preschool classroom in ways that support science activities (gerde et al., 2018). teachers also perceive barriers when it comes to evaluating students _____________ 1 university of cincinnati, department of psychology, cincinnati, ohio, united states, e-mail: ocasioar@mail.uc.edu, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6183-1092 2 university of california, santa cruz, psychology department, santa cruz, california, united states, e-mail: twaltzer@ucsc.edu, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4464-0336 3 university of cincinnati, department of psychology, cincinnati, ohio, united states, e-mail: munozmc9@gmail.com, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4465-3276 4 university of cincinnati, department of psychology, cincinnati, ohio, united states, e-mail: kloosa@ucmail.uc.edu, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0586-9306 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202123122 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:ocasioar@mail.uc.edu https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6183-1092 mailto:twaltzer@ucsc.edu mailto:munozmc9@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4465-3276 mailto:kloosa@ucmail.uc.edu are preschoolers expected to learn difficult science... 366 on science assignments, compared to other fields (greenfield, 2015). more generally, the question of whether early science learning has positive long-term effects is still open. on the one hand, some have argued that mere exposure is enough to give children an advantage for later learning (e.g., kachergis et al., 2019; kelemen et al., 2014; saidi & sigauke, 2017; shtulman et al., 2016; worth, 1999). this argument might explain the numerous online resources designed to make science learning fun (e.g., education.com, 2012). on the other hand, science in preschool does not consistently translate into later science proficiency: exposure to early science education might not predict improved science performance in older children (brenneman et al., 2009; saçkes et al., 2010; saçkes et al., 2013). there is also ambiguity about the amount of effort needed to bring science to young children. on the one hand, there is the appealing notion of science learning requiring nothing more than play, for example in nature (erickson & ernst, 2011; eshach & fried, 2005). this notion might drive the relatively low requirements for preschool instructors to learn science ahead of placement (u.s. bureau of labor statistics, 2021). on the other hand, there are concerns that preschool classrooms might not be set up in a way that is conducive for science learning (gerde et al., 2018). this is especially evident when science materials or designated science areas are missing (tu, 2006). even the debate about whether young children can learn science constructs remains unresolved. on the one hand, there is great excitement about the potential of early science learning, based on the idea that children are natural scientists (e.g., gopnik et al., 1999; metz, 1995). on the other hand, science is known to be notoriously difficult, eliciting misconceptions and exasperating students in higher grades (e.g., chi & vanlehn, 2012; sawyer, 2006; vosniadou, 2009). indeed, scholars have raised concerns about the fact that preschoolers and kindergarteners show little improvement in science achievement after participating in science readiness programs (greenfield et al., 2009; saçkes et al., 2010). these points of tension—whether on learning readiness, long-term benefits of early science learning, or required resources for preschool science pedagogy—are likely to add uncertainty to the field. at the minimum, points of tension might undermine efforts to make science a central part of early learning. for example, open questions on whether young children are cognitively ready to comprehend science constructs hamper curriculum decisions. and open questions on how to best prepare preschoolers for science learning impede the development of teacher-training modules. thus, to promote scholarly work in the field, points of tension need to be resolved first. understanding the nature of preschool science one way to respond to tensions in the field is to explore the underlying assumptions that sustain disagreements (dahl, 2017). in the case of early science learning, one underlying assumption pertains to the nature of preschool science. those who assume young children are ready for science might intuitively equate preschool science with constructs that can be learned easily at an early age. vice versa, those who assume protracted learning might intuitively equate preschool science with constructs that are difficult to learn at a young age. thus, there might be divergent views on what is meant with science at the preschool level. if we could provide data on the nature of preschool science, we could address the tension and therefore contribute to progress in the field. for questions about the nature of subject matters, important insights can be gained from educational standards. incidentally, all of the 50 u.s. states put forward recommendations about early science learning (kloos et al., 2018). they are organized into content domains such as life science, physical science, and earth/space science (e.g., larimore, 2020; saçkes et al., 2009). for example, educational standards for preschool science recommend that preschoolers learn about the differences between plants and animals (life science), the properties of light (physical science), and the day-and-night cycle (earth/space science). to what extent do educational standards recommend science constructs that are difficult for preschool children? the idea is that construct difficulty is central to the question of whether young children can benefit from exposure to science content. if educational standards recommend science constructs that young children can easily learn, we can assume that young children are ready to learn about science. if, on ana ocasio et al. 367 the other hand, educational standards recommend science constructs that are difficult for young children, then we can assume that young children are ill-equipped for science learning. thus, construct difficulty is a relevant dimension by which to characterize the nature of science. the idea of learning difficulty is fundamental to the field of cognitive development. indeed, numerous measures have been proposed to capture the learning difficulty of concepts, including relational complexity (andrews & halford, 2002), feature density (gentner & kurtz, 2005; kloos & sloutsky, 2008), or hierarchical position (kloos et al., 2019; rosch, 1978). most prominent is the distinction between concrete and abstract concepts (crain, 2015; flavell, 1982; piaget & inhelder, 1969). concrete concepts can be learned easily because they represent the immediate here-and-now. abstract concepts, on the other hand, require a cumbersome form of integrating otherwise separate pieces of information (chambers, 1991; dumontheil, 2014; huitt & hummel, 2003). the distinction between concrete and abstract constructs fits well within the realm of science constructs. learning about different body parts, for example, could be thought of as concrete: students merely need to attend to obvious entities (e.g., “head,” “shoulders”). learning about the differences between plants and animals, on the other hand, could be thought of as abstract: students have to attend to potentially hidden features (e.g., the ability of an entity to self-propel), while ignoring superficial but highly salient features (e.g., the color and size of an entity). learning about constructs such as the properties of light or the day-and-night cycle could also be thought of as abstract: students need to keep track of events over time and detect a common thread among them. thus, the distinction between concrete and abstract constructs can be useful for examining the nature of preschool science. overview of the current research the goal of the current study was to explore the difficulty of science constructs specified in educational standards. to do so, we carried out a content analysis of the educational standards put forward by the u.s. states. a content analysis is a systematic way of analyzing text in which the relative presence of target concepts can be determined (decuir-gunby et al., 2011; dinçer, 2018; eğmir et al., 2017; krippendorf, 1989; larson & rahn, 2015). in study 1, we focused specifically on scientific inquiry: the process by which science knowledge is developed (e.g., “doing science”; seefeldt & galper, 2007). in study 2, we focused on science facts: the established insights that make up the corpus of science knowledge (e.g., “content knowledge”; guo et al., 2015). in each case, we asked whether young children are expected to learn about abstract (i.e., difficult) science constructs. study 1: abstraction in inquiry are preschool children expected to engage in the types of inquiry activities that require abstract thought? to answer this question, we first developed a coding system that could capture the abstraction level of different forms of inquiry. we then applied the identified codes to the u.s. educational standards. method preparation of content the documents used in our content analysis were the publicly available u.s. readiness standards for science learning in preschool. these standards consist of bullet points in lists, charts, and diagrams, organized by headings and subheadings. given the inconsistencies between headings across states, we opted to omit them, focusing instead on the bullet-point entries. to be included in the content analysis, a bullet-point entry had to be targeted for children between 36 to 60 months of age. the entry also had to be listed in a section labeled as science (or under similar headings, such as stem). once bullet-point entries were isolated (n = 1060), we delineated them into individual items. each item contains a separate science requirement for preschool science. in most cases, one bullet-point entry corresponded to one item. however, when a bullet-point entry contained multiple sentences that included separate requirements, the entry was split into multiple items. we split 17 bullet-point entries in this way. are preschoolers expected to learn difficult science... 368 next, we identified the inquiry terms of each item. inquiry terms are the phrases that capture an inquiry activity. this could pertain to single verbs (e.g., “observe”), or it could pertain to entire verb phrases (e.g., “make a prediction”). in the process of identifying inquiry terms in items, we encountered action terms that were only tangentially related to science. such terms focused on engineering (e.g., building something), math (e.g., counting), or the like. we refer to these terms as non-science terms (see appendix a.1 for detailed information about the codes for non-science terms). items that consisted entirely of non-science terms, without any scientific inquiry terms, were excluded. the final number of items included in our content analysis was 959 (range per state: 4 to 38 items). coding scheme the coding scheme we developed for inquiry terms contained nine codes, ranging from lowest to highest level of abstraction (see table 1 for a summary). our scheme drew on two theoretical frameworks: the scientific method (i.e., the guide to the development of scientific theories; gerde et al., 2013) and bloom’s taxonomy (i.e., a list of activities, organized hierarchically to lead to increasingly deeper learning; airasian et al., 2001; hepburn & andersen, 2021). below, we explain each code and the rationale for its assigned level (see appendix a.2 for additional details on how each inquiry term was coded). table 1. levels of scientific inquiry level category description 1 observe-without-tools uses senses to observe what is most salient 2 observe-with-tools uses tools to enhance senses when noticing what is most salient 3 communicate-without-tools communicates understanding, thoughts, etc. in verbal or nonverbal ways 4 communicate-with-tools uses tools such as graphs to communicate thoughts 5 ask-questions expresses confusion or interest about missing information 6 compare-contrast recognizes similarities and differences between entities 7 predict makes an informed guess based on previous experience or understanding 8 test-a-prediction experiments with variables to test hypotheses 9 explain generate explanations for why and how things happen low abstraction at the lowest degree of abstraction (levels 1-2), inquiry codes pertain to observing the surroundings. our thinking was that observations require very little abstraction, if any: children merely have to look at what is most salient in front of them, without needing to imagine hidden connections. here, we distinguished between the observe-without-tools code (level 1) and the observe-with-tools code (level 2). example tools for observation include magnifying glasses, microscopes, or measuring cups. the idea was that observations with tools require children to bridge between what entities look like when perceived with tools versus without them, which increases the level of abstraction compared to mere observations. medium abstraction at a medium degree of abstraction (levels 3-5), inquiry codes pertain to communicating about the surroundings. here, we distinguished between communicating with or without tools, as well as asking questions. specifically, the communicate-without-tools code (level 3) pertains to activities such as identifying or recognizing entities (e.g., “know vocabulary”), describing or talking about events (“recall”), or responding to prompts (e.g., “answer questions,” “give examples,” “confirm”). this code also includes action phrases that refer to more specific forms of communication (e.g., “use evidence,” “offer critiques,” “interpret observed events”) and non-verbal communication (e.g., “draw,” “take pictures,” “record data”). the communicate-with-tools code (level 4) applies when specific tools are listed to enhance communication (e.g., “create graphs,” “tally observations,” “use models of what is observed,” “create displays”). our thinking was that the use of these tools requires children to organize information in ways that are more abstract than merely retelling unorganized information. the ask-questions code (level 5) applies when the activity of communicating requires children to make connections between what they ana ocasio et al. 369 already know and what they do not yet know (e.g., “be curious,” “show interest,” “express wonder”). here, our thinking was that the activity of asking questions requires an awareness of something that is missing, which makes it more abstract than merely talking about available information. high abstraction finally, at the highest degree of abstraction (levels 6-9), inquiry codes pertain to identifying, integrating, or manipulating variables. here, we distinguished between comparing and contrasting entities, making or testing predictions, and generating explanations. specifically, the compare-contrast code (level 6) applies to activities in which one or more variables have to be identified against the backdrop of irrelevant aspects (e.g., “analyze data,” “sort”). adding a layer of abstraction, the predict code (level 7) involves anticipating events in the future by drawing inferences from current circumstances (e.g., “formulate a hypothesis,” “make guesses”). adding yet another layer of abstraction, the test-a-prediction code (level 8) applies to activities in which a variable has to be manipulated to determine its relation to another (e.g., “test hypotheses,” “verify predictions”). this requires not only identifying variables, but also creating a setting in which an otherwise hidden relation between variables can be uncovered. finally, the explain code (level 9) applies to activities in which the relation between variables is supplemented with a narrative that goes beyond the immediately available findings (e.g., “make conclusions,” “generalize”). this activity is arguably the pinnacle of scientific inquiry: it requires the detection of an otherwise invisible causal chain among variables. unspecified terms in addition to the nine abstraction levels, we also identified action phrases that were too vague to apply to a unique abstraction level. an example of such a term is to “explore”: this activity could refer to something as concrete as observing the surroundings (level 1), or to something as abstract as designing an experiment to test a prediction (level 8). thus, this term could not be assigned a code unambiguously (consider also “become familiar,” “develop an awareness,” “learn”). given this ambiguity, we established an unspecified code for these terms. coding procedure coding of action phrases was carried out iteratively: it started with an initial definition of codes, which was given to two coders who reviewed the items independently from each other. disagreements were then discussed, resulting in a revision of the code definitions to either adjust or clarify the codes. in the final iteration, three coders reviewed the database of coded items and checked each item’s codes independently from the other coders. disagreement was then discussed a final time, again resulting in adjustments to the coding scheme. given the consensus approach taken to discussions at each iteration, all items yielded 100% agreement. results results are presented in three sections: the first section provides general information about how the educational standards differ among states. we then consider the broad distinction among the three degrees of abstraction (low, medium, high). finally, we look more specifically at the prevalence of the four codes at the highest degree of abstraction. differences among states we found numerous ways in which state standards differed, starting with the number of items they listed: some states had as few as 4 items, while others had over 20 items (see appendix b.1 for the number of inquiry items and terms by state). items also differed in their length: while some items consisted of just 2 words, others contained more than 20 words. the specificity of the content differed, too. while some items were vague (e.g., “use senses to experience something and make one or two comments to describe this”), others provided explicit examples (e.g., “observe processes and relationships, for example by using measuring cups to measure fish food, then observing fish and recording how much they eat”). are preschoolers expected to learn difficult science... 370 state standards also differed in what kind of inquiry they required of preschoolers. for example, while most standards used relatively few unspecified inquiry terms, some standards used primarily unspecified inquiry terms (6%). more to the point of abstraction levels, while some state standards covered every one of the nine abstraction levels (6%), other state standards restricted themselves to no more than three abstraction levels (10%). figure 1 shows the prevalence of each abstraction code, separated by state. note. light bars show the proportion of unspecified inquiry terms. dark bars show the proportion of specified inquiry terms. the specified inquiry terms include: observe-without-tools, observe-with-tools, communicate-without-tools, communicate-with-tools, ask-questions, compare-contrast, predict, test-a-prediction, and explain. the specified inquiry terms are ordered from lowest to highest abstraction level. figure 1. inquiry terms by state we calculated an average abstraction level for each state, building on the idea that the nine levels of abstraction are ordered from lowest to highest. specifically, we first calculated an average abstraction score for each item, and then we averaged across those scores for each state (excluding unspecified terms). figure 2 shows the obtained results: while some state standards recommended inquiry at relatively high levels of abstraction (over 4.00, 20% of standards), the abstraction levels for inquiry recommended in other state standards was low (under 3.00, 4% of standards). ana ocasio et al. 371 note. the lowest possible score was 1 (observe-without-tools), and the highest possible score was 9 (explain). state averages range from 2.06 (“low”) to 4.65 (“high”). figure 2. map of average abstraction level broad contrast among degrees of abstraction next, we sought to capture broad trends across the u.s. standards. to do this, we calculated the proportion of inquiry terms that were of low (i.e., observing phenomena), medium (i.e., communicating about science), and high degrees of abstraction (i.e., attending to variables) and averaged them across states. figure 3 presents the obtained results: the most common inquiry terms were at a medium degree of abstraction (m = 46%, sd = 12.16). inquiry terms at the low degree of abstraction were less prevalent (m = 19%, sd = 9.76). they matched in prevalence with the high-abstraction inquiry terms (m = 18%, sd = 9.00). many state standards (44%) followed the overall pattern found across the u.s. states: many featured a large number of medium-abstraction codes, and many featured approximately equal numbers of low and high-abstraction codes. thus, high-abstraction inquiry, while not the most prevalent, was nevertheless prominently featured in the educational standards—as prominent as low-abstraction inquiry. in fact, nearly all state standards (90%) required at least some high-abstraction inquiry. considered together, highabstraction codes accounted for 23% of the total specified inquiry terms. specific contrast among high-abstraction codes finally, we sought to provide details on the type of inquiry required at the high end of the abstraction spectrum (compare-contrast, predict, test-a-prediction, explain). figure 4 provides these data averaged across state standards. of the four types of high-abstraction codes, the compare-contrast code was most prevalent (42%), occurring approximately twice as often as each of the other three types of high-abstraction codes. indeed, this is the most prevalent of the high-abstraction codes for many states (54%), and most states feature at least one compare-contrast term (87%). the most common inquiry terms from this category were “differentiate” and “categorize.” are preschoolers expected to learn difficult science... 372 note. proportions were averaged across states. the light bar shows the average proportion of unspecified terms. the dark bars show the average proportions of specified terms (low, medium, or high degree of abstraction). error bars represent the standard error of the mean. figure 3. average proportion of inquiry terms note. proportions were averaged across states. error bars represent standard errors of the mean. figure 4. proportion of high abstraction inquiry terms the other three types of high-abstraction codes, though less prevalent than the compare-contrast code, were nevertheless represented in many state standards. for example, the predict code appeared at least once in 67% of the states. the most common terms of this type of abstraction were “hypothesize” and “anticipate”. likewise, the test-a-prediction code appeared at least once in 64% of the state standards. the most common terms of this type of abstraction were “test hypotheses” and “experiment.” even the highest level of abstraction, the explain code, appeared in many states at least once (67%). the most common terms of the explain code were “explain” and “generate conclusions.” ana ocasio et al. 373 discussion in study 1, we sought to characterize the level of abstraction present in scientific inquiry. our results show that abstract scientific inquiry is indeed expected in u.s. preschools, at least to some extent. we found that the most prevalent inquiry activity is that of communicating. on some level, this might be expected, given that children’s communicative behavior allows teachers to gauge their students’ understanding (brenneman, 2011). at the same time, this type of inquiry—to recognize things, learn science vocabulary, and discuss observations—is far from trivial for young children. further, state standards were largely consistent in requiring high degrees of abstraction in inquiry. in fact, many standards specified that young children should engage in all levels of high-abstraction inquiry, including to test predictions and formulate explanations. study 2: abstraction in science facts in study 2, we sought to characterize the level of abstraction present in science facts. that is to say, we asked whether preschool children are expected to learn about abstract content in the corpus of established scientific knowledge. to answer this question, we developed a coding system to capture abstraction in science facts and then applied it to the educational standards that contained facts. method preparation of content to prepare the content of this analysis, we started with the 959 science items used in study 1. first, we identified the domain of science that each item belonged to. our rationale was that scientific facts can be analyzed best if they are specific enough to fit within a domain of science. or, put differently, if content cannot be attributed to a domain of science, then it is likely to be too vague to allow a designation of concrete versus abstract content. domains of science pertained to topics such as life science (e.g., biology), physical science (e.g., physics), or earth/space science (e.g., astronomy). some items were coded as other science (e.g., social science, environmentalism) or multiple sciences (e.g., a combination of domains). appendix a.3 provides details on how the domains of science were defined. we excluded a total of 271 items that either had no content at all (n = 188, e.g., “discuss predictions”), were too vague to attribute to a specific domain of science (n = 74, e.g., “collect data”), or were too general to determine their abstraction level (n = 9, e.g., “understand life science”). we conducted the content analysis with the remaining 688 items (range per state: 1 to 44 items). coding scheme to capture the abstraction level of science facts, we distinguished between concrete and abstract facts. specifically, concrete facts were defined as those that are readily perceivable, without having to connect any pieces of information. examples of concrete facts are visible physical properties (color, size, material) or obvious events (e.g., sinking). we also included facts that could be observed directly (e.g., sound, light, shadow), as long as there was no explicit requirement to understand the source of those phenomena. references to vocabulary, rules, or functions were also treated as concrete, since this information merely needs to be memorized. abstract facts, on the other hand, refer to information that is hidden and thus requires some mental effort to access. consider, for example, the construct of “family.” for a group to be family, there have to be unique relations among the members of the group. these relations cannot be reduced to a physical property or a salient event. instead, individual pieces of information must be integrated into a coherent whole to arrive at the construct of “family.” for abstract facts, we distinguished between relations, patterns, groups, and forces (see appendix a.4 for detailed information about these codes). the relations code captures connections between entities, whether the connection is causal (“effect,” “impact,” “control”), correlational (“interaction,” “heredity”), are preschoolers expected to learn difficult science... 374 or based on dependency (e.g., “protect,” “preserve”). the patterns code captures events that unfold over time (e.g., “life cycle,” “transformation,” “motion”). the groups code captures distinctions between entities that are based on hidden characteristics or traits (“living vs. nonliving things”). and the forces code captures references to causal properties (e.g., “gravity,” “magnetism,” “buoyancy,” “energy”). note that the abstract categories of relations, patterns, groups, and forces are interrelated. for example, all relations are also patterns, and all forces are also relations. to distinguish codes consistently, we chose to base our coding scheme on individual words or phrases. for example, the item “describe the effects of forces in nature” received the code of relations (because of its reference to cause-effect relations) as well as the code of forces (because it invoked the term “force”). note also that concrete terms were sometimes nested within abstract phrases. for example, the phrase “the effects of an action on an object” consists of both an abstract code (a causal relation) and a concrete code (“an object”). in cases like this, we coded both the abstract and the concrete part of the phrase. as a result, some items contained both concrete and abstract terms (vs. items that consisted entirely of concrete terms or items that consisted entirely of abstract terms). coding procedure coding followed the same iterative process that was used in study 1. we first drafted initial definitions of codes and then refined them through subsequent rounds of coding and discussion. specifically, we identified all the fact phrases and determined whether each one was concrete or abstract (and, in the latter case, whether it falls into the category of relations, patterns, groups, or forces). in each round, two independent coders went through the items and coded them, then came together to discuss the disagreements and refine the definitions of the codes. while all disagreements could be resolved during the aforementioned iterative process, one item provoked repeated discussion: “recognize that everything is made of matter.” going by majority decision, this item was ultimately coded as groups, the argument being that the item was indicative of an underlying trait (i.e., everything has the hidden characteristic of matter). results results are presented in three sections: the first section focuses on the variability among state standards. we then consider the broad contrast among items that contained only concrete terms, concrete and abstract terms, or only abstract terms. of interest was the relative prevalence of each type of item (concrete-only, concrete-and-abstract, abstract-only) as a function of the domain of science. finally, we look more specifically at the four types of abstract facts (relations, patterns, groups, forces) and explore their relative prevalence in each domain of science. differences among states similar to study 1, there were several differences across state standards (see appendix b.2 for the number of fact items and terms by state). for example, while some standards included information about science facts for virtually all of their items (20%), others provided far fewer facts. there was even a difference in the number of facts per specified item, ranging from one to four facts per item. state standards also differed in the domain of science that was covered. for example, while some standards did not include any life-science items (16%), other standards featured them prominently. we found similar variability with physical science: while one state standard was comprised exclusively of physical-science items, two standards had none at all. we also found differences in the degree to which the standards recommended abstract versus concrete facts (see figure 5 for the profiles of each state standard, separated by types of items and types of facts). for example, two state standards consisted entirely of concrete items. and, while abstract content presumably builds upon concrete foundations, 38% of state standards nevertheless featured at least one exclusively abstract item. and, concerning the different types of abstract facts (relations, patterns, groups, ana ocasio et al. 375 forces), many standards featured at least three types of abstraction (46%). eight standards listed all four types of abstraction, while four only had one primary abstraction code. note. the dark bars show the proportion of each type of item (concrete-only, concrete-and-abstract, abstract-only). the light bars show the proportion of each type of abstract fact term (relations, patterns, groups, forces). figure 5. proportion of types of items and terms by state broad contrast among different items recall that an item could have concrete terms, abstract terms, or a combination of both (e.g., when concrete terms were nested within abstract terms). table 2 displays the relative prevalence of each of these types of items. results show that only 2% of the items had exclusively abstract content. this holds for the individual domains of science as well: the prevalence of abstract-only items ranged from 0% (multiple sciences) to 4% (earth/space science; other science). at the same time, when considering whether items had at least some abstraction (i.e., abstract-only or concrete-and-abstract), the proportion of items with at least some abstract content is sizable (47% across domains). using generalized linear mixed-effects models (glmms) (hox, 2010) to compare relative frequencies, we found that the presence of abstract content did not differ across science domains, d(4) = 5.00, p = .287. almost half of the items in life science (45%), physical science (50%), and earth/space science (49%) featured abstract facts. specific contrast among abstract codes table 2 also shows the relative prevalence of the different types of abstract codes (relations, patterns, groups, forces). the forces code was the least common across the domains of science, found in only 6% of abstract fact phrases. even within physical science, arguably the natural home of force-related concepts, only 14% of fact phrases referred to forces. the groups code was also relatively uncommon, occurring in only 16% of the abstract fact phrases. here, we found a difference in proportion by domain, d(4) = 32.35, p < .001, with life science being the domain with the most groups codes, post-hoc wald test ws(1) > 4.75, ps < .029. a typical example of this code was to “categorize common living things as either plants or animals.” table 2. proportion of types of items and types of abstract terms within each science domain level of abstraction domain of science life physical earth/space other multiple total types of items concrete only 55% 50% 51% 62% 47% 52% concrete & abstract 44% 46% 45% 32% 51% 44% are preschoolers expected to learn difficult science... 376 abstract only <1% 3% 4% 4% 2% types of abstract terms relations 25% 32% 13% 83% 33% 31% patterns 46% 46% 76% 14% 28% 47% groups 28% 8% 10% 3% 37% 16% forces 1% 14% 2% 6% note. percentages were calculated within their respective domains. deviations from totals of 100% stem from rounding errors. the patterns code was more prevalent than that of forces and groups, found in 47% of the fact terms. here too, we found a difference in proportion by domain, d(4) = 42.02, p < .001, with earth/space science being the domain with the most patterns codes (76%), wald test ws(1) > 3.58, ps < .058. one of the most common patterns constructs in this domain were cycles, such as the day/night and water cycles. patterns were also common in the domains of life science and physical science, found in 47% of the abstract fact terms of each of these domains. typical examples were growth over time (life science) and the motion of objects (physical science). finally, the relations code was of intermediate prevalence, found in 31% of the fact phrases across domains. finding a difference by domain, d(4) = 25.36, p < .001, relations were most common in the physicalscience domain (32%). for this domain, the most common relations construct was cause and effect (e.g., “cause and effect of pushing/pulling objects”). in contrast, relations were less common in the life-science domain (25%), w(1) = 5.78, p = .016, and even rarer in the earth/space science domain (13%), w(1) = 10.45, p = .001. typical examples were interactions between living things and their environments (life science) and how weather relates to seasons (earth/space science). discussion are preschool children expected to attend to and learn about science facts that require abstract thought? like with abstract inquiry in study 1, we found that this is indeed the case: about half of the items assessed in the content analysis featured at least one abstract fact, regardless of science domain. specifically, preschool children are expected to pay attention to patterns that unfold over time, most notably in the domain of earth/space science. they are also expected to pay attention to relations, for example when asked to think about humans and nature. they were even expected to pay attention to forces, though to a lesser degree than to relations or patterns. general discussion our work was motivated by a noticeable dip in the amount of scholarly work on early science learning. while we cannot claim to know the sources of this decline, there are several points of tension in the field that might hamper progress. in fact, there appear to be unresolved questions regarding whether young children are able to learn science constructs at all. our paper was designed to address unresolved issues by looking more specifically at the difficulty level of the science constructs recommended for preschool. our results show that recommended science constructs vary widely in learning difficulty. regarding inquiry, for example, most educational standards recommend something as simple as observing the surroundings with one’s own senses. at the same time, they also recommend something as sophisticated as formulating and testing explicit hypotheses. even the activity of generating explanations is common in the educational standards. a similar pattern emerges with science facts: while many standards recommend knowing something as obvious as the names of body parts, they also recommend knowing about patterns that evolve over time, such as the lifecycles of animals. thus, preschool science is neither difficult nor easy: it is both. given the variability in learning difficulty of recommended science concepts, a conclusive “yes-orno” answer to the question of whether young children can learn science is perhaps not sensible: young children are cognitively ready to comprehend some, but not all, science constructs. that is to say, before an ana ocasio et al. 377 answer can be provided about classroom organization, teacher preparation, or pedagogy, more information about the difficulty level of the desired science construct is needed. when science constructs are concrete, young children can learn them spontaneously, merely via play (e.g., observing the surrounding). in contrast, when science constructs are abstract (e.g., making predictions; understanding the impact of gravity on objects), spontaneous play in the everyday surrounding is no longer enough to promote learning. still, learning about abstract science constructs is possible for young children. research has shown that preschoolers can reason abstractly, such as when testing a hypothesis or reaching a conclusion (bonawitz et al., 2011; french, 2004; sobel & legare, 2014; sodian et al., 1991; trundle & smith, 2017). to be able to do this, however, children need exposure to a setting that highlights otherwise hidden links. for example, in order to formulate and test a hypothesis, the relevant variables need to be more salient than irrelevant variables (kloos et al., 2019). in a typical preschool classroom, such order is unlikely to be present (e.g., fisher et al., 2013; kirschner et al., 2006). thus, learning about abstract science constructs requires a change in the everyday preschool setting. research has indeed identified some strategies that might be helpful for acclimating young children to abstract science concepts. for example, prompting children to document their observations and talk about observed similarities and differences is a feasible and effective strategy to highlight what might otherwise remain hidden (e.g., brenneman & louro, 2008; fleer, 1991; fleer & beasley, 1991). similarly, the use of schematic representations such as concept maps or conceptual models can help young children see how entities or events are related (e.g., gobert & buckley, 2000; hunter et al., 2008; kenyon et al., 2008; novak, 2010; wiser & smith, 2008). incidentally, we found that the educational standards only rarely recommended the use of tools to visualize otherwise hidden relations. regarding preschool teachers’ apprehension about incorporating science into the general curriculum, our findings highlight the importance of specifying the degree of difficulty of the chosen science constructs. vaguely phrased science items could give practitioners some leeway in their curriculum choices. for example, teachers who are unsure about science pedagogy could focus on science constructs that can be learned spontaneously during children’s play (i.e., concrete science constructs). at the same time, the lack of specificity is likely to put a heavy burden on teachers to come up with ways of organizing their science curricula. the solution is to work out a clear definition of science and recommend a sensible ordering from lowerto higher-abstraction constructs—which is currently missing from the educational standards. conclusion even though the field of early science learning has enjoyed increased attention over the decades, fundamental disagreements remain, such as about whether young children are capable of learning science. our findings put important constraints in place to address this disagreement. specifically, we found that scientific inquiry and scientific facts recommended at the preschool level vary considerably in difficulty. this suggests that the question of whether children can learn science depends on how difficult the particular science construct is. young children might be able to easily learn salient science constructs from exposure alone. for more hidden science constructs, however, a more intentional effort might be needed to support preschoolers’ learning. our findings also highlight an important gap in the field of early science learning: that there is no universally accepted definition of science at the preschool level. for example, while state recommendations largely agree on including both concrete and abstract science constructs, there are numerous differences among the existing recommendations. without a clear definition of early science, research on science learning is necessarily confined to the idiosyncratic definitions adopted by each research team. in turn, this curtails transferability to the preschool classroom and, thus, has only limited practical relevance for those who operate under a different definition of science. before early science education can be successful, then, it might first be necessary to adopt a consistent definition of science. are preschoolers expected to learn difficult science... 378 declarations acknowledgments: not applicable authors’ note: part of the research presented in this paper was derived from a master’s thesis completed by a.o. authors’ contributions: a.o. and h.k. contributed to all aspects of the work reported here, including the design and implementation of the research, the data analyses and visualization, and the writing and editing of the manuscript. t.w. contributed to the development of the methodology and its implementation, data analysis and visualization, inferential statistics, and some writing and editing of the manuscript. c.c. contributed primarily to the development of the methodology and some data analysis. data availability: the data used in this research, as well as additional supplementary information, are publicly available on the open science framework: https://osf.io/geqnb/ competing interests: the authors declare that they have no competing interests. funding: not applicable. adherence to ethical concerns the research reported here does not involve human subjects. the basis for the research was the analysis of records that are publicly available (educational standards). references airasian, p. w., cruikshank, k. a., mayer, r. e., pintrich, p. r., raths, j., & wittrock, m. c. 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(2008). learning and teaching about matter in grades k-8: when should the atomic-molecular theory be introduced. in s. vosniadou (ed.), international handbook of research on conceptual change (pp. 205–239). routledge. worth, k. (1999). science in early childhood classrooms: content and process. stem in early education and development. https://ecrp.illinois.edu/beyond/seed/worth.html https://doi.org/10.1002/wcs.1291 http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1131175 https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/90001494 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-005-0049-8 https://www.bls.gov/ooh/education-training-and-library/preschool-teachers.htm https://www.bls.gov/ooh/education-training-and-library/preschool-teachers.htm http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780203874813 https://ecrp.illinois.edu/beyond/seed/worth.html are preschoolers expected to learn difficult science... 382 appendix a: coding schemes appendix a.1 explanation of codes for non-science items codes words and phrases example engineering broadly: finding solutions, fixing something broken, creating a non-scientific model specifically: solves problems, builds a structure, use tools in play, develop procedures, invent “construct a device to protect from the sun” “solve problems by designing or using tools” math broadly: counting, using numbers, doing math without connection to science specifically: use numbers, use quantities, uses mathematical thinking, counts “uses number to represent quantity” “when counting, assigns number to each item” language arts broadly: reading, writing, or speaking with a focus on the process of language proficiency rather than science specifically: makes signs, uses letter-like symbols, writes messages, listens to stories, tells stories, repeats words “talk about ways to be safe” “repeat new words” personal growth broadly: following the rules, learning norms, showing respect, developing traits specifically: showing respect, follows rules, asks for help, invites peers, develops personal interest, shows surprise “demonstrate respect” “follows directions” caring for others broadly: referred to volunteering time, assisting, helping specifically: take care of, participate in care, express concern, is considerate “care for plants and animals in the classroom” “participate in activities that help to care for the environment” ana ocasio et al. 383 appendix a.2 explanation of codes for inquiry terms (study 1) codes words and phrases examples unspecified become familiar; determine; develop a sense; develop an awareness; engage in activities; explore; find out; inquiry; interact with; investigate; know; learn; look for answers; manipulate; pursue questions; reason; reflect; seek information; think about; try things out; understand “explores what a variety of living organisms need to live and grow (e.g., water, nutrients, environment)” “investigates concepts of structures.” low degree of abstraction (levels 1, 2) level 1: observe-withouttools collect data; collect information; discover; examine; gather information; make observations; manipulate; notice; observe; sensory exploration; use senses “observes the characteristics and movement of the sun, moon, stars, and clouds” “makes simple observations of the characteristics, movement, and seasonal changes of the sun, moon, stars, and clouds.” level 2: observe-with-tools explore with tools; gather information with tools; investigate with tools; measure; use books “use tools to explore the properties and characteristics of objects” “uses simple tools for exploration and investigation.” medium degree of abstraction (levels 3, 4, 5) level 3: communicatewithout-tools answer questions; confirm (observations); count; define; demonstrate (awareness, knowledge); describe; discuss; display data; document observations; draw; evaluate; give examples; identify; indicate (awareness, knowledge); infer; interpret; know vocabulary; label; name; offer critique; present; recall; recognize; record (data, information); represent; retell; share (explanations, findings, ideas); show understanding; summarize observations; take pictures; talk; use evidence “begins to use scientific vocabulary” “observes and describes characteristics, basic needs, and simple life cycles of living things.” level 4: communicate-withtools create maps; graph; use charts; use models; use tally sheets “collect, describe, and record information through discussions, drawings, maps, and charts.” “record observations using simple visual tools.” level 5: ask-questions be curious; demonstrate interest; express wonder; generate questions; show curiosity; show interest “exhibits curiosity about objects, living things, and other natural events in the environment.” “asks and responds to questions about relationships of objects, living things, and events in the natural environment.” high degree of abstraction (level 6, 7, 8, 9) level 6: compare-contrast analyze data; categorize; classify; differentiate; discriminate; distinguish; match something with something else; order; organize; sort “compares and categorizes solids and liquids based on their physical properties” “compares baby and adult animals and recognizes similarities (e.g., matches adult stuffed animals with their baby in a play setting)” level 7: predict anticipate; formulate hypothesis; make guesses; make predictions; predict changes “make predictions about changes in materials or objects based on past experience.” “describe and anticipate weather changes.” are preschoolers expected to learn difficult science... 384 level 8: test-a-prediction check predictions; experimentation (engage in, explore through); participate in experiments; test hypotheses; verify predictions “test a variety of materials and configurations to design an end product.” “adjusts their approach if results are different than expected and continues testing.” level 9: explain conclude (draw, formulate, make conclusions); explain; form explanations; generalize; generate explanations “constructs theories to explain their investigations.” “develops increasingly detailed explanations of their ideas and reasons” ana ocasio et al. 385 appendix a.3 explanation of codes for domains of science (study 2) codes words and phrases examples life science broadly: biology, organism(s), life specifically: plants, animals, growth, senses, living objects, effect on living things (e.g., of the weather, habitats, environment, seasons) “uses senses to observe and describe the properties of familiar plants and animals” “ask and answer questions about changes in the appearance, behavior, and habitats of living things.” physical science broadly: physics, chemistry. specifically: objects, motion, sound, light, vibrations, forces, magnetism, materials, matter, circumstances, physical models, physical structures, speed, fast/slow, heating/cooling, melting/freezing, light as energy, light variations, shadows, sinking, floating, temperature, things, states of matter “investigates and describes different types or speeds of motion” “use objects to effect motion (e.g. build a ramp with blocks so the car goes faster)” earth/space science broadly: astronomy, meteorology, geology specifically: earth materials, objects in the sky, sun, moon, stars, water cycle, rock cycle, day/night (cycles), natural objects, natural resources, materials in the environment, changes in the environment, non-living things in the environment (e.g., rocks, minerals, water), seasons, weather, impact of weather on the environment “describe how the earth’s surface is made up of different materials” “observe, describe, and discuss the characteristics of the sun, moon, stars, and sky” other science broadly: technology, social science, methodology, complex systems, environmentalism. specifically: effects on daily life (e.g., of the weather), effect of own actions, family, culture, digital media/devices, tools, scientific principles/process, caring for the planet, conservation, recycle/reuse, climate change, environmental concerns, pollution, human impact on earth/weather/seasons, uses of water, complex concepts, guidelines, day/night activities, human use of materials/resources/etc. “explains why a simple machine is appropriate for a particular task” “explore and use simple tools and machines.” multiple sciences combinations (2 or more) of the above categories (life, physical, earth/space, or other) “explore concepts and information about the physical, earth, and life sciences” “discriminate between living organisms and non-living objects” unclear domain of science world, data, information, environment, nature, events “ask questions to find out more about the natural world.” “displays and interprets data.” are preschoolers expected to learn difficult science... 386 appendix a.4 explanation of codes for facts (study 2) codes words and phrases examples concrete items; objects; materials; activities; resources; events; actions; characteristics; properties; features accessible via senses (visual, auditory, etc.); need; function; purpose; rules; vocabulary; tools (e.g., microscope, computer); reuse/recycle; weather; seasons; habitat; light/shadow; sink/float; ramps; speed (fast, slow); pushing/pulling l: “identify and describe common animals and insects.” p: “identify materials that make up objects.” e/s: “identify common earth materials and landforms.” o: “describe typical day and night activities.” m: “describes objects and living things in increasing detail.” abstract relations affect; impact; interact; influence; control; cause/effect; why x happens; result of; respond to; generate; depend on; provide for; take care of; protect; preserve; system; family; heredity; offspring; density l: “asks questions about the relationship between two things (e.g., why do you think some animals sleep in the day?).” p: “investigate different sounds made by different objects and different materials.” e/s: “demonstrates, through observation and investigation, an understanding that human action impacts the earth” o: “identify how weather affects daily life.” m: “asks and responds to questions about relationships of objects, living things, and events in the natural environment.” patterns patterns; changes; cycles (e.g., rock, water); stages; sequence; routine; growth; moving/motion; stability; transformation (e.g., solids to liquids); melting/freezing; heating/cooling; dissolving; polluting l: “demonstrates an understanding that living things change over time in size and other capacities as they grow”. p: “explore and describe in greater detail changes in objects and materials.” e/s: “uses senses and tools (including technology) to observe, describe, discuss and generate questions about changes in weather over time” o: “understands how actions people take may change the environment” m: “show an awareness of changes that occur in oneself and the environment.” groups groups; categories; kinds of; types of; similarities/differences among groups (e.g., mammals; species; age group; living/nonliving); x as y (e.g., “wetland as an ecosystem”); x vs. y; x to y (young to old); x from y; models. l: “compares baby and adult animals and recognizes similarities.” p: “explore different kinds of matter and describe by observing properties.” e/s: “identify various types of moving water” o: “describe the types of clothing needed for different seasons.” m: “begins to describe the similarities, differences and relationships between objects, living things and natural events.” forces force; inertia; friction; buoyancy; magnetism; electricity; gravity; falling without support; vibrations making a sound; energy; light (when a source of energy); heat (when a source of energy) p: “explore the effect of force on objects in and outside the early childhood environment.” p: “describes and compares the effects of common forces on objects and the impact of gravity, magnetism and mechanical ana ocasio et al. 387 forces.” general science general statements about a domain of science; scientific principle; scientific process l: “ask questions and conduct investigations to understand life science.” e/s: “the child investigates and observes the basic concepts of the earth” o: “with prompting and support, use scientific vocabulary words to describe steps in the scientific process” m: “pose questions about the physical and natural environment.” note. the acronyms pertain to the various domains of science (l: life science, p: physical science, e/s: earth/space science, o: other science, m: multiple sciences). are preschoolers expected to learn difficult science... 388 appendix b: number of items and terms per state appendix b.1 number of inquiry items and terms (study 1) state (publication year) non-science items science items inquiry terms e m la pg cfo unspecified items specified terms alabama (2012) 1 1 17 2 26 alaska (2007) 1 14 2 17 arizona (2018) 1 14 1 14 arkansas (2016) 1 2 24 4 31 california (2012) 25 7 32 colorado (2011) 11 1 22 connecticut (2014) 15 3 15 delaware (2010) 1 20 4 27 florida (2019) 2 1 26 5 30 georgia (2019) 1 17 7 21 hawaii (2014) 11 3 16 idaho (2014) 1 5 12 15 31 6 41 illinois (2013) 1 2 18 5 27 indiana (2014) 2 20 1 23 iowa (2017) 6 4 3 kansas (2014) 13 3 15 kentucky (2010) 14 0 18 louisiana (2013) 1 1 21 3 30 maine (2015) 6 1 19 3 31 maryland (2010) 1 1 13 2 23 massachusetts (2010) 30 7 35 michigan (2013) 17 2 25 minnesota (2014) 3 2 15 3 14 mississippi (2018) 3 28 8 32 missouri (2013) 3 9 6 3 montana (2014) 3 3 37 10 39 nebraska (2018) 13 3 12 nevada (2010) 1 46 28 25 new hampshire (2011) 4 1 3 ana ocasio et al. 389 new jersey (2014) 1 21 10 37 new mexico (2017) 10 1 12 new york (2019) 1 18 5 17 north carolina (2013) 2 19 1 32 north dakota (2018) 1 4 4 ohio (2019) 21 8 19 oklahoma (2016) 1 1 3 38 19 33 oregon (2016) 1 27 8 31 pennsylvania (2014) 4 44 7 52 rhode island (2013) 19 3 23 south carolina (2017) 1 1 3 19 2 37 south dakota (2019) 3 1 4 30 3 42 tennessee (2019) 17 2 28 texas (2015) 1 10 6 18 utah (2013) 1 14 2 13 vermont (2015) 6 1 22 6 22 virginia (2013) 34 3 40 washington (2012) 1 2 9 2 11 west virginia (2019) 11 5 10 wisconsin (2013) 2 1 15 4 23 wyoming (2009) 9 5 14 total 40 6 19 34 19 959 236 1168 note. items differed in whether they pertain to science (science items) or not (non-science items). non-science items could be about engineering (e), math (m), language arts (la), personal growth (pg), or caring for others (cfo). appendix a.1 provides detailed information about the non-science items were defined. for science items, the abstraction level of their inquiry terms was coded. inquiry terms could be unspecified (i.e., too vague to fit a single abstraction code), or they could be specified (i.e., precise enough for an abstract code). items with only unspecified inquiry terms were referred to as unspecified items. are preschoolers expected to learn difficult science... 390 appendix b.2 number of fact items and terms (study 2) state items without domain items with domains fact terms l p e/s m o co r p g f alabama 4 3 5 4 1 9 1 3 2 alaska 7 2 2 3 4 1 2 arizona 9 5 2 2 1 arkansas 9 5 3 1 6 9 2 3 1 california 4 6 8 3 2 2 10 3 9 1 colorado 3 3 4 1 2 2 4 1 connecticut 6 3 4 1 1 1 5 5 1 delaware 7 4 2 3 2 2 5 3 2 3 florida 7 6 5 4 2 2 8 4 7 1 georgia 3 3 5 4 1 1 5 2 7 2 hawaii 2 5 2 1 1 3 2 4 3 idaho 17 7 2 2* 2 8 4 1 illinois 7 2 4 2 1 2 5 3 3 2 indiana 4 2* 6 4 1 2 7 1 4 3 1 iowa 3 1 2 1 2 1 kansas 3 2 1 2 5 4 8 3 1 kentucky 8 6 5 1 louisiana 5 5 3 3 2 2* 4 2 8 2 1 maine 4 5 5 3 2 8 4 3 1 maryland 3 2 7 1 3 3 2 2 3 massachusetts 1 9 9 4 4 3 12 9 7 4 michigan 4 4 2 4 3 7 2 3 1 minnesota 11 1 2* 1 2 mississippi 3 11 7 3 4 15 2 8 1 missouri 3 2* 3 8 montana 5 7 11 12 2 * 22 1 6 1 1 nebraska 8 1 2 2 3 1 1 nevada 7 15 13 6 2 2* 24 7 6 2 3 new hampshire 1 1 1 1 2 2 1 ana ocasio et al. 391 new jersey 2 5 7 1 6 7 5 5 3 1 new mexico 6 4 1 2 1 new york 4 7 3 3 1 9 5 2 2 1 north carolina 11 1 5 1 1 5 2 1 north dakota 3 1 1 ohio 9 5 3 3 * 6 2 3 1 oklahoma 11 5 11 6* 1 3 21 1 3 1 oregon 7 6 8 3 2 1 10 5 6 1 pennsylvania 12 7 9 4 12 24 6 10 5 3 rhode island 5 6 5 2 1 4 2 5 5 south carolina 7 2 7 2 1 8 1 4 south dakota 10 4 9 3 2 2 11 4 8 tennessee 4 3 4 2 2 2 8 2 4 1 texas 3 4 3 5 1 3 1 utah 3 4 3 3 1 8 2 1 vermont 2 6 8 5 1 9 1 8 5 virginia 5 4 10 5 2 8 19 4 5 1 2 washington 5 1 1 2 3 1 west virginia 6 1 1 1 1 2 3 2 1 wisconsin 12 1 2 2 1 wyoming 5 1 3 2 1 1 total 262 181 237 129 74 76 362 120 180 61 23 note. items differed in whether they could be attributed to a domain of science (items with domains) or not (items without domains). domains refer to life science (l), physical science (p), earth/space science (e/s), other science (o), and multiple sciences (m). appendix a.3 provides detailed information about how the domains of science were defined. the fact terms differ in whether they were concrete only (co), a relation (r), a pattern (p), a group (g), or a force (f). *reflects the presence of any additional items not included in the count that were too broad to receive a code for their abstraction level (e.g., “life science”). are preschoolers expected to learn difficult science constructs? a content analysis of u.s. standards broad contrast among degrees of abstraction journal of childhood, education & society volume 3, issue 1, 2022, 28-47 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.202231106 research article ©2022 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. transition to school process of children with disadvantages: a literature review* gamze kaplan 1, sima mart 2, i̇brahim halil diken 3 abstract: transition to school can be described as an opportunity for children to experience a new social and educational environment. however, it also includes a loss of security area and fear of the journey into the unknown and it can be more difficult for children with disadvantages and their families. it is necessary to address the recent studies conducted on this period, in order to present different perspectives and to determine the tendency of the studies carried out on the transition to primary school in the current literature. in this way, it is possible to look at the transition to school for children with disadvantages from a broad perspective. the aim of this study is to review the research that addresses the transition process of children with disadvantages to primary school. following the inclusion and exclusion processes carried out in this context, 15 studies related to the subject were examined and the studies were analyzed descriptively. according to the findings, it is seen that the studies mostly focus on revealing the existing situation. the findings of the studies examined in this context are interpreted under the themes of (a) factors affecting the transition of children, (b) problems experienced in the transition, (c) collaboration in the transition, and (d) advices for the process. findings reveal the importance of each individual in a community at the same risk having their own characteristics, and of considering individual differences while addressing cultural differences. it is thought that new research is needed to improve the transition in terms of inclusivity. article history received: 24 may 2021 accepted: 30 november 2021 keywords transition, primary school; additional support; children with disadvantage; literature review introduction transition is a process of movement that covers a significant part of life and continues from infancy to adulthood (rous et al., 2007). the individual is faced with many transition points that take her/him one step further from the existing position. these transition points include the transition of the individual from the starting of the life as the hospital to home until the end of the life. in school environments, transitions can occur in a variety of ways, such as entering school for the first time, transitioning from one school level to another, and transition from one school to another (ladd & price, 1987; locasale-crouch et al., 2008). additionally, this transition could also be from home to the primary school depending on the access to education within the context (united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization [unesco], 2010). transition to school can be described as an opportunity for children to experience a new social and educational environment. however, this transition also includes a loss of secure area and fear of the journey into the unknown (visković, 2018). in the first years of school age, there are alterations in philosophical views that make a difference between preschool and primary school. this situation means that the transition to primary school symbolizes a critical period within the child life (corsaro & molarini, 2000). in preschool philosophy, childhood is handled with a more holistic approach based on care and developmental progression with the priority of the child’s wellbeing and enjoyment. however, when _____________ *this study was presented orally in 5th national interdisciplinary early childhood intervention congress (udemko, 2020) held on 27-29 june 2020. 1 university of manchester, faculty of biology, medicine and health, psychology, manchester, uk, e-mail: gamzekaplan175@gmail.com, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-00034613-1359 2 anadolu university, research institute for individuals with disabilities, eskişehir, turkey, e-mail: skirkgoz@anadolu.edu.tr, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0290-1024 3 anadolu university, research institute for individuals with disabilities, eskişehir, turkey, e-mail: ihdiken@anadolu.edu.tr orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5761-2900 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202231106 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:gamzekaplan175@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4613-1359 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4613-1359 mailto:skirkgoz@anadolu.edu.tr https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0290-1024 mailto:ihdiken@anadolu.edu.tr https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5761-2900 transition to school process of children with disadvantages... 29 children start primary school they come across with an intense contrast within the traditional education system (woodhead & moss, 2007). in several countries such as sweden, scotland and new zeland, there is a tendency to change the traditional system with a more pedagogical approach based on child’s wellbeing and creativity instead of competition (moss & bennett, 2006). in this respect, in addition to good examples, suggestions in academic studies continue and a "pedagogical meeting place" is emphasized this concept means reflecting and constructing the pedagogical practices together with the democratic and fair participation of the child in the process (bennett, 2013). extensively, it is common to find out the approach that underestimated the importance of early childhood education and care and the perception of it is like a preparation for formal schooling (moss & bennett, 2006). play-based methods, which are fundamental in preschool education, turn into large group teaching for specific content areas in primary school (dahlberg & taguchi, 1994; einarsdóttir et al., 2008). thus, within the current education system, there is a need to conduct more research focused on the organisations, readiness concept for school, child and community and approach to transition and pedagogy in early childhood and primary school settings. when children develop a positive attitude towards school during the transition to primary school and have the support they need, such as social support, positive improvements will be achieved in their level of school readiness (becker & luthar, 2002). school readiness refers to a set of skills or preparation associated with the harmony of child and school systems and it is included the child’s and school’s readiness for the child (ahtola et al., 2011). also, readiness is a fundamental responsibility of the community to reach the rights and equal opportunities within the system (woodhead & moss, 2007). children who are ready for school will show adaptive behaviours that will affect their future academic and social skills instead of reactions such as anxiety, avoidance or negative attitudes towards school (graue, 2006; ladd & price, 1987). the transition from preschool to primary school is a fundamental process for all families and children, and it can be more difficult for children with disadvantages and their families (ames, 2012; pianta et al., 1999). although disadvantage is quite a relative concept, many factors affect a child's disadvantage. unesco (2010) has described individuals with disadvantage under four categories. these are (a) individuals with a low socioeconomic level associated with poverty, (b) individuals with group differences such as ethnicity, religion, and language, (c) those living in rural areas or immigrants, and (d) individuals with special educational needs. this classification provides a framework consistent with the “precarious living conditions” offered by walper and riedel (gambaro et al., 2014) and, in a broader sense, refers to having additional support needs in terms of social and educational aspects. for example, research shows that there is an intersection with poverty in many types of disability and suggests that additional resources and services should be used to address systemic inequalities (riddell & weedon, 2016). while the lack of government support and weak regulatory systems create problems for all children, these results are more common for children who need additional support (gambaro et al., 2014). when the system for a smooth transition is considered, it is of great significance for children who need additional support to know how this process takes place and to review the work carried out in this regard. yet there are limited studies that aim to review the research conducted on this period (petriwskyj et al., 2005). in the study conducted by petriwskyj et al. (2005), the studies on transition to school between 1990 and 2004 were reviewed. the main purpose of the study was to investigate and interpret the trends in how the concept of transition was created in parallel with the need for publication time. the authors only included studies carried out in three western regions due to the variations of school transition patterns and mostly focused on the construction of transition to school. this study, on the other hand, separated significantly from the previous study with its features such as not having any regional boundaries detailed explanation of the systematic screening process, covering descriptive information that will enable readers to look at the transition to school for children with disadvantages from a broad perspective, and providing the information from up-to-date studies. therefore, it is necessary to address the recent studies conducted on this period, in order to present different perspectives and to determine the tendency of the studies carried out on the transition to primary school in the current literature. due to the wide variety of the participant population, studies need to be reviewed more holistically in terms of the interventions and the gamze kaplan, sima mart & i̇brahim halil di̇ken 30 processes taking place during the transition period. this review will enable broader decision-making on best practice procedures and regulations for different students and contexts. for this reason, this study aims to review the literature on the transition of children with disadvantages to primary school. method in this section, information about the methodology of the research, electronic screening and coding of the data and reliability are included. methodology of the research this research is a review of previous studies conducted on the transition to primary school, which is one of the important steps in the transition of children. electronic screening this review study includes the studies that were published in an international peer-reviewed journal in english or turkish after 2005 and focused on the transition of children with a disadvantage to primary school. to identify the articles published in english, peer-reviewed academic journals between 2005 and 2020, we searched 11 electronic bibliographic databases: academic search ultimate, central & eastern european academic source, directory of open access journals, eric, jstor journals, medline, sciencedirect, scopus, springer nature journals, teacher reference center, and the belt and road initiative reference source. within the scope of this study, the terms "transition to school" or "transition to elementary" or "transition to inclusion" or "transition to primary" were screened in central search and article linker service within the university library system. the "also search within the full text of articles" option was used as the expander. in order to limit the studies, the conditions of “being in the library collection”, “being published in a peer-reviewed academic journal” and “being in english” were applied. after the screening according to the determined criteria, 1421 studies were accessed. in the next stage, the screen was limited to the subjects of “education”, “transition”, “early childhood education”, “children”, “primary education”, “transitional programs”, “elementary education”, “academic achievement”, “schools”, “longitudinal method”, “school children”, “kindergarten”, “students”, “student adjustment”, “formal education”, “school transition”, “elementary schools”, “child development”, “elementary school students”, “school readiness”, “special education”, “transition to school”, “preschool children”, “preschool education” and “transitional programs (education)”. after applying this limitation, 630 studies were accessed. the titles and abstracts of 630 studies were reviewed by two authors independently and simultaneously in line with the criteria determined, and duplicates were excluded. after these procedures, the number of studies decreased to 93. selecting criteria are (a) being in the library collection, (b) being published in a peer-reviewed academic journal, (c) in english and (d), at least one participant is a disadvantage. the concept of transition to school is handled in different ways in research (atkinson et al., 2021; helm et al., 2019), but in this study, as mentioned in the introduction part, it is considered as grade 1 since it symbolizes the transition to a formal approach in the current education system. therefore, pre-school education, or reception class is excluded. in the dimension of disadvantage, since the concept has a broad meaning, no relevant phrase is included in the keywords. after the screening, the topics selected among the available topic options were evaluated within the framework of unesco's definition of disadvantage and kept as wide as possible. it was decided to include only studies after 2005 in order to reach up-to-date data and contribute the literature although the purpose and content of this study are different from petriwskyj et al. (2005). in this stage, informative articles, articles in which the term “transition to school” refers to preschool education, kindergarten or reception class and articles targeting children who have not any disadvantage that has mentioned in the classification of the unesco were left out. the full texts of 93 studies were looked into according to the criteria (a) type of disadvantage, (b) transition to school, and (c) being after 2005, and after transition to school process of children with disadvantages... 31 this review, the number was reduced to 13. the bibliographies of the included studies were manually screened and two new studies (mcintyre et al., 2006; walker et al., 2012) were included. after all the eliminations, 15 articles were reviewed within the scope of this research. the steps followed during the screening process are presented in figure 1. figure 1. screening steps coding the variables of 15 studies, which were included in the screening process and thought to be related to the subject, were coded. in order to code the variables, a descriptive analysis table was created and the basic data were presented on this table. these variables were examined under the following headings: (a) year, (b) country, (c) aim of the research, (d) participants, (d) type of disadvantage, (e) research method, (f) data collection techniques, (g) findings, and (h) reliability/trustworthiness. each study was examined from the first item of the descriptive analysis table to the last item. in addition, the journals in which the researches were published were presented as a list and presented to the reader's information. reliability the electronic screening process of the study was carried out by the first author, and all other stages were carried out independently and simultaneously by the first and second authors. 630 articles were evaluated simultaneously and independently by two researchers during the evaluation phase according to the pre-selection and inclusion criteria of the research. afterwards, a meeting was held and disagreements were resolved and a consensus was reached. at this stage, it was undecided about the inclusion of food allergies. however, the concept of special educational needs has been included because it requires additional regulation and support rather than the context of disability. in the manual scanning phase, the bibliographies of the articles were reviewed. in the coding phase of the variables, the researchers created a descriptive analysis table and adopted a common path by holding a meeting on how to fill the table. the researchers read and coded the studies independently of each other as in the other stages. after the coding, the differences of opinion were reviewed and a meeting was held and a consensus was reached on these points. in this step, only corrections were made on issues such as word corrections and clarity. the first and second authors who took an active role in the review process, proceed with their education as doctoral students in the field of special education and took part in the conduct of the various review, systematic review and meta-analysis studies. in addition, the third author, who works as a screening with keywords using the “limit to” option with subject topics excluding duplicates and unrelated studies by screening the titles 1421 630 94 excluding studies from before 2005 from the scope and reviewing the contents 13 reference screening of included studies 15 gamze kaplan, sima mart & i̇brahim halil di̇ken 32 professor in the field of special education, provided supervision during the planning and implementation of the research steps. findings and interpretation in this section, the main findings and the interpretation of the studies with current literature is included. a summary of the descriptive data including year, country, aim type of disadvantage, methodology, data collection techniques, findings and reliability/trustworthiness is presented in table 1. table 2 provides the information of the journals in which the studies were published. children with disadvantages may experience additional difficulties in the transition process (ames, 2012; sanagavarapu, 2010) and there are different individual decisions and practices depending on the needs of each child. for this reason, the process of transition to school cannot always be interpreted clearly in the studies examined. looking at how to transition to school is defined in the studies, and it was explained as (a) a long-term process covering the previous and subsequent years in the institution (bellbooth et al., 2014; petriwskyj, 2013; sanagavarapu, 2010; sanagavarapu et al., 2016; schischka et al., 2012; walker et al., 2012), (b) a shorter-term process that requires a number of preparations (carmody et al., 2015; chang et al., 2012; fontil & petrakos, 2015; rogers, 2018; yıldırım-hacıibrahimoğlu & kargın, 2017), and (c) critical moments (ames, 2012). in the other review study (petriwskyj et al., 2005), it is seen that there are different definitions such as a school starting process reduced to teacher practice, ensuring continuity from home to school and a multi-layered process. this situation reveals the complexity of the transition process and its unique counterpart. in terms of geography, eight of the studies were carried out in australia, three in the usa, one in canada, one in new zealand, one in peru and one in turkey. considering that there is considerable differences in legal regulations in these regions, but the current trend in for australia to have the highest level of research may be related to the existing trend in transition studies (dockett et al., 2014) and the differences in implementation between regions, despite the existence of legal regulations in australia (einarsdóttir et al., 2008). for example, in queensland, many children with disadvantages attend primary school a few days a week and an intervention class on other days. in the second year, the transition is completed and they start school full-time (walker et al., 2012). but not all states in australia have such a process. moreover, it is possible to see a wide variety of practices in different countries of the world in connection with education policies. for this reason, it is thought that this review will gain a global perspective (walker et al., 2012). in addition, the fact that studies have been conducted one in each country that turkey (yıldırım-hacıibrahimoğlu & kargın, 2017), peru (ames, 2012), canada (fontil and petrakos, 2015) and new zealand (schishka et al., 2012) is a promising situation for the new and developing literature for transition studies. aims of the research were to investigate child and their relatives’ opinions, experiences and feelings about transition and starting school (n=6), to identify needs of mothers in the transition (n=1), to identify difficulties in the process (n=2), to design and evaluate an effective transition (n=2), to identify key factors in transition (n=2) and to examine the predictive level of child-related variables (n=2) across 15 studies. it is seen that the majority of the studies focus on exploring the current situation, and effectiveness studies are in the minority. exploratory research is primarily preferred in cases where (a) experimental research on the area is limited, (b) research describing the area is limited, or (c) current developments in the area require new research (stebbins, 2001). although the subject of school readiness has existed for many years, the transition point of view that emerged after the modern changes in perspective is considered as a subject area that changes and updates day by day, and it is thought that exploratory studies will contribute significantly to the literature and light up the way for comprehensive research (babbie, 2004). transition to school process of children with disadvantages... 33 table 1. studies examining transition to school of children with disadvantage author/year/ country aim participant/s type of disadvantage method data collection techniques/ tools findings reliability/ trustworthin ess sanagavarapu, 2018/ australia (1) identify the experience, anxiety, and support needs of mothers of children with food allergies in the transition to school, (2) provide advice to families on how to ensure a safe and positive start to school 10 school-age students with food allergies and their mothers food allergy qualitative interview photo elicitation interviews (pei) the vast majority of families stated that the transition did not happen as planned, so it was a stressful and challenging time. mothers stated that systematic follow-up of school nurses with action plans prepared by schools during the transition facilitated the period; lack of communication, failures in the transition plan and family participation made the transition difficult. inter-rater reliability rogers, 2018/ australia understanding the perspectives of mothers and teachers on family participation during the transition of children who experience difficulties in the time of transitioning to school 21 mothers and 13 primary school teachers socio-economic disadvantage case study observation interview document analysis informal conversation mothers mostly participated in their children's education at home, in the context of homework and games and they were looking for regular communication opportunities to share their concerns and talk about their children. mothers who regularly participated in a weekly transition program before their children started school noted that over time, they formed a collaboration with teacher. mothers who are unfamiliar with school culture and language found regular interviews and introductory activities useful, but problems with their children's success and happiness continued. educators found important to participate the information sessions and workshops. sanagavarapu, 2017/ australia investigate children's capacity to resist allergic food cravings and ask for help, as well as their feelings of starting the school 6 school-age children with food allergies food allergy qualitative interview photo elicitation interviews (pei) all of the children involved in this study have an awareness of what they can and cannot eat safely, but it has not been definitively determined whether they recognize foods that are likely to be allergenic for them. most children stated that when they were offered an allergenic food, they are refusing and telling them “no”. all the children indicated that they would first seek help from their teachers when there was an allergic reaction. gamze kaplan, sima mart & i̇brahim halil di̇ken 34 yıldırım hacıibrahimoğlu & kargın, 2017/ turkey determine the difficulties experienced by students with special needs during the transition from preschool to primary education based on teacher opinions 209 primary school teachers 43 primary school teachers working with first grade special educational needs mixed method/ explanatory mixed design survey focus group interview determining the difficulties in transitioning to primary school (ddtps) questions of focus group interview at the first stage of the study, the subjects as having the most problems in transition were: lack of appropriate materials, negative attitude of the classroom teacher, crowded classrooms, lack of support for the teacher and inability of the student to perform their daily life skills independently. the results show that the teacher's gender, level of education, or special educational knowledge did not make a significant difference in responses. inter-rater reliability, participant confirmation sanagavarapu et al., 2016/ australia discuss mothers’ concerns and feelings about their child’s transition to school 10 mothers food allergy qualitative interview photo elicitation interviews (pei) most mothers learned about the school's food allergy management after their children started school. almost all mothers expressed concern about safe playgrounds and the supervision of risk elements. however, mothers have stated that they are perceived by school staff as being overly protective, that schools are more at risk than preschool education environments, and that transferring responsibility to school staff is a concern. inter-rater reliability carmody et al., 2015/ usa examine the impact of child, parent, and family relationship factors assessed at kindergarten age on children's emotions/behavior, selfregulation, and social outcomes in primary school first grade 92 children who were physically abused and their primary caregivers physical abuse quantitative + longitudinal study scales and observation kaufman brief intelligence test (kbit), brief symptom index (bsi), preschool parenting measure (ppm), macarthur story stem battery, emotional/behavioral problems the child behavior checklist— teacher report form (trf), the behavior rating inventory of executive functioning (brief) factors of low iq score, parental mental health, and family conflict in kindergarten age were found to predict internal problem behaviors that occur in first grade. an association was found between maternal acceptance and internal problem behaviors. a low iq score and a preschool family factor were found to predict external problem behaviors. due to the deterioration of the emotional and cognitive functions of children subjected to abuse in kindergarten, it is argued that this condition may hinder the development of stress and emotion management skills during the transition to first grade, so children subjected to physical abuse need individualized interventions. inter-rater reliability (for one scale) transition to school process of children with disadvantages... 35 fontil & petrakos, 2015/ canada understand the experiences of children of canadian and immigrant families regarding the transition to elementary school 10 children with autism, including 5 canadians and 5 immigrants, and their families autism, cultural/ ethnic diversity qualitative/ grounded theory interview the question form of semi-structured interview, measure of processes of care (mpoc20) all parents emphasized the importance of schoolfamily communication, which includes empathy and understanding. most families used various means of support during the transition, while some said they could not find support systems. some families stated that their children's difficulties during the transition to primary school were due to the lack of support services in the classroom. both groups of families expressed concern about their children's language and communication skills, while immigrant families expressed concern that their language and communication skills would have a negative impact on school-family cooperation. inter-rater reliability, triangulation, participant confirmation, detailed description bell-booth et al., 2014/ australia identify key factors affecting the transition and attendance of australian aboriginal and indigenous children 2 aboriginal students, their families and teachers socio-economic disadvantage cultural/ethnic diversity longitudinal study/case study interview and scales settling into school scale (sis), strengths and difficulties questionnaire (sdq) participants had no educational experience before starting primary school. the first participant was absent in the first grade 52% of school time. although the student's language and literacy skills are close to their peers, they are very limited in social skills. as the student's academic skills declined in the second grade and problem behaviors increased, he was referred to a special education class. second participant established positive social relationships with his friends in the first grade and achieved similar levels with his friends in the academic field. in the second year, he achieved high success with his orientation to sports and loved by the entire school. the main difference affecting success among participants was social support, school practices, family conditions, child's daily experience and child characteristics. gamze kaplan, sima mart & i̇brahim halil di̇ken 36 petriwskyj, 2013/ australia identify the factors that teachers considered effective for inclusion during the transition to school, and to examine the influences on their practice 22 students attending kindergarten at three different schools and 11 preschool teachers special educational needs cultural/ethnic diversity case study observation and interview early childhood environment rating scale revised ecers-r, ecers-e extension as schools vary in terms of student characteristics, it wasseen that teacher views were shaped by changing expectations. professional competence of teachers, continuity of services and individual transition planning are the main elements reflected in the change. however, legal procedures for assessment have not been flexible enough to allow teachers to implement applications for their point of view during the transition. interobserver agreement, inter-rater reliability ames, 2012/ peru examine cultural, linguistic and identity confusion at school in order to understand the 'failures' of indigenous children in the transition to primary school 2 students entering the first grade, their families and teachers cultural/ethnic diversity case study observation and interview first participant he had problems with the transition to primary school and communication with his friends. the reason for family was the differences of language spoken at school and at home, while the student stated that the reason was that he didn’t like to write and was subjected to physical punishment that teacher has confirmed. the mother of the second participant found unnecessary for her son to play games outside of school and forced him to go there, while the student stated that the first class was not as fun as he expected. he sometimes ran away from school and played games, and was subjected to physical punishment by his teacher. chang et al., 2012 / usa examine the effects of socio-economic risk and negative emotional state on children's social competence in the transition to primary school 310 students, their families and teachers ethnic diversity socio-economic disadvantage longitudinal study interview and scales cumulative risk index, negative emotionality questionnaire, social skills ratings scale increases in risk factors for young children lead to less developed emotion regulation ability in preschool children. a relationship was found between low emotion regulation ability and the social inadequacy of children. schishka et al., 2012/ new zealand examine the transition of young children with special needs to primary school and their processes before and after starting school 17 students, their primary caregivers and teachers special educational needs qualitative interview two school preparation practices that parents found useful were identified. these were(1) holding transition meetings and (2) making visits to the school before starting. most parents and teachers noted that immediately after the transition to school, the children faced difficulties, especially in academic skills, depending on the types of special needs, often overcoming them by making decisions together. transition to school process of children with disadvantages... 37 walker et al., 2012/ australia assessing parents and teachers' perceptions of inclusive education, support, and the success of the transition. in addition, to examine the relationship between children's disability level and adult perceptions. 50 parents and 50 teachers developmental disabilities qualitative and quantitative interview questionnaire parents stated that they were satisfied with the support they received from the prep teacher, and that the teacher was understanding about the disadvantage of their children and family values. they found the transition program for children beneficial as it supports social and school-related skills. most teachers think that children's transition program is easy and somewhat easy. they find the support provided to them sufficient. sanagavarapu, 2010/ australia carry out a comprehensive study of the cultural and linguistic needs of bangladeshi children living in sydney related to school transition from the perspective of families 10 bengali parents cultural/linguistic/ ethnic diversity qualitative/ phenomenology interview the families listed the abilities of their children to express needs independently and make friends as among the important factors that facilitated the transition to school. the families of children who had difficulty adjusting to school during the transition believed that the main reason was linguistic differences. some of the parents started learning english in order to make a positive transition, but during the transition, most participants stated that they didn’t understand the information provided to them by the school. mcintyre et al., 2006/ usa to examine the factors associated with the transition to school adjustment in children with and without intellectual disability. 67 children, their mothers and teachers intellectual disability quantitative vineland adaptive behavior scales, social skills rating system, teacher’s report form (trf), child behavior checklist (cbcl), the student–teacher relationship scale (strs) teachers reported more problem behaviors and less positive relationship about children with intellectual disability (id) than typically (td) developing children. also, parents, rated children with id as having significantly fewer social skills than typical children. gamze kaplan, sima mart & i̇brahim halil di̇ken 38 when the participants are reviewed, it is seen that the studies were conducted with students, teachers and parents. however, one of the striking points may be that specifically boys were determined as participants in the two studies. this situation is explained in two studies as boys exhibit more behavioral problems in this age range (carmody et al., 2015; chang et al., 2012). consistent with this finding belsky and beaver (2011) claim that boys can have more behavior problem than girls because of a combination of physiological, biological, and social differences. however, according to data that provided by wolke et al. (2000), there is not differences in behavior problems based on gender. another point is that mothers constitute the majority of parents in participant groups. in this case, it is thought that the roles of men and women in the social structure may have been influential. in sanagavarapu (2018), it was stated that the invitation was sent to all parents, but only the mothers accepted the interview and this situation could also be seen in different review studies (vermaes et al., 2005). finally, taking children's views into account and making their voices heard in the interviews with the photo elicitation technique (sanagavarapu, 2017; 2018) represents a very critical point in terms of human rights, equality and self-advocacy. when the research is reviewed in terms of disadvantages, it is seen that six of the studies dealt with cultural-linguistic-ethnic diversity, six in the context of special educational needs, three in the context of socio-economic level, three in food allergies, and one in physical abuse. in some of these studies (e.g. fontil & petrakos, 2015) the intersectionality of multiple disadvantages was addressed. migration movements and intercultural interactions in the world cause changes in the understanding of one single culture (amelina, 2010) and reveal the need for culturally-sensitive studies (jackson, 2009) which is considered the ethnic, cultural features, values, background, faith and at the same time their stories while designing and providing the program (resnicow et al., 2000). considering these developments, it is expected that the disadvantage situation in the context of culture-language-ethnic origin is at the highest level in the studies reviewed. when the methods used are examined, it is seen that qualitative research methods were used in most of the studies (n = 10). in them phenomenology (n=1), grounded theory (n=1) and case study (n=3) designs were used. in addition, three of the studies are longitudinal, one quantitative research and one uses both qualitative and quantitative methods. longitudinal studies are thought to be very useful for the literature, considering that they provide in-depth and comprehensive information through long-term data. it is provided the alterations within the context (caruana et al., 2015) and allows us to see the differing needs and practices in the transition. triangulation is a way to enrich the quality of the study and increase the trustworthiness/reliability (noble & heale, 2019). one of the ways to provide triangulation in the scientific research is using a variety of data collection methods (denzin, 2009). as regards the data collection techniques used in the study, the majority of studies (n=10) used at least one of the data collection methods such as interview, observation, document analysis, and standardized measurement tools, and only the interview technique was used in five of these studies (sanagavarapu, 2010; 2017; 2018; sanagavarapu et al., 2016; schischka et al., 2012). it could be mentioned that the data triangulation is quite limited in these studies, and this situation is thought to create a limitation for the quality of the research. another important point is that the researchers' reflective journal, which is an important data source in expanding the data in qualitative and mixed method research processes (slotnick & janesick, 2011), was not encountered in any of the studies. lack of reflective journals may have caused data loss, and this situation should be taken into consideration in further studies. reliability is used as a framework concept and basically, it is related to credibility. in qualitative and quantitative research designs reliability/trustworthiness can be provided in different ways (cohen et al., 2018). in the context of reliability/trustworthiness, there are reliability data in six of the studies. in one of these studies (carmody et al., 2015), the reliability data were collected for only one of the many scales used. in only one study (fontil & petrakos, 2015), was there triangulation in reliability/trustworthiness data, inter-coder reliability, data triangulation, participant confirmation and detailed explanation methods were used. most of the studies (n = 8) were found in journals that publish research on early childhood, and they transition to school process of children with disadvantages... 39 were also published in journals that include family studies, child development in society, and psychology. table 2. the journals in which the studies were published study journal petriwskyj (2013) walker et al. (2012) sanagavarapu (2010) sanagavarapu et al. (2016) schischka et al. (2012) australasian journal of early childhood ames, p. (2012) international journal of educational development bell-booth et al. (2014) children & society carmody et al. (2015) journal of child and family studies mcintyre et al. (2006) journal of intellectual disability research chang et al. (2012) social development fontil & petrakos (2015) psychology in schools rogers (2018) european early childhood education research journal sanagavarapu (2017) cogent education sanagavarapu (2018) early childhood education journal yıldırım-hacıibrahimoğlu & kargın (2017) educational sciences: theory & practice the journals in which the studies are published are presented in table 2. a remarkable point is all journals are scanned in social science citation index which is the fundamental index for social science research. additionally, five of the studies (petriwskyj, 2013; sanagavarapu, 2010; sanagavarapu et al., 2016; scischka et al., 2012; walkers et al., 2012) are published in the same journal. it could be related with the focus topics of the journal and the country where the journal is connected. the findings of the studies reviewed were interpreted under four headings: (a) factors affecting the transition of children, (b) problems experienced in transition, (c) collaboration in the transition, (d) advices for the process. factors affecting the transition of children the transition is a difficult experience for all individuals. this period is harder to tackle for children with disadvantages (ames, 2012). transition is a struggle not only for the children but also for their families and teachers. however, it is not a one-way process and teachers/ school staff cannot expect the child and family to simply adapt to the school. teachers also need to be sensitive to the diversity of children's adaptation and the diversity of contextual factors that affect the adaptation of children who are new to school (sanagavarapu, 2010). at the same time, it is necessary to determine the support that teachers and parents need in this period and to offer them through adaptations (walker et al., 2012). when the factors affecting the child's adaptation and social competence development was reviewed, it is seen that primarily the characteristics of the child were determinant (bell-booth et al., 2014; mcintyre et al., 2006). in the study conducted by bell-booth et al. (2014), the transition of two indigenous children was followed for four years. the findings obtained showed that the transition of the two children proceeded differently. although financial and structural services (e.g., clothing, transportation) support the struggle to access school, it is stated that the differences in the level of participation are due to the difficulties experienced by each child individually. in another study, it is found that adaptive behaviour, self-regulation and social skills have association with a successful transition and school adjustment (mcintyre et al., 2006). in line with the findings of other studies (correira & marques-pinto, 2016; mcclelland et al., 2006; o’kane & hayes, 2006; stephen & cope, 2003), child characteristics and the required skills for learning and adjustment is mentioned and provide a consistency. this reveals the importance of each individual in a community at the same risk having their own characteristics and skills, and of considering individual differences while addressing cultural differences. while it is always necessary to take into account the individual characteristics of the child, it is gamze kaplan, sima mart & i̇brahim halil di̇ken 40 generally accepted that children with disadvantages experience problems during the transition. in the study conducted by sanagavarapu (2010), it is observed that the most important problem in the transition period of children with cultural-linguistic diversity is the language barrier. this prevents not only children but also parents from accessing information on points such as the school curriculum, the transition to school, and cooperation with teachers. therefore, school should be prepared for the to meet the cultural and lingusitical needs of children and their families (correia & marques-pinto, 2016). in the study conducted by ames (2012), it was found that daily school experiences contain continuous messages that outrage children's culture, language and identity. in the interviews conducted by fontil and petrakos (2015) with the mothers, one of the mothers stated that their child speaks half english and half romanian at home. they stated that the child spoke romanian while resting, and while playing, they spoke english because they thought that their toys did not understand romanian. this situation shows the experience of the child during the period and the impact of the situation of not being understood by their peers on their life. thus, as well as providing basic services for transition, the transition also requires sensitivity to the language and culture of the child and family in the services provided (ames, 2012; fontil & petrakos, 2015; sanagavarapu, 2010) and programming the educational services with an inclusive approach can help to provide more balanced experiences for children and their families (stephen & cope, 2003). problems experienced in the transition when the problems experienced in the transition are reviewed, they are categorized under the headings of family-related, teacher-related, child-related and other problems. cooperation between all stakeholders is the key point of the effective transitions (dockett & perry, 2004). however, collaboration support level could perceive differently among the stakeholders. in the interviews with teachers, it is often mentioned that the cooperation of the families is quite limited (bellbooth et al., 2014; yıldırım-hacıibrahimoğlu & kargın, 2017). in accordance with this finding, a mother stated in an interview with rogers (2018) that “school work was carried out only at the school”. however, in the same study, some mothers stated that, although they wanted to participate in the educational times of their children, they lacked of knowledge and support. similarly, in the study by fontil & petrakos (2015), families stated that they thought they were judged pretty much by the school system. this situation reveals the idea that the transition is perceived differently by parents and teachers (rogers, 2018). considering the problems related to teachers, it is seen that teachers have limited knowledge of the individual educational needs of the child before and during the transition, limited time, insufficient teacher training programs in terms of special education, limited in-service training and inadequate support (yıldırım-hacıibrahimoğlu & kargın, 2017). also, organisation for economic co-operation and development [oecd] (2002) has expressed the association between the educational systems and consistency of teacher training. in accordance with this view, sanagavarapu et al. (2016) states that even if teachers receive training, they need additional support in understanding and supporting the psychosocial process experienced by the family. another important finding is that teachers do not always know in advance that there will be a child who needs additional support in their classrooms (yıldırımhacıibrahimoğlu & kargın, 2017). considering the importance of cooperation between stakeholders and institutions in the transition, this lack of knowledge is considered to be a factor that disrupts the entire period and reveals the need for transition staff. as regards factors related to the child, it is emphasized that the child needs support in social competence and social skills, communication, academic and self-care skills, as well as adaptation problems and anxiety due to separation from the parents (yıldırımhacıibrahimoğlu & kargın, 2017). when other problems were evaluated, it was stated by teachers that there were problems regarding peer acceptance during the transition period (yıldırım-hacıibrahimoğlu & kargın, 2017), but child, parent, and family factors did not significantly predict peer interactions in the school environment, and long-term observations were needed to determine peer interactions (carmody et al., 2015). peer acceptance is one of the most crucial points in starting and pursuing participation to the school system, and also it is helping to forecast the adjustment (ladd & price, 1987). there are many factors are affecting the peer acceptance of transition to school process of children with disadvantages... 41 the child within the class and one of them is social skills (silva et al., 2019). children with disadvantages may have a lack of appropriate social skills for different reasons, such as insufficient experience with their peers (frostad & pijl, 2006). therefore, interventions that address all these factors holistically are needed, and it is thought that it will help reduce the inequality of opportunity created by disadvantages (seabrasantos et al., 2021). in addition, the negative attitudes of the parents of other children, the physical characteristics of the class and the school, the difference between the preschool and the primary school and the cooperation with private supportive education centers were emphasized (fontil & petrakos, 2015; sanagavarapu et al., 2016; yıldırım-hacıibrahimoğlu & kargın, 2017). collaboration in the transition as in all other transition periods, one of the most important points in the transition to primary school is collaboration (pianta et al., 2001; skouteris et al., 2012). schishka et al. (2012) mention that the most important factor determining school transitions for children with special needs is collaboration. also, in the study conducted by fontil and petrakos (2015), it is argued that the school climate and open communication with cooperation are the most important aspects. cooperation between families, schools and institutions stands out in this time (schishka et al., 2012; walker et al., 2012). considering that the transition is important for the family as well as for the child, the participation of the family in this time and its role in cooperation are of great significance. bell-booth et al. (2014) state that the factors affecting the maintenance of family participation are providing social support, school activities, including families in practices and positive expectations. therefore, the role of the school in this period is not only to support the child but also to support the needs of the family (petrakos & lehrer, 2011). in the opinions expressed by mothers, it was emphasized that the disadvantage of the child should be taken into account in the transition planning stage, proactive communication and cooperation should be provided, family participation in discussions about the child should be supported holistically, and school policies and processes should be strengthened with knowledge (sanagavarapu, 2018). in relation to this, parents state that working with school staff who truly care about their children's needs is the main component of communication and cooperation (fontil & petrakos, 2015). one of the families stated that they had a sincere relationship with the staff at their child’s kindergarten, but that they were more distant during the primary school period. similarly, in the study conducted by rogers (2018), mothers mentioned that they wanted the opportunity to share their opinions and concerns with the teacher, to establish a relationship of trust and to establish regular dialogue by developing their relationships outside school hours, rather than occasional meetings. knopf and swick (2007) emphasized three points in family involvement due to the changing needs and approaches of parents: (a) creating accessible ways to participate, (b) identifying appropriate ways to support parent involvement, and (c) creating suitable opportunities for parent's strengths and weaknesses. in addition, regarding communication and cooperation, parents stated that they were willing to participate in their children's education but their efforts were limited by lack of knowledge and the feeling that their participation was not valued (rogers, 2018). they felt supported when teachers shared their knowledge and expertise with them (fontil & petrakos, 2015). walker et al. (2012) emphasize the importance of the support provided by the teacher, who is responsible for the transition process, to family and children (walker al., 2012). therefore, in this period, the story of the child should be followed, proactive communication should be established with the parents, and the individual needs and concerns of the parents and children should be listened to and understood (sanagavarapu et al., 2016). in a study conducted by petriwskyj (2013) with a different perspective, the times which were considered to be effective by the school team used by the teachers in a school were carried out under the leadership of both principals and experienced teachers. the education system used to focus on the problems experienced by the child and in-school relationships rather than the strengths of the child and family-society relations. in addition, instead of strengthening the family, only family participation should be respected and choices should be accepted. during the transition, problems were experienced between gamze kaplan, sima mart & i̇brahim halil di̇ken 42 special education personnel and classroom teachers in the context of strategies, which were stated to be related to the professional preparation stage. although the program used does not fully meet the needs of children, it stands out in terms of initiating policy-based support. advices for the process on examination of the research, it is clear that there is a need to support and strengthen children with disadvantages and their families and to change the school system as a whole (ames, 2012). during the transition period, the emphasis should be on eliminating situations arising from the disadvantage of the child and establishing relationships of trust. consistent with the literature (kırat & güven, 2021; petani & barišić, 2021; peters, 2010; sakellariou & sivropoulou, 2010), it is claimed that the primary requirement for this is cooperation, and in the absence of cooperation and communication, the family is prevented from participating in the transition of the child (bell-booth et al., 2014; sanagavarapu, 2018). as another important point, teachers should face up to and resolve their own bias in terms of disadvantage of the child by giving an example of language, culture, identity and review the way they approach them. in so doing, they should listen to children and evaluate the effects of their practices on children (ames, 2012). they should set an example to all children in terms of inclusivity of linguistic and cultural diveristy. the transition, friendships and relationships with teachers will develop with the support of the teacher, and this will facilitate the child's adaptation to school (sanagavarapu, 2010). an example of transition was presented by schischka et al. (2012), and it was stated that the teachers' appropriate use of differentiated practices in class after starting school helped children in their transition to school. in order to provide differentiate practices (making the curriculum accesible to all) to be applied, the need to provide teacher training is emphasized in the literature (bell-booth et al., 2014; sanagavarapu, 2017; sanagavarapu et al., 2016; yıldırım-hacıibrahimoğlu & kargın, 2017). given that the transition is a collaborative action, families should also be informed about transition and social, emotional and behavioral needs of children by offering training (mcintyre et al., 2006; mctaggart & sanders, 2003). in addition, peers and other community members should be informed, their awareness raised, and they should be cooperative on specific issues such as food allergies (sanagavarapu et al., 2016; sanagavarapu, 2017; yıldırım hacıibrahimoğlu & kargın, 2017). finally, two studies reviewed revealed the importance of minimizing the behavioral problems of the child with a disadvantage by means of preschool programs or early childhood home-based programs. these programs targeting children's language, communication, non-verbal problem-solving skills, and acquisition of self-management skills from early childhood (sanagavarapu, 2017), to support and direct the child's efforts to these areas (yıldırım-hacıibrahimoğlu & kargın, 2017). the need for a review of inclusion practices and the development of infrastructure in schools was emphasized (yıldırım-hacıibrahimoğlu & kargın, 2017). conclusion considering the overall dimensions of the research, it is seen that the studies carried out on the school transition of different disadvantage groups that need additional support are starting to stand out in different countries. however, further research is needed in order to comprehensively address the factors affecting the transition. in the united states, individuals with disabilities education improvement act (idea, 2004) requires setting transition goals and planning for the transition of children with special needs. similarly, for all groups with disadvantages, it is important that the planning of this period be mandatory all over the world. in this context, when the communication between the institution to be transferred and the current institution will begin, what kind of practices will be made between the institutions, and what kind of team will be formed for the student are determined. it seems that the overall focus of the existing research in this area is the parent, child and teacher. however, important terms such as transition need to be planned by a team. in academic studies importance of the team for the transition times of individuals with disadvantages could be reinforced in schools, disseminated to ensure social awareness, and reflected in policies. although transition to school process of children with disadvantages... 43 there are practices such as repeating educational assessment and diagnosis in transitions which are legally regulated in turkey, given the need for measures to ensure student compliance with school and access to education, and to ensure that educational stakeholders are informed, what is known about the impact of these regulations on practice is limited (milli eğitim bakanlığı [meb], 2018). in light of the studies reviewed above, it is clear that information about who will be involved in the transition team and their responsibilities should be given to all those involved. it is obvious that it is necessary to distinguish between the responsibilities of teachers for the transition of individuals with disadvantages to school and the responsibilities of other stakeholders (e.g., primary caregiver, therapist) in the team, and to emphasize the common denominators. in cases where this distinction is not made, imbalances in workload may occur. in addition, although cooperation has been frequently emphasized in studies, the role of the team in this cooperation seems to be denied. therefore, studies in which the role of the team is brought to the fore are needed. limitations and recommendations no country restrictions were applied to the studies included in this study. this situation created an important limitation while presenting the legal framework in the reporting of the research. in each country, the practices affect the transition in different ways, country policies either support the student during the transition or create the need for additional support. it may be recommended to consider this limitation in future studies and to carry out studies by considering country-based policies and their implementation. in this review study, electronic screening was applied from the central search and article linker service. although this system provides access to many databases, the data obtained does not include important platforms such as researchgate and google scholar. it may be recommended to repeat the research by including these channels in future studies. additionally, it was included only studies after 2005 to screen in order to reach up-to-date data. future studies may work without time constraints. needs in transition to school may vary according to the country and student needs. therefore, studies involving all stakeholders (e.g., child, primary caregiver, primary school teacher, preschool teacher) who experience the same process can be designed. although two studies examined the application of transition strategies, no studies of the effectiveness of the transition process performed or designed by the researchers were found. the development of various methods and programs is therefore recommended for future research, along with a review of their effects and monitoring of the period in order to make comparisons between methods and programs that are found effective. in addition, future action research studies or experimental studies that comprehensively address all aspects of the transition will contribute to the field. it is recommended to make a transition assessment to practitioners with the findings obtained, to include transition goals based on this assessment in children's plans, to prepare schools for the transition process, and to ensure inter-institutional coordination. in particular, temporary positions such as temporary transition personnel can be created. these staff can act as a bridge between service providers for students who need more support and can make necessary plans by following student progress. a year includes transition to primary school should be planned for students who are determined to have social or academic difficulties in the preschool period depending on the individual differences of the students, and a gradual transition between the two institutions should be ensured. otherwise, children may choose to return to preschool after a while after starting primary school (chun, 2003). parents are the stakeholders who spend the most time with their children and have the most comprehensive information. with sufficient knowledge and skills, they can become the most important facilitating factor for their child's transition (woodhead & moss, 2007). for this purpose, families with children in early childhood should be informed regularly in order to prepare for the transition. steps can be taken to reduce the difference in understanding between the formal school and gamze kaplan, sima mart & i̇brahim halil di̇ken 44 kindergarten systems and to continue the holistic approach in primary school. the following section contains suggestions for the policy. there are many countries within the scope of the research and each of them has different approaches. in some countries, such as turkey, the legal basis of the transition process is rather weak. in countries such as america and australia, there are state-based differences which are regulated by state authority. it is recommended to review existing legal regulations and adopt a research-based way by providing funding for new research to determine the effects of these regulations in practice. there are country-based changes like nordic countries in the formal school understanding in the current structure (bennett, 2013). it is suggested that the development process of this change in understanding should be accelerated in other countries as well. declarations editorial acknowledgement: the editorial process of this article was carried out by dr. mehmet toran. acknowledgements: not applicable. authors’ contributions: the first and second authors coordinated all the steps of the screening and reporting. the third author supervised the research process. competing interests: the authors declare that they have no competing interests. funding: not applicable. references ahtola, a., silinskas, g., poikonen, p. l., kontoniemi, m., niemi, p., & nurmi, j. e. 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(2017). determining the difficulties children with special needs experience during the transition to primary school. educational sciences: theory & practice, 17(5), 1487-1524. https://doi.org/10.12738/estp.2017.5.0135 https://doi.org/10.1177%2f183693911203700411 https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2011.1302 https://doi.org/10.2304/eerj.2003.2.2.5 https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000186608 https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2431-5-32 https://doi.org/10.15516/cje.v20i0.3326 https://doi.org/10.1177/183693911203700304 https://doi.org/10.1111/1469-7610.00687 http://oro.open.ac.uk/16667/1/ecif2.dat.pdf https://doi.org/10.12738/estp.2017.5.0135 transition to school process of children with disadvantages: a literature review* journal of childhood, education & society volume 2, issue 3, 2021, 314-337 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.202123121 research article ©2021 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. exploring relationships between playspaces, pedagogy, and preschoolers’ play-based science and engineering practices alison riley miller1, lauren p. saenz2 abstract: this manuscript reports the results of a research study exploring the ways in which physical space and teacher pedagogy are related to preschoolers’ engagement with science and engineering practices while at play. using the science and engineering practices observation protocol (sciepop), researchers captured children’s engagement with the eight science and engineering practices identified in the next generation science standards (ngss). this study explores relationships between specific playspaces, materials, and pedagogical strategies, and children’s patterns of engagement with particular science and engineering practices during free play. there are notable differences in the spaces, materials, and pedagogies children encounter across the four participating preschools, and these differences suggest significant gaps in children’s opportunities to engage in and deepen their enactment of science and engineering practices. the authors present evidence in support of adaptive, personalized strategies for deepening children’s engagement with science through play, and raise questions about equity in early science learning environments that have implications both nationally and internationally for science education research, practice, and policy. article history received: 01 august 2021 accepted: 07 december 2021 keywords science education; early childhood education; equity; pedagogy; playbased learning introduction children are natural scientists and engineers, exploring and manipulating the world around them (cunningham, 2017; french, 2004; gopnik, 2012; greenfield et al., 2017; national academies of science, engineering, and medicine, 2021; national research council, 2007; trundle, 2015; trundle & saçkes, 2012), and building understanding about that world through their interactions with others (vygotsky, 1978). while children’s play has long been recognized as critical to their learning and development (akman & özgül, 2015; bonawitz, et al., 2011; nayfield et al., 2011; ross, 2013), little research has been done to document the ways that children engage in science learning through self-directed play. instead, science in the early years is often conceptualized as necessarily directed by an adult and structured around a particular table or “station” in a classroom (tu, 2006; vitiello et al., 2019). this conception of early childhood science learning fails to account for the creative and intuitive ways that children engage with science as they interact freely with both indoor and outdoor playspaces. even this teacher-directed science instruction is rare in early childhood education (early et al., 2010; piasta et al., 2014; tu, 2006) and is particularly rare in classrooms serving low-income communities (national research council, 2007), specifically including head start settings in the united states (gerde et al., 2018). this disparity in science engagement among lowand higher-income children leads to differences in science knowledge beginning as early as kindergarten, and it is a disparity from which lower income children rarely catch up (morgan et al., 2016). though most states and nations have standards for primary and secondary science education, preschool educators often have little guidance around what science to teach or how to teach it. add to this the persistence of low science self-efficacy and sparse science content background reported among early childhood educators (barenthien et al., 2018; gerde et al., 2018; greenfield et al., 2009; saçkes, 2014), along with a nearly ubiquitous focus on literacy and math in preschool curricula, and the result is often that _____________ 1 bowdoin college, faculty, education, brunswick, me, u.s., email: amiller2@bowdoin.edu, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7990-674x 2 bowdoin college, research staff, education, brunswick, me, u.s., email: lsaenz@bowdoin.edu, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5376-8150 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202123121 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:amiller2@bowdoin.edu https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7990-674x mailto:lsaenz@bowdoin.edu https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5376-8150 exploring relationships between playspaces, pedagogy, and preschoolers’… 315 preschool-aged children get little to no formal exposure to science. further, the mere presence of sciencerelated materials does not ensure children or teachers will engage with those materials through science and engineering practices (fleer et al., 2014; tu, 2006). in other words, the context (i,.e., playspaces and pedagogy) influences how children play. this study addresses a significant gap in the literature around early years science learning by developing and using an instrument (the sciepop) to identify scientific and engineering practices in children’s free play, characterizing those practices at multiple levels of sophistication, and accounting for pedagogical strategies or “teacher moves” that support or disrupt those engagements. in this manuscript, we offer empirical evidence that children at play are engaging with all ngss-identified science and engineering practices (seps) at emergent and progressively sophisticated levels in a variety of school and care contexts. by focusing on playspaces that vary significantly in the types of materials, outdoor space, and access to the natural world available to children, we identify place-based elements that are associated with seps engagement. further, we present an analysis of the pedagogical strategies that teachers use while children are engaged with these seps, paying particular attention to the patterns specific to strategies that facilitate or hinder play. finally, we identify the implications of these findings for early childhood professional development, teacher practice, and research and evaluation purposes. science and play the role of play as a fundamental component of child development is recognized internationally (gomes & fleer, 2019; howes & smith 1995; norðdahl & jóhannesson, 2016; pellegrini & nathan, 2011; weldemariam 2014). in fact, the united nations rights of the child, article 31 explicitly states that play is the right of all children (1989), and the national association for the education of young children’s (naeyc) code of ethics (2005) explicitly states support for “children’s development and learning; respecting individual differences; and helping children learn to live, play, and work cooperatively” (p.2). this central focus on collaboration and play in early childhood learning environments creates context for what ross (2013) argues are “parallel processes in both individual and cultural learning”; but while play remains central to the curricula in many preschools, what little science learning happens in early childhood education (ece) is often teacher-directed and structured around a particular table or “station” in a classroom (tu, 2006; vitiello et al., 2019). this conception of early childhood science learning as a discrete activity happening at an assigned “station” fails to account for the rich experiences afforded when children interact freely with their natural environment. further, some studies suggest that children’s scientific process skills are better developed through exploratory and self-directed play than through direct instruction (bonawitz et al., 2011; bulunuz 2013). these early experiences with self-directed and collaborative science play may not only help children construct their own ideas about the natural world but may also help them develop a sense of agency and science identity (barton & tan, 2009; barton et al., 2013; cunningham & carlsen, 2014), factors related to persistence in the study of science and engineering. the release of the next generation science standards (ngss) in the united states, a standards-based reform effort, has renewed focus on fostering science learning in early childhood and has given researchers and educators language with which to articulate children’s engagement with science during play. the ngss includes three critical and interdependent “dimensions” of learning: science and engineering practices, core disciplinary ideas, and crosscutting concepts (ngss lead states, 2013). this shift towards three-dimensional science learning emphasizes “figuring out”, by engaging with science and engineering practices to explore phenomena, versus simply “learning about” what is already known (schwarz et al., 2017). this approach to building science knowledge by “doing” the work of scientists and engineers (lachapelle et al., 2013) has the potential to mitigate some of the historical tensions between the more individual, cognitively-focused goals of science education and the “whole child” approach of early childhood education that places equal emphasis on cognitive, affective, and social learning goals (larimore, 2020). this shift is laudable; however, existing observation protocols do not adequately capture the variety alison r. miller & lauren p. saenz 316 and depth of children’s engagement with seps in play-based learning environments. in response to this need, the authors developed and validated the science and engineering practices observation protocol (sciepop) a tool benchmarked to the ngss science and engineering practices (2013) (appendix f) and designed to support teachers, administrators, and researchers in the characterization of these practices in early childhood. the sciepop allowed researchers to explore a critical research question: how are early learning playspaces and teacher pedagogy associated with preschoolers’ developing science and engineering practices in play-based learning? method instrument development the sciepop was developed in response to a clear need in this field for student-centered observation instruments. existing tools focus primarily on teacher practices and do not account for children’s science practices in these interactions. early years observation tools including the preschool teacher verbal interaction coding form (tu & hsiao, 2008) and the systematic characterization of inquiry instruction in early learning classroom environments (sciience)(kaderavek, et al., 2015) focus on teachers and not the role of children and children’s play in the teaching and learning. tools at the elementary level such as the reformed teaching observation protocol (rtop) (piburn & sawada, 2000; sawada, et al., 2002), the inquiry science observation coding sheet (brandon et al., 2008), and the practices of science inquiry observation protocol (p-sop) (forbes et al., 2013) have similar purposes. in response to this lack of validated instruments for observing children’s engagement with seps, miller & saenz (2019) developed the sciepop through an exploratory pilot study and an instrument validation study. the sciepop was developed and validated (saenz & miller, in process) using pilot data and classroom observations from one of the four preschools participating in a larger ongoing research project. initial development and revision of the instrument was based on more than 20 hours of observations, as well as the aforementioned review of existing instruments, and literature rooted in early childhood education, play-based learning and science and engineering practices. this pilot study resulted in rich textual descriptions of children’s engagement with various practices of science. still images (digital photographs) were used as additional evidence to support textual descriptions. the sciepop was designed with three distinct observational targets: science and engineering practices, pedagogical strategies, and playspaces and materials. we discuss each target briefly below. the instrument requires trained observers to identify specific incidents during which children are engaging in one of the eight ngss-aligned science and engineering practices (appendix f) (ngss lead states, 2013). included in both the paper and app-based formats of the sciepop are brief descriptions and examples of each practice, allowing observers to make evidence-based decisions quickly. practice 1 (asking questions) and practice 8 (obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information) were coded separately because researchers were not able to determine a priori categories that aligned with the ordered hierarchies established for practices 2 – 7. one of the guiding principles underlying the ngss-outline practices is that students will make consistent progress in the complexity and sophistication with which they engage in seps; this progression is specified in successive grade bands. likewise, the sciepop was developed with the understanding that children’s engagement with seps will vary in complexity within and among individuals, sites, and over time. therefore, the instrument allows observers to note the proficiency with which children engage in such practices, on an ordinal scale from “emergent” (level c) to “proficient” (level b) to “exemplary” (level a). these categorical descriptions, as discussed above, are informed by both pilot study data and prior work related to learning progressions and science practices (e.g., berland & reiser, 2008; duschl & bybee, 2014; gotwals & songer, 2013; lehrer & schauble, 2015; schwarz et al., 2009), as well as the ngss grade band expectations (appendix f) (ngss lead states, 2013). for each seps, level a engagement is specifically tied to at least one of the ngss k-2 grade band expectations. levels b exploring relationships between playspaces, pedagogy, and preschoolers’… 317 and c may also be tied to ngss k-2 grade band expectations and outline the progressive developmental steps toward level a. for an example of how these codes are described and assigned using the sciepop, see table 1 below. table 1. excerpt from sciepop practice 2: developing and using models pedagogical strategies the behaviors of teachers as they interact with children engaging in seps are a second key component of the sciepop and this study. the instrument allows observers to note any of seven pedagogical strategies: scaffolding, modeling, asking questions, direct instruction, disruption of play, mediating conflict, and safety concerns. as noted in more detail in our results section, we grouped these strategies into two groups for analysis: management (actions that hinder play) and facilitation (actions that facilitate play). finally, the instrument allows observers to note details about the physical space and environment in which the observation takes place. this includes information about the materials and toys available to children (i.e. shovels, toy cars, water tables, play structures) as well as the “natureness” of the environment (i.e. presence of trees, dirt piles, wildlife, etc) (sobel, 2015). while these factors are not individually analyzed in the present study, they offer a rich descriptive context for analyzing specific incidents as well as potential for future analyses. in our analysis, we use site profiles as proxies for physical space; each site offers a unique environment, characterized by indoor and outdoor space, access to nature and wildlife, and materials available to children during playtime. the sciepop has two overarching purposes for use in the field. first, the instrument allows researchers to identify and categorize classroom-level engagements with science and engineering practices that support stem learning. second, the instrument provides data on “supporting characters” – the physical environment and materials as well as the educators’ roles in the space. together, these data allow researchers to describe and make claims about the integrated relationship among play, stem, and early childhood environments. our instrument development study (saenz & miller, in process) provides sufficient evidence to suggest that the sciepop successfully captures a wide range of levels and experiences across all eight practices, as well as critical information about physical space and pedagogy. methodology & participants this mixed methods study uses an exploratory sequential design (creswell et. al., 2003) conducted over one year to account for seasonal changes in children’s learning environments. data were collected at four preschools in the northeastern united states. the preschools were located in four different towns to capture a variety of demographics among participants including varying levels of rurality, income, and racial diversity. three sites are head start programs, accounting for a range of families’ socioeconomic backgrounds; two of those sites are associated with the same national nonprofit organization, another site is associated with a national nonprofit organization established with foundation support, and one site is associated with a liberal arts college, primarily serving families of faculty and staff at that institution (table 2). practice 2 level a (exemplary) level b (proficient) level c (emergent) developing and using models ● develop or use a model to predict or explain something about the natural or designed world ● evaluate or revise the model (as when children add new components – branches, bark, roots – to their “castle” or “house” or indicate revisions – e.g. “this gate needs a lock” as they modify it) ● compare model to the referent in the natural or designed world (identify common features and differences, i.e. correspondences and non-correspondences) ● develop a simple model based on evidence to represent a proposed object or tool (this includes physical models, 2d drawings or representations, and embodied models when children “pretend to be” something) ● use physical replica as directed (by a teacher – e.g. “flip over your buckets and sit down in your boats”!) or intended (e.g. toy car; puzzles) ● distinguish between a model and the actual object, process, and/or events model represents alison r. miller & lauren p. saenz 318 site a is a natureand play-based preschool, prioritizing self-directed play and eschewing plastic toys in favor of natural materials, “loose parts” (nicholson, 1971) and outdoor spaces. site b is a wellresourced, academic-focused, play-based preschool with ample space and materials for play but with a high degree of structure and teacher-directed activity. site c is an under-resourced preschool which researchers characterize as “childcare-focused” and traditional in terms of spaces, materials, and schedule. site d is moderately resourced, traditionally structured, and strikes a balance of childcare-focused and academic-focused. full site profiles appear in the section below. table 2. participating site demographics site enrollment low income white african/afam hispanic/ latino east asian & pacific islander multiracial a 46 0.0% 91.3% 0.0% 6.5% 0.0% 2.2% b 208 76.0% 91.8% 0.0% 0.0% 1.9% 6.3% c 63 28.6% 81.0% 6.3% 3.2% 3.2% 6.3% d 60 10.0% 91.7% 0.0% 0.0% 1.7% 6.7% note: % of low income students is determined by % of head start eligible students. researchers did not individually identify participants for this project as the focus was on children’s engagement with science and engineering practices during play rather than on individuals. additionally, enrollment of students at three of the four preschools fluctuated over the course of the school year with some children leaving the schools and others joining preschool classrooms in between the four rounds of data collection. we provide greater context around demographics, teacher credentials, and curricular and pedagogical approaches in the site profiles that follow. site a profile. the site a preschool is housed in a childcare center associated with a college. the center has capacity for approximately 46 children from infancy through preschool. of the teachers employed full-time at the center, 56% of them held master's degrees in ece, including all three preschool teachers. the other 46% held bachelor's degrees. site a was characterized as both nature-based and playbased with a strong leaning towards an attachment-based theory of care. drawing from reggio-emilia and waldorf-inspired approaches, the center website offers that “learning occurs when deeply attached relationships with adults and uninterrupted play exist”. the preschool environment offers natural materials and “loose parts” (nicholson, 1971) for children to use in their play. this reflects the philosophy of play that play materials should not dictate play, but rather familiar objects and materials (e.g. stones, fabrics, stumps, pillows, blocks) should be reflective of objects the child encounters in everyday life and should inspire rich and imaginative play (olsen & smith, 2017; sutton, 2011). further, the outdoor play yard could be characterized as a natural playspace, including stumps, sticks, dirt pathways, sand piles, climbing structures made from natural materials, and ample trees and shrubs to play among. while buckets, shovels, rakes, pans and scoops were readily available to children in the playspace, notably absent were any plastic toys. site b profile. the site b preschool is part of a national nonprofit organization which aims to support young children from disadvantaged communities towards academic, social, and emotional readiness for school. the organization describes the four core features of their model as: data utilization, embedded professional development, high-quality teaching practices and intensive family engagement. the preschool is situated within a program that serves children and their families from infancy through preschool. the total program enrollment was 208, with 115 of those children enrolled in head start and 43 in early head start. more than 75% of children at site b qualify for frl. of the full-time lead teachers, 4% held a doctorate, 14% held master's degrees in ece, 57% held bachelor's degrees, and 3% were enrolled in bachelor's degree programs. the site b website touts a continuity of care and wrap-around service model, emphasizing “trust and relationship building” as well as “child-directed play”. they use a published preschool curriculum which emphasizes literacy and social-emotional development. the preschool classrooms observed were highly structured and academically focused. classrooms were divided into areas or stations for various types of play and learning. these included areas for blocks, sensory tables, art, reading, and dramatic play. exploring relationships between playspaces, pedagogy, and preschoolers’… 319 children were encouraged to write their names on small whiteboards which hung at each area or station while they were playing there. this appeared to be a way for teachers to manage how many children were in any one area at a time and popular stations (such as the sensory table) often had a waitlist of children’s names on the white board. the outdoor playspaces for preschoolers were described as natural playspaces and were divided into two large areas with a fence running in between. the outdoor spaces were constructed with a combination of natural elements (log-edged pathways, berms, shrubs and small trees) and man-made structures like slides, paved walking paths, synthetic turf, playhouses, and swings. buckets, shovels, balls, and other toys were sometimes made available in the play yard but not always. classrooms contained a traditional array of dolls, dress up clothes, legos and other building materials, as well as plastic play food, books, and art supplies. site c profile: the site c preschool is affiliated with a national nonprofit organization committed to “youth development, healthy living, and social responsibility”. site c enrolled a total of 63 children from infancy through preschool. of those children, more than 50% qualified for frl and 14% of those children were living in foster care. of the nine full-time teachers at site c, 11% held bachelor's degrees, 22% were enrolled in bachelor's degree programs, 22% held associate degrees, 11% were enrolled in associate degree programs, and 33% held no degrees. when asked about the program’s theory of care, the director responded that they “create a safe and healthy living space for all children from all walks of life to thrive and grow at their own pace”. this aligned with the program website which states that, “our goal is to provide children with a safe and healthy learning environment that stimulates physical, social, emotional, and intellectual growth”. notably, the language of the program website emphasizes “childcare”. this stands in direct contrast with site a which emphasized language around play and secure, attached relationships and site b which emphasized language around play and academic “readiness”. site c was located in a large, multiuse building in an urban area. indoor classroom spaces (one for preschool-aged children and one for pre-k) were divided into areas or stations including blocks, dramatic play, movement, sensory table, reading, and several tables for teacher-led activities. the reading area in the pre-k classroom included a rocking chair and a carpet on which children could sit. the site c indoor spaces included a traditional array of dolls, blocks, plastic play food, cars, trucks and figurines (e.g. dinosaurs, animals) and a plastic castle climbing structure with slide. play areas were considerably more cluttered with toys and materials than at any of the other three sites. children were permitted to use certain areas during free play and were prohibited from other areas by teachers. the outdoor space at site c was the smallest and most restricted of the four sites. the play yard was a narrow (approximately 5 meters across), fenced area that ran along the length of the building (approximately 20 meters). the play yard was covered in wood chips and had two climbing structures, one with sliding boards, in the center. at one end of the play yard was a staircase up to the main building where the classrooms were housed and at the other end of the play yard was a small plastic playhouse and a stationary metal rocking play structure shaped like an airplane. during the summer months a small water table was brought outside and sometimes filled. site d profile. the site d program is affiliated with the same national nonprofit organization as site c, though unlike site c which is housed in a multiuse building, the site d program is housed in a standalone building dedicated to childcare. the website of site d articulated the same theory of care, stating “our goal is to provide children with a safe and healthy learning environment that stimulates physical, social, emotional, and intellectual growth”. of the fourteen full-time teachers at site d, 14% held bachelor’s degrees and 21% were enrolled in bachelor’s degree programs, 29% held associate degrees, and 36% held no degrees. the program focus appeared to be a combination of childcare and academic readiness, with more focus on the latter than researchers found at its sister site (site c). researchers noted that a significant number of families using that program were professionals employed by an adjacent college or by the hospital just down the street. classroom spaces in site d were more similar to those at site b than at site c. rooms were neatly arranged into areas and stations including blocks, sensory tables, reading, dramatic play, and tables for art or other teacher-led activities. a traditional array of toys and materials were neatly arranged on shelving units that also delineated different areas for play and at site d children were alison r. miller & lauren p. saenz 320 encouraged to take a small, laminated photo of themselves off of the wall and place it on a holder at the station they intended to play at during “free play” time. this appeared to be a way of managing how many children could play in one area or station at a time. children were frequently reminded that they needed to find another area to play in if they entered an area where the determined limit of children had already been reached. site d had a large outdoor playspace with multiple large mature trees providing shade. in the center of the play yard was a very large climbing structure with multiple levels, slides and stairs. there was also a structure that appeared to have once had swings, but those had been removed. around the playspace were several other structures, some movable (like a small plastic playhouse and picnic table) and some stationary, like a metal rocking structure. central to the outdoor space was a very large tree along a sloping section of the yard. on the downhill slope, the tree roots were partially exposed, and children were frequently found digging, playing, and just sitting among those roots. for reasons not explained to the researchers, the side of the play yard to the other side of that large tree was off limits for the children and a spool of pink tape had been wrapped around the tree and draped along the yard between the large tree and another smaller tree. children were reminded to stay on the near side of that tape line if they strayed under it. there were very few toys or materials brought onto the play yard relative to the number of children playing there. there were some trucks and cars as well as occasional tubs, shovels, and buckets. during the summer months researchers observed children playing with tubs of water and paint brushes (brushing water on the brick wall of the building and “washing off” the chalk art they had created there). additionally, a sprinkler was brought out onto the play yard occasionally on hot summer days. the playspace at site d was uniquely divided into the area of the large climbing structure, which seemed to host running, climbing, and generally loud, energetic play, and the large tree on the slope of the yard which appeared to attract more quiet play and rest among children. data sources and analysis researchers spent one year observing and recording children engaged in “free play”, gathering more than 120 hours of video data across four preschools; at least eight hours of observation occurred at each of the sites during each of four seasons for a total of more than 30 hours of data per site over the year. data were collected at four different times over the course of one year to account for seasonal changes in the play environment. data were subsequently coded and analyzed using nvivo software. data collected in this study suggest that the sciepop instrument allows trained observers to accurately and reliably capture and discriminate among all eight of the seps identified in the ngss, as well as capture critical information about physical space, materials, and pedagogy. video data were then analyzed in nvivo using an a priori coding scheme developed to align with the sciepop. coding was done at the grain size of complete instances or vignettes where students engaged with one or more practices during play. for each of these engagements the video was coded for each practice at level a (exemplary), b (proficient), c (emergent), or d (not present) along with notes related to “physical space” and “pedagogy”. a note on site selection and comparisons given that “playspace” is a key variable in our research questions and analysis, it is important to articulate how it is operationalized in this study. selection of the four sites profiled above was an intentional decision and significant for the results and discussion that follow. learning environments are complex systems in which children’s development is shaped by the intertwining of their prior knowledge and background, relationships with peers and adults, interests, physical space, available materials, and more. there exist as many types of learning environments as there are sites, though some sites share significantly more elements in common. we use individual site contexts as proxies for playspaces, necessitating a rich description of each site and a nuanced examination of how each site’s environmental context may reveal important underlying patterns related to space and pedagogy. some patterns in our analysis of science and engineering practices across the four sites (for example, exploring relationships between playspaces, pedagogy, and preschoolers’… 321 the finding of higher frequencies of level a practices at site a, which serves a population of children of parents with typically high levels of educational attainment) might be dismissed by attributing them to selection bias. however, in order to make this argument, one must assert that some children are more capable of engaging in scientific inquiry than others, and that this proclivity is explained entirely by one’s family background and not by the learning environment or by the pedagogy teachers engage with when interacting with students. we believe that this interpretation is short-sighted and runs counter to the pursuit of establishing more equitable learning environments for all children. we have intentionally selected sites for research that exhibit overlaps as well as differences. for example, both site a and site d serve families that work at colleges or other professional institutions. sites b and d share similar physical spaces and materials inside and outside of the classroom. finally, sites a and b are similarly well-resourced and staffed with qualified ec educators, though the populations they serve are quite different. we have attempted to contextualize the four sites so that the emergent patterns around children’s engagement with science and engineering practices in play, and the pedagogical supports that support or inhibit those engagements take on the significance they deserve. results in this section, we present the results of our multi-stage analysis, beginning with overall patterns of children’s engagement with science and engineering practices. we then break these patterns down by site and by practice level. in the second stage, we present findings specific to teacher pedagogy, overall and specific to site and level. science and engineering practices in play our observations captured all eight practices at our four sites, though these practices were not evenly distributed. practices 1, 2, and 3 were most frequent (4.8, 5.4, and 4.2 codes per hour, respectively). practice 4 was observed 2.2 times per hour, and practice 6 was observed 1.2 times per hour; practices 5, 7, and 8 were the least frequently observed, each under one time per hour. figure 1 below shows these frequencies. figure 1. practice frequencies (all sites) it is clear that preschool-age children are frequently engaging in science and engineering practices while at play. they engage most frequently in asking questions (p1), developing and using models (p2), and planning and carrying out investigations. this is true across all four sites in our study, despite the significant environmental, pedagogical, and demographic differences among these sites. these frequencies are not particularly surprising to anyone who has worked with or raised children, since much of play involves investigating one’s surroundings, asking questions that arise in those investigations, and because 0,0 1,0 2,0 3,0 4,0 5,0 6,0 p1 p2 p3 p4 p5 p6 p7 p8 c od es p er h ou r alison r. miller & lauren p. saenz 322 pretend play requires the ability to transform objects and actions, assigning them with symbolic meaning (bergen, 2002), a skill directly related to modeling practice. for instance, we observed numerous examples of children playing with toy cars or trucks and speaking about them as “toys”. these instances were coded as p2c because children demonstrated that they could “distinguish between a model and the actual object, process, and/or events model represents” (table 1). however, in some instances children transform those toy replicas through pretend play as when one child lifted a toy truck off of the ground and began “flying it” through the air while making noises associated with a rocket or an airplane. this instance was coded as p2b because the child was using the object at hand (a toy truck) to represent something else (an airplane). when we examine the distribution of seps by site (figure 2), we find that overall, the total number of practices observed at each site does not vary significantly; sites range from 20.1 practices (site b) to 26 practices (site d) per hour. figure 2. total number of practices by site similarly, we captured seps at all proficiency levels – emergent (c), proficient (b), and exemplary (a) in our observations. as seen in figure 3 below, the differences across levels are large; frequency of practices is lowest at level a (0.74 codes per hour) and highest at level c (17.68 codes per hour). this is expected, as the practices and our corresponding levels are benchmarked to the k-2 ngss standards, and our sample is younger and more likely to be at the earliest stages of these emerging practices. figure 3. level frequencies all sites 0,0 5,0 10,0 15,0 20,0 25,0 30,0 site a site b site c site d c od es p er h ou r 0,0 2,0 4,0 6,0 8,0 10,0 12,0 14,0 16,0 18,0 20,0 level a level b level c c od es p er h ou r exploring relationships between playspaces, pedagogy, and preschoolers’… 323 if we break these patterns down further, we see some site-based patterns emerge (figure 4). level a practices are observed much more often at site a (1.85 codes per hour), fewer than half as much at site b (0.69 codes per hour), and almost never at site c or d. conversely, level c practices are observed most frequently at site c (18.39 codes per hour) and site d (19.67 codes per hour). our transcripts also reveal that engagements in practice at level c are often fleeting, in situations where children begin to explore or engage in a particular way but then get distracted or disrupted and move to something else. these vignettes tend to be shorter than instances where children are more deeply engaged in play-based exploration or problem-solving and so it stands to reason that observers would see higher frequency counts of these more nascent practices (which are often incomplete engagements). figure 4. level frequencies by site for example, we documented more than 340 instances of p4c; this emergent level of analyzing and interpreting data includes instances where children collect and/or record data (including observations or measurements), recall previously collected data, or recognize patterns in the world. frequently, p4c codes were used to capture children making single observations; these ranged from noticing changes in weather (e.g., “it’s raining”; “this sand is all wet”) to observing what happened when a teacher tipped a jar of applesauce upside down and began tapping it to refill a bowl (i.e., “some applesauce just came out!”). these engagements were often fleeting. for an instance to be coded at p4b children must “create or describe patterns or relationships in the natural or designed world” (appendix f) (ngss lead states, 2013). in other words, children must use multiple data points in order to interpret something they measure or observe. the conversation that follows was recorded at site d during snack time: [children sitting around a table having snacks] student 1: [looking towards a window] why is the world...why is the world.... why is the world going up? teacher: why is what going up? [child points toward the window, t turns around and looks] why is the world going up? do you mean the sun? student 1: [nods, mutters inaudibly] teacher: the sun goes up. that's what it does. it rises... in the morning. student 2: the sun goes up... student 3: and when does the moon go up? teacher: when does the moon go up? 0,0 2,0 4,0 6,0 8,0 10,0 12,0 14,0 16,0 18,0 20,0 level a level b level c c od es p er h ou r site a site b site c site d alison r. miller & lauren p. saenz 324 [multiple students talk at same time] student 3: it goes up at night time! student 4: and then the moon goes up, and then it's bedtime! and then we go to bed and go to sleep. student 1: the sun goes down and the moon comes up and then it’s time for bedtime. student 2: yeah. when the sun comes up, it's not bedtime. in this instance, student 1 looks through the classroom window and makes an observation about the sun rising. this is followed by children making sense of what they know about sunrise and moonrise: that one is associated with morning, and one is associated with night or “bedtime”. these observations are pulled from both the present (student 1 observing the sun outside) and from recalled observational data (children indicate familiarity with day and night cycles). our final illustrative example is of p4a; benchmarks for p4a on the sciepop include “analyze data to determine if a tool, object, or process ‘works’” and “analyze data to answer scientific questions and solve problems”. in the example that follows (figure 5), students make observations about a pretend birthday cake (p2b) and figure out how many (stick) candles they need before critiquing and revising their model (p2a) to account for their interpretation of the observational data (about the weight of mud versus dirt on top of the ‘cake’): student 2: can i have another candle? because someone is going to be ten. student 3: i need ten candles. so i need six more, i think. student 4: so you have, [pointing as she counts] 1, 2, 3, 4, 5... student 3: i have seven. student 4: so you need three more. student 3: here are your three more so you have ten! student 5: we have ten candles in ours! student 2: i'm going to light mine student 1: do you want to do mud on top of them? [drizzles mud on top of one stick] oh no! student 2: what!? student 1: it's falling over! i have some more mud... student 4: the mud makes it heavier, so it tipped over. student 3: yeah. we don't have mud, so it stays. student 1: [to student 2] do you want to do dirt like them? student 2: yeah. yes. student 1: let's do dirt like them. [student 2 begins to sprinkle dirt on top] student 4: we're not putting dirt on top of them [sticks/candles] student 2: on top of the cake! [continues to sprinkle dirt] figure 5. children use mathematics and make observations about the “candles” in their “cakes” engagement with practice 4 may happen in a matter of seconds, as with a single observation about the weather or may be sustained over several minutes or longer as children engaged deeply in observation, analysis, and interpretation of the data at hand. teacher pedagogy in play when teachers engage with children at play, they are necessarily influencing children’s behavior and thinking, even when that influence is not apparent. some types of pedagogical practices are more exploring relationships between playspaces, pedagogy, and preschoolers’… 325 influential than others; for example, a teacher who notices a child experimenting with using a stick as a lever might say, “be careful!” this interjection might result in the child pausing, or reconsidering their actions, but is unlikely to push the child into further investigation. however, a teacher that intervenes to say, “what do you notice when you use that stick to lift heavy rocks?” is likely prompting children to explore the science and engineering elements of their play. teacher behavior, like student learning, is multifaceted and difficult to predict. some behavior, however, is shaped by the site itself; preschools develop and train their employees to enact a particular set of norms and values in their work. when these sites differ in the ways they prepare teachers, we expect to see differences in the types and frequencies of teachers’ engagement with students at play. our analysis bears this out. figure 6 below shows the distribution of total pedagogy codes by site. figure 6. total pedagogy codes by site as seen clearly in figure 6, teacher intervention during children’s play happens least frequently at site a (6.56 codes per hour), and most frequently at site b (12.73 codes per hour). this difference between site a and b is important, because both sites purport to have similar approaches to space and play. when we look at the breakdown of individual pedagogy codes in figure 7, another clear pattern that emerges is the relative low frequency across all teacher pedagogy codes at site a compared to other sites. 0,0 2,0 4,0 6,0 8,0 10,0 12,0 14,0 site a site b site c site d c od es p er h ou r alison r. miller & lauren p. saenz 326 figure 7. individual pedagogy codes by site this is especially true among the codes for direct instruction, disruption of play, rules, and teacher questions. site b, on the other hand, exhibited the highest frequency of interactions for direct instruction, disruption of play, and teacher questions. the stark differences in teacher pedagogy between sites a and b is revealing, as while both sites describe their approach as “play-based,” site a is centered around close teacher-student relationships and “uninterrupted play”. at site a instances of direct instruction were infrequent, with teachers more often modeling particular behaviors (e.g., digging or stacking loose parts) or quietly scaffolding children’s play (e.g., placing additional tools or materials near a group of children engaged in exploratory play). by contrast, site b emphasizes academic and social school readiness and touts “data utilization” as a “core feature” of their model. it is not surprising then that we saw the highest frequencies of direct instruction and teacher questions codes at site b. the significantly higher rates of “rules” interventions by teachers at sites c and d is reflective of their emphasis on childcare and behavior management. to get a better understanding of how teachers’ patterns of interaction varied by site, we grouped pedagogy codes into two categories: management codes and play facilitation codes. these categories reflect an important conceptual difference in our analysis between actions that support science-engaged play and actions that hinder science-engaged play. management codes include: safety concern, disruption of play, rules, and conflict among children. play facilitation codes include: direct instruction, scaffolding, and teacher modeling. teacher questions were analyzed as a separate category, as we expect in future analyses to find that these questions differ by type. figure 8 shows the patterns of these categories across sites. 0,0 0,5 1,0 1,5 2,0 2,5 3,0 3,5 4,0 conflict between children direct instruction disruption of play rules safety concern scaffolding teacher modeling teacher question(s) c od es p er h ou r site a site b site c site d exploring relationships between playspaces, pedagogy, and preschoolers’… 327 figure 8. pedagogy categories by site when teacher interventions are grouped into “management” and “learning support, clear differences emerge across the four sites. teachers at site c engaged in management pedagogies more frequently than other sites, and engaged in play facilitation pedagogies least often. at site b, teachers engaged in play facilitation pedagogies most often. overall, teachers at site a engaged in management and play facilitation at similar frequencies. relationship between pedagogy and seps our analysis in this section focuses on the relationship between pedagogy and seps. figure 7 shows the distributions of intersecting pedagogy codes at each practice level. the patterns of intersection are similar across all three practice levels; “disruption of play” and “direct instruction” are the two most commonly occurring and overlapping codes at each level. for example, at level a, the most frequent intersections are with “disruption of play” (4.65 intersections per hour) and “direct instruction” (3.4 intersections per hour). 0,0 1,0 2,0 3,0 4,0 5,0 6,0 7,0 management play facilitation c od es p er h ou r site a site b site c site d alison r. miller & lauren p. saenz 328 figure 9. all pedagogy codes by practice level these pedagogical practices share an important feature – a teacher interrupting to place themselves at the center of children’s play. though direct instruction may offer a chance for children to receive relevant, science-specific information, it also risks interrupting the play that allows for creative self-guided exploration of science and engineering. this approach is in specific contrast with site a, which promotes “uninterrupted play” as key to children’s learning, and where we observed the lowest rates of disruption and the highest rates of level a practices. contextualizing the relationship between teacher pedagogy and students’ science practices in the section that follows, we will provide greater context for the relationships we see in the data between teacher’s pedagogy and children’s engagement with play-based seps. we will present excerpts from video transcripts, noting where children are engaging with nascent seps. further, we will present analysis of teacher pedagogy related to these instances. nature-based water play with teacher scaffolding in the transcript excerpts that follow, children are playing in water flowing from a hose down an embankment and into the gully that runs under a footbridge on the play yard. two children begin this investigation around flowing water as a teacher observes from the footbridge above. they are quickly joined by other curious preschoolers and the purpose of their play shifts from investigation of water flow (science) in figure 11 to problem solving with the children removing obstacles to make the water flow under the bridge(engineering) in figure 12 (cunningham, 2017; cunningham & carlsen, 2014). 0,0 0,5 1,0 1,5 2,0 2,5 3,0 3,5 4,0 4,5 5,0 conflict between children direct instruction disruption of play rules safety concern scaffolding teacher modeling c od es p er h ou r level a level b level c exploring relationships between playspaces, pedagogy, and preschoolers’… 329 figure 10. children observe flowing water from a hose 1 student 1: give me more dirt 2 student 2: why? 3 teacher: [explains to another child] he's asking [child name] for more dirt so he can block the hole. 4 you could ask him, "why do you want to block the hole"? 5 student 3: [repeating] why do you want to block the hole? 6 student 1: so it [water] doesn't go that way. 7 student 2: and i'm still working on that rock [inaudible]... 8 teacher: you're still working on how to get that rock out of the ground. 9 student 2: oh look! it's drying all up! 10 teacher: well, why do you think it's drying all up? 11 student 2: oh, wait! the dirt is pushing it now. if the dirt pushes it, it will go more backwards. 12 student 1: wait. here it comes faster 'cause i took some dirt out of the way. 13 student 2: yes. now let's try and move this rock. we need more muscles. 14 student 1: that means [child name] has to help again. 15 student 4: i can help...[inaudible] in the beginning of this excerpt, the children are negotiating their purpose (p3: planning and carrying out an investigation). one child is already manipulating the flow of water down the embankment by moving and shaping the dirt in its path. after asking a questions (lines 2 and 5) to clarify what student 1 is doing, students 2 and 3 join him in an attempt to clear weeds and rocks from the water’s path. both students 1 and 2 make observations about the flow of water (lines 9, 11, and 12), and the teacher observes from above, modeling questions for the children like, “you could ask him, ‘why do you want to block the hole?’”. the children use observational data to inform what they do next as their teacher models the types of questions they might ask (lines 3-4) and scaffolds their investigation with well-placed questions (e.g., “well, why do you think it’s drying all up?”). figure 11. children alter the flow of the water by removing obstacles alison r. miller & lauren p. saenz 330 16 teacher: another set of hands is coming. he's trying to pull that weed. can you help him pull that weed? 17 how did it get there? 18 [student 4 and student 2 both pull at the weed, s4 rips a large part of the week up] 19 student 2: super strong muscles! 20 teacher: there! you got part of it. you do have muscles. right at the root; you got it! 21 student 4: why is it so...[inaudible]? 22 teacher: uh oh, i think they need more help. they need two more hands. who's hands can help them pull 23 that? do you have two more strong hands? 24 s: maybe we need seven hands 25 [three children now working on pulling the weed by the rock they were trying to move] 26 teacher: pull [child name] pull! do you hear it cracking? listen when you do it. 27 student 1: now we need eight hands! 28 student: i heard it! 29 teacher: oh! are you going to help? perfect! i'll bet you [child name] can help. 30 student 2: eight hands! eight hands! [three children are pulling at this point] 31 student 1: put two more hands on and we'll have eight hands! 32 [four children are pulling one child appears to be pulling in the opposite direction] 33 student 1: no! not that way. this way! 34 student 5: it's not coming! [all children take turns tugging] it's stuck 35 student 3: here comes more water because i'm digging it! [scooping water and dirt along the path of the 36 water] i'm getting more dirt out. 37 teacher: you know what, [child name]? it looks like you are really determined to get that. uh! part of it. 38 you gotta go right to the root. you remember where the roots are? right at the very bottom? 39 student 5: it's stuck! its stuck! 40 student 1: woah! here it [water] comes faster! it's coming faster, guys! 41 [student 3 tugs and stumbles backward as he pulls the weed from the ground] 42 teacher: woah! he did it! nice job, [child name]! 43 student 4: how did he do that? 44 teacher: well i think you guys loosened it and he came right in and pulled it out. 45 student 3: i'm strong. 46 student 2: what!? you're strong [child name]. 47 student 1: well, he's not very stronger than us. you're not stronger than us, [child name]. in the second part of this vignette the teacher continues to ask probing questions (e.g., “how did it get there?”; “you remember where the roots are?”) and to scaffold their investigation and problem solving (e.g., “they need two more hands. who's hands can help them pull that?”). meanwhile, the children continue their efforts to remove weeds and rocks such that they can direct the path of the water until it flows under the bridge. in this effort they determine they need ever more strength to pull stubborn weeds and heavy rocks. they use math (p5) as they articulate “how many hands” it will take to pull out a particularly stubborn weed (lines 24, 27, 30-31). “eight hands! eight hands!, one student exclaims. a second student notes that at that time there are three children are pulling (3 x 2 = 6) and says, “put two more hands on and we'll have eight hands!”. during this time, the teacher continues to narrate what is happening (e.g., “another set of hands is coming. he's trying to pull that weed”.) and asking questions like, “can you help him pull that weed?”. the teacher alternates between observing and asking questions to scaffold the children’s investigation. she also encourages the children saying things like, “it looks like you are really determined to get that”. finally, in figure 12, the children notice that their efforts succeed as the water begins to flow faster (lines 33-36; 41). exploring relationships between playspaces, pedagogy, and preschoolers’… 331 figure 12. children investigating under a bridge 48 [children pull another weed and then are able to roll the rock away] 49 student 2: we really did need to move that weed. 50 student 1: who can help me move the dirt? who can help me move the dirt? 51 student 2: thanks for team-working! you really do have strong muscles, [child name] 52 teacher: didn't we say something about teamwork works amazing? that was proof of that, wasn't it? 53 student 2: yeah. and me and [child name] and [child name] all helped, and we loosened it for [child 54 name]. we loosened it. 55 teacher: what did you get the spoon for, [child name]? what are you going to do with it? 56 student 1: to dig the roots! [teacher name], i'm going to see if the water is coming under the bridge! 57 teacher: is it coming under yet? 58 student 1: oh! it’s coming under guys! 59 student 2: it is! [runs up and over to other side of the bridge] 60 student 3: it's coming under the bridge! 61 student 1: it's coming under the bridge, guys! 62 student 2: oh, yes it is! [child name], look under the bridge. that's cool! we really did do it! after making additional (p4) observations (e.g., “we really did need to move that weed”) the children finally achieve their goal, as multiple children notice that “it’s [water] coming under the bridge”! over this extended play–based engagement, the group of children engaged with five seps, persisting until they achieved their goal, to engineer the embankment such that they could control the flow of water from the hose to run under the footbridge. in all of this, the teacher stood as a careful observer, narrating the scene, asking questions, and encouraging children without ever involving herself directly in their play or disrupting their play. discussion & implications our findings reveal that preschool-aged children are engaging in seps at play frequently and at emerging, proficient, and exemplary levels. we have captured the breadth (practices) and depth (levels) of children’s engagement with seps, as well as the pedagogical moves that teachers make when children are playing. we see notable differences in these areas across our four sites, which we argue can, in part, be explained by their specific approaches to play and learning. site a, which emphasizes secure, attached relationships, and specifically uninterrupted nature-based play, is the site where we see both the lowest frequency of teacher interventions during children’s engagement with seps, and the greatest frequency of alison r. miller & lauren p. saenz 332 level a practices. this juxtaposition of fewer teacher interactions with more sophisticated (level a) enactments of seps may initially seem counterintuitive, but considering that deeper engagement with play requires longer periods of undisrupted time, these patterns make sense. conversely, when we look at site c, there are a significant number of level c (emergent) practice codes, but site c has the fewest number of level b practices and virtually no level a practices. however, when we aggregated teacher pedagogy codes into groups related to “facilitation of play” and “management”, site c had the greatest number of “management” codes across all four sites. this may indicate that children are engaging with seps at a superficial level but that they face frequent disruptions to their play and are, therefore, less likely to move into the more deeply engaged play that appears to foster higher-level engagement with seps. while there is ample research to suggest that play should be central to early childhood science learning (akman & özgül, 2015; bergen, 2009; bulunuz, 2013; cook et al., 2011; larimore, 2020), there is wide variation in how play is defined, managed, and supported across ec programs. all four preschools in this study described their programs as “play-based” yet we have identified notable differences in the spaces, materials, and pedagogies children encounter across those four participating preschools. these differences suggest significant gaps in children’s opportunities to engage in and deepen their enactment of seps while exploring the world around them, and raise questions about equity in early science learning environments that have implications both nationally and internationally for science education practice, research, and policy. conclusion play is an essential component of children’s early learning; however, in order for children to learn and develop through play, they must have access to the time, space, materials, and pedagogy that support it. preschool settings offer these possibilities, though not all settings emphasize play equally – a fact we observed in our research sites. scholars have echoed the call from the united nations (1989) to frame play as a right and not a privilege (ladson-billings 2006, 2011; souto-manning, 2017). souto-manning (2017) posits that in low-income preschools there is a heavy focus on behavioral management and standardization whereas in more affluent preschools, there is much more unfettered, self-directed, “free-play”. she links free play to children’s agency, arguing that, “in play, children are agents. they are doers... if we are to unleash children’s infinite potential, not only do we have a responsibility to position play as a right, we must also understand the agency children need to have during play” (p.786). further research is needed to determine how and to what extent the complex interactions among access to play, space and materials, and pedagogical strategies shape children’s engagement with seps. the patterns we have identified in this paper suggest that each plays an important role; teasing out these roles will provide valuable insight into how ece programs and teachers can support deep, meaningful science learning without sacrificing play. time may also play an important role in supporting more sophisticated engagement with seps in play; we have noted, anecdotally, instances in which extended play-based scenarios offer greater opportunities for progression along practice levels. future research may explore this relationship in more detail. finally, we see great opportunity for early childhood teachers and administrators to use the sciepop as both a training and instructional tool. we believe that teachers and school staff can be trained to use the sciepop to learn how to identify and support children’s emerging engagements with science and engineering practices, specifically at play. we assert that by increasing and supporting opportunities for deep, engaged play, teachers are necessarily creating opportunities for children to engage in seps. this means, quite often, that the best way for teachers to support science learning among preschool children is to stand back – or, at most, to intervene only in ways that facilitate play. these types of pedagogical skills take practice to hone, but they can be supported by both institutional guidelines and professional development. the evidence offered in this paper suggests that teacher professional development is a powerful tool to help mitigate notoriously low science self-efficacy among early childhood educators (barenthien et al., 2018; 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carrying out investigations p4: analyzing & interpreting data p5: using mathematics & computational thinking p6: constructing explanations & designing solutions p7: engaging in argument from evidence incidental questions (running tally) observer notes exploring relationships between playspaces, pedagogy, and preschoolers’… 337 time mark the beginning and ending time of each incident. practice levels a exemplary b proficient c emergent pedagogy codes dp disruption of play di direct instruction c conflict between children sc safety concerns s scaffolding tm teacher modeling tq teacher questions p1 and p8: questions and information for p1, code the types of questions asked during incidents. for p8, code the specific ways students share or receive scientific information. p1: questions p8: information is information seeking v visual b building w written o oral physical space describe key characteristics of the physical environment in which the incident takes place; note the physical space (i.e. outdoor playspace; classroom playspace) as well as key materials present (i.e. shovels & buckets; play structure) incident notes note key details about the incident not captured otherwise by the instrument (i.e. topic of investigation, number of children present). incidental questions mark a running tally of observed questions that are not captured in a coded incident. observer notes note key details about the observation not otherwise captured by the instrument (i.e. total time of observation, time of day/season/weather, other adults present, important contextual factors). exploring relationships between playspaces, pedagogy, and preschoolers’ play-based science and engineering practices journal of childhood, education & society volume 2, issue 2, 2021, 200-216 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.202122114 review article ©2021 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. policies and practices of early childhood education and care during the covid-19 pandemic: perspectives from five countries adrijana visnjic-jevtic1, anikó varga nagy2, gulsah ozturk3, i̇kbal tuba şahin-sak4, jesús paz-albo5, mehmet toran6, noelia sánchez-pérez7 abstract: the covid-19 pandemic, which affects all areas of life, has also affected children in need of education and care. it is of great importance to develop policies that take into account the best interests of children in this process. in this review article, the policies developed for early childhood education and care during the pandemic period in five countries (australia, croatia, hungary, spain, and turkey), how they are implemented, the problems that arose, and the solutions produced are discussed. as a result, the covid-19 pandemic has revealed that we need to focus on eliminating the educational inequalities, set policies for the welfare of children on foundations that are more realistic, rebuild teacher training, and improve the welfare of families. priorizating the best interests of the child in the policies to be developed and building the social ecology on justice will ease overcoming the crises that will be faced. article history received: 24 may 2021 accepted: 14 july 2021 keywords covid-19; pandemic, early childhood education and care; policy; practice; children; parents; teachers introduction early childhood education and care (ecec) forms the basis for the acquisition of lifelong competencies. the disadvantages of children who cannot access a qualified environment and education in the early years continue throughout their lives, and to overcome this, practices that consider the best interests of all children should be a priority in the country's policies. according to united nations children’s emergency fund (unicef) reports, it is stated that 175 million children between the ages of 36 do not benefit from early childhood education at all, and one out of every four children who is one year younger than the compulsory education age does not benefit from early childhood education at all (unicef, 2021a). moreover, these are data prior to the covid-19 pandemic and it is not yet known how children are affected by early childhood education as the pandemic continues. however, according to unicef's estimates, the global economic crisis caused by the pandemic negatively affected families in developing countries, and it is estimated that the number of poor children could exceed 725 million, with 142 million more children already facing poverty (unicef, 2021b). undoubtedly, the increase in poverty leads to the restriction of children's access to education and health, and to a decrease in healthy nutrition resources. furthermore, poverty causes parents to face difficulties in creating economic resources and experience psychological problems, and it disrupts family dynamics. this poverty not only directly affects the family and the child, but also negatively affects the budget allocated by the countries for education, which is an indicator of social welfare. this negative effect on the education budget causes interruptions or a decrease in the quality of the education services provided. economically, psychologically, and _____________ 1 university of zagreb, faculty of teacher education, zagreb, croatia, e-mail: adrijana.vjevtic@ufzg.hr, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3812-7472 2 university of debrecen, faculty of education for children and special educational needs, debrecen, hungary, e-mail: vnaniko@ped.unideb.hu, orcid: https://orcid.org/00000001-5868-3156 3 deakin university, faculty of arts and education, melbourne, australia, e-mail: gulsah.ozturk@deakin.edu.au, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5243-3172 4 van yüzüncü yıl university, faculty of education, van, turkey, e-mail: ikbalsak@yyu.edu.tr, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9054-6212 5 rey juan carlos university, faculty of legal and social sciences, madrid, spain, e-mail: jesus.pazalbo@urjc.es, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7517-7124 6 istanbul kultur university, faculty of education, istanbul, turkey, e-mail: m.toran@iku.edu.tr, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3457-9113 7 university of zaragoza, faculty of social and human sciences, teruel, spain, e-mail: noeliasanchez@unizar.es, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6112-9639 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202122114 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:adrijana.vjevtic@ufzg.hr https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3812-7472 mailto:vnaniko@ped.unideb.hu https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5868-3156 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5868-3156 mailto:gulsah.ozturk@deakin.edu.au https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5243-3172 mailto:ikbalsak@yyu.edu.tr https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9054-6212 mailto:jesus.pazalbo@urjc.es https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7517-7124 mailto:m.toran@iku.edu.tr https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3457-9113 mailto:noeliasanchez@unizar.es https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6112-9639 adrijana visnjic-jevtic et al. 201 sociologically fragile societies are facing major crises in this sense, along with the pandemic. as a result of the rapid spread of the pandemic and became life-threatening, schools at all levels were closed in 191 countries, and 1.7 billion students continued their education based on the policies and practices that were promptly developed by their countries (united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization [unesco], 2021) in line with the policies to combat the pandemic (world health organization [who], 2020) announced by the who on march 11, 2020. according to the report prepared by unicef in september 2020, while the rate of countries that switched to distance education at primary and post-secondary levels was 90%, this rate was 60% in early childhood education (unicef, 2021c). in the report, it is stated that despite these rates, not all children have equal access to education, educational inequality has become more evident with the pandemic, teachers' technology literacy and competent use are low in underdeveloped and developing countries, and there are difficulties in providing and accessing digital tools (unesco, 2020). the fact that inequality in access to ecec has become apparent during the pandemic is due to the policy uncertainties and investing in ecec not being a priority. in addition, the suspension of education of 40% of children benefiting from early childhood education because of the pandemic (unicef, 2021c) contains important clues that larger crises will occur. these clues make it important to evaluate the educational policies and practices of the authorities during the covid-19 pandemic. in this review article, the policies developed for ecec during the pandemic in five countries (australia, croatia, hungary, spain, and turkey), how they were implemented, the problems that arose, and the solutions produced were discussed. australia: policies and practices of ecec during the covid-19 pandemic in australia, ecec services comprise child care and preschool services. they provide education and care for over 1.3 million children ( department of education, skills and employment [dese], 2020a). types of ecec programs include long day-care (often called early learning centres), family day-care services, and preschools. children’s attendance to an ecec program in the pre-school year is not compulsory. however, since 2008 the australian government has committed to universal access to ecec in the year before full-time schooling (parliament of australia, 2014). the first case of covid-19 in australia was recorded on 25 january 2020 and it was linked to an overseas traveler from china. as the number of daily covid-19 cases increased steadily over the following weeks, australia introduced an international travel ban, border closures, quarantine, high testing rates, rapid case isolation, and contact tracing (mcanulty & ward, 2020). on 27 march 2020, the australian government declared the ecec sector ‘essential’ to the economy (parliament of australia, 2020a). that means ecec services were required to remain open. this declaration highlighted ecec as a fundamental service for supporting parent participation in the workforce (thorpe, staton, houen, & beatton, 2020). in the early months of the covid-19 pandemic, the ecec sector experienced the devastating impact of covid-19 when the demand for ecec services declined dramatically. many families pulled their children out of ecec services in australia. some families unenrolled their children because they could provide care to their children at home due to losing employment or working from home and some families had health concerns (parliament of australia, 2020b). lockdown restrictions were implemented to monitor the covid-19 outbreak across the country between late march and mid-may 2020. during the outbreak, the health officials considered ecec services were essential. these services were able to operate by paying attention to hygiene, physical distancing, cleaning surfaces at least daily (e.g. tables, chairs, light switches) and washing resources such as play items and toys (early childhood australia, 2020). it was suggested that young children were less likely to catch the virus. families were encouraged to keep their children in ecec services, while they were given the option to keep their children at home. in april 2020, the australian government announced an early childhood education and care relief package to support families and the ecec sector. the relief package (also referred to as ‘free’ childcare) policies and practices of early childhood education and care during the covid-19… 202 provided $1.6 billion to the sector for three months (dese, 2020b). families were not charged any fees between april and july 2020. priority was given to working parents, disadvantaged and vulnerable children who needed to access ecec (prime minister of australia, 2020c ). in the landscape of australian ecec, the relief package has been one of the most effective policies to open up a new space for caring for children during a pandemic (lee, 2021). the covid-19 pandemic transformed many practices in ecec settings. educators implemented strict hygiene measures which minimized the number of parents during their children’s arrival and departure times. children were dropped off and picked up at the centre entrance to enforce social distancing (early childhood australia, 2020). the reduced contact with parents made educators establishing new forms of communication with them through apps, email or phone. many early childhood educators provided regular communication and resources to support families and children who stayed at home through online teaching and learning (park, logan, zhang, kamigaichi, & kulapichitr, 2020). this led to changes in teaching practices including developing digital learning materials to engage with children and supporting families who remained at home. early childhood educators had to provide play-based educational programs remotely. some early childhood settings used online portals (e.g. storypark) or sent newsletters about online resources (e.g. victorian government education and training). families could access to ‘learning from home’ resources for early childhood education on the state departments’ website. in july 2020, the australian government has implemented a transition package which provided a transition payment to the ecec services until the end of september 2020. during this period, except victoria, attendance to ecec services returned to pre-covid levels nationally. ecec services have been required to have a covidsafe plan with risk mitigation measures (i.e. hygiene and health measures). the covid-19 pandemic has affected australian states and territories unevenly. victoria has been australia’s worst affected state with over 68% of the covid-19 cases and 90% of the deaths that occurred across the country (department of health, 2021). victoria’s second lockdown lasted almost four months. during stage four restrictions in august 2020, ecec services remained open only for vulnerable children who cannot learn at home and children whose parents work in essential services in melbourne1 [ecec services remained open to all children in regional victoria]. this was a major change from australia’s first lockdown period. many families faced challenges in the closure of ecec settings. working parents had to work from home while providing care for their children for approximately 11 weeks. in order to support victorian ecec services, the government announced the recovery package which provided a $305.6 million recovery payment for victoria until the end of january 2021 (dese, 2020b). the aim was to ensure that ecec services remain open while providing financial support to families. since november 2020, ecec settings in victoria have resumed their regular programs with a covidsafe plan1. the experience of the covid-19 pandemic shows that ecec is an essential service for working parents however it is also important to recognise and support ecec educators who provide this service (thorpe et al., 2020). during this time, they prioritised the well-being of young children and families. more attention should be given to the experiences of ecec educators in supporting children and their families. croatia: policies and practices of ecec during the covid-19 pandemic ecec in the republic of croatia is not part of the compulsory educational system. the exception is the preschool program intended for children in the year before starting school. the preschool program, lasting 250 hours, is mandatory for school-age children (children aged 6-7, who start primary school in the next school year). it usually takes place in ecec settings or primary schools if there are no ecec settings nearby. this position determines how the ecec system itself and its organization are perceived in public. although it is a system that is part of the ministry of science and education, aimed to ensure the wellbeing (personal, emotional, physical, educational, and social) of the child (ministarstvo znanosti, obrazovanja i _____________ 1 as of 1st of june 2021, victoria is currently in its fourth lockdown. primary and secondary schools are currently closed while ecec remain open. adrijana visnjic-jevtic et al. 203 sporta [mzos], 2015), the public more often perceives it as a system for caring for children so that parents can work. this attitude is also promoted by certain projects (for example, improvement of services for children in the system of early and preschool education) funded by the ministry of labor, pensions, family and welfare, which are founded on the idea of social policy (ensuring reconciliation of family and business life). in practice, this means, among other things, providing a kindergarten for all children in accordance with the needs of parents. it is therefore questionable whether this is an idea that is in line with the basic goal of ecec in the republic of croatia ensuring the well-being of the child. this position of ecec in the republic of croatia partly determined the attitude towards the openness/closeness of ecec settings during the covid-19 pandemic. in mid-march, a pandemic of covid19 disease was declared (ministry of health, 2020), and the government of the republic of croatia (vlada republike hrvatske) (2020) passed a decision to suspend teaching in higher education, secondary and primary schools and the regular operation of early childhood education institutions. the pandemic resulted in the closure of many institutions, restrictions on movement and, where possible, remote work. the new family and work structure were somehow improvised. višnjić-jevtić and visković (2021) conclude that a new daily rhythm and schedule of activities had to be organized, mutual obligations (jobs, roles) and ways of solving problem situations had to be harmonized. the closure of educational institutions and the transition to a virtual work environment indicated unequal opportunities for participation due to technical and social issues. while lower primary classes were organized through television (school on 3rd) and upper primary and secondary classes were organized through various learning platforms, early childhood education was not organized at the state level. somolanji tokić and vukašinović (2020) find that organization of early childhood education work depended mostly on the intrinsic motivation of teachers, while there wasn’t official support from the state. this has led to various solutions from opening kindergartens for first-line workers, through designing group communication with children and parents on different communication platforms to creating an online kindergarten. therefore, early childhood education during the pandemic in croatia faced with several issues: organization of the work; the wellbeing of the children due to digital exposure; digital competencies of teachers; and wellbeing of the teachers. due to the closure of kindergartens, it was questionable how to organize work for teachers (what they could do when there are no children in the settings) and children (to ensure continuity in education), and at the same time help the parents. research in croatia shows that activities organized by ecec settings for children most often required the joint involvement of children and parents (višnjić-jevtić & visković, 2021). parents who continued to go to work had to organize time and space for children, while parents who worked from home had to organize time and space for both – themselves and their children. in ecec settings that remain open for first-line workers teachers faced a new way of communicating with parents which made it difficult to support each other. regarding the well-being of young children, it is questionable whether viral activities contribute to the well-being of a child. the most common challenges of the viral environment for children are the absence of play (schmitt, pempek, kirkorian, lund, & anderson, 2008; setliff & courage, 2011), difficulties in social and emotional functioning of children (radesky, schumacher, & zuckerman, 2014), slower language development (mendelsohn et al., 2010; zimmerman, christakis, & meltzoff, 2007) and insufficient physical activity (marshall, biddle, gorely, cameron, & murdey, 2004). anderson and subrahmanyam (2017) point out that the impact of the screen depends on the age of the children, and for children under the age of two it is mostly negative, while for preschool children it has negative and positive aspects. as a result of the above research, it is possible to problematize the organization of ecec settings through various digital platforms. to organize an appropriate learning environment for young children, ece teachers should have certain digital competencies. kim (2020) states that the quality of online learning in early childhood depends in part on the digital competencies of ece teachers. somolanji tokić and vukašinović (2020) stated that due to the non-mandatory status of ecec, ece teachers in croatia doesn’t have the possibility to master their competencies requested in the european framework for the digital competence of educators: digcompedu. working in changing conditions, which required new competencies, reflected on the wellbeing of ece teachers. professional responsibility requires adaptation to new conditions and continuous support for children and parents. on the other hand, many educators are parents themselves which can policies and practices of early childhood education and care during the covid-19… 204 pose an organizational challenge to their family life. given the specificity of work in which it is impossible to ensure distance, educators are also exposed to health risks. in preparation for the reopening of ecec settings, a recommendation for working with early and preschool children in kindergartens (ministarstvo znanosti i obrazovanja [mzo], 2020) was adopted, which was to provide guidelines for work after reopening. the recommendation is guided by health and epidemiological guidelines relating to the protection of health in the first place. a year after, kindergartens are open, but that brings new challenges. the environment that supposed to be enabling, full of possibilities for playing and learning became equipped only with materials that may be disinfected. therefore, loose parts or natural materials are forbidden just as soft, cuddling toys. the absence of toys and other stimulative material may lead to exploration of a new play(s), and experiences of new learning strategies in cooperation with peers. unfortunately, play with peers should be organized to avoid close, physical contact and teachers were suggested engaging children in activities that give possibilities of distancing. one of the teachers try to explain the new situations: new challenges are emerging. parents do not tell us that they are infectious and bring their children to kindergarten, despite that. in this way, the trust we have been building for many years is lost. cooperation with parents has been reduced to a minimum due to epidemiological measures, and continuity in care and education between family and institutions is being lost. there isn’t continuity in educational work with children due to frequent absences and the self-isolation of children. teachers are overworked and exhausted due to frequent sick leave and consequently, the replacement of sick colleagues (vb, 37 years, ece teacher). working in covid conditions caused new challenges on many levels. more than a year later, there is no signs or strategies that should help teachers to strengthen children and parents in the new normal. hungary: policies and practices of ecec during the covid-19 pandemic in hungary, kindergarten education has a long tradition. the first kindergarten opened its doors in 1828, while the first crèche opened in 1852. since september 2015, attendance to the kindergarten has been compulsory from the age of 3, the aim of which is to minimise disadvantage and to ensure equal opportunities and life chances for all children. the disease, referred to as covid-19, was declared a pandemic by the un health organization on 11 march 2020 (who, 2020). the hungarian government created the operative staff in order to fight the new coronavirus, their information about official measures appears on koronavirus.gov.hu website. the hungarian government (government decree 40/2020) declared an emergency situation for the entire territory of hungary in order to prevent the consequences of a human pandemic causing a mass illness endangering the safety of life and property and to protect the health and life of hungarian citizens of the government decree, the mayor of the local government providing nursery and kindergarten2 may order an extraordinary break in the case of nursery and kindergarten institutions from 16 march 2020. the mayor shall inform the minister of human resources of ordering the break. according to the government decree, domestic kindergartens could not accept children, they had to suspend their educational activities for an indefinite period (the hungarian government, 2020a). the regulation has put early childhood institutions and stakeholders in an unprecedented, unexpected situation. in the new situation, central, uniform measures did not help the institutions concerned, according to the government decree, the maintainers ordered the institutions to do noneducational work and then to do home office work for their employees. families were particularly weighed down by the situation, with some parents continuing to work from home in a home office, while others lost their jobs. in addition, they had to solve the care of younger children without institutional support and help digital education for school-age children. the placement of the child during the day, while the parent is working, is a vital issue for parents, regardless of social affiliation, and a basic function of the institution. _____________ 2 in english we use the word “kindergarten”, those who work there are the “kindergarten pedagogue”, or “early childhood educators”, that can be used for both genders. these are according to the hungarian approach to kindergarten. according to the same approach, in hungary, the phrase “preschool” is not correct as it does not mirror the local specialties of this field of science. samely, the pedagogue who works there are not at all “preschool teachers” as not even kindergarten pedagogues call themselves teachers as they do not teach in a direct and controlled way in the kindergarten. kindergarten workers deal with children 3-6, school starts at the age of 6 in hungary. adrijana visnjic-jevtic et al. 205 in the crisis caused by the virus, the relationship with the kindergarten was severed to a large extent. in hungary, the number of disadvantaged children is high in public education institutions, contact with their families is inherently more difficult and research proves that disadvantaged parents prefer a personal, trusting relationship with the early childhood educators (vargáné nagy & molnár, 2017). there were disadvantaged areas where the head of the kindergarten visited the families personally and informed them of the emergency and the closure of the institution, as they sometimes did not have even a telephone. in state-run, municipal kindergartens, the employer envisaged digital work for kindergarten pedagogues in kindergartens, similar to public education institutions (schools), in order to ensure that employees' work was justified and thus paid. changed employment rules were declared in government decree 47/2020 (the hungarian government, 2020b). educators either visited the institution regularly or kept in touch with parents from home. they had to perform the work tasks set out in the document regulating the operation of the institution and had to certify the work from home with a weekly report to the maintainer. families were hard hit by the regulation, as they had to take care of their children overnight, knowing that the possible illness of the older generation could easily be caused by the reorganization of childcare within the family and at the same time transforming their lives. after the changeover, the need for support for children's personal development at home required reconsideration (balogh & szerepi, 2020). teleworking was a completely unknown concept for kindergarten pedagogues. their work includes a loving reception of children, physical contact, hugging, and daily verbal contact with parents. this was replaced by an information technology (it) tool that required a completely different form of communication and competencies. in general, kindergartens are not well equipped with information and communications technology (ict) tools either. the ability of kindergarten pedagogues to innovate has brought forward innovative efforts and the use of ict tools, although a video, audio file or powerpoint presentation cannot replace personal contact. embrace, kind words, facial expressions and gestures, nonverbal gestures for children who understand speech even less, group cohesion cannot be replaced by such means. it has become common practice for kindergartens to create closed facebook groups to reach parents. knowing the development level of the children and the kindergarten group, the parents were mainly recommended offline, mobile home play activity forms and experience opportunities that can be performed together with the children. the methodological recommendations took into account the children's personality, interests and individual abilities. thus, they wanted to provide online help to all parents using the ict tools at their disposal. their helpful intentions were to support parents with their pedagogical knowledge and ideas to help families spend the increased common time at home. this period created an opportunity for educators to strengthen their individual pedagogical competencies and to be professionally renewed. they told the children video tales, played with puppets, sang songs, said poems, and sent parents creative craft activity ideas and games that could be done at home. game ideas that could be played together with the family were collected and passed on to parents. the pedagogues tried to smuggle mental health, situational games into the life of the group, thus helping to process and accept the experiences. in the use of online distance education, kindergartens sought to uphold the principle of supporting parental education, which is also a cornerstone of the kindergarten’s child image, so they supported parent’s child-rearing with activity recommendations that were based on personal advice, common activities, experiences and memories (balogh & szerepi, 2020). at the same time, based on parental feedback, it was also found that kindergarten pedagogues asked parents for tasks that could not be performed at home due to lacking conditions and specific tools and went beyond the abilities of a preschool child. parents responded in several ways to the activity ideas offered by kindergarten teachers. there were those who were constantly active from the first minute, performed the requested tasks, and provided feedback to the educators. there were families who did not take advantage of the suggestions offered by the kindergarten due to it tools or lack of interest, lack of time, digital education of the older, school-age sibling. the development of different level special needs children has also been pushed into the online policies and practices of early childhood education and care during the covid-19… 206 space, the effectiveness of which cannot be compared to personal contact activities. parental digital access did not work in all cases. it knowledge and access to digital tools are uneven. (hungarian central statistical office, 2021). it is irrelevant to talk about online help in disadvantaged regions where families do not have the tools that online education assumes. most of the disadvantaged parents have a pre-paid electric meter, and towards the end of the month there is no more money to recharge, and there is no electricity for a few days. there is no digital device and no internet connection at all. the school children also received the lesson on paper and the parent was usually unable to help. contact with parents was not limited to previously used working-hours contact. the parents needed the help and feedback of the kindergarten pedagogue in the late evening and many cases on the weekends as well. kindergarten pedagogues also helped each other online through professional renewal and exchange of methodological experiences through the use of kindergarten pedagogical professional community sites. with the consent of the maintainer, cleanliness packs were distributed to families in need to comply with hygiene rules that are of paramount importance in the fight against the pandemic. in the institution, they made decorations, scrapped, cleaned, and performed administrative tasks. in addition to these, textiles were repaired, bean bags were sewn, and they also helped to make face masks for the employees of the municipality and those working in health care. there were institutions where, according to the order of the maintainer, the tasks related to the renovation of the building were also performed by the pedagogues, e.g. fence painting, group room renovation, painting. due to the pandemic, more families needed home help. there was an example of kindergarten staff helping social institution staff, e.g. post office, pharmacy or day-to-day shopping. the kindergarten nurses cleaned and disinfected the institutions. in institutions that also have kitchens, kitchen workers packed cold food for children on a weekly basis. according to 1997. xxxi act § 21-21 / b on guardianship administration, it is necessary to provide institutional food provide for children. children receiving regular child protection benefits received food free of charge, but could also be claimed by others for a fee. the home delivery of food for kindergarten and school-age children was coordinated by the kindergarten staff, at which time they had the opportunity to talk to the parents, as neither the nurse nor the family caregiver visited the families in the segregation at the time of closure. according to 152/2020. government decree, the maintainers appointed kindergartens on duty in the settlements; during the extraordinary break, the mayor was obliged to organize day-care for children of nursery and kindergarten age. day-care service was to be provided for children without an infectious disease whose parents or other legal representatives required it for work. according to the regulation, the submission of a request for day-care service was not subject to any formalities and could therefore be submitted either by e-mail or by telephone. the parent had to declare in writing that the child did not suffer from an infectious disease. the municipality had to organize the day-care service in small groups, and a maximum of five children per group could be supervised (the hungarian government, 2020c). on may 20 in 2020 a new government decree was published in the hungarian gazette. the 215/2020. government decree on the reopening of kindergartens and nurseries (the hungarian government, 2020d). before reopening, institutions assessed families need for kindergarten care and asked them to declare their children’s health status. most families demanded kindergarten care. the 2020/2021 school year has brought further changes in the lives of institutions raising young children. according to government decree 431/2020 on protection measures, no person other than those working there and children could enter the territory of the public education institution (the hungarian government, 2020e). from september, parents could not enter the institution, the nurses and pedagogical assistants accompanied the children from the entrance to the group rooms. the body temperature of children and adults entering the institution was measured and recorded, an entry record was introduced, and adults wore masks indoors. kindergartens tried to protect the health of children and workers with this defence as well. in everyday life, it is difficult to follow a rule, so e.g. use the face mask as it makes speech comprehension difficult. hand sanitisers were installed in several rooms of the kindergarten, and children were also taught how to use them. they pay attention to the frequent correct hand washing, as well as the adrijana visnjic-jevtic et al. 207 cleanliness and disinfection of the institution. the nurses keep a cleaning record. parents may enter the institution only in justified cases, respecting the rules. parental meetings were cancelled, daily contact with parents was reduced, and was limited to a previously created messenger group or phone. according to government decree 431/2020 on the protection measures of the epidemiological preparedness period, the body temperature measurement of employees and children upon arrival became mandatory from 1 october 2020. in case of coronavirus infection or coronavirus involvement, only the education office could order an extraordinary break in the given institution (the hungarian government, 2020e). according to 509/2020 government decree, among other things, it ordered regular examinations and screening suitable for the detection of sars-cov-2 coronavirus for educational employees working in educational institutions. it was organized by the capital and county government offices and it was done with an antigen rapid test capable of detecting the coronavirus in the order that was specified by the operational staff. participation in the examination was voluntary (the hungarian government, 2020f). the institutions have drawn up an epidemiological action plan (which is a constantly changing protocol according to the epidemiological situation), which contains epidemiological rules for workers and parents (parents do not enter the kindergarten building, all parents have filled in a declaration only healthy children can come to kindergarten, covid-19 in the family should be reported, fever and hand disinfection should be performed at the door, and the use of a mask in the open air on the premises of the institution is mandatory according to the current government decree). parents are still exercising their right not to require kindergarten for their child due to the virus. another difficulty was the illness of kindergarten pedagogues and kindergarten workers (nurses, pedagogical assistants). the continuous operation of the kindergarten in these cases requires great organization and perseverance. the situation caused by the covid 19 virus has transformed the relationship system of the family institution. in the crisis caused by the virus, the parents' direct contact with the kindergarten daily was broken. the basic availability of institutional education for families has become uncertain. this faltering relationship affected both middle-class families, where the parents worked in the home office and disadvantaged families, for whom institutional education also played a complementary, mitigating role for children. parents' it skills, their resources and their attitudes towards educational institutions are not uniform either. in general, a traditionally well-functioning familykindergarten partnership is not benefited by the fact that parents cannot enter the institution, just as a child’s community life is not well affected if the parent does not take him or her to kindergarten. in the case of effective communication with parents, the moments of personal encounters are appreciated. the situation caused by the virus has also greatly contributed to raising awareness of the importance of healthy lifestyle education from the areas of kindergarten education among parents and children. adherence to security measures requires self-discipline. this period was a serious burden for parents with small children. the consequences of the virus (loss of parents' jobs, difficulties in working from home, difficulties in placing and caring for a child, difficulties in digital education of a primary school child, hopeless life situation, insecurity, stress, difficulty in contacting grandparents, relatives, friends) made life difficult for families. in the case of children, another disadvantage was the lack of living conditions at home, play equipment, drawing tools and parental competence. the development of children with different developmental stages and delayed development (various movement developments, special pedagogical developments, etc.) has also been pushed into the online space, the disadvantages and consequences of which are not even measurable. educators were mentally and psychologically overwhelmed, everyone experienced the pandemic, insecurity, hopelessness and fear of illness differently. kindergarten pedagogues said their it skills have increased significantly since the outbreak began. this was mostly through autonomous learning and they have consciously updated their methodological knowledge adapted to the given situation and they have done professional renewal. policies and practices of early childhood education and care during the covid-19… 208 in the case of educators, the long-term effects include the move towards the digitization of documentation, and further training and conferences can also be extended to the online space in a costeffective way. the consequences of the situation caused by the covid-19 virus and its long-term effects on the situation of families and ecec institutions will be investigated later. the impact of the pandemic situation on out-of-institution education requires new pedagogical competencies. communication between parents and kindergarten pedagogues is changing, and effective forms of help that can be provided online are becoming more valuable. the consequences for children’s social relationships, development of speech and movement skills, and mental health are still unpredictable. spain: policies and practices of ecec during the covid-19 pandemic ecec is essential to promote positive long-term learning outcomes (paz-albo, cvencek, herranz, hervás, & meltzoff, 2017), as well as children’s cognitive, language and social development in both the shortand long-term (melhuish et al., 2015), but not all children have an opportunity to enjoy early experiences. in spain, increasing children’s participation in ecec provides early access to learning experiences across the country, but these experiences differ depending on each region. in fact, spain has implemented national and regional reforms in ecec to enhance the educational needs of 0to 6-year-old children, fuelling debate about the nature of ecec and, specifically on the significance of the provision for children under the age of three. moreover, spain has one of the highest enrolment rates of 3-5-year-olds (97%) in ecec across organisation for economic co-operation and development [oecd] countries, and higher for children under the age of 3 (36%), compared to 26% of the oecd average (oecd, 2019). this situation is the result of the expansion of ecec services in spain. however, over the last decade, the childcare provision has experienced a surge of policy attention in spain, as improving quality in the ecec sector is a priority (paz-albo, 2018). in fact, the provision of ecec in spain has a regulatory framework established at the national level in which the purpose of ecec is established as to contribute to the physical, emotional, social, and intellectual development of children (orden eci/3960/2007, 2008). however, the covid-19 pandemic has an impact on how ecec is organized and a variety of resources has been used to support children’s learning. by the middle of march 2020, ecec institutions closures had been implemented across spain. during the lockdown the aprendo en casa (learning at home) and recursos para el aprendizaje en línea (resources for online learning) educational sites were designed by the spanish ministry of education and vocational training in order to provide educators, students and families access to online resources, materials and educational apps designed specifically for 0-6-year-olds and beyond. these resources supported learning continuity during the full school closures, stimulating curiosity and creativity to enhance learning, and strengthening learning through play and reading in addition to promoting autonomy, key aspects of ecec in spain. furthermore, since the onset of the covid-19 pandemic, spain supported remote learning and offered guidance for parents in supporting learning for their children at home since every child is entitled to an education (celaá, 2020). after the lockdown, many children in ecec started to return to in-person learning as the government encouraged schools to reopen buildings adopting several educational measures (see orden efp/561/2020, 2020). in fact, all 0-3-year-olds were required to return to in-person learning to start the new school year in september 2020, while complying with the preventive, hygiene and health regulations established by the spanish ministry of health. however, to secure support the reopening of schools for onsite learning 3-6-year-olds returned to school a few weeks later to be taught in small group bubbles for social distancing purposes. within the ecec context, this means reducing contact between groups of children and maintaining a safe distance of 1.5 meters. with regard to these policies and practices, the interterritorial council of the spanish health system (2020) admitted that respecting the social safe distance was harder for younger children and, also, that it was difficult to ensure their proper use of the masks for a long time. on the other hand, these children needed greater interaction and closeness in order to ensure successful development and to accomplish the proposed educational goals. adrijana visnjic-jevtic et al. 209 bearing in mind the particularities and needs of the ecec years, the establishment of stable coexistence groups was proposed as the best alternative to solve the situation. these groups were made up of a reduced number of students and a tutor; ideally, with a maximum of 15 children and, if necessary, a maximum of 20. however, the maximum number of students might be settled by the department of education of each autonomous community with the permission of corresponding public health authorities. following the instructions published by the spanish ministry of health (2021), when a case of covid-19 was detected, the students and tutor belonging to the stable coexistence group were considered as close contacts and, consequently, all of them must comply with the quarantine (10 days after the last contact with the confirmed case). with the return to in-person learning, concerns arose from families and educators about the possibility that children were carriers of the disease and, consequently, the potential increase of covid-19 cases. however, the situation of ecec centres and educational institutions was positive, with just 0.73% of the groups temporary closed by the end of september (rtve noticias, 2020). in this sense, the preventive, hygiene and health measures (ventilation of classrooms, hand washing, stable coexistence groups, social distance, etc.) have permitted in-person learning as the educational approach mainly used at the present academic year. in fact, nowadays (about the end of the academic year), the data has confirmed that the spanish ecec and educational centres are safe spaces: 99.6% of the classrooms are open, whereas only 0.4% are in quarantine due to the covid-19 pandemic, according to the data provided by the autonomous communities to the ministry of education (spanish ministry of education and vocational training, 2021). despite the low percentage of groups temporarily closed for the covid-19, ksnet and spanish unicef (2020) have published the results of a survey showing that 86% of the spanish entities affirm that children have suffered difficulties to continue with the academic year. according to this study, the main obstacles have been the digital gap, the lack of space to study at home, and the absence of accompaniment (ksnet & spanish unicef, 2020). apart from the academic consequences, several studies with spanish population have pointed that the lockdown has hampered children’s development, including negative consequences in their physical health (valero, martín, domínguez-rodríguez & grupo confisalud, 2020), an increment on sedentary time (alonso-martínez, ramírez-vélez, garcía-alonso, izquierdo & garcíahermoso, 2021; arufe-giráldez, sanmiguel-rodríguez, zagalaz-sánchez, cachón-zagalaz & gonzálezvalero, 2020), and an exacerbation of their internalizing and externalizing problems (alonso-martínez et al., 2021). in this line, we cannot forget that, although it seems that the worst scenario of the covid-19 pandemic has passed, ecec will be crucial to overcoming the aforementioned negative effects of the lockdown and social distance measures. as it has been pointed, educational and care institutions not only promote physical activities, appropriate diet, and good sleep habits (brazendale et al., 2017) which, in turn, might help to mitigate the negative effects of the covid-19 pandemic in children’s development, but also spanish ecec centres might play a critical role providing safe environments to children to be able to interact with peers and teachers, and develop their socioemotional skills. turkey: policies and practices of ecec during the covid-19 pandemic in many countries, including turkey, one of the precautions taken to prevent the spread of covid19 has been the closure of schools and other educational institutions. on february 3, 2020, more than five weeks before the first covid-19 case was detected in turkey, a pamphlet titled coronavirus information note had been prepared for turkish children and parents, detailing some precautions that had to be taken to prevent the virus from entering the country (ministry of national education [mone], 2020a). it also mentioned ways to prevent respiratory tract infections and described the correct hand-washing procedure to be followed by children in ecec institutions. soon after the detection of the first covid-19 case in turkey, on march 11, 2020, schools across the country were closed for two weeks, i.e., from march 16 to march 30 (mone, 2020b). during that period, on march 23, educational informatics network run by the turkish radio and television corporation (trt), policies and practices of early childhood education and care during the covid-19… 210 known as eba tv, started broadcasting to the primary, secondary and high schools in cooperation with mone and trt (mone, n.d.). however, no channels or broadcasts appear to have been aimed at ecec children at that time. at the beginning of the following month, a program for parents named bizden (literally ‘from us’) was launched on eba tv to provide effective role models for child development during the distanceeducation process, alongside practical information about that process (mone, 2020c). the show’s underlying purpose appears to have been to encourage parents to deal with their young children more consciously (sak, şahin-sak, & nas, 2020). during the ensuing extraordinary time that parents spent at home with their children, a printed set of daily-activity recommendations titled distance education, close interest was prepared and shared with parents to guide them in establishing close relationships and strong ties with their children. the guide was aimed at families with children of up to secondary-school age, and its core message was “in this process, we are with you and close to you. we will survive together” (mone, 2020d). then, another guidebook titled play in crisis (mone, 2020e), emphasizing the importance of play and how families could contribute to it was added to the same series. based on recommendations from the turkish government’s scientific committee at the end of april 2020, it was decided that distance education would continue until may 31, 2020 (mone, 2020f). during this latter period of homeschooling, mone (2020g) recommended that parents and their children play three games together, called “and walk like this”, “tell me about me” and “don’t step on paper”. additionally, at the beginning of may 2020, turkey’s general directorate of special education and guidance services published a booklet titled elif and alp. this publication featured activities aimed at helping ecec and primary-school children adapt to pandemic conditions and lockdown by ensuring that they understood and expressed their feelings (mone, 2020h). at the end of may 2020, as part of a planned easing of lockdown, it was announced that nurseries and daycare centres would until further notice only serve households where all parents/carers had returned to working outside the home (resmi gazete, 2020). subsequently, as the implementation of precautions had proved successful throughout the country, the normalization process continued as planned. therefore, the general directorate of private education institutions circulated a letter authorizing private ecec institutions to reopen beginning on june 1, 2020, if requested by their heads and the parents of the children. a similar official letter was also then sent to public ecec institutions by mone, though in this case, it was not school heads but the education directorate of each of the nation’s provinces that had to make the request, again with parental consent. all public and private ecec institutions that reopened were required to observe strict covid-19 safety rules, including the wearing of medical masks, hand hygiene, and social distancing (mone, 2020i). in september 2020, schools that had been closed march 2020 due to the pandemic were opened to ecec children and first graders. during the first week of school, which was september 21-25, 2020 in all regions, a one-day face-to-face education orientation program for these children was implemented. in ecec settings, the orientation week consisted of a single day featuring five 30-minute activities, expanding in the second week to two days, with the same number and length of activities (mone, 2020j). after the resumption of face-to-face schooling, the mone released contactless play book (erdoğan, 2020), as a fun means of helping ecec children and primary-school students internalize the wearing of masks, social distancing, and personal-hygiene rules, and more generally, adapt to the ‘new normal’ way of doing things. the book’s 60 games covered skills such as meeting someone, communication, attention, movement and cooperation, none involving any physical contact (mone, 2020j). october 12, 2020, marked the start of the second stage of face-to-face education in turkish schools, in which the two-day weekly education process that had been implemented in ecec institutions in september 2020 was increased to five days (mone, 2020k). then, beginning in december, trt-eba kindergarten was broadcast on eba tv’s primary school channel every weekday at 8:00 a.m., and 7:30 p.m. its original content was divided into three sections: “calendar”, “activity zone” and “as a family”. adrijana visnjic-jevtic et al. 211 “calendar” was aimed at helping children start the day as if they were already at school, and thus explained concepts including dates, seasons, days of the week, colours and shapes. in “activity zone”, ecec teachers conducted turkish-language, math, science, music, drama, art and play activities, relying on many a wide range of materials, toys and visual documents in line with the mone-approved preschool curriculum. lastly, the “as a family” section provided important advice to parents of ecec children, including what should be considered when communicating with their children, domestic rules, and personalitydevelopment processes (trthaber, 2020). due to an increase in the number of coronavirus cases in turkey, a new weekend lockdown was enforced in december 2020, and ecec institutions were again closed (ministry of interior, 2020). in a press release dated march 1, 2021, mone (2021a) also announced that, based on decisions made in a recent meeting of the presidential cabinet, face-to-face education would resume the following day in all ecec institutions, primary schools, and 8th and 12th-grade classrooms across the country. the plan was to restart face-to-face education in all ecec institutions on a full-time basis, both in provinces defined as at low/medium coronavirus risk and those defined as at high/very high risk. via press releases on march 29 and april 13, mone (2021b, 2021c) announced changes to practices at various educational levels but confirmed that face-to-face full-time education would continue in ecec institutions. in line with decisions made in the presidential cabinet on april 26, the whole of turkey is – at the time of writing – in a three-week period of strict lockdown, expected to end on may 17 (ministry of interior, 2021). in this context, face-to-face education has been suspended in all institutions, and distance education has resumed (mone, 2021d). also, in a press release dated may 12, 2021, it was announced that distance education might continue after the lifting of the lockdown per se, with the decision about that to be made on may 17 (mone, 2021e). unsurprisingly, given these circumstances, pandemic conditions – and especially lockdowns – have been a challenging experience for ecec children. they have become more aggressive and anxious and exhibited more misbehaviour. negative effects on children of spending lengthy periods looking at tv screens and mobile devices have also emerged (toran, sak, xu, şahin-sak, & yu, 2021). that being said, however, activities conducted by teachers through eba.gov.tr have become very important to young children, and some of them have been effective educationally. it has also been noted that many parents organized various activities for and with their children, in line with their teachers’ recommendations, which as well as boosting the children’s sense of well-being enabled them to continue preparing for primary school (duran & ömeroğlu, 2020). however, it has also been argued that distance education has not been effective enough for either ecec children or primary-school students (demir öztürk, kuru, & demir yıldız, 2020). this is thought to be related to their ages, as children in these years still have difficulty using distance-education tools and other technology on their own. similarly, play and hands-on activities that are effective in supporting young children’s learning are not easy online (kim, 2020). in short, children of primary age and below appear to only benefit from distance education if under close supervision by their parents or other adults. thus, in cases where the relevant adults’ willingness or ability to offer such supervision is low, young children cannot make efficient use of the eba portal or other popular educational applications such as zoom (sak et al., 2020). conclusion the covid-19 pandemic, which has affected all life on a global scale, has caused the reorganization of all areas of life. although emergency policies were developed against the pandemic at first, it can be said that more effective policies were developed with a better understanding of the pandemic over time. at the first stage of the pandemic, schools were closed worldwide, and then distance education started with the emergency solutions developed later on. for more than a year, education has been tried to be continued with distance or hybrid (online and face-to-face) teaching models all over the world. nevertheless, policies developed in the field of ecec differed among countries, and this situation prevented the development of a standard in education. this review article focused on the policies developed for ecec, the situation of children, teachers, and families during the covid-19 pandemic in the countries (australia, croatia, policies and practices of early childhood education and care during the covid-19… 212 hungary, spain, and turkey) included in this article. the countries which faced the pandemic have managed ecec differently. the reasons for this difference are the importance given to early childhood education and the resources allocated. although schools were closed at first due to the pandemic, some countries provided resources and support for the sustainability of education. however, it has been observed that there are countries where early childhood education is ignored when compared to the other educational levels. especially countries with insufficient technological infrastructure have left the distance education process of children mostly to the competence of teachers and the capacity of accessible digital tools. it has been stated that the groups most negatively affected by this process are disadvantaged groups and that these groups have very limited access to education and teachers. although the covid-19 pandemic directly affected adults as a disease, the measures such as the closure of schools and the quarantines directly affected children negatively. for instance, the time children spent in front of screen has increased, their movement area has been limited, and the home environment has been insufficient in supporting children's development. in countries where face-to-face education was started during the pandemic, children were expected to comply with the measures taken against the pandemic and the protocols that were prepared. however, radical changes in the educational environment and materials along with the reduction of class sizes made it difficult for children to adapt to the process. while discussions about how education can be continued with the pandemic, the importance of teachers' role in education has brought teachers to the fore. in this process, it can be said that teachers show a great effort to reach children and make education sustainable. in some countries, teachers were supported to use and access digital tools, while in others this was ignored. in other words, it has been seen that teachers try to continue the education with their professional competence and the digital tools and applications they can access. the covid-19 pandemic has also brought up the discussion of teacher education to provide professional competencies in preparation for possible crises. the covid-19 pandemic, which directly affects social life, has caused radical changes, especially in the lives of families with children. the interruption of children's school life has left the responsibilities of education and care to the parents. the parents who had to work from home tried to take on their children’s education and care responsibilities in coordination with the teacher. however, disadvantaged families had difficulties in carrying out their child’s education and care due to the interruption of social support opportunities. during this process, parents have experienced serious economic, social, and psychological difficulties. in addition, the fact that the responsibility of children's education and care is mostly undertaken by mothers has made invisible gender inequalities visible. as a result, the covid-19 pandemic has revealed that we need to focus on eliminating educational inequalities, placing policies for the welfare of children on more realistic foundations, rebuilding teacher education, and improving the welfare of families. priorizating the best interests of the child in the policies to be developed and building the social ecology on justice will ease overcoming the crises that will be faced. declarations acknowledgements: the production and dissemination of knowledge in the public interest are among the founding purposes of the journal of childhood, education & society. for this purpose, editor in chief invited all editorial board members to write a review article about the covid-19 pandemic in the scope of the jces. this review article was written by editorial board members who responded to the invitation in line with the founding purposes. the countries, in this review article, are ordered alphabetical. authors’ contributions: adrijana visnjic-jevtic wrote croatia, anikó varga nagy wrote hungary, gulsah ozturk wrote australia, i̇kbal tuba şahin-sak wrote turkey, jesús paz-albo and noelia sánchez-pérez wrote spain, and mehmet toran designed the paper, wrote abstract, introduction and conclusion part. the authors of this review article are ordered 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(2007). associations between media viewing and language development in children under age 2 years. journal of pediatrics, 151, 364-368. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2007.04.071 https://uj.njt.hu/jogszabaly/2020-215-20-22 http://jogszabalykereso.mhk.hu/translated/doc/j2020r0431k_20201104_fin.pdf https://net.jogtar.hu/jogszabaly?docid=a2000509.kor https://doi.org/10.1177/1476718x20977583 https://www.trthaber.com/haber/guncel/trt-eba-anaokulu-yayin-hayatina-basladi-540692.html https://www.trthaber.com/haber/guncel/trt-eba-anaokulu-yayin-hayatina-basladi-540692.html https://data.unicef.org/topic/education/pre-primary-education/ https://data.unicef.org/covid-19-and-children/ https://data.unicef.org/covid-19-and-children/ https://data.unicef.org/topic/education/covid-19/#status https://en.unesco.org/news/startling-digital-divides-distance-learning-emerge https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse https://narodne-novine.nn.hr/clanci/sluzbeni/2020_03_29_670.html https://narodne-novine.nn.hr/clanci/sluzbeni/2020_03_29_670.html https://www.who.int/director-general/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-covid-19---11-march-2020 https://www.who.int/director-general/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-covid-19---11-march-2020 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2007.04.071 policies and practices of early childhood education and care during the covid-19 pandemic: perspectives from five countries journal of childhood, education & society volume 2, issue 3, 2021, 338-364 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.202123117 research article ©2021 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. “how will you construct a pathway system?”: microanalysis of teacher-child scientific conversations amanda s. haber1, hannah puttre2, maliki e. ghossainy3, kathleen h. corriveau4 abstract: during the preschool years, children’s question-explanation exchanges with teachers serve as a powerful mechanism for their early stem knowledge acquisition. utilizing naturalistic longitudinal classroom data, we examined how such conversations in an inquiry-based preschool classroom change during an extended scientific inquiry unit. we were particularly interested in information-seeking questions (causal, e.g. “how will you construct a pathway?”; fact-based, e.g., “where’s the marble?”). videos (n = 18; 14 hours) were collected during a three-week inquiry unit on forces and motion and transcribed in clan-childes software at the utterance level. utterances were coded for delivery (question vs. statement) and content (e.g., fact-based, causal). although teachers ask more questions than children, we found a significant increase in information-seeking questions during weeks 2 and 3. we explored the content of information-seeking questions and found that the majority of these questions were asked by teachers, and focused on facts. however, the timing of fact-based and causal questions varied. whereas more causal questions occurred in earlier weeks, more fact-based questions were asked towards the end of the inquiry. these findings provide insight into how children’s and teacher’s questions develop during an inquiry, informing our understanding of early science learning. even in an inquiry-learning environment, teachers guide interactions, asking questions to support children’s learning. children’s information-seeking questions increase during certain weeks, suggesting that providing opportunities to ask questions may allow children to be more active in constructing knowledge. such findings are important for considering how science questions are naturally embedded in an inquirybased learning classroom. article history received: 30 july 2021 accepted: 03 december 2021 keywords teacher-child conversations; questions; explanations; stem; inquiry-based learning introduction the important thing is to never stop questioning.” – albert einstein from an early age, children construct scientific knowledge through making observations, carrying out investigations, and exploring the world around them. for example, a preschooler experimenting with toys and food in a booster seat might wonder, “why do some objects fall faster than others to the ground?” additionally, a preschooler playing with blocks, ramps, and pathways might wonder, “why do some objects travel farther down the pathway?” through asking questions and manipulating materials in their environment, preschoolers begin to develop a basic understanding of scientific concepts and causal mechanisms, which they continue to shape and refine during formal schooling (bonawitz et al., 2011; legare et al., 2010; legare & lombrozo 2014). although children can acquire scientific information through first-hand exploration, children’s social contexts, including their formal learning environments at school, impact their early learning, interest, _____________ 1 boston university, doctoral student, wheelock college of education and human development, boston, united states, email: haber317@bu.edu, orcid: https://orcid.org/00000001-9578-3826 2 boston university, doctoral student, wheelock college of education and human development, boston, united states, email: hputtre@bu.edu, orcid: https://orcid.org/00000002-8366-3170 3 boston university, senior research scientist, wheelock college of education and human development, boston, united states, email: malikig@bu.edu, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4644-215x 4 boston university, professor, wheelock college of education and human development, boston, united states, email: kcorriv@bu.edu, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-00026354-1141 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202123117 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ http://haber317@bu.edu https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9578-3826 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9578-3826 mailto:hputtre@bu.edu https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8366-3170 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8366-3170 mailto:malikig@bu.edu https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4644-215x http://kcorriv@bu.edu https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6354-1141 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6354-1141 “how will you construct a pathway system?”: microanalysis… 339 and engagement in stem (science, technology, engineering mathematics) activities. in 2019, congress passed the building blocks of stem act, which explicitly encourages research aimed at enhancing preschool and elementary stem education, with a focus on the role of teachers and parents. in daily activities such as bookreading and scientific conversations, children often learn through question-explanation exchanges with adults (e.g., butler et al., 2020; harris et al., 2018; kurkul & corriveau, 2018; ronfard et al., 2018). although preschoolers increasingly ask about 76 information-seeking questions per hour (chouinard, 2007), when children enter k-12 schooling, the number of questions they ask significantly declines, indicating that the preschool years may be critical for optimizing question-explanation exchanges in science learning (engel, 2011; tizard & hughes, 1984). yet, little research has investigated how child-teacher scientific question-explanation exchanges shape preschoolers’ stem learning prior to formal schooling (e.g., skalstad & munkebye, 2021). therefore, through naturalistic classroom data and language level analyses, the primary aim of this study was to explore how the delivery (questions or statements) and content of teacher-child conversations in an inquirybased preschool classroom emerges and changes during an extended scientific inquiry unit on forces and motion. we define inquiry-based learning as children actively constructing knowledge through asking questions, experimenting, evaluating evidence, and sharing information with others (anderson, 2002; edson, 2013; haber et al., 2019). before turning to the current study, we highlight prior work on how question-explanation exchanges and inquiry-based learning foster children’s early science learning. question-explanation exchanges foster children’s early stem learning according to helping students make sense of the world using next generation and engineering practices, “making sense of the world beings with questions that identify what needs to be explained about the phenomena” (reiser et al., 2017, p. 88). from an early age, children use question-explanation exchanges with adults to acquire knowledge about the world around them, especially in the science domain (butler et al., 2020; chouinard, 2007; frazier et al., 2009; hickling & wellman, 2001; kurkul & corriveau, 2018; legare et al., 2017; ruggeri & lombrozo, 2015; tizard & hughes, 1984). according to social interactionist theories of development and learning, such conversations with more knowledgeable others, such as teachers, scaffold children’s understanding of scientific concepts during the preschool years (e.g., leech et al., 2020; vygotsky, 1978). research utilizing naturalistic or semi-structured parent-child conversations (e.g., callanan & oakes, 1992; chouinard, 2007; greif et al., 2006) as well as diary methodologies (e.g., callanan & jipson, 2001; callanan & oakes, 1992) suggests that preschoolers (aged 3-5) ask primarily information-seeking (fact-based or causal) questions about a variety of topics including biological (e.g., “why do plants need sunlight to grow?”), natural (“e.g., “why does it rain?”) and physical (e.g., “how are rainbows made?”) scientific phenomena (frazier et al., 2009; 2016; hickling & wellman, 2001; kurkul & corriveau, 2018; see ronfard et al., 2018 for review; saçkes et al., 2010; saçkes et al., 2016). by five years of age, children can construct and express questions that are aimed at obtaining specific information about a topic or solving a problem (legare et al., 2013; mills et al., 2010, 2011; ruggeri & lombrozo, 2015). whereas children ask a similar number of fact-based (“what,” “when,” “who”; e.g., “where is the ramp?”) questions throughout the preschool years, by four years of age, children shift to asking more causal questions (“why”, “how”; e.g., “why does the marble fall off the ramp?), which are aimed at acquiring explanations about scientific concepts or mechanisms underlying causal processes (chouinard, 2007; leech et al., 2020). further, research demonstrates that even three-year-olds ask their parents causal questions (bova & arcidiacono, 2013; callanan & oakes, 1992) and regardless of socioeconomic status (ses), preschoolers from families identifying as midand low-ses seem to direct a similar proportion of factbased and causal questions to parents (kurkul & corriveau, 2018) and teachers (kurkul et al., 2022). although children’s fact-based questions can often be answered with a one-word response, children’s causal questions require more sophisticated explanations from parents, teachers, and other learning partners, which in turn, have the potential to foster children’s early knowledge acquisition (benjamin et al., 2010; callanan et al., 1995; jipson et al., 2016; kurkul et al., 2021; lombrozo et al., 2018). a great deal of research has focused on how question-explanation exchanges in informal amanda s. haber et al. 340 environments, such as the home setting or museum exhibits, shape children’s science learning. in response to children’s explanatory questions, parents scaffold science learning by providing causal explanations, helping children to test predictions, carry out experiments, and activate their prior knowledge. these dyadic exchanges support children in revising their beliefs about the world around them (callanan et al., 2020; crowley, callanan, jipson et al., 2001, crowley, callanan, tenenbaum et al., 2001; frazier et al., 2016; gutwill & allen, 2010; haden, 2010; haden et al., 2014; jant et al., 2014; kurkul et al., 2021; leech et al., 2020; mills et al., 2017). for example, fender and crowley (2007) found that when children (aged 3-8) heard explanations from parents during a science activity, they were more likely to acquire a conceptual as opposed to a procedural understanding of the task in contrast to children who did not hear explanations. similarly, willard et al. (2019) found that when parents were told to provide explanations to their children (aged 4-6) when interacting at a gears exhibit, children spent more time investigating with and talking about gears compared to parents who were only told to explore with their child. in recent work, leech et al. (2020) and kurkul et al. (2021) found that when parents provided explanations that included more mechanistic talk (highlighted cause and effect), their preschoolers (aged 4-5) were more successful at transferring the scientific knowledge to a novel stem task. taken together, these findings highlight how such conversations serve as a powerful mechanism for children’s early science learning. in the current study, we were particularly interested in exploring how preschoolers’ informationseeking scientific questions emerge and change during an extended scientific inquiry unit in school. we argue that examining children’s information-seeking questions longitudinally is imperative in deepening our understanding of how question-explanation exchanges develop and change as children gain more knowledge about scientific topics and how this may impact children’s question-asking strategies. to date, prior work has looked at developmental changes in children’s question-asking behavior by examining longitudinal transcripts of everyday conversations from the child language data exchange system (childes) database (e.g., chouinard, 2007; frazier et al., 2009; hickling & wellman, 2001). however, this work has mainly focused on the process of question-asking. some diary studies of children’s questions in the home indicate that when children learn content that is challenging to understand, such as death, they often revisit the same topic over the course of several days or weeks (tizard & hughes, 1984). we were particularly interested in how such ‘passages of intellectual search’ develop in a classroom setting. to the best of our knowledge, little research has examined variability in teacher-child scientific conversations (question-explanation exchanges) and language during an extended inquiry in a preschool classroom. thus, in the current study, we focus on how such inquiry develops and changes over the course of monthlong unit in a preschool setting. unlike when children interact with parents at home, in the preschool classroom context, the teacher must meet the demands of many children at once as well as adhere to pedagogical goals, which in turn, may impact the quantity and quality of such teacher-child conversations (haber et al., 2021; sak, 2020). for example, tizard and hughes (1984) found that whereas 3-year-olds asked parents about 26 questions per hour at home, they only directed about 2 questions per hour to teachers at school. in contrast to the abundant literature on how parent-child conversations can shape children’s science learning during the preschool years, less work has focused on children’s science questions in the preschool classroom and how teachers use a variety of pedagogical moves (or strategies for responding to questions) to foster their natural curiosity and science learning (e.g., dean jr. & kuhn, 2007; golinkoff & hirsh-pasek, 2016; klahr & nigam, 2004). recent research indicates that there are several ways for teachers to respond to children’s questions in a classroom setting. first, teachers often respond to children’s scientific questions by providing an explanation (haber et al., 2021; kurkul et al., 2022). during the preschool years, high-quality explanations, in response to children’s information-seeking questions, may be a critical tool for supporting their science learning because they can provide information about abstract scientific processes that may be difficult to discern or observe on their own (frazier et al., 2009; legare & lombrozo, 2014). for example, although a child may observe that some objects move faster or slower down a ramp, they may not understand the underlying concepts of force and gravity. additionally, a child may notice that when a teacher flips a “how will you construct a pathway system?”: microanalysis… 341 switch, a fan turns on in the classroom, but they are unable to view the circuit mechanism that causes this electrical process (leech et al., 2020). second, teachers can also guide children’s stem learning by encouraging them to explore and construct their own explanation. for example, when a child asks, “why do you need to elevate the ramp?” a teacher may respond by turning the question back to the child (“why do you think you need to elevate the ramp?”), providing children with learning opportunities to construct their own explanation (e.g., skalstad & munkebye, 2021). indeed, in recent work kurkul et al. (2022) found that in response to children’s causal questions, teachers in mid-ses classrooms were likely to turn the question back to the child, potentially allowing them to hypothesize and consider their question more deeply. third, teachers may scaffold science learning by asking questions or clarifying children’s explanations that foster children’s curiosity (haber et al., 2021). finally, teachers may suggest an investigation (e.g., “let’s see if we can experiment with the height of the ramp”), highlighting a critical part of the scientific process. in sum, during the preschool years, teachers’ responses to children’s scientific questions create opportunities for children to develop scientific skills, which can also provide the foundation for children’s later engagement and interest in stem during formal schooling (windschitl et al., 2017). beyond simply responding to scientific children’s questions, teachers can use questions themselves as a pedagogical strategy to initiate inquiry and promote exploration in enhancing early stem learning. in asking questions, particularly causal questions, teachers are demonstrating an important skill for children and facilitating their own ability to generate complex questions and use them effectively to gain information (reiser et al., 2017). through observing teachers asking scientific questions and engaging in an investigation to answer those questions, young children are learning how to successfully engage in science learning. further, teacher-initiated questions can encourage children to generate their own explanations, which in turn, can impact their science learning (harlen, 2001; harlen & qualter, 2004; lee & kinzie, 2012). for example, prior work has shown that elementary-aged students better understand and remember explanations that they have had an active role in constructing (mcneill et al., 2017). thus, teacher-initiated question-explanation exchanges model and provide opportunities for children to generate scientific, causal explanations and plan out investigations, which are critical scientific practices that continue to develop during formal schooling (nrc, 2012). inquiry-based learning supports children’s early science knowledge the current study explores how teacher-child question-explanation exchanges in an inquiry-based preschool classroom change during an extended scientific inquiry unit. according to the national science education standards, “scientific inquiry refers to the diverse ways in which scientists study the natural world and propose explanations based on evidence derived from their work” (national research council [nrc], 1996, p. 23). as mentioned above, to date, most prior work on children’s science learning during the early years has focused on parent-child scientific conversations or their involvement in children’s early science learning (e.g., butler, 2020; kurkul et al., 2022; leech et al., 2020; saçkes, 2014; saçkes et al., 2019; willard et al., 2019), a specific school curriculum (peterson & french, 2008; saçkes et al., 2020), targeted scientific inquiry skills (lanphear and vandermaas-peeler, 2017; saçkes, 2013), science and math-based classroom activities (hobson et al., 2010; inan et al., 2010; saçkes et al., 2011; lanphear & vandermaas-peeler, 2017) or brief, short-term conversations about variety of topics in the classroom (kurkul et al., 2022). although prior research has demonstrated how inquiry-based learning and question-explanation exchanges with parents and teachers foster children’s early stem learning and engagement; such approaches do not allow us to explore changes and variability in teacher-child conversations over time during an extended inquiry unit that arises based on children’s interests in the preschool classroom. we collected naturalistic classroom data from a preschool that emphasizes inquiry-based learning. in this preschool, teachers typically develop an annual extended inquiry unit based on children’s interest in a particular topic (e.g., animals, cooking; edson, 2013). depending on children’s interests, an extended inquiry typically lasts anywhere from a few weeks to months, allowing us to explore what teacher-child scientific conversations look like longitudinally and how they shape children’s early stem learning. we had three main research questions. our first research question explored variability in the amanda s. haber et al. 342 frequency and type of questions that children and teachers ask during this extended inquiry. here, we were particularly interested in information-seeking questions (causal, e.g., “how will you construct a pathway?”; fact-based, e.g., “where’s the marble?”). we had two hypotheses. on the one hand, we speculated that because inquires often emerge based on children’s curiosity and deepened interest in a topic, they may ask more causal questions at the beginning of the inquiry. on the other hand, we hypothesized that as children engage in the inquiry, they acquire more knowledge about the topic and thus, they transition to asking more causal (rather than fact-based) questions at the end of the inquiry. our second question asked how the frequency and type of statements that children and teachers produce change throughout the inquiry. here, we were interested in causal explanations as well as language aimed at scaffolding the interaction and exploration. our main hypotheses centered around teachers utilizing causal statements more in the early weeks of the inquiry to provide children with the necessary information to successfully engage with the inquiry, and transitioning to more scaffolding language encouraging children to construct their own knowledge as the inquiry progressed. finally, our third research question asked about the interactional quality of the language, that is how teachers and children responded to and prompted each other throughout the inquiry. here, we were primarily focused on causal, fact-based, and scaffolding language and how these types of language interactions emerged and developed during the inquiry. in line with prior work (e.g., chandler-campbell et al., 2020), we predicted that causal language would prompt greater scientific content for teachers and children, whereas fact-based and scaffolding language would likely lead to more fact-based responses. method sample the sample included eighteen videos (3 weeks; 9 days; 14 hours of video footage) from one mixedaged, preschool classroom (19 children ranged from 2.9to 5-years-old; 2 lead teachers; 2 directors) located in a northeastern city in the united states. the preschool is primarily composed of children from white, middle-class backgrounds. however, about 10% of students also attend the preschool through scholarships and as such there is some sociodemographic diversity, though exact demographic information is not available for the students and teachers. because this preschool is part of a teacher preparation program for preservice teachers, there are several microphones and cameras embedded in the ceiling of the classroom. the videos, which are typically used for pedagogical purposes, allowed us to record teacher-child naturalistic conversations during the scientific inquiry. the study was approved by the institutional review board at boston university. to ensure confidentiality and anonymity of the research participants, all data are kept in a secure format. in addition, we also conducted an interview with the lead teachers, who provided information about the development of the inquiry. in consultation and collaboration with the lead teachers and directors of this preschool, we videotaped teachers and small groups of children in april 2019 about three times per week for the duration of the inquiry, which lasted about three weeks. this extended inquiry unit emerged based on children’s interests in forces and objects in motion. through our partnership with the preschool, we were able to capture and videotape the one-month inquiry as soon as children started asking questions about and experimenting with pathways and ramps. according to helping students make sense of the world using next generation and engineering practices, “decisions on what to investigate and how to investigate should be motivated by questions arising from students’ current explanations of phenomena and shaped in part by new science ideas that have been introduced” (windschitl et al., 2017, p. 139). in designing this inquiry, teachers first observed how children were experimenting with wooden channels and objects in the block area, and then constructed central questions (e.g., “how far can you make your object travel?”), challenges (e.g., “construct a pathway system with 5 wooden channels”), activities, and assessment strategies that were aimed at children understanding concepts related to forces and the movement of objects on pathways and ramps. given the topic of this extended inquiry, the videos focused on the block area of the classroom and brief conversations during morning meeting time that discussed the inquiry. “how will you construct a pathway system?”: microanalysis… 343 transcription and coding in this study, we focused on ‘passages of intellectual search’ – children’s question-explanation exchanges focusing on a single topic over time – in a preschool classroom (tizard & hughes, 1984). we aimed to explore how questions and statements in science inquiry might change over the course of an extended inquiry in a preschool classroom. consistent with prior work (e.g., chandler-campbell et al., 2020; frazier et al., 2016, 2019; kurkul and corriveau, 2018), the unit of analysis for our results is the utterance, not the teacher or child. all videos were transcribed at the level of the utterance by the first and second authors and a research assistant according to the conventions of child language data exchange system (childes) (macwhinney, 2000). after the video was transcribed, it was verified for the accuracy by an additional research assistant. our coding scheme was adapted from previous work (e.g., callanan et al., 2020; chandler-campbell et al., 2020; medina & sobel, 2020) and all utterances were coded for delivery (question, statement) and content (e.g., causal, fact-based, scaffolding; see table 1). delivery codes all teacher and child utterances were first coded for delivery (see table 1). we had two mutually exclusive categories: question (e.g., “what support should we start with?”; line 24; week 1, day 1; “how will you close that gap?”; line 9740; week 3, day 8) or statement (e.g., “you worked together to put the ramp back”; line 787; week 1, day 1; “let me try”; line 1890; week 1, day 2; “then it bounced off”; line 8311; week 3, day 7). table 1. coding scheme for data by delivery (questions, statements) and content (information-seeking questions/informational statements; noninformation-seeking questions and noninformational statements) coding scheme delivery and content explanation examples delivery question all utterances that were aimed at eliciting information. • what support should we start with? statement all utterances that were a declarative sentence. • you worked together to put the ramp back content information-seeking questions/informational statements causal this code included all utterances that mentioned the causal mechanisms or processes between scientific facts. • why is everything getting stuck? • why is it falling off there? fact-based all utterances were coded as factbased/procedural that narrated steps to achieve a goal during the scientific activity or narrated actions, rather than explaining a scientific mechanism or process. • what happened to the marble? • you created a design of the pathway system. • i am going to put five there. noninformation-seeking questions/noninformational statements attention all utterances that were aimed at seeking one’s attention by initiating an action or calling other participants. • are you ready? • see? • alex? clarification all utterances that were aimed at clarifying something that had been said received this code. • what? • what do you mean? confirmation all utterances that consisted or any low-effort utterances in response to preceding utterances. • yes • no scaffolding all utterances that included directing and scaffolding questions or • what do you think? amanda s. haber et al. 344 statements aimed at telling someone what to do or suggesting a next step received this code. this included pedagogical moves such as turning the question back to the child. • let’s see where it lands. reinforcing all utterances aimed at reinforcing behavior or repeated the prior statements. • that’s good • cool other we coded for predictions, analogies, and references to the challenge of the day (central questions/goals teachers developed on days of the inquiry to guide children’s exploration). because these codes individually appeared less than 1.3% of the time in the overall data, we have collapsed them together into an other code. • do you think the small marble will roll faster or slower down the wooden channel? • this is like a tricycle. irrelevant any utterances that were either not relevant to the inquiry or utterances where the audio from the video recording was uninterpretable. • there is space for you. • i want to play in a house. content codes after delivery, all utterances were coded for content (chandler-campbell et al., 2020). we had two main categories for content: information-seeking questions/informational statements (e.g., causal, factbased/procedural; chouinard et al., 2007; kurkul & corriveau; 2018) and noninformation-seeking questions/noninformational statements (e.g., scaffolding, confirmation, clarification, all remaining codes). within the two categories, all content codes are mutually exclusive (see table 1). coding scheme for information-seeking questions/informational statements. utterances coded as information-seeking/informational subcategories included causal or fact-based/procedural talk. causal. this code included all utterances (questions and statements) that mentioned the causal mechanism or processes between scientific facts. for example, the teacher might ask, “why is everything getting stuck?” (line 6995; week 2, day 6) or “why is [the marble] stopping over there?” (line 8100; week 3, day 7), or “why is it falling off there?” (line 8994; week 3, day 8). additionally, when asked why the marble is stopping, a child might respond with, “there is a crack in [the pathway]” (line 404; week 1, day 1). fact-based/procedural. all utterances (questions and statements) were coded as factbased/procedural that narrated steps to achieve a goal during the scientific activity or narrated actions, rather than explaining a scientific mechanism or process (e.g., chandler-campbell et al., 2020). for example, a teacher might ask, “what happened to the marble?” (line 8076; week 3, day 7) or a child pointing to an elevated pathway might ask, “what is that?” (line 5335; week 2, day 5). additionally, a teacher might say to the child, “you created a design of the pathway system!” (line 2058; week 1, day 2) or a child adding wooden channels to the pathway might say, “i am going to put five there” (line 5815; week 2, day 5). coding scheme for noninformation-seeking questions and noninformational statements. utterances coded as noninformation-seeking/noninformational subcategories included scaffolding, attention, clarification, reinforcing, and confirmation talk. scaffolding an action. all utterances that included directing and scaffolding questions or statements aimed at telling someone what to do or suggesting a next step received this code. this included pedagogical moves such as turning the question back to the child (e.g., “what do you think?”) or utterances that scaffolding behavior (e.g., “let’s see where that lands”). for example, a teacher might ask, “what are your ideas about this?” (line 6303; week 2, day 5) or pointing to the pathway system, a teacher might say, “i wonder if you can draw a picture of this” (line 8387; week 3, day 7). additionally, a child might say, “let’s “how will you construct a pathway system?”: microanalysis… 345 see what the obstacle is going to do” (line 3998; week 1, day 3). attention. all utterances that were aimed at seeking one’s attention by initiating an action (e.g., “are you ready?” or “see?”) or calling other participants (e.g., “alex!”) received an attention code. clarification. all utterances that were aimed at clarifying something that had been said received this code (e.g., “what?” “this way?”). for example, a teacher might say, “what do you mean?” (line 6089; week 2, day 5). reinforcing. all utterances aimed at reinforcing behavior (e.g., “that’s good”, “cool”) or repeating the previous statements received a reinforcing code. confirmation/negation. all utterances that consisted or any low-effort utterances in response to preceding utterances (e.g., “yes” or “no”) received this code. other. we also coded for predictions, analogies, and references to the challenge/question of the day (these were central questions or goals the teachers developed on given days of the inquiry to guide children’s exploration). because these codes individually appeared less than 1.3% of the time in the overall data, we have collapsed them together into an other code. irrelevant. any utterances that were either not relevant to the scientific inquiry or any utterances where the audio from the video recording was uninterpretable received this code. reliability the first and second authors independently coded the transcripts. interrater reliability was established using a randomly selected sample of 22.22% of the transcripts. reliability for delivery codes was 98% (cohen’s kappa = .95) and for content codes was 81% (cohen’s kappa = .76). any discrepancies in coding were resolved through discussion. results analysis plan we employed language level analyses to investigate variability in how teacher-child scientific conversations (question-explanation exchanges) might change over the course of an extended inquiry on forces and motion, which in turn, has the potential to impact children’s science learning during the preschool years. we first report the descriptive data for the inquiry, which includes the total percentages of overall talk for the entire inquiry by speaker (teacher, child), delivery, and content. second, we report our longitudinal analyses exploring potential variability in the frequency and type of questions and statements by speaker and week during the inquiry. finally, we report analyses examining the interactional quality of the language or how the type of replies given in response to information-seeking language and scaffolding language changes during the inquiry (weeks 1, 2 & 3) and by speaker (child, teacher). descriptive data table 2 displays the percentages of overall talk by speaker (teacher, child), delivery (questions, statements) and content (e.g., causal, scaffolding,). overall, teachers and children produced a total of 11,476 utterances, with 49.67% total utterances from children (n = 5,700) and 50.33% from teachers (n = 5,776), χ2 (1) = 0.5, p > 0.05. amanda s. haber et al. 346 table 2. percentages of overall talk (11,476 utterances) by speaker (child, teacher), delivery (questions, statements) and content speaker delivery and content child teacher questions information-seeking* causal% 11.84 23.2 fact-based % 88.16 76.8 noninformation-seeking* attention % 12.45 3.54 clarification % 21.13 45.89 confirmation % 1.13 0.16 scaffolding % 10.57 17.71 reinforcing % 8.68 1.45 other % 0.38 2.42 irrelevant % 45.66 28.82 statements informational** causal % 1.87 0.37 fact-based % 98.13 99.63 noninformational** attention % 7.68 7.77 clarification % 0.06 0.31 confirmation % 13.15 9.6 scaffolding % 13.67 28.37 reinforcing % 11.76 15.6 other % 0.46 4.67 irrelevant % 53.21 33.69 *note. information-seeking questions (causal and fact-based) were mutually exclusive. thus, total information-seeking questions add up to 100% for each speaker. similarly, all noninformation-seeking question codes were mutually exclusive and thus, all noninformation-seeking question codes add up to 100% for each speaker. **note. informational statements (causal and fact-based) were mutually exclusive and add up to 100% for each speaker. similarly, noninformational statement codes were mutually exclusive and add up to 100% for each speaker. delivery we first coded all utterances in two mutually exclusive delivery categories: statements and questions. for delivery, we found that 18.14% (n = 2,082) of utterances were questions (72% from teachers and 28% from children) and 81.86 % (n = 9,394) of utterances were statements (45% from teachers and 54% from children). “how will you construct a pathway system?”: microanalysis… 347 content next, we coded the content of each utterance, with seven mutually exclusive codes: attention-seeking, clarification, confirmation, scaffolding, reinforcing, other and irrelevant. questions. questions were either coded as information-seeking questions (causal or fact-based; 57.44% of total questions) or noninformation-seeking questions (all remaining questions; 42.55% of total questions). for information-seeking questions, 20.15% were causal (n = 241) and 79.85% (n = 955) were fact-based. more specifically, we found that for teachers’ information-seeking questions, 23.2% (n = 203) were causal and 76.8% (n = 672) were fact-based. for children’s information-seeking questions, 11.84% (n = 38) were causal and 88.16% were fact-based (n = 283). for noninformation-seeking questions, teachers and children asked primarily scaffolding, attentionseeking and clarification questions. more specifically, for teachers’ noninformation-seeking questions, 45.89% (n = 285) were clarification, 17.7% (n = 110) and were scaffolding, and 3.54% (n = 22) attention-seeking questions. for children, 21% (n = 56) were clarification, 12.45% (n = 338) were attention-seeking and 10.56% (n = 28) were scaffolding noninformation-seeking questions. statements. consistent with the questions, statements were either coded as informational statements (causal or fact-based; 31.99% of total statements) or noninformational statements (all remaining questions; 68% of total statements). for informational statements, we found that overall, 1.2% were causal (n = 36) and 98.8% (n = 2,970) were fact-based. more specifically, we found that for teachers’ informational statements, 0.37% (n = 5) were causal and 99.63% (n = 1,339) were fact-based. for children’s informational statements, 1.87% (n = 31) were causal and 98.13% (n = 1,631) were fact-based. for noninformational statements, we found that teachers and children produced primarily scaffolding, reinforcing, confirmation and attention-seeking statements. specifically, we found that for teachers noninformational statements (excluding irrelevant language) were mostly scaffolding 28.37 % (n = 833), reinforcing 15.6% (n = 458), confirmation 9.6% (n = 282) and attention 7.77% (n = 228) statements. similarly, children (excluding irrelevant language), produced primarily scaffolding (13.67 %; n = 472), confirmation (13.15%; n = 282). reinforcing (11.76%; n = 406) and attention 7.68% (n = 265) noninformational statements. longitudinal analyses table 3 displays the percentages of overall talk (for codes above 5% and excluding irrelevant language) for each speaker (child, teacher) by week (weeks 1, 2 and 3), day (days 1-9), delivery (questions, statements) and content (e.g., causal, scaffolding) in the block area of the classroom. the remaining analyses focus on categories above 5% (excluding the irrelevant code). we first turn to longitudinal analyses on question-asking behavior during the inquiry, followed by changes in teachers’ and children’s statements. table 3. percentages of talk for each speaker (child, teacher) by week (weeks 1, 2 and 3), day (days 1-9), delivery (questions, statements) and content week and day delivery and content speaker week 1 week 2 week 3 day 1 day 2 day 3 day 4 day 5 day 6 day 7 day 8 day 9 questions information seeking* causal% child 3.8 0.0 2.2 0.3 0.6 1.9 0.3 1.3 0.9 teacher 3.5 1.8 4.1 2.1 2.6 4.7 1.7 1.4 0.8 fact-based/ % child 10.4 5.0 9.8 4.1 12.6 15.5 4.1 9.5 17.7 teacher 6.4 6.3 11.5 7.4 5.8 10.2 9.8 12.3 7.6 noninformation seeking* attention % child 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.0 0.0 teacher 0.7 0.5 1.2 0.5 0.2 0.2 1.0 0.5 0.2 clarification % child 8.6 4.8 6.7 2.9 6.7 6.7 3.8 4.8 5.7 teacher 11.6 5.2 8.4 8.1 5.4 9.1 5.9 7.4 5.9 scaffolding % child 3.8 8.6 2.9 0.0 8.6 2.9 0.0 0.0 0.0 amanda s. haber et al. 348 teacher 3.2 3.5 8.4 3.0 2.2 0.5 1.5 1.0 2.2 reinforcing % child 0.0 1.9 1.9 0.0 6.7 0.0 1.0 3.8 6.7 teacher 0.0 1.0 1.9 1.9 1.0 1.9 1.0 0.0 0.0 statements informational** causal % child 0.3 0.2 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.2 0.1 0.3 0.1 teacher 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.0 fact-based/ % child 12.7 9.7 11.5 8.1 7.6 11.9 9.4 11.0 16.2 teacher 11.0 16.2 10.1 9.3 9.3 8.5 10.7 14.4 10.0 noninformational** attention % child 2.9 1.8 1.5 1.7 2.0 1.5 0.8 1.7 2.7 teacher 1.4 1.9 1.8 1.1 0.7 0.4 0.9 1.7 2.3 clarification % child 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 teacher 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.0 confirmation % child 5.5 2.8 2.6 2.0 2.3 3.7 2.5 2.7 4.0 teacher 1.4 0.8 2.6 1.4 1.4 2.4 1.3 2.5 2.1 scaffolding % child 4.2 3.9 2.9 2.6 0.6 7.1 1.8 3.4 3.2 teacher 4.9 6.5 5.3 5.5 2.6 5.5 2.7 8.9 4.5 reinforcing % child 3.9 2.8 1.3 3.0 1.7 3.0 3.7 3.4 2.5 teacher 2.2 2.6 4.3 2.5 1.7 3.9 3.0 2.1 2.7 *note. information-seeking questions (causal and fact-based) were mutually exclusive. thus, the total information-seeking questions add up to 100% for each speaker across all 9 days. similarly, all noninformation-seeking question codes were mutually exclusive and thus, all noninformation-seeking question codes add up to 100% for each speaker across all 9 days. **note. informational statements (causal and fact-based) were mutually exclusive and add up to 100% for each speaker across all 9 days. similarly, noninformational statement codes were mutually exclusive and add up to 100% for each speaker across all 9 days. questions overall, the number of questions significantly dependent on the day and speaker, χ2 (8) = 76.99, p < 0.01. below, we explore changes in information-seeking and non-information seeking questions separately. we aimed to examine changes in questions by day (days 1-9) during the inquiry. however, for some codes, we did not have enough power to examine differences by day (due to low frequencies) and in those cases, as we note below, we analyzed data at the week level only (combining days 1-3 for week 1, days 4-6 for week 2, and days 7-9 for week 3). information-seeking questions. the number of information-seeking questions asked change significantly depending on the day and speaker, χ2 (8) = 57.85, p < 0.01. children’s information-seeking questions. to explore how the number of children’s informationseeking questions change by day, we conducted a poisson regression, finding that children’s informationseeking questions significantly increased during weeks 2 (day 4 to day 5; β = 1.10, p < .01) and 3 (day 7 to day 8; β = .89, p < .01; day 8 to day 9, β = .55, p < .05; see table 3). moreover, the timing of fact-based and causal questions for children varied. follow up chi-squared analyses revealed that children asked more causal questions in earlier weeks (χ2 (2) = 6.17, p < 0.05), with over 78% of them occurring in weeks 1 and 2. note that due to low frequencies for the causal questions code, we analyzed causal questions by weeks 13 and not individual days 1-9. no significant changes in fact-based questions were observed across weeks (see figure 1). “how will you construct a pathway system?”: microanalysis… 349 figure 1. frequency of information-seeking (causal and fact-based) questions by speaker and week during the extended inquiry. teachers’ information-seeking questions. we also explored how teachers’ information-seeking questions change by day through a poisson regression, finding that teachers’ information-seeking questions significantly increased during week 1 (day 2 to day 3, β = .66, p < 0.01), and week 2 (day 5 to day 6: β = .57, p < 0.01) and significantly decreased in week 3 (day 8 to day 9, β = -0.49, p < 0.01). follow up chisquared analyses revealed that teachers asked more causal questions in earlier weeks (χ2 (2) =22.89, p <0.01; see figure 1), with 82% of them occurring in weeks 1 and 2. in contrast, teachers asked more fact-based questions in the later weeks of the inquiry (χ2 (2) =7.74, p < 0.05), with 69% of them occurring in weeks 2 and 3. noninformation-seeking questions. next, we examined changes in noninformation-seeking questions during the extended inquiry by day and speaker. analyses indicate that the number of noninformationseeking questions asked change significantly depending on the day and speaker (χ2 (8) = 32.01, p< 0.01). children’s noninformation-seeking questions. a poisson regression indicated that children’s noninformation seeking questions did not change during week 1 or week 2, but did increase in week 3 (day 7 to 8, β =1.04, p < 0.01; see table 3). for scaffolding questions, there were no significant changes between week 1 and week 2 (note that scaffolding questions were only observed on days 1,2,3,5, & 6). moreover, there were no significant changes in clarification or reinforcing questions in weeks 1, 2 or 3. as illustrated in figure 2, follow up chi-squared analyses revealed that children asked more attention-seeking questions in week 3 (χ2 (2) = 8.91, p < 0.05) compared to weeks 1 and 2. note that due to low frequencies for the attentionseeking code, we analyzed such questions by weeks 1-3 and not individual days 1-9. amanda s. haber et al. 350 figure 2. frequency of noninformation-seeking (attention, clarification, scaffolding and reinforcing) questions by speaker and week during the extended inquiry. teachers’ noninformation-seeking questions. the results of a poisson regression indicate that teacher’s noninformation-seeking questions changed in week 1 (day 2 to 3, β = 0.57, p < 0.01) and week 2 (decreased from day 4 to 5, β = -0.61, p <0.01 and increased from day 5 to day 6, β = 0.51, p < 0.01), but did not change during week 3 (see table 3). specifically, follow up chi-squared analyses revealed that teachers asked more scaffolding questions in week 1 (χ2 (2) = 31.30, p < 0.001; see figure 2) in contrast to week 2 and week 3. there were no changes in teacher’s clarification or attention-seeking questions in weeks 1, 2 or 3. finally, teachers asked no more than 5 reinforcing questions in any of the three weeks, so analyses were not appropriate. in sum, for information-seeking questions, most of children’s and teachers’ causal questions occurred in the earlier weeks of the inquiry (weeks 1 and 2), whereas for teachers, more fact-based questions occurred in the second half of the inquiry. for noninformation-seeking questions, children’s attention-seeking questions appeared to increase by week 3, whereas teachers asked more scaffolding questions during the beginning of the inquiry. statements overall, the number of statements significantly dependent on the day and speaker, χ2 (8) = 140.25, p < 0.01. below, we explore changes in informational and noninformational statements separately. informational statements. we first explored changes by day and speaker in informational statements during the inquiry. analyses indicate that the number of informational statements asked changed significantly by day and speaker (χ2 (8) = 62.21, p < 0.01). children’s informational statements. the results of a poisson regression indicate that children’s informational statements changed in week 1 (decreased from day 1 to day 2, β = -0.27, p < 0.01) and week 2 (day 5 to day 6, β = 0.48, p< 0.01) and week 3 (day 8 to day 9, β = 0.37, p < 0.01; see table 3). specifically, children produced 14 causal statements in week 1, 8 in week 2, and 9 in week 3 and thus, no significant “how will you construct a pathway system?”: microanalysis… 351 changes were observed across the inquiry unit. however, as illustrated in figure 3, children’s fact-based statements changed during week 1 (decrease from day 1 to day 2, β = -.26, p < 0.05), week 2 (day 5 to day 6, β = .46, p < 0.001) and week 3 (day 8 to 9, β = .39, p < 0.001). figure 3. frequency of informational (causal and fact-based) statements by speaker and week during the extended inquiry. teachers’ informational statements. the results of a poisson regression indicate that teachers’ informational statements, changed in week 1 (day 1 to 2, β = .39, p < 0.05 and decreased day 2 to 3, β = -.46, p < 0.05) and week 3 (day 7 to 8, β = .29, p < 0.05 and decreased from day 8 to 9, β = -.36, p < 0.05; see table 3). more specifically, teachers produced 3 causal statements in week 1, 1 in week 2, and 1 in week 3 and thus, no formal analyses were conducted on these frequencies. however, for teachers, fact-based statements changed in week 1 (day 1 to 2, β = .39, p < 0.001 and day 2 to day 3, β = .47, p < 0.001) and week 3 (day 7 to 8, β = .30, p < 0.05 and decreased from day 8 to day 9, β = -.36, p < 0.01; see table 3). noninformational statements. finally, we explored changes by day and speaker in noninformational statements during the inquiry. analyses indicate that the number of noninformational statements asked change significantly by day and speaker (χ2 (8) = 130.63, p < 0.01). children’s noninformational statements. the results of a poisson regression indicate that children’s noninformational statements changed in week 1 (decreased from day 1 to 2, β = -.77, p < 0.001), week 2 (decreased from day 4 to 5, β = .20, p < 0.05 and increased from day 5 to 6, β = .39, p < 0.001), week 3 (day 7 to 8, β =.49, p < 0.001; table 3). children produced more confirmation statements in week 1 than week 2 (χ2 (2) = 6.93, p < 0.05; figure 4). children produced a similar number of reinforcing statements, attention seeking statements, and scaffolding statements across the three weeks (no changes were observed). teachers’ noninformational statements. the results of a poisson regression indicate that teachers’ informational statements changed in week 1 (day 2 to 3, β = .30, p < 0.001), week 2 (decreased from day 4 to 5, β = -.46, p < 0.001 and increased from day 5 to 6, β = .37, p <0.001), and week 3 (from day 7 to 8, β = .75, p < 0.001 and decreased from day 8 to 9, β = -.39, p < 0.001; see table 3). whereas teachers produced the fewest attention statements in week 2 (χ2 (2) = 10.80, p < 0.01; see figure 4), teachers produced an equal number of scaffolding, clarification, confirmation, and reinforcing statements across the three weeks and thus, no significant differences in frequency were observed. amanda s. haber et al. 352 figure 4. frequency of noninformational (attention, clarification, confirmation, scaffolding and reinforcing) statements by speaker and week during the extended inquiry. in sum, causal informational statements were quite rare for teachers and children, so there were no significant changes, but the number of fact-based statements increased throughout the inquiry. children produced more scaffolding and clarification statements during the beginning of the inquiry, whereas teachers produced a similar number of such statements equally across the three weeks. interactional quality of the language: how did teachers and children respond to each other throughout the inquiry? finally, we explored specific interactional patterns in the type of responses by teachers and children over the course of the extended inquiry. accordingly, we identified all of the causal, fact-based and scaffolding utterances from our dataset and the subsequent utterance. for example, if a teacher or child asked a causal question, what was the type of response that followed and how did that change throughout the inquiry for each speaker? across the three types of language (causal, fact-based and scaffolding), we examined changes in delivery (e.g., after someone produced causal language, was the following response a question or statement?) content (e.g., was the language fact-based, scaffolding, confirmation language?) and speaker (child, teacher) by week (weeks 1, 2 and 3). table 4. examining responses causal statements during the inquiry causal statements model variable estimate (se) z p week 1 0.15 (0.18) 0.82 .41 week 3 -0.53 (0.22) -2.41 .016* attention statement -1.39 (0.26) -5.26 <.001*** causal statement -1.71 (0.30) -5.68 <.001*** “how will you construct a pathway system?”: microanalysis… 353 confirmation statement -1.28 (0.25) -5.07 <.001*** reinforcing statement -1.88 (0.32) -5.80 <.001*** scaffolding statement -1.28 (0.25) -5.07 <.001*** *p <.05. **p<.01 ***p<.001 fact-based language to explore the types of responses that follow fact-based language (questions and statements), we first explored the delivery of responses (whether fact-based language results in responses that were questions versus statements). collapsing across speaker, the results of the first poisson regression indicated that although statements were more frequent than questions overall, the difference between statements and questions was smaller on week 3 compared to week 1 (β = -0.25, p < 0.05), but increased again from week 2 to week 3 (β = 0.24, p < 0.05; see table 5). next, we examined the content of the statements given in response to fact-based inputs. the results of a second poisson regression revealed that fact-based statements (reference group) were more likely than any other kind of response (attention, causal, clarification confirmation, reinforcing, scaffolding) to follow fact-based language during the inquiry (see table 6). regardless of the content of the statement, there is a significant drop in responses from week 1 to 2 (β = -0.22, p < 0.001), but a significant increase from week 2 to 3 (β = 0.35, p < 0.001; table 6). finally, we examined potential speaker differences in responses to factbased language, finding that fact-based statements were the most frequent response to fact-based language, as compared to any other type of statement (attention, causal, clarification, confirmation, reinforcing, scaffolding; see supplemental material). regardless of the content of the statement, the frequency of teachers’ responses decreased from week 1 to 2 (β = -0.24, p < 0.01), but significantly increased from week 2 to 3 (β = 0.37, p < 0.05). similarly, for children, there was a significant decrease in responses from week 1 to 2 (β = -0.18, p < 0.05), but a significant increase from week 2 to 3 (β = 0.34, p < 0.01). table 5. exploring how the delivery of responses (questions vs. statements) following fact-based language changes during the inquiry delivery of responses following fact-based language model variable estimate (se) z p week 1 -0.02 (0.1) -0.244 0.81 week 3 0.12 (0.09) -2.41 .016* delivery code (statement) 1.1 (0.26) 0.08 <.001*** week 1 delivery code (statement) 0.25 (0.30) 0.11 .02* week 3 delivery code (statement) 0.24 (0.25) 0.10 .02* *p <.05. **p<.01 ***p<.001 table 6. examining responses to fact-based statements during the inquiry fact-based statements model variable estimate (se) z p week 1 0.22 (0.05) 4.11 <.001*** week 3 0.35 (0.05) 6.8 <.001*** attention statement -2.05 (0.09) -23.27 <.001*** amanda s. haber et al. 354 causal statement -4.15 (0.28) -14.85 <.001*** clarification statement -5.10 (0.45) -11.38 <.001*** confirmation statement -1.29 (0.06) -20.17 <.001*** reinforcing statement -1.24 (0.06) -19.75 <.001*** scaffolding statement -1.05 (0.06) 17.98 <.001*** *p <.05 **p<.01 ***p<.001 scaffolding language finally, we explored potential variability in the types of responses following scaffolding (questions and statements). we first explored the delivery of responses (whether scaffolding language results in responses that were questions versus statements). collapsing across speaker, the results of a poisson regression revealed that statements were more frequent overall (β = 1.56, p < 0.01). furthermore, responses significantly decreased from weeks 1 to 2 (β = 0.23, p < 0.01). looking at the content of statements given in response to scaffolding inputs, the results of a poisson regression indicated that fact-based statements (reference group) were more likely than any other kind of response (attention, confirmation, reinforcing, scaffolding) to follow scaffolding language during the inquiry (see table 7). regardless of the content of statements, there was a significant decrease in responses from week 1 to 2 (β = -0.28, p < 0.001). finally, we examined potential differences in responses to fact-based language when the child or teacher was the speaker. teacher fact-based statements were the more frequent response to scaffolding language, as compared to any other type of statement (attention, causal, clarification, confirmation, reinforcing, scaffolding; see supplemental material). further, regardless of the content of the statement, there was a significant decrease in responses from week 1 to 2 (β = -0.43, p < 0.01) and a significant increase from week 2 to 3 (β = 0.33, p < .01). for children, scaffolding statements were more frequent than any attention, confirmation and reinforcing statements, but just as frequent as fact-based statements. no significant changes in response frequencies were found during the inquiry. table 7. examining responses to scaffolding statements during the inquiry scaffolding statements model variable estimate (se) z p week 1 .28 (0.08) 3.58 <.001*** week 3 .13 (0.08) 1.52 .13 attention statement -1.8 (0.14) -12.89 <.001*** confirmation statement -1.37 (0.12) 11.73 <.001*** reinforcing statement -1.08 (0.10) -10.34 <.001*** scaffolding statement -0.16 (0.08) -2.08 0.037* * p <.05. **p<.01 ***p<.001 conclusion and discussion we utilized naturalistic classroom data and language level analyses to investigate variability in how teacher-child scientific conversations (question-explanation exchanges) may change over the course of an extended inquiry on forces and motion. we reasoned that such ‘passages of intellectual search’ would, in turn, have the potential to impact children’s science learning during the preschool years. overall, our results indicate that teachers and children (50.3% vs. 49.7% of total talk) produced a similar number of utterances during the inquiry. however, as we describe in detail below, we found that the quantity and “how will you construct a pathway system?”: microanalysis… 355 content of children and teachers’ questions and statements (explanations) varied throughout the three weeks. we first focus on the implications from the findings of our three research questions before turning to general limitations and future directions. is there variability in children and teachers’ questions in an extended scientific inquiry? our first question explored how the frequency and content of questions that children and teachers ask change during this extended inquiry. overall, about 18% of utterances during the inquiry were questions, with almost 60% of them being information-seeking (causal and fact-based) questions. further, almost three-quarters of questions were initiated by teachers during the inquiry. recall that we had offered two hypotheses for how information-seeking questions might change during the inquiry. on the one hand, it seemed plausible that children might ask more causal questions at the beginning of the inquiry given that extended inquires often emerge based on children’s curiosity and deepened interest in a topic. on the other hand, it also seemed possible that as children engage in the inquiry, they acquire more knowledge about the topic and shift from asking more simple fact-based questions to more complex, casual questions as the inquiry unfolds. in support of our first hypothesis, we found that children and teachers asked a greater number of causal questions in the earlier weeks of the inquiry (weeks 1 and 2). further, whereas children asked a consistent number of fact-based questions during the inquiry, teachers asked more factbased questions in the later weeks (weeks 2 and 3). thus, it appears that during an extended scientific inquiry in the preschool classroom, causal questions are more present at the beginning of the inquiry, with fact-based questions following later to fill in additional information. these findings confirm and extend prior research (e.g., chouinard, 2007; kurkul & corriveau, 2018; kurkul et al., 2022) demonstrating that during the preschool years, children ask information-seeking, primarily fact-based questions to acquire information specifically in the science domain. we argue that children’s shift from initially causal questions early in the extended inquiry unit to more fact-based questions later in the unit reflect their natural curiosity about a topic and may signal to the teacher areas of confusion. here, children were particularly interested in understanding how different objects travel on ramps and pathways. as the inquiry progressed, children acquired more knowledge about the topic (through asking questions, exploring, and experimenting), and their initial causal question-asking behavior declined. thus, during the preschool years, it may be important for teachers to draw on children’s inherent curiosity by providing opportunities for children to ask these explanatory, causal questions at the beginning of the inquiry or when introducing a new science topic/area in the classroom. together, these findings advance our understanding of how children’s questions serve as a power tool for acquiring knowledge from others by demonstrating variability in question-asking behavior around causal mechanisms and processes. recall that teachers’ frequency of causal and fact-based questions also changed throughout the course of the inquiry. whereas children’s causal questions may reflect their own curiosity about the topic, we argue that teachers’ causal questions serve a different pedagogical purpose (osborne & reigh, 2020). approximately 25% of teachers’ information-seeking questions were causal, with the majority of them occurring during the first half of the inquiry. in support of prior work advocating for teachers using questions as a pedagogical tool to model science investigation (reiser et al., 2017), teachers’ causal questions at the beginning of the inquiry may prepare children to further engage on their own. further, just as turning a child’s question back can encourage them to learn from and generate their own explanations (e.g., skalstad & munkebye, 2021), asking causal questions to the children may have served a similar purpose in providing learning opportunities as the inquiry began, which becomes less necessary as children learn and their understanding of the central themes of the inquiry develop. moreover, although there was not a great deal of variability in teachers’ noninformation-seeking (scaffolding, clarifying, attention-seeking) questions, our analyses indicated that teachers seemed to ask more scaffolding questions at the beginning of the inquiry. we argue here that teachers might provide more support to children at the start of the inquiry to engage them in science learning through guiding them to ask questions, experiment, and explain their findings. however, as children become more involved amanda s. haber et al. 356 in the inquiry, children may take on a more active role in their own learning, relying less on teachers’ scaffolding questions to guide their learning. together, these findings shed light on how teachers’ questions during an extended scientific inquiry change in order to foster children’s science learning at different stages of the inquiry. further, even in an inquiry-based learning preschool classroom where children may be at the center of their own learning process (e.g., edson 2013), teachers are still taking an active role in supporting children’s learning, although this could change during formal schooling. this additionally highlights the iterative and collaborative process of science learning which has been revealed in recent work. how do children and teachers’ explanations and statements change and develop during an extended scientific inquiry? our second research question examined how the frequency and content of statements that children and teachers produce change throughout the inquiry, especially as it relates to causal explanations, and language aimed at scaffolding the interaction and exploration. our main hypotheses focused on teachers providing a greater number of causal explanations in the early weeks of the inquiry to provide children with the necessary information to successfully engage with the inquiry, and transitioning to more scaffolding language as they encourage children to construct their own knowledge as the inquiry progressed. we found that causal statements were quite rare, comprising approximately 2% of informational statements for children and only .37% of informational language for teachers, and did not significantly vary during the inquiry. these results are consistent with previous work (e.g., callanan & oakes, 1992; leech et al., 2020; rowe, 2012; tabors et al., 2001) demonstrating that explanatory talk is quite rare in everyday parent-child conversations, even when families are taught an inquiry-based intervention (e.g., chandler-campbell et al., 2020; gutwill & allen 2010). for example, callanan and oakes (1992) found that although children asked parents causal questions, they only provided such causal explanations about half of the time. although generating and constructing scientific explanations is a critical skill that children develop during formal schooling (nrc, 2012; next generation science standards [ngss], 2013), it appears that during the preschool years, such high-quality causal explanations are not as common. whereas causal statements did not vary throughout the inquiry, our results indicate that teachers’ fact-based statements increased over the course of the inquiry unit. fact-based statements may work to scaffold children’s early science learning through providing children with information that supports their own exploration and knowledge generation, such as where materials are or simple instructions that may further promote their ability to construct their own understanding of scientific topics. in short, teachers may be using use factbased statements to foster children’s autonomy in early science learning. during the inquiry, teachers produced a similar number of noninformational statements (e.g., clarification, confirmation, scaffolding, reinforcing) when engaging with children. why is there little variation in teachers’ noninformational language? although children are placed at the center of their own learning in an inquiry-based learning model, as they actively acquire information through asking questions and exploring, teachers still appear to play a critical role in guiding children’s exploration by encouraging them (reinforcing language), trying to unpack their ideas (clarifying language), and suggesting actions or next steps (scaffolding). because of the nature of the classroom context, we would expect to see teachers to provide a consistent level of support when interacting with children in the classroom, especially when they are inquiring about more complex scientific processes. as such, we would expect this reinforcing, clarifying, and scaffolding language to remain present at a stable level throughout the inquiry as they are continuously engaged in supporting children’s exploration and learning. this teacher-initiated guiding language can enrich children’s curiosity and even encourage them to ask additional questions (e.g., engel, 2011). how do teachers and children respond to and prompted each other during an inquiry? our third research question examined how teachers and children responded to and prompted each other during the inquiry, primarily focusing on causal, fact-based, and scaffolding language. in line with prior work (e.g., chandler-campbell et al., 2020) examining causal language in parent-child interactions, “how will you construct a pathway system?”: microanalysis… 357 we speculated that causal language would prompt greater scientific content for teachers and children, whereas fact-based and scaffolding language would likely lead to more fact-based responses. however, we found that in response to causal language, both teachers and children were likely to respond with factbased language. recall that causal explanations were quite rare during the inquiry, suggesting that factbased statements may be a strategic way to respond to causal questions; such statements can work to provide explanations and important information to help children understand causal mechanisms, even without specifically utilizing additional causal language. consistent with our hypothesis, children and teachers were more likely to respond to fact-based and scaffolding language with statements that included more fact-based talk. a similar pattern was found for teachers’ scaffolding statements: such statements also yielded fact-based language. responses utilizing fact-based language are most natural when prompted with scaffolding or additional fact-based talk, for example if a teacher were to ask a child what they thought about where a piece goes, a scaffolding question, a child would most likely respond with a fact-based statement such as, “i think it goes there.” limitations and future directions taken together, these findings provide insight into how children’s and teacher’s questions develop during an inquiry, informing our understanding of early science learning. however, there are several limitations of this work. first, although this preschool does include some children from lower-ses backgrounds, and families do represent a diverse range of racial and ethnic backgrounds (reflective of the local area), because the sample included teachers with higher levels of education and children were primarily from more mid-ses families, the results may not be generalizable to other settings. specifically, these children and teachers may be more attuned to the types of conversation patterns that were the focus of the current study. for example, kurkul et al. (2022) found that teachers in classrooms serving primarily mid-ses families were more likely than teachers in classrooms serving primarily low-ses families to respond to children’s causal questions by turning the question back. further, whereas children in mid-ses classrooms were likely to respond by generating their own explanations, children in low-ses classrooms often repeated their initial questions. thus, future research should explore variability in teacher-child extended inquiry conversations in preschools that serve children from lower-ses backgrounds. second, because this preschool emphasized inquiry-based learning during the preschool years, future work should extend such research to preschool classrooms that utilize other early childhood education philosophies or school curricula. to examine how teachers’ shape science learning during the early years, we chose to examine naturalistic teacher-child conversations in the classroom. however, this methodological, design choice did not allow us to directly assess children’s science learning through formal assessments or pre/posttest questions. we argue that by examining naturalistic classroom data, the findings from this study can inform future research that directly examines children’s learning outcomes or interventions designed to further enhance science talk in preschool classrooms. nevertheless, future research should directly examine potential relations between the types of classroom discourse and children’s knowledge acquisition. in our future work, we are interested in examining two research questions. first, by following a small group (approximately 5 children) throughout the inquiry, we aim to further investigate potential individual differences in such scientific conversations during the preschool years. second, we aim to explore how child characteristics (e.g., child gender) may contribute to variability in teacher-child conversations. for example, past research (crowley, callanan, tenenbaum et al., 2001; tenenbaum & leaper, 2003) indicated that parents are more likely to provide scientific explanations to boys than girls and in the classroom setting, some of our current findings (haber & corriveau, 2021) demonstrates that teachers are more likely to direct causal questions to boys than girls in the preschool classroom. the current research points us closer to addressing these other research questions by demonstrating that there is variability in children and teachers’ information-seeking questions during an extended inquiry in preschool. in sum, these results provide insight into the development of children’s and teacher’s questions and amanda s. haber et al. 358 explanations throughout an inquiry unit. even in an inquiry-learning environment that values teacherchildren co-construction of knowledge, teachers guide the interactions and ask questions to support children’s learning. our findings add to existing evidence that children’s conversations with teachers play a critical role in scaffolding children’s science learning during the preschool years. specifically, children ask more, causal, explanatory questions at the beginning of the inquiry, suggesting that providing opportunities to ask questions may allow children to be more active in constructing scientific knowledge and building the foundation for their later engagement in stem during formal schooling. taken together, our findings are important for considering how science questions are naturally embedded in an inquirybased learning preschool classroom and inform future research on the role of language in supporting children’s early science learning. declarations acknowledgements: we would like to thank nikita joshi for her help with transcribing and coding the data for this project. authors’ contributions: khc designed the study. ash and khc collected the data. ash and hp transcribed and coded the data. meg analyzed the data, created the graphs, and contributed to the results section. ash and hp wrote the manuscript. meg and khc provided feedback on manuscript drafts. all authors approved the final manuscript draft. competing interests: the authors declare that they have no competing interests. funding: the work was supported by the national science foundation to khc [grant #1652224]. references anderson, r. d. 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(reference group) were more likely than any other kind of response (attention, causal, confirmation, reinforcing, scaffolding) to follow causal language during the inquiry (see table 4). overall, trend observed for teachers (table 8) and children (table 9) was consistent, with fact-based statements being the more frequent response to causal language compared to any other type of statement (attention, causal, confirmation, reinforcing, scaffolding). table 8. examining responses to teachers’ causal statements during the inquiry causal statements model variable estimate (se) z p week 1 0.05 (0.21) 0.26 .8 week 3 -0.76 (0.26) -2.94 .003** attention statement -1.21 (0.28) -4.27 <.001*** causal statement -1.83 (0.47) -3.87 <.001*** confirmation statement -1.15 (0.28) -4.16 <.001*** reinforce statement -2.04 (0.40) -5.09 <.001*** scaffolding statement -1.22 (0.28) -4.27 <.001*** * p <.05. **p<.01 ***p<.001 table 9. examining responses to children’s causal statements during the inquiry causal statements model variable estimate (se) z p week 1 0.79 (0.42) 1.87 .06 week 2 0.20 (0.49) 0.41 .68 attention statement -1.94 (0.75) -5.26 .001*** causal statement -1.71 (0.30) -2.59 0.056 reinforce statement -1.50 (0.55) -2.72 .006** scaffolding statement -1.18 (0.56) -2.1 .036* * p <.05. **p<.01 ***p<.001 fact-based language the results of a poisson regression revealed that fact-based statements (reference group) were more likely than any other kind of response (attention, causal, clarification confirmation, reinforce, scaffolding) to follow fact-based language during the inquiry (table 6). the same trend was observed for teachers (table “how will you construct a pathway system?”: microanalysis… 363 10) and children (table 11), with fact-based statements being the more frequent response to fact-based language compared to any other type of statement (attention, causal, clarification, confirmation, reinforcing, scaffolding). table 10. examining responses to teachers’ fact-based statements during the inquiry fact-based statements model variable estimate (se) z p week 1 0.24 (0.08) 3.21 .001*** week 3 0.36 (0.07) 4.95 <.001*** attention statement -2.06 (0.12) -16.96 <.001*** causal statement -3.38 (0.38) -8.84 <.001*** confirmation statement -1.35 (0.09) -15.00 <.001*** reinforce statement -1.55 (0.1) -15.91 <.001*** scaffolding statement -1.19 (0.08) -14.04 <.001*** * p <.05 **p<.01 ***p<.001 table 11. examining responses to children’s fact-based statements during the inquiry fact-based statements model variable estimate (se) z p week 1 0.19 (0.08) 2.47 .01** week 3 0.35 (0.07) 4.78 <.001*** attention statement -2.03 (0.14) -15.94 <.001*** causal statement -4.16 (0.41) -10.12 <.001*** clarification statement -4.34 (0.45) -9.66 <.001*** confirmation statement -1.23 (0.09) -13.49 <.001*** reinforce statement -0.97 (0.08) -11.73 <.001*** scaffolding statement -0.92 (0.08) -11.30 <.001*** * p <.05 **p<.01 ***p<.001 scaffolding language looking at the content of statements given in response to scaffolding inputs, the results of a poisson regression indicated that fact-based statements (reference group) were more likely than any other kind of response (attention, confirmation, reinforce, scaffolding) to follow scaffolding language during the inquiry. the same trend was observed for teachers (table 12), with fact-based statements being the more frequent response to scaffolding language compared to any other type of statement (attention, causal, clarification, confirmation, reinforcing, scaffolding). whereas when the child was the initiator of the scaffolding input, the scaffolding statements were more frequent than any attention, confirmation and reinforcing statements, but just as frequent as fact-based statements (table 13). amanda s. haber et al. 364 table 12. examining responses to teachers’ scaffolding statements during the inquiry scaffolding statements model variable estimate (se) z p week 1 .43 (0.1) 4.21 <.001*** week 3 .33 (0.1) 3.17 .002* attention statement -1.82 (0.17) -10.94 <.001*** challenge statement -3.16 (0.31) -10.26 <.001*** confirmation statement -1.71 (0.16) -10.76 <.001*** reinforce statement -1.46 (0.14) -10.21 <.001*** scaffolding statement -0.24 (0.09) -2.65 0.008* * p <.05. **p<.01 ***p<.001 table 13. examining responses to teachers’ scaffolding statements during the inquiry scaffolding statements model variable estimate (se) z p week 1 .04 (0.13) 0.3 .70 week 3 -.23 (0.14) -1.72 .09 attention statement -1.77 (0.25) -6.96 <.001*** confirmation statement -0.85 (0.18) -4.82 <.001*** reinforce statement -.03 (0.14) -0.21 .84 scaffolding statement -0.52 (0.16) -3.27 0.001*** * p <.05. **p<.01 ***p<.001 “how will you construct a pathway system?”: microanalysis of teacher-child scientific conversations journal of childhood, education & society volume 3, issue 3, 2022, 293-307 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.202233200 research article ©2022 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. relationship between families and kindergartens in hungary in the 1950s yvetta kóger 1 abstract: partnership working and co-operation between parents and early education and care settings is a widely researched topic worldwide. however, little is known about how the relationship between families and kindergartens developed in the historically significant period of the 1950s in hungary, which marks the beginnings of socialism and a period of rapid expansion of early childhood education and care. this study aims to explore how the expectations of raising ‘socialist citizens’ was incorporated into educational and policy documents and other written resources relating to kindergarten and family education. purposive sampling selection identified 80 documents as data sources, which were subjected to qualitative content analysis. intra-frame coding was done by hand using a combined inductive and deductive approach. employing a constructivist theoretical lens, the analysis focused on both the manifest and latent content of the selected documents and resulted in seven main themes. the findings confirmed that the ideologically driven policy decisions not only influenced the relationship between families and kindergartens but also legitimised the efforts to build a socialist system of early education through organised collaboration and related propaganda work. this study is significant as it offers a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between kindergartens and families in the ‘50s and with that provides foundations for further analytical work of the socialist pedagogical past. article history received: 01 april 2022 accepted: 16 october 2022 keywords history of early childhood education; socialist pedagogy; kindergarten policy; kindergarten-family relationship introduction in the history of the soon-to-be 200-year-old hungarian kindergartens, expansion of early childhood education started in the 1950s. this was the time when political, economic, and social changes made more and more parents enrol their children in kindergartens (vág, 1993). the scope of this research is to assess whether the traditions related to the relationship between families and kindergartens in the ‘50s can be considered as the antecedent of early childhood education of today and whether the pedagogical past is still influencing attitudes in the present. one of the cornerstones of early childhood education is still the creation of the balance and collaboration between the two scenes of nurturing a child: the family and the kindergarten. the relationship between these two environments influence every family in hungary because of early childhood education being compulsory from the age of three as laid down in the act on national public education (2011). the fledgling socialist system of the ‘50s started to collectivise and institutionalise the care of preschool age children in order to exert influence on future generations and bring them up according to the then new values and norms (komlósi, 1977). this suggests that the communist leadership recognised that they could exert influence on the upbringing of ‘socialist citizens’ of the future through the family and the role kindergartens as an institution of early education and care fulfilled (molnár et al., 2015; szerepi et al., 2018). the focus of this study is on the nature of the relationship between families and kindergartens and the study aims to explore how the expectations of the socialist state was present in documents relating to _____________ 1 university of pécs, faculty of humanities,‘education and society’ doctoral school of education, pécs, hungary, e-mail: yvetta.koger@gmail.com orcid: https://orcid.org/00000001-8059-0749 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202233200 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:yvetta.koger@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8059-0749 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8059-0749 yvetta kóger 294 kindergartens (e.g. regulations), in other written sources (such as early child education schoolbooks, professional association of kindergarten pedagogues, publications for parents), specifically, to explore the role of families and kindergartens as reflected in kindergarten policies of the day. the sources this study focuses on have not yet been analysed by researchers of the history of hungarian kindergartens with the specific focus on the relationship between families and kindergartens. hence, existing knowledge of how kindergartens operated in the ‘50s can be further differentiated. background to the study writings on the pedagogy of the 1950s the second half of the 20th century is not ‘ancient history’ (koselleck, 2003). there is a generation whose experiences go back to the 1950s’ hungary. however, they are underrepresented compared to younger generations. for these newer generations, the inhomogeneous period of the country’s sovietisation, the stalinist dictatorship and socialism, when politics had a major influence on everyday life and culture, is history (szabolcs, 2006). in most countries of the world, interest in research exploring the immediate and recent past is avid and growing. fewer and fewer people have direct experience of this era (romsics, 2008, cited by kolosai, 2012). setting the time dimensions for this study was based on the analysis of events relating to kindergartens and prevailing concepts within kindergarten policies. the ‘50s cover the decade between 1948 and 1959, when kindergartens were placed under government control. earlier childhood pedagogical traditions were discontinued, and an early childhood education based on the soviet model was implemented (kövér, 1987). this was a centrally governed, comprehensive and co-ordinated system of early education and care, design to echo the dictatorial and command-driven socialism, characterised by rigid hierarchies, conformity and uniformity (silova et al., 2017). the 1959 end date was set by the significant milestone of the socialist kindergartens’ ‘heroic age’ as this was the year when early childhood pedagogy became part of tertiary training. work analysing the pedagogy of the ‘50s present varied interpretations of the past. on one hand this is due to the difference in the values, intentions and interpretation of past historians and pedagogy experts. on the other hand, this is due to the uncertainties in understanding the past (golnhofer, 2006). historical research of the recent past aptly demonstrates that the period in time that lasts until the present can be described by different coexisting histories and sometimes fundamentally different interpretations of the past (szabolcs, 2006). in the past decade or so, more and more researchers have tried to explore and describe this era and its the ‘socialist pedagogy’. examples of this are a series of the ‘library of socialist education’ which promoted the development of a pedagogy based on the soviet model (szabolcs & golnhofer, 2018) or the review of education policies which had an influence on lower primary teacher training (donáth, 2008). the authors’ analysis was based on the publicly available pedagogical and political discourses of the field. there were works of analysis that described the upbringing of children in the ‘50s including care and nurturing within kindergartens. there were pieces of writing that delved into the history of workplace kindergartens (aczél, 2012), which were regarded as politico-sociological benefits, especially within stateowned companies of the socialist era. the history of european social policy is also discussed in the anthology of ‘children, families, and states’ (hagemann et al., 2011). teaching and learning approaches were constrained by having to replicate the soviet model, whereby earlier traditions were replaced by forced its pedagogical concepts as analysed in a former kindergarten publication, ‘organised activities in the kindergarten’ (pálfi, 2010). the presence of the relationship between families and kindergartens in the discourse on pedagogy from the second half of the 20th century, an increased interest is noted in partnership working between parents and pedagogues, and the relationship between families and public education institutions (e.g. bedmar & palma, 2011; bersan, 2021; hryniewicz & luff, 2021; podráczky, 2012). the hungarian specificities on the subject ware covered by sándor komlósi (1981) and sándor füle (1989), the former focusing on nurturing within the family and the latter on the relationship between the two environments. relationship between families and kindergartens… 295 however, the publications of both authors concentrate on schools, and only touch on kindergartens. the various facets of the relationship between families and kindergartens also attracts analysis, specifically what influences parents when choosing a kindergarten. research conducted in this area suggests that human factors, such as the kindergarten pedagogue as a person and pedagogue’s loving, kind attitudes influence parental choice (kim & fram, 2009; rose & elicker, 2008; teszenyi & hevey, 2015; török, 2004). the role of loving relationships and how families and society look at early childhood education and the partnership between early childhood educators and parents have also been examined (see murray, et al., 2018; varga, 2020). in a seminal piece of writing, tamás kozma (1974) discusses research directions and possible approaches to examine the public relations of educational institutions, including their relationship with families, which he outlines as: • an educational theory and sociological approach whereby education is defined in a broader sense, as a social process in which different groups collaborate in the processes of socialisation, one of the most important groups being family and educational institutions. • a pedagogical approach found in educational theory coursebooks, widely known and accepted by pedagogues. in other words, nurturing takes place in different environments, e.g. family and kindergarten. collaboration between these environments is desired and is led and managed by the kindergarten. • an educational system management approach based on the general and local management of education and kindergarten system. the study presented in this paper is also based on the above approaches. it also considers it fundamental that one of the most important responsibilities families and public education institutions (including kindergartens) undertake is the integration of each new generation into society (háber & sas, 1980). a key tenet of the era under investigation is the nurturing of the new ‘type of socialist man’ who accepts and strengthens the structure of the socialist society (millei, 2011). the objective pursued by the 1950s’ kindergartens was to co-ordinate the educational work in the family as well as in the kindergarten in order to successfully bring up children. with this in mind, the influence of kindergarten policy was extended significantly: regulations at different levels aimed to establish a systemic unity in the relationship between the two environments (family and kindergarten) (komlósi, 1965). methodological background this sub-section discusses the methodology employed in this study, including the theoretical framework, the sample and the analysis of the data. the study adopted an educational history methodology (kéri, 1997, 2001), specifically an early educational history methodology, which explores the development of kindergartens as educational institutions in hungary (báthory & falus, 1997), and with this, setting its spatial dimensions. the focus is on its specificities and typical characteristics in the 1950s (temporal dimension), an era when political leadership claimed ownership of education both in the institutional and the private sector, which meant that the nurturing of young children both in kindergartens and within family was regarded as the prerogative of the state (kozma, 2012). in developing the historical synthesis, the objective was to construct historical realities of the relationship between families and socialist kindergartens along the constructivist epistemology, which recognises that there is more than one reality, hence individual realities also exist and they are constructed within a social context and time-bound (denicolo et al., 2016). working from this stance leads to a kind of subjective knowledge that is shared via language. the researcher is an active part of this process of subjective knowledge production by negotiating the multiple realities represented in the selected documentary sources (berger & luckmann, 1967; given, 2008; searle, 1995). these interpretations were based on self-experience and is now ready to be tried by the scientific community. yvetta kóger 296 educational history research is deductive and analytical as it analyses the experiences of sources from various disciplines, it interprets and describes ideas and phenomena using a cyclical process (szabolcs, 1996). interpreting sources of education history requires the researcher to have a vivid imagination, artistic perception and creativity (kéri, 2001), therefore, historical narration cannot completely eliminate the researcher’s subjectivity. this is in accordance with the characteristics of qualitative research where the emphasis is on the exploration and the uncovering of the phenomenon under investigation (szabolcs, 2001). although, there are a growing number of studies employing educational history methodology in hungary, it is still in its infancy, therefore this paper also offers a methodological contribution. documentary sources – establishing the sample establishing the study sample was informed by a structured set of criteria (topic, geography and time) which included several dimensions (molnár-kovács, 2015, 2019). they have circumscribed the primary and secondary sources of the research. identifying and explaining the so-called source dimensions helped group together all written sources relevant to the topic of investigation (relationship between parents and kindergartens) used in this study: • kindergarten policy dimension: in the 1950s, the state’s growing influence on public education institutions, through regulations, was documented. this is why decrees and coursebooks on early childhood education were be looked at, with the later ones having been published by the national textbook publisher, governed by the ministry of religious affairs and public education (kóger, 2019). • press dimension: the products of the hungarian press included various publications: the practicefocused magazine that provided practice guidance for kindergarten pedagogues (children’s care and education – kindergarten care and education [gyermeknevelés óvodai nevelés]) as well as unrelated press read by parents (newspapers at the top of press hierarchy, their regional counterparts, other weekly prints, magazines). these non-professional press products of the 50s were also selected as they were the focal point of the discourse forming the opinion of the majority of the public, and they also provided an impression of the public’s opinion (lukacs, 2004). involving such press products in educational history research is usually linked to the works of kéri (2009) (baska, 2018). the constitution of the people’s republic of hungary guaranteed the freedom of press during socialism. however, the multidimensional control mechanism of the governing party never provided the circumstances for the freedom of press. press products became the tools of state authority. newspapers could not survive as collective agitators to publish content without approval by someone at the highest level (somogyvári, 2018). although the number of sources available was high, they were all ‘unilateral’, which explained why there was, in actual fact, a lack of sources that could be identified for selection. the sources only present the official, often propagandistic rules and criteria. therefore, the corrupting influences of the party’s ideology, reflected in the language used, had to be taken into consideration. the style of these texts suggests complete control (jessen, 1997 cited by apor, 2008; judt, 1997 cited by apor, 2008). considered with this caveat, these sources were still utilised to reconstruct the past of kindergarten. across the two dimensions explained above, the search for literature revealed a high number of documents, from which the text corpus was selected. time-related selection criteria reduced the sources to those kindergarten regulatory documents and practice guides (laying down the expectations by the state) that were from between 1948 and 1959. included in the text corpus from this period were the issues of the practice-based magazines, children’s care and education and its successor from 1953, kindergarten care and education, which were both designed to reach a kindergarten pedagogue audience, as well as newspapers and weekly prints (n=80) read by parents to keep them up to date. the former were drawn from the files of the national educational library and museum, the latter from arcanum digitheca. research data was drawn these by targeted, selective sampling based on their titles as related to the topic. relationship between families and kindergartens… 297 as for non-professional newspapers, the selection was initially made using the keyword ‘kindergarten’ (‘óvoda’), then the text corpus was narrowed down for research based on the content relating to the topic of the study. analytical framework content analysis was carried out, which focused both on the manifest and latent meanings conveyed in the selected texts. content structuring served as the central objective of the qualitative data analysis (kuckartz, 2012, 2019; mayring, 2019, sántha, 2021, 2022; schreier, 2014). the process started with familiarisation, followed by the identification of main and sub-themes (kuckartz, 2012). in order to avoid data loss, inductive and deductive coding approaches were combined, and all text segments were processed. the first step was to use a priori coding as a coding type related to theory-driven logic (sántha, 2015, 2022). the main categories to code the data corpus were created before the analysis. by theoretical consideration, they were created based on the expectations [ ‘az óvoda feladata a szülők felé’ ‘duties of kindergartens for parents’] of the first regulatory document describing the relationship between families and kindergartens in the ‘50s [‘rendtartás az óvodák számára’ ‘kindergarten rules and regulations’ (1951)]. the manifest tasks expressed in this document were considered as the main content units entered into the coding list in advance. hence the initial coding structure follows a deductive coding logic. the goal was to find concepts that described how kindergarten politics of the time defined the roles of the two educational environments of the future socialist citizens in early childhood education. subcategories linked to the main categories were created when the document was divided into further subunits. the texts were further coded using data-driven inductive logic. further levelling was possible in some subcategories as the subcodes had new subcodes within them. in order to achieve reliability, intra frame coding was used. this meant that the texts were coded twice by the researcher manually using a colour-based visual aid (maietta, 2008) with a ten-day gap using the same coding system. then results were compared (dafinoiu & lungu, 2003; sántha, 2015, 2021, 2022). rather than aiming to achieve inter-coder reliability, this analytical approach aligned the study with its subjective epistemological design. differences and similarities as the coding task was repeated afforded the rethinking and fine-tuning of categories, hence providing conceptual congruence for the analysis (hennink et al., 2020). table 1. coding frame super themes themes sub-themes collaboration between parents and kindergarten: parts of texts and statements that cover activities related to improve the operation of kindergartens and children’s education collaboration framework (its indications) • parent-teacher association • other mass-organisations (e.g. mndsz (democratic association of hungarian women)) • supporting bodies helping kindergartens (indications of financial or affirmative contribution) • competition movements • charity work • afternoon work • evening shows confidential relationship: text parts and statements related to building a relationship with parents based on trust occasions for networking (individual and group occasions to network) • parent-teacher conference • personal conversation aligned education: text parts and statements related to the creation of unified education within kindergartens and families (based on socialist pedagogy) pedagogical control/propaganda (indications of convincing or ‘indoctrinating’ parents) forums of pedagogical information (its indications) • school of parents, parents’ conferences, • parents’ visit to kindergarten, ceremonies (introduction to the rules and yvetta kóger 298 practices of early childhood education), • ‘parent corner’ noticeboard • media: newspapers, radio family-related circumstances: text parts and statements related to the living conditions, profession of the parents of children in kindergarten, and the quality of family education ways of getting to know the families (indication of family visits) care for parents: text parts and statements related to advice and help from the kindergarten pedagogue to parents enlightenment (propaganda): text parts related to the kindergarten pedagogue’s awareness (political, cultural, economic) that is used to convey the (political) message of the state to the parents influencing their opinions the kindergarten pedagogue as social worker (indications of motivating to participate in relevant activities required by politics (e.g. buying bonds to fulfill the five-year plan, participating in the elections)) leading by example: text parts and statements related to how the kindergarten pedagogue should set a standard both as a pedagogue and as a member of society self-instruction (eliminating imperfections) analysing content is a two-step process in which the steps are not completely separated. categorisation and coding are followed by interpretation and explanation, i.e. data set into context and conclusions drawn (szabolcs, 2001) apart from the manifest messages, attempts were made to explore latent meaning, which suggest underlying messages. this can be the basis of a classification in a conceptual framework (babbie, 1996). the coding of these was not straightforward as they were not phrased transparently and directly but indirectly and insinuatingly (podráczky, 2007). written documents giving an account of the 1950s had to be managed carefully, requiring special attention as their value as a source was assessed. those wanting to know about the pedagogy of the era must face the fact that most documents at the researchers’ disposal were created from the political authority’s perspective. this fact imposes limitations on the results (golnhofer, 2006). analysis and interpretation of the results the era under investigation was characterised by the ambition to homogenise and totally centralise all areas of life which led to ‘sovietisation’ (kozma, 2012). this resulted in new principles and objectives for the relationship between families and kindergartens. expectations and messages to be conveyed were set by politics and education/kindergarten policies, forcing both parents and early childhood educators to accept and accommodate them. the contents of analysed texts from the various sources were used corroboratively as they substantiated one another. press products reflected the decisions on kindergarten policies and informed the interested parties about them. these put the emphasis on how the soviet model was an example to follow and the need to implement it. the unique tone of these texts provides today’s reader with a taste of the era’s atmosphere which has now been quite forgotten. apart from this, euphemistic phraseology (sugar-coating hard facts) was also present when it came to the kindergarten pedagogues’ ‘personal’ experiences and newspaper articles on children. the official socialist communication would often not supply information, rather ideologically phrase certain values for the future society (jensen, 1997, cited by apor, 2008). children were the antitype of the imagined collective future therefore they played a major role in the politics of socialist states (apor, 2008). the image of kindergartens published in the press, in the main, was to encourage parents’ acceptance of their children’s institutional care and education, hence driving them to join the workforce. kindergartens relationship between families and kindergartens… 299 were described as ‘fairy gardens’ for children and were supposed to be the children’s second home whilst the parents were at work, since ‘our country cares for the hopes of the future with solicitude, so they do not lack anything. their destiny is to have a happy childhood, so that they can grow into happy workers.’ (lőke, 1952, p.4.) meals were provided for children, which was great help for parents as reported by an ‘independent’ national newspaper: ‘the table is always laid in kindergartens, thanks to democracy.’ (independent newspaper, 1948, p.7.) occasionally, the reality, i.e. the imperfections, problems of meals and equipment were also published in the papers. parent-kindergarten relationship through the expansion of kindergarten education and care, an increasing number of parents became consumers of the kindergarten. the state aimed to influence the relationship between the famiy and the institutions through legislation that reflected its main aims. kindergarten pedagogue training provided preparation for the implementation of these legislations as the theoretical underpinning for practice was laid out in text books sensored by the state. the ’age old’ topic of parent-pedagogue relationship also appeared in journals and practice-oriented professional publications, always reflective of the changes and directions of early childhood policies in its themes and content . published in 1951, ‘kindergarten rules and regulations’ [‘rendtartás az óvodák számára’] controlled the relationship between families and kindergartens for the first time. among the tasks outlined, which define the main categories of this data analysis, the most important one in the sources detailing the official expectations was the need for collaboration between the two nurturing environments. as a consequence, emphasis is also put on the need for the co-ordinated upbringing of children and, as a basis for this, on the effort to form close relationships. to achieve this, it was crucial to be familiar with the families’ living conditions which was strongly related to caring about parents. however, according to the analysis, this task is emphasised less compared to the other ones mentioned earlier. the need for propaganda was constantly present, although in the articles analysed it was only enhanced following the socialisation and the early childhood education act 1953. in the chosen text corpus, the least preferred area was the kindergarten pedagogues’ leading by example. within this, the importance of self-instruction is only mentioned occasionally. opportunities for co-operation between parents and kindergartens upon entering the new decade, the ‘50s, focus shifted onto the parent-teacher association (pta) as following the socialisation of educational institutions, the relationship between families and kindergartens was organised by regulations. between 1948 and 1950, three decrees were issued by the ministry of religious affairs and public education in relation to the foundation and operation of the mass-organisation aiming to bring parents (and pedagogues) together. the 1975 book, (parents and educators) [szülők és nevelők] by révai, gál & majzik presents the history of the pta, and evaluates it from a socialist perspective. as the organisational framework of collaboration between parents and kindergartens, the duties of the pta were closely related to certain concepts of the coding frame above, such as helping kindergartens and alignment of upbringing within the forums of pedagogical enlightenment. as propaganda for parents to become active members of this organisation, the professional journal of kindergarten pedagogues, still called child education [gyermeknevelés] at the time, started a new column called parent-teacher association in 1949 to host news related to the work of the organisation. the pta had its own journals too (e.g. (parents’ journal [szülők lapja], family and school [család és iskola]), although these did not reach the parents involved, and they were not read by many people either. the organisation brought to life to strengthen the relationship between families and kindergartens was mentioned in the articles throughout the decade in relation to making contributions but these themselves were greatly influenced by the political objectives. sometimes emphasis was on helping kindergartens financially or with charity work, sometimes on propaganda for parents. yvetta kóger 300 the main forum of the pta was the parent-teacher consultation. as per the expectations of the day, kindergarten pedagogues were charged with building close relationship with parents. therefore parentteacher consultations were intertwined with pta meetings. their times and agendas were set by the ministry of religious affairs and public education [‘rendtartás az óvodák számára’ ‘kindergarten rules and regulations’ (1951)]. parent-pedagogue consultations were the prime forms of parents going into the institutions. these gave them an opportunity to have a look at the life of their child’s kindergarten. in fact, one of the kindergarten pedagogues’ tasks was to set an example of nurturing children according to the socialist values. parents would also have a chance to visit kindergartens during ceremonies and parents’ evenings. parents were advised of these via newspapers. pta took part in the propaganda/educational work for parents in several ways, such as family visits, afternoon work, organising ceremonies, competition movements (e.g. let's build and beautify our kindergartens (gernyó, 1952), social cooperation/help for kindergartens (cultural gazette, 1958)). newspapers regularly delivered reports on these and other pta events (e.g. dances, afternoon shows) in the ‘50s. it was probably the pta’s mandatory status and its role to influence the masses which caused revulsion in parents. this is something that can still be experienced today. decades after the pta was dismissed, it is still difficult to get parents to play an active part in any parent organisation’s ‘committee’ in kindergartens. however, they are still happy to participate in organising afternoon work or community events related to festivities and feast-days. getting to know the families – propaganda work: a co-ordinated approach to children’s upbringing the 1950 party decision, which is considered the criticism of educational affairs, mentions the kindergarten aspect of combatting dropout several times. family visits, the main forum of getting to know families, was also used to encourage children attending kindergarten (and, as mentioned earlier, to ideologically influence parents). this was continuously present in the 50s. first and foremost, their objective was to dispel misconceptions about kindergartens that stopped children attending in rural areas even in 1959. even newspapers drew society’s attention to this: ‘another, even more dangerous barrier of women’s infringement is obscurantism. the old and ordinary does not let women go and explore the new.’ (free people, 1951, p.1.) ‘women belong in the house.’ (sági, 1955, p. 2.) family visits are still part of early childhood education today. the primary emphasis is on getting to know the family before children start kindergarten, just like it was done in the ‘50s. kindergarten pedagogues are still very much expected to organise it with care so that parents do not consider it a burden and they do not feel that it is an unpleasant obligation. one of the most important organisations of pedagogical propaganda work to align family and kindergarten education was parents’ school. the party referred to it as a tried and tested tool to educate parents, however, in reality, it had to be constantly promoted. one of the reasons why, was that there had been no similar, organised collaboration before. pedagogical enlightenment was launched in the 1948-1949 school year as a trial but the next year attendance was made mandatory. the fact that instead of pedagogy, its main focus was on ideological education, i.e. political education of the masses based on the soviet model, did not make it popular (komlósi, 1965). kindergarten trade press hardly ever mentioned it, however, the presence of propaganda for parents’ school in papers for parents was strong until 1952. following that year it was put to an end but the forum aimed at politically enlightening parents was later ‘reborn’ in a different context. in 1954 a party decision was announced on the situation and tasks of public education affairs, highlighting its imperfections too. focus was given to the alignment of family and kindergarten education, the cooperative upbringing using modern marxist methods (free people, 1954, p. 2.). this was assisted by soviet literature which meant that following the soviet model was still apriority. during the decade, issues of óvodai nevelés (kindergarten education) showed several examples of the alignment of education. nonprofessional papers also started columns on educational counselling. relationships were built between kindergarten pedagogues and an increasing number of parents. the party leadership was striving for keeping these relationships under its control and influence in order to form and reform family and relationship between families and kindergartens… 301 educational values to serve socialism. it is for that reason that the methodology books for colleges teaching kindergarten pedagogues, in line with official party communication, encouraged future kindergarten pedagogues not to just work with children but also do political enlightening work for parents related to the objectives and methods of socialist upbringing and affairs of cultural politics. they were supposed to become real social workers, loyal assistants and tireless colleagues of the party government, strengthening socialism. approaching the end of the 50s, publishing the manual called educational work in kindergartens [nevelőmunka az óvodában] in 1957 was a significant milestone. this manual gave detailed instructions, unifying and systematising the work of hungarian kindergartens, ensuring for them to become the scene of socialist upbringing. it provided thorough, accurately calculated parameters for the education of children to unquestioningly follow, eliminating the need to think about the questions of education (szerepi et al., 2018). similarly, to rules and regulations, there is a subchapter in the manual on the relationship between families and kindergartens. it emphasises the unity of the two educational spaces and the importance of one learning from the other. this means that kindergarten pedagogues had to learn a lot from parents, however, where there was a need, they also had to educate the parents. the leading role in this relationship is that of the kindergartens. pedagogues had to convince parents to help their work. built on its history, the relationship between parents and pedagogues was further shaped in the ‘heroic age’ of socialist kindergartens, based on the soviet model but adjusted to local circumstances (see füle, 1988). latent meaning from the themes of the analysis parents and kindergartens working together the emphasis here is on improving the operation of kindergartens. the text analysed touched upon whatever kindergarten pedagogues needed to provide for the children and ensure their needs for activities were met. imperfections were published as cartoons or humorous stories in satirical magazines or disguised as ‘readers’ letters’. these mainly made fun of the bureaucracy of the socialist administration. the analysed text corpus had a latent content claiming that although the socialist planned economy’s threeyear plan, later five-year plan, had generously envisaged the expansion of kindergarten network, its conditions were not ensured. rooms in kindergartens could not keep up with the increasing demand caused by the demographic fluctuation and the labour exchange measures of the era. the social demand for kindergartens depended on several factors. decrees influencing the possibility of having children and, as a result, kindergarten affairs were adopted starting in 1948. that year the parliament accepted law article 43 on the equality of rights of women terminating women’s disadvantages. technically, this gave women the opportunity to work in any profession. this was confirmed by the constitution of the people’s republic of hungary which ensured the conditions of equal opportunities. the system of mother and child-welfare institutions served this purpose. the most popular explanation of the need for more kindergarten places was a decree by the cabinet of the people’s republic of hungary on the increase of the number of women in the workforce. researcher m. schadt, expert on the ‘50s, gives detailed account of the hidden objectives of slogans promoting the equality of women coming from the official ideology (2003). the number of children attending kindergartens was constant until 1955. then, between 1956 and 1958, it increased significantly. according to the party leadership, population growth meant the legitimation of the system. therefore, encouraging people to have children was a priority within the objectives. mother and baby-welfare measures put into effect starting in 1953, drastically limiting the opportunity for abortions, and propaganda resulted in the birth rate reaching its highest of the second half of the 20th century in 1954. this was outstandingly high within europe too. the extent of social demands related to kindergarten services did not become overstretched, however the demographic peak of the ratkó era (baby boom) reached the kindergartens. population growth became a burden for the performance of the institutional system of kindergartens. although planned estimates constantly exceeded earlier decisions, the reality and failures could not completely be swept under the rug (aczél, 2012; kéri, 2003; léderer, 1991; schadt, 2003). yvetta kóger 302 the competing movements of socialism were disguised as offerings for the greater good. in reality, they forced parents to support the building and equipment of kindergartens, something the state was supposed to take care of. ‘everyone who loves their country and its people has to do everything to the best of their knowledge to build socialism and help our country prosper.’ (róka, 1949a, p. 2.) close relationships – insights into the lives of families – kindergarten pedagogues as educators of the nation close relationship between pedagogues and parents in the ‘50s was not only important from the aspect of educating children. earning the trust of parents was almost an expectation held by the state’s leadership whilst building a system in which attempts were made to even tightly control the thoughts of citizens. the possible latent objective of getting to know the circumstances and living conditions of families is also strongly related to this. family visits or guided dialogues unveiled parts of private matters, e.g. housing conditions or religious affairs. this was usually carried out, especially at the beginning of the 1950s, using the so-called home agitation which provided a much more effective opportunity for personal persuasion. all this was done in order to politically enlighten, mobilise, and ideologically educate population outside the party. social workers carried out their job of political enlightenment door-to-door through entering private spaces outside state control and mining information. their ‘responsibilities’ also included political education, agitation, mobilisation, control and familiarising themselves with how communities lived, although the level of importance of each of these was different. the system considered kindergarten pedagogues as social workers who were to lead by example in accordance with the values set by the state authority. ‘the work of kindergarten pedagogues in villages, who are constantly in connection with the working peasants because of family visits, related to enlightenment and persuasion can be very serious and valuable.’ (róka, 1949b, p. 4.). during these visits homes became public spaces as citizens were required to make statements in front of a party representative. in spite of this, sometimes statements would not meet the expectations of the party. in certain cases, solidarity with the community and their problems overcame the ideology (huhák, 2020). co-ordinated upbringing of children – propaganda work the state expectations of families and kindergartens working together as pedagogues educated families almost directly led to the latent content of the texts which was to align family and kindergarten education in order to stop ‘double (contradictory) education’ from happening. these related to education influencing attitudes, the differences in parents’ educational strategies and the values they passed on and nurturing across the two spaces contradicting one another. this is what is meant by the concept of double education still today (fenyő, 2017). according to this concept, the socialist society set the same educational objectives for parents, and schools and kindergartens. it was a shared responsibility to nurture children according to the communist educational principles both in the family and at school/kindergarten. the goal was to bring up a brave, self-conscious, cultured generation who would believe in materialism, would be loyal to their socialist homeland, and ready to make sacrifices for the people. this upbringing could only be fruitful if the educational work of families and that of schools/kindergartens were aligned. therefore, according to the official intentions, kindergarten and school pedagogues teaching to the socialistcommunist educational principles were a dominant factor in education. families were different in nature, and could only be controlled and influenced to a certain extent, therefore were only considered a secondary factor (donáth, 2000, 2008). a way to reach this goal was propaganda work also expected from kindergarten pedagogues. this was the ideological indoctrination of society through parents, disguised as pedagogical enlightenment. a forced growth in several areas of life was typical of the era between 1948 and 1956. this was generated by the radically centralised planned economy, taken from the soviet economic model. life conditions in the countryside were greatly influenced by the change of ownership in agriculture and forced collectivisation launched several times. those in towns were influenced by the intensified industrialisation (tomka, 2011). collectivisation was achieved by the mandatory appropriation of goods. the safest way to stay away from continuous inspections, penalties and despoliation was to enter a sovkhoz (collective farm) (romsics, 2010). relationship between families and kindergartens… 303 extensive propaganda would encourage people to do so. these latent contents infiltrated into educational work as part of the official approach of the party leadership. their real presence could be determined in analysed sources, hence the acknowledgement of how unilateral the sources were. the analysis both the manifest and latent content leads to the conclusion that the forms of developing relationship between families and kindergartens were tools of the socialist system to legitimate itself. this was why state authorities were trying to make the relationship of the two educational environments aligned using mass-organisations. the party leadership was trying to expand the educational influence of kindergartens, which affected parents through their children. the tool to implement this expansion was propaganda although conditions of extensive kindergarten network expansion were not available. conclusion the sources written at the time show the requirement of enforcing the new, binding, socialist values set by state leadership. these values were different to the previous traditions of kindergarten pedagogy, and appeared to leave those traditions behind. given the unilateral nature of the sources, all this study was meant to do was to analyse the official expectations of the period’s state authority. the party leadership of the era had the ministry supervising kindergartens, schoolbook publishing and the press under strict control. as a consequence, the sources used in this study were supposed to convey state expectations and nothing else. this set certain limits on the research. kindergarten policies were an attempt to influence the private matter of how families were bringing their children up with the objective of legitimating the prevailing social structure. to achieve this, the relationship and its various manifestations between families and kindergartens were utilised. kindergartens of the ‘50s were influenced by policies and legislation infused by political ideologies (e.g. fight against ‘double education’ in order to accepts socialist values and norms). although their content and role have significantly changed by today, they (can) still have negative connotations for parents which is a sign of the prevailing influence of the socialist pedagogical past. the sources analysed spoke of the importance of parents’ visit to kindergartens; however, this was not the kind of openness we know today, nevertheless, it still created an opportunity for parents to gain an insight to how kindergartens worked. there is still a demand for this today. kindergarten pedagogues of the ‘50s were a tool for the state authority used in the process of manipulated socialisation. this is why, kindergarten pedagogues were expected to take the lead in co-ordinating the two nurturing environments. kindergarten pedagogues of today are still expected to be active, assertive and creative in their relationship with families in order for the relationship to be fruitful. this is presumably why the relationship between kindergartens and families is an ever-emerging topic of discussion between experts and researchers of educational sciences and across european models of early education. as the findings suggest, the expectations of raising ‘socialist citizens’ was incorporated into educational and policy documents as well as non-professional publications relating to kindergartens and family education in the 1950s. this study offers a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between kindergartens and families in the ‘50s and with that provides foundations for further analytical work of the socialist pedagogical past. examining where the emphasis lay in kindergarten pedagogue training coursebooks from after 1959 would offer further possibilities for research. declarations author’s declarations acknowledgements: the author acknowledge the contribution of bence kovácsik in translating the manuscript from hungarian into english as well as conducting language review. authors’ contributions: this is the sole work of the author. competing interests: the author declare that she have no competing interests. funding: no funding was used for this study. yvetta kóger 304 ethics approval and consent to participate: the research reported here does not involve human subjects. publisher’s declarations editorial acknowledgement: the editorial process of this article was carried out by eleonora teszenyi, anikó varga nagy, and sándor pálfi. publisher’s note: journal of childhood, education & society remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliation. references 2011. évi cxc. törvény a nemzeti köznevelésről. 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(2018). a magyar óvoda történeti szakaszai a kezdetektől napjainkig [historic periods of hungarian kindergartens from the establishment up until today]. in s. pálfi, (ed.), a gyermekre fókuszáló korai nevelés [early childhood education focusing on children] (pp. 6-24). debrecen university press. teszenyi, e., & hevey, d. (2015). age group, location or pedagogue: factors affecting parental choice of kindergartens in hungary. early child development and care, 185(11-12), 1961-1977. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430.2015.1028391 tomka, b. (2011). gazdasági változások és a fogyasztás alakulása a huszadik századi magyarországon [economic changes and consumerism trends in hungary in the 20th century]. in k. kovács, & i. romsics (eds.), a mi 20. századunk [our 20th century] (pp. 101-180). komp-press books. több nőt a termelésbe. [more women to the production line]. free people, (1951), 9(133), 1. török, b. (2004). a gyermeküket óvodáztató szülök körében végzett országos felmérés eredményei [the result of the national survey among parents whose children attend kindergartens. national kindergarten project. parents’ study subproject]. institute for higher education research. valahol egy vásárhelyi óvodában…a demokrácia felemeli az elesettet. [somewhere in a kindergarten in vásárhely... the poor are looked after by democracy]. independent newspaper, 1948, 2(297), 7. varga, n. a. (2020). a szeretet kifejezésének fontossága a kora gyermekkori pedagógusok körében angliában és magyarországon [the importance of expressing love for early childhood educators in the uk and in hungary]. in n. a. varga (ed.), családi nevelés. a család megismerésének módszerei [family education. the methods of getting to know families] (pp. 131-151). forstag nonprofit közhasznú kft. vág, o. (1993). a kisgyermeknevelés története [the history of early childhood education]. hungarian kindergarten pedagogy association. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430.2015.1028391 journal of childhood, education & society volume 3, issue 3, 2022, 212-217 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.202233252 editorial ©2022 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. re-imagining socialist childhoods: changing narratives of spatial and temporal (dis)orientations eleonora teszenyi1, anikó varga nagy2, sándor pálfi3 the focus of attention of this special issue has both personal and professional significance for the guest editors and most of the contributors, whose childhoods were touched by either the experience of socialism or its collapse and consequences. influenced by foucault’s (1977) idea that reporting evidence and significant moments from the past contributes to histories that are authentic and accurate, this special issue offers insights into the changing narratives of socialist and post-socialist childhoods. we are mindful of the risks associated with revisionism; that is, revisiting and, through that, re-evaluating the past in light of what we know in the present. mitigating this risk, to some extent, is that many of the authors whose secondary research papers are published in this issue were privileged to work with original documents written in local languages. in this way, they were able to interrogate the past and reveal the nature of discourses and practices in order to make a contribution to better understand the present (skehill, 2007). background to this special issue this special issue drew inspiration and gained momemtum from participating in the international collaborative and multi-disciplinary re-connect/re-collect project and from organising its 2021 conference ‘spinning the sticky threads of childhood: from cold war to anthropocene’ in one of the five physical and virtual hubs globally. employing a collective biography methodology (davies & gannon, 2012), the project connected people and collected memories of childhood experiences from the politically often discreted socialist past. weaving together memories brought the ‘personal’ into the ‘public’ in a non-binary way, and with that, affording opportunities to reconcile tensions between the past and the present in unexpectedly bold ways (cold war childhood, 2021, www.coldwarchildhoods.org). this special issue attempts to expand our knowledge and understanding of how socialism was experienced by children of that era. the subject is delicate, therefore, it required careful handling as childhood experiences, bound in history and in particular geo-political contexts, were revisited and reimagined. the topic occupies a precarious but unique space in the discipline of early education. precarious because it has so far received limited attention, although, more recently, there appears to be a renewed interest in childhoods during the cold war (aydarova et al., 2016; millei et al., 2019; silova et al., 2016, 2017, 2018; stearns, 2016; szakács, 2019; tesar 2018; winkler, 2021). it is also made precarious by the challenge of communicating ideas on the subject in a common language. language is contextual and relational, and our understanding depends on our insights into the cultures, values, political priorities and their manifestations of the time, in this instance, into the workings of socialism. in some of papers of this issue, the nuances that emic interpretations afforded in one language (for example in hungarian or russian) proved to be difficult to communicate in another (i.e.: in english for this special issue). as we were working with authors, whose mother tongue was not english, the linguistic _____________ 1 the open university, faculty of wellbeing, education and language studies, school of early childhood, education, youth and sport, milton keynes, uk, eleonora.teszenyi@open.ac.uk orcid: https: //orc id.org /00 00 -0 001 -746 5 -49 88 2 university of debrecen, faculty of education for children and special educational needs, hajdúböszörmény, hungary, vnaniko2013@gmail.com, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5868-3156 3 university of debrecen, faculty of education for children and special educational needs, hajdúböszörmény, hungary, e-mail: palfis@ped.unideb.hu, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0819-0235: https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202233252 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:eleonora.teszenyi@open.ac.uk https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7465-4988 mailto:vnaniko2013@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5868-3156 mailto:palfis@ped.unideb.hu https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0819-0235 eleonora teszenyi et al. 213 and conceptual difficulties in crossing languge boundaries sensitised us to the risks of losing meaning and/or understanding. hence, we found ourselves in a precarious position again as we attempted to contribute to re-dressing the imbalance in knowledge production and dissemination hierarchies between the east and the west (collyer, 2018; demeter, 2019). giving many of the authors the opportunity to write with authority and with authentic voices about a subject they hold an insider view of, disrupts the historical and epistemological western paradigms and questions the long-held belief that those on the periphery of global knowledge production can only create local knowledge or voice local ‘truths’ (frank and meyer, 2007; mignolo, 2009). this special issue, therefore, remains hopeful that it contributes to an extended community of knowers to be recognised in the global scientific world. expression in some of the papers may be somewhat awkward or lacking fluency, which calls for linguistic tolerance towards the authors who, by writing in a language other than their first language, are ‘enabled to name their own world academically’ (lynch and ivancheva, 2015, p. 8) as they bring new perspectives on a niche topic to the surface. the topic of socialist childhoods is also unique because it opens a window into history that is not easily captured retrospectively. with this loud silence of untold public and personal childhood experiences of socialism, our intention was to provide a scholarly space for authors who had a keen interest and a genuine curiosty in education and childhoods during the cold war. our call for paper invited contributions to advance conceptual and empirical inquiry by examining understandings of socialist childhood experiences, curricula and pedagogic practice. the eight papers included in this special issue give accounts of the changing narratives of socialism and its (often prevailing) influence today in hungary, russia, romania, serbia and mongolia. the papers offer spatial and temporal orientations for today’s readers as they disrupt the discourses dominant on the western side of what churchill called the ‘iron curtain’ (indicating the boundary between the soviet satellite countries of central-eastern europe and western europe) (lénárt, 2008). as the authors in this issue suggest, our understandings are uncertain and constantly shifting for socialism as ‘an unfinished business’ (jelača and lugarić, 2018, p. 10) is not entirely obsolete, its traces are ever present, and this persistence calls for scholarly attention. the ‘unfinished business’ of socialism socialism does not mean the same thing to everyone. as the papers here demonstrate, there are critical differences between how it is understood in the various geo-political, economic and ethno-national contexts of the eastern bloc, including countries from central-eastern europe and east/southeast asia. we understand socialism to be a utopian society disinterested in materialism where a one-party state, through control over the political, economic and social systems, owns the means of production and manages the bureaucratic (re)distribution of wealth, resources and rights in a top-down fashion. in some of the papers, this is referred to as a socialist dictatorship. communism, the ideological movement of socialism, championed an equal society with collectivism over individualism (bihari, 2013) inspired by the marxist theory of an almost ‘messianic’ classless society (jukić, 2013, p. 50) as ‘the desired final stage of … the ensuing socialist state’ (jelača and lugarić, 2018, p. 2). socialism and its successor, post-socialism are referenced in the articles of this special issue highlighting their presence in discourses of education, special education and social pedagogy. these papers speak of the prevailing influence of socialism and its legacy as it continues to seep into children’s everyday lived experiences. the education of children during (post)socialism in countries of the eastern bloc, early childhood had an ‘iconic status’ (penn, 2011, p. s16) and children were placed in the centre of the social, political and economic re-making of society as they were viewed as an embodiment of a new social order (silova, et al., 2017). typical of the era is that education became a slave to party politics (pukánszky & németh, 1996) and extended to the education of children’s morals and consciousness (vu, 2021). kindergartens and schools, as subjugating instruments of ideological indoctrination (jelača and lugarić 2018), were to nurture a new generation of soviet citizens, who were to be shaped by socialist political ideals, values, beliefs and behaviours (millei et al., 2019; millei & imre, 2016) re-imagining socialist childhoods: changing narratives... 214 in order to secure fidelity to the single socialist party. the state had an expectation of extreme conformism and an active engagement in the building of a ‘bright’ socialist future. scientific research at the time led to theorisation where the marxist concept of collectivism, for example, translated to collective tasks and taking responsibility for work (labour) that was expected of children within their communities. similarly, makarenko’s pedagogical ideals of the collective, selfmanagement and productive labour heavily influenced educational practice. conformity to shared ideals, group goals and group needs were prioritised, which put children under pressure not only to selfmanage their contributions to their community’s work but also to learn to lead effectively. it is not surprising then that no child could be individualistic, nor fail because of a collective approach to teaching, learning and behaviour management (millei & teszenyi, forthcoming). the group was more important than the individuals in it (bronfenbrenner, 1971; kirschenbaum, 2001). socialist states attributed great significance to educating society’s future citizens in a strictly normative and outcome driven fashion that required unconditional compliance with ideological expectations and paid no heed to children’s individual needs or indeed to how individual children experienced education and care in state-funded institutions. individualism was not tolerated and any deviation from what was considered as ‘the norm’ was judged unfavourably. under the false pretence of developing group communities and helping children manage institutional daily schedules, this conformity instigated practices (such as strict daily routines, expecting every child to do the same thing at the same time) that both exploited and drew on young children’s vulnerabilities and dependence on adult support. adult-centred socialist pedagogical approaches forfeited the rights of individual children in the name of equal rights for every child. although the legacy of adult-centredness still circulates in curriculum documents as an aspect of early childhood pedagogy, as seen in habinyak’s paper, the collapse of socialism brought with it approaches to early education that replaced the collective with the individual. in hungary, for example, children’s rights were declared more widely in policy documents as the country had ratified the united nation’s convention on the rights of the child in 1991 (pálfi et al., 2019). as canning, teszenyi and pálfi discuss, how children’s rights were viewed improved considerably, even though what remained of socialism continued to cast a shadow on pedagogic practice. kóger’s paper gives acount of the relationship between families and kindergartens in the 1950s and highlights that institutional care, with tightly controlled or no opportunities for true parental involvement, was regarded as superior to children’s upbringing and education in the home. shaped by propaganda work, the dominance and silent power of early educational institutions of the socialist era manifested in a drive to educate parents (not only children) and exerting influence on how children were brought up in their homes to secure the ideologically aligned education of the future generation. following immediately after decades of the socialist system, countries started to move towards becoming politically democratic states with market economies. however, this transition took longer in some contexts than in others (if it can be called transition at all for its possible non-linear nature and its contested ‘expected destination’ (buyendelgeriyn, 2008, p. 237)). nevertheless, the ensuing changes were characterised by a decline in state ownership, consequently the growth of the private and service sectors, and an increase in foreign investment accompanied by rising unemployment and poverty. one of the main instruments of these changes was the decentralisation of governmental responsibilities, financing, and decision-making (brayfield & korintus, 2011; campbell-barr & bogatić, 2017). these processes of decentralisation in education and de-instutionalisation of child protection are examined by habinyák and rákó respectively. both papers outline the major transformations the change of regime in the early 1990s brought with it: habinyák highlights the introduction of education reforms and the emergence of educational pluralism in romania, and, although decentralisation led to alternative pedagogies in early childhood, she calls for a greater degree of autonomy for early education and care institutions to be able to make a real difference to young children’s holistic learning and development. rákó, on the other hand, examines the ‘transition of the child protection system’, that has started to pave the way for the processes of deinstitutionalisation and the emergence of alternative forms of care in eleonora teszenyi et al. 215 hungary. the research findings she presents point to imperatives for further resources and a more coordinated approach between the services that safeguard children. balázs-földi addresses the sensitive issue of how disabled children and their families were supported during the socialist regime and in the subsequent period. she highlights the paucity of empirical research and draws on the findings of three significant national surveys conducted on the living conditions of families raising a child with disabilities during the ten year period between the collapse of the socialist system and 2008 to (i) reiterate the need for empirical enquiry and (ii) to put out an urgent call for a conceptually-conceived disability strategy that could meaningfully inform the development of social policy to enable people’s independent living during their life course. garey’s paper underscores the widely experienced educational reforms also taking place in russia after the collapse of the soviet union. she introduces her paper with the russian saying “the teacher is the second parent”, echoeing the powerful role of the state in the upbringing of a generation of ideologically endoctrinated socialist citizens that kóger also discusses in her paper. educational reforms were informed by continued theorisation that introduced new concepts of childhood and practices, some of which reached other parts of the world, such as vygotsky’s cultural historical theory of human development. garey’s paper compares the content of russian and american teacher training manuals and draws on bronfenbrenner’s (1970, p. 26) work as she identifies vospitanie “upbringing” or “character education” infused with communist morality as the most important difference between american and soviet schools. the paper suggests that just as socialism as a socio-cultural phenomenon did not disappear overnight, the examined russian training materials continue to reproduce soviet understandings about childhood, education and the role of the state, in turn, shapes teachers’ perception of the child, their undertsanding of childhood, and their views on education. this has synergies with the findings from mikuska, raffai and vukov-raffai of their secondary research, which also identifies strong connections between the ‘socialist past’ and current early childhood education and care practices. this study took place at the critical juncture of transitioning from the old to the new curriculum framework in vojvodina, a northern region of serbia, and attempted to capture the significance of this change as well as the trepidation of educators. this trepidation may reflect ‘a sense of perpetual liminality (as a deeply felt, lived paradox)’ as the underlying condition of everyday life in transition (jelača & lugarić, 2018, p. 5), which brought with it the romanticising or the silencing of socialist ideologies or indeed both. children of that era remain bound to their particular national landscape and treat narratives of change, such as the meaning of christmas celebrations, with ambiguity (silova, 2018). the authors caution that such a significant transition should be a slower and more considered process and call for greater opportunities to access professional training that addresses localised culture, identity, language, and other ethnic characteristics with fully trained mentors. just as the definition of socialism is contextual, so are the ways in which the legacies of socialism manifest in the various geo-political, economic, socio-cultural and ethno-national contexts. dyer, luke and sanjaa’s paper takes us to mongolia and offers insights into the integral part rural boarding schools, established in the socialist era to serve children in herding communities, play in national policy for ensuring universal access to formal education. as the authors suggest, shaping education policy for mobile herding children is not without its problems. emerging fractures are highlighted as maintaining the rural culture as a central aspect of national identity begins to receeed and post-socialist modernity starts to see both a rural and urban future for mongolia’s children. hence, the “relevance” of boarding schools in formal schooling and the inevitabilty of complicated and layered change in place and time create complex realities. the authors call for refuting ahistorical and socio-spatially dislocated, over-simplified conceptualisation of ‘relevance’ as an ontological imperative. conclusion the notion of socialism was undoubtedly integral in understanding constructions of childhood, children’s position in society, family politics or social policy in 20th century europe and eurasia (bailyn et al., 2018; millei et al., 2019). education in the countries of the former socialist bloc was often presented in re-imagining socialist childhoods: changing narratives... 216 ‘western’ literature as being conformist, overly ideologically driven and uniform across regions (penn, 2011). however, there were also some connections across the divided ideologies of east and west for example the commonly shared view, which disregarded children as social actors in their own right (millei, 2011). strong state directives could be regarded as forms of authoritarianism. yet, the extent and coherence of the soviet early childhood education and care system was unmatched by any other non-socialist system. kindergartens adopted a holistic approach, extending to physical health and wellbeing, which was interpreted and implemented in a vastly different way from systems in english-speaking countries (penn, 2014). government funded kindergartens provided a comprehensive and co-ordinated system of early education and care, which reflected a significant societal investment in children (penn, 2011; vágó, 2005). the diversity of childhoods and children’ experiences across and within state socialist countries is undeniable and do not neatly fit the dichotomies between the east and the west (silova et al., 2017; tesar, 2018). in some instances, children ignored or skilfully navigated the prescribed norms, in others, they interpreted everyday realities on their own terms alongside the official authoritarian scripts (millei & teszenyi, forthcoming). in the world of peer refereed scientific papers, the hegemony of english language appears to be matched by a way of thinking about early childhood that is averse to the diversity and complexity of sociocultural and geo-political contexts (moss, 2010). this special issue has afforded us an opportunity to increase the visibility of this unique window in history by bringing the reader research that gets up close to the experiences and memories of those who lived through socialism, and capturing the somewhat marginalised but authentic voices of those who are in the position to write with authority as they revisit and re-imagine socialist childhoods. this special issue does not aim to preserve these marginalised voices like artifacts kept in a museum. rather, we aim to draw attention to new perspectives, to offer new knowledge to the scientific community and to galvanise us into action as we ask further questions and seek out new and unexpected ways of understanding. declarations acknowledgements: we express our appreciation to the authors, our gratitude to the reviewers, and dr. mehmet toran, the chief editor of the journal of childhood, education and society and dr. taibe kulaksız for working closely with us in preparing this special theme issue. references aydarova, e., millei, z., piattoeva, n., & silova, i. 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(2018). children, childhoods and kindergartens in communist czechoslovakia: untold narratives of the early years. early years, 38(2), 212-226. vágó, i. (2005). felfelé terjeszkedő óvodáztatás – stagnáló hozzáférés [the upward trajectory of kindergarten education: stagnant access]. educatio, 4, 742–760. vu, t. (2021). early childhood education in vietnam, history, and development. international journal of child care and education policy, 15(3), 1-18. winkler, m. (2021). reading mateřídouška: children’s culture and children’s subjectivities in socialist czechoslovakia. paedagogica historica, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/00309230.2021.1885457 https://doi.org/10.2753/eue1056-4934430103 https://doi.org/10.1080/14733285.2019.1648759 http://doi.org/10.1080/10564934.2018.1556967 https://doi.org/10.1080/00309230.2021.1885457 re-imagining socialist childhoods: changing narratives of spatial and temporal (dis)orientations silova, i., piattoeva, n., & millei, z. (2018). childhood and schooling in (post)socialist societies: memories of everyday life. springer international publishing ag. journal of childhood, education & society volume 1, issue 1, 2020, pp. 1-2 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.20201135 editorial ©2020 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) stay in solidarity and share equally: an open access journal in childhood studies mehmet toran*, mesut sackes**, mine gol-guven*** journal of childhood, education & society (jces) was founded as a product of collective thought under the leadership of dr. mehmet toran in july 2019 by a group of early childhood researchers who conduct both collaborative and independent academic research. under the light of scientific research, current publishing policies cannot eliminate inequalities in public access for transfer and access of knowledge that is generated for the public weal (beall, 2013). particularly, having a limited access to the knowledge in early childhood studies is acknowledged as the first step for constitution of jces. in this context, we would like to underline that independent researchers who are voluntarily taking part in the emergence of jces are involved in a very courageous endeavour. this collective constitution takes an important responsibility for the public as well, and we point out that to fulfil this responsibility, it embraces moral and ethical rules as a reference point. objectives, scope and ethical principles of jces are determined with the contribution of the editorial board. in addition, we make promise to the larger research community of early childhood area that we will make sure to contribute to the area by giving a priority to high quality of research with robust evidence. jces adopts open science perspective in early childhood studies. therefore, jces has a high opinion of sharing the knowledge among people who are in children’s ecology democratically. attaching importance to open science policy, jces defends scientific knowledge as public property that should be shared with all without depressing its value (tonta, 2015). in the light of this target, -as jces editorial boardwe believe that scientific information that has been produced as public property should be shared with everyone through open access. the scientific communication enhanced between researcherspractitioners-readers is aimed to put into practice through the “open access” method. in this context, as open access policy within jces, we embraced non-profit, voluntary editorial operations without charging a fee either from the reader or authors. our experiences during publishing our first issue promise that it can be put into practice with a collective movement voluntarily on a digital platform. solidarity is possible to carry out editorial process not only in turkey but also with a contribution from every corner of the world. we have given extra importance to research ethics as our publishing policy. while specifying ethical principles, we aimed to take researcher’s attention to this issue. in this sense, after discussions with eecera and then with the permission from trustees of eecera, we decided to embrace eecera ethical code for early childhood researchers that is formulated by chris pascal, tony bertram, julia formosinho, colette gray and margy whalley (2012). the ethical code bears qualification as a guide for researchers working in the early childhood area. we would like to indicate that applicant articles to the jces are also evaluated in terms of those ethical codes during the editorial preliminary consideration process. after calling for papers for the inaugural issue, we had a considerable amount of article applications. *istanbul kültür university, faculty of education, department of early childhood education, istanbul, turkey, e-mail: m.toran@iku.edu.tr; orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-00033457-9113 ** balikesir university, necatibey school of education, department of early childhood education, balikesir, turkey, e-mail:msackes@gmail.com, orcid: https://orcid.org/00000003-3673-1668 ***bogazici university, faculty of education, department of early childhood education, istanbul, turkey, e-mail: mine.golguven@boun.edu.tr, orcid: https://orcid.org/00000002-1675-4478 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.20201135 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3457-9113 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3457-9113 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3673-1668 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3673-1668 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1675-4478 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1675-4478 mehmet toran, mesut sackes & mine gol-guven 2 those applications studiously evaluated by the referees after preliminary considerations. in this process, constructive feedback from the referees and the revisions authors made in consideration to given feedback contributed to quality of articles concurrently to the quality of the journal. peer review process that is held studiously, on time and constructively demonstrated that solidarity is built correctly and truthfully. therefore, we would like to especially thank the referees for the inaugural issue. as you will see in the journal, there are six articles for the inaugural issue from five different countries: belgium, colombia, israel, tanzania and the usa. this variety is a result of effective publicity of the journal by editorial board and efficient use of digital platforms with open access policy. besides that, especially the call for papers announcements by eecera in their member mail groups and social media accounts demonstrated once more how important solidarity is. as a result of this solidarity and cooperation, we would like to underline that the geographical variety of applicant articles strengthen our faith and self-confidence as well. after publishing first issue, we will continue pertinaciously working to strengthen international collaborations and to ensure continuity of the journal. being aware of responsibility we are carrying and the risks we may face in the process, we would like to state that we have already taken necessary precautions. to ensure long running path and continuity of publishing for the journal, gizem alvan, kerem avcı and taibe kulaksız doctorate studentshave already started gaining experience in journal publishing and editorial administration process. these experiences would play an important role to provide sustainable publication of the journal. we would like to congratulate them to take part in a constitution courageously. we would like to thank all partners who contributed to spreading information to publish interest with open access with their articles and their supports in the editorial process for the inaugural issue. we would like to state that the call for papers continues for the second issue of jces which will be published in august 2020 and we are open to early childhood researchers’ original contributions. declarations acknowledgements: special thanks to dr. ramazan sak for reading and corrections. authors’ contributions: all authors have equal contribution. competing interests: the authors declare that they have no competing interests. funding: this paper was not funded by any funding agency or grant. references beall, j. (2013). the open-access movement is not really about open access. triplec: communication, capitalism & critique. open access journal for a global sustainable information society, 11(2), 589-597. https://doi.org/10.31269/triplec.v11i2.525 bertram, t., formosinho, j., gray, c., pascal, c., & whalley, m. (2016). eecera ethical code for early childhood researchers. european early childhood education research journal, 24(1), iii-xiii. https://doi.org/10.1080/1350293x.2016.1120533 tonta, y. (2015). açık bilim ve açık erişim. in u. al and z. taşkın (eds). prof. dr. i̇rfan çakın'a armağan, (pp. 235-250). ankara: hacettepe üniversitesi bilgi ve belge yönetimi bölümü. https://doi.org/10.31269/triplec.v11i2.525 https://doi.org/10.1080/1350293x.2016.1120533 stay in solidarity and share equally: an open access journal in childhood studies journal of childhood, education & society volume 2, issue 3, 2021, 235-266 issn: 2717-638x doi:10.37291/2717638x.202123119 research article ©2021 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. portrait of early science education in majority dual language learner classrooms: where do we start? brooke rumper1, elizabeth frechette 2, elica sharifnia 3, daryl b. greenfield 4, roberta michnick golinkoff 5, kathy hirsh-pasek 6 abstract: despite the growing interest in early science education, there is much left to be explored, particularly in majority dual language learning (dll) classrooms. the current study examined 1) early science opportunities across classroom contexts in majority spanish-english dll head start classrooms, 2) the languages (i.e., english and spanish) that teachers used to engage dll children in science, 3) and how teachers’ discussion of scientific and engineering practices and disciplinary core ideas related to children’s academic outcomes. in a sample of 411 children (ages 3-5) from 34 head start classrooms, the current study found that teachers discussed and encouraged more practices during science lessons than circle time, dramatic play, and story time. there were no differences in teachers’ discussion of core ideas across contexts. teachers used the same amount of english and spanish to discuss practices and core ideas. teaching physical science was associated with children’s science outcomes. making observations and discussing life science were associated with children’s math outcomes. teaching math, making observations, and developing and using models were related to children’s executive functioning. findings from this study demonstrate that science opportunities occur across preschool classroom settings. additionally, it provides evidence that teachers may be supporting dll children’s home language while discussing science. finally, results indicate that teaching science supports children’s academic performance in several outcomes. these findings have implications for dll education policy as science may be a domain where teachers can support children’s home language and their learning across multiple domains. article history received: 31 july 2021 accepted: 13 october 2021 keywords early science education; dual language learners; head start; preschool introduction in recent years, within the united states, there has been a call for increased support of early science education (e.g., office of the press secretary, 2016) and equitable learning environments for ethnically and linguistically diverse populations (national association for the education of young children [naeyc], 2019). yet, despite this call, relatively little is known about how teachers currently engage in science within preschool classrooms (greenfield et al., 2009; piasta et al., 2014; saçkes et al., 2020). increased knowledge about how to support science learning is especially important for young hispanic children as hispanics are disproportionately underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, mathematics (stem) careers (kennedy et al., 2021; u.s. bureau of labor statistics, 2020). additionally, hispanic children, particularly those from spanish-speaking households, are disproportionately more likely to grow up in poverty, putting them at greater risk for early academic achievement gaps that begin early and widen over time (duncan et al., 2007; fitzpatrick et al., 2014; hart & risley, 2003; morgan et al., 2016). these achievement gaps affect well-studied learning domains like language (hart & risley, 2003), but also critical areas like science (morgan et al., 2016), math _____________ 1 temple university, department of psychology, ambler, usa, e-mail: brooke.rumper@temple.edu, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4960-2566 2 university of oklahoma-tulsa, early childhood education institute, tulsa, usa, e-mail: e.frechette@ou.edu, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7008-775x 3 university of miami, department of psychology, coral gables, usa, e-mail: ebs76@miami.edu, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0703-3780 4 university of miami, department of psychology, coral gables, usa, e-mail: dgreenfield@miami.edu, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3692-7425 5 university of delaware, school of education, newark, usa, roberta@udel.edu, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3299-9720 6 temple university, department of psychology, ambler, the brookings institution, usa, e-mail: kathryn.hirsh-pasek@temple.edu, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-00032947-4544 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202123119 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:brooke.rumper@temple.edu https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4960-2566 mailto:e.frechette@ou.edu https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7008-775x mailto:elica.sharifnia@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0703-3780 mailto:dgreenfield@miami.edu https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3692-7425 mailto:roberta@udel.edu https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3299-9720 mailto:kathryn.hirsh-pasek@temple.edu https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2947-4544 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2947-4544 brooke rumper et al. 236 (duncan et al., 2007), and executive function (ef) (fitzpatrick et al., 2014). research demonstrates that high-quality preschool experiences have ameliorated academic achievement gaps for hispanic spanish-english dual language learning (dll) children (buysse et al., 2014; castro et al., 2017; yazejian et al., 2015). more specifically, teacher engagement in early science inquiry is ripe with opportunities for these high-quality interactions (kook & greenfield, 2021; whittaker et al., 2020) and has been shown to improve children’s science and math skills (piasta et al., 2015). however, little is known about how teachers engage in early science in preschool and how teachers might specifically support dll children in this domain (rumper et al., 2021). in addition, few studies have investigated how preschool science affects children’s outcomes in majority hispanic, spanish-english dll classrooms (banse, 2019). to address the need to support early science learning, the current study aims to paint a portrait of early science opportunities occurring in majority dll classrooms. furthermore, it will examine how preschool science relates to spanish-english dll children’s academic outcomes. current state of early science education in the united states recently, the office of the press secretary (2016) expressed an urgent national need to advance science education for young learners. as a nation, the u.s. falls behind many developed and developing countries in science education. high school students in the u.s. ranked 38th in science achievement out of 71 listed countries (desilver, 2017). given the lagging science achievement of older students in the u.s. (desilver, 2017), there is a need to understand current practice around early science education and to bolster support for young learners. as opposed to devising ways to helping older students “catch up” in the domain of science, the current study aims to examine how teachers engage in and support science in an early educational setting. a framework for early science education a new dynamic vision of scientific inquiry has arisen, one that diverges from the antiquated view of science education. the framework for k-12 science education (national research council, 2012) offers a definition of science that no longer involves simply memorizing formulas or facts but allows for identifying opportunities for scientific inquiry in everyday contexts. it contains three complementary components: scientific and engineering practices, disciplinary core ideas, and crosscutting concepts (national research council, 2012). scientific and engineering practices are the behaviors teachers and children engage in to support understanding (e.g., making predictions, making observations, documenting, analyzing and interpreting data, etc.). disciplinary core ideas are the content that children learn (e.g., life science, earth and space science, physical science). crosscutting concepts are the ubiquitous concepts children can understand from scientific inquiry to draw larger conclusions about the world (e.g., patterns, structure and function, cause and effect, etc.). although this framework was designed for the k-12 educational system, it is flexibly adaptable for the early childhood setting and relevant for young learners (greenfield et al., 2017; saçkes et al., 2009; trundle & saçkes, 2012). for example, on the playground, children may notice that the leaves on the trees change colors or fall off as the weather gets colder, but the tree trunk remains the same. this one example presents an opportunity for children to engage in making observations (i.e., a practice) to support their understanding of life science content (i.e., core idea) and the concept of stability and change (i.e., crosscutting concept). the current study incorporates the early childhood version of the framework for k-12 science education which seamlessly connects to later science learning goals (national research council, 2012). science across classroom contexts few studies have investigated naturally occurring early science learning opportunities in preschool classrooms (piasta et al., 2014; rumper et al., 2021; tu, 2006). although science can be promoted throughout various contexts, it is often misperceived as an isolated content domain. due to this misconception, a great deal of research on science education in early childhood classrooms has portrait of early science education in majority dual language... 237 focused on science as an isolated learning experience (brenneman et al., 2009; gerde et al., 2013). given the boundless definition described by the framework for k-12 science education, science learning can occur across multiple early childhood classroom contexts. this perspective has been adopted in several studies (neuman, 1972; piasta et al., 2014; tu, 2006). neuman (1972) viewed these opportunities as “formal”, “informal”, and “incidental sciencing”. piasta and colleagues (2014) investigated the science and math opportunities occurring in head start classrooms throughout the day and found variation across classrooms regarding the amount of time spent on science and math. however, no study to date has explored science learning opportunities that are embedded across preschool classroom contexts (i.e., circle time, story time, and dramatic play). while these informal opportunities for science learning are present across multiple contexts, little research has explored how teachers support children’s engagement in science practices and understanding of core ideas throughout a typical classroom day. circle time is a context teachers could use to introduce science content prior to a hands-on investigation and provide opportunities for children to engage in science practices. for example, a teacher may pass around seeds at circle time for children to use their senses to make observations and make a plan for an investigation to understand what seeds need to receive in order to grow. story time is another classroom context that can support children’s science learning as teachers can encourage children to observe and describe attributes of objects within a book (e.g., the shape of various fruits), make predictions about what may happen next (e.g., the sun will dry the puddles from the rain), and note crosscutting concepts (e.g., the wind caused the girl’s hat to blow off) (kook & greenfield, 2021). dramatic play is another context that lends itself well to supporting children’s science learning. for example, a teacher may help children think about the crosscutting concept of scale, proportion, and quantity and help them engage in the science practice of using math as they set the table with plates and pretend food. the current study aims to expand upon this by examining teacher use of science practices and core ideas from the early science framework (greenfield et al., 2017; national research council, 2012) that occur during a science lesson, circle time, story time, and dramatic play. science as hands-on and minds-on learning for dll children several recent studies have highlighted the importance of leveraging science as an engaging domain to create high-quality early learning experiences for dll children (brenneman et al., 2019; lange et al., 2021) as early science learning experiences are associated with later science achievement (french, 2004; peterson & french, 2008). typically, developmentally appropriate pedagogy in preschool is based on hands-on and cognitively engaging (i.e., minds-on) experiences that are responsive to children’s identities and cultures (naeyc, 2020). science includes hands-on contextual learning (trundle & smith, 2017), where teachers can use different modalities to explore relevant science content and to determine dll children’s understanding of the material (e.g., through drawings, actions, etc.) (lee et al., 2006). thus, even if dll children do not yet know the words to express their understanding of phenomena (e.g., changing the angle of a ramp changes the distance a ball rolls) they are able to demonstrate their knowledge. additionally, having hands-on experiences is particularly important for dll children as it can decrease cognitive load and facilitate language learning (lee et al., 2006). early science opportunities also include a minds-on component, where children are challenged to think critically to identify and solve problems. given that science is a rich learning domain with the potential to increase hands-on and minds-on inquiry for young dlls, there is a need to support teachers in integrating it into their classrooms. currently, however, there is a lack of research examining how science is implemented in preschool classrooms with spanish-english dll children. language support around science in addition to a need to support early scientific inquiry, dll children also require home language support in the classroom. prior literature demonstrates that when teachers use spanish in the classroom, spanish-english dll children have higher language, math, social-emotional skills, and better approaches to learning (burchinal et al., 2012; chang et al., 2007; limlingan et al., 2020, limlingan et al., brooke rumper et al. 238 2021; raikes et al., 2019). however, many studies have found that spanish is often used infrequently, if at all, within preschool classrooms (franco et al., 2019; sawyer et al., 2018). thus, begging the question, “how are teachers using english and spanish to discuss and engage in science?”. this could be a fundamental question as dll children enter preschool programs with varying levels of english (baker & wright, 2017) and may not comprehend the specific science content vocabulary due to language barriers. one prior study (rumper et al., 2021) found that teachers used a mix of english and spanish during science lessons to support dll children; however, it is unknown whether this language support around science extends to other typical contexts in early childhood classrooms. thus, more research is needed to understand how teachers use english and spanish to discuss and support science across classroom contexts. science as a learning domain for supporting children’s academic outcomes at a child level, studies have demonstrated associations between children’s science scores and their language (guo et al., 2016; westerberg et al., 2021), ef (frechette et al., 2021; gropen et al., 2011; nayfeld et al., 2013), approaches to learning (bustamante et al., 2017), and math skills (kermani & aldemir, 2015). previous intervention studies indicate that when preschool teachers engage in science, there are gains in children’s outcomes across multiple learning domains (guo et al., 2016; saçkes et al., 2020; vitiello et al., 2019; whittaker et al., 2020). studies have specifically shown that children make gains in their vocabulary when teachers are involved in science interventions (guo et al., 2016). more research, however, needs to be conducted to determine how specific teacher-level factors are related to children’s academic outcomes in other domains like math, science, and ef. the few studies that have examined associations between teachers' use of science in the preschool classroom and child outcomes have exhibited mixed findings. one study conducted by whittaker and colleagues (2020) investigated the effects of a science intervention, myteachingpartnermath/science, on children’s math and science outcomes and found differences between treatment and control groups. children whose teachers were involved in an intervention had higher math and science outcomes than children whose teachers were not. another study discovered trend-level associations (i.e., p < .10) between teachers’ use of scientific and engineering practices and children’s science outcomes (vitiello et al., 2019). in naturalistic observations, piasta and colleagues (2015) found that children in classrooms with more opportunities for science and math learning had higher math and science outcomes. however, in other studies examining early classroom science experiences, opportunities for science learning were not associated with children’s concurrent or long-term science outcomes (saçkes et al., 2011; saçkes et al.,2013). given mixed findings from prior studies, it is important to further examine how science teaching relates to children’s academic outcomes. current study the current study aims to fill several gaps in the literature by examining the state of science learning opportunities in preschool classrooms. additionally, little is known about teachers’ use of english and spanish support for dll children around science. finally, this study aims to fill the research gap surrounding the relation between teachers’ engagement in science as defined by the k-12 framework for science education (national research council, 2012) and children’s academic outcomes. research questions and hypotheses to address the gaps in the literature, the present study 1) describes science lessons conducted in majority dll head start classrooms and opportunities for early science learning throughout the day, 2) examines how preschool teachers use english and spanish language when discussing science practices and core ideas and, 3) and examines relations between teachers’ science use throughout the day and children’s academic outcomes (i.e., science, math, executive functioning, and vocabulary). portrait of early science education in majority dual language... 239 the first aim is exploratory in nature and descriptive. given the community in which this study took place, it was hypothesized that teachers would use a mix of english and spanish in discussing practices and core ideas (rumper et al., 2021). it was hypothesized that children whose teachers discussed more practices and core ideas would have higher academic outcomes. method participants lead and assistant teachers (n = 66) were recruited from 34 majority spanish-english dll classrooms across six head start centers during the 2017-2018 school year. most teachers in the study reported being hispanic (92.40%). see table 1 for demographics. all teachers were female and had an average of 12.52 years of experience teaching preschool (sd = 6.25). the majority of teachers reported having a bachelor’s degree (56.10%). teachers also had varying levels of experience with science professional development. the majority reported having received a moderate (53.00%) or minimal (22.70%) amount of professional development workshops focused on early science education. table 1. teacher level demographics % m sd ethnicity hispanic 92.40% race white non-hispanic 6.10% black non-hispanic 1.50% years teaching 12.52 6.25 highest level of education high school diploma or ged 7.60% some college no degree 12.10% associate degree 15.20% bachelor’s degree 56.10% some graduate courses no degree 1.50% master’s, doctoral, medical, law or other professional degree 7.60% science professional development none 6.10% minimal amount 22.70% moderate amount 53.00% great deal 18.20% primary language spanish 81.80% english ability 2.67 .92 not at all 9.10% not well 36.40% well 33.30% very well 21.20% spanish ability 3.32 1.00 not at all 7.60% not well 15.20% well 15.20% very well 62.10% note. n = 66. many teachers reported speaking some level of english, ranging from “not at all” (9.10%) to “very well” (21.20%). most teachers in the study reported being able to speak some level of spanish. reports ranged from “not at all” (7.60%) to “very well” (62.10%). on average, teachers reported having higher levels of spanish proficiency (m = 3.32, sd = 1.00) than english proficiency (m = 2.67, sd = .92). a total of 411 spanish-english dll head start children were also recruited for participation as part of a larger study. children ranged in age from 37 to 63 months (m = 49.28, sd = 6.69) and 48.40% were female. classrooms contained an average of 18.83 (sd = 1.94) spanish-english dll children out of an average total of 19.73 (sd = 1.38) children per classroom. while head start performance standards brooke rumper et al. 240 state that teachers should support dll children’s english and home language development (head start program performance standards, 2018), there is little guidance about how much each language should be used. procedure using a mixed methods approach, the current study sought to describe science occurring in majority spanish-english dll preschool classrooms and to examine relations between science instances and children’s academic outcomes. this study was observational in nature. the current study was approved by the institutional review board of the university of miami, protocol #20171061. all data collection took place during the 2017-2018 school year. head start center directors were approached as part of a larger study, enfoque en ciencia (institute of education sciences grant# r305a130612), and if they opted to participate, teachers and parents were invited to join. participation in the study was voluntary. during the consenting process, teachers were told that the researchers were interested in learning about children’s development and factors that might affect it. participating teachers were asked to carry out four classroom routines (i.e., science lesson, circle time, story time, and dramatic play) as they normally would. they were also informed that these settings would be video recorded by trained research staff. consenting teachers received gift cards for their participation in this study. parents were consented for their child’s participation in the study. they were told that researchers were interested in learning about children’s development and school readiness and that their child would be videotaped and assessed if they chose to take part in the study. in the fall of 2017, all children were assessed using a language screener to determine their dominant, or stronger language and ef. in the spring of 2018, children were assessed in their dominant language on science, math, and vocabulary measures. teachers’ classrooms were video-recorded on one or two mornings during the spring. classrooms were video-recorded for 15-20 minutes in the following contexts: a science lesson, circle time, story time, and dramatic play for an average total of 58.18 minutes (sd = 12.45). the topic of the science lesson and the delivery format (e.g., whole group, small group, outside, etc.) were the teacher’s choice. english-spanish bilingual undergraduate research assistants were trained to transcribe videos using systematic analysis of language transcripts (salt) (miller et al., 2011) conventions. transcripts were coded for scientific and engineering practices and disciplinary core ideas using a rubric aligning with the k-12 conceptual framework for science education (national research council, 2012) and the early science framework (greenfield et al., 2017). see table 2 for a description of specific science practices and core ideas coded and appendix a for the codebook. teachers’ english and spanish language use were coded at a word level. measures scientific and engineering practices and disciplinary core ideas all videos collected were transcribed according to salt conventions (miller et al., 2011). thus, utterances were segmented into c-units, or independent clauses and all of their modifiers. the early science framework (greenfield et al., 2017), derived from the k-12 framework for science education (national research council, 2012), was used to create a codebook including scientific and engineering practices and core ideas. scientific and engineering practices and core ideas and were coded by a graduate student and undergraduate researchers in both english and spanish at the c-unit level. for example, if a teacher used a practice or core idea in a c-unit, it was coded as that practice or core idea. core ideas were defined as facts around science that teachers stated or requested from children. portrait of early science education in majority dual language... 241 table 2. scientific and engineering practices and disciplinary core ideas coded scientific and engineering practices: the behaviors that scientists engage in to explore and develop knowledge. science component description making observations how teachers encourage or help children use their senses and tools for observation to collect information about their world (e.g., using their hands to feel if a rock is smooth or rough; examining a caterpillar with a magnifying glass). asking questions and defining problems how teachers encourage or help children to ask larger questions about what they know and what they do not (e.g., “what’s inside of a ball?”) or to identify something that needs a solution (e.g., “the juice spilled on the floor and we need to clean it up”). making predictions how teachers encourage or help children use knowledge from observations and prior experiences to make an informed hypothesis (e.g., “this rock is heavy. i think it will sink in the water”). developing and using models how teachers encourage or help children to mentally and physically represent real-world phenomena to develop and deepen their understanding (e.g., drawing a house and building it in the block center). planning and carrying out investigations how teachers encourage or help children organize and implement a procedure to test a hypothesis (e.g., rolling marbles down ramps of varying inclines to see which one goes faster). using math and computational thinking how teachers encourage or help children to use mathematics to quantify and describe their world (e.g., measuring the height of two plants and deciding which one is taller). documenting how teachers encourage or help children record and organize data (e.g., drawing pictures to show which objects “sink” or “float” during an experiment). analyzing and interpreting data how teachers encourage or help children make sense of data (e.g., determining which objects “sink” or “float” after an experiment). constructing explanations and designing solutions how teachers encourage or help children interpret data to generate evidence-based answers to their questions and design solutions to problems (e.g., “i know spiders are alive because they crawl”). disciplinary core ideas: the content that provides a context for engaging in practices and developing an understanding of crosscutting concepts. physical science when teachers discuss, encourage children to discuss, or help children to learn about: • matter and its interactions • motion and stability • energy, light and sound waves, and their applications life science when teachers discuss, encourage children to discuss, or help children to learn about: • molecules and organisms • ecosystems • heredity and traits • biological evolution earth and space science when teachers discuss, encourage children to discuss, or help children to learn about: • earth’s place in the universe • earth’s systems • earth and human activity engineering and technology when teachers discuss, encourage children to discuss, or help children to learn about: • engineering design • links among engineering, technology, science, and society math when teachers discuss, encourage children to discuss, or help children to learn about: • shapes, sizes, sorting, patterning, and counting note: this differs from the practice “using math and computational thinking” in that the content focuses on math as a learning goal and not an action. note. adapted from the early science framework (greenfield et al., 2017) and the framework for k-12 science education (national research council, 2012). brooke rumper et al. 242 undergraduate research assistants were trained to use the codebook derived from the early science framework. transcripts were randomly assigned to researchers and coded using atlas.ti version 8.0. all research assistants were required to pass reliability with a krippendorf’s alpha of .67 or higher (hayes & krippendorff, 2007). on average, reliability for practices was α = .82, and for core ideas, α = .79. teacher use of spanish and english in practices and core ideas teachers’ use of spanish and english during practices and core ideas were also coded in atlas.ti version 8.0. research assistants coded english and spanish at the individual word level or as tokens to account for code-switching. for example, on some occasions, teachers would say “baking soda” in english and the rest of the utterance in spanish. proper nouns, filled pause words, and singing were not coded as english or spanish. if coders were unable to determine if a word was english or spanish (e.g., solar, rural, etc.), they went back to the recording. using the codes from practices and core ideas and english and spanish language codes, percent scores were computed. for example, to determine the percent of english used during practices, the number of english words used during practices was divided by the total number of english and spanish words used during practices and multiplied by 100. this process was used to calculate four scores for each teacher: percent of english used during practices, percent of spanish used during practices, percent of english used during core ideas, and percent of spanish used during core ideas. dominant language children were assessed using a language screener in english and spanish to determine their dominant, or stronger language using two subtests of the prelas2000 (duncan & de avila, 1998). the art show subtest was used to gauge children’s expressive language and has a reliability of α = .90. the simon says subtest was used to screen children’s receptive language skills and has a cronbach’s alpha of .88. the use of these two subtests to screen head start dll children has been deemed valid and reliable (rainelli et al., 2017). children’s english art show and simon says were added to create an “english” score and their scores on the spanish versions of these subtests were added to create a “spanish” score. the “english” and “spanish” scores were compared. if english was higher, children were deemed “english dominant” and received subsequent assessments in english. comparably, if the spanish score was higher, children were deemed “spanish dominant” and received the remaining assessments in spanish. science to measure science achievement, children were assessed in their dominant language on lens on science or enfoque en ciencia (greenfield, 2015). lens and enfoque are equated english and spanish versions of a computer adaptive irt-based science assessment. these measures were created to assess a range of preschool children’s science knowledge as it relates to the framework for k-12 science education (national research council, 2012). it covers the following areas: scientific and engineering practices, crosscutting concepts, and core ideas. lens and enfoque have a reliability of .86 when the standard error is fixed at .34 as it was for this study. the assessment has a pool of 498 items calibrated using the dichotomous rasch model. generally, children receive a subset of around 35 items that are tailored to their ability level. lens and enfoque are administered on a touchscreen computer and children wear headphones to hear prompts instructing them to respond. math the research-based early mathematics assessment-brief (rema-brief) (clements et al., 2008) was used to measure children’s math abilities. the rema-brief is a valid and reliable tool for detecting differences in children’s math achievement and is appropriate for use with preschool children. the assessment is composed of 20 items and is directly administered to children by an assessor. it is designed to cover a range of early math skills, including numerals, subitizing, counting, comparing numbers, portrait of early science education in majority dual language... 243 composing numbers, shape, composing shapes, and patterning. it has an overall reliability of .94 and demonstrates concurrent validity with the ppvt (.74). all assessors were trained rigorously to administer the rema-brief to preschool children and to code their answers for correctness. executive function (ef) children’s ef skills were measured using the pencil tap task from the preschool self-regulation assessment (psra) (rueda et al., 2005; smith-donald et al., 2007). pencil tap task is a direct assessment that measures children’s inhibition, working memory, and cognitive flexibility. during this assessment, children are instructed to tap their pencil once if the assessor taps their pencil twice and vice versa. each child is administered 16 trials and a score is obtained by taking the percent of the total number of correct trials. the pencil tap task demonstrates measurement equivalence across race (i.e., african american children), ethnicity (i.e., hispanic children), and sex (denham et al., 2012). it has good concurrent and construct validity (smith-donald et al., 2007) and has a reliability intraclass correlation of 1.00. vocabulary the picture vocabulary (vocabulario de dibujos) subtest of the woodcock muñoz language survey-revised normative update (wmls-r) (schrank et al., 2010) was used to assess children’s vocabulary. this subtest of the wmls-r measures vocabulary and verbal ability in english and spanish. children name a series of stimulus pictures, which are arranged from familiar to not familiar. the reliability of this subtest is 0.91. results descriptive statistics descriptive analyses and aims 1 and 2 were conducted using spss version 26 (george & mallery, 2005). overall teachers used more utterances discussing practices (m = 218.72, sd = 121.97) than core ideas (m = 94.85, sd = 87.82), t(410) = -5.67, p < .001. zero-order correlations and descriptive statistics for child and teacher level variables are reported in table 3. all child-level academic outcomes (i.e., math, science, ef, and vocabulary) were positively correlated with one another. age was also positively associated with all of the children’s academic outcomes. sex was only significantly associated with vocabulary, where girls scored higher than boys. dominant language was associated with children’s math and science scores, where english dominant children scored higher on these assessments than spanish dominant children. there was a weak positive correlation between teachers’ documenting, and children’s math scores (r2 = .02). making predictions was negatively associated with children’s science scores (r2 = .01). developing and using models was positively related to children’s ef scores, where earth and space science was negatively related to children’s ef scores (r2 = .02). many of the practices were positively associated with one another. for example, planning and carrying out investigations was positively associated with analyzing and interpreting data, asking questions and defining problems, constructing explanations, and developing and using models. conversely, the core ideas tended to be negatively associated, perhaps because teachers focused on one content topic as opposed to discussing multiple topics. for example, earth and space science was negatively associated with all other core ideas. there were significant positive associations between words teachers used during practices in english and words used during core ideas used in english (r2 = .12). the relation between words used in spanish during practices and core ideas was also positive (r2 = .44). spanish and english words used during practices were negatively associated (r2 = .19). description of science in majority dual language learning head start classrooms science lessons physical science lessons were most frequently taught (50.00%) followed by life science (23.50%), earth and space science (17.60%), and engineering and technology/math (8.80%) (see table 4). making observations was the most frequently used practice, while developing and using models was the least brooke rumper et al. 244 table 3. child and teacher level descriptive statistics and correlations note. means and standard deviations are reported as raw values. vocabulary is reported as a w score. practices and core ideas are totals from across all contexts. portrait of early science education in majority dual language... 245 table 4. descriptions of science lessons by core idea, topic, and materials core idea topic materials earth and space science blowing/wind straws, blue water, plates rain plastic cups, water, sponges, dropper, plastic syringes, bottom half of plastic bottle wind piece of paper, wooden blocks, feathers, cotton balls, writing utensils planet earth worksheet activity, pencils, colors, scissors volcanoes volcano label, 3d box with dinosaur models, plastic sheet to protect table, 3 empty water bottles, 2 bottles of vinegar, baking soda, dawn dish detergent, food coloring, 2 brown cones, spoon, sheet of paper for use as cone, dinosaur toys volcanoes baking soda, vinegar, dish soap, funnel, empty water bottle, color food dye, bowl, sand life science eggs eggs (one boiled, one not boiled), chart, chart paper, balance, scale, water bin plant project beans, cups, water, cotton balls plant project cotton balls, plastic bowls, water, seeds/beans life cycle of a chicken drawings of a chicken, egg, baby chicken animals siamese fighting fish, pictures of animals, a shell, plastic animal toys plants (tomatoes) what tomatoes need to grow, paper and markers living and non-living plants, trays, various objects germs microscope, balloons, sink (water, soap, paper towels) engineering and technology/math counting and measuring white sheet, crayons, counting blocks, children's hands shapes and lines shapes made from horizontal and vertical lines (squares and triangle), paper, markers, scissors 3d shapes markers, scissors, paper plates, glue physical science sink or float tub of water, wooden blocks, paper clips, rocks, rubber duck, boat, sponge sink or float tub of water, chart, crayon, foam block, shell, cork, pencil, wooden block, ball, paper clip, rock sink or float tub of water, a coin, scissors, paper clip, wood, feathers, rock, plastic fork, plastic football, flower sink or float tub of water, various knick-knacks (rocks, fuzzy pom-poms, crayon, dinosaur toy, shark toy, cork, building blocks, puzzle pieces, stick, button, straw, cardboard box piece) sink or float tub of water, container of various objects (basketball, pumpkin, pig, sailboats, ball, banana, cup, bat, butterfly, coin, wooden block, frying pan, feather, airplane) sink or float tub of water, various knick-knacks (plastic cup, tomato, bat toy, wooden blocks, plastic block, plane toy, rock, butterfly toy, basketball, seashell, banana, baby bottle) sink or float tub of water, foam dice, wooden block, coin, feather, scissors, chart cooking (making caterpillars) celery, cream cheese, raisins, knives cooking (making smoothies) water, lemon juice, sugar, strawberries, cups, spoons, straws colors of the rainbow paint (rainbow colors), plastic cups, paintbrushes, paper solids and liquids ice, paper towel, water, spoons solutions and suspensions sand, water, sugar, cups, spoons mixing materials foam cup, sand, measuring cup, tub of water, paper, pencils, eraser bubbles dish soap, water, cups, straws magnet paper plates labeled 'magnetic' and 'not magnetic', magnets, rock, wooden block, magnetic letter, paper clips, clip, key chain, nail, bottle cap color mixing paper cup, paintbrush, white paper, colors (red and yellow) volcano (acid/base reaction) empty water bottles, vinegar, baking soda, measuring spoons, cups, balloons funnel brooke rumper et al. 246 used. the most frequently observed science lesson was on “sink or float” (20.59%), where teachers generally used a bin filled with water and a variety of objects to test whether items rose to the top of the water or sank to the bottom. several teachers also conducted lessons around volcanos (8.82%). two of these teachers focused on aspects of volcanoes related to earth and space science (i.e., volcanoes are openings in the earth’s crust that erupt). the other teacher focused more on the acid/base reaction occurring in a model volcano. science lessons discussing animals (11.76%) and plants (8.82%) were other common topics covered. teachers were not instructed to carry out science lessons in any particular format (e.g., in whole group or small group). however, most teachers carried out lessons in small groups with an average of 9.21 (sd = 2.64) children in each science lesson. during all science lessons, teachers gave children opportunities for some type of hands-on interaction with materials. science in other classroom contexts not only did teachers engage in scientific practices and core ideas during science lessons, but also other contexts within the classroom. generally, circle time was used as a time to prepare children for the rest of the day. during circle time, teachers frequently took attendance, sang songs, and assigned classroom jobs. they also discussed the weather and phonics during this time. in a few cases, circle time was used to introduce topics that teachers planned to cover in science lessons or discuss ongoing projects. one such class was engaged in an ongoing project about tomatoes. the teacher of this classroom used circle time to review what children had learned about tomatoes. t ¿nuestro proyecto es el tomate, verdad? our project is about tomatoes, right? c sí. yes t our project is the tomato. t what did you learn about tomato? t ¿qué ustedes han aprendido sobre el tomate? what did you all learn about tomatoes? c sembrarlo. plant it. t que el tomate hay que sembrarlo. that you have to plant tomatoes. t ¿sembramos el tomate? do we plant tomatoes? c no, sí, sí sí. no, yes, yes, yes. c hay que sembrar la semilla. you have to plant the seed. t hay que sembrar la semilla. you have to plant the seed. during story time, several teachers chose informational books that were specifically about science topics (e.g., insects, animals, etc.). other teachers integrated science into works of fiction. for example, one teacher read about two caterpillars who did not get along. this teacher used the book to incorporate life science facts about caterpillars and butterflies. t and she said that uh, clara_caterpillar, clara is a caterpillar? c no. t what is [it] now? c a butterfly. t now [it] is a butterfly. t and what butterfly have? t how they move? c wings. t wings. portrait of early science education in majority dual language... 247 finally, teachers and children also engaged in science during an informal setting: dramatic play. most dramatic play areas contained dress-up clothes, dolls, and kitchen materials. common topics of discussion around science included pretending to cook or playing doctor. while a child was pretended to be a doctor, one teacher discussed how medical tools were used. t ¿y tú qué estás haciendo ahí? what are you doing here? t ¿para qué se usa el estetoscopio? what do you use a stethoscope for? c para oír el corazón. to hear the heart. t para oír el corazón. to hear the heart. t a ver, mira a ver si tú me puedes oír el mío. let’s see if you can hear mine. science opportunities throughout the day to examine differences in the types of practices and core ideas occurring throughout different classroom contexts, the raw number of each practice in a given context was divided by the number of minutes in each video to control for the duration (e.g., the raw number of making observations in circle time/duration of circle time). this process was also done to calculate the number of core ideas. therefore, analyses and in-text means represent practices or core ideas/minute. to identify whether there were differences in the number of practices/minute occurring in difference classroom contexts, a 4x9 repeated measures analysis of covariance (ancova) was conducted (see table 5 for raw means). there was a significant main effect of classroom context when controlling for teachers’ highest level of education, f(1.03, 33.05) = 12.74, p < .001. in post hoc tests using bonferroni corrections, there were significantly more practices occurring during science lessons (m = 1.72, se = .30) than circle time (m = .08, se = .02; p < .001), dramatic play (m = .03, se = .02; p < .001), and story time (m = .07, se = .04; p < .001). there was also a significant main effect of type of practice teachers engaged in with children, f(1.36, 43.56) = 12.42, p < .001. examining post hoc tests, teachers analyzed and interpreted data (m = .63, se = .13) more than asking questions (m = .02, se = .01; p < .01) and constructing explanations (m = .17, se = .04; p < .05). teachers also did more planning and carrying out investigations (m = .78, se = .10) than asking questions and defining problems (m = .02, se = .01; p < .001), constructing explanations (m = .17, se = .04; p < .001), developing and using models (m = .13, se = .06; p < .001) and using math and computational thinking (m = .38, se = .09; p < .01). finally, teachers used math and computational thinking more than asking questions and defining problems (m = .02, se = .01; p < .01). comparisons between practices indicated that teachers discussed and engaged children in some more than others. for example, teachers analyzed and interpreted data more frequently than asking questions and defining problems. asking questions and defining problems was not coded for each individual question teachers asked children, but rather, larger questions about how to solve a problem (e.g., “we’re going to see what type of objects sink and which ones float.”). if teachers explicitly asked a question or defined a problem, it generally occurred one time at the introduction of a science lesson. whereas when teachers analyzed and interpreted data, it occurred after an investigation had happened. teachers often helped multiple individual children analyze their outcomes many times throughout the lesson (e.g., “did your object sink or float?”, “what about your object?”, etc.). analyzing and interpreting data also occurred more frequently than constructing explanations. constructing explanations was defined as teachers supporting children in summarizing what they learned in a given experience (e.g., “the objects that are heavy are the ones that go to the bottom.”). these tended to happen towards the end of the science lesson, if at all, and overall were used fairly infrequently across lessons. brooke rumper et al. 248 table 5. descriptive statistics for practices and core ideas occurring in different classroom contexts note. n = 34. means and standard deviations are reported as raw values. similar to analyzing and interpreting data, supporting children in planning investigations and encouraging individual children to investigate occurred frequently. for example, in a sink or float lesson, teachers asked each child one at a time to place their object into a bin of water. thus, each child carried out their own mini-investigation while supported and encouraged by the teachers. planning and carrying out investigations occurred more than asking questions and defining problems, constructing explanations, developing and using models, and using math and computational thinking. a 4x5 repeated measures analysis of covariance (ancova) was conducted to examine differences in the types of core ideas/minute occurring throughout different classroom settings, controlling for teachers’ highest level of education. there was no significant main effect for classroom context when discussing core ideas, f(1.36, 42.78) = 3.42, p > .05. there was a significant main effect of type of core idea discussed, f(1.12, 35.76) = 5.91, p < .05. teachers discussed more life science (m = 1.34, se = .40) than engineering and technology (m = .06, se = .02; p < .05) and math (m = .01, se = .01; p < .05). teachers also discussed more physical science (m = .21, se = .05) than math (m = .01, se = .01; p < .01). although there were no differences in the amount of core ideas that happened between classroom contexts, there were differences in the types of core ideas discussed. while the most common core idea taught during science lessons was physical science, teachers used more utterances throughout the day to discuss life science with children than engineering and technology and math. most of the science lessons that were coded as engineering and technology were more math-based and had minimal engineering. for example, one teacher discussed lines for the majority of a science lesson. however, towards the end of this lesson, children began constructing shapes with these lines. very little, if any, building occurred. likewise, teachers also discussed physical science more than math as a core idea. within this study, most teachers chose a science lesson that fit into the category of physical science. circle time dramatic play science lesson story time m sd m sd m sd m sd scientific and engineering practices analyzing and interpreting data 0.74 2.30 0.31 1.29 33.79 32.67 0.12 0.69 asking questions and defining problems 0.21 0.64 0.00 0.00 1.18 1.68 0.03 0.17 constructing explanations 0.24 0.96 0.18 1.03 10.79 17.01 0.03 0.17 developing and using models 0.06 0.34 0.31 1.80 9.82 34.29 0.00 0.00 documenting 3.26 13.96 0.04 0.26 12.97 19.44 0.00 0.00 making observations 4.15 9.59 2.13 6.42 41.82 55.32 4.00 9.54 making predictions 2.00 10.14 0.24 0.96 21.85 26.45 1.12 4.29 planning and carrying out investigations 1.59 4.42 0.79 3.28 47.68 36.47 0.21 0.85 using math and computational thinking 1.47 6.21 0.18 0.72 21.97 28.75 1.03 2.30 disciplinary core ideas earth and space science 2.74 6.60 1.41 7.37 10.82 31.99 2.94 7.56 engineering and technology 1.32 4.46 0.49 1.44 1.65 4.31 0.44 2.57 life science 16.68 29.21 4.38 9.71 19.38 37.16 19.06 32.28 physical science 0.68 2.98 0.38 1.35 9.76 13.49 2.50 7.72 math 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.74 3.11 0.00 0.00 portrait of early science education in majority dual language... 249 spanish and english use when discussing practices and core ideas a two-way repeated measures ancova was conducted controlling for teachers’ highest level of education and primary language to determine if there were differences in teachers’ use of spanish and english when discussing practices. there were no differences between teachers’ use of spanish (m = 51.27%, sd = 39.47) and english (m = 48.73%, sd = 39.47) when discussing or encouraging practices, f(1,30) = .17, p > .05. there was an interaction between teachers’ primary language and the use of spanish and english when discussing practices, f(1,30) = 10.93, p < . 01. teachers who reported that spanish was their primary language used significantly more spanish (m = 59.80, sd = 36.67) than teachers whose primary language was english (m = 3.50, sd = 5.01). another two-way repeated measures ancova was also conducted controlling for teachers’ highest level of education and primary language to determine if there were differences in teachers’ use of spanish and english when discussing core ideas. there were no differences between teachers’ use of spanish (m = 56.45%, sd = 36.57) and english (m = 43.55%, sd = 36.57) when discussing or encouraging core ideas, f(1,30) = .06, p > .05. there was an interaction between teachers’ primary language and the use of spanish and english when discussing practices, f(1,30) = 15.41, p < .001. teachers who reported that spanish was their primary language used significantly more spanish (m = 65.21, sd = 32.25%) than teachers whose primary language was english (m = 7.37, sd = 11.43). associations between use of scientific and engineering practices and core ideas and children’s academic outcomes a multilevel structural equation model (msem) in mplus version 8.3 (muthén & muthén, 2018) was used to determine if using practices and core ideas were related to children’s science, math, ef, and vocabulary outcomes. to account for nesting, children were clustered within classrooms using type = twolevel. an intercept-only model was conducted to determine the amount of variance attributable to the classroom level in children’s academic outcomes. iccs were calculated and very little variance was explained by classroom-level factors for science (0.27%), math (2.01%), ef (3.33%), and vocabulary (0.24%). when examining whether scientific and engineering practices used throughout the day were associated with children’s science, math, ef, and vocabulary outcomes, model fit was excellent across fit indices for x2 (2, n = 411) = 2.671, p > .05, rmsea= .03, cfi = 1.00, srmrwithin =.02, and srmrbetween =.01. when controlling for children’s age, sex, and dominant language, developing and using models was positively associated with children’s science, math, and ef outcomes (see table 6). when controlling for children’s age, sex, and dominant language, making observations was positively associated with children’s math and ef outcomes. there were no other significant associations between the use of scientific and engineering practices and children’s science, math, ef, or vocabulary outcomes. msem was also used to determine if core ideas taught throughout the day were associated with children’s science, math, ef, and vocabulary outcomes. again, children were clustered within classrooms using type = twolevel. model fit was excellent across fit indices for x2(2, n = 411) = 2.63, p > .05, rmsea =.03, cfi = 1.00, srmrwithin = .02, and srmrbetween = .01. controlling for age, sex, and dominant language, physical science was positively associated with children’s science outcomes, while life science was positively related to children’s math outcomes. teaching math content positively predicted children’s ef outcomes. brooke rumper et al. 250 table 6. associations between children’s academic outcomes and scientific and engineering practices and disciplinary core ideas throughout the day note. ~p < .10, *p < .05, **p < .01,***p < .001 discussion the current study fills a gap in the literature around the need to better understand early science education in preschool classrooms. this study is the first to examine how science is embedded in majority spanish-english dll head start classrooms and found that opportunities for science learning occurred across settings. furthermore, it investigated the language used by teachers to discuss and engage children in science; finding that teachers used both english and spanish when discussing practices and core ideas. finally, the current study is the first to demonstrate relations between specific science components from the framework for k-12 science education (national research council, 2012) and children’s academic outcomes. describing science in majority dll classrooms most teachers in this study chose physical science as a core idea (50.00%) when teaching science lessons. this result differed from another study which reported that preschool teachers taught life science most frequently (56.5% of lessons) (vitiello et al., 2019). the topics teachers tended to cover during science lessons in this study were stereotypical science topics (e.g., sink or float lessons, volcanos, plants, animals, etc.). in a study conducted by vitiello et al. (2019), teachers chose lessons about animals and human beings most frequently. in the current study, there were instances in which teachers chose less typical science lessons, like covering topics about states of matter. for example, in one lesson on model 1 model 2 science math executive function vocab science math executive function vocab b(se) b(se) b(se) b(se) b(se) b(se) b(se) b(se) age .48(.05)*** .45(.05)*** .45(.05)*** .44(.05)*** 0.47(.05)*** .44(.05)*** .44(.05)*** .44(.05)*** sex (1 = boy) -.11(.05)* .01(.05) -.12(.05)* -.16(.05)** -0.11(.05)* .01(.05) -.12(.05)* -.16(.05)** dominant language (1 = english dominant) .17(.05)** .13(.05)* .05(.05) -.02(.05) 0.18(.05)*** .14(.05)** .05(.05) -.01(.05) analyzing and interpreting data -.04(.48) -.03(38) .13(.30) .37(.49) asking questions and defining problems .14(.58) .17(.43) .34(.31) -.20(.52) constructing explanations .34(.64) .16(36) .34(.26) .30(.46) developing and using models -.27(.50) -18(.30) .42(.21)* .07(.34) documenting .38(.65) .47(.41) -.13(.26) .69(.72)~ making observations .39(.71) .78(.58)* .62(.28)* .35(.53) making predictions -1.04(1.50)~ -.75(.64)~ -.20(.34) -.57(.67) planning and carrying out investigations .17(.55) -.24(.43) .50(.27)~ .16(.51) using math and computational thinking -.05(.48) .35(.41) -.43(.29) .47(.60) earth and space science .34(.74) .59(.60) -.02(.33) .77(1.03) engineering and technology -.49(.97) -.57(.60) -.11(.31) -.24(.58) life science .41(.86) .88(.80)* .56(.34)~ -.03(.49) physical science .96(1.81)* .59(.57) .54(.33)~ .55(.77) math .59(1.13) .63(.60)~ .59(.32)* .59(.85) portrait of early science education in majority dual language... 251 melting, a teacher implemented an actual hands-on experience. children were given two ice cubes, asked to hold one in their hand and to put the other one in a spoon. they were then asked to see which one melted faster. the differences in topics covered could demonstrate the variation in the types of science lessons teachers feel comfortable teaching (brenneman et al., 2009). results from this study also indicate that science is explored across multiple preschool contexts in majority dll classrooms. this is consistent with prior studies (piasta et al., 2014) where teachers promoted science learning opportunities throughout the day. when examining the practices that teachers engaged children in, the majority occurred during science lessons—demonstrating that it may be important for teachers to plan experiences that actively engage children in science. there were differences in the amount of each practice used by teachers potentially due to the nature of the particular practice. for example, some practices like planning and carrying or carrying out investigations naturally lent themselves to be used more often. teachers helped and encouraged multiple children to engage in planning and carrying out investigations during a given context. conversely, some practices, like constructing explantations, occurred less frequently. the practice of constructing explanations may be more challenging for teachers to support children as it requires having a learning goal for children and being able to summarize what children have learned succinctly. there were no differences in the total amount of core ideas that occurred in different classroom contexts, indicating that teachers in this study used contexts equally to support children’s science content knowledge. however, there were differences in the amount of each type of core idea teachers taught. life science utterances occurred more frequently than engineering and technology and math. very little engineering occurred across contexts. perhaps, examining other contexts that were more suited towards constructing (e.g., the block area) would uncover more discussions around engineering. interestingly, technology was also rarely discussed. despite young children’s growing access to devices, even in lower-income communities (griffith et al., 2019), teachers rarely discussed tools or technology. this finding was similar to vitiello and colleagues (2019), who reported that teachers rarely used science tools. similarly, math was generally used infrequently as a core idea across classroom settings. this is consistent with a preponderance of literature in early childhood education that educators tend to focus more on literacy and language skills than science and math (banse, 2019; greenfield et al., 2009). physical science was also discussed fairly frequently across settings. teachers were asked to conduct a science lesson and were not given specifics about what to do during the lesson. while most decided to engage in one of the four usual core ideas, some appeared more comfortable with math as a content area. this was true for only a small number of teachers. essentially, math may have occurred less frequently than life science and physical science because teachers were specifically asked to engage in science experiences. since science lessons are not often done explicitly in preschool settings, asking teachers to conduct science lessons might have led teachers to view the researchers as “science people” and to focus more on science while being recorded rather than topics like letter sounds. language support during science opportunities consistent with a prior study, the current investigation found that teachers used spanish to support children’s learning in science (rumper et al., 2021). this study expanded upon those findings by examining languages used to teach science in other classroom contexts, specifically examining differences in language use between practices and core ideas. teachers used equal amounts of english and spanish to discuss both practices and core ideas. this finding contradicts many previous studies examining the amount of spanish used during instruction in preschool classrooms (burchinal et al., 2012; chang et al., 2007; franco et al., 2019; raikes et al., 2019; sawyer et al., 2018), which reported that overall, teachers rarely used spanish during instruction. there was an interaction between spanish use and teachers’ primary language, where teachers whose primary language was spanish used more spanish to discuss practices and core ideas than brooke rumper et al. 252 english. it could be that science often involves content-specific vocabulary (guo et al., 2016; snow, 2010), which could be easier to discuss in one’s stronger language. in this study, approximately 82% of teachers reported that spanish was their primary language. it is unclear if teachers interpreted this question to mean “primary language” as their first language or the language they used most often. in either case, however, it speaks to the high level of spanish proficiency of the teachers in this study. additionally, studies examining preschool teachers’ comfort in teaching science found that teachers who received professional development in science felt more comfortable teaching science (lange et al., 2021; maier et al., 2013). however, other studies have found that science tends to be a domain where teachers feel less comfortable supporting children than other learning domains (blaylock, 2019; gerde et al., 2018). due to this lack of comfort and self-efficacy around science, they tend to teach it less. given the strong spanish skills and overall lack of comfort teaching preschool science in prior research, teachers may have opted to use spanish in formal and informal science instruction because they were more comfortable doing so. it is also possible that teachers consciously chose to scaffold children’s language development in spanish. again, science allows opportunities for children to learn new content-specific vocabulary (guo et al., 2016; snow, 2010). most children in this study were spanish dominant at the beginning of the preschool year (71.30%). all teachers reported having some form of professional development around best practices for dll children. thus, teachers might have purposefully used spanish to ensure that children could understand the practices (e.g., “i want you to make a prediction.”) they were asked to engage in and the core ideas (e.g., “he stays inside of the chrysalis.”) being taught. associations between science opportunities and children’s academic outcomes as hypothesized, teaching science was beneficial across multiple child outcomes in the current study. when teachers engaged children in practices or doing science, children had higher academic outcomes. specifically, making observations was positively associated with children’s math and ef outcomes. this could be because making observations often included descriptions about size, weight, and shape (e.g., “how many are there?”, “is it heavy or light?”, “what shape are eggs?”), which are important math skills. making observations also required children to attend to certain aspects about objects or phenomena and describe characteristics that were not previously described by others (e.g., “she says it’s white, can you tell me something else about this egg?”). thus, making observations might boost children’s attention and working memory skills. developing and using models was positively related to children’s ef skills. when teachers engaged children in developing and using models, they were also required to draw upon ef skills like cognitive flexibility. children must consider the actual object and think about how to represent it with materials that they have. for example, if children are making a model airplane, they must think about the parts that make up actual airplanes (e.g., wings, wheels, windows, etc.). children must then take their knowledge about this item and think critically about how to represent it with items they have (e.g., popsicle sticks, plastic bottles, etc.). similarly, children’s academic outcomes were positively impacted by learning and discussing core ideas. considering physical science was related to higher science outcomes, this may reflect that physical science (e.g., exploring sinking/floating, melting, etc.) is more easily translated to hands-on experiences that give real-time in-the-moment feedback allowing children to draw immediate conclusions. in contrast, other areas, like life science, could be more difficult to provide hands-on experiences with real-time feedback. for example, several classrooms discussed plants, which usually take weeks to grow. likewise, animals and germs were other topics discussed. teachers showed pictures of animals and brought in eggs; however, life science tended to lack the hands-on component, which may be important for engaging young children in learning opportunities (zacharia et al., 2012). this might indicate that other science core ideas like engineering and technology, a prime area for immediate hands-on feedback (e.g., challenging children to build a sturdy tower), could be ideal for early science portrait of early science education in majority dual language... 253 learning. however, given that few teachers in this study engaged in that domain, more research is needed to understand the role of immediate feedback in hands-on learning. though life science was not related to children’s science achievement, it was positively associated with math outcomes. much discussion around life science included making observations and using math. for example, teachers would say, “how many eyes do we have?” or “how many legs does this zebra have? let’s count”, which may explain why teachers’ discussion of life science was related to children’s math scores. additionally, teaching math as a content area was associated with children’s ef skills. this finding is consistent with prior studies (clements et al., 2016; daubert & ramani, 2019; harvey & miller, 2017) demonstrating a relation between children’s math and ef skills. this could be because math learning requires foundational skills that are critical to children’s ef (blair et al., 2008; geary, 2010). for instance, if a teacher asks children to add two numbers together, they must consider multiple strategies (i.e., cognitive flexibility), hold mental representations of multiple values (i.e., working memory), and inhibit impulses to recite an automatized count list (i.e., inhibition) (mckinnon & blair, 2019). thus, if teachers incorporate more math into their classrooms, it may be a content area that has the potential to directly support children’s ef growth. taken together, these findings indicate that science is a critical domain to support other learning domains. overall engagement in science education may be effective because it aligns with the 6c’s (hirsh-pasek et al., 2020; weisberg et al., 2016). the 6cs, collaboration, communication, critical thinking, creative innovation, confidence, and content, are a framework for creating a successful learning environment. in considering this framework, science exploration, both formal and informal, offers the possibility for deep engagement in each of the skills. for example, when considering children working on structures in the block area with peers, children can collaborate and communicate in working towards a shared goal (e.g., build a tall stable tower, get a marble to go down a complex ramp structure, etc.). this experience also engages children’s critical thinking skills and creative innovation. children attempting to get a marble to go down then up a ramp structure have to make sure the marble gets enough velocity from the place where it is dropped to get back up the other ramp. critical thinking and creative innovation are engaged when children are required to test different ramp angles (i.e., cognitive flexibility) and to recall which solutions that they have already tested (i.e., working memory and attention). those ‘aha! moments’ contained in science experiences build children’s confidence in their ability to solve problems and learn new information. finally, content is naturally present in the core ideas. in the block area, this would be “engineering and technology”. given the multitude of skills that children can build through science experiences, it follows that when more science opportunities occur, children have higher academic outcomes. lack of associations between science opportunities and academic outcomes while some practices and core ideas that teachers employed were associated with children’s academic outcomes, many were not. it was hypothesized that practices like analyzing and interpreting data, making observations, making predictions, and core ideas overall, should relate to children’s science outcomes. these practices, in particular, would align with the format of questions present in the lens on science and enfoque en ciencia assessments. for example, items in the assessment ask children to predict where a car will be after it rolls down a ramp. however, practices did not relate to children’s science outcomes. the lack of associations to science outcomes is similar to findings in prior studies examining science teaching in kindergarten classrooms (saçkes et al., 2011; saçkes et al., 2013). these studies found that while science teaching opportunities did not relate to children’s science outcomes, other factors like children’s motivation did (saçkes et al., 2011; saçkes et al., 2013). additionally, practices like making observations, and using content-specific vocabulary around core ideas would seemingly relate to children’s vocabulary. however, this was not the case. interestingly, there were no significant associations between teachers’ use of practices and children’s brooke rumper et al. 254 vocabulary and science scores. this contradicted prior studies examining science teaching, which found associations to children’s vocabulary. finally, almost all science practices were expected to relate to children’s ef but did not in the current study. it is possible that the measures of science, vocabulary, and ef were too broad and not specifically tailored to the types of science and vocabulary that children were learning in their classrooms. classrooms in this study were not in any ongoing interventions. additionally, several of the articles present in the synthesis by guo et al. (2016) discuss measures targeted towards gauging specific vocabulary associated with the interventions, as opposed to using standardized assessments that capture a wide range of vocabulary terms. the same might be true of the science assessment used in the current study. the assessment used covers a variety of early science practices and core ideas (kook & greenfield, 2021). furthermore, the ef measure was also not context-specific and was more a measure of children’s inhibition skills. honing the academic assessments to better align with the practices and core ideas children are learning could uncover more direct relations to these outcomes. implications findings from this study hold implications for classroom practice and future research around early science interventions and professional development. regarding teacher practice, most scientific and engineering practices were observed during an actual science lesson indicating that to boost active engagement around science, it may be important to support teachers in creating intentional, planned experiences. additionally, it could suggest that teachers require training to see the science in other everyday contexts. conversely, there were no differences in the number of core ideas occurring across classroom settings. this indicates that teachers may view all contexts as opportunities to discuss different science content. for early science interventions and professional development, this study indicates that head start teachers are engaging in science across preschool contexts, demonstrating that there is a strong foundation on which to build teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge in this area. given the opportunities already occurring during story time, teachers could use a mix of informational and fiction books to more intentionally incorporate science learning opportunities into this context. during circle time, interventions could encourage teachers to infuse more science into discussions around the weather. when teaching phonics and letters, interventions could ask teachers to use words related to ongoing science projects (e.g., writing and sounding out the word “tomato” if children are learning about tomatoes). circle time also appeared to be an important context for preparing children for the day. in this area, interventions might consider having teachers ask children what they already know about a specific science topic. finally, in the dramatic play area, teachers could add more materials that spark discussions around science (e.g., more doctor-related materials, a variety of kitchen items with different functions, etc.). teachers could also hold more nuanced conversations about cooking different foods or (e.g., “how is the plastic fruit different from fruit that you eat at home?” or “when daddy cooks real eggs, how do they change?”). from a programmatic standpoint, head start supports the use of children’s home language in majority dll classrooms (head start program performance standards, 2018). the current study joins the corpus of literature around teachers’ language use in head start (burchinal et al., 2012; chang et al., 2007; franco et al., 2019; raikes et al., 2019; sawyer et al., 2018) but offers a perspective from a sample where most teachers reported speaking children’s home language at least a little. the current study demonstrates that contexts do exist where teachers provide language support for dll children and show some of the factors that could impact home language use in the classroom (e.g., teachers’ language abilities). this could be useful in cultural contexts where teachers have similar demographic characteristics with children; however, not all head start classrooms have access to bilingual teachers. thus, there is a need to identify malleable factors which could support dll children’s science learning in both of their languages (e.g., inviting parents the classroom to help out during science experiences, portrait of early science education in majority dual language... 255 asking parents to send pictures of science happening at home, and to discuss them with children in the home language, etc.). limitations and future directions while the current study has made important contributions to the literature on early science education and support of dll children, there are several limitations. first, this study examined two important components of the k-12 science framework for education (greenfield et al., 2017; national research council, 2012), namely practices and core ideas. however, there is a need for future studies to examine how teachers’ incorporation of crosscutting concepts might affect academic outcomes. crosscutting concepts are critical for understanding big picture ideas about how the world works and support children’s learning across domains. future studies examining science education within preschool classrooms should include crosscutting concepts in their analyses. additionally, the current study did not examine the quality of the practices and core ideas that teachers used. future studies should measure teacher pedagogy or classroom quality during science opportunities. for example, researchers should seek to understand if guided play rather than direct instruction could be a better format for supporting early science learning. this could also be done by investigating the global classroom quality or using science observation tools (vitiello et al., 2019). one study found that during science lessons teachers had higher levels of instructional support during science lessons than other areas of the classroom (kook & greenfield, 2021). however, another found that teachers had lower classrom quality during science (gerde et al., 2018). given these differences, more research is needed to understand the relation between science classroom instructional quality and children’s academic outcomes. additionally, this study only examined children’s academic outcomes in their dominant language. since dll children are learning two languages, it may be important for future studies to determine how science teaching might impact dll children’s total scores or conceptual scores (core et al., 2013; gross et al., 2014). finally, studies investigating science in a preschool setting should also include more classrooms across multiple time points in their analyses. the current study had several trend-level associations (i.e., p < .10), with a larger sample size these might or might not become significant. conclusions recent national calls for attention to early science education and equity in learning have spurred an emerging body of research (naeyc, 2019; office of the press secretary, 2016). to meet these demands it is imperative that researchers and practitioners identify and support opportunities for science learning across contexts. furthermore, especially for linguistically diverse learners, languagespecific supports should be incorporated into science learning to ensure that children build foundational science skills. moving forward, based on compounding evidence that science is a learning domain that can support other learning areas, there is a need to prepare teachers to engage in high-quality early science interactions. declarations acknowledgments: we truly appreciate the participation of the preschool centers involved in the study. we would like to acknowledge and thank the university of miami school readiness lab for working tirelessly to help to collect and code the data. authors’ contributions: all authors (b.r., e.f., e.s. d.b.g., k.h.-p., r.m.g.) took part in conceptualization, writing—original draft preparation, reviewing, and editing. competing interests: the authors declare that they have no competing interests. funding: this research was funded by the office of planning research and evaluation, grant number gr011545, and institute of education sciences grant number r305a130612. brooke rumper et al. 256 references baker, c., & wright, w. e. 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(2012). is physicality an important aspect of learning through science experimentation among kindergarten students? early childhood research quarterly, 27(3), 447–457. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2012.02.004 brooke rumper et al. 260 appendix a scientific and engineering practices1 scientific practices are the behaviors that scientists engage in to explore and develop knowledge. are children engaging in investigations? what are teachers and children doing? codes description key words\examples making observations observing and describing is coded if teachers use, or prompt children to use their senses or tools for observation to collect information about their world (e.g., using their hands to feel if a rock is smooth or rough; examining a caterpillar with a magnifying glass). the teacher… • observes and/or describes something related to science learning. • encourages children to observe and describe something that is related to science learning. • provides language to label something that a child is observing and/or describing related to science learning. example: t un caracol. a snail. t ¿cómo será? what’s it like? t tóquenlo. touch it. t ¿duro? hard? t ¿igual que la semilla? same as the seed? asking questions and defining problems asking questions and defining problems is coded if teachers or children identify something that needs a solution. science begins with a question about a phenomenon such as “what happened to my plant? why are the petals falling off? or “what’s inside of a ball?”). engineering begins with a problem that needs to be solved (such as “how can i keep my marble from rolling across the room and under the furniture?”) the question asked or the problem identified can lead to an investigation of answers or solutions to the problem. the teacher • asks questions or identifies problems related to science learning and/or identifying a problem related to science learning. • points out/labels when a child asks a question or is curious or wondering about something, or has identified a problem related to science learning, • encourages a child to ask a question or identify a problem related to science learning. example: t ok before we paint we are gonna see how we can make colors with two colors. t what colors is gonna make, what color is gonna be made, ok? making predictions should be coded when teachers and children use knowledge from observations and prior experiences to make an informed hypothesis (e.g., “this rock is heavy. i think it will sink in the water”). example 1: t a baby chicken. t ok, that’s a good prediction. making predictions the teacher… • makes a prediction related to science learning. • labels or repeats a child’s prediction related to science learning. • encourages a child to make a prediction related to science learning. t now let’s see for egg number two. t what do you think is inside egg number two? example 2: portrait of early science education in majority dual language... 261 note: a prediction is different from an explanation because it is about what they think might happen preceding an experiment. t ¿tú creas que se hunde? you think it will sink? developing and using models developing and using models should be coded if teachers help children mentally and physically represent real world phenomena to develop and deepen their understanding (e.g., drawing a house and building it in the block center). the teacher… • labels a child’s development or use of a model related to science learning and/or connects a child’s drawing or sculpture to something in the real-world • encourages children to develop and use a model related to science learning and/or encourage the child to make a connection between a drawing or sculpture and something in the realworld note: this should only be coded in the context of creating a representation of something. simply asking children to make representational art or asking children what they have created in the art center does not constitute developing and using models. it must be clear that the art is being done to deepen and extend children’s ste learning. evidence for this comes from the conversation with children. example: (teacher uses cotton balls and water to simulate precipitation) t todos van a tener una nubecita. everybody will have a small cloud. t miren, miren mi nube que esta llenita de agua. look, look my cloud is filled with water. t miren lo que le está pasando. look at what is happening. t ¿qué está haciendo? what is it doing? planning and carrying out investigations should be coded if teachers support children in organizing and implementing a procedure to test a hypothesis to seek an answer to a question, or test a hypothesis (e.g., rolling marbles down ramps of varying inclines to see which one goes faster). the teacher… • models planning and investigating for children related to science learning • labels a child’s planning and investigating related to science learning. • encourages children to plan and investigate related to science learning. example: t cada uno va a tener dos bloques de hielo. each one of you will have two blocks of ice. t y lo que quiero que hagan, cuando todos tienen los bloque* de hielo> and what i want you to do, when all of you have your blocks of ice> t primero se los voy a poner en su mano y después van a poner uno en una cuchara. first, you will put them on your hand and then you will put one on a spoon. t y vamos a ver lo que derrite más rápido. and we’re going to see which melts fastest. brooke rumper et al. 262 using math and computational thinking using math and computational thinking should be coded if teachers support children in using mathematics to quantify and describe their world (e.g., measuring the height of two plants and deciding which one is taller). the teacher: • uses math and computational thinking related to science learning. labels when a child uses math or computational thinking related to science learning. • encourages children to use math and computational thinking related to science learning • note: should not be counted if it lacks context (e.g., t the next morning at nine when they opened the zoo, the seals were swimming and edward was too.) example 1: t tú lo coges y él va medir dos cucharadas. you take it and he will measure two tablespoons. t two tablespoons. t ¿eh, x esto es una cucharada, this is one tablespoon. eh, x, this is one tablespoon? example 2: t to see the graph. t how many float? t one, two, three, four, five. t how many sink? t one, two, three, four, five. documenting documenting should be coded if teachers support children in recording and organizing, data (e.g., drawing pictures to show which objects “sink” or “float” during an experiment). the teacher • documenting data for children by sorting, taking photos, making charts, etc. that is related to science learning. • labels children’s documenting by using the word “document” or reminding children why they are drawing, labeling, making a chart, etc. related to science learning. • encourages children to document data (e.g., draw, sort, make a chart, etc.) example: t and your hand, ok. t lo que quiero es que en este papel me documenten lo que ustedes hicieron. what i want is for you all to document what you made. t ¿y el hielo que estaba en la mano que le pasó? what happened to the ice that was in your hand? portrait of early science education in majority dual language... 263 analyzing and interpreting data analyzing and interpreting data should be coded if a teacher asks children to make sense of data (e.g., making comparisons). the teacher… • encourages children to analyze and/or interpret data • analyzing and/or interpreting data related to science learning. • labels when a child is analyzing and/or interpreting data note: this code should typically be used after an experiment or after the teacher and child have manipulated something. if it precedes an activity, then it will probably be “observing and describing” example 1: t ok miren lo que descubrió ella. ok look what she discovered. t que el hielo que ella tenía en su mano se descongeló primero que el que ella tenía en la cuchara. that the ice that she had in her hand melted before the ice she had in the spoon. example 2: t what was floating? t the dice, the wooden block, the straw, the feather, and the foam block. t five things. t and what sunk? t the penny, the key, the scissors, and the crayon. t so more things were floating. constructing explanations and designing solutions constructing explanations and designing solutions should be coded when teachers support children in interpreting data to generate evidence-based answers to their questions and design solutions to problems (e.g., “i know spiders are alive because they eat”). the teacher: • constructs explanations and/or designs solutions related to science learning • labels when children explain or design a solution related to science learning • encourages children to explain and/or design solutions related to science learning. note: this code tends to happen after analyzing and interpreting data. it is a sort of a summary about what was done and what was learned as a result of something. it can also be a teacher prompting a child’s knowledge (e.g., how do you know that?) example 1: t ¿ya después que tenemos todo esto aquí adentro, ¿qué podemos decir nosotros de lo que se hunde o de lo que flota? after we have all of them inside, what can we tell about what sinks and what floats? t a ver. let's see. t ¿por qué flota? why does it float? example 2: t the sand go down already, because the sand is not like the sugar. t it's another material, right? t it doesn't dissolve in the water. 1adapted from the early science framework (greenfield et al., 2017) and the framework for k-12 science education (national research council, 2012). brooke rumper et al. 264 disciplinary core ideas1 (greenfield et al., 2017; national research council, 2012) disciplinary core ideas are the content that provide a context for engaging in practices and developing an understanding of crosscutting concepts. are children learning science facts? codes description key words\examples physical science physical science should be coded if teachers and children discuss facts about the following: • matter and its interactions …learning about what things are made of and how they affect each other (e.g., liquid can be made solid by freezing). • motion and stability …learning about how things move or stay where they are (e.g., kicking a ball makes it roll). • energy …learning about energy sources that power our world (e.g., animals eat food for energy). • light and sound waves and their applications …learning about how light and sound move and its impact on the environment (e.g., light waves can be blocked by certain objects, creating a shadow). example 1: t1 is the baking_soda a solid or liquid? example 2: t magnets. t remember, magnetic are x. t they stick or they are pull. t or they attract to the magnet, ok? t that’s our magnetic. t and non-magnetic is when the object is what? life science life science should be coded if teachers and children discuss facts about the following: • from molecules to organisms…learning about the needs and characteristics of living things (e.g., roots help trees absorb water). • ecosystems …learning about how living things interact and use their environment to survive (e.g., birds use twigs from their surroundings to build nests). • heredity and traits …learning that living things have features that are similar and/or different from each other (e.g., all dogs have fur and four legs, but some are small and others are big). • biological evolution…learning about how living things evolve and change (e.g., lizards resemble dinosaurs). example 1: t hay tres cosas importantes que la semilla o la planta necesita para crecer. there are three important things that the water or the plant needs to grow. t agua, como dijo él, la lluvia, que lo podemos dibujar en una columna. water, like he said, the rain that we can draw in a column. t el sol o los rayos del sol, que la podemos dibujar en la otra columna, y lo que dijo ella, muy importante. the sun or the rays of the sun, that we can draw in another column, and what she said, very important. t ¿qué cosa es en la otra columna? what is in the other column? t la tierra. the earth. example 2: t si tú vas al doctor, el doctor chequea tu garganta, tu sangre. if you go to the doctor, the doctor will check your throat, your blood. portrait of early science education in majority dual language... 265 t y poniendo algo aquí con un poquitito de sangre, puede ver si tienes gérmenes. and putting something here with a bit of blood, he can see if you have germs. t tienes virus o tiene bacteria que producen enfermedades. or if you have a virus or bacteria that produces illnesses. earth and space science earth and space science should be coded if teachers and children discuss facts about the following: • earth’s place in the universe …learning about the patterns, cycles, and movement of the earth, sun, moon, and stars (e.g., the sun is visible during the day and the moon is best visible during the night). • earth’s systems …learning about the natural systems on earth and how they shape it (e.g., a squirrel lives in a place with lots of trees because it uses trees for shelter and food). • earth and human activity…learning about how people and the world interact (e.g., humans need water, air, and resources form the land to live). example 1: t aquí, en estos lugares, como por ejemplo en el polo, la temperatura es muy fría. in these places, for example the poles, the temperature is very cold. t y ahí el agua se cae en forma de nieve. and there, the water falls down in the form of snow. t pero aquí en nuestra ciudad cae en forma de líquido y eso es lo que nosotros vamos, y eso es lo que nosotros vamos a hacer. but here in our city water falls down in the form of liquid and this is what we, and this is what we are going to do. example 2: t ¿y cómo el agua sube a las nubes, de dónde el agua sube de las nubes? and how does the water rise to the clouds, from where does the water rise to the clouds? t ¿quién le da el agua a las nubes? who gives water to the clouds? brooke rumper et al. 266 engineering and technology engineering and technology should be coded if teachers and children discuss facts about the following: • engineering design…learning about how people design tools to help them answer questions and solve problems in everyday life (e.g., a child uses a wood plank to cross a small stream on a nature walk). • links among engineering, technology, science, and society…learning about how people use tools to help them answer questions and solve problems in everyday life (e.g., using a magnifying glass to observe the parts of a leaf). example 1: t what is this? t ruler. t this ruler is going to help us make lines. example 2: t microscope. t ¿y para qué se usa? what is it used for? math math should be coded if teachers and children discuss facts about the following: • shapes, sizes, sorting, patterning, and counting. note: this specifically differs from the practice, “using math and computational thinking” in that the content focuses on math as a learning goal and not an action. example 1: t you remember that yesterday we talking when we learned about the three-dimensional geometric solids, yeah? t and you remember what is the geometric solid and the three-dimensional? t a ball? t a cylinder? 1adapted from the early science framework (greenfield et al., 2017) and the framework for k-12 science education (national research council, 2012). portrait of early science education in majority dual language learner classrooms: where do we start? current state of early science education in the united states a framework for early science education science across classroom contexts science as hands-on and minds-on learning for dll children language support around science science as a learning domain for supporting children’s academic outcomes current study research questions and hypotheses method dominant language science math executive function (ef) vocabulary results descriptive statistics description of science in majority dual language learning head start classrooms science lessons science in other classroom contexts science opportunities throughout the day spanish and english use when discussing practices and core ideas associations between use of scientific and engineering practices and core ideas and children’s academic outcomes discussion describing science in majority dll classrooms language support during science opportunities associations between science opportunities and children’s academic outcomes lack of associations between science opportunities and academic outcomes implications limitations and future directions conclusions journal of childhood, education & society volume 4, issue 1, 2023, 29-40 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.202341209 research article ©2023 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. greek early childhood educators’ knowledge of attentiondeficit/hyperactivity disorder iraklis grigoropoulos1 abstract: as more children enter preschool programs, there is an increasing need for early education professionals to recognize and understand attentiondeficit/hyperactivity disorder (adhd). this study examined 120 greek early childhood educators’ knowledge of adhd using a greek self-report adhd knowledge questionnaire (adhd-kq). all participants worked in infant/child centers operated by municipalities in greece. results point out early childhood educators’ lack of fundamental knowledge about the causes, symptoms/diagnosis, cognitive deficits, and interventions regarding adhd. among the personal and professional variables (years of teaching experience, age, and educational level) studied as predictors of overall knowledge about adhd age was found as the only significant. older participants seemed to have better knowledge regarding the basic aspects of adhd. results suggest greater efforts must be made to provide training specifically in the management of children with adhd. article history received: 03 may 2022 accepted: 10 october 2022 keywords attentiondeficit/hyperactivity disorder; early childhood education; greek context introduction attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (adhd) is described in the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (dsm) 5 as a neuro-developmental disorder with a persistent behavioral pattern of severe inattention and/or hyperactivity/impulsivity. the behaviors must be uncharacteristic for the developmental age of the child, be manifested in different settings (for example at home and school), have started before the age of 12, be present for at least 6 months, and interfere with social and academic performance. children diagnosed with adhd demonstrate high levels of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity (american psychiatric association, 2013). three subtypes of adhd can be distinguished, namely the inattentive type (i; e.g. struggles to follow instructions, loses things, is easily distracted), the hyperactive-impulsive (hi; e.g. talks excessively, difficulty waiting or taking turns) type, and the combined type (both i and hi) (american psychiatric association, 2013). it is typically diagnosed during the school years, although features of the disorder can be identified in early childhood (singh et al., 2015). nowadays as more children enter preschool programs, early childhood educators might more often face the challenge of identifying and coping with adhd before formal school entry. successful management of this disorder (i.e., maximizing student’s potential by emphasizing socialization, learning and behavior) during this time might increase the likelihood that children will have successful academic and social experiences (phillips et al., 2002). successful management can be achieved if early childhood educators are aware of what the research data suggest about adhd, the varying theories of its cause, and the notion that there are no simple solutions. this knowledge will assist early childhood educators in supporting efficiently children with adhd and their families as well. on the other hand, problems related to adhd may be multiplied when teachers possess a low level of knowledge of efficient interventions or insufficient understanding of the causes of adhd (stampoltzis & antonopoulou, 2013). thus, knowledge about adhd is most important since the meaning that adults (in general) attribute to children’s behavior influences the nature and the quality of care that children receive (singh et al., 2015). nevertheless, the seriousness of adhd symptoms and whether thisdisorder should be regarded as _____________ 1international hellenic university, department of early childhood education & care, thessaloniki, greece, e-mail: griraklis@gmail.com, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-00015987-5483 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202341209 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:griraklis@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5987-5483 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5987-5483 iraklis grigoropoulos 30 a disorder or just the results of normal behavioral variations among children have been questioned (breggin, 1998; singh et al., 2015). researchers in the field support the notion that adhd is a behavioral description based on criteria that are sensitive to subjectivity and cognitive biases since there are no measurable biological markers or objective tests to establish the presence or absence of adhd(gambrill, 2014).thus, adhd remains one of the most talked-about and controversial subjects in education. the debate ranges between two ends of a continuum (singh, 2002a, 2002b,). on one end are those who support the biological perspective stating that neurological and chemical imbalances in the brain cause adhd and therefore propose medication as the most effective treatment (cooper, 2001). on the other end, environmental influences are suggested as a key role in the development of adhd. psychosocial risk factors, including stress, marital conflicts, separation and divorce, and maternal depression were reported to be associated with adhd (breggin, 1998; kean, 2004; leo, 2002). furthermore, it is evident that many of the symptoms of adhd are normative, age-related behaviors and part of the behavioral repertoire of preschoolers. this constitutes one of the main problems in determining the significance of adhd in young children (smidts & oosterlaan, 2007). however, according to smidtsand oosterlaan (2005, as cited in smidts & oosterlaan, 2007), preschoolers with elevated ratings on the adhd scales of the preschool behavior questionnaire, specifically within the domain of inattention, may present a high risk for adhd. in addition, past adhd studies of older children suggest that adhd symptoms are more common in boys rather than girls, even at preschool age (smidts & oosterlaan, 2007). teachers and other school personnel are often the first to suggest the diagnosis of adhd in a child since adhd is generally not formally diagnosed until children reach school-age (phillips, 2006; sax & kautz, 2003). research data suggest that even though the three adhd subtypes (hyperactive-impulsive, inattentive, and combined) have been validated in a sample of children ages four to six (lahey et al., 1998), preschool children tend to display symptoms consistent with the predominately hyperactive-impulsive subtype (i.e. phillips et al., 2002) when diagnosed with adhd. research data, however, also show that education and healthcare professionals tend to classify relative immaturity as adhd since the youngest children in a class are twice as likely as their older classmates to receive a diagnosis of adhd and medication (meerman et al., 2017). further research has indicated that the majority of teachers and general practitioners are unaware of this association between relative age, adhd diagnoses, and prescribed medicine (krabbe et al., 2014). educational professionals should be aware of the many potential causes of a child’s “unruly” behavior. age should be taken into account when a child seems more restless and less focused than their classmates. seeing adhd as the only explanation for restlessness might, for example, exclude any other possible explanations (i.e psychosocial factors) and in this way operate as an etiology for any other socially intolerant behavior (erlandsson et al., 2016). previous research indicates that educational professionals feel insecure when dealing with behavioral problems (walter et al., 2006) and hesitant to deal with special educational needs (pijl, 2010). these feelings might result in a less favorable stance towards children with “unruly” behaviors regarding their intelligence, personality, and behavior (batzle et al., 2010). these children are also more likely than typically developing classmates to be socially rejected and face greater difficulties with their peers (hinshaw, 2002). since such behaviors can be at the poles of any bell-curved behavioral indicator and for this reason be confused with normal “young” behaviors, the crucial role of educators in identifying children who need additional support, making referrals for their assessment, and being able to manage them in the classroom becomes more evident (sherman et al, 2008). however, disputable yet pervasive claims of adhd as a genetic neurodevelopmental disorder could make educational professionals feel inept and might urge them to find solutions outside the realms of their skills and facilities (sannetemeerman et al., 2017). therefore, it seems critical for educational professionals to be aware of this when confronted with inattention and hyperactivity in the classroom. this explains the increasing emphasis on teachers’ knowledge and attitudes toward adhd in recent years. several studies from different parts of the world have found that teachers’ knowledge is at best reasonable and in many cases, insufficient, requiring intervention (skounti et al., 2010; vereb & diperna, 2004; youssef et al., 2015; walter et al., 2006). all in all, given the significant role that knowledge about adhd plays in teachers' attitudes toward children with adhd and teachers' willingness to implement appropriate interventions the current study examines greek early childhood educators’ knowledge about adhd and greek early childhood educators’ knowledge… 31 analyzes the relationship between adhd knowledge and certain educators’ demographic characteristics. educators’ knowledge of adhd because many adhd symptoms listed in the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (dsm 5; american psychiatric association, 2013).) are linked to school activities educators’ reports are commonly used to diagnose children with adhd (havey et al., 2005; west et al., 2005). in addition, educators are considered more reliable than parents for offering information to mental health specialists (manuzza et al., 2002; west et al., 2005). furthermore, educators are often the first to suggest a referral to mental health services (sax & kautz, 2003). also, other researchers report that environmental factors, for example, class size and culture may influence teachers’ perceptions of which students may have adhd (einarsdottir, 2008; havey et al., 2005). much previous research shows that educators’ knowledge of adhd is limited and that adhd misconceptions are common (anderson et al., 2012; ghanizadeh et al., 2006; stampoltzis & antonopoulou, 2013; weyandt et al., 2009). most importantly, previous research findings show that teachers with average to high knowledge of adhd reported more positive behaviors toward children with adhd and held more favorable beliefs about treatments than did teachers with low knowledge (ohan et al., 2008). on one hand, past research findings in greece report that greek teachers hold a medium knowledge of adhd with several misconceptions concerning biological and environmental aspects of the disorder. in addition, their knowledge about the treatment of adhd is rather limited (antonopoulou et al., 2010; dimakos, 2007; galanis et al., 2021; stampoltzis & antonopoulou, 2013). also, in the greek educational system, most children with adhd are served in a mainstream setting with a special education teacher’s support (skounti et al., 2010). on the other hand, more recent studies show that greek primary school teachers are well-informed about the symptoms of adhd disorder but lacked knowledge about the causes and management of adhd in classrooms (giannopoulou et al., 2017). overall, past studies highlight the need for providing training to increase greek teachers’ knowledge and understanding of adhd (giannopoulou et al., 2017). acknowledging that a) several assessment issues warrant special attention in preschool children, such as the level of activity, inattention, and impulsivity that should be considered "normal" for preschoolers or the issue of the technical adequacy of measures commonly used for assessing preschool-age children (e.g. behavior rating scales) (phillips et al., 2002) and b) that dsm 5 has increased the age of onset criterion, as well as the impairment criterion compared to the previous version, the dsm 4 (thomas et al., 2013) very limited research (especially in greece) has examined the knowledge of early childhood educators knowledge regarding adhd symptoms, causes, and possible interventions.since early childhood educators are key figures in early care settings their knowledge of key aspects of adhd is crucial as low knowledge or misconceptions may affect their attitudes toward children with adhd influencing children’s social experiences (phillips et al., 2002). this study aimed to explore early childhood educators’ knowledge about adhd and the relationship of participants’ knowledge with the number of years of teaching experience, age, and educational level of participants. probing greek early childhood educators’ knowledge about adhd will provide us with insight into the level of their awareness and understanding of children showing inattention and hyperactivity in early care settings. the greek context of early childhood education and care early childhood education services in greece are structured according to the age of the children. thus, the responsibility for early childhood education and care falls under the ministry of education, which caters to children aged four to six-year-olds (kindergartens), and the ministry of interior which caters to children between 6 months and 4 years of age (daycare-centers). kindergartens follow anational curriculum whereas daycare centers have no explicit curriculum (grigoropoulos, 2021a). the few regulations concerning daycare centers refer to operational issues. public daycare centers operate from september 1st to july 31st and from 7.00 am to 4.00 pm, five days a week (iraklis, 2020). within daycare centers, children are usually divided into mixed gender and separate age groups (grigoropoulos, 2022, 2021b, 2020a). daycare centers have mixed educational personnel including early childhood educators/ childcare workers (graduated from technological educational institutions) and teachers (kindergarten iraklis grigoropoulos 32 university graduates) offering custodial care and education services (depending on the case; grigoropoulos, 2021a, 2020b). regulations on the operation of daycare centers by the greek government emphasize the child-centered role of the curriculum while respecting the children's personal social and cultural differences (skourletis & fotioy, 2017). method this study aimed to explore participants’ knowledge regarding adhd, using a greek self-report adhd knowledge questionnaire (adhd-kq) by giannopoulou et al. (2017), and the relationship of their knowledge with age, years of teaching experience, and educational level. participants the current cross-sectional study was conducted from september to november 2019. the sample consisted of 120 (118 female and 2 male) early childhood educators working in elevenday-care centers (paidikos-stathmos) for children from 2-and-a-half to 4 years old in the northern greek region operated by municipalities.the low number of men in this study’s sample is indicative of the fact that a very low percentage of preschool teachers are men in greece (grigoropoulos, 2019).participants were recruited using purposive sampling, with the homogenous feature of being a working early childhood educator in a public daycare center. all participants worked within one specific municipality in the northern part of greece and volunteered to participate following general email contact with the daycare center supervisor.participants were informed about the aims of the study to ensure informed consent.data collected from this study were confidential. participants were provided with an envelope to assure that their answers were anonymous along with a copy of the consent form. the researcher collected completed paper forms and then debriefed those who participated. the procedure lasted approximately 10-15 minutes. this study followed all principles of the declaration of helsinki on ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects and all the ethical instructions and directions of the institution to which the researcher belongs. the demographic characteristics of the sample are provided in table 1. an information sheet giving details of the study was provided to each educator. table 1. demographic characteristics of the sample variable % gender male 1.7% female 98.3% age group 20-30 years old 22.5% 31-40 years old 29.2% 41-60 years old 48.3% educational level post-secondary education institutions 30% technological educational institution 60% postgraduate studies 10% years of teaching experience 0-4 26.7% 5-10 30.8% >11 42.5% m sd years of teaching experience 18 9.2 age 36.6 7.2 greek early childhood educators’ knowledge… 33 measures a background/demographic questionnaire and a 29-item self-report adhd-kq that covers four domains (clinical presentation, causes, cognitive deficits, and interventions) were administered to the participants of the current study. the background/demographic questionnaire included demographic questions such as age group, gender, educational level, and years of teaching experience. the second questionnaire included 29 items evaluating respondents’ knowledge of adhd (i.e., adhd-kq). following a three-option (true/false/i don't know) response format correct answers received 1 point and incorrect ones 0 points. the possible score range was from 0, the lowest level of knowledge, to 29 for the highest. the response “i don't know” was not included in the calculation of the total score. the three-option response format was chosen to mitigate the limits of the dichotomous format (true/false) as it allows discerning those areas in which educators have more knowledge, areas where they have the least knowledge, and the areas in which they commit the greatest number of errors (giannopoulou et al., 2017). the items were grouped into four sub-scale domains: symptoms/diagnosis sub-scale (item example: q 1. children with adhd present with hyperactivity, impulsivity, and distractibility8 items), causation subscale (item example: q 18. adhd is an exclusively genetic disorder, 6 items), cognitive/learning subscale (item example: q 20. learning difficulties are due to child's limited capacity to encode and retain information in their memory, 7 items), management sub-scale (item example: q 11. pharmacological treatment sedates children with adhd and makes them more obedient, 8 items). giannopoulou et al. (2017) reported internal consistency of a= 0.89 for the total adhd-kq scale. in addition, the alpha coefficients for the sub-scales were acceptable (0.70 for the symptoms/diagnosis sub-scale, 0.73 for the cognitive deficits sub-scale, and 0.75 for the intervention sub-scale), except for the causes sub-scale, which was poor (0.59). in this study the internal consistency of the total adhd-kq scale measured by cronbach's alpha coefficient was moderate (0.68). the alpha coefficients for the sub-scales were 0.66 for the symptoms/diagnosis sub-scale, 0.61 for the cognitive deficits sub-scale, and 0.68 for the intervention subscale. the alpha coefficient for the causes sub-scale was poor (0.48) possibly due to the low number of questions. more questions regarding this sub-scale might have improved inter-relatedness between items. according to pallant (2001) alpha cronbach values in the range of 0.600.80 are considered moderate, but acceptable. also, each of the sub-scales showed a significant correlation with the total adhd-kq scale score and there also was a significant correlation between the four sub-scales (correlation between tool's sub-domains that are considered to measure the same constructconvergent validity) (table 2). table 2. pearson correlation matrix for study variables 1 2 3 4 5 1. adhdkq .594** .743** .690** .624** 2.symptoms/ diagnosis sub-scale .187* .137 .310** 3. cognitive deficits sub-scale .426** .265** 4.intervention sub-scale .205* 5. causes sub-scale results descriptive statistics descriptive statistics were used to summarize early childhood educators’ knowledge of adhd in general. the sum of scores from the 29 likert-scale items was used as a measure of educators’ knowledge with higher scores reflecting a more complete adhd knowledge. scores on the total 29-item adhd knowledge questionnaire (adhd-kq) ranged from 5 to 17 points. the mean score was 8.92 (sd = 3.28), indicating that participants had poor knowledge of adhd as measured by this scale since their mean score was below the average and the mean score of greek teachers respectively (m=16.1) (giannopoulou et al., 2017). the results given in table 3 show that the overall average rating of early childhood educators on iraklis grigoropoulos 34 each of the four sub-scale domains was below average. table 3. participants' mean scores on the adhd knowledge questionnaire and its four sub-scale domains means and standard deviation rank range of each scale adhd-kq total 8.92 (3.28) 0-29 symptoms/ diagnosis sub-scale (8 items) 2.89 (1.18) 0-8 causation sub-scale (6 items) 1.44 (1.04) 0-6 cognitive/ learning sub-scale (7 items) 2.89 (1.38) 0-7 management sub-scale (8 items) 1.7 ( 0.9) (0-8) multiple regression analysis table 4. pearson correlation matrix for age, experience, educational level and adhd-kq 1 2 3 4 1.age 1 2.years of teaching experience .804** 1 3. educational level .129 .148 1 4. adhdkq .234* .139 -.024 1 notes: *correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). **correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). first, correlation analysis measured the degree of the relationships between age, experience, educational level, and adhd-kq. results indicated that there was a significant positive association between age and years of teaching experience (r (120) = .804, p= .000) and between age and adhd-kq (r (120) = .234, p= .010) (table 4). multiple linear regression analysis was used to examine the association between predictor variables and the adhd-kq. the assumptions of regression analysis were tested and were not violated (tabachnick & fidell, 2001). adhd knowledge questionnaire (i.e., adhd-kq) served as the criterion variable, and the number of years of teaching experience, age, and educational level as simultaneous predictors. visual inspection of data plots showed that variables had normal distributions. the assumptions of no multicollinearity and independence of errors were checked using the spss available procedures (collinearity diagnostics and durbin–watson test). each of the vifs was near one, suggesting a lack of multicollinearity. the value for the durbin–watson test was 1.541 suggesting that the assumption of independence has been met (tabachnick & fidell, 2001). the analysis showed that demographical variables included accounted for 15% of the variance f (3,119)= 6,80, p< 0.05. μultiple regression analysis showed that the age group variable (b = .197, t = 2.181 p< .05) was the only significant predictor of early childhood knowledge about adhd. educational level (b = .111, t = 1.221 p= 0.59) and years of teaching experience (b = -.018, t = -.118 p= 0.38) were not significant predictors (table 5). additional analyses were run with the separate subscales as criterion variables. none of the independent variables had any effect on the dependent variables (all p>.10). table 5. linear regression of variables predicting adhd knowledge variable b se (b) β t p age .197 0.63 0.29 2.18 0.028 years of teaching experience -0.52 0.60 -0.13 -0.87 0.38 educational level -0.20 0.38 -0.04 -0.54 0.59 conclusion and discussion this study aimed to explore early childhood educators’ knowledge regarding adhd, using a greek self-report adhd knowledge questionnaire (i.e., adhd-kq), and the relationship of their knowledge with participants’ age, educational level, and years of teaching experience. previous research has shown greek early childhood educators’ knowledge… 35 teachers’ lack of knowledge about adhd and the need to understand it better to be more efficient with children who present aspects of this disorder (nur & kavakci, 2010). the results of this study highlighted gaps in knowledge and understanding participants had about the causes, symptoms/diagnosis, cognitive deficits, and interventions regarding adhd. given this finding, there is room for increasing early childhood educators’ knowledge of adhd. this will also influence educators’ behaviors and perceptions of children with adhd (galanis et al., 2021). improving early childhood educators’ knowledge about adhd is essential to overcome any early negative perceptions of a child and his/her behaviors in early care settings or classrooms. strong knowledge of the basic aspects of adhd (e.g. symptoms, causation, and management) might empower early childhood educators to feel more confident and comfortable with these children since they are often the first to witness some of the characteristics of this disorder. furthermore, as early childhood educators in greece seem to play a role in the referral of children’s problems (maniadaki et al., 2003) it is crucial to have accurate, up-to-date, information for adhd since early childhood educators could serve as effective gatekeepers to mental health services. thus the basic knowledge of the causation and symptoms of adhd is critical since it can prevent the inappropriate judgment of a child and/or his/her parents and also ensure further support for them (see flanigan & climie, 2018). on the other side, limited knowledge of adhd might lead to the perpetuation of false beliefs (bekle, 2004), and poor use of classroom interventions (blotnicky-gallant et al., 2015). overall, as a consequence of increased knowledge, educators may feel more familiar with adhdspecific behaviors and more confident in their ability to adequately respond. training programs are important not only for the future management of children in early care settings but also because educators can be utilized to help educate parents and the wider society and dispel myths concerning adhd. this study’s results also show age as the only significant factor in adhd knowledge. in particular, increased age was associated with increased educators’ knowledge about adhd. the role of educators’ age concerning their knowledge about adhd remains a controversial issue. while several scholars (see al-moghamsi & aljohani, 2018; saffan et al., 2017; sciutto et al., 2000) have associated older teachers with increased knowledge about adhd, other scholars have found the opposite (see hosseinnia et al., 2020). an offered explanation for older educators’ increased knowledge about adhd is that probably older educators are more experienced and increased experience is linked to increased adhd knowledge (see saffan et al., 2017). based on this assumption we could argue that older participants may feel more confident, experienced, and/or better qualified to understand for example why some children fail to comply with rules and requests or display ‘unruly’ behaviors. given their experience with a larger number of young children, older participants may consider adhd causes, symptoms, cognitive deficits, and interventions according to their experience about what is typical and appropriate for this particular age group. thus, their knowledge might be influenced by their overall experience with children and their interaction with them.however, it should be noted that because educators are older this does not necessarily mean that they are also more experienced with children. future studies should emphasize uncomplicating this relationship. moreover, this study’s results report participants' lower adhd knowledge compared to previous data concerning greek teachers' knowledge of adhd (see giannopoulou et al., 2017). this may be attributed to the fact that more than half of giannopoulou et al. (2017) study participants were attending a postgraduate training course in special education. in addition, as regards this study’s low alpha coefficients it should be noted that even though cronbach’s alphas are the common value stated for scale reliability, this value minimizes the internal consistency of scales consisting of less than 10 items (see herman, 2015, p.8). furthermore, this study failed to find an association between years of teaching experience and knowledge. this result coincides with previous research data (stampoltzis & antonopoulou, 2013; weyandt et al., 2009). however, other researchers report a positive correlation between adhd knowledge and teaching experience (see sciutto et al., 2000). the fact that the number of years of teaching experience and educational level did not affect adhd knowledge in this study could be an indication of the necessity for educators to participate in education programs regarding inattention and hyperactivity behaviors. the implementation of educational programs related to adhd may improve educators’ knowledge about the iraklis grigoropoulos 36 range of inattention and hyperactivity behaviors and subsequently their attitudes and intervention techniques (pijl, 2010). thus, a significant implication of this study is that early childhood educators would benefit from education, training, and possible consultation with mental health professionals providing them with adequate information about adhd. this information could allow a more suitable response or intervention in incidents involving a child with inattention and hyperactivity behaviors or a child who fails to comply with rules and requests or displays “unruly” behaviors. research data suggest that providing educators with training opportunities in the area of adhd could increase their knowledge of such behaviors improving also their attitudes toward adhd (giannopoulou et al., 2017). another important point of this study is that educators’ views on children’s behavior cannot be understood without considering the educational and social context within which they are professionally educated and that adhd diagnosis and treatment are culturally contingent, as suggested by singh (2002a). this becomes more crucial since little is known about the level of activity, inattention, and impulsivity that should be considered “normal” in early childhood (barkley, 1998). a practical implication of this study’s results is that there may be a need for early childhood educators to be better informed about adhd. this study also offers a broader cultural perspective since most of the research data regarding educators’ knowledge of adhd focus primarily on english-speaking countries (flanigan & climie, 2018).overall, studies in this research field are significant since gaps in knowledge about adhd explain the low levels of educators’ confidence about their ability to successfully support children diagnosed with adhd (nur & kavakci, 2010; vereb & diperna, 2004). according to bell et al. (2011) knowing the important aspects of adhd reduces common myths and false perceptions and attitudes while at the same time knowledge about adhd helps educators to feel more confident in creating a more positive learning environment.this knowledge may also help educators deal with adhd difficulties during and outside classroom and reassure parents and students that they have an understanding of the disorder. future studies could also address the role of children’s gender in influencing perceptions of adhd. all in all, this study contributes to the research on early childhood educators’ adhd knowledge and has implications for their training. limitations this study was limited by the use of a convenience sample, of early childhood educators working with children aged 3–5 in urban early care contexts in the northern part of greece. results cannot be generalized to other geographical locations in greece. the questionnaire used was a self-report questionnaire. while self-report questionnaires are easily administered and relatively easy to analyze, there may be a tendency to respond in keeping with socially accepted norms. no information was collected on teachers’ access to specialized consultation concerning individual children or access to sufficient specialized resources, suggesting interesting directions for future research. despite the above-discussed limitations, the current study is felt to be an important first step in assessing early childhood educators’ adhd knowledge in greece and providing basic data for understanding their beliefs, attitudes, and possible intervention techniques within early care settings in greece. declarations author’s declarations acknowledgments:not applicable. authors’ contributions: there is one author. competing interests: the authors declare that they have no competing interests. funding: there was no funding for this research . ethical approval: all procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. publisher’s declarations editorial acknowledgement: the editorial process of this article was carried out by dr. ibrahim h. acar. greek early childhood educators’ knowledge… 37 publisher’s note: journal of childhood, education & society remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliation. references al-moghamsi, e. y., & aljohani, a. 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(2015). knowledge of and attitudes toward adhd among teachers. sage open, 5(1), 215824401456676. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244014566761 appendix: adhd knowledge questionnaire (adhd-kq) q1. children with adhd present with hyperactivity, impulsivity and distractibility t (true)[symptoms/diagnosis sub-scale] q2. children with adhd are no different from their peers in their cognitive skills, they are just more lively and unruly. f (false) [cognitive/learning sub-scale] q3. adhd is just as common in boys and girls. f [symptoms/diagnosis sub-scale] q4. children with adhd have good social skills. f [symptoms/diagnosis sub-scale] q5. children with adhd usually have cognitive deficits (e.g. memory). t [cognitive/learning sub-scale] q6. children with adhd usually have no problem with information processing. f [cognitive/learning sub-scale] q7. children with adhd have less activity in areas of the brain that regulate behavior. t [causation sub-scale] 8. learning difficulties of children with adhd are primarily due to behavioral problems, such as disobedience, nervousness. f [cognitive/learning sub-scale] q 9. students with adhd can follow the instructionsand organize complex tasks if they really want to. f [cognitive/learning subscale] q10. improper/inadequate parenting can cause adhd in children. f [causation sub-scale] q11. pharmacological treatment sedates children with adhd and makes them more obedient. f [management sub-scale] q12. a child who concentrates on tasks of his choice, e.g. computer cannot have adhd. f [symptoms/diagnosis sub-scale] https://doi.org/10.4081/hpr.2015.2115 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12402-010-0029-8 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0010-9452(08)70500-8 https://doi:10.1080/21683603.2013.803000 https://doi.org/10.1080/17482631.2017.1298267 https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.f6172 https://doi.org/10.1080/02796015.2004.12086259 https://doi:10.1097/01.chi.0000187243.17824.6c https://doi.org/10.1177/0143034305052913 https://doi.org/10.1002/pits.20436 https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244014566761 iraklis grigoropoulos 40 q13. pharmacological treatment has no effects for adhd. f [management sub-scale] q14. the child with adhd needs nothing more than strict discipline. f [management sub-scale] q15. decreased learning performance is more associated with symptoms of hyperactivity and impulsivity than with attention deficits. f [cognitive/learning sub-scale] q16. the symptoms of adhd change as the child grows older. t [symptoms/diagnosis sub-scale] q17. child who doesn't show hyperactivity does not qualify for adhd diagnosis. f [symptoms/diagnosis sub-scale] q 18. adhd is an exclusively genetic disorder. f [causation sub-scale] q 19. adhd is a short-term disorder that gets better with time and doesn't require any intervention. f [symptoms/diagnosis subscale] q 20. learning difficulties are due to child's limited capacity to encode and retain information in their memory. t [cognitive/learning sub-scale] q 21. sugar or/and additives intake is responsible for the disorder. f [causation sub-scale] q22. children whose mothers smoked during pregnancy are more likely to develop adhd. t [causation sub-scale] q23. adhd symptoms are secondary to generalized or specific learning(e.g. dyslexia) disability or conduct problems, therefore the diagnosis of adhd does not apply. f [symptoms/diagnosis sub-scale] q24. when there are problems in the family (e.g. disturbed family relations, marital conflicts) it is appropriate to intervene in the family and not in the child to deal with adhd. f [management sub-scale] q25. if the child responds to medication, educational interventions are not necessary. f [management sub-scale] q26. children with adhd have no difficulty maintaining motivation for activities that offer, albeit delayed, reward or pleasure. f [causation sub-scale] q27. students with adhd require the same teaching strategies as other students. f [management sub-scale] q28. modifying the classroom environment worsens child's behavior with adhd. f [management sub-scale] q29. the teacher's role is limited in helping a student with adhd. f [management sub-scale] greek early childhood educators’ knowledge of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder journal of childhood, education & society volume 4, issue 1, 2023, 84-94 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.202341246 research article ©2023 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. how digital activities become (im)possible in swedish school-age educare centres helene elvstrand1, linnéa stenliden2, lina lago3 abstract: this study explores how digital tools play a part in the practices of swedish school-age educare centres (saec). the aim is to contribute knowledge about opportunities and/or obstacles in and with digital activities in saec practices. data is produced using observations and conversations at five saec centres. the saec practice is found to be characterized by three different approaches to digital tools and their use: 1) a permeating practice, where digital tools are an integrated part of the whole day, 2) a happening practice, where digital tools are present on special occasions, and 3) a neglecting practice, where digital tools are absent. these differences can be connected to how teachers interpret their assignment but also to differences in competence, access, and interest in relation to digital tools. this entails that saec pupils are given unequal opportunities to develop digital skills. article history received: 04 november 2022 accepted: 15 january 2023 keywords school-age educare; digital tools; digital activities introduction digital competence is both a requirement and a right for all children*, as for all citizens, if they are to be safe and functional in today’s digital society (de felice, 2017; ferrari, 2013; lupton & williamson, 2017). therefore, recent educational policy highlights that children, growing up in this digital culture, are entitled to understand and profit from digital activities (united nations [un], 2018; 2021; united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization [unesco, 2019]; united nations international children's emergency fund [unicef], 2020). this is now a core objective of many national curriculum frameworks, in order to empower pupils to manage (digital) challenges (european commission, 2014; 2017; ilomäki et al., 2016). the integration of digital activities to promote these competences into educational practices has often become a complex process (cf. european schoolnet, 2012; hallett & meanwell, 2016). on the one hand, educational policy has led to an increasingly visible consensus on what children should be taught and how, when digital technology and competence are highlighted. on the other hand, with growing pressure to digitalize this practice, teachers struggle to introduce digital activities and their notions of the purposes of care and schooling. this tentsion raises the question of how much technology is appropriate to incorporate in education (shirley, 2017). for various reasons, this complexity has become particularly relevant for many teachers in different afterschool programmes, which are often viewed as important arenas for developing pupils’ digital skills (micheli, 2013). the focus of this study is on school-age educare centres (saecs) in sweden. this context is especially interesting, as the swedish policy documents emphasize digital competence while leaving significant scope for interpretation and offering little guidance for saec teachers regarding digital activities (martinez, 2019; swedish association of local authorities and regions [salar], 2019; swedish parliament, 2020). the paper asserts that when swedish saec centres are given the right conditions to achieve digital competence, _____________ 1 linköping university, department of behavioral sience and learning, norrköping, sweden, e-mail: helene.elvstrand@liu.se, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6933-5667 2 linköping university, department of behavioral sience and learning, norrköping, sweden, e-mail: linnea.stenliden@liu.se, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3115-9060 3 linköping university, department of thematic studies, linköping, sweden, e-mail: lina.lago@liu.se, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4841-9033 * in the text, we use the terms ‘child’ and ‘pupil’ based on ‘child’ relating to a broader context, for example children’s conditions, and ‘pupil’ relating to pupilship. https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202341246 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6933-5667 mailto:linnea.stenliden@liu.se https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3115-9060 helene elvstrand et al. 85 this creates a multiplicity of responses in terms of opportunities and obstacles for teachers’ actions as they try to enact, uphold or resist the stipulated reforms or their assignment in the curriculum (swedish national agency for education [snae], 2022; wilcox, & lawson, 2018). consequently, with a focus on saec teachers’ work, this study explores how digital tools play a part in the practices of saecs. the aim is to contribute knowledge about saec practices concerning opportunities and/or obstacles in and with digital activities. the study is based on the following two research questions: 1) what characterizes saec practices’ different approaches to and use of digital tools? 2) what emerges as central for the possibility to engage with digital tools in activities at saec centres? with this aim, the study stresses the importance of focusing on more consequential internal organizational dynamics, rather than relying on interpretations of “externally prescribed changes in curriculum, accountability measures, and instructional methods described in policy” (hemmings, 2012, p. 199). this study will thus contribute significant knowledge about the dynamic processes where policies are interpreted and incorporated into the saecs’ digital practices. the concept practice is used to describe different conditions and doings in different saec centers. the findings can lay the groundwork for understanding factors that contribute to saec teachers’ various approaches to digital tools and activities, which is essential for an informed discussion on how to develop both practice and policy. in sweden, most children aged six to nine attend saecs before and after school and during school holidays (snae, 2019). the institution has a long tradition as part of the national education system. however, the objectives of saecs were clarified in 2016 in a section of the national curriculum directed at saecs (snae, 2016). the curriculum stipulates that the swedish saec is a place for group-based learning, and that activities should be designed around each pupil’s interests and adapted to children’s culture and everyday life. saec teachers thus have a dual assignment: to create opportunities for meaningful leisuretime based on pupils’ interests, curiosity and knowledge, and to contribute to pupils’ development and learning (snae, 2022). for the latter assignment, specific objectives are designated in the curriculum concerning aspects such as science, social environment, play and communication. the curriculum also states that teaching should focus on digital competences. however, research shows that there is uncertainty among staff about how this multifaceted teaching task should be implemented and evaluated in saec (ackesjö, 2022). previous research skolforskningsinstitutet [the swedish institute for educational research] (2021) show in a research overview about saec that digital tools can create good opportunities for interaction and learning in saec centres and is also recognised as a meaningful activity by the pupils themselves. however the selection of previous research is delimited to studies that explore digital activities in the practices of saecs with a focus on teachers, and that do not centre on how pupils learn to use digital technology in activities and for various learning purposes in different extended education contexts (e.g. barkhuus & lecusay, 2012; davis & fullerton, 2016; harvard, 2015; klerfelt, 2007; lagerlöf, 2016; lecusay, 2014; prieto et al., 2016; wernholm, 2021). due to the limited number of studies of significance for the study’s aim, studies in other educare settings that are relevant to the study at hand are also included. in a study of swedish saec teachers’ work, elvstrand and lago (2020) show how these teachers struggle with the requirement to combine activities based on pupils’ interests and goal-oriented activities. the teachers strive to satisfy the increasing expectations to be adept with a variety of technology-based activities for content delivery, goal-oriented learner support and edutaining or play (stenliden et al., 2022). still, the activities that take place in saec settings are usually characterized by informal learning situations where children’s own perspectives are important (saar, 2014) and teachers try to provide activities that take into consideration pupils’ right to choose what they want to do, even though the choices often are limited (elvstrand & lago, 2020). how digital activities become (im)possible… 86 however, recent studies indicate that teachers might have an ambivalent attitude towards digital activities, even if the pupils themselves show an interest and emphasize the importance of having access to digital tools at the saec (lago & elvstrand, 2022; martinez, 2019). possible reasons include the historic importance of children’s development and wellbeing being related to their practical “doings” at saecs. handicrafts and outdoor activities are generally valued at saecs, and are presented by teachers as “good” choices for children. this ambivalent attitude is also highlighted by stenliden et al. (2022), who examined teachers’ reflections on the adoption of digital technology at saecs. they identify that a tension emerges among teachers related to two main concerns about digital activities: keeping away and/or embracing them. the tension, constructed in an interplay between the teachers’ different actions (avoid, protect, support, integrate and add value), leads to an uneven distribution of activities with digital tools at saecs. david and fullerton (2016) also recognized challenges with respect to implementing and distributing digital (networked) technologies and new media in afterschool settings, despite showing that pupils enjoyed considerably more opportunities to experience such learning activities in afterschool settings compared to school. the analysis associated the challenges of implementation with conflicts due to the participants’ values and goals. nevertheless, micheli (2013) showed in her study how teachers in afterschool settings who want to stop ‘avoiding’ new media and start thinking of effective ways to adopt them in their curricula, and who also wish to promote pupils’ civic participation, ethical reasoning and critical thinking, can benefit from two important processes: (1) developing a “know-how” that is useful for incorporating new media literacies into teaching and (2) providing pupils with the knowledge and attitudes needed to participate actively in the media creation and production process. furthermore, martinez (2019, 2021) illustrates through interviews how saec teachers work to promote critical digital literacy and responsible online communication. saec teachers relate to these issues in a variety of ways, from not promoting critical digital literacy at all, to providing planned learning activities with this focus. in the saec context, spontaneous discussions promoting digital literacy are described as an important aspect by saec teachers. the role of teaching in spontaneous situations is further highlighted by martinez (2021), showing how saec teachers describe their use of strategies such as active mediation, co-use and participatory learning to promote responsible online communication. another aspect highlighted by martinez and olsson (2021) that affects how saec teachers organize digital activities is their limited agency in relation to digital tools. teachers are found to be dependent on others, such as principals, when it comes to accessing digital tools, and can rarely make decisions for themselves about which kinds of tools to use, when the tools are available, etcetera. they also often need to relate to the children’s own digital tools such as mobile phones, which saec teachers tend to be view as a risk. connected to these results is an early study by klerfelt (2007), who showed how different roles are negotiated and how pupils emerged as brokers who connect popular culture with the saec’s traditional and regular activities. since the pupils were often more digitally skilled, this meant that the positions of power between pupils and teachers could be reversed. including digital tools can hence be troublesome and even uncomfortable for teachers, due to different beliefs and values. it can be difficult for teachers to keep up the institution’s traditional norms when introducing digital activities, given the dynamics of such contexts (bates, 2015). to gain a deeper understanding of these matters, the study introduces the theoretical framework of symbolic interactionism in the following section. in summary, the previous research show a lack of research related to how digital tools are used in the saec practice. most studies rather addresses how teachers talk about the use of digital tools and how the values this activities in relation to the saec assaignement. theoretical framework (inhabited institutions) symbolic interactionism (si) (blumer, 1969) – more specifically, the concept of inhabited institutions – is used as a theoretical framework for the study to understand how practices are created when actors interpret their everyday lives in actions and negotiations. one point of departure in si is that humans are social and reflective actors who create meaning through their interactions, and by interpreting these actions helene elvstrand et al. 87 they define different situations (blumer, 1969). as peoples’ actions are connected to how they define situations, both the participants’ actions and the context in which these actions take place are important (blumer, 1969). this is an ongoing and everchanging process, as pointed out by everitt (2012). accordingly, si gives the study tools to understand how practices emerge in relation to the actors’ interpretations, negotiations and actions concerning the use of digital tools at saecs. these processes are closely connected to the saecs’ organizational dynamics, where visions, policies, school structure, school culture and moral orders are important (hemmings, 2012). hemmings, who has conducted school improvement research, stresses the importance of the interpretative process where the actors do the practice, i.e. saecs. the framework is used to show and understand how the task of working with digital tools is interpreted and translated into saec practice in different ways, and what characterizes different saec practice approaches. method this study builds on two sets of data: data from four saec centres participating in action research projects and data from one saec centre (outside the action research) as a complement to further examine the preliminary results that emerged in the action research projects. the participating saec centres are located in two different municipalities, and have different sizes and locations (e.g. rural/urban). two of the saec centres, the lake and the mountain are located in multicultural areas while the other three are located outside two larger cities and is more ethnically homogeneous , the sampling was chosen to give a variety of saec centres with different teaching conditions, although we do not make a systematic comparison of the contextual conditions of the different saec centres. the action research data consists of observations and reflexive group talks with teachers. the overall purpose of the action research was to work with the development of saecs’ teaching. a central aim in action research is that the research participants should be able to address issues that are important of them (stringer, 2007), and the study was conducted at a time when new policy documents for saecs were introduced at national level. in all five saec centres that took part, digital media was a topic that the teachers touched on. at some saec centres this has been a main focus, while at others it has been part of broader discussions. as a basis for this development work, the researchers conducted observations at the saec centres to gain knowledge about the activities. it is the data from these observations, together with the reflexive group talks, that forms the basis for this study. the total body of material consists of twenty reflection meetings and observations carried out on three afternoons at each saec. the observations were conducted in everyday situations in the saec and gave us insights into how digital tools were used in everyday practice at the different saec centres. the reflection talks dwelt on many different issues, but contain several examples of how the saec teachers talked about and related to digital tools and their use at saec centres in different ways. for the school that did not participate in the action research, the data consists of observations carried out on three different occasion, and one interview with a teacher with a specific focus on how the saec centre uses digital media. in total, the study builds on data from six different saec centres. all observations were documented with fieldnotes during the reflexive group talks, and the interview was recorded and transcribed. the combination of data methods provides an overall and varied insight into the saecs’ work with digital media, for example. analysis ethnographic observations (fieldnotes) and data from the reflexive group talks and the interview (transcripts) were analysed using a method inspired by reflexive thematic analysis (braun & clarke, 2006, 2019). this means that the content (fieldnotes and transcripts) was first processed by reading through the data. in this step, aspects of relevance to the study’s focus on digital activities were noted. thereafter, data was coded more systematically based on the focus of the study, and different approaches to and use of how digital activities become (im)possible… 88 digital tools were noted. these were then themed, and the overall way in which the six saec centres related to digital activities was made visible. in this step, central content and codes were connected and named. the analysis of data from the six saec centres resulted in three different approaches that characterized the saecs’ practices with digital tools. in relation to this, the three different types of practices were described, and different emerging characteristics were constructed: 1) a permeating practice 2) a happening practice 3) a neglecting practice it is important to point out that such thematization entails an analytical simplification. the characteristics should not be seen as exclusive, but as generalized. even though the different saec centres are characterized by specific approaches, these have been refined in the analytical process. in real life, actions and statements of various kinds occur at each saec centre, even though they can mostly be understood on the basis of a theme. the results are based on an analysis of both observational data and transcribed conversations and an interview. in the text, observational data is used to illustrate the different practices. in line with an ethnographically inspired tradition (hammersley & atkinson, 2007), a holistic understanding of saecs is used in the interpretation, and the transcribed conversations constitute an important contextual framework for understanding the observations. in line with braun and clarke (2019, p. 330), we wish to point out that the process of analysis involves a “reflexive engagement with theory, data and interpretation”. this means that we have consistently reflected on and discussed the meanings and understandings of the data, and how this relates to theoretical perspectives. the process of reflexive thematic analysis needs to be understood as being closely related to both data and theoretical assumptions. ethical considerations throughout the research process, we have taken the ethical guidelines for social science research formulated by the vetenskapsrådet [swedish research council] (2017) into consideration. specifically, this means that we have informed all the participants about the overall aim of the research and have asked for their consent. when conducting observations and structured conversations, it is important to reflect on ethical considerations such as power issues in the relationship between the researcher and the participants. when researching teaching, the tension between what should be done according to the curriculum, school administration, etc. and what is actually done – due to one’s own and local values – can put teachers in a difficult situation. we have therefore anonymized participating pupils, teachers and schools. results the results show that digital tools play a part in the practices of saecs in various ways. the saec practice is found to be characterized by three different approaches to digital tools and their use: 1) a permeating practice – where digital tools are an integrated part of the whole day 2) a happening practice – where digital tools are present on special occasions 3) a neglecting practice – where digital tools are more or less absent. these practices will be illustrated in detail in the following three sections, one at a time. in parallel, the central aspects that have emerged according to possible engagement with digital tools in each one of the approaches are identified. a permeating practice the permeating practice characterizes an saec centre where digital tools are incorporated into activities, with teachers allowing or arranging activities that include digital tools in several ways. the teachers also use the tools themselves, for example when communicating with parents (e.g. blogging). the helene elvstrand et al. 89 ocean is one saec centre that exemplifies this way of integrating digital activities: the saec teachers have been working for a while with digital tools as a project, with the aim not only of including digital activities for pupils, but also of developing knowledge among the teachers about digital tools. in the long run, the teachers want to expand and work in a more systematic way at the saec. that means that they have created a plan, which follows the pupils during their years at the saec, with a focus on developing certain abilities and skills related to digital tools. the goal is that the pupils should be able to get an awareness of different digital tools, like how an ipad works, making digital collages, producing a film and practising simple programming. these kinds of activities take place with a smaller group of pupils, like courses. in the example above, the saec’s activities are coordinated based on an idea that all pupils should learn how to use various digital tools and gain experience of a variety of digital activities. the planning for these kinds of practices is organized by the saec teachers in a structured way. the pupils take part in different digital activities in the form of group activities on various themes. these practices also entail more spontaneous digital activities initiated by both pupils and teachers. the following example at the lake saec shows how the digital tools are also used in an informal and child-centred way. it is circle time. the theme of the month is the nordic languages, and the saec teacher martin explains to the pupils that they can practise language skills by singing songs in the different nordic languages. “we can use the net,” says lisa, one of the girls. martin continues and discusses with the pupils what kind of music they like. after a while they agree to watch the theme song from the frozen movie, first in swedish and then in norwegian. martin uses the interactive smartboard on the wall, and the pupils suggest what to search for and then what to choose. this example shows how the teachers at the lake saec centre have an overall plan for the saec’s learning activities. pupils will learn about the nordic languages, which is a stipulated goal within the national curricula, and the teacher, martin, indicates how they might approach this. he suggests that they will sing various songs in the different languages. by inviting the pupils to discuss what music they like, martin continues to act according to the curricula as he engages in the pupils’ interests and tries to adapt the activity. it is the pupils rather than the teacher who introduce popular culture and media to the activity, singing the theme song from the popular movie frozen. the use of the interactive smartboard is a response to an initiative from the pupils. as martin allows individual pupils to suggest which search terms they should use and then lets the pupils decide together which hyperlink they should choose, the activity can be seen as a common emerging digital activity. by including the interactive smartboard as a digital tool in the activity, martin provides an opportunity for the pupils not only to visualize and discuss the lyrics of the theme song from frozen, but also to use and develop their knowledge about searching the internet and various online sources. in this case, the digital tool is employed in the activities as an integral part of the saec’s assignment and activities. the teachers at the ocean and the lake say that they have knowledge of digital tools, and most of them explain that they are also able to use them in a flexible way. they frequently use digital tools as a specific topic, but also work with them interactively in relation to pupils’ questions. this kind of practice is permeated by digital tools as something that they do not have any specific assertions or thoughts about. the teachers describe themselves as guides with a task of interacting with pupils and giving them an understanding and knowledge about digital tools. the pupils have access to digital tools such as tablets to search for information or play games, and they are allowed to play computer games as an activity. the pupils also have some opportunities to influence the kinds of games they want to play. the teachers are involved when pupils use the digital tools, and discuss what happens in the games and talk about gaming culture with the pupils. various digital tools thus play a part in the daily life at the saec via these kinds of practices. the digital tools are seen as important, and as a vital part of the education at the saec. a happening practice a happening practice differs from a permeating practice in that it characterizes an saec centre which only uses digital tools in its activities on special occasions. when digital tools are used in activities, they are not seen as an integrated part of the daily activities or routines. this practice can therefore be described as ‘a happening’ – something out of the ordinary – and the digital activities become activities of their own, distinct from other activities. one example of this is computer time at the mountain saec: how digital activities become (im)possible… 90 a popular activity is having computer time. if they want, every pupil in the third grade has access to a computer for 45 minutes per week. the pupils specify in a special notebook how many minutes they have used. melker, linus and holger are sitting around one computer and playing an arcade game together. during their play, they frequently discuss how many minutes they will play the game for and how much of their allotted time they should use this afternoon. mats – one of the teachers – passes them, and the boys stop him and ask: “when we are playing three together, can we share the time and put some minutes in the book.” mats shakes his head and says: “you know that we don’t like too much computer gaming here, go out and play instead.” at the mountain, the pupils have opportunities to use computers as shown in the example above. however, this use is strictly regulated, and the teachers say that they want to limit the pupils’ access to digital tools. in the example, the boys try to negotiate with mats by arguing that their time should be extended since it is a shared activity, and that they are cooperating with each other. in this case, the amount of time each pupil spends using the computer seems to be more important. mats’s response signals this when he says that they “don’t like too much computer gaming”, and he asks the pupils to go outside instead. even if computers are allowed, as in the example, the time spent using them should be limited. in the organization of digital activities, the use of digital tools by both pupils and teachers seems to be oriented more towards how and when these tools are used, and less towards what the pupils do with the tools. the teachers often act as an obligatory passage point, as the digital activities are always decided on, allowed or guided by teachers. the pupils cannot decide for themselves, but must ask the teachers’ permission to play a computer game or use a tablet to interact with an app. nor do they have much influence over what kinds of games they play. the teachers often associate including digital tools in everyday activities with difficulties, and digital tools are often seen as something pupils need to be protected from. in the example above, for example, pupils need to be protected from spending too long on sedentary indoor activities. at saecs characterized as happening practices, the teachers frequently describe a lack of knowledge about how to handle digital tools. the use of digital tools is often dependent on one or two teachers who are seen as experts. this is shown in the following example: during the former observations at the forest saec, all kinds of digital activities have been absent. however, on this particular day, during the planning meeting, malin – one of the saec teachers – explains that she has started a blog to show the saec’s activities, “so the parents can see all the important things we do”. another teacher, maria, says that she thinks it is a good thing, but she is not able to do it because she does not know how to blog. she is also worried that it will take too much time. malin says that she will manage the blog and that she will use her private telephone. during the day, malin takes photos frequently and she also talks with some pupils about what kind of things they can put on the blog. when we are back at the saec centre after some weeks, malin explains that that they have paused the blog because it took some time to do, as she did it all by herself. she was also disappointed that there were so few visitors to the blog. there had also been some discussion at central level in the municipality about creating a central platform, so the saec centre was waiting for a decision on that. this is an example of how digital activities such as blogging occur as a happening, i.e. the activity is temporary, and a long-term or common idea is missing. malin represents the enthusiastic saec teacher who takes photos and engages pupils in the blog activity for a short period before the initiative fades away. the activity of documenting the saec’s practice and blogging about it never became an integrated part of the daily activities at the forest. the activity is dependent on malin’s enthusiasm for digital activities. as mentioned previously, she is a teacher who is rather skilful and can be seen as an expert, while the other teachers express a lack of competence. at the forest, this becomes both an argument for not supporting the activity, as it takes too much time, and an obstacle for these teachers to contribute to the blogging activity. the fact that the activity depends entirely on malin’s interest and competence affects the possibility to make the blogging an integrated part of daily activities or routines. this might also be a reason why few readers engaged with the blog. the pupils and parents probably did not have enough time to adjust to and keep up with the opportunity to take part in the digital activity or engage in reading the blog posts during the short time it existed. another example of how digital activities are given a peripheral space – i.e. they are permitted and are given space, but are not integrated into the core activities – is also taken from the forest saec. this time, teachers’ and pupils’ various standpoints are illustrated: helene elvstrand et al. 91 the pupils have expressed a strong desire to be able to use their mobile phones. they have addressed this issue on several occasions during circle time. the teachers are positive, and say that they will give it a try. some weeks later, the pupils say that they can now use their phones, “but it has not worked well because the adults decided that the mobile time should be on tuesdays after four o’clock, and at that time almost all the pupils have gone home”. this reveals a difference in perspective towards the use of digital tools between the pupils and the teachers. in this case, the pupils want to use their mobile phones to spend time together, but the teachers scheduled the activity at a time when most pupils have left the saec for the day. in reality, the teachers placed strict regulations on using this kind of digital tool. using mobile phones is central to pupils, but is not seen by teachers as a central part of saec activities. at these saec centres, the pupils have no daily access to digital tools. the digital tools are brought out on special occasions, and are not used by either teachers or pupils in everyday activities. even if the pupils at the saec centres are able to make choices about what they want to do during the afternoons, digital tools are often not an option because access is limited. other reasons are that the teachers are unfamiliar with the technology and view other activities as more central. at same time, the happening practices are characterized by ambivalence among the staff in relation to digital tools. on the one hand, there is an awareness that digital activities are important to many pupils (e.g. mobile phones). on the other hand, there is a view that digital tools are risky or harmful. when saec teachers try to balance these approaches, digital activities are not completely lacking; they occur, but they are not integrated into the saec’centers everyday activities. a neglecting practice at the saecs that are categorized as neglecting practices, digital activities are more or less absent. the teachers view these kinds of activities as not feasible in an saec environment. they often express strong beliefs that digital tools should not be a part of the education at the saec, along with arguments about digital tools, and especially computer gaming, as something today’s children do enough of at home, and that saecs should work with other kinds of activities to broaden pupils’ perspectives and experiences. the teachers often refer to traditional saec activities like outdoor activities and play. they also highlight the risks involved with the use of digital tools, such as children becoming too sedentary or unsocial. in the teachers’ descriptions of digital activities, they often described them in terms of something children do individually, and for this reason they are not an appropriate activity for saecs. overall, digital tools are seen as something risky and something that children need to be protected from. another argument for not engaging with digital activities in these kinds of saec practice is that the teachers see themselves as lacking competence or knowledge of how to handle the technology. at these saec centres, digital tools are rarely used by the teachers themselves and they describe a stress in relation to the pressure to use digital tool more, i.e. for documentation. these saec centres are characterized by an absence of digital tools, and can thus be described as practices where digital activities are neglected. even if digital activities are not on the official agenda at these saec centres, digital activities are not totally absent from the pupil’s social lives at the saec centres. the example below shows how pupils themselves use digital tools at the volcano saec: it is early morning. it is summer break, so few pupils are present. laura, tage and ina are sitting on a sofa. laura has her mobile telephone in her hand. they are watching different youtube clips together. “turn it down,” says ina, “so no one notices it.” they are laughing and negotiating which movie clips they will choose. in this example, the pupils have brought a mobile telephone to the saec centre even if this is prohibited. their opportunity to use it is probably related to the fact that it is summertime and boundaries are less strict, and that they hid their activity and kept it quiet. at all six saec centres in the study – even those that do not offer any or very few digital activities – the observations show that digital activities, in form of games and popular culture, are important for many pupils. they discuss popular games and what their favourite youtuber or gamer has done, and incorporate these elements into their play. this raises questions about saec teachers’ role in relation to handling digital tools and the surrounding social world. how digital activities become (im)possible… 92 conclusions and discussion overall, the results show that digital tools are allowed to play a part in different saec practices in quite various ways. this entails saec pupils being given unequal opportunities to develop digital skills. the study is an important contribution, as there is generally a lack of studies examining obstacles and barriers in saecs’ practice in relation to digital tools. the studies that do exist, which often highlight teachers’ descriptions of their work rather than the practice as such, indicate that there is an ambivalence about handling digital activities (lago & elvstrand, 2022; martinez, 2019). by analysing the actual doing, the results contribute to deepening the knowledge on this. in line with previous studies (e.g. martinez, 2019, 2020; stenliden et al., 2022), the results of this study show that saecs’ digital assignments are received and interpreted in different ways, which results in pupils being able to take part in digital activities in very different ways. the results also show that there is a tension between the different assignments of the saec centres and how saec teachers interpret the prioritization of these in practice. in this study, this tension is between the extent to which teachers should control the content and pupils’ opportunities for participation (elvstrand & lago, 2020; saar, 2014). in relation to the informal education that takes place at saec centres does not always offer opportunities for all pupils to take part in digital activities, and the digital competence and rights are thus unequally distributed. if saec teaching is to give pupils the opportunity to discuss the risks and consequences of communication via digital tools, saecs’ digital mission needs to be challenged and developed in practice for all pupils to be given equal knowledge and rights. even though the study is limited, the findings contribute to the groundwork for understanding aspects that signify saecs teachers’ various approaches to digital tools and activities. the results indicate that in addition to the different saecs’ and teachers’ scope for interpretation, aspects such as competence, access and interest are also central for the practice that arises. in addition, the processes that arise within the organization – i.e. the local culture – are important in terms of what is done in different practices. conditions are part of how the local culture is negotiated and done, but which values are seen as central and how the saec assignment is interpreted also matters – is integrating digital activities a choice or not? the study shows that there will be a great variation in how the practices are done, and that pupils will encounter significantly different types of digital (or non-digital) activities. this has implications for teacher education as it pinpoints the importance of knowledge about digital tools and how they can be used in practice. in the long run, this also has implications for how the saec centres can be arenas that contributes to providing pupils with digital literacy, something that can be seen as a right to develop for all pupils. declarations author’s declarations acknowledgments: we are grateful to the school-age educare centers that take part in this study. authors’ contributions: all authors contributed to this study in accordance with their distinct disciplinary and theoretical policy expertise. competing interests: we declare as authors that we have no competing interests. funding: no funding was used for this study. ethics approval and consent to participate: the study has followed guidelines formulated by the swedish research council. publisher’s declarations editorial acknowledgement: the editorial process of this article was carried out by dr stamatios papadakis. publisher’s note: journal of childhood, education & society remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliation. references ackesjö, h. 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(2018). teachers' agency, efficacy, engagement, and emotional resilience during policy innovation implementation. journal of educational change, 19(2), 181-204. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10833-017-9313-0 https://doi.org/10.1386/jmpr.14.4.331_7 https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2015.1113711 https://doi.org/10.1080/1350293x.2014.883722 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315682907 https://doi.org/10.3224/ijree.v10i1.02 https://www.vr.se/download/18.2412c5311624176023d25b05/1555332112063/god-forskningssed_vr_2017.pdf https://doi.org/10.16993/dfl.164 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10833-017-9313-0 how digital activities become (im)possible in swedish school-age educare centres theoretical framework (inhabited institutions) ethical considerations a permeating practice a happening practice a neglecting practice acknowledgments: we are grateful to the school-age educare centers that take part in this study. journal of childhood, education & society volume 4, issue 2, 2023, 114-123 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.202342263 research article ©2023 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. young children as citizens: learning from practice in the early childhood setting gemma m. ryder1, jennifer van krieken robson2 abstract: this paper examines enactments of young children’s citizenship in early childhood settings in england, which is an under researched area, in this study young children are positioned as social actors, competent and capable of making decisions and enacting citizenship. values, child rights and citizenship are interconnected and often inseparable in practice. a mixed methods multiple-case study was conducted in england across several early childhood settings in the private and independent sector. our findings indicate that young children enact citizenship through micro acts embedded into their day-to-day activities; such acts are often spontaneous in response to events or interactions. these are often pro-social in nature comprised as behaviours such as helping or showing concern for others. our findings give visibility to the distinctive ways in which young children may enact citizenship including, for example, physical expressions. article history received: 27 january 2023 accepted: 13 march 2023 keywords citizenship; early childhood; values; child rights; birth to three years old introduction this paper aims to extend knowledge of young children’s citizenship in the early childhood setting. we understand citizenship as a contested concept that risks positioning children as needing socialising or educating as future citizen (bath & karlsson, 2016). here, citizenship in early childhood settings, arises from children and adults actively constituting a community informed by a range of values including democracy, care and discipline (johansson, 2018). a focus on achieving a greater understanding of young children’s citizenship in the early childhood setting is significant at this time, when their status as citizens is under attack in the public domain. a troubling example of such an attack is the public protest directed at president donald trump during his visit to london in 2019. here protesters appropriate the image of baby in the form of an inflatable balloon depicting the ‘trump baby’. robson (2022) critiques the complex ways in which this act of protest diminished young children’s status as citizens. protesters exercise power over the image of the child through degrading insults and acts of the humiliation in both the physical space of public protest and on social media. robson argues that adults control the baby by imposing the values of hate, greed, authoritarianism, unfairness and anger associated with trump’s authoritarianism. such portrayals of childhood ‘work to denigrate and limit ideas about child/hood within the public imagination’ (osgood et al., 2022, p. 199). this theme of the fragility of young children’s citizenship also emerges from recent research into their experiences during the covid-19 pandemic. pascal and bertram (2021) argue that although the pandemic created multiple and complex challenges for children their voices are frequently excluded in public domain. they suggest that young children have an emerging civic awareness and are capable of sharing views and feelings about how the restrictions, imposed by governments, affected their lives. taking action to ensure young children’s voices are heard would, they assert, be consistent with the values of inclusion, democracy and solidarity. similarly, dahlberg et al.’s (2013) vision for the early childhood institution brings to the foreground the possibility of democratic relationships, where children as social actors participate fully in the life of the early childhood setting. in this context a specific project for the early childhood setting is ‘the establishing and strengthening of social networks of relationships, _____________ 1 university of east london, school of education and communities, early childhood and education, london, uk, e-mail: g.ryder@uel.ac.uk, orcid: https://orcid.org/00000002-9341-1364 2 university of east london, school of education and communities, early childhood and education, london, uk, e-mail: j.robson@uel.ac.uk, orcid: https://orcid.org/00000002-9429-8447 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202342263 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:g.ryder@uel.ac.uk https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9341-1364 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9341-1364 mailto:j.robson@uel.ac.uk https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9429-8447 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9429-8447 gemma m. ryder & jennifer van krieken robson 115 between children, between adults..... and between children and adults.’ (pp. 84-85). they suggest that such an approach would foster the values of trust, cooperation and solidarity that are central to young children’s citizenship. within the field of citizenship studies, the emergence of ‘lived citizenship’ (kallio et al., 2020) as a conceptual framework prompts consideration, in our study, of two different but connected dimensions of young children’s citizenship. by understanding the early childhood setting as spatial contexts in which citizenship is enacted we also give visibility to the intersubjective relationships between adults and children or between children and their peers. empirical research (e.g. puroila et al. (2016) and palmadotirr (2018)) explores the complex ways in which values based pedagogies in early childhood nurture citizenship for young children aged birth to three. more recently ryder’s (2021) study, in the context of england, offers a further perspective by shaping new understandings of how an emphasis on pro-social behaviours in early childhood settings may nurture children’s citizenship. we understand prosocial behaviour as a complex construct, comprised of multiple behaviours and traits. these evolve as children develop cognitive, social, emotional and communication skills and competencies. such behaviours may include helping, caring, cooperation and empathy (eisenberg et al., 2015) and are, we assert, an expression of values. the extent to which prosocial behaviours and actions are exhibited are often dependent on factors, such as the child’s temperament and personality, how the child is raised or cultural and social influences. in the context of formal early childhood provision, ryder (2021) articulates that prosociality constitutes broader actions and systems, notably children’s agency, citizenship and democracy. in this paper we are concerned with the enactments of citizenship by children between birth and three in the early childhood setting as knowledge of this aspect of children’s lives is still forming in the academic literature and in practice contexts. this paper begins by conceptualising young children’s citizenship in the context of early childhood practice and foregrounds existing knowledge emerging from research of young children’s enactments of citizenship. an account of the methods for the fieldwork follows. data is presented as a series of vignettes providing insights into children’s enactment of citizenship through their pro-social behaviours. in our discussion we analyse the learning about children’s citizenship as it emerges from the vignettes informed by theoretical perspectives on citizenship, values, rights and prosociality. in our concluding remarks we consider the implications for practice with children aged birth to 3. in the field of early childhood studies there is a diversity of terminology applied in scholarship which reflects the complexity of provision for education and care of children. in this paper we consistently use the term early childhood setting to represent a location in which children experience education or care or both. similarly, there is a diversity in the way in which young children are described in scholarly writing including for example, babies and toddlers. here we adopt the term young children to represent the birth to three years age group unless other scholars use different terminology in reporting their empirical research. citizenship as informed by child rights in the field of early childhood the conceptualisation of young children as citizens is informed by a sociology of childhood where children are positioned as competent social actors with agency (james et al., 1998; james & prout, 1997). such a position places a responsibility on adults to respect children’s social worlds and recognise the diverse ways in which young children may exercise agency in the early childhood setting. similarly, young children are positioned as rights holders through the convention on the rights of the child (united nations committee on the rights of the child [uncomrc], 1989). general comment no. 7 (uncomrc, 2005) clarified that ‘young children are holders of all rights enshrined in the convention and that early childhood is a critical period for the realisation of these rights’(p. 1). more recently recognition of children’s role as rights defenders has also emphasised their active role as citizens (uncomrc, 2018). the united nations committee on the rights of the child [hereafter, the committee] encourages those caring for young children to recognise them as social actors from the beginning of their lives and to acknowledge their ‘specific interests and capacities’(uncomrc, 2005, p. 2) in this way adults can realise children’s rights by ‘respecting the distinctive interests, experiences and challenges facing every young child’(uncomrc, 2005, p. 3). from the committee’s perspective this means young children are young children as citizens: learning from practice… 116 active members of their community where they establish relationships with their peers and adults. it is in the formation of relationships, they assert, that young children begin to realise rights; young children learn to ‘negotiate and co-ordinate shared activities, resolve conflicts, keep agreements and accept responsibility for others’(uncomrc, 2005, p. 3). however, quennerstedt’s (2016) findings provide an alternate understanding as to how young children enact human rights. she found that human rights become part of and affect young children’s everyday practices in the early childhood setting. findings from her research indicated that three rights holders’ position were visible in children’s actions; they were ownership, influence and equal value. in this way complex relationships and positions adopted by children have the potential to shape young children’s knowledges of citizenship and affirms their status as citizens. values in the early childhood setting and the development of young children’s citizenship the role of values in the development of children’s citizenship in the early childhood setting is an ongoing theme in the literature (e.g. palmadotirr, 2018; puroila et al., 2016). values here are understood as the ‘guiding principles in life’ (schwartz, 2012, p. 17); they are the standards or criteria on which humans select or evaluate actions and events (halstead & taylor, 2000). values are central in developing children’s understandings of citizenship; for example, the values of fairness, empathy, respect and social justice contribute to a sense of belonging to a community and a shared humanity (osler, 2015; united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization [unesco], 2015). they are a ‘lived relational phenomena’ (puroila et al., 2016, p. 154) and an ‘entangled’ (p.154) element within the daily life of the early childhood setting embodied in the actions of practitioners and children. johansson (2018, p. 4) highlights that early childhood practitioners address ‘values and value conflicts’ every day in their work with colleagues and children in the early childhood setting. johansson found a range of values present in early childhood settings that nurture young children’s citizenship. she conceptualised these fields as clusters of related values, including for example, the ethics of care and safety, democracy, rights and responsibilities and discipline. each value field informs actions for both the individual child, adults and the early childhood community. empirical research in the early childhood setting has revealed the complex ways in which values shape children’s enactments of citizenship. for example, palmadotirr (2018) considers how young children express and make sense of value conflicts in their play. such conflicts related to rights, belonging and discipline. the findings revealed how young children used physical and verbal communication to express their perspectives and were competent in resolving conflicts in their play. here conflicts provide valuable learning opportunities relating to the values of democracy and solidarity; she found children asserted their right to influence the rules that governed the setting. knowledge of children’s enactment of values in the early childhood setting provides insights into the sophisticated ways that values inform children’s enactments of citizenship. nurturing citizenship in early childhood practice – the role of adults young children’s standing as both holders and defenders of rights has implications for practitioners working with young children. macnaughton et al. (2007) propose that adults working with young children should question and critique practices that diminish children’s agency and rights. this process may lead to the establishment of collaborative and democratic relationships between adults and children that have the potential to advance citizenship. for practitioners in early childhood this is a complex and ongoing task as children’s capacity to exercise agency will develop overtime and may be context specific. lansdown (2005) highlights the challenge for all adults working with children to meet their responsibilities of fulfilling, respecting and protecting children’s rights whilst being sensitive to children’s evolving capacities. in this way practitioners have a key role in implementing pedagogies that develop children’s capacity to exercise agency (jerome & starkey, 2022). recent empirical research by puroila et al. (2018) found that educators had a critical awareness of the values implicit in early childhood practice, for example the emphasis on the value of effectiveness inhibited the development of dialogical relationships with young children. practitioners engaged in a pedagogical journey that reframed their relationships with children through an ‘armchair pedagogy’(p. 31). such a pedagogy privileged the practices of ‘encountering, copresence and listening’(p. 31); in this way practitioners engaged with the concerns of children but also gemma m. ryder & jennifer van krieken robson 117 privileged the value of care rather than the function of care. by developing an ‘unhurried presence’(p. 33) in the early childhood setting adults were able to realise caring values and in turn provide opportunities for children to exercise citizenship. similarly, moxnes and aslanian’s (2022) study in kindergartens in norway, considered how young children’s ability to enact agency is affected by their teachers’ perceptions of toddler’s thinking. they found that ‘toddler’s thinking inspired moments of diffraction and deep thinking ‘(p. 285) in the kindergarten that disrupted habitual beliefs in early childhood practice about time, its link to efficiency and assumptions of linear thinking. they emphasis the important role for adults to engage with toddlers thinking time as it opens up possibilities for different ways of ‘worlding together’(p. 285). from our reading of the literature three significant themes arise relating to children’s status and experiences as citizens arise in the early childhood setting. the conceptualisation of children as rights holders and rights defenders can position them as exercising agency and competent in making decisions. similarly, values (including value conflicts) are implicit in early childhood practice and are central to young children’s enactment of citizenship. however, young children’s citizenship emerges from and is dependent on the complex relationship between children and between adults and children. each theme is interconnected and raises important questions about the practitioners’ understanding of children’s citizenship and their role in creating environments that nurture young children as citizens. method for this paper, we are revisiting the data collected as part of a doctoral study by ryder (2021). her study aimed to explore how prosocial behaviours are nurtured within formal early childhood provision, with a focus on the birth to three years age group. her research design was a multiple case study approach across seven early childhood settings in england. while darke et al. (1998) articulate that multiple case studies allow for cross-case analysis and the comparison of specific phenomenon, stake (2006) stresses that the aim is to produce a better understanding of phenomena. here the phenomenon is young children’s citizenship in the early childhood setting. data was collected using a mixed methods approach. during the fieldwork for the doctoral study children were observed participating in their day-to-day activities and routines, which was then analysed alongside documents and artefacts. data collected during observations provided insight into how setting provision promoted children’s prosocial development and citizenship. semi-structured interviews with early childhood practitioners and teachers were conducted, following the analysis of the observations, documents and artefacts. the purpose of the interviews was to provide further insight into the pedagogy underpinning learning and teaching. early childhood settings were identified through purposive sampling and located across england. each setting subscribed to one or more early childhood curriculum frameworks and / or pedagogical philosophies; including the england’s statutory early years foundation stages (eyfs) framework (dfe, 2017); the montessori method, steiner waldorf education, the pikler approach, the reggio emilia approach, high-scope and forest school. a mix of child and adult participants assented and consented to take part in the study. a total of 110 children across all research settings were observed; consisting of 27 babies, 32 toddlers, 48 pre-schoolers and three children aged between six to nine years. a total of 11 parents consented to being observed in the playgroup settings and 20 practitioners and teachers volunteered to take part in semi-structured interviews. for this paper, a further phase of analysis involved reviewing the observation and interview data collected during the original doctoral study, across all settings. the aim of this analysis was to provide insights into young children’s enactments of citizenship. the data is presented here as a series of vignettes. here a vignette ‘is a focused description of a series of events taken to be representative, typical, or emblematic’ (miles et al., 2014, p. 182) of children’s actions or expressions of citizenship. the selection of data for inclusion in the vignettes was informed by four sampling parameters of setting, actors, events and processes (miles et al., 2014) and is summarised in table 1. young children as citizens: learning from practice… 118 table 1. criteria for selection of data for inclusion in the vignettes sampling parameter selection criteria setting the enactment of citizenship took place within the early childhood setting. actors the enactment of citizenship involved children or children and adults. events pro-social behaviours that involve children in the expression of agency, autonomy, values or acts of negotiation. process the enactment of citizenship relates to any aspect of the children’s experience at the early childhood setting. the aim of the vignettes is to convey descriptive detail of children’s enactments of citizenship but also provide contextual information. interpretation and analysis of vignettes here we present the vignettes together with an analysis of the knowledge they provide about young children’s citizenship in the early childhood setting. the analysis reveals the ways in which pro-social behaviours, child rights and values inform children’s citizenship. each vignette is a micro event involving a child in an everyday expression of citizenship in the early childhood setting. we suggest that valuable learning arises from the interpretation of such micro events that are momentary encounters between children and between children and adults. each vignette centres around a private early childhood setting which subscribes to more than one curriculum and / or pedagogical approach. physical expression of values vignette 1. child supporting another child downstairs in a forest school setting during a visit to the forest school setting’s baby room, the practitioners were observed taking the children downstairs to join their older peers for lunch. two practitioners led the children down the stairs, with another adult following them down. as the final few children approached the staircase, a 21-month-old child was observed reaching out and taking the hand of a younger child and heard saying “hold hand.” the child began to lead the younger child down the stairs, holding her hand throughout the descent. this observation was discussed during an interview with one of the baby room practitioners, to explore how this age group demonstrated helping behaviours. upon hearing about the child taking the initiative to help their young peer, the practitioner reflected on the practice of the baby room staff; responding that she and her colleagues could ‘make more’ use of the staircase in providing opportunities to promote prosocial behaviours. this vignette gives insight into the ways in which very young children give a physical expression of their values. in the context of this observation, the child was expressing their values through empathy, care and kindness towards their peer; prompted through her engagement and actions within the physical environment of the early childhood setting. as children move around the early childhood setting, there are opportunities for prosocial actions and behaviours which connect to early citizenship, such as helping, concern for the other and sense of community. this vignette is consistent with findings from the observations in other settings in this study. for example, very young children were observed demonstrating physical affection, such as stroking the hair of another child, hugging or helping another with a task. for example, helping a peer put on their shoes or a coat or offering a comforter if another child was upset. many of the youngest participants were pre-verbal and beginning to communicate orally through recognisable words and / or ‘babbling’, hence non-verbal communication presented visual clues about their intentions and needs. this finding suggests that young children can instigate prosocial actions; in this way they exercise agency and implement an ethic of care reflecting their evolving capacities in the social environment of the early childhood setting. lansdown (2005) emphasises the importance of practitioners being sensitive to children’s evolving capacities. however, farini (2019) stresses that children’s experiences are framed by the institutional and pedagogical cultures of the setting which may limit the space for children’s agency. in the context of the forest school setting, practitioners’ focus on the functional nature children’s physical descent down the stairs had led to a missed opportunity to explore other skills and behaviours initiated by this aspect of the routine. gemma m. ryder & jennifer van krieken robson 119 caring for the other vignette 2. toddlers’ separation and reunion in a forest school setting in the forest school setting, a young child (vanessa), was observed becoming upset when her friend (leanne) was briefly taken out of the playroom as part of her toileting routine. vanessa had not realised that leanne had gone and appeared to experience separation anxiety when she could not see her. the practitioners attempted to comfort vanessa without success. when leanne returned from the bathroom, vanessa pointed at her and called out her name, while still crying. a practitioner intervened by asking leanne if she would like to give vanessa a ‘cuddle’. while hesitant at first, leanne approached vanessa and the two embraced, leading to an emotional reunion. discussions between the researcher and the practitioner after the incident, revealed that vanessa and leanne had joined the setting around the same time and formed a close attachment. the importance of this relationship meant that the practitioners were arranging for both children to transition into the preschool room together. this was in recognition of the attachment they had formed with each other. this vignette demonstrates the ways in which young children form relationships with their peers. in the context of this observation, the adult facilitated the reunion between the two toddlers, encouraging prosocial behaviours, such as care and kindness to be shared between the children. the expression of anxiety by one of the children was a response to the absence of her friend. the acceptance of the situation of anxiety by both the other toddler and the practitioner resulted in action to achieve a positive resolution for all. as an emotional and physical expression of values in response to the child’s distress this finding is significant from two perspectives. firstly, the children took responsibility for the self and the other. here, relationships with peers and adults provide opportunities for learning the skills and strategies needed to be active members of their communities (uncomrc, 2005). secondly, the practitioner had a key role in enabling the children to care for each other, in this way the practitioner’s actions were not restricted to a function of care but the value of caring for the other. by taking the time to listen to the child’s concerns the practitioner was able to facilitate an environment in which the children could express their concern for the other. this resonates with puroila et al. (2018) findings where practitioners privileged practices of ‘encountering, co-presence and listening’ (p. 31) within the early childhood setting. children exercising agency, autonomy and solidarity vignette 3. agency and autonomy in a montessori toddler room during a visit to the montessori toddler room, two children included in this observation, were asked by a practitioner to pick up and tidy away some rhyme cards before going outside to play. the children did not respond to this request and continued to play with the cards. after another attempt to encourage the children to tidy the cards away, the adult appeared to change tactic and acted as a negotiator. she suggested the children take the cards outside to play, but the toddlers remained in the play area. they eventually made the decision to end their game and tidy the cards away, before joining their peers outside. the two toddlers appeared to be exercising their agency by deciding when to end their game and tidy up. the emphasis on children’s autonomy was highlighted in the montessori teacher’s interview, who stated that the children had learned that they had some control over their environment. this meant that they could engage with their work for as long as they wanted without disturbance. the intervention of the practitioner had caused some interruption, but the children reclaimed their space and activity. the complex ways in which children exercise agency and autonomy in their relationships with practitioners and each other is illustrated by this vignette. during the observation, the children exercised their right to play and not conform to the expectations and routine of the playroom, as set out by the adult. the expectation in this context was for children to transition from one routine to another or from one physical space to another. by choosing to continue with the rhyme card game, the toddlers ended their activity on their terms. these children expressed solidarity in their physical action because they sustained their presence in the room. furthermore, they chose not to engage with the adult’s effort to negotiate the end of their game. prosocial action in this context is a collaborative event between two children. this finding presents an alternative perspective on how young children form relationships and engage collaborative play; it reveals how play creates opportunities for children to establish solidarity in their group and assert their right to autonomy. this correlates with the work of bath and karlsson (2016), who argue that children do not accept the predetermined citizenship identities assumed or assigned to them by adults. additionally, this vignette illustrates that value conflicts are entangled in the daily life of the early childhood setting (johansson, 2018) and that they provide valuable opportunities to learning about young children as citizens: learning from practice… 120 children’s enactments of citizenship. children’s participation in decision making vignette 4. children’s choices in a highscope setting the highscope setting provided children with different methods of choosing what they wished to play with or do. the practitioners at this location enabled children across all age groups to make daily decisions on the activities they wanted to engage with. opportunities to choose were adapted according to the age group. preschool children would write and draw the activities they wanted to play with or take part in. toddlers were presented with a map of their playroom and took practitioners on a tour of the area they wished to play in. the babies were provided with photographs of different toys, play areas and activities, which they could point to or pick up and show the practitioners. preschoolers and toddlers also had the opportunity to choose which playroom they wanted to visit. this enabled them to have access to each other’s resources, facilities and activities if they chose to play elsewhere. this vignette highlights how the highscope setting enabled children’s right to participate by adapting methods to enable them to choose activities and play opportunities that were meaningful to them. prosocial actions of children were central to the realisation of a participatory pedagogy. practitioners created opportunities for children to express their preferences for activities. children demonstrated a range of behaviours that indicate their preferences. for the youngest children, the use of non-verbal cues and physical gestures was valued as an expression of agency by the practitioners. toddlers used the physical environment and space to lead the practitioners on a tour of the room, which enabled them to demonstrate autonomy and choice. this respects the competence and capability of young children to make choices and express their views, which are listened, respected and acted on by adults. here the actions of practitioners align with moxnes and aslanian’s (2022) findings that adult’s engagement with toddler’s thinking time opens up new possibilities for relationships in the early childhood setting but also disrupts assumptions about how children might choose to organise their time. discussion and conclusion in the early childhood settings studied there were multiple philosophical perspectives that guided pedagogy; it is beyond the scope of this paper to critically examine the diverse ways in which citizenship is conceptualised within such a range of pedagogical approaches and curricular. in this section, we discuss the significance of the knowledge of young children’s citizenship as it emerges from the analysis of the vignettes. our findings are tentative given the context of this small-scale empirical research study; however, empirical research focused on the citizenship experiences of young children in early childhood settings is developing and small scale studies have the potential to extend knowledge in this area. essence of young children’s citizenship the findings from this study revealed that the behaviours and actions denoting citizenship were not bounded or derived from adult expectations. expressions of young children’s citizenship are embedded in the everyday life of the early childhood setting. consequently they may be hard to distinguish from other phenomena in the setting such as expressions of rights or values. they emerge from and are supported by values which are a lived phenomenon, both embodied and ‘entangled’ in the actions of children (puroila et al., 2016, p. 154) or the rights holder positions that young children may adopt (quennerstedt, 2016). in our study, citizenship was demonstrated through momentary micro acts, which were often associated with an event centred around another child or activity. this correlates with the idea of young children being competent social actors, whose actions are a spontaneous response to specific events (james et al., 1998), as evidenced in the vignettes. this study provided visibility to the complex enactments of citizenship across the birth to three years age group in a range early childhood settings. these settings centred around principles of inclusion and participation, with adults and older children modelling prosocial behaviours. age groups were mixed to enable children to develop relationships with peers, and adults supported young children in navigating complex situations and emotions as in vignette 2 (ryder, 2021). like bath and karlson (2016) we found that young children can shape their environment in complex ways. all four vignettes reveal possibilities gemma m. ryder & jennifer van krieken robson 121 for democratic relationships between children and between adults and children (dahlberg et al., 2013). it is through the formation of relationships that rights and values are realised (uncomrc, 2005). values of fairness, respect, care and empathy are visible in children’s social actions. it should be noted that value conflicts in play (palmadottir, 2018) as illustrated in vignette 3, relate to children asserting their rights. such conflicts provide valuable learning opportunities for children in relation to democracy and solidarity; this is experiential learning, entangled within day-to-day practice. although, robson’s (2021) research revealed that citizenship was often seen by practitioners and teachers as a future aspiration, suggesting it to be something attainable as the child matures, we argue that the emphasis should be on the child as an active citizen, who is already contributing to society in line with james and prout’s (1997) construction of children as social actors exercising agency. expressions of rights often involve negotiation, conflict resolution and accepting responsibility for others (uncomrc, 2005). however, in the context of the birth to three years age group partaking in our study, we consider these skills to be emerging. the child’s developing cognitive, social and emotional development together with their communication and language skills, mean that behaviours, decisions and actions were often physical enactments; such as one child offering a comforter to another child in distress or physically helping another. in vignette 3 physical enactments included children exercising their right to play through non-verbal means. the vignettes begin to identify the presence of values systems, with children enacting behaviours, gestures and emotions that demonstrate care, empathy, and a willingness to help another child or communicate their wishes and rights. quennerstedt’s (2016) study on children’s enactments of human rights found that power structures of dominance and subordination are visible in children’s interactions and in this way children ‘disregard the value and dignity of others’(p. 16). whilst relationships of power between children was not a significant from our data analysis quennerstedt’s finding is a reminder that early childhood settings do not exist in isolation from the tensions arising from hierarchical societal structures. to conclude, our study has highlighted the distinctive ways in which young children enact citizenship in early childhood settings. our analysis brings to the foreground the key role adults have in acknowledging and exploring their momentary encounters with young children. in this way adults can positively affect young children’s citizenship. the knowledge discussed above has implications for pedagogy including, for example, the need for adults to recognise young children as social actors from the beginning of their life and understand the ways in which their evolving capacities enable citizenship. pedagogy should take into account general comment number 7 (uncomrc, 2005), which provides guidance on implementing child rights in early childhood. recent research by puroila et al. (2018), moxnes and aslanian (2022) and clarke (2023) provides new possibilities for pedagogy within early childhood. for example, moxnes and aslanian (2022) emphasise the important task for adults to engage with toddlers’ thinking time and the opportunities this provides to challenge assumptions about how adults work together with very young children. our findings recognise young children’s citizenship as a complex phenomenon. like quennerstedt (2016), we found few studies that have investigated young children’s everyday practices and lives within an early childhood setting. however, in this emerging field of research, there is significant knowledge related to the interconnected concepts of rights, values and citizenship and the way in which pedagogies and curriculum nurture children as citizens. declarations authors’ declarations authors’ contributions: gmr collected the data as part of her doctoral study. gmr and jvkr collaborated in the analysis of the data set and in the writing of the manuscript. competing interests: the authors declare that they have no competing interests. funding: this research received no funding. ethics approval and consent to participate: dr. gemma m. ryder received ethical approval to collect data from human participants young children as citizens: learning from practice… 122 as part of her doctoral study at angia ruskin university. publisher’s declarations editorial acknowledgement: the editorial process of this article was carried out by dr. carmen huser. publisher’s note: journal of childhood, education & society remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliation. references bath, c. & karlsson, r. 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(2015). global citizenship education. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002329/232993e.pdf https://doi.org/10.1080/09669760.2015.1096238 https://doi.org/10.1177/20436106221117846 http://dx.doi.org/10.9707/2307-0919.1116 https://www.unhcr.org/uk/protection/children/50f941fe9/united-nations-convention-rights-child-crc.html https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/tbsearch.aspx?lang=en&treatyid=5&doctypeid=11 https://www.ohchr.org/en/events/days-general-discussion-dgd/2018/2018-day-general-discussion-protecting-and-empowering https://www.ohchr.org/en/events/days-general-discussion-dgd/2018/2018-day-general-discussion-protecting-and-empowering http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002329/232993e.pdf young children as citizens: learning from practice in the early childhood setting journal of childhood, education & society volume 4, issue 1, 2023, 72-83 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.202341255 research article ©2023 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. bilingualism matters: early childhood teachers' attitudes toward children's creativity sabha hakim allehyani1 abstract: children can learn any language and acquire its skills at a very early age. creativity is central to the curriculum. early childhood (ec) teachers should provide children with appropriate resources to individually spark their imaginations and encourage them to adopt different ideas. the objective of the current study was to determine the attitudes of ec teachers who are teaching bilingual students and integrating creativity into classroom activities. the study adopted the exploratory approach, where a total of 299 ec teachers in the western region of saudi arabia participated in this study by filling out a questionnaire. ec teachers believed that there are differences between bilingual boys and girls in creative competencies. most teachers stated that they did not receive sufficient training and preparation to incorporate creativity into all subjects in ec schools. teachers in private ec schools showed more positive attitudes toward creativity than teachers in government schools. these findings provide reliable evidence for international research on teachers' attitudes and perceptions toward creativity in bilingual children. policy makers can also benefit from these results and pay more attention to teacher preparation programs in order to raise their efficiency in supporting and enhancing the creative inclinations of learners. article history received: 06 december 2022 accepted: 23 january 2023 keywords acquisition; bilingual children; curriculum; english; subjects introduction a decade ago, bilingual education in saudi arabia underwent relatively slow but steady, gradual changes. in 1927, english as a second language was introduced into secondary schools without a specific curriculum in saudi arabia (alkhuzay, 2015). later in 1953, english was introduced in middle and high schools with a defined curriculum (al-subahi, 1989). with the increasing importance of english as a widely accepted and dominant language, most business sectors require proficiency in spoken and written english. some students left their home countries to join the scholarship system outside saudi arabia to study in english-speaking countries. in this new era, saudi arabia has witnessed tremendous development in all sectors, including early childhood education (ece), to achieve the saudi new vision 2030. one of the most important features of this rapid development is the empowerment of women in education, which was manifested in the stage of assigning, where the education of boys in the primary classes was allocated to female teachers as a historical shift in education (allehyani & alfayez, 2022). the saudi government has also paid attention to bilingual education for children, which has recently increased due to the interest in embracing international learners in its educational system (allehyani, 2022a). the transformation process focused on shaping a new ece system in saudi arabia and included improving school readiness by expanding equitable access to quality services, building new classrooms, strengthening partnerships with the private sector, engaging all education stakeholders, and hiring and training ec teachers (ministry of education, 2022). several studies have shown that reforming education should be based on improving curricula and enhancing teachers' skills and participation in decision-making (adams, 2000; allehyani, 2022b; baldauf, 2006; fullan, 2007; schmidt & datnow, 2005). at the end of 2021, the saudi ministry of education integrated english into the first grade of ec _____________ 1 umm al-qura university, faculty of early childhood, department of education, mecca, saudi arabia, e-mail: shrlehyani@uqu.edu.sa, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-00032238-6277 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202341255 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:shrlehyani@uqu.edu.sa https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2238-6277 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2238-6277 sabha hakim allehyani 73 schools to achieve the strategic objectives of the new vision 2030 (ministry of education, 2022). these goals focus on developing students' english language proficiency skills and acquiring international best practices. accordingly, bilingual education has received the attention of the ministry of education in the past years, but the urgent need to learn english alongside arabic has increased, which has contributed to the new generation's acquisition of the primary languages. cultural diversity education is adopted as part of the national curriculum that supports the achievement of the goals of vision 2030, including equal representation of all groups of diverse students in the curriculum, in order to reduce racism and prejudice, and promote awareness and acceptance of learners (allehyani, 2022c). recent research stated that the saudi educational system gives greater value and attention to promoting teachers' cultural and linguistic competencies in schools by enabling them to embrace all the required skills in teaching students from diverse backgrounds (allehyani, 2022c). an important starting point is that the ministry of education and its various administrations in the kingdom have an interest in applying learning methods for children that develop creative and critical thinking skills (allehyani, 2019); nevertheless, this modern trend needs more time, materials, and rich environments. to my knowledge, there is no research that has addressed the attitudes of ec school teachers who teach bilingual students in the first grade in saudi ec schools. besides, there is little literature that examines teachers' attitudes and perceptions toward creativity in the saudi context, which this study intends to focus on. literature review creativity for more than half a century, creativity and its concepts have been of great interest to researchers around the world. there are various definitions of creativity. creativity appears in different creative contexts, such as innovations and new solutions, as well as effective social relationships and problem-solving skills (nikkolaa et al., 2022). from the perspective of vygotsky (1990), creativity is the reformulation of a child's learning in a new and creative perspective, which enriches the learner's knowledge, and the possibilities to reformulate this experience creatively. plucker and beghetto (2004) defined creativity as an interaction between the individual’s skills and the environment in which it creates a set of productive, creative and unique ideas which are distinguished in the social context. bloomberg (1973) defines creativity as a set of divergent thinking skills, including fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration. fluency is the individual's capability to produce possible modifications. flexibility is defined as the individual's ability to switch thinking between two different concepts. originality is an individual's ability to produce unique and new responses that demand creative strength. elaboration means the detail added to ideas to clarify them in depth. creativity, as defined by kharkhurin (2017), is a boosted normative cognition, which in turn strengthens certain cognitive mechanisms in the brain that add to an individual's creativity. bilingualism and creativity certainly, the early stage of education plays a significant role in supporting children's creativity. a large body of literature has addressed bilingualism, monolingualism and creativity (hommel et al., 2011; kharkhurin, 2012, 2017; lee & kim, 2011; leikin & tovli, 2014). the results of a previous study confirmed that preschool education positively supports creative thinking skills in children (dere, 2019). it found that the creative potential behind the performance of children who received preschool education was significantly higher than those who did not. there is considerable debate among researchers about the association between creativity and bilingualism. according to previous literature, bilingual learners outperform monolinguals in achieving tasks that require cognitive functions (bialystok, 2005). within a specific scope, there are plenty of studies showing the advantages of bilingualism in creativity, especially verbal. nevertheless, many scholars agree on the advantages of bilingualism in diverse types of creativity, which include both verbal and nonverbal (lee & kim, 2011; madhav & anand, 2012). particia and johnson (2004) identified that there are four main aspects of creativity in which children can express themselves, which include language, music, art, and acting. rashidova and bobojonova (2019) argued that families should encourage their young children to gain knowledge, as they can learn faster to reach proficiency, and cognitive development, which distinguishes bilinguals from monolinguals. for example, children can use words to form sentences about pictures in which they share their thoughts with others. interestingly, in the competitive world, people think that being bilingual is more important and valuable, bilingualism matters: early childhood teachers' attitudes... 74 and this justifies why there are more bilinguals in the world today than ever (rashidova & bobojonova, 2019). scientists drew attention to a philosophical statement that bilingualism expands the cognitive abilities and creative performance of individuals (kharkhurin, 2012). earlier studies have proven the positive effect of bilingualism on creativity within different contexts. some researchers have found that children who grow up in a bilingual environment become superior at creative cognitive tasks, such as problem-solving skills (bialystock, 2005; leikin, 2013; leikin & tovli, 2014). moreover, other empirical studies have shown that there are no significant differences in fluency between monolingual and bilingual children (bialystok, 2005; bialystok & shapero, 2005). when children had the opportunity to tell stories about the presented pictures and to ask descriptive questions about sizes, shapes, colors, and pictures, both monolinguals and bilinguals performed at a similar level (particia & johnson, 2004). despite the important findings of previous research comparing creative performance between bilinguals and monolinguals, it focused only on cognitive skills. creativity in both genders has been the focus of studies in many kinds of literature. in 2018, a study by castillo-vergara et al. revealed that girls showed higher scores than boys in creativity’s three dimensions, which include fluency, flexibility, and originality. recent findings by jia et al. (2020) revealed that boys were higher in creativity than girls, in particular in scientific tasks. even though girls did not accomplish better than boys did, they showed more interest in science. similarly, a correlation was found between creativity and imagination in both genders (gleason et al., 2003; hoff, 2005; root-bernstein& root-bernstein, 2006). several studies found that girls have more imaginary companions and they produce more ideas than boys (gündoğan et al., 2013; pearson et al., 2001; taylor et al., 2004). in contrast, a recent study by betancourt et al. (2022) has proven that when children's creativity skills were examined, there were no gender differences found between them except in one measure of graphic creativity. consequently, this can only be achieved with empowered and experienced teachers in the field of creativity. creativity in the context of ece in the new era, with the growing awareness of the possibility of learning and developing creativity, researchers have turned to draw the attention of educators to the importance of developing creativity in ece. children's creativity should be enhanced by creating a stimulating learning environment that promotes creative methods represented in its various activities, which allows them to learn by doing, active participation, and experiential learning (cachia et al., 2010). moreover, creativity-oriented teaching experiences increased the professionalism of teachers. it has been demonstrated that teachers who have long teaching experience are more efficient in working with children and have positive attitudes about fostering creativity in children (šemberger & konrad, 2022). in 2015, fidan and oztürk found that teachers with long teaching experience have positive attitudes because they see their school's climate as more supportive and richer in terms of innovation resources. another influential factor in promoting a creative environment is the type of ec school. prior research confirmed that teachers who are working in private schools tend to be more creative and self-motivated at a higher level compared to teachers in public schools (fidan & oztürk, 2015). hence, there is a need to maintain positive educational environments that support and enhance creativity among teachers and learners. furthermore, there has been a long debate about the limits of integrating creativity into the school curriculum. whether it is a domain-general or domain-specific, such as art, or both (gralewski, 2016; han & marvin, 2022; robinson, 2017; šemberger & konrad, 2022). as a matter of fact, a large body of literature has found that divergent thinking was significantly more pronounced in children in creative activities related to the language domain (including storytelling and writing) but not in creative behaviors in the language domain in other areas (baer, 1991; han & marvin, 2022; runco, 1986). han and marvin (2022) assessed children's creativity in three areas, including storytelling, math-word problems, and collage-making tasks. results showed that the great correlation between storytelling based on a picture book without words and word problem tasks in mathematics is attributed to general creativity. children's creative potential should be developed further based on their own interests. in this sense, creativity includes a student's outstanding performance in school activities such as editing text for magazines, drawing, web design, singing or playing musical instruments, film production, or writing poems and short stories (gralewski, 2016). the findings of gralewski's studies (2016) confirmed that teachers associated creativity only with visual and musical performing arts rather than writing and scientific domains. to overcome sabha hakim allehyani 75 this dilemma, schools need to provide students with a stimulating learning environment, such as project-based learning, where they have more time, space and materials to solve problems productively and to encourage innovation (schneider, 2014). in a similar context, a previous study by allehyani (2019) revealed that after applying the twenty thinking keys strategies in the preschool classroom, children showed high levels of creative and critical thinking skills, with clear differences in literacy scores. it is worth noting that the positive attitudes of teachers toward the development of creativity in children cannot be transmitted automatically in educational situations but rather through building competencies and teaching experiences of teachers (šemberger & konrad, 2022). scholars argued that developing creativity in children requires collaborative efforts from all officials and leaders in the educational sector to enable teachers to keep pace with the development of teaching curricula in creativity (allehyani, 2019; gralewski, 2016; šemberger & konrad, 2022; yemez & dikilitaş, 2022). accordingly, teachers should constantly employ different creative approaches and reflect on their own practices to create a supportive ec learning environment. moreover, it is worth noting that there are myriad previous studies that focused on the effect of bilingualism on creativity (adesope et al., 2010; leikin, 2013; yemez & dikilitaş, 2022). children's early acquisition of a second language may predict higher proficiency, which confirms bilingual learners have better creative performance (karatas & aktan-erciyes, 2022). bilingual children in bilingual preschools were found to be more creative (karatas & aktan-erciyes, 2022). teachers' attitudes toward creativity impact students' learning outcomes (naeem, 2021). in 2021, naeem stated that teachers should be aware of their changing roles in keeping pace with developments in techniques and precision tools to improve the child's mastery of the second language and develop their intellectual abilities and skills. although these are significant findings, none of them focused on examining teachers' attitudes toward teaching bilingual children's creativity. to sum up, the positive association between second language proficiency and creativity has been proved, which confirms how it contributes to children's second language development. while drawing on the existing literature, the main purpose of the present study is to gain a more comprehensive understanding of ec teachers' attitudes toward creativity, specifically first grade in ec schools. the age group of first-grade children in ec schools in saudi arabia ranges between 7 and 8 years. the questionnaire design was based on a quantitative model that answered the main research question: how do the factors (children's gender, type of schools, teaching experiences, and professional preparation program) construct teachers' attitudes toward creativity? method research design the current study adopted a quantitative approach. the researcher used the descriptive approach to analyze the data, which is the most appropriate design, as this research aims to explain the current situation as it is (cohen et al., 2007). for this purpose, a questionnaire was designed to determine the attitudes of ec teachers toward creativity and its relationship to second language learning. participants a total of 299 ec female teachers who are teaching bilingual children in the first grade in ec schools agreed to participate voluntarily in this study. the participation agreements were taken via signing the consent forms prior to conducting the current investigation. participants were selected randomly from ec schools, including government and private schools in the western region. all participants were female teachers, as we mentioned previously, by assigning all ec schools, specifically the first, second and third grades classes, to female teachers in all regions of the kingdom. data collection the questionnaire was constructed using microsoft forms, and it was disseminated by email and social networking sites such as whatsapp. the questionnaire is divided into two sections. the first section consists of seven questions that highlight the demographic information of the participants. the second section consists of 22 questions inquiring about ec teachers' attitudes toward children's creativity. the items consisted of questions and bilingualism matters: early childhood teachers' attitudes... 76 answer options, which consisted of a 4-point likert scale. these options consist of (1 = strongly agree, 2 = agree, 3 = disagree, 4 = strongly agree). the set of statements about asking teachers about beliefs and opinions about creativity includes four responses. reliability test reliability is the degree to which measures are free from error and thus yield consistent results (i.e., consistency of procedure). if the scale consistently shows the same score for individuals or statements of equal values, the procedure is considered reliable. the reliability analysis applied the level of cronbach's α as the criterion of internal consistency in the questionnaire, that is, how closely a set of items are related as a group. cronbach’s alpha is a reliability coefficient that measures inter-item reliability or the degree of internal consistency/homogeneity between variables measuring one construct/concept (i.e., the degree) to which different items measuring the same variable attain consistent results. this analysis is necessary to study scale features and internal consistency between the questionnaire items and their correlation. the analysis was done by calculating cronbach's alpha for independent variables. the values are (α =.089). instrument validity the researcher analyzed the correlation between all items in this study to confirm the tool's validity. where all the results range between (.419**-.769**). as displayed in table 9, the means (m) and standard deviations (sd) were assessed for each construct and related items, and these items were then ranked in descending order according to the following scale: low 1 1.75; moderate 1.76 2.51; high 2.52 4 . results statistical analysis data were analyzed using spss (v. 26). frequencies and percentages were used to summarize the questionnaire questions. demographic information regarding the first research question, how long have you been teaching bilingual children? table 1 demonstrates the frequencies and percentage of the respondents' answers about the teaching experience of teaching bilingual children. table 1. the frequencies and percentage of teachers' experiences of teaching bilingual classrooms, teachers' levels of education and teaching different school types percent frequency experience 47.8 143 1-4 20.4 61 5-9 17.7 53 10-14 14.0 42 15 and more 100.0 299 total level of education 47.5 142 bachelor 26.1 78 master 26.4 79 high diploma 100.0 299 total school types 63.9 191 private 36.1 108 government 100.0 299 total shown in table 1 are the frequencies and percentages of respondents' answers to the first research question. the majority of teachers (47.8%) indicated that they have been teaching bilingual classes for 1 to 4 years. fewer teachers (14.0%) clarified that they have been teaching bilingual classes for 15 years and above. based on these results, most of the teachers were new teachers with less experienced teaching sabha hakim allehyani 77 backgrounds. additionally, table 1 deliberates the frequencies and percentage of teachers' educational levels, which indicates the majority of teachers (47.5%) reported that they had completed bachelor's degrees. fewer teachers (26.1%) indicated that they had master's degrees. besides, table1 exhibits the frequencies and percentage of the respondents' answers to what is the school type you are teaching in now? the majority of teachers (63.9%) reported they were teaching in a private school, whereas the rest of the teachers (36.1%) indicated they were teaching in a government school. table 2. the frequencies and percentage of teachers' creativity preparation programs percent frequency 37.79 113 yes 62.21 186 no 100.0 299 total table 2 displays the frequencies and percentage of respondents' answers: have you received any prior guidance or training from the ministry of education on how to practice creativity in teaching and learning? less teachers (37.79%) responded 'yes' because they were well prepared to teach bilingual children's creativity. more than half of teachers (62.21%) reported 'no' as they did not get any guidelines or training from the ministry of education regarding how to practice creativity. accordingly, most of those teachers were well prepared and trained to teach children's creativity. table 3. the frequencies and percentage of teachers' creativity training forms valid percent frequency creativity training forms 15.04 17 booklets 15.93 18 online resources 19.7 23 workshops 8.85 10 conference 33.63 38 seminar 6.19 7 competition 100.0 113 total as displayed in table 5, teachers who said 'yes' indicating that they had been trained by the ministry of education were also asked a further question: what form did this take? the majority of teachers (33.63%) reported they attended creativity seminars, followed by other teachers (19.7%) who reported that they received workshop training. fewer teachers (6.19%) indicated that they participated in creativity competitions. on the other hand, teachers who responded with 'no' indicating that they did not receive any preparation program were asked, how do you understand creative education? table 4 shows the frequencies and percentage of teachers who indicated they have not received any preparation programs. the majority of teachers (46.24%) indicated that they had long teaching experiences in teaching creativity. fewer teachers (6.45%) reported they read academic articles about creativity education. table 4. the frequencies and percentage of teachers' understanding of creative education valid percent frequency teachers' understanding of creative education 9.68 18 past education 46.24 86 teaching experience 19.35 36 extra course outside school 6.45 12 academic articles 18.28 34 learning from mistakes 100.0 186 total teachers were asked the question, what does creativity mean to you? as revealed in table 5, the frequencies and percentage of teachers' responses to what does creativity mean to you? were varied. bilingualism matters: early childhood teachers' attitudes... 78 table 5. the frequencies and percentage of teachers' perceptions about creativity percent frequency 12.7 38 imagination 7.0 21 design 12.0 36 creation 11.7 35 crazy idea 8.7 26 taking risks 7.7 23 unusual idea 31.8 95 problem solving 8.4 25 breaking rules 100.0 299 total the majority of the teachers (31.8%) indicated that creativity is all about problem-solving tasks, followed by teachers who perceived creativity in general as children's abilities of imagination. however, fewer teachers (7.0%) recognized creativity as children's ability to design innovative objectives. furthermore, teachers were asked, which two subjects do you think offer the greatest potential for developing creativity in bilingual students? (see table 6). table 6. teachers' perceptions of the school subjects offer the greatest potential for developing creativity in bilingual as illustrated in table 6, the majority of teachers (40.5%) agreed that art and music are the two most significant subjects in school that offer the most potential for developing creativity in bilingual students. fewer teachers (10.7%) perceived computer and design as the less important subjects in relation to developing creativity in bilingual students' classrooms. table 7. means and standard deviations for teachers' attitudes toward children's creativity importance level rank sd m statement high 21 0.95 3.10 both boys and girls are equally creative. high 18 0.87 3.13 students can achieve high scores without being creative. high 5 0.83 3.27 students with high iqs are more creative than average students. high 11 0.84 3.19 students can be more creative outside of school. high 4 0.79 3.29 creative students are mischievous and high spirited. high 16 0.83 3.13 it's hard for students to be creative without motivation. high 3 0.76 3.31 girls use their imagination more than boys. moderate 22 0.97 2.42 in the current education system, students can become more creative in school. high 1 0.78 3.35 bilingual students are more creative than monolingual students. high 6 0.78 3.27 being creative involves breaking original rules. high 2 0.73 3.33 boys are more active than girls in risk-taking behavior. high 15 0.91 3.14 everyone can be creative in their own way. high 20 0.91 3.11 creative students always get high marks. high 14 0.88 3.15 i empower students to share their creative works. high 9 0.71 3.25 creative ideas need to be fermented continuously over a long time. high 19 0.89 3.13 creative students have more competitive advantages. high 12 0.83 3.19 creative students don't like to follow school disciplinary rules. high 10 0.82 3.20 all students are born able to be creative. high 7 0.76 3.27 creative teaching can raise children's learning interests. high 8 0.78 3.26 creativity is the performance of self-realization and confidence. high 17 0.94 3.13 the more creative you are, the higher you get paid at work. high 13 0.85 3.18 creative ideas just happen dramatically. high 0.70 3.17 overall regarding the factors influencing teachers' attitudes toward creativity, it can be noticed that statement, 'bilingual students are more creative than monolingual students', recorded the moderate level percent frequency 19.4 58 drama and dance 40.5 121 art and music 10.7 32 computer and design 15.7 47 math and science 13.7 41 creative/imaginative writing 100.0 299 total sabha hakim allehyani 79 mean value among the statements being rated by the study sample, thus was ranked first with a mean value of (m=3.35, sd=0.78). there were significant differences occurred between boys and girls in creativity levels from teachers' perspectives. teachers indicated that boys are more active than girls in risk-taking behavior with a mean value of (m=3.33, sd=0.73). in addition, teachers were found to have positive attitudes toward girls. they reported that girls used their imagination more than boys, with a mean value of (m=3.31, sd=0.76). table 8. means and standard deviations of teachers' attitudes toward children's creativity in relation to the study variables while the statement 'in the current education system, students can become more creative in school' was ranked last with a mean value of (m=2.42, sd=0.97), the overall assessment of this variable was rated by a mean value of (m=3.17, sd=0.70), suggesting a moderate level of agreement in the study sample. to answer the study hypothesis, 'effect of the variables (level of education and school types) on teachers' attitudes toward children's creativity', the means and standard deviations of these variables were analyzed (see table 8). table 8 displays an apparent variance in the means and standard deviations for ec teachers' attitudes toward children's creativity according to the study variables (teachers' level of education and types of schools). in order to show the significance of the statistical differences between the mean, a two way anova analysis of variance was used (see table 9). table 9. two-way anova for ec teachers' attitudes toward children's creativity on the study variables as shown in table 9, there are no statistically significant differences in teachers' attitudes toward children's creativity according to the variable (level of education). however, there are statistically significant differences in ec teachers' attitudes toward children's creativity according to the variable (types of schools) in favor of those who are teaching in private schools. based on the recent study purposes revealed earlier on, results confirm that insufficient knowledge, traditional stereotyping based on the gender of learners, and shortcomings in qualifying female teachers to develop creativity and embrace it in educational curricula affect teachers' positive attitudes toward creativity. discussion and conclusion the current investigation on saudi ec teachers' attitudes toward teaching bilingual children creativity yields several contributions. the first and most significant contribution of the current research was that the majority of teachers were less experienced in relation to teaching creativity, which narrowed their perceptions about integrating creativity into all subjects. previous findings supported our argument, finding that longer teaching experience makes teachers more efficient at working with children to develop and enhance their creativity (fidan & oztürk, 2015; šemberger & konrad, 2022). thus, the more experienced the teachers are in teaching and developing creativity, the more supportive and enriching the school climate will be for the students. the second contribution of the existing study was that nearly half of the teachers had not received adequate preparation or training from the ministry of education regarding how to practice creativity. this result is in line with previous findings that teachers' positive attitudes toward creativity in children cannot variables category n mean sd school types private 191 3.30 0.67 government 108 2.95 0.70 level of education bachelor 142 3.19 0.68 master 78 3.05 0.64 phd 79 3.26 0.77 source type iv sum of squares df mean square f sig. level of education 1.065 2 0.532 1.152 0.317 types of school 7.268 1 7.268 15.732 0.000 error 136.286 295 0.462 corrected total 145.430 298 bilingualism matters: early childhood teachers' attitudes... 80 be transferred automatically in educational situations but that teachers must be adequately prepared to enable children's creativity in various fields (gralewski, 2016; šemberger & konrad, 2022). consequently, this matter requires education authorities to develop appropriate plans to enhance the competencies of teachers in the field of creativity and encourage innovation. the third contribution was to reveal the belief of most teachers who teach bilingual students that art, music, drama, and dance are the most important subjects in the school for the development of creativity. fewer teachers perceived computer and design as less important subjects in relation to developing creativity in bilingual students' classrooms. these findings are consistent with previous findings that stated that one of the major misconceptions is that teachers' attitudes toward creativity are specific to areas of individual interests, such as artistic activities (gralewski, 2016; robinson, 2017; šemberger & konrad, 2021). creative classrooms can be achieved by providing students with project-based learning in which they have more time, space, and materials to solve problems productively, and to invent and recreate a stimulating learning environment (schneider, 2014). while creativity is not a subject like art and music, it can be woven into the fabric of a school's curriculum. when teachers make lessons more related to students' lives and interests, they become more inclined to be creative in their own way. hence, creativity needs to be included in all areas of curricula. in the ec settings, results revealed that most teachers reported that the current education system does not support and embody creativity sufficiently, which is reflected in children's creative performance in school. several scholars confirmed that children's creativity should be enhanced by creating a stimulating learning environment that promotes creative methods represented in its various activities, which allows them to learn by doing, active participation, and experiential learning (cachia et al., 2010). besides, general creative thinking skills should continue to be encouraged in every area of students' talent; however, more attention should be paid to increasing diversity in education systems (han & marvin, 2022). moreover, regarding the factors that influence teachers' attitudes toward creativity, most believe that bilingual students are more creative than monolingual students. this result is consistent with previous findings that second language children show higher creative performance early and with higher proficiency, which confirms that bilingual learners have better creative performance (karatas & aktanerciyes, 2022). surprisingly, the results confirmed the existence of significant differences in the attitudes of ec teachers toward creativity in children of different types of schools in favor of those who teach in private schools. commenting on this, the result of the study was consistent with the previous one, which confirmed the tendency of teachers working in private schools to be more creative and self-motivated at a higher level compared to teachers in public schools (fidan & oztürk, 2015). regarding the type of ec institution, the study found that teachers who work in the private sector have positive tendencies toward embracing and including creativity in children's learning curriculum. this reinforces previous findings that teachers in private institutions tended to be more creative and self-motivated at a higher level compared to teachers in public schools (fidan & oztürk, 2015). further analyses revealed that there were significant differences in teachers' attitudes toward creativity on the subject of gender stereotyping. according to teachers' selfreport, girls were more likely to use their imagination than boys were, while boys were more active than girls in risk-taking. this result is inconsistent with the previous result by betancourt et al. (2022), who found that there are no differences between the genders except in one measure of graphic creativity. more importantly, the results of the existing study indicate a deficiency, if not an absence, of teachers' awareness of the perception of creative performance in bilingual children. implications and limitations the current study is unique in the saudi literature in the field of childhood education, as it focused on teachers' attitudes toward creativity and investigated their misconceptions, specifically toward teaching bilingual children, while most of the existing literature focused only on measures of creativity. the overall findings of the existing study exposed the urgent need to prepare teachers to integrate creativity into all subjects, which has a profound impact on the positive attitudes of teachers and contributes to correcting sabha hakim allehyani 81 misconceptions about the development of creativity among learners. it is worth noting that there is a prevalent belief among ec teachers about the existence of individual differences between children of both sexes in their creative abilities, in particular, imagination and risk-taking performance. the crucial element to stimulate bilingual children lies in empowering ec teachers' understanding and knowledge in the subject of creativity. taking these results as a reference can be useful for educational sectors to develop training and preparation plans for teachers to enable them to develop creativity in children of both genders. in addition, the results of this study can be beneficial for policy makers in the development of scientific projects for schools. although the current study revealed children's tendencies to be creative in the field of art, music, and drama, there is a need to encourage children to be creative in the field of science and technology. despite the importance of these findings for the current study, it is admittedly limited in one main aspect. the limitation is the possibility of teachers providing bias answers while responding to the items in the self-report questionnaire. more research needs to be done to reveal the obstacles in supporting and promoting creativity in young children, both at the ministry of education level and at the school level. declarations author’s declarations acknowledgments: the author would like to thank the teachers for their kind participation in this study. authors’ contributions: this is the sole work of the author. competing interests: the author declares that there is no competing interests. funding: not applicable. ethics approval and consent to participate: ethical consent is obtained from researcher’s institution, and informed consent forms are collected from participants. publisher’s declarations editorial acknowledgement: the editorial process of this article was carried out by dr. mehmet toran. publisher’s note: journal of childhood, education & society remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliation. references adams, j. 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(2022). development of verbal creativity by bilingual and english as foreign language learners in kindergarten to 8th grade schools. creativity studies, 15(1), 25–39. https://doi.org/10.3846/cs.2022.12603 https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/10692-009 http://dx.doi.org/10.17478/jegys.1053261 acknowledgments: the author would like to thank the teachers for their kind participation in this study. journal of childhood, education & society volume 4, issue 1, 2023, 1-15 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.202341216 research article ©2023 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. teachers’ experiences of promoting young students’ language development in inclusive settings heidi selenius1, linda fälth2 abstract: early education is essential in promoting language development for all young students. teachers will meet 6-year-olds with various language skills in the preschool class in sweden. they are expected to engage and involve all students in language education to promote each student’s language development. the study aimed to explore teachers’ experiences promoting language development among young students in inclusive settings. semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 teachers working with young students in the preschool class. all interviews were transcribed and analyzed with thematic analysis. three themes were identified, representing the teachers’ knowledge of language development, the pedagogical approach to promoting language development, and students with special needs in oral and written language. the results are related to shulman's (1986, 1987) framework on teachers’ competence in integrating content and pedagogical knowledge for successful teaching. teachers in preschool classes might need education and in-service training to master young students' diverse language abilities and needs. article history received: 07 june 2022 accepted: 09 august 2022 keywords inclusive education; preschool class; language development; teachers; thematic analysis introduction reading and writing are crucial in education and have social and democratic values (e.g., united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization [unesco], 2018). students with good reading ability have better opportunities to pass elementary school than those with limited reading ability (duncan et al., 2007; hulme & snowling, 2016). consequently, reading and writing are related to further education and employment opportunities (de beer et al., 2014; hulme & snowling, 2016). students who struggle with reading and writing are at risk of marginalization (pickard, 2021; world literacy foundation, 2012). with the knowledge that reading and writing are related to students’ early oral language and language teaching (castles et al., 2018), early education is essential in promoting language development for all young students. among young students, education needs to focus on oral language and pre-reading skills to encourage learning to read and write (lonigan & shanahan, 2008). oral language is an ability including vocabulary, grammar, and listening comprehension (language and reading research consortium, 2017), and pre-reading skills refer to alphabet knowledge, phonemic awareness, knowledge about letter-sound correspondence, and concepts about prints (suggate et al., 2018). comprehensive research demonstrates that teachers must offer young students explicit teaching on phoneme-grapheme correspondence to support them in learning to read, especially students at risk of reading difficulties (castles et al., 2018; melby-lervåg et al., 2012). more seldom, oral language is highlighted, but longitudinal research has also revealed that students with mature oral language are better equipped for developing pre-reading skills (nichd early child care research network, 2005). subsequently, young students with limited oral language should also receive systematic oral language education to support those at risk of future reading and writing difficulties (genesee et al., 2005). in general, teaching focusing on pre-reading skills will help _____________ 1 stockholm university, faculty of social sciences, department of special education, stockholm, sweden, e-mail: heidi.selenius@specped.su.se, orcid: https://orcid.org/00000003-1502-055x 2 linnaeus university, faculty of social sciences department of pedagogy and learning, växjö, sweden, e-mail: linda.falth@lnu.se, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7261-590x https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202341216 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:heidi.selenius@specped.su.se https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1502-055x https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1502-055x mailto:linda.falth@lnu.se https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7261-590x heidi selenius & linda fälth 2 the students in developing word decoding skills, whereas oral language is emphasized as essential for reading comprehension (castles et al., 2018; hulme & snowling, 2016; nichd early child care research network, 2005) and writing (dockrell et al., 2019; kirby et al., 2021). early language education is reported to be affected by the teachers' content and pedagogical knowledge (hammond, 2015; piasta et al., 2020). the teachers must also know how to integrate these two types of knowledge in language education for young students (cf., evens et al., 2018). therefore, the teachers need to understand how language is structured and related to each other (piasta et al., 2020). in addition, they should know efficient strategies to promote students’ oral language and pre-reading skills to develop their language abilities. such knowledge also includes competence in teaching pre-reading skills in small groups to students at risk of reading and writing difficulties (kaminski et al., 2014; zucker et al., 2013). hence, teachers should be aware of and understand the characteristics of different language difficulties to meet the needs of students (dockrell et al., 2017). however, many teachers cannot identify and struggle with supporting students with special needs in language abilities because of a lack of training and education. although oral language is fundamental for reading and writing (lonigan & shanahan, 2008; nichd early child care research network, 2005), efforts to develop young students' oral language do not have to exclude education in pre-reading skills. for example, young students with specific language disorders are demonstrated to enhance their listening comprehension, vocabulary, oral narrative skills, and phonological awareness after one-hour individualized sessions combined with language activities at home for six weeks (munro et al., 2008). these students will also develop phonemic awareness similar to typical speech and language developing peers when offered 20 hours of individual teaching on phonemic awareness and letter-sound correspondence (gillon, 2000). furthermore, intervention studies demonstrate that oral language, phonemic skills, and alphabetic knowledge can be enhanced among students with weak oral language (bowyer et al., 2008; fricke et al., 2013). according to bowyer et al. (2008), about 50% of the students needed additional support to develop oral language and pre-reading skills after a 10-week intervention. also, fricke et al. (2013) reported that the 10-week phoneme awareness and alphabetic knowledge intervention was too short, but the young students enhanced these skills during these weeks. the oral language was supported during a more extended period (30 weeks), and fricke et al. (2013) demonstrated that the students' oral narrative skills were efficiently enhanced and maintained. findings by gillon et al. (2020) point in the same direction since young students with speech and language difficulties improved their phoneme awareness and vocabulary after half-hour lessons offered four times a week for ten weeks. gillon et al. stated that the students needed additional support to transfer these skills into word decoding and spelling. according to costantino-lane (2021), some teachers believe that young students must first master the oral language before practicing pre-reading skills such as phonemic awareness. therefore, teachers consider social interaction, play, and conversations fundamental in young students' language development. nevertheless, this belief should not be regarded as exceptional because early childhood education has had a tradition of literacy-related play and shared storybook reading but converted to more academic achievements focusing on reading education due to national policies (saracho, 2017). these policies have been criticized for putting too much effort into academic achievement instead of students’ play and social development (brown, 2018; costantino-lane, 2021). pre-reading skills have received more attention in swedish preschool classes in the last ten years (cf., axelsson et al., 2020; norling, 2019). the preschool class is the first compulsory year within the swedish school system, and students start preschool class the year when they turn six. according to the swedish national curriculum (swedish national agency for education, 2018), there are no explicit national curriculum goals for language education in the first year, but the teaching should cover content such as; • rhymes, jingles, and other word games • letter and other symbols to convey a message • discussing, listening, and asking questions teachers’ experiences of promoting young students’ language… 3 • expressing thoughts, opinions, and arguments • words and concepts that express needs, emotions, knowledge, and opinions • discussing different types of texts • digital tools for communication • safe and responsible communication, including digital situations however, without specific goals for language education in the preschool class, the content of early language education can vary with the individual teachers' beliefs and knowledge of early language education. the preschool classes in sweden are reported to be equipped with children’s books, name signs, and alphabet pictures (hofslundsengen et al., 2020). toys are also prevalent (axelsson et al., 2020), whereas digital tools for supporting pre-reading skills are less accessible (hofslundsengen et al., 2020). teachers will meet young students with various language skills (norbury et al., 2016; sandberg et al., 2015). some young students might be able to read (lundberg et al., 2012) and tell stories (massonnié et al., 2022). others might have a limited vocabulary (norbury et al., 2016), weak listening comprehension (massonnié et al., 2022), difficulties retelling stories (massonnié et al., 2022; norbury et al., 2016), a limited alphabetic knowledge (sandberg et al., 2015), or weak phonemic awareness (lundberg et al., 2012). they might not be developmentally ready for formal reading education even though teachers are expected to provide them with early education, preparing them for developing good reading ability (saracho, 2017). consequently, in inclusive education, the teachers should meet the needs of young students with various language abilities. therefore, they are also expected to engage and involve all students in language education to promote language development. the teachers face a complex task, but each child needs to be given good learning conditions with their peers. therefore, the aim was to explore teachers’ experiences promoting language development among young students in inclusive settings. the study had the following research question: • how are the teachers understanding of promoting language development expressed? method a qualitative research approach was applied as the aim was to explore the teachers' experiences in promoting language development among young students. to capture the participants' experiences and understanding of a phenomenon, such as students' language development, interviews as a data collection method and thematic analysis as an analysis method were considered suitable (cf., braun & clarke, 2013). context of the study the current study was conducted among teachers working with students in preschool classes in sweden. the students will start in a preschool class the year they turn six, which will be their first compulsory year in the swedish school system. according to the swedish national curriculum (swedish national agency for education, 2018), play is valued of great importance, and the educational activities in the preschool class should stimulate development and prepare the students for future learning. education is free, and parents can choose a school (swedish education act, 2010:800). about 8% of the preschool class students are reported to have special needs (swedish schools inspectorate, 2021), and 25% have another home language than swedish (swedish national agency for education, 2021). the teachers who work in preschool classes are responsible for meeting the needs of all children (swedish education act, 2010:800), which means that they encounter a diversity of students, such as students with disabilities and various cultural and language backgrounds. participants the participants were 17 female teachers working with 6-year-old students in preschool classes in sweden. ten of the teachers had a preschool teacher’s degree, six had a teacher’s degree, and one had no pedagogical degree. two had also completed a special educator teacher degree among those with a heidi selenius & linda fälth 4 teacher’s degree. the teachers had worked between 3 and 40 years (m=20, sd=11) in preschool or elementary school. their experience in educating 6-year-olds was between 3 and 21 years (m=12, sd= 6). during the current study, they were teaching between 13 and 58 students. some teachers were solely responsible for a preschool class. others educated larger groups of children in collaboration with 2 to 4 teachers and elementary school assistants. participant selection and recruitment process we used a purposive sampling strategy for the study (cf., braun & clarke, 2013). therefore, we asked teachers interested in a new teaching material focusing on phonemic awareness to participate in the present study. during the second half of 2021, about 35 teachers had shown interest in trying the material among young students in a preschool class in sweden. the teachers had not tried the new material, and the current study was based on their experience working in the preschool class. none of us had a previous relationship with the schools or the teachers. further, we had an independent relationship with the producers of the teaching material. an information letter about the present study was sent to the teachers. they were asked to participate in an interview focusing on teachers' experiences of their work with language development among students in the preschool class. in addition, we informed the teachers that we are not involved in the work with the teaching material and that we are independent researchers interested in teachers’ experiences working with language development among young students. seventeen teachers agreed to participate in the present study and scheduled themselves for an interview. before the interviews, we informed the teachers about the study and provided information on the ethical considerations. we promised to maintain confidentiality regarding the content of each interview, and consent was sought from all participants. data collection we developed a semi-structured interview guide according to the aim of the present study. initially, the participating teachers were asked about their teaching experiences, education, and the number of teachers and students in their group. after that, the interview guide consisted of eight questions about language skills teachers consider essential to work with among young students and how they enhance students' language abilities. with follow-up questions, the teachers were sometimes asked to elaborate on their descriptions or to give more detailed examples. each interview lasted between 15 and 32 minutes (m=25 minutes), and the length of the interviews varied according to teachers’ individual experiences and knowledge of working with young students’ language development. all interviews were audio-recorded and performed on zoom in september and october 2021. analysis all interviews were transcribed, and we performed an inductive thematic analysis (cf., braun & clarke, 2006, 2013) without a theoretical framework or a coding guide. we were guided by our academic background in psychology and pedagogy and previous experiences in reading and writing research and work as special education teachers. initially, we read through the materials and familiarized ourselves with the transcriptions (braun & clarke, 2006, 2013). the first author performed a semantic, complete coding on all transcribed interviews resulting in a long list of codes. these codes were then organized and interpreted to identify how teachers have experienced promoting language development among young students in inclusive settings. the first author suggested an initial thematic map of the codes sorted into potential themes. codes and themes were discussed with the second author to enhance the depth of the interpretation (cf., braun & clarke, 2022). we also examined and discussed whether the analysis reflected the individual teachers equitably. we strived to generate themes without researcher bias and existing theory. after that, we defined the themes and gave them names. all themes are exemplified with quotes from the participating teachers. the teachers were teachers’ experiences of promoting young students’ language… 5 given pseudonyms to strengthen confidentiality. for examples of the analysis process from data extract to themes, see table 1. table 1. example of data extract, condensed data extract, code, and theme from thematic analysis of interviews with teachers data extract condensed data extract code theme when we have read aloud, it can be with or without pictures to create listening comprehension (betsy) reading loud for practicing listening comprehension. listening comprehension teachers’ knowledge of young students’ language development it's also about interest; of course, it's about finding things that arouse their interest. as a teacher, you can adapt as much as you like, but it's difficult if the students aren’t interested. (hanna) adaptations are not working without students' interests. interesting for students teachers' pedagogical approach to promoting language development results we identified three themes reflecting the teachers’ experiences promoting language development among young students in inclusive settings in sweden with the thematic analysis. these themes represent the teachers’ knowledge of language development, especially pre-reading skills, among young students and how they used different pedagogical approaches to promote language development. also, teachers supported students with special needs in oral and written language by applying different pedagogical strategies. teachers’ knowledge of young students’ language development our thematic analysis resulted in one theme constructed on teachers' knowledge of young students’ language development. their understanding varied from being confident and competent in how students develop different language skills to insecurity or unawareness about what language skills young students should learn to enhance oral and written language abilities. early language education was based on the teachers' formal competence and experience in students’ language development. teachers with many years of experience educating 6-year-olds had acquired tacit knowledge about young students’ language development. they identified a general level of language ability among the students in their groups, and they thought the curriculum provided endless language education opportunities. in addition, these teachers were aware of how teaching materials are structured to develop students’ pre-reading skills. they expressed how they could distinguish specific language skills and difficulty levels within teaching materials. accordingly, they explained how explicit materials could suit students with varying pre-reading skills and how they could use materials to promote language development. i use a colleague’s material and choose her way, so i haven’t had deeper thought. (gina) i think it’s tough because i don’t have the experience to see children’s language development yet, and i’m pretty clear about that. i’m not afraid to ask for help. (cathy) when i went to teacher training, it was very… we got very poor education on how to work with writing and reading. it was really flawed. (noel) nowadays, there is more focus on whole word reading in early reading books. students must [according to the curriculum] read whole words. but i haven’t worked that way. i’ve been more prone to sounding in my profession, and now i’ve confirmed that those who have difficulties should practice sounding words. (liza) moreover, some teachers described the importance of in-service training, teacher network, and support from colleagues to develop their language education. others expressed that they lacked teaching experiences and felt insecure when planning and teaching language skills to young students. they expressed the need for more guidance from the national curriculum. consequently, the content in less competent teachers' language teaching was mainly based on others’ recommendations, trends in using heidi selenius & linda fälth 6 teaching materials, or demands for the municipality to work with a specific method. they were often unaware of what specific language skills were taught in different language activities. sometimes, they could not see the need or importance of teaching particular language skills to young students and lacked an understanding of the language structure and complexity. according to their description, language education seemed unsystematically offered to the students. due to their limited knowledge, they could not efficiently support students in developing knowledge about the swedish alphabet (including 9 vowels and 20 consonants where the 26-letter latin alphabet is used plus the three additional letters å/å, ä/ä, and ö/ö), phoneme-grapheme correspondence, or communication skills. for instance, they described how they followed the order in the alphabet and presented letters without consideration of difficulty or frequency in the swedish language. in contrast, those with more formal competence and experience stated the importance of starting with letters that are easy to discriminate, both auditorily and visually, and possible to blend into short words consisting of three letters. besides practicing alphabetic knowledge and phonemic awareness with young students, the teachers focused on vocabulary, listening comprehension, oral narrative skills, and literacy knowledge. they also mentioned activities related to phonological awareness, such as rhymes, syllables, and alliteration. some teachers did not teach phoneme-grapheme correspondence, and they considered teaching students phonemes more critical in preschool class than phoneme-grapheme correspondence. when we introduce letters, we start with two-word, three-word, and four-word sounds. automatically, some letters are best suited. (quinnlyn) we have worked on a, b, c, d, and e. we have made five letters so far. (cathy) the children listen to how many phonemes there are in a word and then put markers for each phoneme they hear. it becomes visible to the children. because otherwise, the phonemes are very abstract for the children, so it must be something quite concrete. (elly) the teachers' understanding of the structure of the swedish language was reflected in how they described the content of their teaching. some teachers allowed students to practice specific language skills to develop more complex skills such as communication skills. for instance, the teachers planned lessons where the students were asked to do presentations, listen to each other, and ask questions. these lessons could be prepared by teaching storylines, specific vocabulary, and rules for communication. conversely, other teachers believed language should be taught as a whole and therefore not focused on specific language skills. there were also teachers without thoughts about how students acquire written and oral language abilities. for example, their statements reflect that they are unaware of how students learn to read and how they, as teachers, could support students in extending vocabulary to build listening comprehension and narrative skills. nevertheless, the interviewed teachers agreed that working with language is essential, and the students can practice communication during the whole school day. some teachers emphasized the importance of teaching phoneme-grapheme correspondence several times weekly with a systematic and explicit approach. they thought they could notice the effect of such teaching. consequently, without reasonable tuition on phonemic awareness in the preschool class, the teachers have experienced that many students will need support from special education teachers to learn to read and write in the following school years. also, teachers emphasized that teaching language takes time. in addition, as a teacher, you must accept that students will develop differently as young students are heterogeneous in their language development. therefore, teachers must realize that language needs vary from student to student and year to year. for instance, in some years, students have progressed well in their language development. teachers will also meet students with weak oral language skills and phonemic awareness in other years. however, statements from those with limited teaching experience revealed that they had difficulties identifying the needs of each student. last year, we used books suitable for linguistically proficient students who needed a little more challenges. this year we’ve gone back to basic, back to the bornholm method, and started from the beginning. (alice) you mustn’t forget repetitions. you shouldn’t go too fast forward. it’s very important to rehearse. (penny) teachers present letters very quickly, and the children have to put the letters together. this means that teachers sometimes forget to practice the first and last sounds, divide compound words, practice phonemes and rhyme (isabel) teachers’ experiences of promoting young students’ language… 7 teachers’ pedagogical approach to promoting language development our analysis revealed that the teachers' pedagogical approach to young students' language development reflected their diverse perspectives on planning and implementing language activities. good relationships with students and variation in language education were highlighted. their different starting points for language education mirrored their pedagogical approaches to promoting students' language. interests and curiosity among the students were used when planning language teaching. the teachers explained that they prepared education for the students to enjoy within the preschool class. early education was told to lay the ground for school motivation. in addition, the teachers believed their teaching engagement was essential for students learning. they articulated the importance of making teaching meaningful to the students, which was related to all students' participation. therefore, the teachers emphasize student involvement as fundamental for language education. accordingly, the teachers planned language education based on the students with the lowest language skills. they tried to relate their teaching to the interests of the students. therefore, the teachers allowed students to choose assignments by their interests and motivation. teachers made education meaningful for talented and lingually gifted students by giving these students additional assignments that challenged the students’ language skills. digital tools and various apps capture the children who are difficult to motivate. i can show the children how they can work with the language with an app. (elly) i think it's a lot of joy. you should consider it fun too. that you’re doing something with pleasure. (liza) we play, so it gets fun. above all, it should be something that feels positive for the students, and if it doesn’t, we should try to find an adaptation. (joanne) teachers believed variation in language education is fundamental due to students' different learning styles and to motivate and stimulate students in language development. therefore, the teachers combined teacher-led activities with collaborative language education. also, they tried to meet the needs of each student by mixing materials and methods and offering the students possibilities to use different senses. for example, they used drama, music, videos, computer programs, games, puzzles besides circle time, and traditional tuition with paper and pen. teachers organized different stations to have the possibility to manage small groups of students when giving explicit teaching on pre-reading skills. the teachers expressed how they used guided play to promote students' engagement in language education, especially in groups of students with limited language skills who quickly drop their motivation for language education. free play was considered a valuable approach to stimulate communication between students. thus, teachers also thought the free play was challenging for students with limited oral language skills. we've been detectives looking for sounds, looking for letters. we’ve put letters together and reasoned about which word it will be. (hanna) the children get to trace pieces of wood that represent a letter. i’ve got a small box of sand, and they can try to make the letter in sand. and then, i also have a worksheet. i'm a bit divided, some can write, and some think it's a plague and pain. still, they write the letter on a piece of paper i’ve prepared and copied. (gina) music reinforces the feeling for language because they hear it better. the word or the rhythm of the meaning. i support the feeling with a rhythm instrument. (felicia) some teachers planned and implemented language lessons focusing on explicit teaching and teacherled discussion to encourage the students' language awareness and learning. such teachers mentioned the importance of offering language education to small homogeneous groups of students, whereas others highlighted the importance of mixing students with different language skills to promote development. the latter meant that students learn more from peers than from the teachers. in the whole group, we try to come up with rhyming words on, for example, car (swedish: bil), and then we discuss why does not rhyme bus (swedish: buss) on the car, but the file (swedish: fil) does? so, i use much cooperative education as well when the children sit and work together. once a day, we work with different stations, and the children work in four different groups. (alice) i’m striving for clarity and structure and much encouragement. for students that i find difficult to reach, i usually really make an effort and try to like them and encourage every little positive hint, like this "how nice you hold the pen" (noel) heidi selenius & linda fälth 8 for the past three years, teachers in swedish preschool classes have been required to make compulsory assessments of students' language abilities (swedish national agency for education, 2019). teachers in the current study brought up these assessments. however, they had different attitudes and approaches to assessments to promote language development among young students. they could see the usefulness of making the group's needs visible with the assessment and thereby use the result as a basis for their teaching. still, they also thought the individual assessments of every student take time away from regular education, and they were unsure whether the assessment benefitted their teaching. however, results from language assessments were also regarded as necessary to divide the students into homogenous small-group. they also underscored the need for valid tests and that the compulsory assessment was not efficient enough to identify students at risk of future reading and writing difficulties. therefore, some of the teachers added phonological tests to avoid planning teaching that is not appropriate concerning the needs of the students. we look a little at how far they have come in their linguistic consciousness, some not far at all. then we put together those who haven’t come so far into a group. we do this so everyone will be at about the same development level as the others in a group. (diana) everyone passed the compulsory evaluation material, and only one child was a borderline case. still, 13 out of 27 failed when i made phonological tests with them. i thought everyone would be okay if i had only used the compulsory evaluation material. but it turned out they were not. if we look back at those who have reading and writing difficulties in the fifth grade, they’ve already been weak on the phonological test in the preschool class. (kate) students with special needs in oral and written language development according to the teachers, some students have special needs in language education. these students might have a language disorder, a home language other than the school language, or challenges with social relationships. teachers’ statements indicated that it could be a considerable challenge for a teacher to succeed in including these students in language education. for instance, the teachers mentioned the challenge of involving or engaging students with special needs in the teaching. furthermore, another challenge highlighted by the teachers is students who cannot discriminate different phonemes from each other, which makes it difficult for the teachers to develop the students’ phoneme awareness and knowledge of phoneme-grapheme correspondence in the classroom. the teachers had two main pedagogical strategies for students with special needs in language development. one of these main strategies was giving the students individualized language development support. the other main strategy was to strive for increased participation in language activities by increasing the adjustments in the classroom. when the teachers offered individualized support to students with special needs, they tried to identify how the individual student learned and supported the student with additional tuition besides regular education. individualized support was sometimes specified in a written action plan for the student. according to the swedish education act (2010:800), such a plan is meant for students at risk of not achieving knowledge requirements despite additional adjustments (swedish national agency for education, 2014, 2015). an action plan presupposes evaluation of the teaching and the student’s difficulties, and the efforts must be clearly stated. teachers in the current study received support from special needs teachers or speech therapists in making the action plans. the special needs teachers and the speech therapist could also support and guide the teachers in promoting individualized support to students with special needs. in addition, the parents were asked to support the students at home, and sometimes the teachers provided the parents with advice on practicing a specific language skill with the child. however, some teachers thought they did not have time to give students individualized support or that the students were too young for an action plan in early language education. if we notice a student has difficulties, we raise it at student health team meetings. these include a special educator, principal, school nurse, and school counselor. they decide how the student should be treated and what resources are needed. (elly) when a child scores low on phonological tests, we make it very clear to the parents that their children may need support to achieve the goals in year 3. it’s been very successful because these children have cached up with the reading when they come to first grade. it feels like it has made the parents take it seriously, too. (kate) teachers’ experiences of promoting young students’ language… 9 when the other main pedagogical strategy was expressed among the teachers, there were statements about how they were striving for increased participation in language activities. the teachers expressed how they attempt to promote all students’ learning and involvement in the classroom. for example, the teachers believed adjustments such as short and intensive instructions and visual aids would support participation in language education. therefore, they used guiding and supporting questions to encourage the students' learning and communication and made them more noticeable in the classroom. furthermore, the teachers consider the physical placements of the students to enable participation, and they plan for pedagogical and organizational differentiation to meet the needs of the students. for example, the students could be divided into smaller groups for shared book reading. some students need pictures and shorter texts, whereas others can listen to more complex stories and create their inner images. consequently, in smaller groups, the teacher could meet the student’s proximal zone for learning and increase participation in language activities. the teachers also believed that students who have not reached so far in language development should be able to choose language assignments to become more engaged and motivated. language education must include play and excitement for these students to encourage them to participate in language activities. however, those teachers who did not strive for all students' participation assumed that some students would not be motivated for language assignments due to their special needs. for instance, the teachers thought that the students with special needs should have the opportunity to play instead of attending the language lesson. still, the teachers did not reflect on the student’s lack of language education and participation. we have children with special needs. they get involved in their way, and sometimes you have to adapt a little. (mary) all children want to do the same thing. they also want the same material, and we let them have it, but then we adapt the assignment to each child. (quinnlyn) the student may prefer to build with lego or play with something else than doing language activities, so you have to look after the child's interest. it's not a disaster if the child does not think these [language activities] are fun right now. (betsy) children with a home language other than swedish can teach the other children in the group to learn to count to five in their first language. they became so proud, and that's how we want it to be. we highlight all languages represented in our group so that each language is important and valuable. (olga) the current study explored the teachers' perspective on how young students' language development can be promoted. according to the thematic analysis, teachers' understanding of language development and pedagogical approaches were central to promoting language development among all young students in inclusive settings. however, young students with special needs in oral and written language development might need individualized support besides regular education. in addition, teachers experienced that inclusive education gave these young students more motivation to learn with their peers. the language activities must be meaningful to the students. the teachers believe that inclusive language education should be based on the students with the weakest language skills, whereas language-gifted students require additional assignments. the teachers expressed that they had to differentiate language education to offer all students appropriate language-related challenges. teachers’ knowledge promotes young students’ language development already, in the 1980s, teachers’ competence in integrating content and pedagogical knowledge was argued to be vital for students' education (shulman, 1986, 1987). content knowledge refers to the teacher’s knowledge of a subject's basic concepts and principles (e.g., written language development) and awareness of what facts students must learn (e.g., alphabet). in addition, the teacher needs to understand what makes the subject comprehensible for students. for instance, what makes the written language easy or hard to learn, and what kind of analogies, illustrations, and examples will support the young students’ language education. hence, teachers must consider all students’ thinking and learning to organize and manage successful teaching (shulman, 1986, 1987). similarly, unesco (2022) has also emphasized the importance of teachers having subject knowledge and appropriate teaching strategies to promote educational heidi selenius & linda fälth 10 achievement among students. our results point in the same direction as shulman's (1986, 1987) framework that teachers’ pedagogical approaches and content knowledge about oral and written language development promote language development among young students. however, the participating teachers did not explicitly mention integrating their content and pedagogical knowledge as crucial for early language education. still, through their examples of teaching young students oral and written language, the integration of such knowledge was expressed in the interviews. previous research has also stressed the importance of teachers' understanding of pedagogy and language development for successful early language education (hammond, 2015; piasta et al., 2020). accordingly, teachers need the competence to integrate these two types of knowledge to promote language development among young students (cf., evens et al., 2018). however, our results also revealed that some teachers seemed to have a weak understanding of students' language development although they had a teacher's degree. similarly, dockrell et al. (2017) reported that many teachers could not identify and struggle with supporting students with special needs in language development. in the current study, teachers’ descriptions of their language education gave a picture of unawareness about students’ oral and written language development and what type of language skills should be expected from 6-year-olds. compared to the teachers in the study by dockrell et al. (2017), the teachers in our study were also unaware of typical language development and not only students with special needs in language education. they seem to lack content knowledge and therefore tend to struggle in early language education. the lack of content knowledge in child language development was sometimes explicitly put forward by themselves. they tried to develop their language teaching by asking more experienced colleagues for guidance or attending in-service teacher training. thus, some teachers did not express that they lacked content knowledge, but their descriptions indicated that their teaching did not support students’ language development. for example, specific pre-reading skills such as alphabetic knowledge and phoneme awareness could be presented to make it difficult for students to comprehend the structure and meaning of written language. such teachers introduced the letters as they come in the alphabet (a, b, c…) rather than the swedish orthography. in swedish, some consonants are easier (e.g., s, l, m) for students to start with than others (e.g., c, d, h, k, p) (cf., alatalo, 2011). there are also more prevalent vowels (e.g., a, e, o, i) than others (e.g., y, å, ö) in the swedish written language. consequently, some letters are more appropriate in early reading education in swedish. early language education in inclusive settings although shulman’s (1986, 1987) framework for integrating pedagogical skills and content knowledge in teaching was formulated before the salamanca statement (unesco, 1994), he argues for teaching meeting the needs of all students. hence, teachers must find representation that works as a practical example for all students. teachers must also choose how they should give instructions and in what way these may need to be adapted to work for all students in the classroom. in addition, he underlines the importance of tailoring the teaching to the students' backgrounds, interests, motivation, and abilities. in the current study, teachers also explain how education can be more meaningful to students, especially those with special needs, when their interests, motivation, and language abilities are considered. teachers also relate meaningful teaching to participation. to encourage students’ participation, the teachers plan for pedagogical and organizational differentiation to meet the needs of the students. they also explain how important it is for students with special needs to use the same materials as their peers in the classroom to give them the feeling of belonging to the group and being involved in the language activities. in the framework by shulman (1986, 1987), fundamental aspects of inclusive education such as presence, participation, and achievement (cf., ainscow, 2020) are not presented. still, he is not discussing segregated solutions for students struggling at school. he argued that teachers must know about student diversity and reflect on their teaching to promote learning. the achievement aspect is prominent in the framework. similarly, teachers in the current study focus on language achievement when they support students with special needs by offering additional individualized support. their strategy to increase participation was also intended to support students in becoming more motivated to be involved in teachers’ experiences of promoting young students’ language… 11 language activities and learn alongside their peers. strengths and limitations the study was conducted during the covid-19 pandemic; therefore, all interviews were performed using the zoom digital meeting program. not interviewing people in the same room and face-to-face might have limited our opportunities to create a good interview climate. still, zoom enabled us to reach participants from all over the country. the participating teachers worked in municipal and privately owned schools in metropolitan and rural areas. we believe that the teachers tried to answer to the best ability our questions and were interested in sharing their experiences working with students’ language development in the preschool class. in addition, we perceived that after about twelve interviews, data saturation was achieved. however, we chose to conduct the additional interviews scheduled with teachers. these provided additional concrete examples of the teachers' experiences promoting language development among young students. the selection of teachers working in preschool classes consists of those who have shown particular interest in working with visual support in phoneme learning. consequently, they may not be representative of teachers working with younger students. thus, according to the interviews, the teachers work in varied ways to promote language development and did not place any particular emphasis on visual support in students’ language development. they may be a group of teachers looking for different pedagogical strategies to use in their teaching to meet the needs of young students. further, it is also possible that they are interested in developing their language education by using new materials and methods. the first author was responsible for the thematic analysis, which was reviewed and discussed with the second author. such an analysis process can be considered to strengthen the depth of the study (cf., braun & clarke, 2022). however, the transferability of the study must be viewed in its context and the sampling procedure. in addition, the study was conducted in sweden among teachers working in a preschool class with students turning six years old. this class is the first year of compulsory schooling in sweden, which might differ from school systems in some other countries where students are younger when they start compulsory education and have other legal rights to special educational support. besides, the swedish curriculum has no specific language goals that must be achieved in the first year, which might differ from national curriculums in other countries. this means that teachers may have different expectations regarding the content in language teaching in different countries. the national policies can guide what should be considered necessary in early language teaching and limit teachers’ use of pedagogical strategies. consequently, it is conceivable that teachers in sweden and other countries might have different experiences promoting students’ language development as their conditions and requirements for teaching in inclusive environments might vary. thus, we can assume that teachers should have competence in students’ language development and pedagogical strategies. the current study results might not be unique for the participating teachers as teachers are expected to promote language development among younger students. similar findings have also been previously reported (hammond, 2015; piasta et al., 2020. implications most students learn to read and write without teaching (ehri et al., 2001; gough, 1996). thus, explicit language education is crucial for students at risk for reading and writing difficulties (castles et al., 2018; genesee et al., 2005; melby-lervåg et al., 2012). these students need competent teachers to develop oral language and pre-reading skills that will support them in learning to read and be readers with good comprehension. according to the current study and previous research (hammond, 2015; piasta et al., 2020), early language education requires teachers with pedagogical and content knowledge of young students' oral and written language development. therefore, students meeting teachers without such knowledge might lose the education they need to prevent future reading failures. in addition, more language-gifted students are at risk of being under-stimulated and losing interest in reading and educational motivation heidi selenius & linda fälth 12 (cf., barbier et al., 2022). school leaders should also be aware of the importance of recruiting competent staff in language development and pedagogy. previous research has shown that it takes several years for a teacher to develop solid knowledge (podolsky et al., 2019). it presupposes that the teacher has the opportunity to work with students in the same grade over a more extended period, which is an organizational aspect the school leaders should be aware of. in addition, collegiate learning has proven to develop teaching effectively (podolsky et al., 2019). therefore, school leaders should create time for collegial learning, especially when newly graduated teachers are employed. generous and experienced teachers might have much to contribute to developing colleagues' language teaching. without content knowledge of children's language development, a pedagogically skilled teacher will still have significant challenges in promoting language development. besides the school leaders striving to allow teachers to develop knowledge and teaching, it is essential that teacher education and in-service teacher training focus on how content and pedagogical knowledge can be integrated into early language education to promote all students' language development. therefore, we suggest further studies on how collegial learning and teacher training can enhance teachers' pedagogical and content knowledge to encourage all students' language development. there is also a need for further studies on how teachers integrate their content and pedagogical knowledge in the inclusive classroom. declarations author’s declarations acknowledgments: not applicable. authors’ contributions: both hs and lf have collected data. hs wrote the paper in consultation with lf. competing interests: the authors declare that they have no competing interests. funding: both authors are employed at swedish universities and have time for research in their positions. ethics approval and consent to participate: participants received oral and written information about the study, which was voluntary. all participants agreed to participate in the study. publisher’s declarations editorial acknowledgement: the editorial process of this article was carried out by dr. adrijana visnjic jevtic. publisher’s note: journal of childhood, education & society remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliation. references ainscow, m. 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(2018, october 17-18). functional literacy and numeracy: definitions and options for measurement of sdg 4.6. gaml fifth meeting, hamburg, germany. united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization [unesco]. (2022). teacher content knowledge. https://policytoolbox.iiep.unesco.org/policy-option/teacher-content-knowledge/#policies-for-children-with-disabilities world literacy foundation. (2012). the economic and social cost of illiteracy: a snapshot of illiteracy in a global context. http://hdl.voced.edu.au/10707/321997 zucker, t., solari, e., landry, s., & swank, p. (2013). effects of a brief tiered language intervention for prekindergartners at risk. early education and development, 24(3), 366-392. https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2012.664763 https://policytoolbox.iiep.unesco.org/policy-option/teacher-content-knowledge/#policies-for-children-with-disabilities http://hdl.voced.edu.au/10707/321997 https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2012.664763 teachers’ experiences of promoting young students’ language development in inclusive settings journal of childhood, education & society volume 3, issue 3, 2022, 233-248 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.202233206 research article ©2022 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. social protection of children with disabilities before the change of regime and at present emese balázs-földi1 abstract: the integration of people with disabilities and the normalisation of their living conditions appear to be a key goal in today’s social approach. however, it is not enough to change the social approach alone in order to achieve integration, we need instruments which are able to support the social participation, self-determination and normalisation of people with disabilities. such instruments can be defined as follows: a wide range of social welfare support and social services ensured by the state. it is indispensable to help, support and strengthen families which raise a child with disabilities, consequently social policy instruments should be extended to families as well. the present study aims at providing an overview of how children with disabilities and their families were supported during the socialist regime and in the subsequent period. we used a qualitative case study, for the preparation of which secondary research and document analysis were conducted. our analysis focused on the research question whether following the change of regime there was a change of attitude in the fields of social policy which could promote the improvement of the quality of life of children with disabilities and their families. on the other hand, do the benefits and services provided by the social care system support the integration, normalisation and self-determination of children with disabilities, as well as their upbringing in a family environment? the results of our analysis show that following the change of regime a slow change guided by the modern approach to disability began, which by continuously adding an element at a time attempts to help children with disabilities and their families. a hungarian disability strategy which would thoroughly define a social policy adapted to the needs of those concerned is badly needed. article history received: 19 april 2022 accepted: 04 september 2022 keywords social policy; family; social participation; inclusion; normalisation introduction international research results (ballesteros et al., 2013; beresford, 1995; brennan et al., 2016; gordon et al., 2000; pal, 2018) point out that children with disabilities and their families are one of the most disadvantaged social groups. out of the nine and half million citizens living in hungary more than four hundred thousand people have some sort of disability (central statistical office [cso], 2018), of which the number of people benefiting from social services is estimated at 35-40 thousand (kozma et al., 2020). according to the data of the 2011 census, more than thirty-five thousand children with disabilities live in hungary, accordingly 2.3 per cent of hungarian families have a child with disabilities (figure 1) (cso, 2014a). the distribution by the type of disability among children with disabilities under the age of 19 shows the predominance of children with intellectual disabilities, almost a third of them are affected by this type of disability, followed by mobility impairment in the second place, which is followed by mild visual impairment and moderate visual impairment (figure 1). _____________ 1 university of debrecen, faculty of child and special needs education, department of social pedagogy, debrecen, hungary, e-mail: balazs.foldi.emese@ped.unideb.hu, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0883-2747 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202233206 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:balazs.foldi.emese@ped.unideb.hu https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0883-2747 emese balázs-földi 234 figure 1. distribution of children with disabilities by type of disability (persons) source: cso, 2014a the census results highlight the specific housing situation of minors with disabilities and their families, which aggravates their disadvantages (cso, 2014a). most of them live in smaller towns and villages, the number of those living in the capital city or in county towns, i.e. in bigger towns, is low. kereki (2010) pointed out in his research that there are inequalities in access to education and social services based on the housing situation of the child with disabilities. inequality in education and social services puts those living in smaller towns and villages at a disadvantage. according to the census data (cso, 2014a) a more disadvantaged housing situation can be detected especially among children under 14 years of age (figure 2). figure 2. distribution of children with disabilities by age and place of residence (persons) source: cso, 2014a based on these demographic characteristics, it can be stated that the assistance in the supervision and the mobility of children is important for families raising a child with disabilities, and they especially need services provided at the place of their residence. surely, the day care supervision and travel of a child with an intellectual disability or mobility impairment can be a significant financial and mental burden for the parents. in hungary, there have been three researches which explore the living conditions of children with disabilities and their families. these researches were conducted between 1990 and 2008, and since the 2010s no research has been aimed at exploring the problems of this specific social group. 35120 3693 2924 2560 2911 185 642 2461 2707 3333 10177 435 4061 6964 0 10000 20000 30000 40000 persons with disabilities other, unknown severe internal disorder and chronic disease speech and language impairment speech-sound disorder deaf-blindness (sight and hearing loss) deafness hard of hearing mental disorder (psychic disability) autism intellectual disability blindness mild or moderate visual impairment mobility impairment 3438 3602 15412 7778 23190 1696 1907 8027 3904 11931 0 7.500 15.000 22.500 30.000 capital city towns country total –14 15–19 social protection of children with disabilities before… 235 the first research was conducted between 1994 and 1995. according to the results of this nationwide questionnaire survey (béres, 1997) conducted among 3200 families, financial difficulties cause the biggest problem for more than the quarter (26.5%) of the respondents. the results of the survey suggest that 39% of the surveyed families can fully benefit from the available services, and 23% can only partially use them. the main hindrance to use the services is the transportation, as well as the distance from the services. in 2003 lászló bass (2004a, 2004b) conducted a nationwide representative research on the situation of children with severe and multiple disabilities and their families caring for them. he pointed out that the families struggle with a range of complex problems that make them particularly vulnerable to income poverty, loneliness and exclusion from services. in its background, there is a great amount of support and care that children with disabilities need, which, on the one hand, means significant additional costs for the families, on the other hand, mothers can only provide a permanent supervision for their children if they give up their work. parents place their children in residential social care as a last resort, they try to preserve the family unit, but this may lead to impoverishment, the loss of social connections and the decrease in social participation. bass (2008, 2009) repeated five years later his previous research among children with disabilities and their families. his results pointed out that there was no difference in the lives or social welfare of the families surveyed, and the employment of mothers remained low, therefore their income situation remained unchanged. fónai et al. in hajdú-bihar county in 2004 conducted a non-representative questionnaire survey asking persons with disabilities and their families which involved 387 persons (fónai et al., 2007). the research was aimed at exploring the living conditions of people with disabilities, but it did not only comprise families caring for minor children with disabilities. the results of the study support the findings of the nationwide research of bass (2004a, 2004b), according to which the person with disabilities affects the living conditions and income of the family caring for him / her. their unfavourable income situation can be explained by multiple reasons, on the one hand, due to the care of the child at home the mother has no income from gainful activities, on the other hand the disability of the child accounts for extra expenses in the family budget. families raising a child with disabilities are more affected by interdependence and isolation therefore they require benefits and services provided by social policy. according to the conclusion of the investigation, although families receive institutional assistance, further services and support would be needed in order to be able to care for their relatives in a family environment without the deterioration of their living conditions. people with intellectual disabilities are in a particularly disadvantaged situation and their independence and growing up into an adult is especially impeded in a family environment. based on the above mentioned research results, it can be concluded that the living conditions of families raising a child with disabilities are worse compared to those who care for a non-disabled child. in the background may be the lower income, higher expenses arising from care needs, disadvantageous housing situation, mobility and difficulties in accessing services. at present, we do not have current information on the living conditions of families raising a child with disabilities, as since the 2010s there has been no research into the living conditions of families caring for a child with disabilities. the conclusion of the above mentioned research results is that social benefits and services are indispensable for the social group concerned in order to maintain their living conditions. one of the main objectives of social policy is, with the involvement of the state, to reduce inequality, poverty and exclusion in the society, as well as, to accomplish the social protection and security of citizens, the integration of marginalised and disadvantaged people. the state is conducive to the social protection of its citizens by using the tools of social policy, primarily by providing social services and benefits. if needed, social services help citizens to improve their everyday living conditions, solve difficulties occurring in their lives, which can be provided as basic care, e.g. by ensuring expert help, daycare supervision or in a more serious case residential institutional care such as in the framework of residential homes. more principles (prevention, integration, subsidiarity) have to prevail in order to achieve the proper functioning of social policy (drake, 2001). in terms of the principle of prevention, the social system has to serve to prevent the development of social problems. the principle of integration furthers the reduction of social differences and inequalities emese balázs-földi 236 and the elimination of exclusion. in the sense of subsidiarity, support must be provided in the closest vicinity of the residence of the person concerned, and if possible through the immediate social system (family, local community) which surrounds him / her. the group of people with disabilities is one of the most disadvantaged social groups. their disadvantages can be attributed to two factors, on the one hand, to the health damage of the individual, on the other hand, to the specific functioning of the society. the former aspect is the medical model, which derives the disadvantages of disability from the individual, while the latter one is the social model, according to which the barriers and hindrances originate from the external environment (könczei & hernádi, 2011). in the social model, the normalisation, integration and inclusion, independent living and self-determination, as well as the social inclusion play an important role (oliver & barnes, 1998). these principles shape the course of organising the community and social life of people with disabilities, whether it is about their lives in their homes or their participation in (educational, health, social) services. based on the approach of the social model, the system of social policy must be created in a way that its operation may promote the normalisation, integration, independent living, self-determination, and social participation of people with disabilities (wolfensberger, 1972). nirje defined the principle of normalisation in the sixties (nirje, 1993). according to the concept of normalisation, people with disabilities should have the same living conditions and living circumstances as citizens of the given society. this means that their daily routine, lifestyle, and quality of life are the same as everyone else’s in the given country. social policy must promote that the daily life (daily routine, lifestyle, sexuality, etc.) of people with disabilities should be the same as that of non-disabled people, whether within their family or during their institutional care (zászkaliczky, 1999). the fulfilment of the eight principles of normalisation is the basis of the integration, inclusion, and self-determination of people with disabilities. the integration means adaptation in which the emphasis is on the adaptation of the person with disabilities, whereas the principle of inclusion requires the other party’s activity in the social inclusion of the person with disabilities, that is environmental factors must be changed e.g. by accessibility, by shaping the inclusive approach. the integration efforts have become generally accepted in the field of education in hungary. in the context of disability, integration means that the housing and lifestyle of people with disabilities must be embedded in the society’s life, i.e. for instance they have to receive social services in the same community as non-disabled people. integration promotes the social participation of people with disabilities. inclusion is a higher level of integration, it is rather an approach, in which the image of an inclusive community appears, where people with disabilities and the other members of the society are together active (work, study). the principle of self-determination is the freedom of decisionmaking and choice, i.e. similarly to others, people with disabilities can shape their lives according to their own ideas and plans. supported decision-making is connected to this principle, according to which people with disabilities can determine the persons who support them in their decision-making. living a selfdetermined life cannot be achieved without implementing the principles of normalisation, integration, and inclusion. the consumer principle should also be considered, which says that people with disabilities should be regarded as consumers, therefore the supply and quality of services have to be adapted to their needs (andor, 2009). the implementation of the above mentioned principles is highly important regarding the social participation of persons with disabilities. social participation, already as part of the human rights model, means that persons with disabilities can exercise their human and civil rights in the same way as anyone else in the given society (könczei & hernádi, 2011). social policy has an important role, from the aspect of social participation, in compensating for the difficulties originating from health damage of people with disabilities. social policy instruments include allowances, support in cash and in kind, as well as services. in the spirit of normalisation, allowances and subsidies supplement and compensate for additional costs arising from disability, while services facilitate the individual’s daily life in his or her own living environment, on the other hand in an institutional framework they provide the individual with housing, meals or meet his or her other needs. social protection of children with disabilities before… 237 it is apparent that the previous studies revealed factors which determine the living conditions of families raising a child with disabilities and they did not examine the social policy possibilities which are available to support the members of the affected group. the present study examines the changes in the living situation of families caring for a child with disabilities in the light of the past thirty years from the perspective of social policy. the method of this study is a case study. its aim is to explore what changes the social policy instruments (institutions providing long-term residential care or primary care, cash benefits) have undergone following the change of regime, whether these changes respond to problems which affect families or comply with principles of disability policy (social participation, normalisation. integration, selfdetermination). the present case study focuses on the examination of supports affecting children with disabilities under 18 years of age and their families. the 18-year-old age limit is relevant in the aspect of the investigation as the determination of the scope of entitlement of the social care system is linked to this age, and in hungary those under the age of 18 are considered minors. in our study, we do not draw a distinction among children with disabilities based on the type of disability. in our analysis, we focus on cash benefits and social social services provided for children with disabilities and their families, due to the limitations of the length of the study, we do not examine the benefits in kind and reductions. the research question at the centre of our investigation is whether, following the change of regime, there has been a change of attitudes in the areas of social policy which could promote the improvement of the quality of life of children with disabilities and their families. do the benefits and services of the social care system support the disabled children’s integration, normalisation, self-determination, as well as their upbringing in a family environment? in the first part of the study, we present the research antecedents which explore the living situation of families raising a child with disabilities in hungary. following that, we review the fundamental principles of social policy and the principles of disability social policy, which must prevail in the field of social policy. using secondary research and document analysis, through the history of the development of social policy, we explore the institutionalisation of services provided for children with disabilities and their families, the current social policy instruments and the proportion of minor claimants, pointing out the changes that have occurred in the past decades. finally, we summarise the results of our analysis and draw conclusions from them. method the method of the study is case study, which according to yin (2018) is a qualitative method that is suitable for a deeper, longitudinal investigation of a topic and for understanding a phenomenon. the case study was carried out by using secondary research and document analysis. in the course of the investigation, we conducted search in the matarka (hungarian periodicals table of contents database) database, as well as in the database called digital archives of socialist profession (szociális szakma digitális archívuma) where a collection of articles, studies, volumes written on the topic of disability between 1990 and 2008 is available under the link titled care for people with disabilities. from the collection of studies, we reviewed scientific publications which met the above mentioned criteria. using the google search engine we explored further publications and study volumes. with a simple search in the database, entering the term disabled, we found 190 results. while examining the results, we gathered scientific publications on the social care, caretaking, social policy support provided for people with disabilities, keeping the aspect related to age and living conditions of families in view. having narrowed down the results, we found four publications on the living conditions of children with disabilities and their families, and twelve specialised literature which helped to understand the historical background and changes undergone in the institutional system. the sources collected this way were subjected to analysis, their content covers the period before and after the 1990s. legislation on the social care system also provided a point of reference to trace the changes. the main legislations are act iii of 1993 on social security and social services (act iii of 1993); act xxvi of 1998 on the rights and equal opportunities of persons with disabilities (act xxvi of 1998); act lxxxiv of 1998 on family support (act lxxxiv of 1998). emese balázs-földi 238 after exploring the historical background, we examined the available official statistical results, in order to compare the results of secondary research with the results of the data collection of the cso and to look for connection and explanation for the underlying reasons (hunkár, 2013; smith, 2008; onwuegbuzie, 2012). in hungary the cso carries out quantitative data collection concerning the disabled population and social care system. for this reason, our analysis is based on the data source collected by the cso, on the one hand we use data collection of the census in 1990, 2001 and 2011 and on the other hand, the data of the social statistical yearbook 2012-2020. in addition to these, there is no statistical data on children with disabilities. in hungary the statistical data collection on people with disabilities began only in the framework of the census in 1990, which was followed by data collection every 10 years. in 2021 due to the covid-19 pandemic, the census was postponed to the year 2022, therefore the latest data source currently available is the 2011 census. in addition, the central statistical office annually collects data from social institutions, which the office publishes on its website or in the social statistical yearbooks. the electronic databases of the cso are relevant, the data is collected using the same methods, thus they are suitable for conducting comparative analysis. the main topics of the case study are: the social care system supporting children with disabilities and their families, i.e. residential care, primary care and cash benefits. subtopics: within primary care: day care institutions, support service, family support, infant nursery; within cash benefits: child care allowance, higher family allowance, home nursing allowance for children. results and discussion after the second world war in hungary, similarly to other central-european countries, the communist ideology became prevailing, which was centred around the ideology of a paternalistic state. the authorities wished to resolve the situation of people with disabilities in the spirit of this ideology. from 1945 onwards, it was the state’s task to provide social care for persons with disabilities (csizmadia, 1977). institutions providing residential care the first residential institutions were typically in converted castles, mansions or barracks (bencze & pordán, 1999). so-called residential health care homes for children were set up for children with disabilities. in this type of institution, care was provided for children with intellectual and multiple disabilities. the first residential health care home for children which was not in a converted castle or mansion was built in 1963. in this modern institution, it was possible to segregate and look after the residents according to their gender, severity of their disability and diagnosis. in this period we cannot talk about the development or schooling of children with severe intellectual disabilities, they were said to be untrainable, therefore they were deprived of all kinds of educational services (lányiné engelmayer, 1996). act iii of 1993 on social administration and social services established the institutional system which had been formed by the change of regime (act iii of 1993). the purpose of the law was to systematise and guarantee the forms and conditions of entitlement of social benefits and services which were provided by the state. the law established two types of social institutions for the housing of persons with disabilities: one type which provided nursing care and the other one which provided rehabilitation care (bencze & pordán, 1999). in the former one, people with severe intellectual and multiple disabilities were taken care of, while the latter one was for people with less severe disabilities who could be reintegrated in the society after a five-year rehabilitation. these institutions were named nursing home for people with disabilities, whereas for minors the name of the institution remained residential health care home for children. in her research, mrs. lányi tried to reveal the number of children with disabilities raised in residential health care homes for children. she found that until 1990 the national methodological institute for residential nurseries collected data on children living in residential institutions, but the systematisation for handling and processing the reported data was not elaborate, therefore it is not suitable for determining the number of children taken care of. however, we can say with certainty that there were twenty-seven institutions for minors nationwide one in each county and four in and around the capital city were available. some of them also cared for adults with disabilities, especially since the person cared for as a child was provided social protection of children with disabilities before… 239 with accommodation after coming to age. following the change of regime, the principles of disability, normalisation and integration, which had already become generally accepted in western europe, gained ground in hungary as well (lovászy, 2009). new ideological trends stimulated the need to create modern forms of care. the independent living movement, which originated from the usa and later gained ground in europe too, inspired the development of new, family-based forms of housing which supported an independent way of life and selfdetermination (bencze & pordán, 1999). the deinstitutionalisation program envisaged the normalisation of the living conditions of people with disabilities by ensuring their housing, instead of large-scale residential social institutions, in small-scale residential care facilities in the so-called residential homes where there were fewer residents (allard, 1996; ericsson, 1996). the number of people living in residential homes could be a maximum of twelve, regardless of their age, gender and the severity of their disability (zászkaliczky, 1998). hungary must implement the community-based lifestyle and living of persons with disabilities between 2011 and 2041, in a 30-year period. its implementation allows people living in residential institutions to live a fulfilling and dignified life, it eliminates their institutional isolation, hospitalisation and stigmatisation. however, this form of care only provides residential care for adults with disabilities, for minors there are only large-scale residential institutions available, so the normalisation and social participation of children with disabilities in institutional care is severely limited. data on the institutional placement of minor children with disabilities have been available since 2012 onwards in the statistical data collection of the central statistical office. based on this, it can be stated that the number and proportion of children with disabilities raised in large-scale residential homes show a slow but steady decrease (cso, 2013, 2014b, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018a, 2019, 2020). while the proportion of children with disabilities raised in residential institutions was around 6% in 2010, it was only 4.8% in 2019. table 1. total number of persons with disabilities receiving social residential care and the number and proportion of children with disabilities in residential social care between 2012 and 2019 (persons, %) source: cso, 2013, 2014b, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018a, 2019, 2020, compiled by the author. 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 total number of persons in care 15 921 15 810 15 581 15 510 14 999 14 743 14 464 14 243 number and proportion of 017 year olds 953 5.9% 880 5.6% 849 5.4% 826 5.3% 829 5.5% 798 5.4% 774 5.3% 691 4.8% from the declining numbers, we can conclude that families are making less and less use of the residential form as a social service, they try to take care of their children with disabilities in their own homes. this suggests that families of children with disabilities try to rely on their own resources, and locally available primary social care services play a greater role in their lives. primary care institutions in hungary primary care services are provided to support persons living in their own home but seeking help for their daily lives. a further aim is to help service users to be able to maintain their independent life in their own homes, relying on and exploiting the client’s existing resources (nuclear and distant family relationships, breadwinning ability, self-sufficiency). social institutions providing primary care can effectively contribute to discharge residential care facilities, and to enable the person to live as long as possible in his/her own environment among people supporting him/her. at present, services to assist people with disabilities include day care institutions, support services, family support and infant nursery care. prior to the change of regime, only day care services and the infant nursery services were available. institutions providing day care in the period following world war ii, there were no day care services available for children, until emese balázs-földi 240 the 1980s. the first day care facility for children with disabilities opened its doors in debrecen in 1980, relatively late. later, additional facilities were established in bigger towns, mainly in county towns, but actual care needs could not be fulfilled, the service was not available for people living in the countryside, so they continued to rely on the residential institutions. in this period, similarly to residential homes, nurses took care of the clients and they also fulfilled educational tasks, although they did not have any qualifications. day care services provided supervision, meals, and if necessary, care for children with disability daily in an eight-to-nine-hour interval. it enabled children with disabilities during the day to keep busy, be in company, expand their social relationships and develop their skills. it enabled mothers to get a job and it discharged the family for a few hours. from the 1990s onwards, although several day care institutions were founded e.g. by churches, the service was still not countrywide while in larger towns there were several day care homes, smaller settlements had none. after 1993 social legislation defined the welfare obligations of the state and the settlements. social tasks of the settlements are differentiated by the number of inhabitants, currently it is obligatory to provide day care in settlements with more than ten thousand inhabitants. the goal is to enable persons with disability, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, to have access to services in the close vicinity of their home and so they are not forced to live in a residential home. according to the legislation, day care can be used by persons with disabilities over the age of three, in case of minors compulsory education must be fulfilled as well. there is a growing demand for this service, the number of people with disabilities benefiting from day care services was 1.053 persons in 1993, 1.899 persons in 2000, 6.116 in 2010 and 7.755 persons in 2020 (komáromi & lendvai, 2016; cso, 2021a) (table 2). the reason behind this radical increase is, on the one hand, that the number of residential places has not risen, therefore people with disabilities choose day care, on the other hand, the need of families to care for their relatives with disabilities in a home environment has also increased. however, in case of minors, it can be stated that in spite of the increase in the number of users, the number and proportion of children in care is constantly decreasing, while 8.1% of children with disabilities use day care services in 2012 and only 4.6% in 2019 (table2). table 2. total number of persons with disabilities who use daycare and the number and proportion of children with disabilities receiving day care (persons, %) source: cso, 2013, 2014b, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018a, 2019, 2020, compiled by the author 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 total number of persons in care 7125 7353 7450 7468 7732 7722 7613 7742 number and proportion of 017 year olds 580 8.1% 643 8.7% 529 7.1% 483 6.5% 462 6% 446 5.8% 411 5.4% 359 4.6% the possible reason for this is that children with disabilities complete their compulsory education in the public education system and not in day care, where development education and the organisation of appropriate special education care appear as a separate additional task. it is likely that children with disabilities attend day care facilities only during school breaks, when, due to the work of parents, the day care supervision for children becomes necessary. on the other hand, it is presumed that minors aged between 16 and 18 who reach the compulsory education age use it in greater numbers. however, detailed statistics are not available to further investigate it. support service the primary goal of the support service is to facilitate the independent lifestyle of people with severe disabilities. the need to introduce a support service was stated by § 11 act xxvi of 1998, i.e. this type of care was not available to those in need before the change of regime. it was introduced in the social legislation in 2003, as a form of basic care provided by the municipality (act iii of 1993 § 65 / c). the municipalities, however, mostly entrusted the implementation of this activity to civilian maintainers in the social protection of children with disabilities before… 241 framework of supply agreement. the demand for this service increased, but there were significant differences in the territorial coverage: the support service in eastern hungary was more available, whereas it was less available in western-hungary (farkasné farkas et al., 2016). the main task of the support service is to facilitate the access of the affected users to basic services or public services, mainly by using personal transport. public services include healthcare, social or educational institutions. besides, the transport service helps the person with disabilities to access his/her workplace or any other services that ensures his/her social integration (e.g. leisure, cultural programs). in addition to transportation, the support service can provide care, counselling, information, personal assistance, home help, skill development, special education assistance, supervision and case management. the highest demand is for transportation, personal help and assistance, although the latter two service elements are less available among the support services. analysing the statistical results of the cso, we can state that the number of the users of support services is declining. although the support service met the needs of more than twelve thousand people in 2019, the number of those receiving care is decreasing. in 2012 nearly fifteen thousand people benefited from the service, by 2019 the number of users had decreased by more than two thousand (table 3). table 3. total number of persons with disabilities and the number and proportion of children with disabilities using support services between 2012 and 2019 (persons, %) source: cso, 2013, 2014b, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018a, 2019, 2020 compiled by the author 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 total number of persons in care 14 844 14 844 13 639 13 356 13 186 13 306 13 100 12 718 number and proportion of 017 year olds 2904 19.5% 2749 18.5% 2601 19% 2437 18.2% 2309 17.5% 2256 17% 2220 17% 1967 15.5% children with disabilities under the age of 18 use the service less and less in direct proportion to the decrease in the number of users, but there is also a significant decrease in the proportions. in 2012, 19.5% of the users were minors, whereas in 2019, only 15.5% (cso, 2013, 2014b, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018a, 2019, 2020). from this we can draw the conclusion that on the one hand, families are able to solve the transportation of their children from their own resources and they do not need institutional assistance, on the other hand, the children have the opportunity to use healthcare, education or other services in the close vicinity of their living environment and therefore they do not require support. family support the first family support centres were established in 1985 on experimental basis, primarily to address the consequences of deviations in the society that affected families and children (gosztonyi, 1993). in this period family support mainly involved preventive and anti-crises tasks. since the 1990s it has been supporting families and children through complex activities and with the extensive toolbox and methodology of social work. at present, the institutional system of the family and child welfare services plays an important role in social care, it has nationwide coverage, i.e. its services are available in every settlement (rákó, 2017). in addition to services provided to families and children, they offer professional help to the members of other social groups, such as persons with disabilities or families taking care of them. in the framework of various social work, family support provides social, life and mental health counselling, information on benefits in cash and kind, the organisation of access to services, dysfunctional family management, skill development, conflict and crisis management. the tasks of family support include the case management of persons with disabilities using supported living in order to facilitate their new lifestyle and integration in a supporting way. in addition to these, the information and coordination points, which were introduced in 2022, provide additional assistance to the members of the social group concerned. disability counsellors who work at the information and coordination points provide information and advice not only to people with disabilities and their families, but also to professionals who work in family support, they also ensure the accessibility emese balázs-földi 242 of people with disabilities to services. it is not their task to take over the responsibilities of the family support staff, not even in the case of people with disabilities and their families who care for them, their assistance is limited to solving special problems arising from disability. the service is available in twentytwo places in hungary, in the capital city and in bigger towns countrywide and it is intended to improve the quality of life, autonomy and independent living of people with disabilities. infant nurseries infant nurseries provide day care and education for children aged between 20 weeks and 3 years. infant nursery care for toddlers has existed in the hungarian care system since 1852, but until 1945 it operated only in some bigger towns. following world war ii, the establishment of infant nurseries became a state duty, as due to the efforts to promote women’s equality, children of working mothers needed supervision. in 1955 more than seventeen thousand children were in infant nursery care. from the 1970s onwards as the number of infant nurseries started to increase, more and more attention was paid to the qualification of infant nursery school teachers and the increase of the care quality (vokony, 2002). the activity of infant nursery workers got professionalised and in addition to the caretaking duties, professional expectations relating to the education of children became more emphasised. however, from the 1980s onwards, the need for infant nursery care started to decrease, partly due to the declining number of children and partly because of the widening range of cash benefits given to families raising children as this allowed mothers to stay at home with their children until the age of three. in 1980 the number of children attending an infant nursery was around seventy thousand, but in 1990 it hardly reached forty thousand (cso, 2012). following the change of regime, it became part of the social care system in 1997, as an institution which helps families and provides day care for children (vokony, 2002). the function of infant nurseries is to provide professional caretaking for children, supplement the upbringing tasks of families, educate and develop children at their early stage of life. infant nurseries have always cared for children with disabilities, mainly in special groups (cso, 2012). integration efforts which appeared in public education had an impact on infant nursery care. since 2008 statistical data on the number of children with disabilities enrolled in nurseries have been collected, based on which it can be stated that the number and proportion of children with disabilities who are educated in an integrated framework is constantly on the rise (cso, 2012, 2020). while 289 children with disabilities were enrolled in infant nurseries in 2010, 575 children with disabilities were enrolled in 2019 (table 4) (cso, 2013, 2019, 2020). it is likely that these children will continue their kindergarten education in an integrated way, following their infant nursery care. table 4. number and proportion of children with disabilities enrolled in infant nurseries between 2010 and 2019 (persons, %) source: cso, 2013, 2019, 2020, compiled by the author 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 number and proportion of children with disabilities 289 0.8% 252 0.6% 271 0.7% 394 1.0% 457 1.2% 468 1.2% 542 1.4% 528 1.4% 583 1.5% 575 1.5% total number 35 782 36 685 37 163 36 819 37 269 37 906 38 123 37 977 38 223 38 611 for children with disabilities personalised developmental plans are needed and special education tailored to their abilities must be provided for them, in a group their number must be multiplied by two. as of 2010, the government has been devoting significant resources to increase the number of nursery places in order to further women’s return to work before the age of three of their children. by 2020 there had been more than fifty thousand places available (cso, 2012). in order to raise the standard of their professional work and due to the complexity of their activity, nursery teachers are trained in higher education. social protection of children with disabilities before… 243 types of family benefits prior to the 1990s, families taking care of their child with disabilities were not entitled to special cash benefits which could have compensated the extra costs of caring for their child. two most common types of family benefits are the childcare allowance and the family allowance. childcare allowance the childcare allowance, formerly known as childcare benefit, was introduced in 1927. the childcare allowance provided a financial resource for mothers for the period when they couldn’t engage in gainful employment in order to raise their children. the change in 1967 brought a breakthrough, as the duration of the childcare allowance was extended until the child reached two and a half years of age (göndör, 2012). mothers who had been employed at least for twelve months were entitled, so the allowance was linked to an insured status. it was also extended to mothers raising a disabled child, but the duration and the amount of the childcare allowance did not differ from other families’. from 1969 onwards, the allowance was paid until the child reached 3 years of age and mothers who pursued a gainful activity of no more than 6 hours a day could also apply for it. as of 1982, families raising a seriously disabled or chronically ill child were entitled to the allowance up to the child’s 6 years of age and its amount doubled. in addition to the cash benefit, the mother was allowed to work up to four hours a day (göndör, 2012). from 1998, the parent can benefit from the allowance to look after a child living in his/her own household until the age of three, in case of a disabled or chronically ill child until the age of ten. in addition to receiving the allowance, the parent may also engage in a paid employment after the child has reached six months of age, but the parent is entitled to the allowance even if he/she does not pursue a gainful activity (göndör, 2012). higher family allowance the family allowance as a cash benefit appeared in hungary in 1912 (kristó, 2015). the family allowance provides support to families with children from the birth of the child in order to reduce the expenses of raising a child and promote the social security of families. as of 1990, the family allowance became a universal benefit, i.e. those raising a child could apply for it based on their civil rights, regardless of their wealth and income. thus, no prior employment based insured status was needed. from 1998 onwards, parents raising a chronically ill or disabled child are entitled to a higher amount of family allowance until the child has reached 18 years of age, adults with severe disabilities can receive it until the end of their life. this type of differentiation of the family allowance supports the fact that disability means a significant additional burden to families and to the person concerned, which should be compensated in accordance with the principle of normalisation. the higher amount of family allowance is almost the double of the amount of family allowance given after one child (act lxxxiv of 1998 § 10 (1) (g) (h)). the higher amount of family allowance entitles the person concerned to a travel discount as well. according to the statistics of the cso for the period between 2005 and 2019, the number of minors receiving higher family allowance is around 80,000 persons per month, but this also includes chronically ill children (e.g. children with diabetes, asthma), therefore it is not possible to say exactly how many families raising a child with disabilities are entitled to it (cso, 2020). nursing fee (home nursing allowance for children) the nursing fee is a form of cash benefit which is paid to a person who provides care for his/her relative with severe disabilities living in his/her home and therefore he/she cannot pursue a gainful activity. since 1990, support provided by local governments has been available. pursuant to act iii of 1993 § 40-41, a close relative is eligible to the nursing fee if he/she provides care for a person with severe disabilities (regardless his/her age) who is in need of permanent and long-term care or for a permanently ill child under the age of 18. it entitles the claimant to a pension. as of 1st january 2019 significant changes have been made, the state introduced the home nursing allowance for children for parents looking after their children reliant on care in their home (act iii of 1993 emese balázs-földi 244 § 38-39). this income replacement benefit can be claimed by the parents until the age of eighteen of their child and pension contribution is deducted from it. in addition to this allowance, the parent is allowed to work four hours a day. the amount of the benefit has considerably increased and equals to the current amount of the minimum wage. due to the january introduction of the home nursing allowance for children, there are currently limited statistical data available on the number of users to make comparisons. based on the date from 31 december, 2019, 6605 parents raising a severely disabled child under the age of 18 received this benefit that year. table 5. social services and benefits in hungary for children with disabilities and their families. source: compiled by the author social services cash benefits long-term residential care primary care higher family allowance nursing home for people with disabilities infant nursery family support: information and coordination points (providing advice on disability) home nursing allowance for children day care child care allowance support service as a summary of the above, table 5 provides an overview of the services and cash benefits which are provided by the current social care system for families to raise their child with disabilities. conclusion the study aims at exploring the changes which the hungarian social care system has undergone compared to the period prior to the change of regime and whether these changes meet the aspirations of the current disability policy: the principles of integration, normalisation, self-determination and social participation. the results of the research are presented in the form of a case study, which was carried out by performing, on the one hand, document analysis with a qualitative method, on the other hand, statistical result analysis in the framework of secondary research. in the first part of the study, we presented the research results revealing the living situation of children with disabilities and the families raising them. the research results have suggested that they are in disadvantaged situations for multiple reasons. firstly, they struggle with a lack of income, as it is only the fathers who work in families raising a disabled child, and they have extra expenses due to the disability of the child. furthermore, they have a particular housing situation, as most of them live in small provincial towns or villages, from which educational, healthcare and other services are only reachable using transportation. in order to compensate for their disadvantages, the support and services provided by social policy are indispensable for them, as they promote the normalisation, integration, self-determination and social participation of the affected social group. in the second part of the study, we explored the cash benefits and services of the hungarian social care system which intend to support children with disabilities and their families, as well as the history of the development of these tools. in order to carry out this case study, we conducted a secondary research method and document analysis, and analysed statistical results. based on the results of the research, it can be stated that in hungary the system of social policy services provided for children with disabilities has undergone significant changes compared to the period before the 1990s. based on this, two well-separable periods can be identified. on the one hand, the period before the change of regime, and on the other hand, the period after the change of regime. in the period before the change of regime, only residential care provided help for families raising a child with disabilities, therefore those concerned relied on their own support system and scarce resources. that is why, the life of children with disabilities and their families probably narrowed down, they had a limited network of contacts and their everyday life was featured by isolation and impoverishment. the results of our analysis have pointed out that following the change of regime, such primary care and cash benefits appeared that helped those concerned in their home environment and supplemented their income. it can support the normalisation, integration, selfsocial protection of children with disabilities before… 245 determination and social participation of the affected social group. it can also be stated that as of the 2010s the number of services and the amount of income replacement benefits have increased, and this may result in improvement of the living condition of children with disabilities and their families and the child’s upbringing in a family. based on these, we can state that the period before and after the change of regime interpret the social situation of people with disabilities differently, and this different approach considers different solutions to be adequate, therefore other sets of social policy instruments are created. the period following the change of regime, probably due to the effects of disability policy coming from the west, can be interpreted as a process that adds more and more elements to the social system in order to provide support for families caring for their child with disabilities. social policy measures were clearly aimed at improving the living conditions and life situation of families raising a child with disabilities. income supplement and replacement subsidies support the costs related to the care of a disabled child to a greater extent. the longer duration of the child care allowance and the increase in the family allowance and in the home nursing allowance for children, introduced in 2019, embody the principle of normalisation, according to which it is necessary to compensate for the disadvantages and costs related to disability. the measures which have been introduced in the area of cash benefits since 2010 may not only contribute to the normalisation, but also to the equal opportunities, integration and social participation of the affected social group because parents are not forced to place their children in residential social care due to lack of income. it also supports the fact that the number of disabled children raised in residential care is decreasing. this promotes the upbringing and socialisation of the child with disabilities in the family or local communities and enables him/her to have active contact with the members of the society, all of which can contribute to the elimination of discrimination, stigmatisation and prejudices. this can certainly improve the society’s inclusive approach and sensitivity towards the population with disabilities. it can be stated in case of all primary care that the number of children with disabilities who make use of these services is decreasing. the only exception to this is the infant nursery service, where a slow, but steady increase can be detected. it is presumable that families provide for their child’s needs using their own resources, and probably the public education system (kindergarten, school) offers more possibilities for the education and development of children with disabilities in the close vicinity of the family’s place of residence, which eliminates the need for social primary care services (e.g. transportation, day care services). in support of this, it would be advisable, as further research, to investigate the number and proportion of children with disabilities studying in hungarian public education. it is also evident that in case of minors with disabilities the social policy impacts of cash benefits prevail more than those of social services. presumably, the services of primary social care play a more significant role in the lives of adults with disabilities. the results show correlation with the efforts of the public education system to ensure integration and full territorial coverage, i.e. children with disabilities could access special education services locally within an integrated framework. in summary, based on the results of the research, it can be stated that social policy services and benefits have changed significantly since the 1990s. new ideological trends coming from the western countries have resulted in a new approach concerning disability, in which the image of an able disabled person with abilities is shown. the implementation of the principles of integration, inclusion, autonomy and normalisation has resulted in a slow, but steady shaping of attitudes towards people with disabilities. the currently prevailing individualistic, person-centred perspective has an impact on the social policy approach, which results in the introduction of new services and benefits supporting children with disabilities and their families. the results of the study highlight the fact that instead of a contingently forming disability policy, a conceptually thought-out strategy which is created with the involvement of various stakeholders (parents, professionals, politicians specialised in this field) would be needed so that people with disabilities could get the adequate support for their independent life from early childhood till the end of their lives. for this, it would be necessary to carry out research from a social policy aspect in order to find out whether, emese balázs-földi 246 according to those concerned, the applied social policy tools effectively and efficiently support their living conditions. in the framework of the research, it would also be important to examine what kind of services would be needed in addition to the present social policy tools and whether these service elements could be integrated into the operation of the current institutional system or whether further institutions would be necessary. it is recommended to involve service providers in the investigation who could evaluate with expertise both the families’ lack of needs and the demands for the expansion of services. declarations author’s declarations authors’ contributions: this is the sole work of the author. competing interests: the author declare that they have no competing interests. funding: no funding was used for this study. ethics approval and consent to participate: the research reported here does not involve human subjects. publisher’s declarations editorial acknowledgement: the editorial process of this article was carried out by eleonora teszenyi, anikó varga nagy, and sándor pálfi. publisher’s note: journal of childhood, education & society remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliation. references act iii of 1993 (hungarian social security and social services act). retrieved from 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(pp. 31–47). kézenfogva alapítvány. social protection of children with disabilities before the change of regime and at present journal of childhood, education & society volume 4, issue 2, 2023, 219-229 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.202342260 review article ©2023 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. out of the shadows: an epistemological examination of family childcare in canada laura woodman1 abstract: this paper critically examines the current knowledge base of family childcare through an epistemological lens. a brief literature review highlights what is known about family childcare, and standpoint theory is used to illustrate how i first became aware of the issues in the current system as a former family childcare educator. then, an examination of the gaps in knowledge resulting from the current approach to knowledge creation in family childcare is outlined, with human ecology and social constructionism proposed as ideal paradigms for more holistic knowledge creation. finally, a brief proposal for research designed to create a more informed path to understanding family childcare is offered to answer the question: what are the experiences of family childcare educators in canada, and which supports and services are required to meet their unique needs? article history received: 28 december 2022 accepted: 01 june 2023 keywords family childcare; standpoint theory; epistemology; knowledge paradigms introduction oaklan reid cunningham was dropped off at a family day home on thursday, october 6, 2022. it was a day that began like any other during the past month that he had been in kyra backs’ care, and ended as a day that will be burned forever into the memories of oaklan’s family. that afternoon, shonda desjarlais, oaklan’s mother, received a phone call asking her to come to the hospital in high prairie, alberta. her baby had just died. kyra backs has now been arrested in the homicide of oaklan cunningham, and is being charged with second-degree murder (gibson, 2022). oaklan’s story illustrates one of the most pressing challenges in canada’s society today: the lack of access to affordable, quality childcare. in alberta, for example, licensed care is only available to 34% of children under the age of six (buschmann, 2022). as a result, many parents and guardians must seek alternative care arrangements, which may vary considerably in quality and stability (breitkreuz et al., 2019). oaklan died while being cared for in one such unlicensed space. across canada, many parents and guardians struggle to find affordable, quality childcare (breitkreuz et al., 2019). while access to childcare has many benefits including economic growth, supporting optimal child development, and easing parental burden, parental choice in selecting childcare is limited by the number of spaces available (macdonald, 2018). although childcare regulations in canada are determined by provincial or territorial governments rather than federal regulations, and as such have variations in licensing requirements, in general licensed spaces must meet and maintain high standards including educational requirements, limits on group size, staff ratios, and ongoing supervision and monitoring for quality. in addition, many regions only offer parental subsidies for children attending licensed childcare programs (government of alberta, n.d.; government of manitoba, n.d.; government of northwest territories, n.d.). as such, licensed spaces in childcare centres, preschools, and home-based childcare, or family childcare, are highly sought-after. however, a high number of canadian families live in childcare deserts, or regions lacking access to licensed childcare, where three or more children exist for each licensed space (macdonald, 2018). these _____________ 1 university of alberta, faculty of ales, department of human ecology, edmonton, canada, e-mail: laurawoodman@ualberta.ca, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9702-4938 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202342260 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:laurawoodman@ualberta.ca https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9702-4938 laura woodman 220 deserts can leave families with no other choice than to place their children into unlicensed care, in the absence of support, monitoring, or requirements to meet minimal standards of quality or safety. while some family childcare educators who run their programs privately, without being licensed, voluntarily choose to meet or exceed licensing standards, many do not. as a result, children cared for in low-quality unlicensed spaces are at risk. the areas of lowest childcare space coverage are in saskatoon, saskatchewan, and brampton and kitchener, ontario, with just one licensed space for every four to five children, and across canada around “44% of all non-school-aged children … live in child care deserts” (macdonald, 2018, p. 5). in high prairie, alberta, where oaklan lived, there is only one licensed childcare space available for every four children (macdonald, 2018). the recent early learning and childcare agreements in canada seek to remedy the current lack of licensed care by increasing access to affordable, quality early childhood education (government of canada, 2022). in alberta, the federal-provincial agreement is aimed at increasing the number of licensed spaces by 42,000 in the next five years, with most of those spaces aimed at family day homes, in settings also referred to as family childcare (government of alberta, 2022a). however, the current body of knowledge about family childcare has critical gaps in understanding of these unique settings. as a result, the systems in place to support family childcare are misinformed and incomplete. creating more family childcare spaces in a system which is based on incomplete views of these unique settings will perpetuate the challenges faced by educators. to create a more effective system, a holistic knowledge base that amplifies the voices of family childcare educators is required. this paper critically examines the current knowledge base of family childcare through an epistemological lens. a brief literature review highlights what is known about family childcare, and standpoint theory is used to illustrate how i first became aware of the issues in the current system as a day home educator. then, an examination of the gaps in knowledge resulting from the current approach to knowledge creation in family childcare is outlined, with human ecology and social constructionism proposed as ideal paradigms for more holistic knowledge creation. finally, a brief proposal for research designed to create a more informed path to understanding family childcare is offered to answer the question: what are the experiences of family childcare educators in canada, and which supports and services are required to meet their unique needs? literature review family childcare programs are relied on as a source of childcare for many families like oaklan’s. people living in remote or rural areas of alberta, like high prairie or driftpile cree nation, where oaklan’s family lives, have limited access to childcare because populations are often too small to support large childcare centres (malik et al., 2018). home-based family childcare programs fill in this gap, because educators offering childcare in these programs care for a small group of children in mixed age groups out of their own home. these settings are markedly different from centre-based care settings, and as such the abilities and needs of family childcare educators are distinct. family childcare offers many benefits to families, including a home-like environment, more flexible hours, individualized support for children, and the ability for siblings of different ages to be cared for together (hallam et al., 2017; lanigan, 2011). additionally, family childcare programs are often easier to access and more affordable than centre-based care (jeon et al., 2018). importantly, the dynamic of having just one educator means that strong relationships can grow over time, providing the opportunity for secure attachments with children and more collaborative relationships with parents (doherty, 2015; ruprecht et al., 2016). family childcare educators find their work satisfying and fulfilling (swartz, 2013), which provides strong internal motivation to offer high-quality early learning and care (forry et al., 2013; hooper et al., 2021; porter et al., 2016). however, they face challenges including isolation, lack of access to continuing education, and balancing many roles including caregiver, business owner, parent advisor, child development expert, and program administrator (bromer & korfmacher, 2017; cella, 2020; gerstenblatt et al., 2014). family childcare educators are also often treated with a lack of respect, and viewed as less out of the shadows: an epistemological examination… 221 professional than educators working in other settings (faulkner et al., 2016; gerstenblatt et al., 2014). these challenges are exacerbated by working out of their own home, which calls for strong boundaries, self-care practices, and maintaining work-life balance (cortes & hallam, 2016; fernandez et al., 2018; mimura et al., 2019). as they work alone and care for mixed age groups in their own home, family childcare educators require different support and continuing education opportunities than educators working in other settings (jeon et al., 2018; tonyan et al., 2017). yet, most of the supports available are geared toward educators working in large childcare settings, lack knowledge of the unique experiences of family childcare, and lack the ability to provide the targeted support that family childcare educators require (bromer & weaver, 2016; faulkner et al., 2016; jeon et al., 2018). there is also a significant lack of information about effective family childcare practices and policies (sisson et al., 2019; tonyan et al., 2017). family childcare is routinely excluded from the research, leading to a lack of knowledge about how to best support family childcare educators in offering high-quality childcare (bromer & korfmacher, 2017; bromer & pick, 2012; figuero & wiley, 2016; schaack et al., 2017). few specialists working with family childcare educators have any experience in family childcare themselves, yet this is a unique population requiring specialized training and support (abell et al., 2014; bromer & weaver, 2016; lowenberg, 2016). the gap in knowledge of family childcare is even more prominent in the canadian context, as most of the current research is situated in the united states or abroad. one of the largest canadian studies on childcare, you bet we still care, states that the survey “did not include family child care providers” (flanagan, 2013, p. 3). the lack of attention being paid to the unique field of family childcare in canada may explain why targeted wraparound support systems for family childcare educators have been created in the united states (porter et al., 2016; porter & bromer, 2019), but no known national organizations focus specifically on the needs of family childcare educators in canada. though targeted support systems in the united states have been shown to increase quality of care, intrinsic motivation, self-efficacy, and intention to remain in the field (porter et al., 2016), in canada the focus of early childcare support is broad and diffuse. the failure of the canadian childcare system to recognize and address the unique needs of family childcare is a pressing concern because creating more family childcare spaces in a system not targeted for their needs will fail to provide long-term solutions for the current crisis of lacking childcare. researcher positionality and standpoint theory i ran a day home with a licensed agency in edmonton, alberta for ten years, in a system that allows family childcare programs to operate privately, with minimal oversight and support, or by contracting with a licensed family day home agency (province of alberta, 2021). i was informed that, by joining an agency rather than operating privately, i would gain higher status as a professional due to meeting requirements for quality care including current first aid and police security checks, ongoing program planning and professional development, and monitoring by the agency. becoming contracted with a licensed agency also includes the opportunity for more support, in the form of regular visits from a day home consultant and ongoing opportunities for continuing education (government of alberta, 2022b). but when i found myself largely excluded from the group of educators deemed to be professional (i.e., those working in large childcare centres), and struggled with the inadequate support provided, i realized that the body of knowledge informing canada’s childcare system failed to include my perspective. to learn more about the struggles i was facing, and to contribute to a system more informed and targeted to the unique needs of family childcare, i closed my day home in 2019 and began full-time studies at the university of alberta. i learned that my experiences were not anecdotal, or limited to my own subjective perspective, but strongly backed by research as shown above. standpoint theory clearly illustrates the realizations that i had as an educator in the minority group of family childcare working within a system targeted to the dominant perspective of large childcare centres. standpoint theory posits that social identity guides knowledge acquisition and allows development of conceptual resources (toole, 2022), and describes how marginalized or less powerful people, like family childcare educators, have the potential for a more holistic view of a situation precisely because of their laura woodman 222 disadvantaged position (nielsen, 1990; toole, 2021). out of necessity to survive, those in subordinate groups must be aware of their own circumstances as well as the views of the dominant group, which are epistemic features that “make it more likely that a belief is true” (toole, 2021, p. 338). however, the dominant group’s view, in this case the large childcare centres that the current canadian early learning and care system is geared towards, may be “partial and perverse” (nielsen, 1990, p. 11), as it is in their best interest to maintain the status quo. standpoint theory outlines the epistemic advantages held by marginalized groups for creating a more holistic view of a situation (doucet, 2018), as “exclusion is the place (or displacement) from which privileged vision is possible” (sweet, 2020, p. 930). epistemic privilege, the concept that more precise knowledge is likely to be created from marginalized social locations, can be used to challenge epistemic inequalities that arise from excluding the lived realities of certain groups, like educators working in family childcare settings (sweet, 2020). however, standpoint theory calls out the long-documented issue of dominant groups ignoring or devaluing testimony from marginalized perspectives, a widespread practice called epistemic quieting or epistemic smothering which results in testimonial injustice rising from sociopolitical power imbalances that marginalized groups cannot afford to ignore or devalue (wu, 2022). the practice of devaluing and ignoring testimony from marginalized perspectives can be upended with allyship, when someone who is viewed as informed, knowledgeable, and trustworthy amplifies marginalized voices, and where testimony can be uptaken “if dominant members of academia verify it” (wu, 2022, p. 6). as many scholars argue that fully informed research must be grounded in lived experience (code, 2006), and knowledge must be embedded in the contexts surrounding an issue (doucet, 2018), my positionality as a researcher who ran a family childcare program with a licensed agency for ten years provides a strong starting point for imagining a new and more holistic way of generating knowledge about the experiences of family childcare educators in canada. the struggles i faced as a family childcare educator can be further defined by exploring the epistemological approach to knowledge creation, and considering how the scientific method has influenced what is known about childcare. this epistemological examination of childcare sheds light on current gaps in the research and can be used as an opportunity to outline more holistic ways to create knowledge by drawing day home voices out of the shadows, which would benefit both family childcare educators and the systems that support them. an epistemological exploration of family childcare epistemological approaches to research guide scientists to consider how the current knowledge base was created, and according to what sociopolitical contexts, values, assumptions, and beliefs (breitkreuz, 2022). a holistic consideration of the gaps of knowledge created by current epistemologies can thus lead to more fully informed research, with heightened potential for accuracy when considering the complexities, interconnections, and embeddedness of living systems (capra, 2008; straus, 1990). historically, however, the scientific approach to knowledge creation has relied on a rigid system of generating facts, using empiricism as a frame to determine how we decide what counts as knowledge (franklin, 1990; katzav & vaesen, 2022). the traditional scientific method aims to create objective facts by using replicable research methods and relying on researchers’ ability to bracket their own values and perceptions (olalla, 2009), yet this narrow scope of fact creation has resulted in other ways of creating knowledge being seen as secondary, substandard, or invalid, and even treated with suspicion and scorn (rigdon, 2022; tarnas, 1991). issues with scientism’s objectivist, positivist, and reductionist approaches came to light with growing awareness that science is a sociopolitical endeavor where values and beliefs drive what is researched, in what ways, and which questions are asked (basen, 2022; katzav & vaesen, 2022). thus, there is no true objectivism, as the process of knowledge creation is infused with and guided by researcher values and beliefs (mann, 2008; rigdon, 2022). positivism is also problematic, as it lays claim to an absolute truth that leaves little room for other explanations or points of view (daly, 2007; restivo, 2022). reductionism reduces complex systems into more manageable data sets, or variables, which may lead to oversimplification or skewed representations of research results due to manipulating or even erasing out of the shadows: an epistemological examination… 223 certain variables or outliers (breitkreuz, 2022). additionally, the scientific approach to knowledge creation has resulted in research focus being placed on some topics to the exclusion of others, and little attention paid to the implications and consequences of knowledge creation (pinto, 2019; tarnas, 1991). discussion of epistemological challenges within childcare research and policies currently, there are two main epistemological challenges in the existent body of literature on family childcare. first, family childcare is often seen and treated the same as large childcare centres, resulting in the family childcare educator perspective being frequently overlooked (cortes & hallam, 2016). this reductionist approach makes data easier to manage and support systems easier to design, but minimizes and dismisses the unique working conditions of educators in family childcare programs. as a result, current childcare systems overlook the specific needs of family childcare educators, and offer support that is not targeted or effective given their unique working conditions (doherty, 2015; jeon et al., 2018). the second epistemological challenge is that family childcare is routinely excluded from the research (bromer & pick, 2012; figuero & wiley, 2016). not including family childcare perspectives may arise from researcher beliefs that these educators are the same as any other, or the commonly held societal perception that family childcare programs are less valuable or professional than large childcare centres (faulkner et al., 2016). as a result of the assumptions guiding researcher beliefs and values, and the current approach to knowledge creation in the childcare field, family childcare educator voices and experiences are being excluded from the research, shadowing the unique abilities and needs of educators operating family day homes (figuero & wiley, 2016). further complicating these epistemological challenges is the issue that most research on family childcare is based in the united states, and thus is embedded in different sociopolitical, economic, and geographical contexts (porter & bromer, 2019; porter et al., 2016). if the systems of knowledge and support for childcare are not being evaluated by including the perspectives of educators working in family childcare programs, or do not include a canadian frame of reference, a fully informed view of our childcare system cannot be obtained. amplifying the voice of family childcare educators in canada, and drawing them out of the shadows by intentionally including their perspectives, would greatly strengthen the current body of knowledge on this topic and increase understanding of how best to support family childcare educators. exploring the existent literature base and epistemological challenges of family childcare as outlined above begins to answer the research questions, ‘what are the experiences of family childcare educators in canada, and which supports and services are required to meet their unique needs?’ family childcare programs are an essential resource in canada, with many benefits to families, children, and the economy. however, they face unique challenges, including isolation, role balancing, and lack of respect. in addition, because family childcare educators are an under-researched population, most of the available supports fail to meet their needs. delving into the epistemology behind research creation, which includes power dynamics, oversimplification, and gaps in research focus, helps illuminate how these challenges came into being, as research drives the creation and implementation of childcare policy and regulations. below, social constructionism and human ecology are positioned as ideal knowledge paradigms to direct further research and policy creation that includes the perspectives and needs of family childcare educators, rather than minimizing or ignoring them as evidenced within the current canadian childcare system and knowledge base (doherty, 2015; figuero & wiley, 2016). social constructionism and human ecology as a new way forward the scientific approach to knowledge creation in the field of early learning and childcare in canada has resulted in a skewed view of the situation, as the needs and perspectives of family childcare educators have been left out. if creating a stronger childcare system requires more family childcare programs to meet the needs of families currently living in areas with little or no access to licensed care, more knowledge is needed about the experiences of these educators and which supports best enable them to thrive. social constructionism and human ecology are showcased here as ideal knowledge paradigms to drive fresh research with the goal of creating a more holistic view of the situation, and a system better equipped to laura woodman 224 meet the unique needs of family childcare. the knowledge paradigm that would be most useful in considering family childcare is social constructionism. social constructionism is rooted in the understanding that reality is co-created through people’s interactions, and that all meaning is created in the subtle spaces between an objectively perceived external reality and the subjective process of making meaning (daly, 2007; o’connor, 2022). collectively, society creates meaning together, and if the perspectives of family childcare educators are included in the knowledge paradigm from which understanding of the childcare system is created, rather than being left in the shadows, a more holistic and informed metaview may start to occur (doucet, 2018). social constructionism is located at the midpoint of the knowledge paradigm spectrum, which is bracketed by positivism at one end, using purely objective ways of knowing, and by postmodernism at the other, which relies on subjective knowledge creation (daly, 2007; restivo, 2022). as described above, using an empirical approach to knowledge creation that relies largely on positivism or objectivism creates gaps in understanding of family childcare. however, postmodernism is also problematic, because if all viewpoints are true, no definitive claims can be made, no knowledge can ever be certain, and researchers are left without a clear path forward (daly, 2007). social constructionism is an ideal knowledge paradigm because it balances objectivist and subjectivist approaches to knowledge creation, where interactions create meaning and facts rely on contextualization. the qualitative approach to research often used in social constructionism gives the opportunity to explore the diverse voices and views of family childcare educators, leading to rich descriptions of their experiences and nuanced understanding of their unique needs (charmaz & belgrave, 2012; daly, 2007). qualitative research is ideal because quantitative approaches, including surveys and observation scales, may lack the ability to capture the nuances of family childcare educators, as many quantitative studies are created based on the differing contexts of large centre-based childcare programs. recent research has called attention to this, as quality care looks different in a day home setting. for example, relationships are a primary component of quality in family childcare, but are often not measured in standard tests (hooper et al., 2021). using a framework of human ecology would also strengthen the existent knowledge base on family childcare, as many of the incongruencies and gaps in the existent body of research stem from issues rising out of the scientific approach (basen, 2022). the traditions of scientism result in narrow, deep specialization, with siloed knowledge that frequently does not consider or account for the interconnections present within complex living systems (shmuel et al., 2022; straus, 1990). in contrast, human ecology posits that complex problems require collaboration and an interdisciplinary approach (miller et al., 2007). human ecology recognizes that people and their environments are integrated parts of the whole, and that each part of the system influences other parts, and the system in its entirety (miller et al., 2007). human ecology offers a more holistic, ecological worldview to exploring complex systems by shifting thinking from parts to whole, from structure to process, and from objective to epistemic science, where there can be approximate knowledge but no absolute truths (capra, 2008). the generalist specialist approach used in human ecology (straus, 1990), with strengths outlined by jia et al. (2022), would strongly benefit the study of family childcare. generalists need to have specific knowledge of individual topics as well as an understanding of the entire system, and the ability to zoom in and out of each aspect while analyzing the interconnections throughout (straus, 1990). generalists apply themselves broadly, resulting in significantly increased engagement with diverse viewpoints, while specialists have a narrower focus and tend to engage within their own communities (waller & anderson, 2019). additionally, generalists offer pathways for collaborative communication enabling specialist knowledge to mobilize and increase gains from divergent areas of expertise, as “specialists’ knowledge without context cannot be made valuable and that context can only be offered by generalists who can connect the work of specialists with the rest of the world” (dajung et al., 2022, p. 71). because childcare is a complex living system experiencing rapid change like the new spaces being created across canada (government of canada, 2022), the generalist approach used in human ecology is offered here as a strong out of the shadows: an epistemological examination… 225 foundation for analyzing this topic and creating a fuller picture of the childcare system. knowledge about diverse topics such as parental need to access childcare, choice, or lack of choice in accessible care, and quality of care can be connected through human ecology’s generalist specialist approach. the research questions posed here, exploring the unique abilities and needs of family childcare and which supports are required for children and educators to thrive in these distinct settings, further add to the understanding of the childcare system, and can be gathered using social constructionism as a lens. together, social constructionism and human ecology would strengthen the study of family childcare, guiding a holistic exploration where many viewpoints could be considered, and all parts of the system as well as their interactions could be examined final discussion and direction for future research family childcare educators are being left out. they are left out of research, left out of decisionmaking, and left out informing the creation of childcare licensing regulations and policies. the canadian childcare system, thus, is one in which decisions are being made about us, without us. my own personal experiences, along with a review of the existent literature, showcase the lived realities of family childcare educators, including the strengths and challenges that come with working in a unique environment. exploring the epistemological approach currently driving research, which to date largely excludes family childcare experiences and needs, perpetuates a system that fails to fully support the very people most needed in the canadian childcare landscape. licensed family childcare programs are required to fill in the gaps of early learning and childcare evidenced by childcare deserts across canada, and vulnerable children like oaklan cunningham are falling through those gaps with devastating consequences. change is needed to provoke a more informed and supportive system of childcare. research is needed that focuses on the experiences and needs of family childcare educators, rather than minimizing or excluding them. finally, educator voices need to be amplified to help create a system that is informed, targeted, and better able to meet the needs of educators, children, and families. canada needs more licensed family childcare programs for the early learning and childcare system to thrive, and family childcare educators need to be better understood and supported. examining family childcare experiences and existent research, alongside the epistemological forces driving that research, have shown the gaps in our knowledge and policy base, and given some direction on how best to proceed. social constructionism and the generalist approach of human ecology are ideal for further exploring the topic of family childcare, and can be used as a lens to guide a canadian study to answer the research questions: what are the experiences of family childcare educators in canada, and which supports and services are needed to meet their unique needs? my personal experiences and research to date lead me to believe that creating a system specifically designed for the needs of family childcare educators would better support their abilities and needs. i propose a research study that would begin with focus groups across canada to learn more about family childcare educator experiences and needs, alongside an evaluation of their current capacity within the childcare field. then, drawing on the examples of targeted support systems shown to be effective in the united states (porter & bromer, 2016; porter et al., 2019), and leveraging both internal and external policies and practice (woodman, 2022), a study would begin with two groups of family childcare educators: one working within the canadian childcare system as it stands, and the other receiving informed, wraparound supports. a qualitative evaluation of educator experiences and abilities via interviews or focus groups would be conducted at the beginning, midpoint, and end of the study to explore the experiences of family childcare educators, while also determining if the new system provided improved support for their unique needs and abilities. the evaluation would aim to increase educator capacity, stability, and longevity in the field. simply creating more family childcare spaces will not be a long-term solution for canada’s early learning and childcare system if family childcare educator voices are not amplified, and their needs not adequately supported. addressing systemic issues including lack of respect, lack of informed and targeted continuing education, and lack of understanding of the abilities and needs of educators working in these laura woodman 226 unique environments is necessary to build a strong and sustainable childcare system. more research is needed, using different epistemological approaches, to further the knowledge base on family childcare educators and answer the research questions posed here. conclusion an epistemological examination of family childcare has described how the current knowledge base has been created, and where issues or gaps within the research are evident. exploring the contexts surrounding this issue has shown that bringing canadian family childcare educator voices out of the shadows, particularly during a time when more licensed family childcare spaces are being created, is critical to ensuring that those spaces receive the informed, targeted support required to offer high-quality early learning and childcare. social constructionism and the generalist approach of human ecology are recommended for a more holistic examination of family childcare embedded in the canadian context, where educator voices are amplified and their viewpoints considered. by critically examining what is known, along with exploring avenues where further knowledge can be created, a stronger, more fully informed system that supports the unique contexts of family childcare can result. declarations authors’ declarations acknowledgements: i acknowledge and thank dr. rhonda breitkreuz for giving feedback in the initial drafts of this paper. authors’ contributions: laura woodman conceived and drafted this paper, and completed all drafts and revisions. competing interests: the author declares that she has no competing interests. funding: no funding has been received for this paper. ethics approval and consent to participate: not applicable. publisher’s declarations editorial acknowledgement: the editorial process of this article was carried out by dr. adrijana visnjic jevtic. publisher’s note: journal of childhood, education & society remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliation. references abell, e., arsiwalla, d. d., putnam, r. i., & miller, e. b. 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(2022). epistemic advantage on the margin: a network standpoint epistemology philosophy and phenomenological research. https://doi.org/10.1111/phpr.12895 https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243220966600 https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2017.1305152 https://doi.org/10.1093/analys/anab026 https://doi.org/10.1017/epi.2020.8 https://doi.org/10.1145/3308558.3313729 https://doi.org/10.37119/ojs2022.v28i1a.649 https://doi.org/10.1111/phpr.12895 journal of childhood, education & society volume 4, issue 2, 2023, 124-141 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.202342210 research article ©2023 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. fair distribution in early childhood: stuck between friends and needy strangers gül nalan kaya1 abstract: children distribute resources to recipients differentially regarding various factors such as ‘need’ or ‘friendship’ (social closeness). the aim of this study is to examine the interaction between these two variables by presenting children with two recipients who are a friend and a stranger varying on the number of materials they need. a distribution task with four different scenarios (conditions) was applied to 25 children (mage =62.16, 15 males) aged 4-6 years. across scenarios of four experimental conditions, the amount of needed materials was manipulated between the friend and the stranger. the participants were asked to distribute resources to the recipients in each experimental session. allocation of all resources to the needy recipient to eliminate the need in the expense of the friend meant ‘fair’ distribution; while the allocation of all resources to the friend meant ‘friend-favoring’. the results showed an interaction between ‘need’ and ‘friendship’ for their roles in allocation decisions. children favored the friend when their friend is needier than the stranger and transferred the greatest amount of resources to the needy friend. in the condition that the stranger is needier, levels of friend-favoring decrease. the results indicated that preschool children have a tendency for favoritism but this preference weakens in presence of a needier stranger. taken together, the findings suggest that children are capable of taking the two competing factors of friendship and neediness into consideration at a time and able to adjust their allocation to meet the needs of not only friends but also strangers. preschool children’s preference to support fairness occurs together with their developing helping behavior and moral reasoning as well. article history received: 10 may 2022 accepted: 28 march 2023 keywords resource distribution; need; friendship; fairness; distributional justice; prosocial behavior; favoritism introduction one of the effective features in the ability of individuals to maintain collaborative relations with each other in society is 'fairness' (mcauliffe et al., 2017; tomasello, 2018). fairness considerations can serve as an efficient set of strategies to maintain cooperation within a social system where each member can function and benefit (decety & yoder, 2017; deutsch, 1975). fairness in the distribution of resources is one of the prominent current issues, as can be understood from the discussions on ‘the universal basic income’ or salary entitlements of societies (essler et al., 2019). inequality in ownership of resources is a phenomenon that human societies tend to eliminate (dawes et al., 2007) or perpetuate (starmans et al., 2017) for several reasons. some of the reasons are people’s preference for fairness over equality, a person’s social class (piff et al., 2018; starmans et al., 2017). from infancy through early childhood and later, children take various distribution decisions in the face of inequality and the variability in decisions follows a common developmental trajectory (mcauliffe et al., 2017). in some studies, children were asked to distribute resources between recipients differing on several characteristics such as interpersonal closeness, material wealth, or need (fehr et al., 2008; moore, 2009; paulus & moore, 2014). the purpose of this study is to explore children’s strategies for allocation when there are competing motives for distribution such as social closeness (friend vs. stranger) and recipient need. fairness in distribution fairness in the distribution of resources is one of the milestones in moral development in early childhood (killen & smetana, 2015). it appears as early as infancy that babies develop a sense of equality _____________ 1istanbul university, department of psychology, istanbul, türkiye, e-mail: nalan.kaya@yahoo.com, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5045-230x https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202342210 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:nalan.kaya@yahoo.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5045-230x gül nalan kaya 125 in the distribution of resources, moreover, their conceptions of fairness change through early childhood as they start distributing based on other factors such as recipient qualities (sommerville, 2022). thus, it is significant to question the trajectory of how children’s understanding evolves from equality toward fairness in conditions of need or material inequality. to recipients with different levels of need, children can allocate in three different ways: i) equally to different recipients (equal distribution), ii) more resources to those with fewer resources (equitable/fair distribution), and iii) enough to perpetuate existing inequality (un-equitable/unfair distribution). these distribution strategies aim at either eliminating (ii) or maintaining (i, iii) the inequality. the development of fairness considerations is interconnected with the development of prosocial behaviors, as being fair has a moral side to it. the distribution between needy recipients in third-party allocation tasks is non-costly and thus is considered to associate with helping behavior (paulus & moore, 2014), while at the same time helping and fairness are considered to be simultaneously emerging separate concepts (fehr et al., 2008). in early childhood, prosocial considerations like helping someone reach their goal or resource sharing can be observed even at 14-18-month-olds (schmidt, & sommerville, 2011; sloane et al., 2012; sommerville, 2015; svetlova et al., 2010; warneken & tomasello, 2007). endorsing fairness by rectifying the need via equitable distributions could be due to empathetic concerns toward the disadvantaged like understanding other people’s emotions (eisenberg & miller, 1987; paulus, 2014; paulus & moore, 2015). not only understanding emotions but the development of the ability to understand the mental states of others -including needs or perspectives in situations of needaffects behaviors related to fairness preferences (takagishi et al., 2010). children’s increasing capacities for the understanding of others’ perspectives are in synchrony with their changing conceptions of fairness from equality to equity throughout early childhood (imuta et al., 2016; sommerville, 2015, 2022; wellman et al., 2001). besides social cognitive development, children’s prosocial tendencies are shaped by the characteristics and culture specific-norms of their societies via the influence of parents, schooling, and institutions (bronfenbrenner, 2005; trommsdorff et al., 2007). this is also observable in the timing of changing conceptions of fairness. equality is perceived as fair in early childhood andwith age, children start distributing equitably by considering other factors like deservedness (sommerville, 2022). on the other hand, preference for equity emerges at different ages based on culture (huppert et al., 2019). while this discussion provides us with an understanding of some social cognitive motivations behind fairness tendencies to eliminate need-based inequality; the following part presents alternative explanations with empirical results for why children may opt for maintaining inequality between recipients. alternative explanations for perpetuating inequality the reasons why children may perpetuate inequality have been discussed by some researchers and some alternative explanations exist (essler et al., 2019; paulus & essler, 2020). first, young children perceive an existing inequality as the norm and accept this situation as an applied rule, thus they perpetuate the situation by distributing unequally (roberts et al., 2018). second, preschool children may prefer the advantageous ones over those with less quantity of resources and allocate in favor of the advantageous (li et al., 2014). third, preschool children may perceive the tasks simply as numerical matching; and instead of interpreting distribution tasks in the context of moral reasoning, they may distribute by matching the number of allocated resources with the existing ones (chernyak et al., 2017). alternatively, children’s developing numerical knowledge seems to have an effect in calculating the amounts to generate sets for comparing/matching the amounts of resources (schneider et al., 2022) as well as in distribution strategies to third-party recipients (chernyak et al., 2016). similarly, an intervention to promote number knowledge in preschoolers (aged 2.5-5.5) improved children’s fairness in sharing (chernyak et al., 2022). therefore, the developing numerical cognition in early childhood may affect allocations. these ideas have been used to interpret situations where inequality is maintained or distributional justice is not achieved. the following discussions can build upon children’s increasing capacity to evaluate some variables (such as need-based inequality between recipients) and distribute accordingly. fair distribution in early childhood: stuck between… 126 role of need: inequality between recipients most research using the distribution paradigm has examined children's distribution decisions in the face of scenarios with recipients having unequal resources. preschool children, towards the end of early childhood, distribute resources to recipients with unequal amounts of resources to equalize the outcome (elenbaas et al., 2016; rizzo & killen, 2016). besides inequality, children make distribution decisions based on various factors such as need, value, merit, and social justice (schmidt et al., 2016). the need is a variable that can drive a preference for fairness strongly when compared with other factors like merit; children distribute according to differences in need robustly and in an increasing trend from age 4 to 11 (huppert et al., 2019). the finding on the tendency for need-based allocation has been corroborated in several other studies (essler et al., 2019; paulus, 2014). to sum up, be it inequality or need, children are strongly inclined to favor the disadvantaged. inequality and need factors are either used interchangeably or as different constructs in different studies. the way those factors are presented varies across studies. for instance, resource inequality between recipients has been scripted by the dichotomy of being either poor or wealthy (in resource) (paulus, 2014), and luxury/surplus of resources versus having the necessary amount (rizzo et al., 2016) or by using the scenario of recipients with luxury (excess) and necessary (as much as required) resources dichotomy (essler et al., 2019). out of these three studies, only essler et al. (2019) informed the participants openly that a lack of resources would bring ‘disease or harm’ to recipients. this turned the situation of inequality into a moral dilemma consisting of disadvantages, leaving little to participant’s interpretation. children need to know clearly who the disadvantaged and advantaged recipients are, for deciding how and to whom to transfer resources (li et al., 2014). the notions of equality, inequality, and need have been conceptualized differently (deutsch, 1975). by openly stating that the recipients are in need, the conclusion that children distribute based on need can safely be made. role of social closeness one of the factors influencing children's resource allocation decisions is the closeness of the social relationship between recipients and participants. according to shaw's (2013) 'partiality view', the allocation decisions of children and the amount of resources transferred are indicators defining the extent of the relationship between the distributor and the recipient. the following discussion aims at presenting findings that suggest the role of social closeness in the variability of allocated amounts. in the context of adaptive behavior, the main elements of morality include being fair and loyal to the members of the same social group (baillargeon et al., 2014). prosocial behaviors are directed differently to individuals who are members of the same group and members of another group (padilla-walker & carlo, 2014). it has been observed that children prefer allocating resources to the members of their social groups more than non-members (fehr et al., 2008; weller & hansen-lagattuta, 2013). in the study of fehr et al. (2008), children aged 3-8 years were asked to distribute to their classmates and unknown peers in noncostly tasks and it was found that children distributed fairly regardless of group status. moreover, children also showed a greater tendency to choose the fair option in their distributions for recipients who are classmates, than those who are not classmates. similar findings were found in the study conducted by lee et al. (2018) with children in the 2-4 age group. young children distributed fairly without favoring their social circle if resources were not limited; this changed only to the advantage of their group when resources were limited. the common point of these studies is that from an early age, group status has no impact on fairness as long as the task is non-costly. in addition to group status, distribution strategies among friends, familiar peers, and strangers have been subject to several studies. moore (2009), who conducted a study with recipients who are friends with the distributor and those who are not, used costly and non-costly distribution tasks. according to the results, in costly situations, 4 to 6–year-olds distributed more to their friends than they did to strangers, but they allocated fairly in non-costly conditions. paulus (2016) examined the role of social closeness and recipient’s poorness/wealth on sharing, with 3 to 6-year-old children. they shared the most with their rich friends. the results of the studies of moore (2009) and paulus (2016) on distribution and sharing have gül nalan kaya 127 shown that children tend to favor their friends even if the friends do not need any extra resources, but the transferred amounts may equalize when the task is non-costly. children showed a preference for reducing inequality when resources are scarce and when inequality creates a disadvantage for their friends (moore, 2009; paulus & moore, 2014). overall, the findings suggest that children are inclined to favor their friends over non-friends or strangers in presence of cost. some researchers explain the selectivity for whom to allocate resources by the principle of reciprocity. individuals tend to allocate resources to those who are more likely to reciprocate those efforts (warneken & tomasello, 2009). therefore, the underlying reason for causality between social closeness and distribution may be the possibility that the child can also benefit from comebacks in exchange for favoritism. role of age prosocial behaviors are observable in infancy and develop throughout childhood and teenage (eisenberg, 1989; piaget, 1932; schmidt, & sommerville, 2011; sloane et al., 2012; svetlova et al., 2010; warneken & tomasello, 2007, 2009). they start perceiving equity as more just than equality as they pay attention to other factors (sommerville, 2022). with age and increased sensitivity to needs or inequality, children become more generous or transfer more resources to eliminate inequality. from the age of 3 to 5, children opt for sharing with their peers more and become more generous as well as they are increasingly more responsive to the needs of peers in distress (eisenberg et al., 1998; rochat et al., 2009; thompson et al., 1997). another research conducted with 5and 12-year-olds showed the positive effect of age on generosity in sharing resources with peers, seemingly robust across five cultures (cowell et al., 2017). similarly, the amounts allocated to the needy showed a steep rise from age 4 to 5 in another study (huppert et al., 2019). benenson et al. (2007) reported an increase in altruistic behavior, from age 4 to 9, in a distribution game that required the participants to share. the amount of resources allocated to the needy or the amount of generosity increased uniformly from age 2 to school years. not only do children’s fairness considerations change with age but also the amounts they allocate to friends or non-friends vary. with age, children become selective about whom they distribute resources to and with the amounts. for instance, paulus and moore (2014) conducted a study in which 3, 4, and 5-year-olds were asked to allocate resources between friends and non-friends. at the age of 3, their distribution did not differ between friends and non-friends, however, the 4and 5-year-olds tended to share most resources with a friend. thus, towards the end of early childhood (around age 4-5) the likelihood to favor friends over others increased. moore (2009), in a similar study, reported that children aged 4.5 to 6 allocated more to friends than to non-friends. olson and spelke (2008) asked 3.5-year-olds to help a puppet character distribute resources between a friend and a stranger and found that they transferred more to the friend. those findings suggest the general conclusion that, children aged 4-5 prefer friends over others. although children show traces of altruistic behavior early on, they become more selective with whom they allocate approximately after the age of three. this tendency is attributed to their emerging pursuit of reciprocity in allocating resources – by preferring social partners who had previously helped them or are likely to reciprocate in return (warneken & tomasello, 2009). in summary, there is ample empirical support to say that social proximity affects the allocation prominently after 4 years of age. role of gender one of the factors that may be linked to distribution is gender. there are contradictory findings on the role of gender in distribution. benozio and diesendruck (2015) reported that boys were biased to allocate more to boys. similarly, fehr et al. (2008) showed that males are biased in favor of their friends when they were given the chance of increasing the gains of either a friend or a member of their group; yet, in non-costly resource allocations, gender was not a significant predictor at the ages 3-8. on the other hand, several studies provided support for the absence of a gender effect in distributive justice. likewise, gender was not found to have a role in generosity across five cultures from 3 to 5 years of age (cowell et al., 2017). again, children did not differ in their sharing decisions based on their gender both in china and the us (benenson et al., 2007). to sum up, despite the contradictory findings, several studies -particularly the fair distribution in early childhood: stuck between… 128 cross-cultural evidencesuggest that distribution decisions do not differ by gender. the present study this study aims at investigating children’s resource allocation strategies when the two variables come together in a way to create a dilemma: social closeness and need. ample evidence and research are indicating that children are likely to favor friends over strangers in allocation (moore, 2009) and that they are also inclined to distribute equitably to reduce the need of the needy (huppert et al., 2019) by providing fairness. those studies have investigated the direct roles of variables in distribution, however, whether another variable is in effect or able to change such causality is a question open for exploration. as far as is known, conversely, no research has investigated the joint effects of need and social closeness on distribution. on the other hand, daily life experiences are highly complex and complicated in that the effective factors are multi-faceted, and fairness considerations are not always affected by a single factor. for these reasons, task scenarios allowing to test of multiple factors for their joint effects would be reflective of situations close to reality. furthermore, the use of scenarios with competing variables can help present moraldilemmas requiring children to reason. would they prefer to favor friends by ignoring stranger’s needs or would they allocate more to the needy recipient than the non-needy one? the answer to this question can help understand whether young children distribute fairly when disrupted by other factors like friend-favoritism. this way, it is also possible to understand the relative roles of each variable in children’s decisions as well as their moral reasoning. the present study’s results are expected to enrich the literature on fairness and contribute to the current understanding of cognitions behind the distribution. overall, there is a gap in this line of research as the studies have focused on direct effects so far and children’s distribution behaviors in complicated scenarios are yet to be understood. moreover, in the literature, the role of the amount (of need) in distribution remains as unexplored. studying the role of amount can shed light on the way children respond to varying amounts of resource need, hence, to fairness considerations. the ultimate aim of the current study is to investigate children’s distribution decisions when facing two competing factors: providing fairness or friend-favoritism. with this aim, third-party non-costly distribution tasks with different need scenarios were used. children were required to allocate resources between a friend and a stranger whose resource needs vary across four experimental levels. different from some previous studies using the wealthy/poor dichotomy, (paulus, 2014), it was clarified openly in this study’s tasks that lacking resources indicated a disadvantage for the recipient, so that the results could be confidently attributed to the role of need and/or moral reasoning (rizzo et al., 2016).‘social closeness’ of the recipients was determined on two levels: the stranger -unknown by the participantversus the friend who was identified by the sociometry test. second, the quantity of need was manipulated across experimental conditions and between recipients to see whether increasing amounts of need affect fairness. in the first experimental condition, participants were required to allocate resources between a non-needy friend and a needy stranger; while in the second condition, the amount of need is the opposite of the first condition for the friend and the stranger. these two conditions were designed to test the interaction between need and social closeness. a third condition was added for comparison with the first condition to see whether an increase in the amount of friend’s need affect distribution. the fourth condition was included to contrast with the third condition to see whether high levels of increase in amounts of stranger’s need –while the friend’s need is constant would change the distribution. based on a 2x4 factorial design of the experimental levels, comparisons were utilized to test any interactive effects as well as to understand the role of amounts of need. lastly, the roles of age and gender in distribution were tested in the current research. together with some contradicting findings (benenson et al., 2007; benozio & diesendruck, 2015), gender stands out as an interesting factor to see whether boys and girls distribute differently in early childhood. although children tend to distribute fairly in early childhood, they can distribute to peers with different levels of closeness differentially with age -preferring those who are more likely to reciprocate the help –i.e. friends over others (moore, 2009; paulus, 2016; warneken & tomasello, 2009). therefore, additional questions addressed the gül nalan kaya 129 roles of age and gender. in summary, the present study aims at the unanswered question of whether social closeness and need interact for their role in distribution fairness. is fairness tendency disrupted by friend-favoritism? it is significant to understand the decisions children make when they are caught between their friends and needy strangers, as it is explanatory in terms of moral causality behind the distribution, as well. the findings are expected to increase our understanding of whether children prefer fairness at the expense of their friends. hence, this study can expand the research in this field since it introduces a new perspective by testing the interactive roles of variables in fairness. other contributions of this research consisted of investigating the role of need amount; utilizing a direct conceptualization of the ‘need’ variable by clearly stating it in the task; appointment of recipients in the distribution task from real friends determined by sociometry (rather than using puppets, pictures or characters for hypothetical recipients). the scarcity of similar studies conducted in early childhood as well as in collectivistic contexts increases the importance of this research. research questions there are two main questions. the first one is, “how do children allocate resources when fairness and friend-favoritism conflict?” within the scope of this question, the tendencies for i) friend-favoring distribution, and ii) fair distribution under conditions where the resource needs of friends and strangers are in varying amounts, were examined as well. additionally, the questions “what is the role of age on fairness and friend-favoring in distribution?” and “what is the role of gender on fairness and friendfavoring in distribution?” were addressed. method participants the sample of the study consisted of 25 children (mage= 62.16, sd= 8.09, 15 males). the data were collected from children aged 4-6 in a kindergarten in istanbul, where students from different socioeconomic levels attend. the study classes were randomly selected and all the children in the selected classes were tested since sociometry requires testing of all the members of a group. permissions were obtained before the research and all participants showed normal development. measures picture sociometry test this test is used in early childhood to determine relationship dynamics such as children's sociometric status in a peer group. the pictorial sociometry scale was used in this study to detect pairs of reciprocated friends (who mutually nominate each other as their friends) in a class so that the friend recipient in the distribution task can be assigned from these sociometric selections. the sociometry test technique was developed by moreno (1963) for adult and youth groups. mccandles and marshall (1957) used the sociometry test with pictures for preschool children. asher et al. (1979) conducted a reliability study of this scale with 19 participants aged 4 years. accordingly, the participants were asked to choose 'the three children they would most like to play with' and 'the three children they would least like to play with' by showing the photos of their classmates. in addition, the participants were asked to indicate how much they wanted to play games with them (in a range of 1 to 3 points) by placing the photos of all their classmates in three boxes labeled with a smiling face, neutral face, or sad face. as a result of the test-retest performed with four-week intervals, the reliability coefficients were found as .56 for positive choices, and .81 for the rating scale (asher et al., 1979). while the test-retest correlation coefficient of the scale, which was adapted into turkish by gülay (2008), was .98; the item-total correlation coefficient between the positive choices and the rating scale scores was found as .72. resource distribution task the purpose of this task is to examine how children aged 4-6 will split resources between two fair distribution in early childhood: stuck between… 130 recipients with varying quantities of need. this task was adapted from a similar resource allocation procedure previously used by fehr et al. (2008) and moore (2009). in these tasks, the participants were asked to opt for one of the equal and unequal amounts of resource options to transfer to the recipients who are wealthy or poor in stickers (paulus, 2014). differently in the present study, to create a context of need, the scenarios of 'recipients who have craftworks complete or incomplete due to lack of resources' were presented in each condition. the situation of need was emphasized through the scenario of ‘works that are complete and incomplete due to lack of resources’. participants were asked to allocate resources according to these scenarios. the researcher makes the following explanation to the participants (pointing to the photos and the envelopes): on this table, next to your friend's photo, is an envelope belonging to your friend. you do not know the child in this photo. his envelope is also here. now we're going to play a selection game with you. i'm going to put two stickers here at a time. you will put, how many of these stickers you want to give to any child, in their envelope. when the game is over, we will give these stickers to their owners in their envelopes. you can give all of these two stickers to the child you choose, and if you want, you can give one to each child, equally. a trial is made after the explanation: let's try first. if you wanted to distribute the stickers here between these two kids, where would you put them? (the child responds.) if the child's answer to the question is correct, “yes, you will put them in the envelopes here.” if false, the instruction is repeated. then, the incomplete and complete craftwork pages are shown separately for each distribution condition and scenarios are given accordingly. (pointing to the craftworks) here are the craftworks of these two kids. children complete the caterpillar shape by gluing the stickers on the circles of the caterpillar’s body. this is your friend's work, your friend's caterpillar is completed; this is the work of the child you don't know, he couldn't complete it because there are no stickers left. he needs stickers to complete it. (two stickers are placed on the table in front of the participant) i want you to distribute these stickers however you want. you can give all of these two stickers to one child if you want, or you can give one to each, equally. participants were given the distribution task twice in four different scenarios with varying resource needs. the order of presentation of the scenarios to the participants was counterbalanced. the amounts of resource needed in the scenarios are in the table showing the task conditions (see table 1). table 1. the experimental conditions for resource distribution and the amounts of need number of stickers the friend needs number of stickers the stranger needs condition 1 no need 3 stickers condition 2 3 stickers no need condition 3 1 sticker 3 stickers condition 4 1 sticker 5 stickers materials the materials used as a resource in the study tasks are colored stickers of one type (16 pieces), two envelopes to collect the allocated stickers, photographs of the children for picture sociometry, complete and incomplete craftworks (4x2 pieces) for displaying the recipients’ need for different conditions (see the ‘supplements’ for pictures of the craftworks). colored stickers have been used successfully in the tasks of similar studies (paulus, 2014; prencipe & zelazo, 2005). gül nalan kaya 131 process the tasks were administered individually in two sessions in a quiet room at the children's school. the children were informed and only those who gave consent were taken for the experiments. a table to place the task materials and chairs for both the participant and researcher to sit were used. photographs of the friend and the stranger were placed next to the envelopes on both sides of the table so that the child can see easily. after detecting the pairs of friends with the sociometry test, the resource allocation task was administered. coding and analysis in each of the four experimental conditions, the stranger and the friend were told to be in need of different quantities of resource. the participants distributed in eight sessions in total (twice in four conditions). participants get 1 point every time they give more (2 stickers) to the needy than the less needy recipient. so, they can get ‘fair distribution’ scores ranging between 0-2 for each condition and between 0-8 across all sessions. the 'resource transfer' score is the total number of stickers transferred to the recipient with a higher need. scores range between 0-4 for each condition and between 0-16 across all sessions. the 'friend favoritism' score is obtained when the participant allocates more resources to the friend than to the stranger. participants received 1 point every time they give more (2 stickers) to a friend; thus, they receive scores ranging between 0-2 for each condition and between 0-8 across all sessions. the 'resource allocation to friend' score is the total number of stickers transferred to the friend. scores range between 0-4 for each condition and vary between 0-16 in total. the main hypotheses were tested by one-way repeated measures analysis of variance (anova); also, one-way anova and pearson product moment correlation analyses were conducted using the spss 15.0 program. results the first set of analyses in this section investigated children’s preferences for fairness in distribution across four conditions where the amount of need and social closeness vary. the second set of analyses investigated children’s tendencies for friend-favoring, across four experimental conditions. lastly, the roles of age and gender were explored. preference for fairness in distribution the analyses were conducted two-fold: first, children’s preferences for fair distribution were compared across conditions and then, analyses were conducted to see the change in the amounts of allocated resources across conditions. fairness across experimental conditions one-way repeated measures anovas were conducted to examine the change in fair distribution across conditions (see fig. 1). according to the results, recipient need affects distribution, f(3, 72) =15.052, p<.001, ղp2=.385. the tendency for fairness is higher when the friend's need is greater than that of the stranger (condition2, m=1.32, sd=.748) compared to other situations where the stranger's need is greater (condition1 m=.64, sd=.700; condition3 m =.32, sd =.627; condition4 m=.32, sd=.557). in other words, participants distribute fairly the most when the needy recipient is their friend. the level of fairness in the condition2 is also higher than in condition1 where the friend does not need any resources but the stranger does. according to this finding, children's tendency to eliminate their need is higher when their friend is in need, despite the condition1 where the need of the stranger is high (see fig. 1). moreover, while the amount of the friend’s need remains constant (conditions 3 and 4), an increase in the stranger’s need does not change the tendency to reduce inequality across conditions 3 and 4 (respectively m=.32, sd =.627; m= .32, sd = .557). between the two situations where the stranger’s need for the resource is higher than the friend’s (conditions 1 and 4), the children allocated more to the stranger in condition1, where the friend was not needy, than in condition4, f(1, 24)=4.571, p<.05, ղp2=.16. fair distribution in early childhood: stuck between… 132 figure 1. the mean number of instances all resources were allocated to the recipient with high need in four experimental conditions in summary, the likelihood of fair distribution is at its highest when the needy recipient is the friend (1, 3, and 4 versus condition 2). provided that the friend's need is constant, the stranger's increasing need does not change fairness scores (conditions 3-4). in addition, in conditions where there are strangers in need, fairness increases only when the friend is not needy (conditions 1-4). these findings suggest that preschool children are highly motivated for fairness if the needy person is their friend. in presence of the friend’s needs –even little amountschildren are not sensitive to increases in strangers’ needs. they are highly fair toward the stranger needs, only when the friend is not needy. in general, children's tendencies to be fair are negatively affected when a needy friend is among the recipients. the amount of allocation to the needy a one-way repeated-measures anova was conducted to understand how the amounts allocated to the needy change in different conditions. variations in recipient need have an impact on the number of resources allocated, f(3, 72)=11.39, p<0.001, ղp2=.322 (see fig. 2). the children allocated fairly where the friend was needier than the stranger (condition2) compared to the other conditions where the stranger is needier (m=.32, sd=.816). this difference was found despite condition1 in which the friend was not needy while the stranger was (m=2.16, sd=1.14). as the friend's amount of need remained constant, although the amount of the stranger’s need increased from condition 3 to 4, the number of allocated resources did not change, f(1, 24)=.129, p=.72, ղp2=.005 . figure 2.the mean of the total amount of resources that were allocated to the needy recipient in four experimental conditions to sum up, participants allocate more resources to the needy when their friend is needier (condition 2) than the conditions the stranger is needier (conditions 1, 3, and 4). in addition, while the need level of gül nalan kaya 133 the friend remains constant, an increase in the stranger’s need does not change the number of resources allocated (conditions 3-4). according to these findings, preschool children allocate the most resources to their friends when the friend is in need while the stranger is not needy (condition 2). any variation in the amount of the need of the stranger does not change the finding that most resources are allocated to needy friends. these findings are largely in line with the findings obtained with the fair distribution scores. as a result, children's tendencies to distribute based on need is more pronounced when the needy recipient is a friend. preference for friend-favoring in distribution the analyses were conducted two-fold: first, friend-favoring allocations were compared across conditions and then, analyses were conducted to see the difference in the amounts of resources allocated to friends across conditions. friend-favoring across experimental conditions the social relationship between the recipient and the distributor has a role in the allocation of all resources to the friend (friend-favoritism), f(3, 72) =10.551, p<.001, ղp2=.305 (see fig. 3). children allocated all resources to friends the most in the condition2 (m=1.28, sd=.737) where the friend is needier than the stranger, compared to condition1 (m=.48, sd=.653), condition3 (m=.48, sd=.714), and condition4 (m=.60, sd=.816) where the stranger is needier than the friend. in summary, while children want to transfer all resources to a friend in need; when the stranger is needier -regardless of the amount of need-, favoritism decreases. figure 3.the mean number of instances all resources were allocated to the friend in four experimental conditions as a result, the chances of equal distribution (1 for the friend, 1 for the stranger) or equitable/fair distribution (0 for the friend, 2 for the stranger in need) increase in case the stranger is in need. the amount of allocation to the friends to understand the change in the total amount of resources allocated to the friend in the conditions, one-way repeated-measures anova was performed. social closeness affects the total amount of resources allocated to the friend, f(3,72)=10.02, p<.001, ղp2= .295 (see fig. 4). the greatest amount of resources was allocated to the needier friend rather than the stranger (m=3.20, ss=.816) in condition2, where the friend is needier than the stranger. the amount transferred to the friend in condition2 is greater than that of condition1, where the stranger is needier than the friend, f(1, 24)=26.575, p<.001, ղp2=.525. moreover, as the friend’s need is constant, the amounts given to the friend did not change despite an increase in the stranger’s need from condition 3 to 4, f(1, 24)=.302, p=.588, ղp2=.012. to summarize, out of all scenarios, the friend received the most resources in the second condition where the friend is needier than the stranger. however, the amount allocated to the friend decreased in all cases (cond. 1, 3, and 4) where the need of the fair distribution in early childhood: stuck between… 134 stranger was greater. however, changes in the stranger’s need in those conditions do not impact the allocated amounts. figure 4.the mean of the total amount of resources that were allocated to the friend in four experimental conditions to conclude, children are generous to friends when they are needier than the stranger, but the share for the friend is reduced in presence of a needier stranger. these findings suggest that distributors are highly sensitive to the needs of friends, but friend bias in distribution weakens in presence of needy strangers. consequently, the findings regarding the transfer of all resources to the friend and the differences in the total amount of resources transferred to the friend support each other. other analyses other analyses were conducted to explore the possible influence of gender and age. a one-way anova was conducted to explore the role of gender on the amount of fairly distributed scores (in a total of sessions) and the amount of friend-favoring distributions (in a total of sessions). gender did not have a role in transferring most resources to the high-need recipient, f(1, 24) = .250, p=.622. similarly, the number of resources fairly distributed did not vary by gender, f(1, 24)= .100, p=.755. the tendency for friendfavoritism also did not differ by gender, f(1, 24) = .110, p=.744. according to these findings, gender does not have any role in fairness or favoritism. to examine the relationship between age (in months) and the amount of fairly distributed resources as well as the amount of friend-favoring resources, the pearson moments product correlation coefficients were calculated. the amount of fairly allocated resources did not vary with age (r = -.282, p>.05, n=25). however, the number of resources transferred to the friend increased with age (r = .428, p<.05, n=25). the tendency of children to allocate more resources to friends increases from the beginning of the pre-school period to the beginning of school age. discussion this study aims to examine distribution preferences for fairness or favoritism in conditions including a friend and a stranger differing in resource needs. the distribution task used was adapted for two purposes. the first aim is to utilize and highlight the theme of “need”, which is one of the novelties of this research, and to manipulate the amount of need between recipients in experimental conditions. the second aim is to design a distribution task to create a dichotomy where amounts of need and social closeness interact so that children would have to prefer one of two ways of allocation: fairness versus favoritism. the allocation decisions were measured and analyzed on both distribution scores and the quantities of allocated resources, to make an alternative interpretation of the findings. gül nalan kaya 135 preference for fairness in distribution first of all, fair distribution was tested across conditions. it has been found that children distribute according to need. children attempted to distribute fairly the most when their friends were in need (condition2) –compared to other conditions, particularly condition 1 where the stranger is needy while the friend is not. in one of the two conditions where the stranger is needier, the friend's need for a small amount affected fairness negatively (conditions 1 and 4). these findings provide support for the idea that children tend to meet the needs of their friends primarily. this result repeated the findings of previous studies showing that children distribute according to need (essler et al., 2019; huppert et al., 2019; paulus, 2014). for instance, paulus (2014) has found that the 5-year-old group tended to transfer more resources to the poor rather than the rich recipients. the reason for this finding was interpreted as children ensured fairness by balancing the accounts. fairness tendencies were analyzed with another variable 'amount of allocated resources' as well. corroborating the finding on fairness, the amount of resource transfer was the highest in condition2 where the friend is needier than the stranger. as a result, analyses with scores of fairness and distribution amounts both yielded similar findings. additionally, it was interesting to find that children were not sensitive to the increasing need of the stranger. for instance, from condition 3 to condition 4 the amount of need of the stranger increased, but the amount allocated to the stranger did not change. this finding can be attributed to children’s developing numerical cognition. children may not be able to perceive the relatively higher need of the stranger (chernyak et al., 2016, 2022; schneider et al., 2022). these views highlight the numerical skills in early years to bring an alternative explanation to why children may be blind to a relative increase in stranger’s needs. according to li et al. (2014), children prefer the advantageous ones over others and distribute them accordingly. provided that children favored their needy friends the most, but not the needier strangers, the findings do not provide support to the opinion of li et al. (2014). alternatively, children’s inadequacies in understanding possible expectations of needy others may undermine their ability to adjust the amounts of allocated resources fairly (takagishi et al., 2010). overall, while children are quite generous towards their friends in need; they do not give similar amounts to strangers in the same or greater need levels in presence of friends’ conflicting interests. the findings on friend favoritism will be discussed in the next section. preference for friend-favoring in distribution it has been found that the tendency to transfer all resources to the friend is at its highest when the needier recipient is the friend (condition2). on the other hand, if the recipient with a high need is the stranger (condition1), friend-favoring distribution tended to decrease. this finding suggests that the need factor can disrupt favoritism. the same findings were repeated with the ‘amount of transferred resources’ score. the other three cases did not differ in terms of the amounts transferred to the friend. the results are in line with the findings in the literature that children opt for allocating more to their friends than children of other groups (fehr et al., 2008; lee et al., 2018) or non-friends (moore, 2009).a possible underlying reason for the high sensitivity towards the needs of the friend may be an ongoing give-and-take balance or tit-fortat strategy with the friend. some studies have shown that children make decisions by evaluating the previous behavior of the recipients and that the distribution decisions are made according to the principle of reciprocity (house et al., 2013; messer et al., 2017; warneken & tomasello, 2009). friendship is a type of relationship characterized by reciprocity (linden-andersen et al., 2009). for this reason, children may prefer to show a higher sensitivity to friends’ needs than to strangers' to look after their ongoing relationship. another important finding of the current research is that favoritism decreases whenever the stranger needs more than the friend, regardless of the amount. for example, children stopped transferring more resources to their friend when the friend needed less than the stranger. while the need of the friend is constant, an increase in the need of the stranger (from 3 to 5 units; conditions 3 and 4) does not change the allocation. this finding was corroborated in the analyses for fairness. as a result, children show a high level of sensitivity to their friends, but the presence of others in need eliminates this bias to some extent. the findings suggest that children distribute in a way that increases the well-being of their friends (friend fair distribution in early childhood: stuck between… 136 favoring) but not at the expense of needy strangers. they do not behave in a way that ends up in violation of fairness or moral expectations. the role of age and gender additional research questions examined the role of age and gender in distribution. while no effect of age was observed in need-based analyses, it was found that levels of friend favoritism in distribution increased with age. children’s allocation preferences in favor of the needy did not change with age and this finding may be explained by genetic predisposition (eisenberg, 1989; warneken & tomasello, 2007, 2009). this finding also was in contrast with the findings of benenson et al.(2007) which showed an increase in altruistic behavior from age 4 to 9. a possible reason could be that the age range in the current study was not as large. the finding that older children were biased in favor of their friends is in line with the discussion that after infancy children become selective with whom they respond and opt for those who are more likely to reciprocate their efforts (warneken & tomasello, 2009). in addition, the results of this study are similar to the finding that 3-year-olds do not take into account the social closeness of the recipients in distribution, but that the 4and 5-year-olds choose equal distribution options for their friends (paulus & moore, 2014). paulus and moore (2014) explained that the reason why children are more generous to their friends after the age of 4 is their developing skills to empathize more with their friends. children tend to share more resources when they anticipate that the recipient will develop negative feelings if they do not share resources with (paulus & moore, 2015). an alternative explanation might be the predictions that children make about their friends' expectations of them, thanks to their emerging social-cognitive skills (takagishi et al., 2010). in this way, they can prefer allocating resources generously in line with anticipated resource expectations of their friends. to sum up, children did not differ in responsiveness to the needy across ages in early childhood –displaying a common tendency as well as possible conformity to social norms. on the other hand, the children, with age, were found to prefer to allocate more resources to friends -who are likely to reciprocate (warneken & tomasello, 2009). it has been found that distribution decisions did not differ according to gender. this finding is in contrast to benozio and diesendruck’s (2015) study showing that boysfavored the males in distribution. the finding of the present study is consistent with the finding of fehr et al. (2008) that there was no gender difference in non-costly distributions. similarly, the number of allocated resources was robust across genders and this finding also supports another study’s finding that provides cross-cultural evidence (cowell et al., 2017). the absence of gender difference suggests that distribution is not affected by gender roles. this is an expected finding considering the explanation that altruism is an inborn quality in human societies (warneken & tomasello, 2009). general discussion the overall findings indicate the fact that children do not distribute equally –an allocation strategy expected early around 3 years of age (elenbaas et al., 2016; rizzo & killen, 2016)but they distribute purposefully (li et al., 2014; schmidt et al., 2016) for fairness or favoritism. distribution studies to date have generally used recipients with varying degrees of closeness, such as friends, unwanted peers, or strangers; or there are studies in which only the amount of need is manipulated across recipients. because friendship and the amount of need are handled together in the present study, it has been possible to find out children’s preferences for either one of two conflicting behaviors: fairness and favoritism. this is a moral dilemma that is highly likely to encounter in daily life. thus, the distribution decisions made in experimental conditions can also be evaluated within the framework of moral causation. according to the picture created by all the findings, children aged 4-6 are most sensitive to their needy friends and they reduce inequality on the occasion of the least amount of their friends’ needs, by transferring the largest amount to them. on the other hand, they start giving resources to strangers who are needier than friends, despite their friendship. the two factors disrupting each other indicate an interaction effect. in the present study, the combination of friend bias with sensitivity to strangers' needs suggests that children respond to their friends' needs as expected but, they also tend to gül nalan kaya 137 avoid ethical violations by allocating resources to the needy stranger. there is a view that fairness is an inborn quality and has neurological foundations in the architecture of the human brain. for example, some frontal brain regions are activated in the experience of injustice or when other people are victims of injustice (corradi-dell'acqua et al., 2016; dawes et al., 2012; sanfey et al., 2003). aside from the human species' capacity to react emotionally to painful experiences associated with injustice and unfairness, some researchers discuss the findings that norms of fair behavior exist from infancy, but that these norms become more enforced with learning and age (smith et al., 2013). overall findings suggest that, with the effect of factors such as social-cognitive skills or social/cultural learning, children can achieve distributive justice despite a strong adjustment pressure like favoring the socially close ones over others. as a result, children favor their needy friends but they are inclined to fairness in presence of the needier strangers, as well. thus, favoritism is preferred when there is a reason (need of friend) to do so; fairness in distribution is also preferred to avoid of moral violations like allocating more to the friend when the stranger is needier. this result is an important contribution of the current study to the literature and it is considered that the tendency of children to provide justice in conditions of need despite friends in the preschool period can be revealed thanks to the methodological innovation the current study has brought (experimental conditions where two tendencies of fairness and favoritism compete). implications for policy and practice the findings of this study may bring some implications for policy and practice in early childhood education. the present study has provided evidence of a bias for friends in situations involving moral dilemmas such that children distribute to friends and strangers with different levels of need differentially. needy friends are put first but needy strangers are not allocated as much amount of resources. although this finding indicates that children take ‘the need’ factor as an allocation criterion, it also shows that children allocate to strangers and friends with different levels of need differentially. friend-favoritism may result in injustice when non-friends cannot get necessary resources in presence of friends or socially close ones, therefore such a bias may be a source of injustice and disruption in society. eventually, to reduce these tendencies, curriculum, and teaching, starting from early childhood can be enriched in a way to support moral reasoning and fairness cognitions (ísaksson, 1979). the study’s finding on friend-favoring also underlines the importance of schooling and character education for children to bear fairness in mind as a priority (kohlberg & hersh, 1977). fairness plays an important role in providing a society where the rights of each individual are protected while interpersonal cooperation continues (deutsch, 1975; tomasello, 2018). promoting moral education for fairness via schooling can contribute to building of a just society. limitations and future research there is a number of limitations in this study and future studies should build upon these limitations and findings. although it is not the main subject of the current study, analyses related to age and gender can be conducted with a larger sample in future studies. within the scope of the experiments, children were tested cross-sectionally. future research may collect longitudinal data from children to monitor how results change over time. in addition, the conflicting results of different studies on the tendency of 3-year-olds to transfer more to friends make it important to study this issue in more detail (olson & spelke, 2008; paulus & moore, 2014). colored stickers were used as resources in the experiments. future studies can examine whether the findings vary with using resources of different functions or values in the tasks. the change in behaviors of children in distribution throughout preschool and school years can be attributed to learning related to moral causality at school as an environment where social norms are reinforced (eisenberg & mussen, 1989; xiao et al., 2019). so, attendance to school as well as attitudes of parents –as actors of the home learning environmentmay be investigated for their role in distribution decisions. in addition, children, with age, can be more sensitive to what others think of them; and their beliefs about others' thinking are related to perspective-taking skills (fehr et al., 2008; takagishi et al., 2010). therefore, future studies, by examining the role of such cognitive factors, may contribute to explanations for whether there are universal behavioral patterns in distributional justice. fair distribution in early childhood: stuck between… 138 declarations author’s declarations authors’ contributions: this is the solely work of the author. competing interests: the author declare that they have no competing interests. funding: no funding was received in the process of conducting the study or writing the manuscript. ethics approval and consent to participate: the processes of the study conform to ethical standards and permissions were obtained prior to the administration. publisher’s declarations editorial acknowledgement: the editorial process of this article was carried out by dr. aileen s. garcia. publisher’s note: journal of childhood, education & society remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliation. references asher, s. r., singleton, l. c., tinsley, b. r., & hymel, s. 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(2019). group bias in children’s merit-based resource allocation.journal of experimental child psychology, 188, 1-15.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2019.06.013 appendix 1 supplementary material the pictures of the craftworks of the friend and the stranger in each condition condition number friend’s craftwork stranger’s craftwork condition 1 condition 2 condition 3 condition 4 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2012.01837.x http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.00304 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2019.06.013 fair distribution in early childhood: stuck between friends and needy strangers journal of childhood, education & society volume 1, issue 1, 2020, pp. 19-28 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.20201127 research article ©2020 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) muraling the invisible strings: collective memory work from an educator inquiry group margaret clark∗ abstract: in this qualitative study of a year-long educator inquiry workshop, nine early childhood educators engaged in the process of collective memory work to critically reflect on how their past experiences as young learners relates to their current teaching practices. through an iterative analysis of the participants’ discussions and writings, this paper highlights how a group of educators shifted their way of thinking about teaching from a series of damage-based memories of restrictive learning environments towards a focus on desire-based stories of transformational and expansive learning experiences. for this group of teachers, this shift became an essential component to identifying how they could begin to work to create liberatory learning experiences and spaces for all students. article history received: 06 october 2019 accepted: 08 january 2020 keywords childhood; early schooling; collective memory work; professional development; teacher education introduction to the study the mapping of my educational history – my memories again goes back to the origins of why i teach. this helped me see the journey of my teaching as a process, and how events, people and experiences in general connect to one another and to who i am today. it was muraling of the invisible strings that makes the big picture. –samara, teacher for centuries, the concept of memory has been a topic of exploration for philosophers, cognitive scientists, novelists, psychologists, anthropologists, and playwrights. memories, and the stories connected to them, are used to explain the complexities of the mind and its power to recall past events. in addition, memories have been used to make sense of cultural and social moments and contexts. over time, a multitude of philosophers and psychologists have worked to understand human memory by using metaphors, including: memories as libraries, melodies on a piano, or even a leaky bucket (roediger, 1980). plato described memory as the impression of a seal ring into a block of moldable wax (mcdowell, 1973). freud compared memory to a house, with specific memories as the objects and rooms in that house (roediger, 1980). virginia woolf (2007) called memory a “seamstress” who “runs her needle in and out, up and down, hither and thither. we know not what comes next, or what follows after” (p.436). recently, educational researchers and theorists have explored the role that memories of early schooling experiences play in teachers’ current pedagogies (rothenberg, 1994; van hook, 2002; changkredl and kingsley, 2014; miller and schifflet, 2016). in her research on the autobiographical stories that parents and teachers bring to the classroom, lightfoot (2004) likened teachers’ memories to ghosts that follow us as we move through life. rothenberg (1994) described how memories are intertwined in teachers’ everyday lives and practices: in the case of memories about schooling, things are very thick indeed, and richly informative as well. being in "the thick of things" encapsulates the inescapability of the presence of memory in everyday life, as something we are always stirring up and moving through. this must surely be the case for teachers in their classrooms, with a background of thousands of hours of memories, and a multitude of classrooms, teachers, and peers from which to draw. such memories are a vast and varied landscape of personal knowledge, beliefs, and understandings, replete with all the potential riches and problems of a complicated area. (rothenberg, 1994, p. 369) the concept of memory, specifically the memories of teachers’ early experiences of schooling, _____________ ∗ massachusetts college of liberal arts, department of education, north adams, ma, usa, margaret.clark@mcla.edu, , orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2960-9130 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.20201127 mailto:margaret.clark@mcla.edu https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2960-9130 margaret clark 20 emerged as an important theme in this year-long qualitative study of an educator inquiry group. the group was made up of nine early childhood educators who met on a monthly basis to discuss, reflect and investigate different aspects of teaching young children. during the year, the group spent time reading educational theory and discussing their successes and challenges as teachers. the teachers represented a range of different pedagogies and while they each framed their teaching practices differently, they came together with a common goal of learning from one another and creating a community among educators. the focus on teacher memory emerged from their workshop discussions about why this specific group of teachers choose to teach, with all nine of them describing memories of their schooling experiences as young children as directly related to their current profession. an analysis of the teachers’ discussions and writings revealed that when asked to describe their early memories of learning and school, this group of teachers initially focused on their negative experiences, however after three months of engaging in a practice known as collective memory work, the teachers were able to recall more positive experiences of learning as young children and were able to connect those memories to their current practices. the findings of this study outline how this process of recalling and critically reflecting on memories can help teachers move beyond, even heal, from the emotional pain they may have felt as young children. and in turn, help them re-affirm the encouraging and liberating moments of learning that they aim to create for the young children in their own classrooms. this critical reflective process is posited as a useful tool for promoting thoughtful inquiry among in-service early childhood educators. theoretical framework this year-long project was grounded in the concept of a critical reflective practice and its use as a theory and process to uncover, examine, and critique one’s current teaching identity and practices (loughran, 2002; buchanan and clark, 2018). critical reflective practice involves a framework that is based on the idea that through a collaborative inquiry process, one can begin to engage in a practice of critical reflection, working to analyze the social and cultural contexts in which one may be learning and teaching (buchanan and clark, 2018). critical reflective practice emerges from a popularized framework known as reflective practice, first outlined in the work by donald schön (1983, 1987). schön’s work has become the cornerstone of many teacher education preparation programs across the united states (loughran, 2002; richert, 1990; valli, 1993; zeichner, 1987). however, despite its popularity, multiple critiques have emerged around the concept of reflective practice (zeichner and liu, 2010), noting that the term has become broadly used in only abstract terms, disconnected from the real-world classroom contexts in which educators are learning. some pre-service teachers have noted that the concept of a reflective practice is something that is simply noted at the “top of every course syllabus” (buchanan and clark, 2018). a critical reflective practice framework addresses this gap by including a critical examination that involves specific guiding questions and activities for this reflection. this guide, as noted in the activities used by the educators in this study, gives educators the opportunity to question and examine the power and institutional contexts and dynamics which may influence their teaching and learning experiences (buchanan and clark, 2018). a critical reflective practice is additionally grounded in the broader view that all learning and communication is social (lave and wenger, 1991; lave 1996). as these social learning theorists have posited, when learners are provided the opportunity to engage in social interactions, they can work to make meaning together, establishing shared understandings and knowledge about the institutions, contexts, and classrooms in which they learn and teach. the educators in this study were able to use their memories of their early schooling as a tool in their reflective practice, referencing their memories (as noted in the findings section) to make shared meanings and build common understandings among the members of the group. review of literature on teacher memories over the past thirty years, multiple researchers have asked teachers to reflect on their early memories of schooling and learning (rothenberg, 1994; van hook, 2002; chang-kredl and kingsley, 2014; miller and schifflet, 2016). researchers have examined how memory plays an important role in the current pedagogical practices and beliefs of educators working with young children. while this body of literature muraling the invisible strings: collective memory work… 21 is extensive, there is a lack of research on memory work with teachers that is intensive, involves in-service educators, works with a small group of participants, and is longitudinal in design. one large-scale study, rothenberg’s (1994) “memories of schooling,” asked over 400 undergraduate and graduate students to write descriptive essays on their worst and best schooling experiences. rothenberg discovered that in writing, these students focused on academic challenges and successes, failures and humiliation, competition and fairness, and assessment and transitions. rothenberg (1994) concluded that, while it is interesting to look at this large body of experiential data from individuals, both educational researchers and teachers could also benefit if memories were to “be examined on a finer-grain level” in a group setting: these approaches could be more intensive, personal, and collaborative in helping to develop teacher knowledge and insight. they could be analyzed with a small group of people remembering and then adding to memories (rothenberg, 1994, p. 377). building on rothenberg’s research, van hook (2002) asked 59 pre-service early childhood teachers at the beginning of their teacher education program to describe, in writing, a significant experience that they remembered from their elementary school years. van hook discovered that the teachers mostly focused on their own teachers. a majority of the student teachers (65%) recounted negative memories of teachers, while 25% described positive memories of teachers, and just 10% described specific interactions with their peers. based on these findings, van hook called for a greater focus on self-reflection in teacher education programs, that “pre-service teachers should recall their memories related to previous school experiences and consider how these memories have impacted themselves and their interaction with teaching pedagogy” (p. 154). much like other research before and after this, van hook highlighted how teacher memories of early childhood and early school experiences, especially the negative and painful ones, may influence one’s pedagogical values, beliefs, and expectations (hollingsworth, 1989; calderhead and robson, 1991, saban 2003). saban (2003) similarly described how student teachers’ negative experiences “endured long in their memories with a lot of hatred of the teachers and his or her subject as the years passed by” (p. 840). in chang-kredl and kingsley’s (2014) research, the authors examined how memories influenced a teacher’s reason for entering the profession. when they asked 53 pre-service teachers to write biographical narratives on the topic, the authors discovered that teachers referenced many school and work memories, as well as family memories. these teachers wanted to emulate or oppose past teachers, to fulfill or find present convictions, or to influence or be affirmed by future students (p. 34). these teachers cited memories that were “emotionally charged,” either strongly positive or strongly negative, but never neutral. however, in contrast to van hook’s (2002) findings, the authors discovered that, when asking a teacher about their memories and linking it to the reason why he or she teaches, the majority, almost 75%, were mostly positive reflections. the authors suggested that teacher educators must attend to these “emotional dimensions” when engaging in self-reflection and identity work with teachers, supporting and encouraging teachers to access and articulate how their past connects with their reason for teaching. as a result, chang-kredl and kingsley called for more longitudinal studies on teacher memory in order to more accurately evaluate how it impacted one’s identity as a teacher. in 2016, miller and shifflet engaged in similar research and asked 69 pre-service elementary teachers, during a semester-long course, to write about a meaningful memory from when they were students. these students were later asked to connect this memory to their future role as teachers in the field. about half of the students described teachers from their past that they hoped to be like, who had specific characteristics or took actions that were helpful and meaningful to the student. the other half of the students described negative experiences with teachers, which were often associated with some kind of fear. miller and shifflet concluded that, like the others in the field, teacher education must foster the art of both recollection and critical reflection to help pre-service teachers both access and analyze their early memories of schooling. however, it is important to point out that in miller and shifflet’s findings, they noted an outlying trend in their data, a kind of shift or inspiration that emerged among a few of the participants: an interesting subtheme emerged from the data, as some participants used fear and past experience or teacher to margaret clark 22 create a desired self. a subpopulation of nine participants described their motivation to approach a desired self, by utilizing a negative memory. using the negative to inspire a positive action was less common in posts; however, these outliers should not be discounted because they illuminate an interesting appendage to the data (p.25). this particular theme of teachers using their negative memories to explore and imagine a positive, desire-based self and educator, is an important finding to note, as it emerged as a key finding in this study, as described below. the body of research on teacher memories reveals that this process of reflection is an important one, as the memories of school are directly linked to a teacher’s current pedagogies. to further uncover how teacher memories can be used with in-service educators to promote critical and reflective practice, the field calls for research on collective memory work that employs more in-depth research, over a longer period of study, with educators in small groups, and that is collaborative and intensive in design. this project aimed to address this gap in the research by focusing on the following research questions: how do in-service teachers engage and interrogate their own stories and memories of schooling? what patterns emerged from these stories over the course of a year? and, how does the process known as collective memory work help teachers critically reflect on their current teaching pedagogies? methods this study answers the call for research on teacher memory by using an approach to qualitative inquiry that focused on providing a group of in-service teachers with a collaborative space to engage in indepth discussion and reflection over the course of one year. this research was grounded in the concept that qualitative research is both iterative and fluid, and must adapt to the ever-changing nature of collecting narratives and experiences from participants (reinking and bradley, 2008). participants & project design the participants of this study were nine female early childhood educators from two rural cities in upstate new york in the united states. these nine educators taught in a variety of school settings and hailed from different pedagogical backgrounds and styles. one was montessori-trained, two were reggioemilia-trained, and one was earning her masters in early childhood education through an online program that focuses on “culture-centered” early childhood education. the remaining five teachers cited a mix of pedagogical styles that influenced their teaching, including project-based learning and emergent curriculum. all of the names used in this paper are pseudonyms for the participants. these participants were purposefully selected and invited to this group based on their range of experiences in education, their pedagogical beliefs and practices, and their willingness to join a group that would meet over the course of one full year. of the nine participants, seven of them came from privately-funded programs and two worked in publicly-funded programs. the participants had range of experience in the teaching profession, from 2 years up to 38 years of experience. the sample size was purposefully kept to a small number of participants to foster discussion. during this study, the workshops were designed and facilitated to encourage in-depth discussions and writing. throughout the year, the participants were asked to engage in multiple activities that involved writing down their memories of early learning and schooling, and then asked them to share and discuss them with one another. over the course of one year, they remembered, described and discussed their first memories of school, influential educators from their past, transitions they made from school to school, and the emotional impressions that different schools or classroom environments made on them. they shared their memories by reading aloud what they had written, summarizing what they had recalled, or describing their stories according to the specific prompts they were given. during these discussions, the teachers were asked to reflect on how these memories connected to how they currently teach and care for young children. this kind of reflection and discussion is what is known as collective memory work. collective memory work involves participants responding to a set of prompts about their memories of a specific event or topic, through writing or discussion, and then analyzing these narratives with a collective research group (crawford, kippax, onyx, gault and benton, 1990, 1992; haug, 1987; ovens and tinning, 2009). the goal of this work is to “achieve intersubjective understanding” among the participants of their muraling the invisible strings: collective memory work… 23 experiences in specific past settings (in this case, experiences with early schooling and learning) (ovens and tinning, 2009, p.1126). data collection & analysis over the course of the year, with approval from an institutional review board, the following types of data were collected from 10 two-hour workshops and 4 one-hour interviews with the participants: (1) textual productions from the monthly workshops (written narratives and artifacts, questionnaire responses, journal entries, and interviews); (2) audio recordings of the workshops and interviews; and (3) field notes and memos. the audio recordings were transcribed, and along with the field notes and written artifacts, were coded by major themes that emerged from the narratives. the themes were analyzed according to each individual participant, as well as the group as a whole, using an inductive process of open-coding and memoing (patton, 2002). these codes and themes were shared with the participants throughout the project, allowing for their response and adjustments to the common understandings of the group. in addition, the principal investigator of the project, who served as the facilitator or the workshops wrote a series of memos based on notes and jottings from observations of the workshop discussions. these memos were guided by the following questions: what topics were emerging in the workshop discussions that referenced one’s memories, especially when connected to a teacher’s current pedagogical choices and practices? what role did memory play in the discussion of teaching and learning? and lastly: what kind of memories of early learning and schooling were referenced in the discussions? these memos were used to better understand and map the major themes and topics that continued to arise during the workshop discussions and how these topics could inform the next stages and direction of the workshop activities. at the conclusion to the project, all of the data was re-coded and analyzed according to the conversational turns in the workshop discussions, noting when and how the topic shifted in the discussion, comparing these shifts and themes with my field notes from the discussions. after passing through the data multiple times, the major trends that emerged over the course of the year was shared with the group, as a check for both clarity and validity. findings from the study an analysis of the data from this study revealed that the memories that teachers have of their early schooling experiences are emotionally charged, with the teachers passionately recalling both negative and positive experiences of learning. the data revealed a specific shift from negative memories that were shared at the beginning of the project to more positive, desire-based memories towards the end of the project. the shift started to occur during the fifth workshop after the group read and discussed the research by eve tuck (2009), who describes the concepts of damage and desire-based research. in her work on the ethics of social science research and educational research, tuck (2009) calls for a moratorium on solely “damagecentered” research on communities, studies that describe communities, neighborhoods or even cultures as “defeated or broken” (p.412). citing bell hooks, tuck stated her concern about this kind of research: i am concerned with… research that invites oppressed peoples to speak but to “only speak from that space in the margin that is a sign of deprivation, a wound, an unfulfilled longing. only speak your pain (hooks, 1990, p. 152) tuck asks communities and peoples to “consider the long-term repercussions of thinking of ourselves as broken” (p.409). during a discussion on tuck’s research in the educator inquiry group, three of the teachers, bree in particular, discussed how this work resonated with their way of thinking about their teaching, their students of color, and the communities in which they work. in particular, our group discussed tuck’s urging or “cautionary note” to not see desire as a replacement or opposite to damage, but instead to conceive a desire-centered story as a complex one, which acknowledged the pain and damage but focused on the positive aspects, including survival. the teachers discussed how they hoped to acknowledge and recognize not just the broken and pained experiences of their own histories but also to describe their memories of positive learning experiences and moments. stories of damage during the first four workshops, seven out of the nine teachers wrote about and shared memories margaret clark 24 that were based on negative experiences, controlling teachers or restrictive environments related to their early schooling, despite the open-ended prompts. one early example of this occurred after they created maps of their memories of early learning experiences. one teacher, laurel, admitted that she couldn’t remember a single name of any of her elementary school teachers. she had attended one of the largest public schools in new york city, and she only remembered the emotions she felt about certain teachers, such as “the scary ones”, or “the angry ones”. she recalled specific details such as how some of those teachers dressed, even the shoes that they wore, but not their names – noting this was a “major block” in her memory of school. two of the teachers, laurel and alison, described how their teachers spoke to them, treated them, or disciplined them for their personalities or behavior. in the excerpt below, laurel talked about being reprimanded on her first day of kindergarten: i had an experience of all of my early, early stuff . . . one of the first things that i wrote down was that i got put in the corner on my first day of kindergarten, i remember what i was wearing, i remember how excited i was, i took a banana peel and i danced it across the table and i got put in the corner and i remember feeling so horrified, and i couldn’t figure out what i had done, it was a whole visceral memory. –laurel alison described a memory from her nursery school classroom: i was told i was shy and i didn’t have any friends . . . we would go around in a circle and say if you are a son or a daughter and i thought girls are bright like the sun and i said “i’m a sun!” and they said no you are not, you are a daughter, and i was like “but i want to be a sun!” these moments—those are what stuck out—these moments of someone telling me something that didn’t feel like i am. –alison five of the teachers described some of the negative feelings associated with the structures in a school or classroom setting. anya described the fear of getting lost or being late to class. mara and samara both described not feeling emotionally “safe” in their classrooms. renee described the stress of taking tests at an early age and how she “shut down” as a result of such anxiety: i had an experience in second grade— the one that i remember– i had my first anxiety attack ever, hyperventilating— in fifth grade because i couldn’t test well and it set up a whole paradigm for the next two plus years of failing in school and i was placed in junior high—i was placed in lower level classes and i was excelling at them, i was bored, but i can’t test—i had just shut down. – renee a shift to desire-based memories during the sixth workshop, one month after the teachers had read tuck’s (2009) work, all but one of the teachers began to reflect on positive memories of their early learning, which were often outside of the school or classroom setting. in these memories, the teachers described moments of learning with their friends, family and mentors. for one specific teacher, bree, the experience of desire-based learning emerged once she left the traditional setting of school. at the age of twelve, bree left school and joined a community of family friends who were engaged in “unschooling” – the process of learning according to your own interests and choices as a young student of the world. bree described the moment when she decided to leave school – what she described as an “expansive moment”: i think, what like stuck out to me in the process of writing this was this—i guess for me, were politicizing moments or moments where i know something shifted in my awareness of the world. an expansive moment, where the world got larger. my understanding of things got larger, and they are very specific moments in my life. i guess, my unique experience was leaving school— the act of leaving school at 12 years old and trying to figure out my own thing, that’s when i got really interested in the theory behind schooling and learning.– bree bree went on to note how the “world got larger” for her, and she described the different kinds of mentors she met during these years and how they affected her in positive ways, including models for how she wants to presently work with children: what i like thinking about is the different people who influenced me is that i feel attached to the idea of the kind of adult or educator that i want to be in a kid’s life… it’s nice to think about all these different people who have really different personalities and really different approaches and influenced me in different ways, some were super buddies and some were not, but really made an impact anyway so its kind of nice to think about the different models for good educators – bree muraling the invisible strings: collective memory work… 25 two of the teachers, mara and ella described how their family played a role in their early learning experiences. i was really surprised how much my sister was present and often how often my memories that i had i was doing this, she was doing that – this was really paired, when i was thinking about the good emotional counterparts of [those memories]. – ella family was main theme in mara’s writing and discussion over the course of the entire year of the project. in the following excerpt, mara wrote about a moment in her childhood that reflects her current work with children: it was a sunny, bright day. warm. i was on the driveway, a wide, light colored cement driveway, not very long, the led up to a modern home and which had a low, stone wall running along one side and grass along the other. i think my uncle and i had been using the hose on the driveway because i remember the color of wet cement. the activity we were undertaking was pulling the petals off of flowers and placing them in cardboard egg cartons so my grandmother could plant the seeds the following spring. when we were done, we carried the egg cartons into the laundry room where they were placed on shelves to be stored until spring. this memory had always been strong, but it became revelatory in my mid 30s, when for some reason i was engaged in pulling petals off of marigolds and was broadsided by a smell that was so familiar and in an instant pulled forth the imagery of that day in colorado. mara in this memory, mara reflected on the role that her family members, specifically her uncle, played in her learning about seeds and plants. mara described this memory two other times during the school year, as a very concrete, visceral memory that involved her senses, the sight of the wet concrete and the smell of the flowers. mara continued on in her writing to reflect on how that memory impacted her perspective on working with young children: that moment of brilliant illumination was profound! it moved me! …knowledge in this form is visceral. it contains sight, sound, relationships, smells. it comes from a place and was part of an activity that was a part of daily life. this approach to knowledge is the knowledge i want to be able to somehow share. knowing that what i do with children is relevant now, in time, and that it has the potential of re-entering their lives or growing with them through their lives as time progresses, as their lives develop and unfold. that what we do now, what we talk about now, what we discover now, what we question and explore now, has the possibility of living within them and informing them in ways that will be theirs, their story, their memories, their moving forward into and through their lives. mara here, mara emphasized the importance of using collective memory work as a framework for both reflecting on one’s own teaching practices and acknowledging how influential early learning experiences and environments are to minds and lives of young children. discussion understanding the role of memories and how they relate to the everyday lives of teachers is both broad and complex. during the course of this year-long educator inquiry workshop, a group of early childhood educators were able to access, reflect, and conceive of memory in a different way than prior research from the field. in this process of reflecting on their own memories of learning, the educators initially described negative instances of schooling. however, with additional and deeper reflection and discussion, they began to share more positive, desire-based stories of learning, which then connected to the kind of teachers they wanted to be today. in this study, the process of revisiting memories based on the discussion and reflection among the group highlighted an important role that the social context of the group played throughout the project, where memory was not an individual, strictly cognitive-based, neutral act but one that was strongly influenced by the setting and culture of the group and the context. in this way, memory became a situated practice. ovens and tinning (2009) described memory, or what they referred to as reflection, using this sociocultural perspective. these authors noted that the use of reflection in professional development and teacher education had grown in popularity over the past 20 years (clarke and chambers, 1999; loughran, 2006; tinning, 1995). ovens and tinning (2009) noted that often the tool of reflection, or using memory, in teacher education had been used to assist teachers in acknowledging how their own experiences and knowledge shapes their “identities and actions as teachers” (p. 1125). however, these authors argued that by viewing memory as a tool and or process, researchers regarded the teacher as a “neutral, self-conscious margaret clark 26 agent capable of rational analysis” rather than as an individual socially situated in a specific context. in their research, ovens and tinning demonstrated how a group of student teachers, engaged in this kind of group memory work, affected one another. the researchers found that “the nature of the discourse community in which the individual is situated enables different forms of reflection” (pg. 1130). much like ovens and tinning (2009), the teachers in this study were also influenced by the way that they shared with one another, and the social context that they had created. for this community of teachers, their collective memory work became a situated practice, where memories were not neutral but directly related to their sharing processes within the group. when asked if they felt that this kind of collective memory work was important to their current work, all nine teachers responded positively. bree described how this work encouraged her to dig deeper into her memories but with a new kind of lens, that of an educator: the workshop activities led me to wanting to dig more into my past…bring up memories of learning and schooling and look at them now through the lens of an educator …the process …is absolutely important for educators. it is essential to our growth and skills of reflection and self-development. it's also deeply gratifying and feels like an important form of acknowledgement for a role that often can feel isolating or underappreciated. feels so important to be thinking/working on larger threads and ideas when classroom time often feels so immediate in its day-to-day demands ….– bree for this group of educators, memories and the process of reflecting on those memories became an essential tool in the process and journey of becoming an educator and caregiver of young children. below is mara’s written response to a prompt asking how collective memory work can impact an educator’s reflection on pedagogy: memories. they are key to me and have been for as long as i can remember. and that is a long time. they go back to when i was 2 ½ years old. and they are vivid. they are film clips. they include visual, olfactory, emotional, tactile information. they include important memories of people and places, of activities, of myself and most importantly, how everything made me feel. a range of feelings, responses to events, occurrences, things i saw or felt or heard or smelled. the importance of having held these memories for so long, and having always considered them somehow important, is that the memories are my sense of self, known only to me. known only by me, they are the sense of self that supports me, that i wrestle with, that i feel have failed me, they show me my strong side and my weak side, that remind me i always have more work to do. they are battered against and forgotten, only to be remembered again. but, very importantly, they remind me that i am from a time and place. i had an origin and who and what i am now, has continually emanated from the place of origin. i consider it my truest self. my newest self. my enduring self. a self i can go back to. and this is something that supports my work with young children. the early information, the early relationships being formed with things, places and spaces, people, ideas and actions, desires. i must always remember my very dimensional self at those early ages. it is a way in and over time. it is in and of the children i am working and growing with. what i know now, after half a century of observing and reflecting on my own experiences as a learner, a seeker of knowledge, is that what we learn in our earliest years can often pop-up, through memory, so many years later and support our understanding as older learners. i think this perspective will aid me in recalling details of my life that have contributed and lead me to where i presently stand in time, as an educator. it may aid me in unfolding my story in a way that is interesting and relevant to others, and which in the process, might serve as a tool, to usher me forward in this work that i do. – mara like mara, many of the teachers in this group initially connected to the most negative memories of her schooling experiences but were able to, with time and support from the group, access more positive memories of their childhoods. for mara, it was these positive memories that helped her understand something deeper about what she calls her “truest” self, or an “enduring self.” this focus on endurance here, is important, as endurance, the process of sustaining something or bearing with patience, is what many of these teachers have noted as a key component to their work with young children in the institution of schooling and education. when sharing their negative experiences, the teachers described restrictive and controlling environments, so this ability to endure those settings, overcome that pain, and emerge from that experience as an adult with a purpose to create transformative and expansive learning environments is one that is admirable. this group of teachers was able to demonstrate a shared commitment to working together to heal their pain, and imagine what type of educator that they can be in the lives of young muraling the invisible strings: collective memory work… 27 children, knowing that they too, are creating the memories of learning that has the power to impact these children’s lives and paths for many years to come. conclusion in sum, collective memory work requires extensive critical and reflective analysis of one’s early memories, a collaborative space for sharing, a group committed to engaging in such work together, and time to acknowledge the pain and damage one might have experienced in schooling and move towards remembering and connecting to the memories that were focused on the positive. as samara had noted, working with one’s memories involves a complex muraling process of strings and stories that sometimes feel invisible to us. by engaging in collective memory work, educators can make those strings visible and collaboratively work to make meaning of those experiences. it is the complexities and challenges of this work which also leads to the limitations of the study – as we work to understand our memories and how they relate to our current teaching practices, we may also begin to see a re-imagining of those memories. they are, like plato imagined, impressions in a moldable wax – which can shift and change as we work with that wax, molding it in our collective processing. it is important to note that this kind of work must not simply involve a recall of the memories of early learning, but must also include a process of questioning the larger contexts in which the early learning occurs – including the power that teachers hold in the classroom, the structures and ways that adults and children interact, the rules and rigidity that exist within a schooling institution. by examining, naming, and acknowledging these contexts, in-service teachers, as they did in this study, can begin to move to imagine alternative, liberatory, expansive and transformative learning spaces where children’s voices and choices are acknowledged and respected. using a combination of collaborative, critical reflection, teachers can engage in collective memory work that acknowledges the pains of early learning but focuses on the possibilities of learning for all students. in the current state of early education in the united states, educators are facing an educational landscape that involves increased academic pressure and a growing focus on standardized methods of instruction and assessment. with this increased focus on academic rigor, early childhood educators may find themselves struggling to create play-based and liberatory learning environments for the learners in their classroom. opportunities to reflect on how they were offered these kind of spaces as a young child is an essential element to identifying how they can currently create them. while this kind of work and space is challenging to find and sustain, this group demonstrated that with time, this kind of work helps sustain itself as teachers continue to imagine and embody the care and kindness that they promote in their students. by collaboratively reflecting on their memories, these teachers were able to see themselves as learners on a life-long journey, with the ultimate goal of ushering them forward in this important work that they do. declarations acknowledgements: memories are personal and i would like to thank all of the teacher participants who were willing to share their very personal memories with me for this project. i enjoyed every time we met and 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(2010). a critical analysis of reflection as a goal for teacher education. in handbook of reflection and reflective inquiry (pp. 67-84). boston, ma: springer muraling the invisible strings: collective memory work from an educator inquiry group journal of childhood, education & society volume 3, issue 3, 2022, 308-321 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.202233208 research article ©2022 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. boarding schools in transition: a post-socialist analysis of “relevance” as an education policy problem in mongolia caroline dyer1, anne luke2, narantuya sanjaa3 abstract: the rural boarding schools that were established in the socialist era to serve children in mongolia’s herding communities remain integral to national policy for ensuring universal access to formal education. education policy actors demonstrate commitment to the socialist legacy of the schooled herder child, while at the same posing legitimate questions as to boarding schools’ quality and contemporary relevance. this questioning is framed with reference to a globally-orientated discourse of standards, outcomes measurement and skills for employability. the paper argues from a postsocialist perspective that this orientation forecloses a nuanced, contextualised understanding of “relevance” as a complex educational policy problem. drawing on policy documents and secondary literature, it develops and applies a post-socialist conceptual framework to explore the temporal and spatial orientations of rural boarding schools and their “relevance”. the analysis evidences multiple, intersecting layers of change which situate the schooled herder child and constitute mongolia”s “unfinished business of socialism” in education. the paper concludes that the layering revealed in this analysis needs to be more visible to educational policy; and that to resist oversimplifying the complex problem of education”s relevance is an ontological imperative. article history received: 29 april 2022 accepted: 03 november 2022 keywords mongolia; boarding schools; nomadic herders; postsocialist childhood; education policy introduction mongolia has changed in many ways since the early 1990s, when the economic and political structures that underpinned socialism were dismantled to make way for a democratic, marketised modern economy (bat-erdene et al., 1996; morris and bruun, 2005). its ongoing national transition to a marketdriven economy is characterised inter alia by fiscal and political crises, rapid urbanisation, hollowing out of rural areas, demise of nomadic herding collectives, and high rural-urban migration. despite the diversification of land use, employment and opportunities, the heritage of nomadic herding remains a key co-ordinate of national identity. herding continues to be the main livelihood for at least 20 per cent of the population (batkyuyag and dondogdulan, 2018) (while other sources e.g. mongolia institute of educational research [mier], 2019 claim 30 per cent), and plays a major role not only in food security, income and employment (morris and bruun, 2005), but also as a cultural signifier which links the traditions of the past with the socio-political cultures of the future (ahearn, 2020; ahearn and bumochir, 2016). mongolia has nearly universal rates of primary and lower secondary school enrolment (united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization [unesco], 2020). national commitment to ensuring that children in herding communities are able to access formal schooling is a socio-culturally embedded socialist legacy, which has been facilitated by rural boarding schools. these schools remain integral to mongolia’s approach to schooling for all (mier, 2019). in 1970, unesco awarded mongolia the nadejda krupskaya prize for the achievement of near total literacy (yembuu and munch-erdene, 2006), a _____________ 1 university of leeds, school of politics and international studies, uk, e-mail: c.dyer@leeds.ac.uk, orcid: https://orcid.org/00000002-9227-7554 2 university of leeds, school of education, uk, e-mail: a.c.luke@leeds.ac.uk, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3956-7082 3 mongolian university of science and technology, faculty of education to open education center, mongolia, e-mail: snarantuya@must.edu.mn, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1622-8312 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202233208 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:c.dyer@leeds.ac.uk https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9227-7554 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9227-7554 mailto:a.c.luke@leeds.ac.uk https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3956-7082 mailto:snarantuya@must.edu.mn boarding schools in transition: a post-socialist analysis… 309 figure that remains a unique achievement for a country with a high proportion of herders in its population (dyer, 2014). schooling is, however, producing cultural change within herder households and in social constructs of “respectable identities” which are creating “new difficulties” for livelihoods as herders (ahearn, 2018, p. 90); and it is contributing to unsustainable trends of rural-urban migration (morris and bruun, 2005), often resulting in poverty among herding families (sanjaa, 2015; unesco, 2020). in in-depth discussions with dyer and sanjaa (authors) and other team members, held between 20182020 in the preparation of the 2020 mongolia education policy review (epr) (unesco, 2020), supported by unesco, national policy actors demonstrated ambivalence towards herding as livelihood in future, and favoured promoting economic growth and stability via industrial expansion and urban-based formal employment (see also ministry of education, culture, science and sports [meccs], 2020a; unesco, 2020). at the same time, however, they showed strong commitment to the rural boarding school provision that predominantly serves children in herding families. such provision, albeit now costly to staff and maintain, continues to be seen as a practical form of education delivery in sparsely populated rural areas (unesco, 2020). alongside these pragmatic considerations, boarding schools emerged in a somewhat different light: as being integral to the social imaginery of a rural childhood in what is often termed the “herding nation” (meccs, 2020a). for all these reasons, boarding schools are, and will remain for the foreseeable future, central to the tradition of inclusive formal education for herding children in mongolia. while clearly committed to continuing boarding school provision, policy actors nevertheless articulated concern over their “quality” and “relevance”, framed in terms of their aspirations of benchmarking (and improving) mongolia’s schools’ performance in global rankings of learning outcomes, and improving the fit between education and employability outside the herding sector (mier, 2019; unesco, 2019, 2020). while we see these as legitimate policy concerns, we find the increasingly dominant global use of performance ranking and outcomes measurement as proxy indicators of “quality” schooling generally problematic; and the more so if takes precedence over deeper reflection on schooling’s “relevance” in a specific social and here post-socialist – context (marzluf, 2017). our objective in this paper, then, is to investigate the challenging question of “relevance”, raised in the education policy review process, with a historical sensitivity. to do this, we use a post-socialist lens, which enables us to tease out continuities and contradictions that reflect a layering of change that characterises what we see as the “unfinished business of socialism” (jelača and lugarić, 2018, p. 1) in mongolia. we focus on the case of rural boarding schools, to examine the spatial and temporal dimensions of change and continuity; and we will argue that in the layering which this examination reveals lie the foundations of a much deeper and complex notion of schooling “relevance” than that which a decontextualized, ahistorical global framing assumes. moreover, whilst accepting that the periphery and peripherisation are contested terms, we posit that this paper explores a doubly-situated otherness: firstly within post-socialist studies, mongolia is usually sidelined from the dominant central and eastern european lines of analysis (as is still the case in kojanic, 2020, but refuted by shore and trnka, 2015) and therefore brings a valuable case to bear. secondly, nomadic herding children are peripheral within studies of the experiences of schooled children, and generally often unschooled (unesco, 2010) (if not uneducated (dyer, 2014)), but mongolia presents us with a multi-generational exception to this, crossing the period of transition. section 2 draws on post-socialist literature to build the idea of “layered” change and to argue for analysing change and continuity on a temporal and a spatial axis, in order to understand and deconstruct the education policy problem of “relevance”. it foregrounds the social construction of the “schooled child” in socialist modernity, which remains central to post-transition education policy and therefore to interrogating issues of relevance today, and explains how boarding schools emerged within the socialist tradition and still continue. section 3 explores mongolia’s transition to a pluralistic, multiparty democracy and market-orientated economy, and then focuses on the historical positioning of herding as a livelihood and national emblem, and post-transitional changes to herding: it centres the idea of the schooled herding child and education’s “relevance” in a spatial and temporal perspective. section 4 examines the spatial and caroline dyer et al. 310 temporal dimensions of change and continuity of rural boarding schools, teasing out the layers that shape “relevance” in transition and constitute it as a tension. we place spatial dimensions on one axis, as boarding schools move from symbolising the peak of aspirations of socialist modernity due to their rural situation, to contemporary struggles to meet urban-facing demands and the aspirations of neo-liberal modernity and new social relations. on the second axis, we place the temporal dimensions that see boarding schools as economic-cultural legacy of socialism and its construction of childhood, of which the boarding schools and their rural development ethos were central, but which continue today as a practical means of educating rural herder children in the light of global discourses of quality and relevance. the paper concludes that political, economic and social change since 1989 does not mean the wholesale erasure of multiple constructions, discourses and materialities: the complex but intractable continuity of the mongolian boarding school, alongside the notion of a herder child who can also be schooled, shed light on the erasures that global universalised policy language and its concerns around “quality” and “relevance” produce and which in our analysis, must be resisted. (post)socialism and childhood why choose a post-socialist frame in which to analyse the apparent conundrum of “relevance” that policy makers express in relation to boarding schools as a cornerstone of education policy in mongolia? and what exactly do we understand by post-socialism conceptually? we approach post-socialism on two axes: temporality and spatiality. firstly, to avoid “dead ends created by linear conceptualisations of postsocialist transformations” (silova, 2018, p. 199), we opt for stenning and horschelmann’s (2008) notion of a post-socialism borrowing from the theoretical tools of post-colonialism to develop our temporal axis. we agree that the “shadows [of the socialist past] are multiple, sometimes unpredictable; they are not linear – post-socialism does not simply come after socialism, but also against it, reflected through it” (ibid: 325; see also ahearn, 2020). from their conceptualisation we accept that there are multiple post-socialisms and multiple histories at play in the present day, thus heightening policy-makers’ bewilderment over cause, effect, quality and relevance, but allowing us to see the layering of past, present, history and memory in our analysis here. history, in this framework (which itself draws from post-structuralism), is deconstructed in its linear or teleological sense, in order to make space for “multiple histories with uncertain determinisms” (ibid). despite its sensitivity to temporality, we see also some limits to stenning& horschelmann’s theorisation, in its lack of spatial analysis and, within that, a lack of consideration of material cultures and the role of the physical and built environment that other scholars of both post-socialism (pohrib, 2016) and childhood (kraftl, 2020) have emphasised. for this reason, we deliberately add a second axis, of spatiality, to our analysis to add a deeper inflection to our understanding of what we call post-socialist modernity in mongolia. insofar as socialist modernity could be seen to have been “materialized in its objects and embodied in its subjects” (golubev, 2020, p. 11) we see boarding schools in mongolia as fulfilling these functions, as well as functioning as representative and discursive spaces that may look unchanging but are, in terms of a broader cultural understanding of space, “often uncertain and shifting, or perpetually in transition” (jelača and lugarić, 2018, p. 10). the continuity of those material elements into the post-socialist era forms a site of fracture, meaning-making and tension as education policy takes up the now well-known and rehearsed global/neo-liberal discourses of quality, and policy actors wrestle with the notion of relevance. the schools have their own afterlife as a form of communist artefact (pohrib, 2016), whilst housing their own evolving cultural and social meanings. prior to 1989, multiple constructions of childhood co-existed across the socialist world as cultures, discourses, histories and materialities weaved and interacted (hendrick, 1997; prout and james, 1997; wyness, 2012), thus necessitating a divergence from suggestions of a universal socialist model. however, certain commonalities co-existed of which the most important was the focus on education. accounts of childhood in modernity that speak of the “schooled child” often implicitly assume this development to be a precursor to the regulated child of the modern capitalist economy (hendrick, 1997; wells, 2021; wyness, 2012), but often overlook that the “schooled child” was the central tenet of socialist modernity in the boarding schools in transition: a post-socialist analysis… 311 twentieth century socialist world (marzluf, 2017; stearns, 2021). despite the variable motives behind the creation of mass, free, compulsory schooling for all, it was celebrated in both socialist and capitalist worlds as a necessity to create productive and duly skilled workers for the future, and, to differing extents and in different ways, for the public good. under socialism, the schooled child was collocated with a happy and moral child in representative form and pedagogical practice (stearns, 2021). thus, the emergent social construction of childhood at the point of transition saw the purpose and characteristics of childhood as deeply dependent on schooling as well as contingent upon multiple local variables across the erstwhile socialist world. within mongolia”s education system, socialist ideologies and values instilled an idea of the “happy child” held in the embrace of helping/caring for others and the public good, making contributions to the community and living a good moral life (demberel and penn, 2006; marzluf, 2017; penn, 2001). this aligns with the commonalities of socialist construction of childhood mentioned above, but our focus on boarding schools comes into play as a means of analysing the interaction of local cultural and socio-economic realities with this overarching construction, and what this tells us about the contemporary policy question of “relevance”. boarding schools emerged in various locations across the socialist world, seeming to be a physical manifestation of the strong focus on, and investment in, childhood and youth under socialism. a key impetus behind this development derived from an expectation that youth would be key players in the construction of the new societies which were being built (stearns, 2021), but there were other motivations. whether it was due to a suspicion of the ability of families to do the job of bringing up these precious bodies appropriately (kelly, 2007), whether children and young people were simply too important to be left predominantly in the care of the family, or whether (as in mongolia’s case) boarding schools presented the only route towards producing a schooled child due to socio-economic structures, or indeed various combinations of these motivations, the policy proposal remained the same – the boarding school. new methodologies emerged, such as makarenko’s approach to schooling as an education in integrating the individual personality within the collective, that dominated educational science (caskey, 1979). this broad overview, though, hides national stories that tell multiple tales of the boarding school; how those boarding schools in cuba aimed to instil the rural ethos into children which was so important to a socialist revolution launched by a rural guerrilla army (luke, 2018); how those in soviet lapland gave children of the indigenous sami population opportunities for social mobility but imposed “ethnic depreciation” (allemann, 2018); and of course, how those in mongolia were created with the needs of children in mobile herding families in mind. herder children in mongolia grew up as fully integrated members of the family production unit, caring for animals and in close proximity to nature. they learned to walk and to ride at about the same time, and absorbed the values and skills associated with being a good herder via situated learning – watching and imitating more experienced others. once old enough to go to school, they returned from boarding schools to herding for the long summer vacation, timed to enable children to combine schooling with their informal education in herding traditions (steiner-khamsi and stolpe, 2005). even as these socio-cultural traditions adapt to the post-socialist landscape, there is a (necessary) continuity in their imaginary and practices how else can herding be learned? – which boarding schools, themselves both constant and adapting, both encounter and (re)shape. whilst its political systems were transformed by the transition, the histories and memories of the socialist era and their associated histories of childhood were and are not deleted. the post-socialist analytical lens enables us to see this, and to recognise change as a process of layering, rather than as an abrupt switch towards an alternative. it may be imperfect, but the post-socialist lens denotes “an intellectual space that has the potential to disrupt the hegemony of dominant globalisation narratives, while enabling us to see, experience and interpret ongoing post-socialist education transformations through the lens of pluralities” (chankseliani & silova, 2018, p. 8; see also ahearn, 2020). to this we would add tranformations in childhoods and, to illustrate this point, that one of the key elements of the socialist experience is related to the predominance of the “schooled child” in socialist modernity. this means that children in herding families in mongolia today are themselves children of formerly schooled children, which not only attests to the socialist legacy but is also a stark point of difference between mongolia and caroline dyer et al. 312 countries across south asia and africa, where high proportions of children in herding families are, and will remain for the foreseeable future, “unschooled” (dyer, 2014; dyer and rajan, 2021; krätli and dyer, 2009). the layerings of mongolia’s transition mongolia is one of the world”s mostly sparsely populated countries. its land area of 1.56 million km2 is populated by about 3.2 million people (49.2 percent male, and 50.8 percent female) (mier, 2019). by 2017, the average population density in rural areas stood at just two persons per km2 (32 percent of the population) (ibid).this figure starkly contrasts with the situation in the capital ulaanbaatar, where waves of post-transition migration and urban-focused development have seen the population rise to 311.3 persons per km2 (ibid). people under 35 years of age comprise nearly two thirds of the population, which grows at an annual rate of 1.9 percent. mongolia’s ongoing process of transition from a socialist country in the soviet sphere to an internationally facing, pluralistic, multiparty democracy and market-orientated economy began in 1990 (b4at-erdene et al., 1996). the national commitment to human rights, democratic governance and private ownership was written into the new constitution of 1992. extensive structural adjustment reforms were undertaken, as advocated by the international agencies who have ever since remained prominent actors, and influential globalisers, in mongolia’s development (steiner-khamsi and stolpe, 2005; unesco, 2020). controls on the movement of people, imposed to meet the needs of industrialisation and collectivisation within the command economy, were found to contradict new notions of rights, and lifted. in-migration to urban areas, where better markets, job opportunities and higher education provision were available, became a prominent trend (ahearn, 2018; united nations international children's emergency fund [unicef], 2017). in the education sector, the education law of 1991 (cit mier, 2019) set out the basic principles of a democratically functioning education system underpinned by legislative rights: the administration and financing of public schools were decentralised; school governance was transferred to local educational boards in the aimag; and private schooling was authorised. this changing of educational structures away from the socialist centralised model marked a change at the macro level: but despite its high visibility, to overstate this as a “transformation” would be to erase, or at the very least to undermine, the continuities onto which these changes were layered. herding as a livelihood and emblem of the mongolian nation the socialist state had invested massively in modernising rural society, through resource inputs, subsidies and favourable pricing policies. livestock collectives (negdels) were set up, with compulsory membership from the 1960s, to institutionalise efficient management and ensure production. the negdel production unit was matched to the size and location of the administrative unit of the soum, an alignment that enabled negdel and soum to function jointly. negdels developed processing, manufacturing, service, storage and trading facilities (morris and bruun, 2005, p. 6). soums built stadiums and cultural palaces, marketing stations, public libraries and power stations, etc. through the 1960s-70s, and added larger schools with dormitories to the network of schools built in the 1950s. herding was integral to the rural economy, and provision of boarding facilities for school-going children from remote rural districts further affirmed schooling’s instrumental role in the state project of rural modernisation and industrialisation. this thirty year long “golden era” (morris and bruun, 2005, p. 5) came to an end when, in the first transformation decade, negdels were dismantled and collective assets privatised. some 75,000 nomadic herding families rapidly transitioned into private livestock ownership. the soum was de-linked from pastoralist production and placed under an elected governor: some 100,000 workers and negdel staff lost their employment when soum-based manufacturing and agro-processing units were closed down and assets were stripped. the services provided to livestock production as a modern agro-business vanished. _____________ 4 an aimag is a province, within which the major settlement is the “aimag centre”; we will also refer to the soum, a district within an aimag, the major settlement within which is the “soum centre”. boarding schools in transition: a post-socialist analysis… 313 in the instability that followed, the number of households in herding more than doubled in one decade (from 75,000 to 192,000 by 2000) as herding was largely reformed as subsistence household production, characterised by small individual livestock holdings and many “new” herders, who had previously worked in other sectors. the changing economic structures imposed uncertainties which were unknown to herders during the socialist era privatisation, inexperience of herding, breakdown of traditional seasonal pasture use, the cash economy and loss of transport all of which contributed to overgrazing of pastures, soil degradation and a drift to urban centres (morris and bruun, 2005). the high vulnerability to stress and shock that these conditions created was manifest in extensive loss of livestock in the 1999-2001 dzud5 (ahearn, 2018). since then, recurrent dzuds, reflecting climate change and a lack of mechanisms at household and governance levels to manage them, have led to animal loss. such loss engenders householdlevel distress, which may precipitate rural-urban migration that, in turn, exacerbates socio-economic problems in urban settings. herding nevertheless remains a significant livelihood and sector of the national economy. as well as new uncertainties around herding as a secure livelihood, a counter-discourse of herding is emerging. while nomadic herder identities are still celebrated in nationalist discourse (marzluf, 2015; unesco, 2020) they are now also subject to being appraised as uncultured (ahearn, 2018). although the socialist tradition of associating formal education with holding cultured and skilled worldviews still pertains, formal education in post-socialist times is also becoming instrumental in disassociating these favoured attributes from rural spaces, and contributing to deficit discourses that inaccurately conflate herding with unskilled work (ahearn and bumochir, 2016; dyer, 2014). successful herding requires not only applied skills about animal management, but also depends on deep knowledge about the interrelations of humanity, nature and sustainability, which children learn from family members through oral traditions that pass on their culture and heritage, accompanied by hands-on experience in daily life. increasingly, however, neither the education system nor indeed herding families themselves – seem to validate this as knowledge that has important contemporary standing (ahearn and bumochir, 2016; unesco, 2020). the dimensions of transition that we have outlined in this section inform our argument that the policy concern over the relevance of boarding schools must be seen in the historical and spatial perspective that a “post-socialist” analytical lens affords, rather than as an abrupt contemporary “problem” for policy. the state funded boarding schooling as a model of education provision that is uniquely suited to herder children is a signifier that post-socialist modernity is an urban and rural modernity and incorporates the tenets of the “schooled child” even amidst a questioning of longstanding cultural narratives and norms pertaining to rural and herder lives. we provide further evidence for this claim in the next section. boarding schools in spatial and temporal perspective as we have argued, provision of boarding schools represents both a symbolic and practical state commitment to ensuring that a herder child can also be a “schooled child”. the state’s current positioning is clearly demonstrated in its national development policy “towards mongolia”s long-term development policy vision 2050” (meccs, 2020a). the following paragraphs from its section on “general education” (meccs, 2020a, pp. 46-47) illustrate: 2.1.19. create an enabling environment for educational institutions as per required standards by improving the school dormitory, green development facilities, sports and art halls, canteen, and information technology classrooms following the specific rules, provide an accessible learning environment for those students with disabilities, and make the child and user-friendly, safe water, toilet, hygiene facilities available in schools. 2.1.20. improve the quality of education from the primary and secondary schools and the teaching contents and methods reflecting the mongolian history, language, culture, national heritage, customs, patriotic views, personality formation and development, dual language, and universal values of humanity. _____________ 5 dzud is caused by a sequence of summertime drought, followed by extreme cold and/or deep snowfall in winter. caroline dyer et al. 314 2.1.24. improve the management of the school dormitory system and child protection at the dormitories, setting the regulations that up to 10 teaching hours of those teachers who worked in the pieces of training and other activities for dormitory students to include in teachers’ overall workload. the second paragraph cited here clearly sets out the qualities and values that the current government wants to be promoted in the schooling of children, which give us an insight into broad parameters of “relevance” in policy discourse. with regard to the “quality” it invokes, and which is implicit in the other two paragraphs: no studies have so far compared the “quality” of the boarding schools under and post socialist period, although once the socially and temporally constructed nature of “quality” is recognised (penn, 2011), this would seem a problematic undertaking. we know, however, that during the socialist period the teachers who worked in rural areas were well paid and had a good reputation, and that rural children had the same access to “quality” education as children in urban areas. this is no longer the case (sanjaa, 2015; unesco, 2020), reflecting a post-socialist layering of rural structural disadvantage (sanjaa, 2015; maruyama et al., 2019). highly teacher-directed learning of substantive content was, however, everywhere characteristic; and shifting this to enable “21st century education” (typically, evaluating and analyzing information and thinking creatively about how to solve real-world problems) is a dominant policy preoccupation (mier, 2019; unesco, 2020). the discourses of standards, quality, management and child protection that can be read in, and from, the paragraphs of policy above comprise a further temporal layering of what “relevance” means. boarding schools in transition the story of the creation and trajectory of boarding school provision before and after 1990 merits some attention. education provision in mongolia is founded on a soviet-inspired model of secular education that displaced pre-socialist traditions prevailing when the mongolian people’s republic was formed in the early 1920s (unesco, 2020). decision-making, planning and policy formulation were the prerogative of the party. educational institutions were run by the government in a highly uniform system that operated under the oversight of the ministry of education, which directed regional and local agencies (bat-erdene et al., 1996). formal schooling was made compulsory in the 1950s, and under socialist state policies, it was well funded and reached the majority of the population (steiner-khamsi and stolpe, 2005; unesco, 2020). the education system expanded quickly in the 1970s and 1980s, as the idea of the “schooled child” took hold in mongolia. via its provision of secondary education for those in negdels, state farms and rural industries, the socialist regime established being educated as a social norm among the rural population. the school dormitory system, supported since 1982 by special provisions in the education law (maruyama et al., 2019), played a crucial role in enabling schooling and rural childhoods to be integrated by offering accommodation at school to all children who needed it, including those of workers, civil servants, employees, and members of agricultural farms and negdels (steiner-khamsi and stolpe, 2005, p. 26). this was particularly important for families in herding, leading steiner-khamsi and stolpe (2005) to identify mongolia’s boarding schools as a “best practice” model in nomadic education (with which more recent scholarship concurs, see dyer, 2014; krätli and dyer, 2009; unesco, 2010). integrative, childfriendly, and geographically close to the family, these schools ensured that “children did not emotionally distance themselves from the life of nomadic pastoralists and continued identifying with the parents’ lifestyle” (steiner-khamsi and stolpe, 2005, p. 26). when the soviet union broke up, the soviet subsidies that had supported free education for every child ceased (engel et al., 2014). between 1990-92, public spending on education as a share of gdp almost halved (ibid). fiscal deficits constrained public spending on education, the negdels that had contributed some 10 per cent of capital costs for school and dormitory buildings had dissolved (steiner-khamsi and stolpe, 2005), and families had to absorb education costs that the state had previously borne, despite the changed and difficult circumstances of economic transition and widespread unemployment. many rural schools went bankrupt and teachers were either not paid, or paid in-kind with flour or meat, resulting in many teachers leaving the profession (unesco, 2020). the secondary school gross enrolment rate, which had grown to 87% by the mid-1980s, declined to a 30-year low of 61% in 1997 (engel et al., 2014). while boarding schools in transition: a post-socialist analysis… 315 withdrawing children from school was a common response to the economic collapse of the 1990s, many more girls than boys stayed in school (71% against 50% (ibid)), as boys were more likely to be withdrawn to work. the boarding school model managed to withstand this tide of change, although costs negatively affected enrolments and teacher attrition was high. although mongolia’s education decline was the most rapid and deepest of all the central asian transition economies, recovery was spectacular (unesco, 2020), and by 2003, enrolment for both genders had returned to pre-1990 levels. fees for dormitory services had been introduced in 1995, but state funding was reinstated in 2000 to arrest the decline in enrolment, retention and dormitory use (maruyama et al., 2019; batkhyuyag & dondogdulam, 2018). the will to maintain the schools – and with it, to ensure universal access to schooling – remained, and still does. yet there is a persistent post 1990s trend of boys dropping out of secondary schooling, usually to help with herding (mier, 2019), which problematizes the contemporary relationship between herding and schooling. there remains, too, a marked trend of higher female retention throughout secondary schooling, and of higher female enrolment and graduation from tertiary education (mier, 2019; unesco, 2020) which fuel a pattern of “winters without women” (ahearn, 2018) among herders, to which we will return below. we pause here to note that this is another argument for a post-socialist analytical lens, which sees beyond the narrative associated with a lens of globalisation. international initiatives are heavily focused on the “global” problem of ensuring girls” education at least becomes at par with that of boys’ (on which the un-commissioned global education monitoring reports regularly report). mongolia’s history and specifics of its socialist trajectory are at odds with this trend. this is evidence that local specificities need to be articulated and not subsumed into an assumed “global” position. indeed, the global neoliberal model might lead to a celebration of mongolia’s very evident gender “counter trend” (unesco, 2020) in education, and obscure the boys who are withdrawn from school – at the cost, we propose, of probing what both trends might reveal about the policy question of schooling’s “relevance”. boarding schools in decline? by 2018-19, official statistics show that the vast majority of those applying for a dormitory place were from herding families (76.1 percent 5,492 applicants of which 4,182 were from herder families (mier, 2019)); for the 2016/17 academic year, herders” children comprised over two thirds of all children using dormitories. to give some spatial contours to this, we note that 80 percent of mongolia’s 341 soums are located more than 100 km from the aimag centres and herder households live well outside the soum centres (mier, 2019). sanjaa (2015) reminds us, too, that distance from the nomadic ger [tent] home to school in the soum centre is not fixed, but temporally variable from 30-200 km, depending on the season and influences of weather on pasture availability. between 2014-17, 37 new dormitories were built and there are plans for 19 more (unesco, 2020). demand continues to outstrip the supply of dormitory places in 2018-19, only 87 per cent of those who applied gained a place. this demonstrates their continued importance and relevance as a form of rural provision that can enable herder families’ access to schooling, sustaining the progress made both preand post-transition in universalising enrolment. this spatial stability is, however, now intersected by a contemporary discourse of concern over “quality” and child protection (sanjaa, 2015). international reports have highlighted that the “chronically low” level of capital investment in the post-command economy’s education sector (maruyama et al., 2019) has been insufficient to ensure either that there are enough dormitories, or that they are fit to accommodate students. many were built in the 1970s and 1980s (ibid) and despite renovations, by 2016/17, of the 513 functional dormitories, 99 (19 per cent) did not meet national standards for school buildings (ibid; mier, 2019), nor provide adequate protection from precipitation and wind, or have adequate heating systems. we see a further layering of global discourses in reports interrogating the material inadequacies of the dormitories themselves, which are now cast in terms of child protection. this is a constituent part of the move towards a new construction of “global” childhood influenced by the concept of risk (prout, 2005) and rights. the post-socialist funding model excepts dormitory staff salaries and dormitory meals, but caroline dyer et al. 316 places other funding requirements for dormitories in competition with calls on a school budget. dormitories are often not only structurally poor, but deficient in material conditions. although national norms for wash in school, kindergarten and dormitory facilities were established in 2015 (mier, 2019), there are many reports of provision that is substandard (mier, 2019; unesco, 2020). the asian development bank’s 2019 baseline survey, which sampled 78 of the country’s 158 dormitories, found that fewer than 40 per cent had indoor latrines (and nearly two thirds of those lacked individual doors, and less than one third had locks). for many children, this means having to use outdoor latrines at all times, in extremely harsh winter weather including during the night which is now interpreted as intimidating for early-grade students, girls, and students with disabilities (maruyama et al., 2019). a shortage of beds means that one fifth of sampled children have to share; about a quarter of dormitories had enough chairs and less than a third had enough tables (ibid). dormitories almost everywhere are a far cry from the “home from home” they are supposed to be (sanjaa, 2015). other studies show that children who use dormitories are exposed to intimidation, bullying and abuse that includes corporal punishment, and to group discrimination that targets herder children (save the children japan, 2015). another study (nlm and mecss, 2017, cit batkhyuyag & dondogdulam, 2018) found that 25 per cent of 6-8 year old children in dormitories were in poor facilities and on their own. calls for a child protection system to safeguard all potentially vulnerable children using dormitories are not new (cf. sanjaa, 2015; save the children japan, 2015). the asia development bank-commissioned study (maruyama et al., 2019) also notes that in 2015, less than one third of primary students in dormitories regularly participated in study, reading, and extracurricular activities in dormitories, which it attributes to high student–staff ratios and lack of appropriately qualified and skilled dormitory teachers and staff. there is no system for preparing dormitory teachers: generally, one teacher is made responsible for dormitory operation under the supervision of the school principal, and teachers take turns to engage in extracurricular, dormitory activities. all the studies cited here conclude that these issues act as disincentives for parents to send children to boarding school, especially very young children. but, returning to the matter of “relevance”, we find that this globally orientated discourse around “quality” tends to overshadow the locally significant problem, for herding families, of lowering the age of compulsory schooling in the early post-socialist period. this is insightful in relation to considering “relevance” when we juxtapose the construct of the “at risk” child with other temporal dimensions that affect herding children’s take-up of dormitory places. first, reflecting globalisation, came the national political aspiration of international parity around the temporality of being a “schooled child”. two laws, passed in quick succession, lowered the age for compulsory enrolment: from eight to seven years in 2004, and then to six 2008. these brought mongolia in line with international norms regarding the starting age and duration of schooling (unesco, 2020) but displaced the norm, established in socialist times, of enabling children to gain a solid foundation in herding skills before adding formal schooling, and of starting school at an age when parents felt they were ready to live away from the family setting. in response, to deal with the earlier age of enrolment, parental coping strategies have included withdrawing a young child and re-enrolling him/her when parents feel s/he is physically and emotionally more mature. this practice contributes to the presence of “over-age” children (mier, 2019) in the system, which is now a global signifier of an inefficient education system (and hence interpreted as a dimension of poor “quality”), rather than understood to reflect norms about ageappropriate initial enrolment that have become misaligned. as an indication that the socialist schooled-happy child may well have been rather more of a discursive construct than a material reality, steiner-khamsi and stolpe (2005) found that parents’ own unhappy memories of boarding schools prompt them to seek an alternative for their own children. among herders, maruyama et al., (2019) report (as, earlier, did sanjaa (2015)), that most parents place their children in dormitories by necessity and despite concerns over school quality, etc.: “in erdenedalai, a good dormitory was noted by participants as one of the reasons why children are sent to the school. “children are quite comfortable in these dormitories. sometimes i ask the children how they are. they say ok. children have iron, water boiler and tv. they eat 3-4 times a day. sometimes teachers visit the kitchen. food was boarding schools in transition: a post-socialist analysis… 317 good. the dormitory has electricity 24 hours. 3-4 children live in one room. children like to live in dormitory. nobody escapes or wants to leave” (parents’ focus group, dundgobi, erdenedalai). other areas tell a more mixed story. in areas like khalkhgol, families preferred to place children within the houses of relatives or other people. their soum school’s dormitory was only accommodating 15 children at the time of the research, much less than its capacity of 300. one expert from one of the sites told us: “food quality at dormitory is very low. the current cook is not a professional cook. when we visit the dormitory, children say ‘uncle, we are hungry’”. (maruyama et al., 2019, p. 39) conceptualising the dormitories in terms of risk, as the reports cited do, highlights an important children’s right deficit whilst also demonstrating a new social layering that stems from the fractures in the boarding model that we have drawn out, and that acts to the disadvantage of herder children. this deficit must be attended to, but we would argue against allowing this layering to contribute to an underrepresentation of the persisting importance of boarding schooling to national commitment to sustaining the norm of the schooled herder child. nevertheless, the positive discourse of education for all children combined with the negative discourse of low quality material culture makes the boarding school an uneasy and complex policy proposition. this is reflected in policy actors’ concern over “relevance” in the context of a post-socialist modernity which shares with its socialist antecedents a future orientation, but does not share with socialist modernity the commitment to rural development. then, the notion of high levels of investment in a highly costly educational product such as the boarding school is a difficult policy call if the argument for “relevance” (as relevance is understood) cannot be strengthened. since it is now predominantly herding families in financial hardship who rely on them, dormitories also embody postsocialist social stratification, the beginnings of which steiner-khamsi and stolpe’s (2005) study reported. changes in herding catalysed by schooling the at-once changed and unchanging materiality of boarding schools in the production of a “schooled child” in post-socialist transition also contributes a layer of change in how herding households are organising and practising herding (ahearn, 2018). in 2016/17, only about one fifth of herder children enrolled in grade 1 were staying in dormitories (mier 2019; batkhyuyag & dondogdulam, 2018). this phenomenon is produced by “household splitting” (ahearn 2018; batkhyuyag & dondogdulam, 2018): the adult male(s) remain in the rural area for the winter to herd animals; the mother / adult female(s) migrate in the autumn with children to the soum centres, preferably to live with urban-based relatives (sanjaa, 2015). in-migrating women establish a “home” from which young children can attend school, and/or access early childhood education. this strategy enables children to benefit from urban advantage: to access schools whose quality is perceived to be higher than in rural boarding schools, and early childhood provision that is less available in rural settings (unesco, 2020). splitting a household between remote seasonal winter pastures and school locations in the winter months is a spatio-temporal strategy that enables a family to sustain the tradition of schooling within new parameters set by the state in the post-socialist period, but the resulting “winters without women” (ahearn, 2018) in rural areas are re-shaping childhoods. long parental separations can contribute to decisions to divorce (ibid), undermining the family structure; material poverty increases for the family when mothers cannot gain employment in semi-urban areas (international organization for migration, 2018); mothers working in the urban economy offer role models for income generation that are no longer closely linked to herding; and urban living may undermine children’s desire for a rural livelihood in the increasingly urban-oriented frame. education policy communities are highly aware of these socio-economic dynamics, which inform their questioning of boarding schools’ “relevance”. schooling and boarding, while nominally free, have associated costs that can undermine herder livelihoods by changing how households invest time, labour, and financial resources, and hence the prospects for children’s futures. while a herding household has a composition and life cycle that will change over time, its wealth is mostly in animal assets. combining schooling with herding in the contemporary market economy may require a household to hire in labour to avoid withdrawing older boys from school. in the likely absence of other economic capital, livestock has be used as collateral for a bank loan to cover costs, which “financialises” a household (ahearn and bumochir, 2016) but avoids having to sell off livestock to raise cash in the short term, with the potentially enduring consequence of reducing reproductive capital. this has impoverishing effects which are reflected in national measures of rural caroline dyer et al. 318 poverty which – with nearly 30 per cent of households below the poverty line remain high (sanjaa, 2015; unesco, 2020). temporal and spatial intersections in rural (herding) perspective tensions of these intersections play out in the persistently gendered trend of boys dropping out of secondary school to return to herding (unesco, 2020), and, as we noted earlier, an emerging public and private discourse of herding as “uncultured” and “unskilled” (ahearn and bumochir, 2016), rather than as dependent on people whose skills in herding derive from a substantial informal knowledge base that is not augmented by the contents of the formal school curriculum (sanjaa, 2015). the curriculum itself has acquired a post-socialist temporal layering, from which we pick out two dimensions for consideration here: the alignment of curriculum policy with global discourse, and the subtle, simultaneous (re)positioning of herding. prior to 1998, secondary schools followed a “lesson programme” which listed the items to be studied within a certain subject. global terminology began to make itself visible in the “standard of primary and secondary education content”, approved in 1998, which was renewed and overlaid in 2004 by the mongolian “competency based education standard”. amidst the policy level discourse of curriculum standards and competencies, textbooks include content about herding traditions and life skills which reflects an idea of herding as national heritage rather than of formal education as a means of sustaining herding in the future. this same discourse shapes a notion of schooling “relevance” that, located within the post-socialist economic transition, is prominently associated with employability and which, in turn, drives the current emphasis (on which donors exert considerable influence) on improving technical and vocational training programmes that stress industrial and professional occupations and hardly mention herding (unesco, 2020). the newly published education sector mid-term development plan (esmtdp) 2021-2030 (mecss, 2020b), developed with external agency support, exemplifies the shifting post-socialist national-global imaginary of children’s life trajectories that are caught up in concerns of “relevance”. this core policy framework erases herding entirely from its pages (neither herding nor boarding schools are mentioned at all). it frames a view of education as central to shaping the citizens of the future, which is familiar from the socialist tradition and now presents in a global temporality: the aim of the esmtdp is to ensure the holistic development of mongolian citizens, with competencies to work and live in the digital era, actively participate in knowledge-based society, and engage in lifelong learning through quality, open, inclusive and flexible education services that meet their development needs. the plan envisions the continuous development of the human being from birth throughout life by keeping pace with the industrial revolution 4.0, while considering the fact that new technologies such as the internet of things, big data and artificial intelligence are concretely influencing the industrial sectors (mecss, 2020b, p. 46). across the education sector, then, the temporal dimension of post-socialism intersects with a spatiality that is framed in relation to the urban / industrial, and neglects rural futures (including the decimation of fragile rangeland ecologies by relentless expansion of extractive heavy industries, on which national economic development is predicated (unesco, 2020)). this intersection is reflected in the new, globally-referent discourses of schooling standards and “quality”, and the relationship between learning outcomes, certification and employment – all of which are contemporary indicators of educational “relevance” in contexts of urbanised modernity. out-migration and demographic decline in rural areas are accompanied by overcrowded schools in urban centres and such low student numbers in rural areas that subject-specialist teaching is compromised. this further reinforces the negative perceptions of rural boarding school quality that already surface in repeated demands to improve the supply of textbooks and, indeed, of teachers, alongside calls for training to update rural teachers’ knowledge of content and pedagogical approaches (mier, 2019; unesco, 2020). this is a particularly challenging cycle for schools in the soums, the erstwhile spatial anchors of rural life, for whom the de-registration of children that enables them to attend school elsewhere cannot do other than reduce their own budget (batbaatar et al., 2005, p. 30). meanwhile, in urban school settings, in-migrating children from herding families who have been boarding schools in transition: a post-socialist analysis… 319 attending school in rural settings have been able, by virtue of dormitory provision, to embark on being “schooled children”. their re-registration in urban schools marks parental success and capacity to source an alternative that is now associated with better quality provision; yet these children are widely found to be behind in their studies and subject to a identity-related discrimination against herders (batbaatar et al., 2005, p. 37) that conflicts with the projection in policy discourses of herding as mongolia’s distinctive national emblem. conclusion by focusing on the boarding school as a case study that was both somewhat typical within the socialist world and unique for mobile herding children, we have uncovered not only the complexities of the policy problem of “relevance”, but also the potentialities of a theoretically and historically sensitive approach to education policy in one of many post-socialisms. the exploration of tensions in the spatial and temporal orientations of mongolian schooling has shown that the alignment of socialism with national identity was writ large on the rural landscape in the form of boarding schools; and they remain a material legacy and a space of national identity. as a policy proposition to attain full schooling for the herder child, the rural boarding school remains pragmatic and viable (if not uncomplicated) and enjoys policy support. but, as we have shown in our analysis of boarding schools and what they tell us about formal schooling’s “relevance” in place and time, change is layered in ways that create complex realities. the meaning of both the boarding school and the herding nation continue to evolve, and through our exploration we have shed some light on those changes in meaning and the ways in which these intersect with social relations, cultures and policy. our analysis worked with the reality that there are clear fractures emerging in herder childhoods in mongolia. the “schooled” rural child, comprising the education of herder children whose future is to maintain the core rural culture that is central to national identity, begins to recede as post-socialist modernity sees both a rural and urban future for mongolia’s children. yet simultaneously, the rural boarding schools remain to educate the children of herders. while their material force stays and is expanded, they act as spaces of fracture and encounter where long standing ideologies and cultures meet but do not necessarily integrate with globalised forces and discourses and new material and socioeconomic realities, as we have shown. the case presented here, of how herder children in contemporary mongolia continue to be schooled, kicks back against global-dominated policy initiatives that invoke “relevance” as a means of suppression or erasure of the realities and localised identities of everyday lives (mecss, 2020b). the deep complexity of layered change, revealed through our post-socialist lens, is largely foreclosed from scrutiny in the neoliberal, globalised frame of reference that now exerts a strong influence over national education policy actors (unesco, 2020). in the education sector, that frame lends itself to a perhaps convenient, yet ahistorical and socio-spatially dislocated, over-simplification in how schooling’s “relevance” is conceptualised. our analysis refutes this simplification: indeed, we would argue that it is an ontological imperative to refuse this pressure. declarations author’s declarations acknowledgements: we are grateful to mongolia’s national education policy actors and members of the unesco education policy review team for their thoughtful contributions to the review process. authors’ contributions: all authors contributed to this study in accordance with their distinct disciplinary, theoretical and policy expertise. competing interests: the author declare that she have no competing interests. funding: n/a ethics approval and consent to participate: the research reported here does not involve human subjects. publisher’s declarations caroline dyer et al. 320 editorial acknowledgement: the editorial process of this article was carried out by eleonora teszenyi, anikó varga nagy, and sándor pálfi. publisher’s note: journal of childhood, education & society remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliation. references ahearn, a. 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(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) colombian retrospective study of the association between breastfeeding duration and eating behaviors carlos rincón*, elsa lucia escalante barrios**, sonia suárez enciso***, jesús estrada****, marilyn anturi linero*****, alejandra hérdenez****** abstract: the current retrospective cross-sectional study included 175 colombian caregivers of children ranging between 24 and 59 months old (m=47.08, sd=7.08) enrolled in childcare centers located in the caribbean region. 58% of the children are male, and all of them belong to low-income families. breastfeeding duration ranged between children’s 0 to 37 months old (m=10.84, sd=8.48); 64 of them had exclusive breastfeeding for during their first 6 months (i.e., no fed with bottle). results showed that the variance of food responsiveness explained by the model was 2% (r2=.02, f(3,161)=1.081, p=.359). breastfeeding duration did not significantly predict food responsiveness (β=-.004, p=.219), as well as age (β=.004, p=.346) and gender (β=.056, p=.354) did not significantly explain the dependent variable. likewise, satiety responsiveness variance was not explained by duration of breastfeeding (β=.002, p=.548), age (β=.003, p=.489), and gender (β=.040, p=.561). overall, the explained variance was less than 1% (r2=.008, f(3,161)= .428, p=.733). breastfeeding duration does not significantly change the child’s likelihood of being unhealthy (β=-.010, p=.616), while being male and getting older increase the odds of being healthy. future directions and limitations are discussed. article history received: 15 december 2019 accepted: 10 february 2020 keywords breastfeeding duration; eating behaviors; preschoolers; latino introduction duration of breastfeeding is an important subject of cross-national debate given the importance of breastfeeding for child development and parenting practices (biks et al., 2015; disantis et al., 2011; ip et al., 2007; li et al., 2010, 2014; rodríguez et al., 2009; savino et al., 2009; world health organization, 2012, 2013). studies in different countries like india, egypt and zimbawe have revealed that social, economic and cultural factors may be potentially risky or protective for breastfeeding (abou-elwafa & el-gilany, 2019; borkhoff et al., 2018; kumar et al., 2015; miani et al., 2018; reyes et al., 2014). in terms of child nutrition, studies have reported that breastfeeding may influence different health dimensions, including weight (falcão et al., 1991; fiese et al., 2019; gibson et al., 2017; rogers & blissett, 2016; vogelezang et al., 2018), dietary habits (borkhoff et al., 2018; fiese et al., 2019), eating behaviors (borkhoff et al., 2018) and others. findings consistently showed significant correlations between breastfeeding and children’s body mass index (bmi) (borkhoff et al., 2018; caleyachetty et al., 2013; carling et al., 2014; fiese et al., 2019; world health organization, 2013). moreover, the literature also highlights the role of the duration of breastfeeding as a key factor of nutrition (harder et al., 2005; yan et al., 2014). for instance, vogelezang and colleagues (2018) revealed that breastfed children in the netherlands had lower bmi and a lower fat mass index than those who were never breastfed. in fact, larger breastfeeding may also _____________ *universidad del norte, department of psychology, puerto colombia, colombia, e-mail: maceac@uninorte.edu.co, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2948-4224 **universidad del norte, department of education, puerto colombia, colombia, asociación de investigación en métodos mixtos, alimm, e-mail: eescalante@uninorte.edu.co, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0776-6733 ***university of nebraska, department of educational psychology, lincoln, ne, united states of america, asociación de investigación en métodos mixtos, alimm, e-mail: marielsuaren@gmail.com, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4517-4461 ****universidad del norte, department of computer sciences, puerto colombia, colombia, e-mail: jesusdavide@uninorte.edu.co, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5056-585x ***** universidad del norte, department of education, puerto colombia, colombia, e-mail: manturi@uninorte.edu.co, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2780-7176 ****** universidad del norte, department of education, puerto colombia, colombia, e-mail: aherdenez@uninorte.edu.co, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7120-0737 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.20201131 mailto:eescalante@uninorte.edu.co https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0776-6733 mailto:marielsuaren@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4517-4461 mailto:jesusdavide@uninorte.edu.co https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5056-585x mailto:manturi@uninorte.edu.co https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2780-7176 mailto:aherdenez@uninorte.edu.co https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7120-0737 colombian retrospective study of the association between breastfeeding… 79 decrease the risk of overweight or obesity (caleyachetty et al., 2013; harder et al., 2005; rogers & blissett, 2016; yan et al., 2014). association among eating behaviors, bmi and breastfeeding. eating behaviors such as food responsiveness and satiety responsiveness are associated with weight status (french et al., 2012). in fact, a predictive study conducted in the netherlands concluded that children who have higher bmi tend to show more food responsiveness and less satiety responsiveness (derks et al., 2018). in this study, satiety responsiveness is defined as the child’s ability to recognize and adjust their food intake considering their physiological cues and their internal perception of satiety during and after the act of eating (birch et al., 2001; brown & lee, 2015; llewellyn et al., 2008; obregón et al., 2014; sinopolou et al., 2015). on the other hand, food responsiveness is defined as the child’s reaction to an external stimulus, in this case the food, rather than their internal or physiological cues (birch et al., 2001; llewellyn et al., 2008; obregón et al., 2014). several studies revealed that children tend to demonstrate certain predominant eating behaviors according to their nutritional status (carnell & wardle, 2007; croker et al., 2011; denney-wilson & campbell, 2008; gregory et al., 2010; a. jansen et al., 2003; p. w. jansen et al., 2012; mccarthy et al., 2015; santos et al., 2011; spence et al., 2011). for instance, webber, hill, saxto, van jaarsveld, & wardle (2009) identified that obese/overweight children showed higher scores of responsiveness to food cues and lower scores of satiety responsiveness. croker and colleagues (2011) reported that food responsiveness mean scores decreased across weigh categories (m=2.1 for underweight, m=2.4 for healthy weight, m=2.8 for overweight and m=3.1for obese), while satiety responsiveness mean scores increased across weight categories (m=3.1 for underweight, m=2.7 for healthy weight, m=2.6 for overweight and m=2.1 for obese). consistent findings were reported for chilean children. children with higher bmi were more likely to show high scores in food responsiveness, while children with higher bmi showed lower scores in satiety responsiveness (santos et al., 2011). beyond weight, eating behaviors may be also associated with breastfeeding. a considerable number of studies have revealed that breastfeeding is also associated with practices and interactions of individuals during food consumption in the early years (borkhoff et al., 2018; brown & lee, 2015; hathcock et al., 2014; li et al., 2014; mallan, nambiar, et al., 2014) across different cultural contexts and geographical regions (abou-elwafa & el-gilany, 2019; caleyachetty et al., 2013; muchacha & mtetwa, 2014). likewise, a study with chilean latino adolescents showed that shorter breastfeeding duration decreased the presence of satiety responsiveness and increased the risk of suffering overweight (reyes et al., 2014). however, the existing literature has also revealed a lack of association between breastfeeding and satiety responsiveness. for example, hathcock and colleagues (2014) did not reported mediation effect of satiety responsiveness on the association between breastfeeding and nutritional status in the early years breastfeeding practices in colombia there is well-established evidence about the short-term and log-term benefits of breastfeeding for improving quality of life and decreasing the risk of death of young children living in middle-low income countries (world health organization, 2013). duration of breastfeeding is one important factor that influences the estimation of the overall effect of breastfeeding. the recommended duration is exclusive breastfeeding (ebf) for first six months of liger, and partial breastfeeding (breastfeeding combined with solids) until two years old (world health organization, 2013). several breastfeeding duration studies using colombian samples have reported inconsistent results (benjumea et al., 2011; cabrera et al., 2004; gómezaristizábal et al., 2013; mateus, 2012; niño, 2014; rodríguez-garcía & acosta-ramírez, 2008). most of these studies concluded that breastfeeding duration was shorter than the recommended breastfeeding duration proposed by international organizations and the colombian government (benjumea et al., 2011; cabrera et al., 2004; gómez-aristizábal et al., 2013). conversely, niño (2014) found higher ebf rates than the duration proposed by national and regional governmental intervention programs in colombia. given the inconsistency of the existing literature and considering breastfeeding and eating behaviors carlos rincón et al. 80 as a multidimensional construct determined by socio-emotional, cultural and economic factors (behar et al., 2018; decosta et al., 2017; llewellyn et al., 2011; mallan, daniels, et al., 2014; sparks & radnitz, 2012; wardle et al., 2001), more research is needed to address the debate about breastfeeding duration and eating behaviors in different contexts like colombia. consequently, using a sample of 175 caregivers who are served by childcare centers of the colombian caribbean region, the current retrospective cross-sectional study aimed to analyze the association between breastfeeding duration and eating behaviors of colombian children ranging between 24 and 59 months old. in addressing this objective, the study will make a key contribution to the literature by providing a detailed understanding of the similarities and differences in the breastfeeding practices of colombian low-income families from a cultural-responsive perspective. method sample data come from a dissertation study, entitled feeding practices of families with preschoolers in colombia and usa: a cross-cultural multiple case study (escalante, 2016). the study was approved by the i rb from university of nebraska-lincoln (u.s.). the subjects of this current retrospective cross-sectional study were 175 colombian caregivers of children ranging between 24 and 59 months old (m=47.08, sd=7.08) enrolled in childcare centers located in the caribbean region. 58% of the children were male, and all of them belonged to low-income families. breastfeeding duration ranged between children’s 0 to 37 months old (m=10.84, sd=8.48); 64 of them had exclusive breastfeeding for during their first 6 months (i.e., no fed with bottle). measures breastfeeding duration. caregivers were asked to fill a demographic questionnaire that included retrospective questions to report whether the children were breastfed, its duration, and the age at which they were bottle-fed (escalante barrios, 2016). eating behaviors. data was collected using the child eating behaviors questionnaire (cebq) (wardle et al., 2001), which was completed by parents. specifically, two scales of the cebq (wardle et al., 2001) were used: food responsiveness and satiety responsiveness. validation evidences of data collected with this instrument in the caribbean region showed close model fit of the factor satiety responsiveness (χ2(5)=12.334, p=.0305; cfi=.956; srmr=.037) and a good model-data fit of the factor responsiveness to food (χ2(4)=5.107, p=.2765; cfi=.997; srmr=.019) (escalante barrios, 2016). body mass index (bmi). information about children’s size and weight was reported by nutritionist and/or nurses who worked at the health services of the childcare centers (escalante barrios, 2016). bmi and nutritional status (underweight, normal range, overweight, obese) were estimated using who child growth standards conventions (world health organization, 2011). data analysis plan regression analysis was conducted in order to test the hypothesis of whether breastfeeding duration predicts eating behavior (food responsiveness, satiety responsiveness) and bmi, after controlling for children’s age and gender. the shapiro-wilk hypothesis of normal distribution failed to be rejected for eating behavior variables at 0.01 level of significance; while it was rejected for bmi. therefore, bmi was dichotomized such as the subjects were classified as healthy if nutritional status was normal range for the child, and unhealthy otherwise (underweight, overweight or obese) and logistic regression was conducted on this data. food responsiveness and satiety responsiveness were treated as normal, and thus multiple linear regression was used to model the data. there was no missing data for any of the dependent variables, age, and gender; while breastfeeding duration had 7.4% of missing values. these cases were not included in the models. the analysis was conducted using spss 21 (ibm corp, 2012). colombian retrospective study of the association between breastfeeding… 81 results table 1 shows the descriptives of children’s eating behaviors scales as well as their correlation with breastfeeding duration. as can be seeing, the correlation coefficients are low, and statistically not different from zero, for both food responsiveness (r=-.092, p=.242) and satiety responsiveness (r=.051, p=.519). likewise, the table reports the duration of breastfeeding for those children who were encountered to be healthy (m=10.6, sd=7.67) to be close to those found to be unhealthy (m=11.1, sd=9.42), on average. it is expected, then that the models report similar results. table i children’s eating behaviors dependent variables m sd min max r with breastfeeding duration food responsiveness 2.95 .38 2.11 4.14 -0.092, p=0.242, n=162 satiety responsiveness 3.48 .44 2.30 4.60 0.051, p=0.519, n=162 healthyc 0.56 (56%) 0.50 --healthy m=10.60, sd=7.64, n=162 unhealthy m=11.12, sd=9.42, n=162 table ii regression results dependent variable type of analysis constant (s.e.) breastfeeding duration (s.e.) age (s.e.) gender (s.e.) r2 food responsivenes s linear reg. β=2.797 (0.205), p=0.000 β=-0.004 (0.004), p=0.219 β=0.004 (0.004), p=0.946 β=0.056 (0.060), p=0.354 r2=0.02, f(3,161)=1.081, p=0.359 satiety responsivenes s linear reg. β=3.243 (0.236), p=0.000 β=0.002 (0.004), p=0.548 β=0.003 (0.005), p=0.489 β=0.040 (0.070), p=0.561 r2=0.008, f(3,161)=0.428, p=0.733 healthy logistic reg. β=3.158 (1.216), p=0.009, exp(β)=23.5 β=-0.10 (0.19), p=0.616, exp(β)=0.990 β=-0.052 (0.024), p=0.032, exp(β)=0.949 β=-0.89 (0.335), p=0.008, exp(β)=0.411 table 2 shows the results of the different regression analysis conducted on the data. as can be seen, the variables, as a whole, only explain a small proportion of the dependent variance. in the multiple linear regressions, the r2 was very low. the variance of food responsiveness explained by the model was 2% (r2=.02, f(3,161)=1.081, p=.359). breastfeeding duration did not significantly predict food responsiveness (β=-.004, p=.219), as well as age (β=.004, p=.346) and gender (β=.056, p=.354) did not significantly explain the dependent variable. likewise, satiety responsiveness variance was not explained by duration of breastfeeding (β=.002, p=.548), age (β=.003, p=.489), and gender (β=.040, p=.561). overall, the explained variance was less than 1% (r2=.008, f(3,161)=.428, p=.733). breastfeeding duration did not significantly change the child’s likelihood of being unhealthy (β=-.010, p=.616), while being male and getting older increased the odds of being healthy. that is, for an increase of 1 month in the child’s age, the odds of being healthy are expected to change by a factor of .949, holding all other variables constant. while being male increases the odds of being healthy by a factor of .411, holding all other variables constant. carlos rincón et al. 82 conclusion and discussion the current retrospective cross-sectional study assessed the association between breastfeeding duration and eating behaviors of colombian children ranging between 24 and 59 months old, using a sample of 175 caregivers who are served by childcare centers of the colombian caribbean region. our findings revealed that only 56% of children showed normal range of nutritional status, while the rest of children were identified as underweight, overweight or obese (world health organization, 2011). the high percentage of low-income preschool children that showed unhealthy weight suggest awareness of the efficiency and quality of the nutrition services provided by ece centers in the colombian caribbean region. consequently, it is important to design and implement pertinent and relevant nutrition intervention programs with the purpose to address this public health problem. for this purpose, causal inferences might be necessary to identify children at risk for unhealthy nutritional status and provide targeted nutrition services based on their specific needs. we hypothesized that breastfeeding duration may be associated with nutritional status (falcão et al., 1991; fiese et al., 2019; rogers & blissett, 2016). however, our findings showed that breastfeeding duration does not significantly change the child’s likelihood of being unhealthy in this sample. in this regard, the study would need to be replicated in order to confirm this finding given the retrospective nature of the study in which the caregiver recall data method could generate bias (world health organization, 2013). most of the children who participated in the study were 47 months old and the majority of them were reported by the caregivers as breastfeed until ten months old. moreover, only 36% of children were exclusively breastfeed for six months. consequently, the length of the recall was 37 months approximately, which could have an influence on the misclassification of the breastfeeding duration. after an elapsed time, higher than 24 months, caregivers may tend to report the desired duration rather than what was practiced (world health organization, 2013). then if this were the case, the study would show a lower desired breastfeeding duration than the duration -six months for exclusive breastfeeding and 2 years for continued breastfeeding combined with solidsproposed by national governmental guidelines from colombia and/or international organizations like who (niño, 2014; world health organization, 2013). furthermore, we found no evidence that breastfeeding duration was associated with eating behaviors in the colombian context. specifically, our results showed that breastfeeding duration did not significantly predict neither food responsiveness nor satiety responsiveness. this finding is consistent with the results reported by hathcock and colleagues (2014) who found a lack of association between satiety responsiveness and breastfeeding. notwithstanding that many studies have shown an association between breastfeeding and eating behaviors (borkhoff et al., 2018; brown & lee, 2015; hathcock et al., 2014; li et al., 2014; mallan, nambiar, et al., 2014), caregivers recall bias in breastfeeding duration may lead to underestimate the measure of potential association (world health organization, 2013). therefore, recall bias may tend to decrease the likelihood of reporting significant associations between breastfeeding duration and other variables in research studies (world health organization, 2013). in terms of eating behaviors, perceptions of caregivers may play an important role to explain the current results. despite only 44% of children showed unhealthy nutritional status (world health organization, 2011), caregivers perceived that their children often show the ability to reduce the food intake at a mealtime in relation to their internal cues (medium-high satiety responsiveness). in fact, caregivers also considered that their children sometimes showed the tendency to eat in response to food cues in standard conditions (medium food responsiveness). further in-depth exploration would contribute to examine if the current findings may be influenced by social desirability of the colombian contexts and understand the perceptions of low-income caregivers regarding their children’s eating behaviors and the nutritional status in this geographical region. moreover, gender and age may be key factors for the prevention of unhealthy weight in low-income population living in the colombian caribbean region. our findings revealed that being male and older increased the odds of being healthy in the early years. consequently, an increase of one month in the child’s age, the odds of being healthy are expected to change by a factor of .949, holding all other variables colombian retrospective study of the association between breastfeeding… 83 constant. while being male increases the odds of being healthy by a factor of .411, holding all other variables constant. from this perspective, young girls would need to be closely monitored by ece centers and families. moreover, nutrition intervention programs targeting female preschool population may be beneficial to improve the nutritional status of children living in this geographical region. moreover, the current study provides a unique contribution to expand the literature on the breastfeeding duration and eating behaviors in latino populations, especially for latinos living in colombia. though, there were several limitations in the present study that would need to be addressed in future studies. first, given the cross-sectional nature of the study, the possibilities to explore causal effect among variables were limited. second, the retrospective nature of the study and the maternal recall method data could generate bias. on the other hand, the current study may illuminate the selection of measures and methods of data collection (e.g. accrual method) for future studies about this topic in order to improve the quality of the data and the reliability of analysis (world health organization, 2011). third, the sample was no probabilistic and relatively smaller and less homogenous than the samples used in research studies conducted in other countries such as netherlands (derks et al., 2018), united kingdom (brown & lee, 2015) and even in hispanic nations (falcão et al., 1991; reyes et al., 2014; world health organization, 2012). this methodological issue may lead to inconsistent results and may limit the generalization of the results. finally, similar studies conducted in colombia and other countries have explored multiple socioeconomic variables (e.g., work, government policies) that were not considered in this study (abouelwafa & el-gilany, 2019; benjumea et al., 2011; cabrera et al., 2004; caleyachetty et al., 2013; mateus, 2012; muchacha & mtetwa, 2014; rodríguez-garcía & acosta-ramírez, 2008). thus, future studies would need to address these limitations in order to provide a wider and holistic picture of the association between breastfeeding duration and preschoolers’ eating behaviors in low-income latino populations living in their country of origin. declarations acknowledgements: contributions of sergi fàbregues, department of psychology and education, universitat oberta de catalunya (spain), are acknowledged. authors’ contributions: r., c: literature review, methods, conclusion and discussion, editing e., e: literature review, design of the study, methods, conclusion and discussion, editing, funding, project management s., s: methods, data cleaning, results, conclusion and discussion e., j: methods, data cleaning, results a., m: literature review, editing h., a: literature review competing interests: the authors declare that they have no competing interests. funding: data come from the dissertation study entitled feeding practices of families with preschoolers in colombia and usa: a cross-cultural multiple case study (escalante barrios, 2016). the study was funded by a patrice l. engle dissertation grant for global early child development from society for research in child development (srcd) and newman dissertation/thesis research travel fund from the university of nebraska – lincoln references abou-elwafa, h. s., & el-gilany, a.-h. 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(2013). long-term health effects of breastfeeding. in world health organization library cataloguing in publication data (vol. 129, issues 8–9). retrieved from https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/79198 yan, j., liu, l., zhu, y., huang, g., & wang, p. p. (2014). the association between breastfeeding and childhood obesity: a metaanalysis. bmc public health, 14(1267), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-14-1267 colombian retrospective study of the association between breastfeeding duration and eating behaviors data come from a dissertation study, entitled feeding practices of families with preschoolers in colombia and usa: a cross-cultural multiple case study (escalante, 2016). the study was approved by the i rb from university of nebraska-lincoln (u.s.). t... journal of childhood, education & society volume 4, issue 1, 2023, 41-55 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.202341233 research article ©2023 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. re-defining silence in unvoiced dialogues in storying-play: the sound of affects alison m.-c. li1, janet s. gaffney2, adrienne n. sansom3, jacoba matapo4 abstract: this article chronicles three stories selected from a post-intentional phenomenological study conducted by the first author. the authors aim to investigate affective connections in children’s silent play by addressing three research questions: (a) how do children engage in dialogue with the teacher, their peers, and the material environment without words? (b) what emotions are produced in silent play? and (c) what changes in children’s affective connections occur through silence? we drew on the notion of intentionality in post-intentional phenomenology to illuminate meanings of the phenomenon for individuals about what they felt and experienced. with a focus on intentionality, we delved into the ways children meaningfully communicated with others and connected to the environment in their unspeaking moments. we also took on a posthuman notion of intra-actions to rethink silence as an inaudible yet sensible sound communicated between children and things. the prior studies showed that children’s silence was a mode of expression. through storying the silent play-stories, we offered two alternative meanings of silence––intra-active communication with people and things and inaudible inner wellbeing, in addition to a mode of nonverbal expression as identified in prior studies. the findings are significant in enriching and renewing our understanding of children’s silence in inclusive ece environments. silence is re-defined as a mode of embodied communication and affective connections. this article invites researchers and educators to genuinely “listen” to children’s stories, even in silent play. article history received: 24 august 2022 accepted: 02 january 2023 keywords silence; affects; storying; play; early childhood education introduction “do feelings have a sound? even silence has a sound” (shallcrass, 2020, p. 12). this children’s book excerpt serves as the entryway for the story of this research. the silence of unspeaking children is inequitably viewed as problematic: absence of speech and meaning, communication disorder, or resistance to engage (martín-bylund, 2018; wohlwend, 2009). educators who read silence as empty of knowledge might menace children’s learning by moving them “from a state of emptiness to a state of fullness by reformulation and amplification” (clay, 1985, p. 35). the perception of quiet children is connected to system inequalities that privilege speakability (watson, 2020). silence has been a subject of research in numerous fields. some researchers construed students’ use of silence as strategies for learning (e.g., bligh, 2014; shi & tan, 2020) and challenged the silencing of children’s voices in classroom practices (yoon & templeton, 2019) and research landscapes (e.g., artiles et al., 2016; mazzei, 2003), giving voice to unspeaking children from a rights-based position. silence is not “a void to be filled, a wound to be healed, a flaw to be repaired” (greene, 1993, p. 14). quiet children do not necessarily have “less language” nor are “emptier of language” (cazden, 1970, p. 35) than their peers. rather, their silence is a possibility for learning, not an absence (poland & pederson, 1998). their silence is a mode of nonverbal expression _____________ 1 waipapa taumata rau|university of auckland, te kura akoranga me te tauwhiro tangata|faculty of education and social work, tāmaki makaurau |auckland, aotearoa new zealand, e-mail: alison.li@auckland.ac.nz, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3174-2571 2 waipapa taumata rau | university of auckland, te kura akoranga me te tauwhiro tangata | faculty of education and social work, tāmaki makaurau |auckland, aotearoa new zealand, e-mail: janet.gaffney@auckland.ac.nz, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0782-2093 3 waipapa taumata rau|university of auckland, te kura akoranga me te tauwhiro tangata|faculty of education and social work, tāmaki makaurau |auckland, aotearoa new zealand, e-mail: a.sansom@auckland.ac.nz, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0668-2191 4 te wānanga aronui o tāmaki makau rau|auckland university of technology, school of education, tāmaki makaurau |auckland, aotearoa new zealand, e-mail: jacoba.matapo@aut.ac.nz, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4615-0509 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202341233 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:alison.li@auckland.ac.nz https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3174-2571 mailto:janet.gaffney@auckland.ac.nz https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0782-2093 mailto:a.sansom@auckland.ac.nz https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0668-2191 mailto:jacoba.matapo@aut.ac.nz https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4615-0509 alison m.-c. li et al. 42 (wormald et al., 2012) and a strategic response to learning (shi & tan, 2020). research on children’s silence in early childhood education (ece) settings has been emerging, albeit scant. in a bilingual (spanish-swedish) ece setting in sweden, martín-bylund (2018) examined lina’s mute response to her teachers who were serving porridge and water. in front of a plate of porridge and an empty glass, lina was not eating. the teachers intermittently asked if she wanted water. lina responded differently to the spanish-speaking and swedish-speaking teachers. the swedish-speaking teacher interpreted her silence as lacking language competence and disregarded what lina needed. the spanishspeaking teacher, contrarily, recognised lina’s nodding and head-shaking as communicative responses and continued interacting with her. the teacher noticed lina’s concentration on the water movement from pitcher to glass and thus supported her water pouring with prompts. the author analysed silence in three dimensions: communication, strategy, and intensity. lina used nonverbal communication to express her wants. her response was interpreted as an avoidance strategy (e.g., avoiding being evaluated on speaking the wrong language or being forced to drink water). intensity was considered to note the aspects of the environment that were sufficiently powerful to draw lina’s silent concentration; for example, the smell of porridge or the absence of water in the glass. martín-bylund’s study influenced our analysis of silence to shift from deciphering individuals’ intentions to exploring possibilities from the interconnected collective, including the environment, using a posthuman approach. her study also added to the sophistication of our investigation through the deeper analysis of multiple aspects of silence (i.e., communication and connections with the environment). in an australian ethnographic study conducted in three inclusive classrooms, watson (2018) used foucauldian discourse analysis to examine exclusive experiences illustrated in two stories of silence. in one story, children and parents quietly moved through a situation where a child, othered by medical discourse (“the child”), was crying to resist entering the building. in another story, children named everyone they saw in a picture except the child to avoid divulging their perceptions of difference. their silence was presented in long pauses, uneasy body movements, squirming in seats, and many “ummm’s”. watson’s analysis revealed “othering” effects and inspired us to notice silent moments performed by those who engaged with the othered children. these two studies primed our analysis of interactions between children and people who were verbal-yet-unspeaking, as well as possible connections with things that matter in the silent moments. humans and things can exercise their agency to communicate in inaudible modes, highlighting that silence is relational and transformative. children’s feelings and capacities to make changes that were manifested in silence, however, were of less interest in these prior studies, leading us to focus on the affective aspect of wordless play. in an empirical study of children’s storying conducted by the first author (li, 2022), silence was a significant manifestation across the stories shared during play. in this article, the authors selected three stories to illustrate the phenomenon of silence and affective nature of children’s storying. we wondered about the affective connections in children’s silent play and pursued the following research questions: • how do children engage in dialogue with the teacher, their peers, and the material environment without words? • what emotions are produced in silent play? • what changes in children’s affective connections occur through silence? the inquiry draws on the post-intentional phenomenological, posthuman, and strengths-based perspectives to examine children’s silent stories. with these perspectives, we delved into the ways children meaningfully communicated and connected with others and the environment in their unspeaking moments. thinking of silence through the posthuman notion of intra-actions opened our noticing to the inaudible yet reasonable communication between children and things. by illustrating the three stories, we disrupt the inequitable understanding of children’s silence. we accentuate children as communicative and affective beings. by probing affective connectedness, we offer two alternative meanings of silence––as intra-active communication with people and things and as inaudible inner wellbeing, in addition to a mode re-defining silence in unvoiced dialogues in storying-play:… 43 of one-side, nonverbal expression as identified in prior studies. the findings are significant to enrich and renew our understanding of children’s silence in inclusive ece environments. theoretical framing storying is a phenomenon of children’s everyday experiences in living and imaginary worlds. postintentional phenomenology (vagle, 2018), a variation, was adopted as a philosophical perspective and methodological approach to examine children’s storying experiences. husserl’s (1913/1963) descriptive paradigm on the essence of phenomena and heidegger’s (1927/1962) interpretative understanding of lived experiences as phenomena focus on what things are. post-intentional phenomenology, focusing on how things connect, is used to study the connectedness around the manifestation, in this case, the silence. from a post-intentional perspective, things are interconnected in unstable, changing, and fleeting ways. silence, in this sense, is conceptualised as continually fluid, shape-shifting assemblages interacting with the world, rather than a stable essence. this perspective aligns with posthuman thinking in which children’s sense-making develops through relationships of different bodies and in ongoing intra-actions with the material environment (somerville, 2020). intra-actions, a concept introduced by barad (2003), refer to co-constitutive relations between humans and nonhumans. humans and nonhumans (e.g., materials, ethos, contexts) are intraacting bodies, which are constantly exchanging and diffracting, influencing and engaged in co-agentic ties with the world. the agency of silence is not only human-centric; things also have the capacity to “speak” to and through humans. in post-intentional and posthuman senses, we attempted to notice “unfinished configurations of places, times, matters, meanings” (haraway, 2016, p. 1) by engaging with “messy, difficult, and ethically complicated matters that merge” (murphy, 2020, p. 27) and exposing possibilities that are “hidden as an absent presence” (nxumalo et al., 2018, p. 443). we aimed to craft the connectedness between children and their storied worlds with us as researchers in the process of becoming and living. we also used notions of embodiment and affects to examine children’s silence during storying-play. children’s silent play is conceptualised as a way of embodied storying situated in intra-actions with themselves, their peers, teachers, and environments. the wordless intra-actions were conceived as silent dialogues that encompass reciprocal listening and responding. we took a strengths-based stance to understand silence. we affirmed the capacities of different silent storying bodies (i.e., children, peers, teachers, and things) regarding what they are able to do, be, and become, thus recognising them as agents in their daily lives (wehmeyer & kurth, 2021). we also acknowledged children’s active, silent engagement and communication in their day-to-day experiences. the authors aim to renew the meaning of silence as strength, noticing children’s capabilities and capacities in affective connections. the affective nature of silence was highlighted through children’s embodied storying and play. listening to silence from a strengths-based perspective allowed us to hear the sound of joyful resonance and to understand children differently. the wordless intra-actions were conceived as silent dialogues, highlighting reciprocity and communication. conceptualising the notions of affects and embodiment the terms “affects”, “feelings”, “emotions”, and “sensations” are often used interchangeably, although differentiated by others. affect, as a verb, means to influence someone or something emotionally. as a noun, affect refers not only to feelings that are overtly expressed in communicative contexts (du bois & kärkkäinen, 2012) but also capacities that change thoughts and actions of self and others. in deleuze and guattari’s (1987) words, the capacities to affect and be affected are the influence bodies have upon other bodies and evoked from memory, experience, thought, and habit (massumi, 2002). the adjective, affective, describes something that evokes emotions or feeling-driven actions. affects are inherent in the notion of embodiment in post-intentional phenomenology. humans connect with the more-than-human world through gestures and movements to dynamically unfold meaningful actions (goodwin, 2015) and to understand emotional experiences of selves and others (merleau-ponty, 1945/2012; vagle, 2018). more-thanhuman (abram, 1996) is a posthuman term used to convey that more is happening beyond the human social realm (murphy, 2020). children communicate in various rhythmic and embodied ways of thinking and alison m.-c. li et al. 44 feeling that extend beyond words (alcock, 2016). for example, children follow soothing music and slowly put their heads on cushions to denote falling asleep or show emotional intimacy by hugging others. silence is more than heard; its presence is sensed through bodies. in an aotearoa new zealand study, bateman (2020) examined children’s displays of emotion through their everyday stories. humour, sadness, and disgust were affects identified in the children’s verbal telling and the recipients’ multimodal responses such as voice prosody, physical positioning, pauses, gaze, and facial expressions. the examination of multimodal ways of expression offered insights to probe children’s affects in silent dialogue in our study. children’s affects circulate and influence day-to-day intra-actions. affects pass from body to body and the resonance flows between bodies and the more-than-human world (seigworth & gregg, 2010). for instance, when a child is sobbing, another child gives a warm hug and talks calmly, and the tissue paper supports the comforting child in wiping the tears. the tissue paper becoming overly wet is a caring reminder to use a new piece. the sobbing child feels the empathetic affects and returns a hug and smile to another. the empathy spreads among the children and tissue paper. affects are essential in determining relationships between bodies and the experiences of what bodies feel and think. the posthuman notions of intra-actions, embodiments, and affects frame what and how we read silence; leading us to focus on children’s inextricable connectedness with their surrounding world and the affective experiences that might influence their relationships. listening to silence in everyday storying children’s affects are embodied in silence, which can be heard in their everyday storying. everyday storying is the real-time authentic action of crafting, making meaning of, and expressing experiences (bruner, 1990; engel, 2005) and imaginations (engel, 2013; paley, 2004). children’s storying occurs anywhere, any time when they encounter, fantasise, say, act, and create something, alone or with others. everyday stories, the chronicles of storying acts, are situated in playing, conversations, and visual creations. in this article, we focused on storying-play, a combined term used to highlight play as one form of children’s everyday storying and interconnected relationships. play is a natural storying space for children to make sense of their worlds and explore relationships, thus shaping who they are and who they will become. we adopted the notion of storying-play as a non-intrusive way to explore and listen to children’s voices (in silence) in their everyday worlds. methodology this article illustrates three stories drawn from a larger post-intentional phenomenological study of children’s everyday storying. the study was conducted in four inclusive ece settings: two kindergartens in aotearoa new zealand (nz) and two classrooms in one kindergarten in hong kong (hk). the first author had practical experience in both geographic contexts and all authors’ had combinations of teaching and research background in inclusive education with young children. the authors come from various cultural, professional, and research backgrounds, including literacies learning and leading, arts-based practice, dance and drama in the early years, indigenous philosophy, and early childhood inclusion, inform the research process collectively and critically. together, our diverse mix of voices lead to rich, multifaceted interpretations of the silent stories. the four settings adopted play-based learning, which represented a crucial part of the storying space, and shared a stance on embracing diversity, especially relative to varied abilities and cultural and linguistic backgrounds. the first author engaged with children (n=64), educators (n=13), parents (n=12), and the environment for 4–6 hours per day for approximately 10–12 days over 4–5 consecutive weeks in each setting. the research process followed the university’s ethics guidelines by ensuring voluntary participation with children’s assent and informed consent given by parents (for children) and teachers. pseudonyms are used for all settings, children, and teachers. we followed dahlberg and moss’ (2005) ethical thinking in the research process. we adopted a relational data-collection process by engaging with children, educators, and the environment in conversations and playing. we were sensitive in gathering storying moments by following the children’s lead. for instance, when the children stated something like “don’t look” or avoided being followed, the researcher would stop recording; when the children extended invitations like “come, join us, “follow me”, or “can you video me doing that?”, the re-defining silence in unvoiced dialogues in storying-play:… 45 researcher would engage in their storying as a partner. children were involved in the research process as active storying-players and meaning-makers. we positioned ourselves as learners by following our participants’ lead to understand and acknowledge what was previously masked by cultural and linguistic bias (arya, 2021). with a post-intentional phenomenological approach, we did not start with focal children to follow their lived experiences in silence. simply put, we did not search for causation––to identify factors that caused children to be silent. rather, we probed the affective entanglements within the intra-actions among children, educators, and things in the silent play, opening up possibilities that could produce or could be produced by silence. children’s everyday stories—the happenings relative to children’s doing, saying, experiencing, imagining, and creating in their daily lives—were identified through observations and interactions and documented in audio and video recordings, fieldnotes, and photographs. a total of 297 stories were gathered. although often short and fragmented, each story consisted of events (settings and plots) and their flow of events that are related to or carried out by the actants––protagonist(s) and things in “rich multispecies assemblages” (haraway, 2015, p. 160). aligned with the posthuman sense, things carried agentic roles in storying. when either events or actants changed, the story was counted complete, and perhaps another story started. each dataset also included views about children’s storying that were shared in group informal interviews with teachers (one per setting) and intermittent, informal conversations with teachers and parents. of the 297 stories, one-third were categorised as storying-play, meaning that stories were identified when children engaged, alone or with others, in exploratory, physical, fantasy, constructive, language play and rule-performed games. thirteen play-stories were signified as “sustained silence”, denoting that the protagonist was unspeaking throughout the story. we selected three stories to illuminate the affective connections in children’s silent dialogues during play, using an inductive approach to data analysis. the three stories shared the assemblages 1 of sustained silence throughout the whole story, silence performed by all intra-acting bodies, all verbal but unspeaking, and back-and-forth communications; and individually illustrated the dialogic intra-actions in the form of silence with educators (story 1), peers (story 2), and things (story 3). post-intentional phenomenological analysis with posthuman thinking did not involve fixed step-bystep procedures. we did not precisely identify procedures in advance. rather, we were mindful of our languaging that was woven throughout the analysis to reflect the inherent research design based on the post-intentional frame. we brought our careful reading of phenomenological materials (i.e., datasets) into dynamic dialogues with theoretical concepts and reflexive engagement to craft children’s storying experiences. drawing on this analytic approach, we as researchers regard “dynamic intentional relationships that tie participants, the researcher, the context, broader social issues and matters, the produced text and their positionalities together” (vagle, 2018, p. 32). our engagements in the silent dialogues became part of the phenomenon. hence, our roles and relationships morphed in gathering and interpreting the observational data and the writing of intra-active entanglements. these dynamics shaped our observation and interpretation, offering a possible manifold out of infinite dimensions of understanding silence. stories 1–3 incorporated our continual reflexive engagements with the data, which were reflected in story analyses. the reflexive engagements involved documenting, wondering about, and questioning our connections, assumptions, and unexpected moments. to honour the fluid and everchanging nature of understanding a phenomenon, we tentativised our noticing and interpreting throughout the article. we thought with the posthuman notion throughout the analysis to highlight the relational entanglements within the intra-actions among children, eductor, and things in the silent play. story 1 exemplifies the silent engagements between a quiet child and her teacher. story 2 demonstrates wordless interactions between an emergent bilingual and a verbal peer. story 3 highlights the inaudible dialogue between an unspeaking child and his nonhuman storying partners. silence was produced not only by the protagonists but also their peer and teacher, although all were verbally competent. the silent storying-play _____________ 1 the concept of assemblage developed by delueze and guattari (1987) refers to a process of temporary arrangements or constellations of objects, expressions, bodies, qualities and territories that create new ways of functioning. alison m.-c. li et al. 46 ranged from 10-20 minutes in length. we adopted an inductive analytical process, commencing with observations of specific storying instances with silence and then moving from affective experiences to general sets of propositions about those experiences. the following sections depict the setting, protagonist and intra-acting bodies, and the three stories of silence. each story concludes with an analysis that describes the meanings of silence, children’s affects in silent play, and the influence of silence has on the children and other bodies. story 1: child–teacher dialogues stories 1 and 2 take place in kākābeak kindergarten located in an eastern suburb in auckland, nz. approximately 20 children aged 2-5 come to kākābeak daily from 8:45 a.m. 2:45 p.m. except for the mat and meal times, children are engaged in free play consistent with te whāriki (ministry of education, 2017), nz’s early childhood curriculum. qian, an emergent bilingual, is a taiwanese girl who speaks mandarin chinese at home and has attended kākābeak for two months. she understands but seldom speaks english. the teachers describe qian as happy and quiet, always laughing but not talking. instead of joining in social play, qian briefly observes from the side-lines and then moves to watch other groups playing. story 1 starts with qian’s invitational gaze and brooke (the teacher) ’s affirming response. in the morning, qian wanders around kākābeak, searching for exciting things to do. at approximately a twometre distance, qian stares at brooke, who sits on the sandpit edge watching children play. brooke amiably responds to qian’s stare, “what a nice walk under the sunshine, isn’t it, qian?” their silent dialogues begin: qian stops sucking her thumb, halts in front of brooke, and returns with a shy smile. qian taps her fingers on both hands like clapping, and brooke follows. qian keeps doing the finger-tapping with different rhythms, and brooke mirrors her. in every mirroring turn, qian moves closer to brooke and her smile becomes bigger. this story tentatively “ends” with qian and brooke having several high-five claps accompanied by qian’s chuckle. intertwined affects in silence affect is housed within embodied sequences of action (goodwin, 2000). a mix of affects–– uneasiness, wondering, excitement––might have been portrayed as embodied in qian’s gazing, smiling, tapping, and approaching to engage with brooke. in her wandering, qian hovered around the sandpit and appeared to want to connect with someone. her thumb-sucking unmasked her discomfort of not knowing whom and how to join. thumb-sucking was qian’s everyday action, which might signal her insecurity in the new environment. the moment qian connected with brooke seemed to be a turning point for qian to stop thumb-sucking for self-soothing. amid her unease, qian showed a desire to connect with brooke. despite the distance, qian’s intense stare served like an invitation for brooke to play together. in our observation, the silence in the form of gaze can speak; qian’s eye contact involved “talking” to the teacher without words and her inner self-talk. we read qian’s gaze as if she asked, “can we play together, brooke?” and said to herself, “i hope brooke can play with me… should i go to her?”. qian’s wondering emotion was conveyed, to us as reserachers, in her gaze-talk. brooke noticed qian reaching out to her and responded with a warm greeting as an acceptance of the play invitation. the kick-off of the storying-play marked an affective change in qian, as a smile replaced her often inexpressive face. the variations in tempos and rhythms of finger-tapping possibly showcased qian’s playfulness as her delight increased with each finger-tapping turn. attuned and responsive interactions without words can be vibrant, like oral communications (delafield-butt et al., 2020). brooke did not know qian’s home language. neither did she initiate verbal dialogue in english. rather, brooke engaged with qian in mimicry, following qian’s flow of storying-play. at each turn, qian first looked at brooke as a signal to start her idea, initiated the fingers-tapping with a slight variation, and rewarded brooke’s engagement with a smile. brooke mimicked qian’s friendly gaze, funny finger-tapping, and beaming smile as the sequence of connected responses. gibbs (2010) termed mirroring actions “mimetic communication”, also known as mimesis. the joyful interactions between qian and brooke were a form of mimesis, like back-and-forth conversations that served as a hinge between communication (a way of interchanging meanings) and language (codes to transfer meanings). re-defining silence in unvoiced dialogues in storying-play:… 47 silence as a carrier and generator of affects unlike mechanical copying, bodily mimicking (of gazes, smiles, gestures, and movements using body parts) encompasses the aspect of affect. the mimicking activates what gibbs (2010) described as the mimetic impulse of listeners-in-dialogues, eliciting the same affect within the listeners. finger-tapping mimicry perhaps created a pleasurable sensation for both qian and brooke. the reciprocal interactions likely facilitated qian’s positive shift from discomfort to excitement. her happiness seemed to be transmitted to brooke. as brooke indicated, she cherished the opportunity to get closer to qian in the silent play. joy circulated between them in this brief quiet episode that was full of meaning. this moment of silent dialogue might have created several breakthroughs. for qian, her silence was heard and valued. a sense of belonging was seeded, evidenced by the cessation of thumb-sucking. their mutual bond was strengthened in this brief, unanticipated, and precious interaction. brooke noted that this was the first time she had closely interacted with only qian. in the subsequent weeks, qian initiated other interactions with brooke, giggling together as they acted silly or made funny faces and proudly showing her achievements such as solved jigsaw puzzles. qian extended this possibility to building peer relations. a week later, qian became a friend of several children who always played together. she used her humour as she did with brooke to get acquainted with her peers. laughter could often be heard within the group. laughing together and entertaining others are ways that children get to know the funny side of situations and their peers, adding to their sense of belonging and leading to closer friendships. story 2: child–peer dialogues story 2 involves two protagonists. stella speaks mainly cambodian and sometimes english. stella is relatively new (2 months) at kākābeak. her teachers described stella as a cheerful and chatty girl, although people barely comprehend her one-beat-long vocalisations. jay is a pākehā/european new zealand boy who is verbal with a soft voice and often engages independently in block-play. while jay is playing alone with a big toy fire-engine, stella sits beside him, watching jay play. their unspoken dialogue transitions into their joint play: stella utters “ah?” with her hand moving from low to high. jay extends the tower ladder of the fire-engine. stella moves her hand much higher, vocalising like “ai?”, jay extends the ladder even taller, vertically, and tilts his head to seek stella’s affirmation. stella returns with a smile. next, stella gently shouts “ah?”. jay looks back at the fire-engine and turns on the siren light. stella laughs. then she moves her hand horizontally in the air, vocalising like “woo!”. jay pushes the fire-engine forward. stella does a hooray hands-up. the story pauses at the sound of the hand-bell ringing to signal mat-time. multisensory pleasure in silence stella sitting close to jay seemed to be a way to immerse herself into the fire-engine story, respectfully indicating her presence without interrupting. her quiet observation might reveal her desire for fun by playing with the fire-engine with jay. their series of actions were like dialogues, not in words but composed of hand movements (e.g., stretching the arm up to indicate “extending the ladder higher”, moving the hand horizontally to signal “moving the fire-engine forward”) and object manipulations (e.g., lifting the ladder, turning on the siren light). the silent dialogues also encompassed facial expressions (e.g., smile, laugh), gazing (e.g., at the teller, at the movement), and gestures (e.g., head tilting, leaning forward). these multimodal features in actions seemingly carried universal meaning, as du bois and kärkkaäinen (2012) termed the “indexical cues for affect” (p. 435). more importantly, these cues indicated relationships, engagements, and interactions––the affective connections that need to be acknowledged. one conceivable sentiment that stella and jay might have shared in their silent dialogues in actions is pleasure. despite the language challenges, stella endeavoured to vocalise her limited language together with hand movements to possibly make her expressions decipherable. from an assertive lens, we recognised stella’s leading the story plots by suggesting play ideas (e.g., elevating the ladder, activating the siren) using various communicative modes. the dynamic flow of the collaborative storying with jay seemed to amuse stella, based on her smiles and continuous play initiations. jay’s communicative alison m.-c. li et al. 48 sensitivity meaningfully contributed to their story. jay, who was verbal, joined the dialogue with silence alongside stella. whenever stella initiated a play idea, jay disregarded the possible frustration of not comprehending stella’s messages. rather, jay closely “listened” by intently looking at stella’s nonverbal expressions and carefully responded by operating visual effects and subsequent movements to attune to the mimed story. jay’s silent way of engaging with stella in play can be taken as an indexical cue for affect, possibly conveying a pleasure to portray himself as a responsive fire-engine operator, to communicate in a common (embodied) language, and to collectively contribute to the richness of the storying-play with stella. silence as a catalyst for building peer relationships the story was originally two separate self-exploratory play episodes: stella searching for an interesting activity to join and jay investigating the fire-engine’s functions. in a posthuman sense, the sensorial experiences created by the fire-engine and jay gathered them together with stella for evolving another co-storying moment. the strengths-based lens prompted us to see the acts of kindness that transfused through silent dialogues by stella (respectful presence) and jay (sensitive noticing and responding in actions), making their storied world a more belonging place. their kind acts boosted their affinity as playmates, authoring and contributing to the storying-play. the collective storying might have intensified the children’s sensational satisfaction, making this play more entertaining with multisensory effects of light and motion. given their mindful use of silence, we read that both children recognised each other’s presence, noticed mutual capabilities and contributions, and responded with allied actions. this small story marks a possible co-authorship; the two protagonists demonstrated how a strong culture of belonging could be created between young children. story 3: child-environment dialogues story 3 takes place in room magnolia in bauhinia kindergarten, in which a play-based curriculum is adopted appertaining to the hong kong kindergarten curriculum (curriculum development council, 2017). located in a small suburb in hk, china, bauhinia houses six classrooms with three grades (k1-k3) in a same-age grouping for 100 children aged 3-6. magnolia is the hub for 17 children and two teachers, learning and playing together between 8:45 a.m. and 4:45 p.m. cantonese is the primary language. children have mandarin and english lessons once a week. yu was born and raised in hk; his parents are migrants from mainland china. one teacher describes yu as a nice boy with communication delay who has difficulty understanding what people mean and responds slowly. yu can but seldom talks. another teacher suggests that his communicative incompetence created a wall blocking him from getting along with others. the story starts with yu choosing to make paper-springs, one of four self-selected group activities. paper-springs are a paper craft which involves interfolding two long strips of paper to provide a springy effect. unlike other children who make paper-spring necklaces following a teacher-made model, yu produces a long paper-spring to use as a cardboard figure’s (thereafter as “figure”) extended leg. the inspiration might come from the display board where a figure is exhibited, whose body is made of corrugated paper taken from a carton box and the legs from green scrap paper. the dialogue with the figure begins in yu’s changing plots of this paper-spring story: yu proudly pins his long paper-spring on the figure. the figure seems to dislike the leg because it keeps coming off. yu makes it a long arm instead across the figure’s body. while yu is carefully checking and trimming any frayed paper edges, the figure suddenly falls off the board, hanging on the paper-spring. yu seems to imagine a scene of the figure sleeping in a hammock. after a minute of pondering, yu removes the figure, sways the empty hammock several times, and then replicates the hammock’s movement by swaying his body. with another child’s admiring “wow”, yu crawls through the hammock and sways alongside it. soon after, yu cheerfully skips toward the teacher, leading to a tentative ending of the story. satisfaction in silence the story goes beyond simply making a paper-spring; it involves a dialogic intra-action between a child and things (i.e., figure, paper-spring). their dialogue is inaudible yet can be felt and sensed. seeing from a strengths-based lens, we recognised that yu’s curiosity to explore and sensitive noticing of the re-defining silence in unvoiced dialogues in storying-play:… 49 surrounding environment led to his connection with the lonely figure who remained on the board for two days without being visited. yu’s trimming frayed edges on the paper-spring might be a sign of caring for the figure. if the goal was to ensure the paper-spring and figure was pinned stably, the continuous dropping could be discouraging to yu. this possible frustration did not seem to hinder yu’s engagement. his intra-action with the paper-spring arouse our thinking differently as in post-intentional phenomenological philosophy. with his careful “listening”, yu might have read the figure’s negotiation: whether the paper-spring would be a leg or arm and whether the figure or yu would sleep in the hammock. the figure and paper-spring form part of the assemblages like humans, coexisting in the state of becoming. we conceived the moment of pondering as yu’s silent talk with the figure and himself. through the falling-off, the figure might have declared, “i don’t like sleeping in a hammock”, causing yu to remove the figure from the paper-spring. the figure’s withdrawal possibly provoked yu’s self-talk, “i like playing in a swing…why not give myself a go”. the change of facial expressions (i.e., from a puzzled gaze to a satisfying smile) embodied yu’s enthusiasm to immerse in the swinging story. his trajectory of talk in silence entailed a strong connection with paper (figure, paper-spring)––things that are little and ordinary yet meaningful to yu. an inaudible charisma of silence silence speaks for a child’s hidden talent. yu’s unswerving concentration and boundless creativity are embodied in the transformation of the paper-spring. yu instilled his meaning in the task, not copying or following others. his peers’ intermittent coming and going and annotations (e.g., “[the figure] is sleeping”) did not distract yu’s concentrated engagement with the paper-spring. yu quietly listened and thoughtfully compiled and filtered peers’ ideas into the story. yu’s creativity was exhibited in his vivid plots: transforming the leg into an arm for the figure, helping the figure escape from the hammock, testing the swaying motion of the empty hammock, and immersing himself in the swinging hammock play-story. the self-directed play offered yu a space to explore and extend the possibilities that things could act. things, from a post-intentional perspective, are fundamental in children’s everyday experiences. the paper-spring was the performative agents that elevated yu’s affective experiences. the oscillating and stretchable motions might be fun, attracting yu to hold, bounce, and play with the paper-spring continuously. its lengthening without breaking could reinforce yu’s sense of achievement. the swaying motion might evoke yu’s pleasant swinging memories, according to his contented smile. all these connections aroused yu’s satisfying experiences, rewarding his seriousness––the absorption in playing with the paper-spring. the silent dialogues between yu and the paper vividly demonstrated their strengths in transforming each other into possibilities. yu’s fascination with the paper-spring has affective influence on his peers. his creation not only gained the teacher’s acclaim but also drew two girls’ attention to “help” him extend the paper-spring. the girls excitedly imitated the way yu combined short pieces of paper-spring into a long one along the paperarm. yu did not tell them what to do. rather, he subtly demonstrated his enthusiasm for making sense of things in his focused play. silence has the power to captivate others to contribute to the storying-play. a sense of satisfaction was spread from yu to the girls who enjoyably lengthened the paper-spring alongside yu. the peers’ pleasurable participation is a form of recognition, offering an “affective approval or encouragement” (honneth, 1995, p. 95) for yu’s and their capabilities and contribution. through collective storying, yu, his peers, the figure and paper-spring distribute the happiness by affirming each other’s engagement and thus sustaining their storying-play together. discussion: unvoiced messages of silence silences are unvoiced yet powerful messages, highlighting “hidden” possibilities in children’s living and imaginary worlds. the analysis demonstrates how children enacted their affective experiences in silence through their storying-play. based on the analysis across the three stories, we synthesised two alternative meanings of silent dialogues: as non-vocal communication and inaudible engagement and as inner wellbeing. alison m.-c. li et al. 50 finding 1: silence is more than a one-way mode of expression; it is a form of storying, embodying children’s reciprocal communication and engagements. the silent dialogues in the three stories are characterised as inaudible communication and engagements. silence in a communicative aspect is a manifestation within intra-actions between children, their teacher, and things. the protagonists, who said nothing throughout their stories, all engaged as active storying-players and competent communicators to imagine and make meaning of their worlds. this noticing aligned with prior studies that silence is viewed as an non-vocal expression. the three stories further accentuated the reciprocal communication, which were enacted not only by the protagonists but also their storying partners. the teacher, peers, and things intra-acted with the quiet protagonists in silent communicative modes. the children used gazes, smiles, and bodily movements to initiate and reinforce dialogic communication. on the other hand, the reciprocal gazes, gestures, and movements acted by their storying partners made the storying-play fun and connected. these non-vocal communication played multiple roles. first, it enhanced different bodies’ mutual relationships in a relaxed way. the fingerstapping (story 1), the hand-movements and the fire engine’s visual effects and movements (story 2), and the child’s, the figure’s and paper-spring’s movements (story 3), which were produced in silence, created playful engagements between the children and their human and nonhuman partners. the voluntary use of silence creates a shared language between storytellers and listener-responders. communicative mimicking, multisensory responses, and modifications based on close listening form parts of this language. silence serves a unique function––equalising the communicative membership. instead of performing a superior status of dominating the play with speech, the verbal listener-responders of the story can share the samestatus relationship with the unspeaking children by reciprocating with interactions and valuing the different ways of embodied communication. second, the silent dialogues revealed that children’s sensitivity to their surroundings, creativity, and persistence to achieve goals and transform ideas are embodied in their storying-play. the stories showed that children often express the subtlety and sophistication of their understanding through silent modes. with a strengths-based interpretation of children’s resources (gaffney & jesson, 2019), the protagonists and storying partners in the stories articulated their capabilities to navigate, create, imagine, and transform their worlds wordlessly. silence is always present, calling educators to attend to the strengths in children’s unspoken voices. finding 2: a sound of affects is created in silence through intra-actions between children and their storying partners. from a post-intentional phenomenological perspective, we focused on how humans and things connected in silent storying-play. noticing the non-vocal dialogues allows us to understand children’s inaudible inner states. while acknowledging the presence of affects in children’s social lives, we as researchers encounter the challenge of never knowing children’s inner states of affects. the focus of investigating children’s affects was, therefore, not to prove whether authentic emotions are revealed. our interest was to approach children’s storying worlds through their display of affects that is emergently shaped by and itself shapes the unfolding development of interaction (wu, 2004). children connect with the world through their affective presence. if silent children do not talk about their feelings it does not necessarily mean that they do not have the ability to express their emotions. together with their storying partners, the children made their affective voices perceptible, albeit inaudible. for example, the connections between qian and brooke were made through playful finger-tapping together, creating entertaining moments. stella, jay, and the fire-engine jointly exhibited multisensory pleasure in the story. yu demonstrated his idiosyncratic ideas with the figure and paper-spring with satisfaction. happiness swells in a mix of reciprocal smiles and laughter, bodily mimicking, joint contribution, and friendly negotiation. accordingly, silence is re-defined as inaudible inner wellbeing. the silent intra-actions are quietly processed in partnership with peers, teachers, and the environment. the play stories went beyond children doing something with things (e.g., the fingers, fire-engine, or paper-spring). things such as fingers, fireengine, and figure and paper-spring played the central role in the affective connections between the quiet protagonists and their silent partners. re-defining silence in unvoiced dialogues in storying-play:… 51 implications do feelings have a sound? we heard the sound of silence––children’s joyful resonance shared inbetween the child–teacher, child–peer, and child–environment intra-actions. joy does not reside only in individual children; it has a resonant and reciprocal effect, generating to and from one another. the dialogues in silence are portrayed by a playful acquaintance, multisensory pleasure, and satisfactory achievement. prior studies showed that children utilise joyous resources to create friendships (karjalainen, 2020) and to maintain social bonds (pawłowska, 2020). the three contributions from our study are: (a) the social bonding is not restricted to their teachers and peers but includes things that are meaningful to the children; (b) the joyous resources can be shared in silence, not only in verbal conversations; (c) children co-created a rhythm to maintain excitement in their play-world, not only with peers as trevarthen (2011) suggested, but also with teachers and their material environments. silence’s power to affect silence is contagious for a good purpose; it communicates and motivates others to reciprocate feelings. the three stories illustrated that enthusiasm, creativity, and playfulness could be transfused through silent play. children’s storying-play might sometimes appear purposeless through adults’ eyes. for children, joy serves as energy to motivate themselves and others to connect with different worlds, although other affects such as discomfort or frustration might be experienced in-between the joyful intraactions. children’s feelings are “folding into others, resonating together, interfering with each other, and mutually intensifying” (massumi, 2002, p. 1) without words. in a post-intentional sense, these affective exchanges in storying-play are a space where children and things notice and recognise their own being-inthe-world and shape their contextual relations with different bodies (acheson, 2008; vagle, 2018). silence is significant when people and things react to it together. through collective storying in silent dialogues, children find ways to transform the obstructive affects into positive ones. silence also has the power to build relationships. connected relationships can be developed in silent play. storying never ends. in everyday storying, endings are often transitory. the endings, qian and brooke’s high-five, stella and jay’s pause to transition to mat-time, and yu’s walking away from the paperspring play, are just temporary. new stories emerge from the tentative endings. silence has influenced children’s emotions at the moment of storying-play. more importantly, silence primes future relationships. closer relationships have been germinating in silent-dialogue stories. the moments of playful fingertapping accompanied by gazes and smiles, prompted qian to initiate cheerful interactions with brooke and to build friendships with other children in the subsequent weeks. the multisensory silent play of stella and jay created a space for them to become friends in two weeks. they naturally gathered to play together after mat-time. the silent play with the figure and paper-spring uncovered yu’s hidden gifts. since then, yu’s peers often invited him to join their groups because they saw him differently––with creativity and perseverance. silence has the power to affect, build and sustain friendships. listening to silence differently listening is a gift teachers could give themselves and their children. “active listening necessitates generous interpretation and thoughtful response” (yoon & templeton, 2019, p. 61). by closely listening to children’s silence, teachers can create and sustain an inclusive environment, which is composed of belonging and relationality in the intra-actions. in day-to-day early childhood practice, educators can “listen” to children’s voices, shared through varied modes of communication and sensed through their intra-actions with people and things in their daily environments. this amplified sensitivity in listening can, in turn, yield asset-based interpretations of intra-actions and responses. silence can be heard in embodied connections experienced through multimodal processes. verbal expression is not the only indicator to determine children’s competence, participation, and affective experiences. these dispositions can be amplified through intra-actions with people and things. children who do not engage in verbal conversations are still “part of the dialogues – watching, listening, or perhaps simply experiencing the flow of events” (white, 2015, p. 47). their presence in dialogues needs to be alison m.-c. li et al. 52 recognised. joint attention and shared purposes in storying-play can convey a we-are-connected message, boosting children’s sense of belonging. silence can be heard in responsive and reciprocal relationships. reciprocal interactions, playful mimicking, and exchanging play ideas are ways to approach and engage with people and things in carefree and enjoyable ways, creating an inclusive space for relational connections. in a responsive relationship, children can explore novel or different engaging forms and jointly extend a sense of what is possible together, even in silence. the underlying principle is the “possibility of democracy” (fielding, 2016, p. 1)– everybody has the agency to participate in and contribute to the play in multiple forms. new possibilities for mutual understanding require human’s respectful heart coming to re-see each other upon everybody’s (humans and nonhumans) strengths and contributions. silence, as exemplified in the stories, is an affective gift that invites storying together, thereby strengthening relationships, current and future. epilogue: appreciating the sound of silence in a post-intentional phenonological sense, our relationships have been continuously evolving alongside the data collection and analysis processes and our knowledge about the contexts, leading to meaningful interpretations. there are multilateral ways to make sense of children’s storying; we welcome readers’ multiple illuminations based on their experiences and perspectives. our purpose is to offer alternative ways of understanding children’s storied worlds through the post-intentional phenomenological, strengths-based, and embodiment perspectives. as researchers, transforming our thinking of silence from an absence of verbal communication to the presence of embodied intra-actions is crucial. children have a multitude of affects that offer intriguing directions to further explore through everyday storying, especially in inclusive environments. the relevance of this work for early childhood educational practices is indirect yet meaningful. we invite readers to consider silence in children’s educational lives. this article showcased three play-stories as seen through a post-intentional phenomenological and posthuman theoretical point of view. more practically, the stories gave this article value in academic writing about and through early childhood education. silences represent the hidden voices of children. their wordless stories disrupted the deficit mindset of seeing them inequitably as lacking competence, affect, and engagement. from their stories, children tell us, as educators and researchers, about their positive dispositions and feelings, capabilities to contribute to social play, eagerness to connect, and courage to fantasise. these stories recount our endeavours to heed the sound of silence that is sometimes inaudible, ignored, and misunderstood but always present (mazzei, 2003) and affective. the affective connectedness is not exchanged necessarily in words but powerfully through bodies-in-interactions that are complementary to each other. in this study, what matters is not only the telling but also the listening––“who hear the voices, what and how they hear it” (spyros, 2016, p. 19). children vividly modelled what storying could look like with silent dialogues as both listeners and tellers. silence is not easily identified and requires open minds to hear and recognise. in a post-intentional sense, we contemplate various ways stories manifest in and through children being in their world and us being with children in their storying moments. this inspires educators to deeply listen to the sound of silence through hearing, seeing, and sensing (martín-bylund, 2018). storying is dynamic and affective. the stories we shared are not fixed or concluded. rather, these stories are connected to readers’ cache of knowledge, thoughts, affects, and experiences. silence takes children’s capacities seriously to express, intra-act and be fully involved in their social, affective, and material worlds. for children, silence is a subtle-yet-resonant form of literacies, like written, oral, or visual, that conveys meaning. silence is a live multimodal text crafted spontaneously and naturally responding to everyday lives. silence has generative power to unfold children’s storied experiences and imagination, bring forth positive affects, and strengthen relationships. the silent stories reveal rich complexities and meaning, gifting us new insights about children. “when multiple children perform it at once, their silent voices are raised in unison, creating not cacophony, but symphony” (acheson, 2008, p. 549). this is an opening to appreciate silence as a symphony of affects through children’s everyday re-defining silence in unvoiced dialogues in storying-play:… 53 storying. declarations author’s declarations acknowledgements: the authors are grateful to all participating children, parents, and educators for sharing their affective stories in silence through enacting their strengths and relationships. the first author acknowledges scholarships from the marie clay literacy trust and the university of auckland, which supported her research focus. this article is inspired by a scholar in special education, the late dr. ming-gon john lian, who meticulously modelled the noticing and genuine understanding of children’s silence from an affirmative lens. authors’ contributions: all authors contributed to this article in accordance with their distinct theoretical, pedagogical, and research expertise. authors’ affiliations: alison man-ching li is a doctoral candidate with research interests in multimodal storying, early childhood education, and inclusion. janet s. gaffney, ph.d., is a professor of educational psychology-literacy and director of te puna reo pohewa, the marie clay research centre. her current research foci are literacy learning and leading with young children, their families and teachers. adrienne n. sansom, ph.d., is a senior lecturer whose research focuses on arts in education, specifically dance and drama in the early years, embodied learning and critical pedagogy. jacoba matapo, ed.d., is an associate professor whose research specialises in pacific indigenous philosophy, pacific pedagogies and arts-based practices in early childhood education. competing interests: the authors declare that they have no competing interests. funding: this article and work was not funded by any funding agency or grant. ethics approval and consent to participate: the research process followed the university of auckland’s ethics guidelines by ensuring voluntary participation with children’s assent and informed consent given by parents (for children) and teachers. publisher’s declarations editorial acknowledgement: the editorial process of this article was carried out by dr. mehmet toran. publisher’s note: journal of childhood, education & society remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliation. references abram, d. 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(2019). the practice of listening to children: the challenges of hearing children out in an adult-regulated world. harvard educational review, 89(1), 55-84. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40841-020-00166-0 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67286-1_6 https://doi.org/10.1177/0907568215571618 https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199755059.003.0012 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315173474 https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54446-9_11 https://doi.org/ebr11067660 https://doi.org/10.1177/1476718x09336950 https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429483196-17 journal of childhood, education & society volume 4, issue 1, 2023, 56-71 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.202341245 research article ©2023 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. predictors of family burden in families caring for children with special needs salih rakap1, meryem vural-batik2, heather coleman3 abstract: having a child with special needs has a significant impact on family life. while adapting to this new situation, parents often face difficulties related to the care of their children, family relations, and financial situation. the present study examined differences between family burden and spousal support perceived by mothers and fathers of children with special needs and investigated predictors of perceived family burden and spousal support. a total of 394 parents of children with disabilities (197 couples) from a large urban city in northern turkey participated in this survey study. results showed the perceived family burden and spousal support differed significantly between couples. mothers of children with special needs had significantly higher perceived family burden and significantly lower perceived spousal support in comparison to fathers. moreover, perceived spousal support significantly predicted family burden perceived by mothers and fathers. implications in relation to services offered to families of children with disabilities along with the recommendations for future research in this area are discussed. article history received: 12 october 2022 accepted: 10 january 2023 keywords family burden; spousal support; children with special needs; parent introduction having a child with special needs has a significant impact on family life. while adapting to this new situation, parents often face difficulties related to the care of their children, family relations, and financial situation. this process, in which parents often need to quickly adapt to new responsibilities and roles of taking care of their children with special needs, can be very challenging for parents and can negatively affect their marital relationships (bhatia, 2018). some parents isolate themselves and their children from the society to cope with this new way of life (de caroli & sagone, 2013). the fact that many children with special needs need lifelong care imposes burdens on parents (sahu et al., 2019). family burden is described as “the difficulties and challenges experienced by families as a consequence of someone’s illness” (or disability in this case; sales, 2003, p. 34). the concept of burden includes objective burdens (e.g., loss of income, restriction of social activities, disruption of family routines), and subjective burdens (e.g., emotional distress about the child). family burden is usually evaluated based on four categories including psychological, physical, social, and economic burden (chou, 2000). family burden is impacted by the necessity of changing expectations and plans for future (yildirim-dogru & arslan, 2008) and increased physical burden due to the need for care (kaner, 2004). moreover, it is impacted by withdrawal from social environments due to the presence of problem behaviors in children (bildirici, 2014), and the economic difficulties related to the education, daily care and treatment of children (ozsenol et al., 2003). family burden compared to parents of children with neurotypical development, parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (asd)(smith et al., 2010) and intellectual disability (manor-binyamini, 2011) experience _____________ 1 university of north carolina greensboro, school of education, department of specialized education services, greensboro, north carolina, usa, e-posta: s_rakap@uncg.edu; ondokuz mayis university, school of education, department of special education, samsun, türkiye, e-mail: srakaptr@gmail.com, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7853-3825 2 ondokuz mayis university, school of education, department of special education, samsun, türkiye, e-mail: meryem.vural@omu.edu.tr, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-00027836-7289 3 university of north carolina greensboro, school of education, department of specialized education services, greensboro, north carolina, usa, e-mail: hmcolem2@uncg.edu, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0629-7947 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202341245 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:s_rakap@uncg.edu mailto:srakaptr@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7853-3825 mailto:meryem.vural@omu.edu.tr https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7836-7289 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7836-7289 mailto:hmcolem2@uncg.edu https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0629-7947 salih rakap et al. 57 increased levels of family burden. research has reported that among the most obvious reasons for increased family burden are the increase in the need for care of the child, the decrease in leisure time activities (smith et al., 2010), and increased health expenditures or economic difficulties due to reasons such as leaving the job (cidav et al., 2012). the burden placed on the family after diagnosis appears to be related to age and gender of the child (aysan & ozben, 2007), the type or severity of disability the child has (langley et al., 2017; plant & sanders, 2007), behavior problems demonstrated by the child (unwin & deb, 2011), the presence of comorbidities (irazábal et al., 2012), and social support (picardi et al., 2018). among the disability types, asd draws attention as an area of disability that affects parents more than other disability types (hayes & watson, 2013). compared to other types of disabilities, parents spend more time helping their children with asd in their daily living activities and managing the emotional-behavioral problems accompanying asd (smith et al., 2010). further, when children with disabilities display intense behavior difficulties, their families may isolate themselves from the social environments, thus limiting their access to services and increasing the burden of parents as caregivers (unwin & deb, 2011). therefore, the type of disability alone is not a factor that determines the family burden; the severity of disability and the presence of emotional-behavioral problems are more important factors affecting the family burden. research has shown that mothers are more affected by the burden of having a child with special needs in the family for several reasons (irazábal et al., 2012). first, a large portion of working mothers often have to quit their jobs to meet the needs of their children with special needs (di giulio et al., 2014). second, they take more responsibilities for the care of their children (ström et al., 2012). it seems inevitable that the burden of mothers will increase as fathers take less responsibilities than mothers in supporting development and learning of the family member with disability (harper et al., 2013). research has shown that mothers who shoulder the burden of childcare alone limit their social relationships and interactions with others (atila-demir & keskin, 2018), are exposed to more stress (ilhan et al., 2019), and experience increased burnout due to psychological strain (langley et al., 2017). accordingly, mothers question their marriage more frequently (hartley et al., 2017) and express more concerns about martial relationships (harper et al., 2013). as a result of the increased family burden, parents of children with special needs spend less time with their spouses (woodgate et al., 2008), and have fewer resources to provide spousal support and create time for spousal intimacy (hartley et al., 2017). to reduce the mothers’ responsibilities, burden, and stress, fathers can share responsibilities in relation to the care of children with special needs in the family; thus, providing spousal support. spousal support spousal support can be defined as the provision of emotional, financial, informational, appreciation, and self-esteem support (huber et al., 2010). thus, the concept of spousal support is not limited to care support that includes help with housework and childcare. spousal support also includes emotional support that spouses provide (e.g., spouses provide information to and value each other, and appreciate and understand each other). the existence of all these dimensions of spousal support makes it easier for couples to cope with the negative events they encounter in daily life (aydogan & kizildag, 2017). due to the fact that families that have children with special needs often isolate themselves from the social environment to address their children’s unique needs (de caroli & sagone, 2013), the social support resources of the couples decrease and they have to cope with the challenges alone (woodgate et al., 2008). thus, it is of particular importance that the spouses provide support to each other when raising a child with special needs. spousal support plays a critical role in reducing the negative emotions that may arise because parents of children with special needs cannot spare enough time for each other (woodgate et al., 2008). couples who support each other are likely to perceive changes in their families as less stressful and can be more successful in coping with the challenges. men and women differ in both their needs for support and their ability to provide support to their spouses (reevy & maslach, 2001). women expect more support from their husbands than men expect from their spouses (xu & burleson, 2001). thus, it is possible that women do not see the support they receive from their husbands as sufficient. in addition to perceived spousal support, the types of support provided predictors of family burden in families caring for children… 58 may also differ between spouses. traditionally, men provide financial and instrumental support, while women provide more emotional support (lawrence et al., 2008). as a result, the emotional support women show to their spouses can make it easier for men to cope with stressful life events. however, men's focus on providing instrumental support rather than emotional support may not adequately respond to women's emotional needs. karakus and kirlioglu (2019) stated that women do not consider the support they receive from their spouses sufficient during stressful days and times. the perceptions of parents of children with special needs regarding the support they receive from their spouses may also change depending on the family burden brought on by the amount of extra services and needs that the child with a disability might need. therefore, it is expected that the perceived spousal support will differ according to the type and severity of the child's disability. spousal support has a positive effect on parenting behaviors because it reduces parental stress (kanter & proulx, 2019). couples with children with special needs need more support from each other in order to meet the needs of their children (busillo-aguayo, 2010). spousal support and communication between couples are seen as a key factor affecting conflict between spouses (busillo-aguayo, 2010). poor marital adjustment leads to child-rearing conflicts and overreactive parenting, which increases problem behaviors demonstrated by the child (o'leary & vidair, 2005). moreover, low marriage quality increases behavior problems in children (papp et al., 2004; wieland & baker, 2010). for example, kanter and proulx (2019) found that children's aggression levels were negatively affected by the level of spousal support provided from their fathers to mothers. on the contrary, spousal support and high marital quality can positively affect the quality of parent-child relationships (wieland & baker, 2010). recent literature in child development reaffirms the strong link between the quality of the parent-child relationship and child outcomes. support and opportunities provided by the family act as a protective factor by improving children's ability to cope and adapt to life's challenges (frost et al., 2020; spiteri, 2021). from this point of view, it can be asserted that marital relationships where family burden is shared among spouses by providing spousal support to each other are more likely to result in positive parent-child relationships and therefore, enhance child development. studies on the marital relations of parents of children with special needs have shown parents of children with asd have lower satisfaction in their marriage and a higher risk of divorce (sim et al., 2016). research has shown that mothers of children with asd experience more stress than mothers of children with other disabilities (hayes & watson, 2013). although the literature emphasizes the importance of spousal support for couples with children with special needs, there is limited research investigating how spousal support varies based on severity and types of disability the child has. in addition, most studies including parents of children with special needs are based on the opinion of one of the spouses (usually wife’s). in the present study, the participation of both spouses was ensured, so that the differences between the couples could be examined. support services for children with special needs and their families family and divorce counseling services are provided by psychologists in provincial directorates of family and social policies and social service centers in turkey. psychological support services offered in these centers are not specific to families of children with special needs, but all families. there are care, rehabilitation and family counseling centers in every province affiliated to the general directorate of services for the disabled and elderly in the turkish ministry of family and social services (tmofass). psychologists in the family support units across these centers provide information and counseling services to the families of individuals with special needs. this includes psychological support for the family, information on the care and rehabilitation services offered to individuals with special needs, ensuring family participation, and informing about the continuation of rehabilitation services at home. activities to support individuals with special needs and their families in turkey are also included in the 2022-2026 strategic plan of the tmofass (tmofass, 2022a). this plan aims to expand family-oriented care services and to increase the effectiveness of education-counseling services for families. in addition to the strategic plan, the tmofass has developed a 2030 barrier-free vision document (tmofass, 2022b). salih rakap et al. 59 the national action plan for the rights of persons with disabilities (2023-2025) has been prepared within the scope of the barrier-free vision document (tmofass, 2022c). in this plan, there are various objectives related to increasing the well-being of individuals with special needs and their families. information, consultancy, guidance, and support services for individuals with special needs and their families will be strengthened. studies will be carried out to increase the care competence of the family members who undertake the care responsibility of the individuals with special needs in the family. in line with these purposes, it is planned to expand the home-based social service model, to increase the effectiveness of family support units regarding disability, and to increase the effectiveness of free family counseling service. purpose of the study the purpose of the present study was to examine the differences between family burden and spousal support perceived by mothers and fathers of children with special needs and investigate the predictors of perceived family burden and spousal support. two main questions were addressed in this study: (1) do couples who have children with special needs differ significantly in perceived family burden and perceived spousal support? (2) does the gender of the child, and the type and severity of disability the child has significantly predict perceived family burden and perceived spousal support of couples who have children with special needs? theoretical framework research on child development has shown that presence of high-level parental stress (woodman et al., 2015) and marital problems among couples including lack of spousal support (hosokawa & katsura, 2017), adversely impact children’s development. while having children with special needs in the family impacts the level of stress and burden experienced by parents, increased burden and stress experienced by parents and problems in their marital relationship affect parents’ relationship with their children and in turn, children’s development (hsiao, 2018; peer & hillman, 2014). bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory offers a useful theoretical framework for this reciprocal relationship (bronfenbrenner, 1979; 1986; 1995). according to this theory, children develop within the context of interconnected layers of systems and interactions among structures within and between these systems impact the childhood development and family well-being. the child with his/her innate characteristics (e.g., genetics, intelligence, pre-existing conditions, or disabilities) is at the center of the bronfenbrenner’s model and encompassed by five intertwined systems from most immediate to most distal. the first system in which the child lives in is the microsystem and includes the structures (e.g., the family, school, childcare, friends, teachers) the child directly interacts on a regular basis (swick & williams, 2006). bi-directional relationships are strongest in this level, and they have the greatest influence on the child and vice versa. for example, when a child with special need joins the family, parents may need to interact with special education schools and services or when parents have high levels of stress, the child behavior may be influenced adversely. the second system, mesosystem, encompasses connections between two or more systems. for example, a service provider in the microsystem can connect the child and family with a parent organization in the same system for support, or the service provider can connect parents to a heath care provider (in the next system) to receive therapeutic support. the third system, exosystem, includes informal and formal social structures (e.g., employers, health services) that indirectly influence the child through their impact on the microsystem (chachar et al., 2021). for example, due to increased care responsibilities, many mothers of children with disabilities quit their jobs which may result in financial difficulties and impact services the child receives. psychological supports provided by the governmental agencies may also help parents to cope with stress and burden, and as a result will help improve the relationships between parents and children. the fourth system, macrosystem, includes cultural factors (e.g., values, political views, ethnicity, socioeconomic status) that influence development of children. finally, chronosystem, adds the dimension of time into the theory as it relates to the child and their environments. this system considers changes within the child and their environments over time to examine how these changes impact a child’s development (eriksson et al., 2018). predictors of family burden in families caring for children… 60 method research design the survey design, a correlation research method, was used in this study to investigate the relationships between perceived family burden and perceived spousal support of couples who have children with special needs. correlational research allowed investigators to examine the existing relationships among two or more variables without the researcher controlling or manipulating any of the investigated variables (karasar, 2015). participants participants of the present study were the parents of 197 children with special needs (197 couples, a total of 394 parents) who lived in a large urban city in northern turkey. they were identified using as a simple random sampling method among the parents of children with asd or intellectual disability (id) who were enrolled in special education schools or rehabilitation centers during 2019-2020 school year. questionnaire packages were sent to the families of 450 children with asd or id. parents of 231 children consented to participate in this study and completed the questionnaires. a total of 31 questionnaires were completed by either mothers or fathers alone (not by both in the couple) and so they were excluded from the study. three additional cases were also removed from the data set due to extreme values. therefore, the final study sample included 197 questionnaires filled out by both the mother and father in each family, individually. as results, data analysis was conducted using data obtained from a total of 394 parents, 197 mothers and 197 fathers. demographic characteristics of participants are provided in table 1. table 1. demographic characteristics of parents and children parent attributes mother (n = 197) father (n = 197) total (n = 394) age (m, sd) 37.26 (6.16) 40.78 (5.60) 39.0 (6.13) education (%) primary school 39.1 34.0 36.5 middle school 20.3 16.2 18.3 high school 22.3 26.9 24.6 college 18.3 22.9 20.6 employment (%) public employee 7.6 24.9 16.2 private/freelance 7.6 61.4 34.5 not working 84.8 13.7 49.3 change in employment status (parttime, layoff) (%) 18.8 10.2 14.5 child attributes intellectual disability (n = 111) autism (n = 86) total (n = 197) gender (%) male 40.5 16.3 29.9 female 59.5 83.7 70.1 severity of disability (%) mild 38.7 33.7 36.5 moderate 37.8 37.2 37.6 severe 23.6 29.1 25.9 number of siblings (%) 0 7.3 24.4 14.7 1 48.6 43.0 46.2 2 36.0 25.5 31.5 3 + 8.1 7.1 7.6 age diagnostic 1.95 (2.15) 2.92 (1.31) 2.37 (1.89) when received initial services 3.35 (2.35) 3.38 (1.55) 3.37 (2,04) salih rakap et al. 61 instruments data were collected through a survey package that included a demographic information form, the family burden rating scale (yildirim-sari & basbakkal, 2008), and the spousal support scale (yildirim, 2004). demographic information form prepared by the researchers, this form was used to collect data about demographic backgrounds of participants. the form included questions regarding demographic characteristics, such as age, occupation, educational status, and duration of marriage. in addition, the participants were asked to report the number of children and their demographic attributes, including gender, chronological age, age of diagnosis, type, and degree of disability noted on the diagnostic evaluation report. family burden scale yildirim-sari and basbakkal (2008) developed the family burden scale to evaluate the burden perceived by the families with children with special needs. the scale includes 43 items under 6 subdimensions. items on the scale were scored using a five-point likert-type scale, ranging from never (1) to always (5). scores on the scale range between 43 and 215. higher scores on the scale indicated increased family burden. reported cronbach's alpha and test-retest correlation coefficient were .92 and .98, respectively (yildirim-sari & basbakkal, 2008). in the present study, the cronbach alpha coefficient was found to be .95. sample items from the scale include “i spend most of my time taking care of my child” (item 37; time requirement subscale) and “i miss being alone with my wife/husband” (item 35; emotional burden). spousal support scale yildirim (2004) developed the spousal support scale to measure the perceptions of spouses about the support they receive from each other. the scale includes 27 items under 4 sub-dimensions. items on the scale were scored using a five-point likert-type scale, ranging from not suitable for me (1) to suitable for me (5). scores on the scale range between 27 and 81. higher scores on the scale indicated increased spousal support. reported cronbach's alpha and test-retest correlation coefficient were .95 and .89, respectively (yildirim, 2004). in the present study, the cronbach alpha coefficient was found to be .95. sample items from the scale include “my spouse tries to make time to be with me” (item 3) and “my spouse helps me cope with problems” (item 25). data collection procedures after obtaining ethical approval and permission from the local education agency, researchers contacted the administrators of all special education schools and rehabilitation centers in the city to obtain list of all students who had either asd or intellectual disability (n = 1590). next, 450 randomly selected students with a diagnosis of asd or an intellectual disability were sent the survey packages in closed envelopes. along with the survey package, information about the purpose and content of the study, and informed consent forms were sent to the families. parents who volunteered to participate in the present study were asked to complete the consent form and survey package anonymously and return it back to the school administrators in a closed envelope. survey packages included forms for the mother and father separately. mothers and fathers were asked to fill out the surveys independently and not to share their answers with each other. each couple was given three weeks to return the survey package. forms completed by only one of the parents were not included in the data analysis. once the data collection packages were returned to the researchers, consent forms and survey were separated from each other to protect confidentiality and anonymity of the participants. data analysis a paired samples t-test was used to determine whether perceived family burden and perceived spousal support differed significantly between couples (research question 1). this was done by comparing predictors of family burden in families caring for children… 62 the aggregate scores of the fathers on the family burden and then spousal support scales to the scores of the mothers. next, the scores of the families who had children with asd were compared to the scores of the families with children with intellectual disabilities. finally, the aggregate scores of the parents with male or female children were compared. to address the second research question, a multiple regression analysis was performed to determine the variables that predict perceived family burden of couples who have children with special needs. prior to the multiple regression analysis, the pearson product-moment correlation coefficient was computed to determine the relationship between perceived family burden and perceived spousal support. the spss 22 was used to conduct the data analysis. the significance of the obtained statistics was tested at the .05 level. prior to the data analysis extreme values in the data set were identified by calculating the mahalanobis distance. six data points with extreme values (3 couples) were noted and removed from the data set. the remaining analyses were conducted using the data from 197 couples (394 parents). following the removal of cases with extreme values, univariate normality assumptions were examined by calculating kurtosis and skewness coefficients using the one sample kolmogorov-smirnov (k-s) test. results of k-s revealed a p value .20 (p > .05) for the family burden scale and spousal support scale scores. in addition, kurtosis and skewness values were found to be -.801 and -.097 for mothers’ perceived family burden scores; .089 and -.941 for mothers’ perceived spousal support; -.606 and .102 for fathers’ perceived family burden; and 1.125 and -1.240 for fathers’ perceived spousal support. these results indicated that the data met the univariate normality assumptions. next, normality, linearity and homogeneity assumptions to perform multivariate analyzes were tested (cokluk et al., 2018). scatter plots of all binary variable combinations were examined. the examination of scatter plots showed an ellipse or close to ellipse pattern, indicating that the normality assumption was met. when the residual graphs were examined, it was determined that the values were gathered around a linear axis. as a result of the box's m test, the variances were homogeneous (box's m = 163.16, p = .39). these results indicated that the data met the assumptions for multivariate analysis. results perceived family burden and spousal support by couples and child-related variables a paired samples t-test was performed to determine whether perceived family burden and perceived spousal support differed significantly between couples. as seen in table 2, perceived family burden, t(196) = 3.82, p < .001, and perceived spousal support, t(196) = -3.62, p < .001, differed significantly between couples. the mean perceived family burden score for mothers (m = 115.09) was significantly higher than that of fathers (m = 109.48) while the mean perceived spousal support score for fathers (m = 68.40) was significantly higher for than mothers (m = 65.98). while both perceived family burden (p < .01) and perceived spousal support (p <. 01) mean scores differed significantly between couples who have children with intellectual disabilities, parents of children with asd differed significantly in perceived spousal support scores (p < .01). the mean perceived family burden score of mothers of children with intellectual disabilities (m = 112.36) was significantly higher than that of fathers (m = 105.88) while the mean perceived spousal support scores for these mothers (m = 67.74) was significantly lower than their spouses (m = 69.33). while the mean perceived family burden scores of the parents of children with asd did not differ significantly between the couples (p > .05), the mean perceived spousal support of these mothers (m = 63.70) was significantly lower than that of the fathers (m = 67.19). salih rakap et al. 63 table 2. comparison of perceived family burden and spousal support across couples and demographic variables n mother father df t p m sd m sd perceived family burden type of disability intellectual disability 111 112.36 32.73 105.88 31.09 110 3.53 .001 autism 86 118.60 33.09 114.13 33.43 85 1.86 .06 severity of disability mild 72 100.56 31.39 91.22 27.77 71 3.63 .001 moderate 74 120.60 33.83 116.11 31.54 73 2.20 .03 severe 51 127.58 26.05 125.64 27.10 50 .61 .54 gender of child female 59 107.07 34.16 105.97 32.25 58 .45 .65 male 138 118.51 31.93 110.98 32.34 137 4.17 .000 total 197 115.09 32.95 109.48 32.31 196 3.82 .000 perceived spousal support type of disability intellectual disability 111 67.74 10.75 69.33 10.84 110 -1.74 .001 autism 86 63.70 12.88 67.19 11.79 85 -3.57 .001 severity of disability mild 72 65.73 11.57 67.76 12.65 71 -1.72 .08 moderate 74 66.64 11.94 69.97 9.49 73 -3.17 .002 severe 51 65.37 12.35 67.00 11.59 50 -1.29 .20 gender of child female 59 66.08 12.31 67.97 11.26 58 -1.48 .14 male 138 65.93 11.72 68.58 11.33 137 -1.09 .001 total 197 65.98 11.87 68.40 11.29 196 -3.62 .000 perceived family burden of parents of children with mild (p < .01) and moderate disabilities (p < .05), and perceived spousal support of parents of children with moderate disabilities (p <. 05) differed significantly between couples. the mean perceived family burden scores of mothers of children with mild and moderate disabilities (mmild = 100.56, mmoderate = 120.60) were significantly higher than those of fathers (mmild = 91.22, mmoderate = 116.11). the mean perceived spousal support of mothers of children with moderate disabilities (mmoderate = 66.64) was significantly lower than that of father (mmoderate = 69.97). perceived family burden of parents of children with severe disabilities and perceived spousal support of parents of children with mild and severe disabilities did not differ between the couples (all values of p > .05). perceived family burden (p < .001) and perceived spousal support (p < .01) of couples with a son with special needs differed significantly between couples while neither perceived family burden nor perceived spousal support differed significantly between couples who have daughters with disabilities (both values of p > .05). the mean family burden score of mothers of boys with disabilities (m = 118.51) was significantly higher than that of fathers (m = 110.98) while the mean perceived spousal support for mothers (m = 65.93) was significantly lower than fathers (m = 68.58). predictors of perceived family burden a multiple regression analysis was performed to determine the variables that predict the family burden of the parents of children with special needs. a prerequisite for conducting multiple regression analysis is statistically significant correlations among the variables (buyukozturk, 2018). therefore, a pearson product-moment correlation analysis was conducted, and results showed that there was a statistically significant negative correlation between family burden and spousal support perceived by mothers (r = -. 24, p <.01) and fathers (r = -.19, p < .01). predictors of perceived family burden in mothers and fathers were analyzed separately by multiple regression analysis (see table 3 & table 4). as shown in table 3, perceived family burden in mothers had a positive and moderate relationship with the severity of child's disability (r = .33), a negative and weak relationship with perceived spousal support (r = -.24), and a weak and positive correlation with the gender of the child (r = .15). when the other variables were controlled, the correlation between perceived family burden in mothers and the severity of child’s disability was r = .36, perceived family burden and perceived spousal support was r = -.26, perceived family burden and gender of the child was r = .15. results showed that the perceived family burden in mothers increased as the perceived spousal support decreased, or the severity of child’s disability increased. moreover, perceived family burden was higher in mothers of boys with special needs. finally, predictors of family burden in families caring for children… 64 paired and partial correlations between the type of child’s disability and perceived family burden by mothers were negligible. table 3. predictors of family burden in mothers of children with special needs predictive variable reg. coeff. st. error β t p paired r partial r constant 101.93 17.16 5.94 .000 severity of disability 23.62 4.41 .34 5.35 .000 .33 .36 perceived spousal support -.69 .18 -.25 -3.80 .000 -.24 -.26 gender of the child 12.45 4.80 .17 2.60 .010 .15 .18 type of disability -.76 4.50 -.01 -.17 .865 .09 -.01 r = .45, r2 = .20, f(4, 192) = 12.21, p = .000 the t-test results regarding the significance of the regression coefficients indicated that the severity of child’s disability (t = 5.35, p < .001), the perceived spousal support (t = -3.80, p < .001) and the gender of the child (t = 2.60, p < .05) variables significantly predicted the perceived family burden in mothers. the type of child’s disability did not significantly predict the perceived family burden (t = -.17, p > .05). based on the β values of the predictive variables, the severity of child’s disability was the best predictor of family burden, while perceived spousal support was the second, and child’s gender was the third. these three variables predict 20% of the perceived family burden in mothers (r2 = .20, f(4, 192) = 12.21, p = .000). as shown in table 4, perceived family burden in fathers had a positive and moderate relationship with the severity of child's disability (r = .45) and a negative and weak relationship with perceived spousal support (r = -.19). when the other variables were controlled, the correlation between perceived family burden in fathers and the severity of child’s disability was r = .45 and perceived family burden and perceived spousal support was r = -.23. results showed that the perceived family burden in fathers increased as the perceived spousal support decreased, or the severity of child’s disability increased. paired and partial correlations between child’s gender or disability and perceived family burden in fathers were negligible. table 4. predictors of family burden in fathers of children with special needs predictive variable reg. coeff. st. error β t p paired r partial r constant 87.02 16.59 5.24 .000 severity of disability 29.32 4.22 .43 6.94 .000 .43 .45 perceived spousal support -.59 .18 -.20 -3.27 .001 -.19 -.23 gender of the child 5.27 4.60 .07 1.14 .252 .07 .08 type of disability 4.23 4.26 .06 .99 .322 .12 .07 r = .49, r 2= .24, f(4, 192) = 15.31, p = .000 the t-test results regarding the significance of the regression coefficients indicated that the severity of child’s disability (t = 6.94, p < .001) and the perceived spousal support (t = -3.27, p < .01) variables significantly predicted the perceived family burden in fathers. child’s gender (t = 1.14, p > .05) and disability (t = .99, p > .05) did not significantly predict the perceived family burden. based on the β values of the predictive variables, the severity of child’s disability was the best predictor of family burden, while perceived spousal support was the second. these two variables predict 24% of the perceived family burden in fathers (r2 = .24, f(4, 192) = 15.31, p = .000). discussion the present study was designed to examine the differences between family burden and spousal support perceived by mothers and fathers of children with special needs and investigate the predictors of perceived family burden and spousal support. findings showed that perceived family burden and spousal support differed significantly between couples. more specifically, we found that the mothers of children with special needs have significantly higher perceived family burden and significantly lower perceived salih rakap et al. 65 spousal support in comparison to the fathers of children with special needs. this finding is consistent with the findings of previous studies reporting higher family burden perceived by mothers of children with special needs (karayagiz-muslu & coskun-cenk, 2018; picardi et al., 2018; ström et al., 2012). the main reason for why mothers of children with special needs have higher family burden may be explained by the fact that mothers are considered as primary caregivers and undertake more parenting responsibilities when compared to fathers (bornstein & putnick, 2016; papadopoulos, 2021). in many societies, mothers leave their jobs and take care of their children when a child with special needs joins to the family (turangurhopur & isler-dalgic, 2017). frequently, this results in social isolation of mothers (karayagiz-muslu & coskun-cenk, 2018), and could potentially bring economic, physical, social, and emotional burdens. despite the changes in the contemporary family structures, the difference between male and female roles especially in families with low socioeconomic status still persists (luz & berni, 2010). in families where the traditional family structure is dominant, such as in turkish society, the male does not directly take the responsibility of caring for children; they often provide support to the family indirectly by doing out-ofhome duties (marks et al., 2009; rana et al., 2021). in the current study, most fathers (86%) were working outside of home and most mothers were not working outside the home; thus, they had more care responsibilities. this may have resulted in increased family burden perceived by mothers. different levels of family burden reported by the mothers and fathers in the same family can be explained by the family systems theory (turnbull et al., 2011) which emphasizes that a family member's experience of having special needs has the potential to affect everyone else in the family system and its subsystems (seligman & darling, 2007). the way each family responds to having a family member with special needs is different, as each family's dynamics and inputs (family characteristics, family interactions, and family life cycle) are different. moreover, each individual within the family (e.g., father or mothers) may also respond to this situation differently. research has shown that perceived spousal support plays a more critical role than the actual amount of support provided. further, spousal support is extremely important for parents’ well-being since many mothers of children with special needs limit their social relationships (atila-demir & keskin, 2018; ilhan et al., 2019; karayagiz-muslu & coskun-cenk, 2018) and cope with challenges they are facing alone (woodgate et al., 2008). in the present study, we found that the perceived spousal support of mothers was lower than the spousal support perceived by fathers. the same pattern in perceived spousal support was observed when the types of child’s disability was considered. it should be noted that the low spousal support perceived by mothers may not be a direct result of the amount of spousal support provided by fathers. the difference in perceived spousal support between mothers and fathers of children with special needs may be due to the different support needs of the spouses. moreover, the types of support mothers expect from their spouses may be different than the types of support they receive from their spouses. reevy and maslach (2001) reported that men and women generally differ both in their support needs and in their ability to respond to their partner's support needs. for example, women are more likely to offer support spontaneously and when requested (samter, 2002). studies also showed that women provide more support to their spouses during stressful times but receive less support from their spouses in similar situations (karakus & kirlioglu, 2019). the high level of support women provide to their spouses may result in an expectation of a similar level of support from spouses. this difference between the level of expected and received spousal support may affect the marital relations negatively (lawrence et al., 2008). findings of the present study also showed that the severity of the child’s disability predicted the family burden of both mothers and fathers; as the severity of the child’s disability increased, the burden perceived by mothers and fathers also increased. this finding may be related to the research showing that as children’s disability severity increases, the time and expenses spent on childcare increase (nam & park, 2017), the level of exposure to social isolation increases (karayagiz-muslu & coskun-cenk, 2018); thus, the family burden increases (langley et al., 2017). moreover, the family burden perceived by mothers and fathers differs based on the level of the severity of child’s disability. while the family burden of mothers of children with mild and moderate disabilities was significantly higher than that of fathers, the family burden of mothers and fathers of children with severe disability was found to be similar. in line with traditional predictors of family burden in families caring for children… 66 gender roles, the mothers in this study bear most of the burden in the families of children with mild and moderate disabilities, and therefore family burden perceived by those mothers was higher than the fathers. whereas when children had more severe disabilities, childcare responsibilities were potentially shared more equally among the spouses which in turn resulted in a similar burden as perceived by the mothers and fathers. picardi et al. (2018) found that the family burden perceived by the mothers of children with asd was higher than those perceived by the mothers of children with down syndrome and asserted that the difference was due to the severity of asd and children with asd having comorbid intellectual disability. similarly, in the current study, we found that the family burden perceived by mothers and fathers of children with asd was higher than the burden perceived by the parents of children with intellectual disabilities. when the perceived family burden of the parents was compared, we found that family burden perceived by mothers and fathers of children with intellectual disabilities was significantly different, while the family burden perceived by the parents of the children with asd did not differ. this suggests that the burden is shared more between spouses in families of children with asd. due to the difficulties associated with the nature of asd, it is thought that spouses shared the burden and therefore perceived family burden at a similar level. in addition, mothers bear most of the burden in the families of children with mild and moderate disabilities, in line with traditional gender roles, and therefore the burden perceived by mothers is higher. as the severity of disability increases, the increase in the family burden may ensure that the burden of care for children with severe disabilities is shared more among the spouses. for this reason, it is thought that the family burden does not differ between spouses within the families of children with severe disabilities. in the present study, we also found that family burden and spousal support perceived by mothers and fathers differed based on the child’s gender. the family burden perceived by the mothers of boys with disabilities was significantly higher than that of fathers and the spousal support perceived by mothers was found to be significantly lower. this finding may be explained by father involvement in the care of children. the low levels of father involvement in child care is explained by traditional gender roles in the literature. the decrease in father involvement in the care of boys may be related to the values attributed to the “male” children. having a "male" child is considered to be important for the continuation of the lineage in turkish society, and it may be more difficult for fathers to accept that a male child has special needs (mese, 2013). thus, having a male child with special needs may cause a greater social and emotional burden on the family. finally, the findings of this study showed that perceived spousal support significantly predicted family burden perceived by mothers and fathers of children with special needs. as the perceived spousal support increased, the family burden of the mothers and fathers decreased. research has shown that spouses who have children with special needs are often not able to allocate enough time to each other; thus, they do not receive necessary support and intimacy from one another (woodgate et al., 2008. further, their marital relations deteriorate while rearranging their daily lives to support the child with disability (sim et al., 2016). spousal support is an important protective factor for relational resilience and marital harmony when parents face these challenges. couples need more support from their spouses when they face difficult life or health issues and can cope with negative situations easier when they receive spousal support (aydogan & kizildag, 2017). they can therefore perceive stressors as more manageable and controllable, and cope with the family burden more easily when appropriated levels of spousal support are present. it is expected that the quality of marriage will be high in couples where the family burden is shared by providing spousal support. marriage quality can also positively affect the quality of parent-child relationships (wieland & baker, 2010). recent literature on child development indicates that there is a strong link between the quality of the parent-child relationship and child outcomes (hintsanen et al., 2019). children develop better skills to cope with and adapt to the difficulties of life when a strong and caring relationship exists between parents and children (frost et al., 2020). limitations and recommendations salih rakap et al. 67 there are at least three limitations of this study the reader should consider when interpreting the findings from this study. first, the study focused on a cross-sectional analysis of family burden and spousal support perceived by parents of children with special needs using a survey design. studies investigating these variables longitudinally and using different research approaches (e.g., mixed method approach) may reveal a deeper understating of factors that impact perceived family burden and spousal support. second, this study only included parents of children with asd and intellectual disabilities. therefore, results may not be generalizable to other populations. future research should examine perceived family burden and spousal support among parents of children who have other disabilities. third, this study focused on the negative impact of having a child with special needs on the family. recent studies have emphasized that children with special needs make positive contributions to the family over time (e.g., gokgoz & kabukcuoglu, 2022). families of children with special needs also develop various skills because of different experiences and improve their functioning. thus, future research should examine families of children with special needs in the context of positive and protective psychological characteristics such as forgiveness, post-traumatic growth, tolerance, self-compassion, and resilience. implications for practice and policy findings from the present study have a number of implications for services and practices offered to parents of children with disabilities. first, parents of children with special needs should be provided with therapies focused on developing coping strategies and resources when their children are identified with disabilities. moreover, the therapy and intervention efforts should focus on improving protective psychological characteristics identified in this study. these services should be readily available for parents to participate in following the diagnosis of their children with a disability. second, parents of children with special needs should be offered psychoeducational therapies and participate in the intervention sessions together for maximum benefit. these therapies can be used to support couples to learn different types of spousal support, to develop an understanding of spousal expectations, to provide spousal support to the other spouse, and to recognize the support offered by the spouse. although these supports may add additional burden to families of children with disabilities initially, parents who benefit from these services will be able to cope with the stress and burden associated with having a family member with disability and in turn, will be able to support development of their children more effectively. in fact, most parents focus on their children when they have identified disabilities and put themselves second, which often contribute to the increased parental stress and family burden. moreover, parents of young children with disabilities may have difficulty in navigating systems to identify services they need (brown et al., 2020). when parents experience high levels of stress and family burden, they may be less responsive to the needs of their children with special needs. the suggested support services will help parents to develop a supportive microsystem where strong, caring, and nurturing parent-child relationships exist. parents who develop coping strategies to address stress and family burden will become more empowered within their exosystems and will be able to employ their mesosystems to respond to the difficulties they encounter while taking care of their family members with special needs. the priority in the therapy services should be given to the parents of children with severe disabilities as the higher family burden and lower spousal support is more often associated with this group. these support services can be integrated into the currently existing family counseling program offered by the turkish ministry of family and social services. the current family counseling program focuses on providing counseling services to families who have come to the point of divorce due to communication problems between spouses and within families. as the ministry develops psychoeducational therapies for the parents and families of children with disabilities, they can be incorporated into the system and be offered by the professional working in the community mental health centers across the nation. in addition, parents of children with disabilities can receive temporary psychological support during urgent situation from the social support line offered by the ministry if the staff is trained to provide such support. moreover, family counseling services or units can be established within the hospitals that provide medical diagnosis of disabilities for young children. these efforts require policy changes in macrosystem and predictors of family burden in families caring for children… 68 collaboration among the ministry of family and social services and ministry of health. declarations author’s declarations acknowledgements: the authors would like to thank parents of children with special needs who participated in this study. authors’ contributions: the authors contributed equally to this paper. competing interests: the authors declare that they have no competing interests. funding: not applicable. ethics approval and consent to participate: this study was granted ethical approval from the social and human sciences research ethics committee of the ondokuz mayis university (date: 09.05.2019, decision 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childhood; collective biography; mind and body dualism; embodied mind; mindful body introduction: ‘listening’ to disobedient bodies what do we listen to? sounds, words, music, and much more, including any vibrations and resonances that give a sense of the world, arouse emotions, and create memories. but what if the vibrations and resonances came from within ourselves as opposed to the outside world? do we hear and listen to the ‘voices’ of our bodies? and if so, how do our bodies ‘sound’, as part of a social group or political epoch, such as childhood and modernity under socialism? such were the questions that stood at the beginning of our multidisciplinary academic experiment, triggered by a collective biography workshop, where we could all experience that “there are more ways to remember the past than speaking about it” (shaw, 2020, p. 2). about 30 interdisciplinary researchers and artists spent five days together in this workshop in 2019, recalling and sharing memories of childhood experiences in socialist and post-socialist contexts. as memories are not simply mental processes, our bodies were indispensable in our memory work as well. rooted in habitus (bourdieu, 1990), memories are also a polyphony of bodily senses, twitches, movements, tension in our muscles. in some of the recalled memories, the body ‘sounded’ with force, taking dominance over quieting attempts. we thus realized the body needed to receive central attention. in this paper, we explore childhood memories that were created during this workshop to explore childhood socialization, especially ideology directed to children’s bodies. although previous studies focusing on east central europe have thoroughly examined processes that aimed at building a collective memory (lieux de mémoire, monuments, ceremonies) and nostalgia for a past regime (georgescu, 2015; kašparová, 2018; silova et al., 2018), only recently and still rarely have they begun to explore childhood memories, and memories as carried in child bodies (henschel, 2020; _____________ 1 masaryk university, faculty of social studies, department of sociology – social anthropology, brno, czechia, e-mail: irenakasparova@seznam.cz, orcid: https://orcid.org/00000002-1148-9417 2 trinity college dublin, school of histories and humanities, department of history, dublin, ireland, e-mail: beatrice.scutaru@tcd.ie, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-37600937 3 tampere university, faculty of education and culture, tampere, finland, email: zsuzsa.millei@tuni.fi, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4681-6024 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202342278 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:irenakasparova@seznam.cz https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1148-9417 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1148-9417 mailto:beatrice.scutaru@tcd.ie https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3760-0937 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3760-0937 mailto:zsuzsa.millei@tuni.fi https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4681-6024 irena kašparová et al. 143 roubal, 2020). as children living in socialist societies, the authors of this paper were socialized into a discourse based on a dichotomy between the mind and body. research on the cold war has presented the education systems in former state socialist countries as overtly ideological, moulding and disciplining children (see more in silova et al., 2018). these observations are somewhat true. as children, we were also taught that we can learn to rule our bodies. we were made to stand in the sun for hours-long school meetings (https://coldwarchildhoods.org/portfolio/not-going-to-faint/) or perform in complete unison with hundreds of others after grueling practices (https://coldwarchildhoods.org/portfolio/moving-with-thecrowd/). failure of the body to function or work as instructed aroused fear and relief, embarrassment and joy, or even bullying. however, no ideology is omnipotent. bodies also slip up, avert, or simply remain unaffected by these attempts, thus troubling the modernist assumption of the separation between the mind and body. these processes become noticeable when the body ‘speaks back to the mind’ and reveals ‘bodily feelings’ or memories that present themselves non-verbally as visceral sensations, sounds, lights or feelings of warmth or terror, perhaps unrecognized by the mind. these actions give away the body’s relations to the world, which are not fully controlled by our mind. the acting, feeling and sensing body makes itself more easily ‘hearable’ during ‘dys’ time, meaning times of disobedience, or dis-funcion, with ‘dys’ being a greek prefix for ́ bad´, ´ill´, ´hard´ (leder, 1990, p. 84). we usually cannot help but to notice the action of our body at times of disharmony: it feels pain, falls ill or even collapses. recognising these bodily actions represents a first step towards conceptualizing the body as having a ‘voice’ (evans et al., 2009). thus, our aim here is to make space for ways of memory analysis that draw on body memory as a visceral and muscular choreography with the world. more than mere muscle memory, or remembering how something is done unconsciously, the body remembers our experiences of the world, and these past experiences live in our bodies (bourdieu, 1990; fuchs, 2012; simpkins, 2016). this paper seeks to engage in a more complex understanding of ideological socialization and its limits. we do not aim to provide a new theoretical approach to memory, nor bringing more analytical information about socialism. we aim to draw attention to childhood memories that trouble the modernist assumption of the separation between the mind and body, the possibility of complete control of the mind over the body, while illuminating processes of minding (the body) and bodying (the mind) (gunderson, 1975). moreover, the discussion of body memory we develop in this paper and the highlighted mechanisms of how socialization efforts create bodily memories seek to add to our understanding of the effects of pedagogical intentions in education. methodology: collective biography collective biography is a group method to explore the constitution of a subject through systematically recalled individual memories, which are then discussed in the group and collectively analyzed (davies et al., 2006). in practice, exploring memory with collective biography includes an understanding of an individual's feelings and actions, within a socio-political context (davies et al., 2006; gannon et al., 2021), by leaving aside possible adult interpretations, personal bias, presumptions or romanticisation of childhood or nostalgia. what remains is a memory story, which arouses feelings as people relate to the memory shared and feel the sensations the narrator felt. the analysis of memories seeks to disclose collective practices, social processes, and structures that formed the subjects the memories speak of (davies and gannon, 2009). collective biography was originally used by feminist scholars to shed light on the constitution of women selves by societal norms and expectations (haug et al., 1999). since its feminist genesis, which can be traced back to germany in the 1980s, the method has been used in numerous research fields and disciplines, ranging from the study of female-gendered subjects, such as schoolgirls (davies and gannon, 2006; davies et al., 2006), to neoliberalism (gannon et al., 2014), or (post)socialism (silova et al., 2018). for this paper, childhood memories were recalled, shared, written and rewritten after discussions that sought to bring in more details of memories, including how we felt in our bodies at that moment. in this type of memory work, the collective sense of the memory arises as part of the discussion. the group’s https://coldwarchildhoods.org/portfolio/not-going-to-faint https://coldwarchildhoods.org/portfolio/moving-with-the-crowd https://coldwarchildhoods.org/portfolio/moving-with-the-crowd ‘when the body speaks back’: socialization of body-mind… 144 questions do not only aim to create a richer description of a past experience but also seek to understand commonalities, connections and differences in these experiences. collective biography (davies and gannon, 2009), in this way, has no relation to collective memory, except that collective memory might inform some of the sense-making that happens when personal memories are shared with others. we came together in berlin as a group of artists and academics (including the authors of this paper), and shared memories about boundary crossing and childhood experiences where the body gained a prominent role. participation in the project was voluntary, as well as the consent to use the individual stories in a memory archive available freely on the internet, and as a material (‘data’) for further analysis. the workshop was part of the international memory research project re-collect/re-connect.4 the outcomes were memory stories that recounted events of reality-constitutive social facts, such as ‘fear’, ‘secrets’, or – for the purpose of this paper – ‘mind/body control and dis/obedience’, as experienced in former state socialist countries. the analysis of such memories do not only expose the mechanisms which connect the individual with the collective in the processes of identity formation and belonging, but also uncover power relations and cultural and ideological assumptions that nest in its very center. drawing upon our multidisciplinary background and, using the thinking-with-theory approach to qualitative research by jackson-mazzei (2011), we borrow and reconsider concepts of each other´s disciplines, that “create assemblages that demonstrate a range of analytical practices of thought, creativity and intervention” (jackson-mazzei, 2011, p. 717), that speak both broadly and in particular about childhood, socialist modernity and its utopian projects of childhood, and children's bodies as an object of socialization, discipline, politicization, power, and resistance. conceptual and theoretical framework mind and body duality the pair of mind and body walk through history and space as body and soul, material shrine and abstract spirit, contemporary and eternal, flesh and energy. this dualism, an entity made of two halfs yin and yang, male and female, nature and culture, anima and animus, body and mind has become rooted in the sacred and profane symbolism and, most importantly, in language, in which we communicate ideas about ourselves. due to a long history of the mind-body dualism, we were socialized under modernity to believe we are a composition of a (separate) physical body and an abstract mind, which science locates into our brain (lind, 2001; westphal, 2016). this dualism is more of a modern epistemology than a reality: “often the mind is identified with the brain, but minding [thinking, feeling, imagining, reflecting, analyzing] is a function of the brain (and the rest of the body). similarly, running is a function of the legs, but running and the legs are not identical. if we were to say that we do our running with our run, we would be reasoning similarly to the way we do when we say that we conduct our minding with our mind. in the former case the incorrectness of the statement is obvious” (gunderson, 1975, p. 317). gunderson further argues that, while the body is a descriptive symbol of an observable entity, the mind is a word only, an abstraction without existence in the non-verbal world. thus, to bring the two terms on the equal level of abstraction, we should speak about the minding-body relation, or more precisely minding-bodying processes, to reflect upon the dynamic nature of both ends of the life-living spectrum. the two are inseparable. “when minding ceases, we no longer have a living body and we call it a corpse” (gunderson, 1975, p. 318). all bodies, even those apparently created by science, are simultaneously both natural and social (douglas, 2020; fox, 2012; turner, 1995). the body is both fixed and real, as well as constantly changing or constructed. the phenomenological tradition of embodiment (merleau-ponty, 1962/2013) points towards a non-dichotomous ontology, where every act and observation come from the perspective of the particular lived body of a culture, society, time, class, age, and gender, shared with others (das leib, the body-for_____________ 4 https://coldwarchildhoods.org/, accessed on 12.11.2021. to learn more about the research method, follow about and then how we work with memories. see more on methodology in millei, z., silova, i., & piattoeva, n. (2022). kollektiivinen biografia: lähestymistapa kylmän sodan lapsuuksien tutkimiseen. in k. vehkalahti, e. jouhki, s. lipkin, j. sitomaniemi-san, & t. kuokkanen (eds.), matkaopas lapsuuden historian tutkimukseen : monitieteisiä näkökulmia ja menetelmiä (pp. 162-188). (historiallisia tutkimuksia; no. 288).. https://doi.org/10.21435/ht.288 https://coldwarchildhoods.org/ https://doi.org/10.21435/ht.288 irena kašparová et al. 145 itself, each one of us is a body). at the same time, and in the same physical place, the body is of an individual human being, a ‘real’ body (der korper, the body-in-itself, each one of us has a body) (berger & luckmann, 1966; turner, b., 1992). human embodiment is thus characterized by the ambiguity of being both personal and impersonal, subjective and objective, natural and social (simonsen & koefoed, 2020). along this tradition, it is our aim to engage with the materiality of our bodies, and at the same time pay attention to understanding the ways in which bodies are simultaneously always interpreted, culturally represented, and positioned. we consider the acknowledgement and appreciation of this ambiguity central to understanding the experience of a lived body and embodiment. social science gives us rich evidence of different cultural practices related to a lived body, where the mind is perceived as embodied and the body as mindful (bateson, 2000; csordas, 2002; lock and farquhar, 2007). the evidence highlights the cultural relativity of human experience, shaped by culturally different schemes of classification, while also challenging the seemingly natural division of mind and body, rooted in the western mode of thought. examples of this may be found in various forms of rituals and transpersonal spiritual experiences. in one classic anthropology, edith turner (1992) shows in detail how other cultures allow or even rest within the unity of the two. the ihamba ritual is central to healing processes of the ndembu people, in which the coexistence and co-operation of mind and body, which do not appear as separate entities but as a continuum of one another, is the vital ingredient. if one is blocked or restricted, emotions leak through alternative channels, taking an undesirable route, upon which a disbalance occurs, causing the body to ache, or the mind to wander into excitement, sensation or even insanity. to achieve healing processes, body and mind must be a unity (turner, 1992). drawing on our childhood memories of moments, when the separation of mind and body is no longer enforceable or possible, we highlight how the imaginary hierarchy between mind and body is disrupted and even transcended into the action of the lived body. transcending the mind and body duality in memories a memory is the product of a lived body. it is always relational, never stands on its own, while at the same time, it is conceived as very individual and unique because it stores our private experiences, thoughts, emotions, and sensations. memories construct our sense of self through a holistic approach of experience being imprinted in flesh. the body lives through the episode portrayed in the memory, it is affected, shaped, moved and altered through the experience, but it also remembers and stores the memory into the future for further use, association, identity recollection and reconnection. this is what bourdieu calls habitus, “an active presence of the whole past” (bourdieu 1990, p. 56) lived in each and every body. this process happens in an environment controlled by culture, ideology, time, and space. memory is thus contextual, culturally and historically relative, incorporating all aspects of our existence (assmann and czaplicka, 1995; roediger and wertsch, 2008; sansi, 2017). the matrix of interpretation of memories is thus not ambiguous but very concrete and shared. therefore, for people of the same time, space, and culture, a memory often connects to similar bodily sensations, poses, and actions, such as stiffness, tightness, absence of motion, bodily warmth, or butterflies in the stomach (koch et al., 2014). as such, the memory is a mirror of totalising human experiences. memory has often been discussed as a predominantly cognitive process. scholars have, however, been supporting the adoption of a more holistic approach to memories to overcome and move beyond the cartesian dualism of mind and body (fuchs, 2012). after bourdieu (1990), memory is discussed as habitus and theory of practice under which it no longer makes sense to separate the body and mind (comaroff & comaroff, 1992; shaw, 2020). as kleinman and kleinman (1994, p.716-717) further explain, “bodies transformed by political processes not only represent these processes, they experience them as lived memory of transformed worlds. the experience is of processes sedimented in gait, posture, movement, and all the other corporal components which together realize cultural code and social dynamics in everyday practices. the memorized experience merges subjectivity and social world.” in psychology and psychiatry, memory is widely discussed especially in relation to experiences of violence, trauma, abuse, and loss/grief (fuchs, 2012; hirsch, 2002). body memory is the “embodied ‘when the body speaks back’: socialization of body-mind… 146 information storage function of the body” (pylvänäinen, 2012, p. 289) or, differently said, it is what and how: what the body remembers from the past until the present and how the body remembers the past in the present (koch et al., 2012). according to koch and colleagues (2012), body memory can be habitual/procedural, situational, intercorporeal, incorporative, pain and traumatic. the division between them was created as an analytical tool and the types of body memory can and do overlap one another. while all of these analytical angles are illuminating, for the purpose of this paper we concentrate on the three types that are most prevalent in our childhood memories. first of all, there is the incorporative memory. it consists of experiences with others that influence our future interactions. they are the “interiorization” of the gaze upon others. both culture and family play an important role in this interiorization process, as the gaze of the child needs to be oriented towards the values and rules of the specific social environment through socialization. progressively, incorporative memory becomes a form of collective memory, or what assmann and czaplicka call communicative memory (1995). young (2002) demonstrates that the body of the child inherits and integrates family traditions, practices, corporeal dispositions: children devise their own presentation of the self in relation to not only family stories, but also bodies, because “bodies are judgements about how to relate to the world” (young, 2002, p. 26). the body presents itself as a version of the family body, as “memory made flesh” (ibid). the second type of body memory is related to pain. painful experiences impact our behavior in the present and in the future. while grief can cause one to withdraw from life (koch et al., 2014, p. 276), the body maintains a memory of the connection with people once lost, expressed as embodied reactions of “stiff, painful bodies” (simpkins, 2016, p. 6). this stiffness is frequently present in the childhood memories we analyze. as hentz (2002) demonstrates, the memory of painful events is, to a large extent, re-lived as it was lived the first time, thus enduring into the future. the third type of body memory is traumatic memory. it can exist both consciously and unconsciously and be re-experienced without the person understanding why the feelings and sensations surface (koch et al., 2014, p. 276). these events “manifest themselves in behavior patterns into which a person repeatedly blunders” (fuchs, 2012, p. 70), thus attempts to forget consciously or subconsciously are doomed to fail. contrary to this, a conscious re-living of such a memory can have a healing effect upon the individual (csordas, 2016; shaw, 2020; skultans, 2008), as some of us have experienced during our memory workshop. we have argued so far that all memories are stored as sensual experiences lived through individual bodies (schepher-hughes, 1992) and amalgamate a person's individuality with the collectivity of a particular epoch and its ideology (humphries, 1995; kleinman & kleinman, 1994; poole, 2008. the final part of our theoretical anchor will set the scene in which the memorized events took place. socialist modernity and childhood the modern notion of childhood is understood as distinct from adulthood (ariès, 1996; demause, 1995; fass, 2013). what a child is and what childhood is supposed to be are strongly shaped by adult perceptions and, as sorin and galloway (2006) argue, children learn ‘a way of being’ different from adults, in worlds created by others before they were born. as such, childhood is a social construction both as an idea and as a period of life (james & prout, 2005) specific to time and space (stearns, 2011). cultures and societies have been and still are devoting a great deal of time and effort to developing elaborate norms and rules, methods and avenues to train children, to capacitate, discipline, and control them (hochschild, 1979; lancy, 2008). modernity, accompanied by technological expansion, war, and post-war conflicts, brought about destruction and despair, in which countries, societies, ideologies, and cultures had to re-built themselves (wagner, 2008). children were seen as the best hope of recovering and prospering. they became the backbone of new political orders (fürst, 2010; kucherenko, 2016; taylor, 2006). in modern nation states, the purpose of children's regulation is to “instill into the young people the values that would enable them to be proper citizens of their nations in the future” (schumann, 2010, p. 1). a child-citizen was trained not irena kašparová et al. 147 only to absorb the ideology of the time (millei & imre, 2015; teszenyi et al., 2022), but also to learn and embody the culture, a process synonymous with civilizing the child's actions and body (millei, 2011; roubal, 2020). in the second half of the 20th century, following the soviet example, east central european state socialist societies in which our memories are situated implemented a series of measures aimed at creating a new society and ‘new person’ with a particular understanding of individualism and collectivism (klumbytè & sharafutdinova, 2013). children and youth played an essential part in this process. through self-fashioning/self-realization, children were supposed to develop a “nature-given, unique, and personalized socialist self” that consciously wanted to be useful to society and felt a responsibility to the collective (krylova, 2017, p. 336). an important part of socializing children was their correct bodily discipline, self care and appropriate public conduct (roubal, 2020; tesar, 2018; teszenyi et al., 2022). in a socialist society, the lives of most children and parents were separated early on. as mothers went to work a few months after giving birth (and fathers never stopped working), the state provided professional and ideologically oriented institutionalized care, to which the children were expected to be entrusted and where they spent a lot of their time. in east central european countries, disciplining children’s bodies was thus mainly in the hands of institutions, including kindergartens, schools, the health system, sport and youth organizations, such as the pioneers and socialist youth, as well as its ideologically driven leaders. it is these institutions that would mold and shape the ‘dis/obedient’ body during the cold war, socializing children along the desired ideals and ideological prescriptions (georgescu, 2015; millei, 2011; rehak, 2014). despite the focus on the collective and homogenizing tendencies, the role and responsibility of individuals to comply, to discipline, and to transform themselves consciously, including their own bodies for example through the civic duty to work, to exercise, to comply with vaccination schemes, to select appropriate hairstyles were also emphasized and valued (horvat, 1973; oates-indruchová, 2003). under the modernist project of socialism, the body was idealized and standardized as healthy, strong, amiable, dis-personalized but most of all controllable by the individual´s mind. failure to do so was never interpreted as a failure of the system of thought but rather as a failure of an individual teacher, or that of the child her/himself, having to bear the punishment that followed (georgescu, 2010; henschel, 2020; oates-indruchová, 2003; roubal, 2003). disobedience to societal norms and rules, and civilizing efforts, are occasionally in social science discussed as a matter out of place, a deviation, a moment of losing control, which will preferably be restored soon. along this thinking, the body is expected to behave, to fall into place, while the mind is expected to try harder, relentlessly and more systematically to govern the body. as children of socialist modernity, we remember striving to obey and to discipline our bodies, as well as the fear of failure, punishment, embarrassment, and often even humiliation if not successful. we also remember situations when our aim to discipline our body was well beyond the capacity of our mind, no matter how hard we tried. during our childhood, socio-political circumstances made us believe this inability was due to us being an anomaly, showing inadequate effort, inadequate self-discipline and training. the body, however, cannot be colonized by the mind indefinitely since, as we propose in this article, these are not two separate entities, despite the culture we were brought up in. while studies of socialist childhood during the cold war have seen a growing interest, as illustrated by the recent special number “re-imagining socialist childhoods: changing narratives of spatial and temporal (dis)orientations'' (teszenyi et al., 2022) published in the journal of childhood, education & society, much of the scholarship on the topic focuses on the practices and policies which aim to nurture and shape future socialist citizens. with this article we aim to contribute to this growing scholarship. by drawing on body memories, we will not only reflect on the impact of attempts at controlling the body, but ‘when the body speaks back’: socialization of body-mind… 148 also on how the body (re)acts, with the objective of better understanding the embodiment of the mindbody dualism during childhood. in the following sections, we explore our childhood memories and those of our colleagues, recounting how children’s bodies negotiated and struggled under socialization efforts and how they gained, re-gained, and lost control, while at the same time trying to make sense of the embedded and embodied nonsensuous duality between the mind and body they have been socialized into. body memories stereotypes re-affirmed: childhood bodies as an object of power growing up by gaining control over the body our bodies remember being, as children, a vessel of control, measurement, care, observation, socialization, discipline, alteration, and many other dysfunctions-to-be-corrected (leder, 1990; hörschelmann & colls, 2009; henschel, 2020). children’s bodies have been an object of power on which others exercise their will. this need not be a criticism. while we will address power abuse later in the text, what we want to bring forward at this point is the false but firmly rooted assumption about disconnection between mind and body (simonsen & koefoed, 2020). our stories expose a number of occasions in which childhood bodies were made the object of some common vision, idea or ideology, regardless of time and space. this happened through explicit regimentation that targeted children’s bodies through shaping their mind to develop self-control of bodies. bodies, in this regulatory way, were shaped, dressed, and restricted according to the aesthetics and norms of the occasion, determining children's clothes, hairstyle but also limiting movement and emotions. it was the first day of school. the young girl was seven and brimming with excitement at the thought of all the new things that awaited her. she feels full of energy, like it will burst out of her body. the school supplies and backpack had that specific new smell that she loved and amplified her emotions. her heart was speeding. she wanted to move but needed to be careful with the clothes. she was wearing a brand-new blue and white uniform, with new cuffs and collar, perfectly white, well ironed and adorned with embroidery. her hair had been carefully combed by her mother into two ponytails adorned with big white bows. her mother had even taken her to a photographer that morning, in order to take a picture of her dressed like this. she hoped she would make many friends among her new classmates. she also felt a bit intimidated by the whole thing. everything was new and the young girl wanted to make a good impression... https://coldwarchildhoods.org/portfolio/alone-in-the-classroom the girl goes to school for the first time in her life. dynamic bodily energy such as excitement, heartbeat, urge for movement is mandated to be restrained to adhere to the occasion both materially, in the form of a new school uniform that is not tailored for exercise, and symbolically sitting still at the photographer, having her hair neatly combed (see hair bows and school uniforms also in dussel, 2005; millei et al., 2018). from now on, this will be her daily reality for the next ten years, she will need to retrain extra energies, untidy hair and uniform. the girl complies with the expectations and procedures of this rite of passage, exerting self-discipline and restraining her body within the material constraints (clothes, hairpin etc) along with her emotions. at other times, the self-restraint that is demanded to be exercised by her mind over her body is unsustainable. ...the teacher is talking to the students. the girl starts talking to her classmate whispering “what is your name?”, already trying to make new friends, at least get to know them. the next thing the girl remembers is being asked to show her palms to the teacher who hits her with a long wooden stick as a punishment for speaking. the girl feels a faint stinging sensation in her palms... https://coldwarchildhoods.org/portfolio/alone-in-the-classroom/ in our memories, adults are an authority, because they act as masters of children’s minds and therefore bodies, making their minds do things prescribed by social expectations. discipline and punishment are used to teach children that only by conforming to the rules and properly controlling their bodies can children grow up to be desired persons. self-formation, self-control and forms of civility are https://coldwarchildhoods.org/portfolio/alone-in-the-classroom https://coldwarchildhoods.org/portfolio/alone-in-the-classroom/ irena kašparová et al. 149 sought to be developed and governed by children’s minds, teaching children that their mind can be in control over their bodies, and hence separated from their bodies. frequently, however, power is used for an individual's pleasure or interests and exerted over the child. this behavior ranges from violation of law to self deception on the side of adults. children in these situations often feel that something is wrong but cannot fully work out what is in their power to do, as we will see in the next two memories. ...on this particular occasion, the teacher was standing behind her and put his hands on her shoulders. it did not feel comfortable but just about bearable. after a while, his hands slipped onto her breasts. she felt shock and horror and her whole body froze. she stopped playing the guitar and her body tensed curling against his touch. the teacher just said ‘carry on’ and she carried on playing. she did not know what else to do. she knew that this was not right, he should not be touching her. she was a ‘good girl’ and did not want to offend the teacher by telling him to stop or walking away.... https://coldwarchildhoods.org/portfolio/only-god-protected-her/ ...all his childhood, he had to have his hair shaved. his mother didn’t like long hair on boys. his mother didn’t like ginger hair. so she thought if the hair is shaved very often, it will get darker. almost every week he was at the hairdresser. it was like a curse loop. over and over again, his mother would monitor the hair, how long it was and that it was time for shaving. it was getting harder and harder to convince him to do so, so she had to invent new excuses and reasons. she started blackmailing him, saying she won’t walk with him on the street because it was embarrassing. afterwards they purchased a shaving machine and they were doing it at home, in the bathroom… https://coldwarchildhoods.org/portfolio/the-boy-with-ginger-hair/ the children struggle to conform to the learned ideals of ‘good’/’appropriate’ child behavior, of letting the adult control their bodies. in the first memory snippet above, the child is trained in the gendered practice of emotional labor (hochschild, 1979), as well as learning to exist in multiple consciousness, a product of state socialism. she learned the need to suppress (the expression of) certain feelings in public spaces, for example dissenting feelings towards socialist ideology in large scale socialist celebrations, and tries to pretend and regulate her body by suppressing the bodily expression of her emotions. the child body fails to completely follow the learned patterns of behavior and freezes, tenses and curls in an unsuccessful attempt to slip out from the adult’s domination. in the second memory, the child's hair is an unwanted color, perhaps a sign of unwanted difference or even stigma. the mother does not even engage the child to control his body, the hairdresser is recruited to exercise this control and cut the hair regularly. in light of increasing resistance from the boy, the mother enlists forms of emotional violence in her quest to control the child’s body. in both memories, adults seem to effortlessly slide over such tension and expect the child to exercise the control over their bodies the adults themselves seek to exert, to quiet the rebellion of the child. as long as the control endures, and no matter of what price, everything is labeled all right. a socialist child is a development project, a semi-finished product, a tabula rasa (demause, 1995; silova et al., 2018), which only through education, discipline and training will reach full humanity. under socialist modernity, children strive to grow up, since adulthood is presented to them as the real world, the time that matters, the time when life gains sense and meaning by being able to participate and contribute to the common goal of building the happy state and happy future (georgescu, 2015). under socialism, children are valued not for their immediate contribution but for their future possibilities (fürst, 2010; kucherenko, 2016, taylor, 2006). only occasionally, they get the taste of the adult world. she is in the hospital bed, waiting for tonsil extractions. there was no room in the children's ward, so they admitted her to the ladies´ room. she felt privileged, she felt special . ...the buzzing of the neon lamps is only interrupted by soft conversations about knitting patterns and strawberry pesticides. she feels lonely. the ladies quickly run out of short informative polite questions to which she gives short polite informative answers. nobody to talk to. she is terribly lonely. she wants to cry but nobody cries around here. not here. here are only adults. she was placed here, because she looks like an adult….https://coldwarchildhoods.org/portfolio/adult-hospital-ward/ the child strives to control the body with her mind, as she was taught it is an ‘adult’ thing to do. mastering emotions and restraining the body accordingly gives a child a ticket into the adult world not only symbolically throughout school attendance, all tuned into this idea, but also on some occasions in reality, as if getting a taste of the adult world. despite being unhappy and uncomfortable, the situation is not interpreted as a threat but as a distinction, an honor. despair, discomfort, dys-funcion of the body https://coldwarchildhoods.org/portfolio/only-god-protected-her/ https://coldwarchildhoods.org/portfolio/the-boy-with-ginger-hair/ https://coldwarchildhoods.org/portfolio/adult-hospital-ward/ ‘when the body speaks back’: socialization of body-mind… 150 (leder, 1990), the bodily signal of 'something being wrong' is re-interpreted and consecrated as a necessary step into adulthood. stereotypes dys-affirmed: childhood bodies as a subject of power when the body overpowers the mind collected childhood memories are full of stories where we as children try to behave, comply, teach, and force our bodies but the results simply do not arrive. the body can refuse, resist, and ‘speak back’, thus leaving the child in confusion, not being able to make sense of it, imprinting it in body-memories. ...a nurse comes in the evening, handing each person a thermometer and medicine, asking each and everyone: “did you have your stool today?” the girl panics. what on earth is she talking about? what is a stool? surely, she does not mean the chair to rest one's feet after a long and tiring day!?... she is helpless, shy, ashamed for not knowing, not being the big girl. apparently, ´yes´ is the correct answer to the nurse’s question, every woman answers yes, so will she. but what if she misses something vital? what if the stool is some kind of a pill necessary for her operation? ….she dares not to ask, not to betray the trust of all those who have chosen for her to be among the adults. she wants to comply, to keep up the facade, the mask, to stay in control. the mind is determined but the body betrays her. she develops diarrhea and fever and receives a pill to cure both. in the morning, they move her downstairs to the children's ward. she feels she is allowed to be a child again; she allows herself to cry. https://coldwarchildhoods.org/portfolio/adult-hospital-ward/ a taste of the adult world, originally perceived as a treat by the child, may soon turn into a nightmare. the child perceives the adult world as remote and obscure, with unknown words and attitudes difficult to copy, where feelings are not freely expressed, where everyone seems to be in control and their bodies behave as prescribed: a stool a day. the child is convinced of not belonging to this world to which she does not have the codes. she is terrified of the idea of being discovered as an impostor. despite the child's best efforts and emotional labor to behave as expected, as ‘a big girl’ or a ‘woman’, body symptoms express the turmoil and pressure she is experiencing. these symptoms expose the child’s lack of belonging in the adult sphere. the balance between training and harming the body is very difficult to determine, once cartesian dualism is upheld and the mind is trained to reign over the body. sporting activities are some of the other fields where these battles are often performed. ...the regional competition took place the day before. she did her usual combination: javelin, discus, shot put and long jump. she already felt the pain as she pushed off during the long jump and then on the way home sitting on the bus she could hardly bear the pain. by morning she could not move. even the tiniest of movements came with shooting pain. as she was lying in bed motionless, she slowly buried her dream of becoming an olympic champion. https://coldwarchildhoods.org/portfolio/backpain/ when symptoms are ignored, pain overpowers the senses. the mind wishes to push aside, to bury the messages, it keeps training and regain control over the pain, in an attempt to dismiss a reality the mind is not ready to accept, which is inappropriate, not in line with wishes, ideologies or expectations. distress expressed through illness, injury, and overwhelming pain, makes the child facing an undesirable reality, the loss of a dream. childhood is also a world of incomplete knowledge (brown, 2003; postman, 1994), especially when it comes to sexuality and bodily functions. in order to preserve ideals of childhood innocence, children were at some historical point envisioned by adults as in need to be isolated from all that pertains to the constructed adult world, such as war, violence and sexuality. it was achieved by isolating children spatially from the world of adults (through schools, children's rooms, etc.) and establishing the written word as a main channel of communicating information, encoded in books rather than transmitted orally as local knowledge or gained by keen observation. such a modernist idea of a child as incomplete goes hand in hand with schooling and appropriate socialization on their way to complete humanity complete adulthood. in such a childhood, the body is sought to be controlled but not completely known or understood. partial knowledge leads to panic and anxiety. ...the girl was at home all alone. in pain. something was wrong, but she was not quite sure what. an unfamiliar pain in the stomach – extending into her lower back – the pain she had she never felt before. it started earlier in the day https://coldwarchildhoods.org/portfolio/adult-hospital-ward/ https://coldwarchildhoods.org/portfolio/backpain/ irena kašparová et al. 151 when she was at school. she tried to ignore the pain then, counting the minutes until the classes were over and hoping that she would feel better after coming home. but the pain was only getting worse. and her anxiety was growing. then the blood. both on her panties and on the toilet paper. the feeling of horror that something is really really wrong. what was happening to her? was she dying? life cut so short. her parents’ expectations never met. panicking, she tried to call her mother at work, but there was no answer... https://coldwarchildhoods.org/portfolio/not-going-todie-period/ as in the previous memory, the ignored bodily expression does not go away but subjugates all else. information and explanation may help but it does not suffice to overcome the pain and distress. in the end it is by acknowledging the reality and aiming to understand what is happening with her body that the crisis is averted. some concluding thoughts stories of childhood about everyday spaces and experiences of state socialism are instances of constant re-interpretation and re-positioning woven together during the collective biography workshops. with the analysis of these memories, we reflect critically on the cartesian mind/body separation, the ontology in which modern western humans are dominantly socialized, taught to think and understand their experiences. in unison with other theorists, we proposed that this is one possible interpretation of human existence that has particular consequences for children’s everyday lives. as it has been pointed out many years ago by gunderson (1975), the mind and body dualism is more of a modern epistemology than a reality. the two are inseparable, yet we keep teaching children about their separateness and demand that once learned they can exert control over their body with their mind in line with societal expectations of civilized behavior. moreover, because these bodily memories are less spoken about, how socialization efforts create bodily memories as effects of pedagogical intentions are less discussed yet have long lasting reverberations. childhood under state socialism was characterized by a belief in standardization, normativity, universalism and discipline, based not only on physical punishment as during pre-modern times but also on compliance to ideological norms. institutions used specially developed pedagogies to lift the community needs over those of the individual, to teach equality through universalism, and paid special effort to teach children to internalize the norms associated with the social and socialist ideals, and to comply with them, including body regulations and a primacy of will over the body. different state socialist countries and in different time periods applied varying levels of force to enact this type of socialization, towards the shared aim to turn children into the new socialist ‘man’, disciplined and with a steel will on improving himself to improve society (millei, 2011; silova et al., 2018). when children failed to succeed, it was predominantly interpreted on the grounds of insufficiency of training, knowledge, age and time investment. growing up into adulthood under state socialism was therefore closely connected with mastering the body with the mind, despite its dys-comfort, dys-agreement or simply dys-function (leder 1990). while we are aware that in other non-state socialist countries then and today the mind-body dualism is also taught and learned, and discipline and control are applied as part of school practices, we wanted to show how these efforts specifically translated into everyday experiences of socialism that childhood memories narrated. our memories, however, also tell about numerous occasions when events did not run as intended, when the body resisted being governed to the extent that it ‘spoke back’, it was heard and listened to, or even took over the situation. thus, full control has never been possible and the symptoms often eclipsed these powerful efforts to completely instrumentalise children for socialist ideals. with this article, we did not seek objective truths of childhood or of state socialism, simply, we wanted to understand better how an idea of mind-body division becomes embodied during childhood taking this particular case where ideology and its socialization received great importance. however, our exploration connects with experiences in other parts of the world showing the similarities of socialization in schools and everyday life. drawing on body memory, which is a visceral and muscular choreography with the world (koch et al., 2014), demonstrates the necessity of creating new ways to understand our being in the world in which mind, body, and emotions are never separated. new theorizing could also help in identifying new methods of analyzing and teaching ways of being and becoming. since childhood and https://coldwarchildhoods.org/portfolio/not-going-to-die-period/ https://coldwarchildhoods.org/portfolio/not-going-to-die-period/ ‘when the body speaks back’: socialization of body-mind… 152 growing up are interwoven processes of minding and bodying, we argue the interest of a change of vocabulary, theory and pedagogical practices by focusing on processes rather than outcomes (jackson and mazzei, 2011). declarations authors’ declarations acknowledgements: not applicable. authors’ contributions: each author contributed equally to this paper and ik lead the process. competing interests: the authors declare that they have no competing interests. funding: this study was partly supported by kone foundation (grant no.: 201804719). ethics approval and consent to participate: ethical approval has been granted to this project by arizona state university, usa and consent to participate was given by each participant. publisher’s declarations editorial acknowledgement: the editorial process of this article was carried out by dr. mehmet toran. publisher’s note: journal of childhood, education & society remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliation. references ariès, p. 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(2002) the memory of the flesh: the family body in somatic psychology. body & society, 8(3), 25-47. https://doi.org/10.1177/1357034x02008003002 https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/10776.001.0001 https://doi.org/10.1177/1357034x02008003002 ‘when the body speaks back’: socialization of body-mind dualism in body memories of cold war childhoods journal of childhood, education & society volume 4, issue 1, 2023, 95-113 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.202341231 research article ©2023 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. ‘what are the goals of kindergarten?’ consistency of teachers’ and parents’ beliefs about kindergarten goals nikolaos oudatzis 1, konstantinos tzikas 2, charalampos poulos 3 abstract: the teachers’ perceptions of the curriculum or their beliefs about how children learn can influence the quality of the teaching activity and its final outcome. furthermore, the importance of an extended cooperation and mutual understanding between the actors involved (kindergarten teachers – parents) seems to be a crucial issue in order to establish a supportive framework. the research is structured in two dimensions. we seek the beliefs of kindergarten teachers (k-teachers) and parents, as well as their mutual perceptions of each other’s beliefs, i.e., k-teachers for parents and parents for k-teachers, about the importance of kindergarten goals. the study was conducted in greece, specifically in the region of central macedonia, in june 2021, after the re-opening of schools due to the covid-19 pandemic. a sample of 330 k-teachers and 419 parents from public and private schools responded to closed-ended questionnaires, rating –on a 5-point likert scalethe importance of 14 kindergarten goals. we found that k-teachers generally underestimated parents’ beliefs about kindergarten goals relative to their own beliefs and overestimated parents’ beliefs about the ‘academic’ curriculum goals; a trend that was not confirmed by the parallel survey of parents’ beliefs. in contrast, parents appeared to express a more balanced perception between their own beliefs and those they perceived k-teachers to hold. we also found evidence of differentiation between private and public schools. according to the findings, a harmonized perception of kindergarten goals by k-teachers and parents in private versus public schools is apparent. article history received: 14 august 2022 accepted: 30 january 2023 keywords teachers’ and parents’ beliefs; early childhood education; kindergarten goals; curriculum; covid19 introduction despite the research interest in recording the beliefs, attitudes and perceptions of k-teachers, there is limited research on their perceptions of kindergarten goals in relation to the curriculum (bautista et al., 2016; sverdlov & aram, 2016). similarly, parents’ beliefs and assessments about the role and goals of kindergarten, although reflecting to some extent expectations, degree of involvement in the learning process, etc., have not been extensively researched. therefore, exploring parents' and teachers' perceptions about kindergarten goals will enhance our knowledge of their expectations and potentially provide patterns of beliefs related to demographic variables. a second research dimension, important for the study, refers to exploring mutual perceptions of each other’s beliefs regarding the importance of kindergarten goals. the identification of the factors that influence the coherence of parents' and k-teachers' perceptions about kindergarten goals opens up areas of research to determine the conditions that constitute convergence and its outcomes, focusing on the child's all-round development. the multidimensional field of early childhood education is often treated uniformly and undifferentiated in terms of the components that could enhance a more analytical understanding of the field, ignoring dimensions related to k-teachers and parents. this way, for example, despite the range of student attendance in private kindergartens in greece, parallel to public ones, k-teachers and parents of _____________ 1 university of western macedonia, school of social sciences and humanities, department of early childhood education, florina, greece, e-mail: noudatz@yahoo.gr, orcid: https://orcid.org/000-0003-3021-1397 2 ionian university, faculty of humanities, department of foreign languages translation & interpreting, corfu, greece, e-mail: ktzikas10@yahoo.gr, orcid: https://orcid.org/000-0002-8498-8057 3 university of western macedonia, school of social sciences and humanities, department of early childhood education, florina, greece, e-mail: mpapou34@gmail.com, orcid: https://orcid.org/000-0003-2806-6880 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202341231 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:noudatz@yahoo.gr https://orcid.org/000-0003-3021-1397 mailto:ktzikas10@yahoo.gr https://orcid.org/000-0002-8498-8057 mailto:mpapou34@gmail.com https://orcid.org/000-0003-2806-6880 nikolaos oudatzis et al. 96 private kindergartens, especially the latter as they have made a conscious educational choice, have not been included as an additional variable to assess the possible effects on attitudes, evaluations and beliefs about kindergarten goals. in the same direction, despite the fact that there exists the parallel operation of all-day and half-day programs, where the latter is distinguished for its extensive opportunities to exploit educational stimuli that seem to correlate with enhanced academic perspectives (carbonaro, 2006; cooper et al., 2010; gullo, 2006), especially for families with limited cultural and social capital (lau & li, 2018), or the mixed age of attendance (4-5, 5-6), the most common research practice is their uniform and undifferentiated inclusion. the feasibility of our study is further fueled by the inclusion of variables that remained uncontrolled, namely, the correlations with partners’ beliefs, which may have an impact on the quality of family-school interaction, shared attitudes and perceptions, mutual educational exchanges, etc. in this context, we estimated the school year 2020/1 as to have been a challenging condition to conduct the survey: i) given the enforced and extended interruption of face-to-face teaching twice (november-december and march-may) for a total of 11 weeks due to the covid-19 pandemic, and ii) the ‘mandatory’ daily contact of the key partners through synchronized distance learning platforms, to record their beliefs and assessments of each other regarding the kindergarten goals. pre-school education and curriculum the integration and attraction of institutional and non-institutional interest in early childhood education, although it may start from different starting points of reflection, has prioritized its expansion as an education and political priority (organisation for economic co-operation and development [oecd], 2017; united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization [unesco], 2019; council of the european union, 2019). from a primary framework of institutionalization and consolidation, often narrowly defined as the percentage of the respective age group attending early education schools, a more qualitative shift of concern is gradually emerging. new dimensions are introduced that broaden the debate with issues concerning: the quality of services provided, the scientific and professional development of teachers, the increase of public investment, the achievement of ‘adequate child-to-staff ratios’ (council of the european union, 2010), but also the shift of interest from the level of protection (‘care’), to the level of education (alexiadou & altmann, 2020; oecd, 2015). the multifaceted reflection (bassok et al., 2016; miller & almon, 2009), however, seems to exert selective and limited influences in greece (stellakis, 2018), while, a decisive shift in the kindergarten curriculum (socialization skills, play-oriented, etc.) towards a dominant academic orientation is recognized (gallant, 2009; kim et al., 2005). this expanded framework of reflection in its final educational expression, as an educational policy, defines through institutional interventions the operational framework for pre-school education, formulating: broader and renewed curriculum goals, new knowledge areas and teaching approaches. greek early education policy context the greek educational system is characterized by its centralised structure. the formulation and institutionalization of educational policy follows a top-down process, with the central government, the ministry of education, and the bodies supervised by it, playing a decisive role (fotopoulou & ifanti, 2017; ifanti, 1995). thus, it is argued, that the interests of ‘different stakeholders and broader societal needs’ are not taken into account (saiti & eliophotou-menon, 2009). the institute of educational policy (i.e.p.) is the body responsible for the specialization of educational policy at the level of implementation. i.e.p. is an executive scientific body that supports the ministry of education on issues concerning all levels of education. the purpose of the institute is scientific research and ‘technical support for the planning and implementation of educational policy’. among its multiple responsibilities, it ‘advices, at the request of the minister of education or makes ex officio recommendations to the minister of education’ on matters relating to ‘the curricula of primary and secondary education’, and the ‘initial and in-service training of teachers’ (law 3966, 2011). a second level of interest concerns the organization of the studies of future k-teachers. university departments operate based on the constitutional principle of ‘self-government’. thus, departments ‘what are the goals of kindergarten?’ consistency of teachers’… 97 autonomously determine the structure and organization of their studies, both in terms of the ‘content of the curriculum’, and the time allocated to some of them (stylianidou et al., 2004). teacher training, however, and especially their practical training during their studies, seems to influence their experiences (birbili & tsitouridou, 2019). the third level, which we call the ‘practice level’, refers to the implementation of the kindergarten curriculum as part of the wider educational policy. in greece, the ‘cross-thematic integrated framework for the preschool curriculum’ of 2003 regulates the unified character of the kindergarten curriculum, defining the transition to a renewed pedagogical, didactic and methodological approach (government gazette, 2003). the programme is structured around five directions for the planning and development of activities in language, mathematics, environmental studies, creation and expression, and information technology. the key words of the programme are the flexibility of choices at all levels (subject matter, methodology, means, resources, etc.) (doliopoulou, 2006) and the interdisciplinary approach to knowledge and teaching (birbili & myrovali, 2020) that integrates knowledge areas by developing appropriate practical and exploratory activities that are meaningful for children, so that they can develop their personality, socialize and learn about the world (doliopoulou & sousloglou, 2007). the greek kindergarten curriculum allows, given the multi-level hierarchy of goals, and the limited external recording and evaluation (dimitropoulos & kindi, 2017), differentiated and often individual levels of mediation of educational policy intentions (birbili, 2017), thus, making, we would argue, each kindergarten classroom unique at the level of school teaching practice. the flexibility of the curriculum and teaching methodology allows for the selective use of individual goals, i.e. more emphasis on one area over others. this dimension, despite the uniform nature of the curriculum in all types of kindergartens (public – private), allows for potentially differentiated adaptations are influenced by k-teachers’ beliefs and social preferences. therefore, k-teachers’ beliefs for the curriculum orientations (cheung & ng, 2000; cheung & wong, 2002), given the provided flexibility of the greek curriculum, may influence their individual choices on teaching methodology, activation strategies, and perceived goals (cheung, 2000; ennis, 1992). the fourth level, which we would define as the ‘primary caregiver level’, concerns the cooperation between parents and k-teachers. this level is determined by the reluctance of k-teachers to hand over part of their pedagogical work to parents, as they do not recognize them the required ‘knowledge, skills and experience’ (sakellariou & rentzou, 2007). thus, given the absence of institutionalized norms of equal and extensive cooperation with parents, k-teachers seem to accept a basic, but limited, framework of communicative exchanges with parents. therefore, joint planning and decision-making, parental involvement in the formulation of goals or in the design and implementation of the programme are not accepted by k-teachers (doliopoulou & kontogianni, 2003). according to bæck (2010) teachers tend to emphasize the elements that constitute their professionalism, probably to protect their position as the only ones holding power in the social space of the school. in greece, the attendance in kindergarten became compulsory, despite the earliest widespread social acceptance of the institution. the widespread acceptance is evidenced on the high rates of attendance of students of the same age in kindergartens (kamerman, 2006), although smaller compared to eu other countries mean attendance or availability (european commission/eacea/eurydice/eurostat, 2014; petrogiannis, 2010), for one year of attendance in 2006 (law 3518/2006), for all children aged five, and from 2018 (law 4521, 2018) for two years of attendance, for all children aged four. the construction of teachers’ and parents’ beliefs about kindergartens goals k-teachers extensive research has been conducted focusing on teachers’ attitudes, perceptions and beliefs. the orientation of the research varies in terms of investigating beliefs, separating them into explicit or implicit, searching for factors that shape them, controlling their stability or variability, the role of the social context for their activation, etc. a thorough inventory and categorization of the extensive literature on teachers’ beliefs has been carried out by pajares (1992) and fives & buehl (2012) highlighting the multivalent nikolaos oudatzis et al. 98 conceptualization and the absence of a coherent frame of reference. however, it seems that a common, explicit or implicit, dimension of the studies stimulates research interest in the function of beliefs as a factor related to educational attitudes and practices, but also as a variable influencing the quality of the educational output. pajares (1992) identified a ‘messy construct’, considered teachers’ beliefs, provided a summary of theoretical approaches, urging the statement of a framework as ‘fundamental assumptions’ at the beginning of a study on teachers’ beliefs. under this conception we perceive beliefs as a system of relatively stable, subjectively constituted assertions that work both ways; influencing the understanding and interpretation of social reality and of the self in it, in a process of affirmative validation of initial beliefs. beliefs are hierarchically interconnected with other cognitive and affective structures and are often held intact under conditions of rational challenge. their dynamics lie in their selective activation processes for defining tasks, selecting appropriate cognitive tools, planning actions and making decisions. teachers’ beliefs seem to be characterized by a homogeneity rooted in ‘communities of practice’, symbiotic exchanges of practices, values, meanings and a repertoire of communal resources (lave & wenger, 1991; wenger, 1998). a perspective of high interest in our study is the exploration of beliefs in the broader context of teachers’ positioning and the social context of their integration (barkatsas & malone, 2005; kagan, 1995). despite the support for a formation of teachers’ beliefs before they enter the profession (di santo et al., 2017; florio-ruane & lensmire, 1990; la paro et al., 2009; thompson, 1992) and their relative stability (brousseau et al., 1988; gooya, 2007; kagan, 1995; moseley et al., 2002; thompson, 1992), we are more interested in a less pessimistic perspective that focuses on the extent of variation in teachers’ beliefs and their variability in different contexts (fives & buehl, 2012). this perspective is consistent with bandura’s ‘triadic reciprocal causation’ theory that ‘human adaptation and change are rooted in social systems. therefore, personal agency operates within a broad network of socio-structural influences’ (1997, p. 6), according to which two-way relationships between the individual’s self-system, their actions and the environment are recognized. therefore, teacher’s individual beliefs about the social context of an action (school) mutually influence each other and are influenced by the social context and their own practices. we would argue that an interactive symbiotic framework between individual beliefs and social context can determine the prospect of developing practices as part of beliefs. parents parents of pre-school students do not seem to have a precise understanding ‘of what a kindergartenready child should be like’ (hatcher et al., 2012), acknowledging, however, the demanding nature of kindergarten, which they value mainly at the level of literacy skills. it seems that this is a roughly structured belief of the role of kindergarten that can be confirmed, refuted, or revised during the transition to kindergarten. however, k-teachers express a broader conception of kindergarten readiness: in children’s physical and social development and curiosity, over other discrete skills (heaviside & farris, 1993, s.21). research data seem to converge on different causal associations between parents’ beliefs, assessment of educational goals and practices at home. of vital interest is the development of literacy for preschool children, particularly the search for the degree and intensity of the influence of parents’ demographic characteristics on their beliefs about literacy. among other factors, parents’ educational and socio-economic level seems to correlate with their beliefs and to determine home practices and academic expectations (alexander et al., 1994; conger et al., 2010; fung & lam, 2012 ). these two factors, the educational and socio-economic level, are considered to determine the self-confidence and willingness, or ability to engage parents in literacy activities (bandura et al., 1996; lareau, 2003; whitehurst & lonigan, 1998). a common conclusion of the studies is the positive correlation between the higher social and educational capital of the family and positive literacy prospects. the early or parallel active involvement of parents in literacy processes seems to determine the convergent or divergent evaluation of the importance of kindergarten goals, the establishment of a common and mutually valued framework of communication and educational action for the benefit of students (tsirmpa et al., 2021). in addition, since a positive relationship between literacy using digital tools (neumann, 2014), ‘what are the goals of kindergarten?’ consistency of teachers’… 99 and the use of information and communication technology in promoting pupils’ learning (braslauskiene et al., 2017), has been identified, the assessment of the usefulness of digital literacy by teachers and parents seems to be an important parameter, especially in the distance learning process, where parents assume a complex teacher-guide and parental role (garbe et al., 2020; lau & lee, 2020). the degree of parental satisfaction regarding the school is not a neutral, detached parameter from the goal, i.e. the all-round development of children. satisfaction has been argued to be related to the degree of parental involvement in their children’s education, a process that also seems to be associated with further development of children’s skills (fantuzzo et al., 2006), choice of school type (goldring & phillips, 2008) and the extent of information provided by the school (friedman et al., 2006). hausman and goldring (2000) found that high levels of parental satisfaction correlates with the choice of educational environment, which is based on the level of the education provided and shared values, factors that further enhance participation. the choice of educational environment seems to offer greater satisfaction to parents (goldring & hausman, 1999). according to this, we further hypothesize that satisfaction is enhanced in the case of private education given the payment of tuition fees, which probably acts as a self-fulfilling prophecy of verification of initial expectations and beliefs, on the basis of a reciprocity of tuition fees and optimal educational services, compared to free state education. the quality of the family-school relationships and the shared framework of understanding and goals seems to have an impact on supporting learning (hamre & pianta, 2001). epstein (2001) introduced the theory of ‘spheres of influence’ that maximize the conditions for children’s academic and social development when the two spheres overlap. in this context, teachers take on an important role in managing and setting complex and often contradictory goals: expectations, normative framework (sofou, 2010) and socio-cultural values and beliefs. widespread acceptance of the curriculum importance by teachers in establishing shared goals and visions that would facilitate increased communication with colleagues and parents has been recognized (sofou & tsafos, 2010). however, constraints and inhibitions seem to interfere by distorting ideal formulations of normative framework, interpretation, understanding and implementation. research questions hypotheses the main goals of our study are: i) to examine k-teachers’ and parents’ perceptions about kindergarten goals, ii) to document the mutual assessments of kindergarten goals between them, and iii) to identify factors shaping differentiation and are related to demographic, cultural, educational or professional characteristics. the research questions of the study were: what are k-teachers’ and parents’ beliefs regarding the goals of the kindergarten curriculum? what are k-teachers’ perceptions about the beliefs of parents? what are parents’ perceptions about the beliefs of k-teachers? in relation to the research questions, we assume that: a) k-teachers share a common set of beliefs about kindergarten goals regardless of demographic, educational or professional characteristics. however, we expect variations due to the social context of their integration (for example: region of school, public or private school, etc.). b) k-teachers rate the ‘socio-emotional’ goals of kindergarten as more important than the ‘academic’ ones. c) k-teachers rate parents’ beliefs about kindergarten goals significantly lower than what parents themselves ultimately attribute to them. d) parents rate kindergarten goals relatively equally, but lower than k-teachers. e) parents rate academic goals (literacy, math skills) higher than k-teachers. in particular, we expect parents of lower educational and socio-economic level to rate higher the academic goals than parents of higher educational and socio-economic level. f) parents and k-teachers in private schools express a convergent perception of the importance of kindergarten goals compared to public schools. nikolaos oudatzis et al. 100 method the research design on the basis of previous research studies with a related orientation (bautista et al., 2016; sverdlov & aram, 2016) we identified a common framework of kindergarten goals that seems to partially cover those of the greek curriculum. for a more complete understanding of kindergarten goals included in the questionnaires, we additionally processed the linguistic rendering and we also considered it appropriate to segment the concepts of previous studies into more specific goals that are consistent with the greek curriculum. pilot research questionnaire we conducted a pilot study evaluating the initial consistency reliability of the questionnaires by opportunity sampling of 30 k-teachers and 50 parents. the questionnaire was structured in two directions, seeking to capture the beliefs of k-teachers and parents and an estimation of each other’s beliefs about the kindergarten goals. k-teachers and parents were asked to state their estimation for a range of fourteen kindergarten’s goals using a five-point likert scale (1= ‘not important at all’ to 5= ‘very important’). in the pilot phase we tested the validity of the questionnaire at the level of the k-teachers, i.e., checking whether ‘an instrument measures what it was designed to measure’ (field, 2009, p. 11) and, in particular, its validity with regard to the presentation and relevance of the measurement instrument (clarity of items, appropriateness of difficulty, reasonableness of the items in relation to the perceived purpose, etc.) (oluwatayo, 2012). we chose face validity and included an open-ended question asking k-teachers: i) to indicate an additional goal that they thought it could have been included, and ii) to evaluate on a fivepoint likert scale the questionnaires’ completeness in terms of the 14 kindergarten curriculum goals we set. in the first part, the open-ended question, 12 of the 30 questionnaires in the pilot survey suggested another goal, but none collected more than two suggestions. in the second part, the evaluation of questionnaires’ completeness, 86.7% rated it as having ‘absolute completeness’ (5 on the likert scale), 9.9% rated it as having ‘satisfactory completeness’ (4 on the likert scale) and only 3.33% rated it as having ‘sufficient completeness’ (3 on the likert scale). thus, the kindergarten goals in the two questionnaires were kept in their original form: 1) positive attitude to learning, 2) solving everyday problems, 3) selfesteem, 4) socialization, 5) literacy, 6) digital literacy, 7) creativity – imagination, 8) inquiry-based learning curiosity, 9) autonomy in learning, 10) math skills, 11) motor skills, 12) taking initiatives, 13) multicultural principles, and 14) tradition religion. internal consistency was measured using the cronbach’s alpha value. in the k-teachers’ questionnaire, assessing the importance of kindergarten goals per se, the cronbach’s alpha was 0.848, whereas, in the second part, i.e., the k-teachers’ assessment of parents’ beliefs about kindergarten goals, the cronbach’s alpha was 0.906. the corresponding control of the parents’ questionnaire in the first part, i.e. personal beliefs about the importance of kindergarten goals, the cronbach’s alpha was 0.797 and in the second part, i.e. parents’ perception about the importance of the goals from the k-teachers’ point of view, the cronbach’s alpha was 0.828. research sample the survey was conducted from the 1st to the 25th of june 2021 in two directions: to k-teachers of public and private schools and to parents of the same schools in the region of central macedonia, greece. given the socio-economic characteristics of the region in relation to the national counterpart population, the representativeness of the sample and the possibility of generalizing the results through systematic random sampling is ensured (jawale, 2012). the region is the largest one in terms of acreage compared to the other 13 regions and the second largest in terms of population (almost 20% of the country’s population), comprising 7 of the 54 prefectures. two lists of kindergartens (public and private) were generated by random placement. the sample schools were selected by randomly selecting the first member (school) ‘what are the goals of kindergarten?’ consistency of teachers’… 101 followed by selecting each subsequent member from the same list by applying a fixed interval of consecutive units (4 for private and 5 for public). sample descriptive statistics as shown in table 1, private sector k-teachers have less educational experience and lower educational level attainment than their public sector counterparts. a similar variation can be found in the relevant literature on educational qualifications (tooley, 2005) and educational experience (nsiah-peprah, 2004). the majority of k-teachers are women confirming the dominance of female in the greek kindergarten classrooms (stamelos & emvaliotis, 2001). table 1. descriptive data sample of k-teachers public private n % n n gender male 8 2.4 8 0 female 322 97.6 278 44 years of service 1-10 78 24 53 25 11-20 170 51 156 14 21-30 66 20 62 4 31 + 16 5 15 1 employment status permanent 195 59.1 195 0 substitute k-teachers 90 27.3 90 0 hourly 2 0.6 1 1 fixed-term contract 16 4.8 0 16 open-ended contract 27 8.2 0 27 education level bachelor 184 55.8 147 37 retraining center (didaskaleio) 31 9.4 29 2 master degree 114 34.5 109 5 phd 1 0.3 1 0 according to table 2, the parents’ questionnaire was overwhelmingly answered by mothers (84%), with a mean age of 38.04 years, while 89.5% are native and the gender of the students is equally represented in the survey, in line with the general characteristics of our reference population. a comparison with the data of the hellenic statistical authority confirms the reliability of the sampling of the survey, as in the general population attending kindergartens in central macedonia in a total of 27.470 students in the school year 2019/20 (last updated data), 16.278 (59.25%) attended in urban areas, 6.721 (24.46%) in semi-urban, and 4.471 (16.27%) in rural areas, with respective percentages in our sampling: urban 57.8%, semi-urban 25,3% and rural 16,9%. we also identify: younger-aged parents who answered the questionnaire in public kindergartens (μ=37.5, sd=5.4) compared to private (m=38.9, sd=5.05), different levels of education between public and private schools (secondary: 30.2% 6.9%, post-secondary: 24.0% 12.5%, tertiary: 37.8% 45.1%, master: 6.2% 29.2%, phd: 1.8% 6.3%) and reverse programme selection. specifically, the attendance ratio in public schools is 181 (65.8%) in a half-day program and 94 (34.2%) in a full-day program, while, correspondingly, in private schools it is 42 (29.2%) and 102 (70.8%). nikolaos oudatzis et al. 102 table 2. descriptive data sample of parents n % gender male 67 16.0 female 352 84.0 age 21-30 30 7.15 31-40 268 63.96 41-50 116 27.68 50 + 5 1.19 school area rural 71 16.9 semi-urban 106 25.3 urban 242 57.8 school type public 275 65.6 private 144 34.4 mother tongue greek 375 89.5 albanian 29 6.9 other 15 3.5 education level secondary 93 22.2 post-secondary 84 20.0 tertiary 169 40.3 master 59 14.1 phd 14 3.3 student gender male 213 50.8 female 206 49.2 student’s age group 4-5 190 45.3 5-6 229 54.7 programme half-day 223 53.2 all-day 196 46.8 data collection process randomly selected schools were informed by e-mail about: the details of the survey, its purpose, the anonymity of the participants and the content of the questionnaire in digital format. those that responded positively were sent paper questionnaires for k-teachers and parents. the parents’ questionnaires were translated, by bilingual translators, into english, and albanian, and then a back translation was conducted in greek. any discrepancies found between the original and the back translated versions were corrected. according to the data of the hellenic statistical authority for 2019, about 5.5% of the students in kindergartens in central macedonia are foreigners. the majority of these pupils (92%) come from non-eu countries (mainly albania) and only 8% come from eu countries or are of unknown origin. a total of 183 public kindergartens and 24 private kindergartens were randomly selected. 91 public schools (rate 49.72%) and 15 private schools (rate 62.5%) responded positively. 1200 questionnaires were distributed to the parents of the children attending public kindergartens with a return rate of 23% and 320 questionnaires were distributed to the parents of the children attending private kindergartens with a return rate of 45%. we estimate that about 13% of k-teachers in the region of central macedonia from public kindergartens and about 20% from private kindergartens participated in the survey sample. data analysis in analyzing the data two kinds of nonparametric tests were conducted, while the assumptions of normality not met. we report the differences between groups as mean ranks, while the shape and the location of the distributions of the dependent variable were different (karadimitriou et al., 2018). in order to determine whether or not there is a statistically significant difference between groups we performed the nonparametric kruskal-wallis, when having 3 independent groups. we use the mean rank in order to calculate the η-value, i.e. the test statistic for the kruskal-wallis test. we then run post-hoc tests for multiple comparisons to determine the differences between groups (ostertagová et al., 2014). respectively, when having to deal with an ordinal variable (likert scale on kindergarten goals) by a single dichotomous ‘what are the goals of kindergarten?’ consistency of teachers’… 103 categorical independent variable, we performed the mann-whitney u test. results in analyzing the data, we found a common belief among k-teachers about the importance of kindergarten goals that did not seem to depend on demographic or professional characteristics. table 3 reflects a high importance rating in almost all goals, particularly the ‘socio-emotional’ (self-esteem, socialization, creativity-imagination), compared to the ‘academic’ goals (literacy, math skills). table 3. k-teachers’ ratings on the importance attributed to kindergarten’s goals k-teachers per se (n=330) k-teachers per parents (n=330) goals mean (sd) mean (sd) positive attitude to learning 4.71 (0.53) 4.24 (0.82) solving everyday problems 4.82 (0.46) 3.75 (0.96) self-esteem 4.88 (0.38) 3.90 (0.91) socialization 4.92 0.30) 4.37 (0.80) literacy 4.35 (0.68) 4.52 (0.71) digital literacy 3.74 (0.86) 3.49 (1.06) creativity – imagination 4.86 (0.41) 3.66 (0.96) inquiry-based learning – curiosity 4.75 (0.51) 3.51 (0.94) autonomy in learning 4.66 (0.59) 3.76 (0.99) math skills 4.58 (0.62) 4.09 (0.90) motor skills 4.78 (0.48) 3.83 (0.92) taking initiatives 4.76 (0.52) 3.63 (0.97) multicultural principles 4.78 (0.51) 3.29 (1.03) tradition religion 3.92 (0.92) 3.53 (0.98) we tested k-teachers’ beliefs pertaining to the independent variables: school area (rural, semi-urban, urban), years of service (1-10, 11-20, 21+), educational level (bachelor, training center, post-graduate studies), employment status (permanent, substitute k-teachers), and school type (public, private). a kruskal-wallis test showed that there was no significant difference of the mean ranking of education level between the 3 groups. a mann-whitney u test also showed that there was no significant difference of the mean ranking of employment status and of school type. the same procedure (kruskal-wallis test) showed that there was a significant difference of the mean ranking of school location on ‘self-esteem’ and ‘inquiry-based learning curiosity’ between the 3 groups. specifically, on ‘self-esteem’ there was a significant difference of mean ranking x2(2)=6,506, p<0.05. the conducted post hoc test for pairwise comparisons found that the ‘rural’ group was significantly different to the ‘urban’ group (p=0.011). on ‘inquiry-based learning curiosity’ goal there was a significant difference of mean ranking x2(2)=9,031, p=<0.05 and the post hoc test for pairwise comparisons found that the ‘semirural’ group was significantly different to the ‘rural’ group (p=0.033), and to the ‘urban’ group (p=0.003). the independent groups concerning the ‘years of work’ variable seem to have a statistically significant difference of mean ranking (kruskal-wallis test) for the ‘inquiry-based learning curiosity’ and ‘math skills’ goals. a kruskal-wallis h test showed that there was a statistically significant difference on ‘inquiry-based learning curiosity’ goal [x2(2)=6,291, p<0.05], and the conducted post-hoc test for pairwise comparisons found that the ‘1-10’ years of service group was significantly different to the ’11-20’ years of service group (p=0.024). concerning the ‘math skills’ goal there was a significant difference of mean ranking x2(2)=7,738, p<0.05, and the conducted post hoc test for pairwise comparisons found that there was a significant difference between the same groups (p<0.01). the highest importance rating of ‘socialization’ among the 14 goals is probably due to the need to restore social interaction, which was interrupted by the pandemic and the school closure. the ‘literacy’ goal, despite its particular importance in the curriculum, is rated low among the 14 goals, even compared nikolaos oudatzis et al. 104 to parents’ beliefs per se. ‘digital literacy’ is rated as the least important goal by k-teachers, a finding of particular interest. as shown in table 3, k-teachers appear to rate parents’ beliefs about kindergarten goals lower than their own. we searched for possible factors that may influence their perception by utilizing variables related to demographic and professional characteristics. specifically: school area (rural, semi-urban, urban), years of service (1-10, 11-20, 21+), educational level (bachelor, training center, post-graduate studies), and school type (private, public). a kruskal-wallis test showed that there was no significant difference of the mean ranking of education level between the 3 groups. also, no statistically significant difference was found in relation to school area between the 3 groups. the 3 groups of the independent ‘years of service’ variable seem to have a statistically significant difference of the mean ranking (kruskal-wallis test) in the following goals: a) solving everyday problems: x2(2)=9,767, p=0.0008***. the post hoc analysis for pairwise comparisons found that the ’11-20’ group was significantly different to the ‘21+’ one (p=0.022), b) self-esteem: x2(2)=6,733, p=0.035*. the post hoc analysis for pairwise comparisons found that the ’11-20’ group was significantly different to the ‘21+’ one (p=0.044), c) creativity-imagination: x2(2)=6,003, p=0.049*. the post hoc analysis for pairwise comparisons found that the ’11-20’ group was significantly different to the ‘21+’ one (p=0.046), d) autonomy in learning: x2(2)=8,711, p=0.013*. the post hoc analysis for pairwise comparisons found that the ’1-10’ group was significantly different to the ‘11-21’ one (p=0.31), e) math skills: x2(2)=9,998, p=0.007**. the post hoc analysis for pairwise comparisons found that the ’11-20’ group was significantly different to the ’21+’ group (p=0.034), and to the ‘1-10’ group (p=0.027), f) taking initiatives: x2(2)=11,707, p=0.003**. the post hoc analysis for pairwise comparisons found that the ’11-20’ group was significantly different to the ‘1-10’ (p=0.028), and to the ‘21+’ ones (p=0.010). in table 4 we conducted a mann-whitney u test for the assessment of parents’ beliefs by k-teachers according to the type of school they work in. table 4. summary of differences between public and private k-teachers’ beliefs for parents on mann-whitney u test kindergarten goals public k-teachers (n=286) private kteacher (n=44) mean rank mean rank u z positive attitude to learning 162.09 187.69 5.315 -1,792 solving everyday problems 161.35 192.44 5.106* -2,112 self-esteem 157.06 220.36 3.878*** -4,308 socialization 161.41 192.06 5.123* -2,218 literacy 167.43 152.97 5.740 -1,106 digital literacy 163.60 177.83 5.749 -0,957 creativity – imagination 162.01 188.19 5.293 -1,774 inquiry-based learning – curiosity 163.10 161.09 5.606 -1,226 autonomy in learning 160.26 199.59 4.792** -2,659 math skills 164.04 175.00 5.874 -0,755 motor skills 160.07 200.78 4.739** -2,769 taking initiatives 160.72 196.55 4.926* -2,425 multicultural principles 159.72 203.05 4.640** -2,934 tradition religion 167.04 155. 50 5.852 -0,781 *p< .05, **p< .01, ***p< .001 we observe that the statistical significance in the differences in the mean ranking of the groups is mainly found in kindergarten goals that concern the formation of the students’ personality, with elements ‘what are the goals of kindergarten?’ consistency of teachers’… 105 that shape conditions that facilitate their autonomous development and their smooth social integration. the identification of these differences in kindergarten goals, as assessed by k-teachers’ beliefs of parents, seems to go beyond demographic characteristics and is mainly found at the level of school type, comparing the mean ranking between public and private sector k-teachers. having therefore controlled and reduced the possible influence of other variables, we found that k-teachers’ perceptions of parents’ beliefs about kindergarten goals differ depending on the type of school, which opens a perspective for further investigation and identification of the factors that shape it. given that ‘generational echoes are doubleedged for both parents and teachers’ (lawrence-lightfoot, 2003; p. 5), identifying divergent interests, expectations and hierarchies, the illustration of mutual perceptions between public and private schools, in figure 1, seems to reflect multiple areas of differentiation. thus, a convergent trend of parents’ estimation of k-teachers’ beliefs and a corresponding trend among k-teachers for parents is shown. moreover, it is evident that the perceptions of k-teachers and parents in private schools about kindergarten goals are more consistent than in public schools. figure 1. mutual perceptions of k-teachers’ and parents’ beliefs about kindergarten goals in public and private schools however, k-teachers’ assessments of parents’ beliefs do not seem to be consistent with parents’ own perceptions of the importance of kindergarten goals (table 5). table 5. k-teachers per parents’ beliefs, parents’ beliefs per se and for k-teachers regarding the goals of kindergarten kindergarten goals k-teachers per parents (n=330) parents per se (n=419) parents per k-teacher (n=419) mean (sd) mean (sd) mean (sd) positive attitude to learning 4.24 (0.82) 4.54 (0.61) 4.53 (0.62) solving everyday problems 3.75 (0.96) 4.48 (0.68) 4.33 (0.71) self-esteem 3.90 (0.91) 4.72 (0.53) 4.57 (0.66) socialization 4.37 (0.80) 4.80 (0.46) 4.67 (0.61) literacy 4.52 (0.71) 4.45 (0.65) 4.46 (0.63) digital literacy 3.49 (1.06) 4.04 (0.78) 4.18 (0.76) creativity – imagination 3.66 (0.96) 4.57 (0.62) 4.55 (0.62) inquiry-based learning – curiosity 3.51 (0.94) 4.31 (0.68) 4.26 (0.71) autonomy in learning 3.76 (0.99) 4.38 (0.71) 4.27 (0.78) math skills 4.09 (0.90) 4.38 (0.71) 4.34 (1.72) nikolaos oudatzis et al. 106 motor skills 3.83 (0.92) 4.14 (0.85) 4.00 (0.90) taking initiatives 3.63 (0.97) 4.35 (0.72) 4.25 (0.76) multicultural principles 3.29 (1.03) 4.42 (0.74) 4.34 (0.72) tradition religion 3.53 (0.92) 4.00 (0.99) 4.03 (0.83) parents’ beliefs are quite high (except for the ‘digital literacy’, ‘motor skills’ and ‘tradition-religion’ goals), but lower than k-teachers’ self perceptions (table 4). what is evident in table 5 is the significant difference between k-teachers’ belief about the importance of kindergarten goals for parents and that expressed by the parents themselves in the survey. parents, like k-teachers, also rate the importance of ‘digital literacy’ low. a kruskal-wallis test showed that there was a significant difference of the mean ranking between parents according to the school district (rural, semi-urban, urban) in the following kindergarten goals: a) literacy: x2(2)=15,754, p<0.001***. the post hoc analysis for pairwise comparisons found that the ‘urban’ group was significantly different to the ‘semi-urban’ (p=0.004), and to the ‘rural’ ones (p=0.005), b) creativity-imagination: x2(2)=9,927, p<0.007**. the post hoc analysis for pairwise comparisons found that the ‘rural’ group was significantly different to the ‘semi-urban’ (p=0.022), and to the ‘urban’ ones (p=0.007), c) inquiry-based learning curiosity: x2(2)=8,442, p<0.015*. the post hoc analysis for pairwise comparisons found that the ‘rural’ group was significantly different to the ‘urban’ one (p=0.011), d) tradition-religion: x2(2)=21,656, p<0.001***. the post hoc analysis for pairwise comparisons found that the ‘urban’ group was significantly different to the ‘semi-urban’ (p=0.009), and to the ‘rural’ ones (p<0.001). it appears that the ‘school area’ variable is a limited factor in differentiating parents’ beliefs about kindergarten goals. interestingly, parents from 'rural' areas seem to express different perceptions of the goals 'creativity-fantasy' and 'exploratory learning-curiosity' than parents from 'semi-urban' and 'urban' areas. parents in ‘rural’ areas recognize higher the importance of ‘literacy’ compared to the groups ‘semiurban’ and ‘urban’. table 6 shows the differences in the mean ranking for parents according to their educational level, i.e. lower (secondary and vocational) and upper (tertiary and post-graduate). table 6. summary of differences between lower and upper parents’ educational level beliefs (mann-whitney u test) kindergarten goals lower (n=286) upper (n=44) mean ranking mean ranking u z positive attitude to learning 200.13 217.22 19.669 -1.659 solving everyday problems 196.18 220.11 18.970* -2.284 self-esteem 196.91 219.58 19.099** -2.561 socialization 197.63 219.05 19.227** -2.732 literacy 218.91 203.49 19.840 -1.451 digital literacy 217.60 204.44 20.071 -1.191 creativity – imagination 193.23 222.27 18.448** -2.885 inquiry-based learning – curiosity 185.71 227.77 17.117*** -3.869 autonomy in learning 221.64 201.49 19.356 -1.865 math skills 219.38 203.14 19.757 -1.505 motor skills 227.85 196.95 18.258** -2.770 taking initiatives 195.95 220.28 18.930* -2.243 multicultural principles 203.78 241.55 20.316 -1.012 tradition religion 231.29 194.43 17.649** -3.249 *p< .05, **p< .01, ***p< .001 ‘what are the goals of kindergarten?’ consistency of teachers’… 107 higher educated parents express the belief that they attach greater importance to goals that promote the formation of an autonomous and exploratory personality, taking initiative and enabling the child to manage situations, compared to lower educated parents who focus on goals that they themselves can manage and appreciate. in the corresponding mann-whitney u test for parents’ beliefs in relation to the students’ attendance programme (half-day, all-day) and age group (4-5, 5-6), we found no statistically significant differences in the mean ranking. we did, however, find that the mean ranking in the ‘public’ and ‘private’ school attendance groups differed significantly in the following goals: ‘literacy’, ‘math skills’, and ‘traditionreligion’, i.e. in the core of the curriculum. regarding the ‘literacy’ goal, the mean rankings in the ‘public’ and ‘private’ groups was 220.43 and 190.09 respectively; the two groups differed significantly (mannwhitney u= 16.932, p<0.01). regarding the ‘math skills’ goal, the mean ranking in the above groups was 218.40 and 193.95; the two groups differed significantly (mann-whitney u= 17.489, p<0.05). finally, regarding the ‘tradition-religion’ goal, the mean ranking was 224.34 and 182.62; the two groups differed significantly (mann-whitney u= 15.857, p<0.001). conclusion and discussion the study aimed to record the beliefs of the two key actors in the educational process about the kindergarten goals (first dimension of the study) and their respective perceptions of each other (second dimension of the study). the findings illustrate the individual convergences and divergences of beliefs that confirm previous research work, but also open new areas of reflection. k-teachers by exploring k-teachers’ perceptions about kindergarten goals, we identified a pattern of shared beliefs among them that did not appear to depend on demographic or professional characteristics, verifying the hypothesis a. thus, the independent variables: school area, years of service, educational level, employment status and school type, had limited statistically significant effect on k-teachers’ perception of kindergarten goals. as for hypothesis b, it indeed seems that our findings are in line with previous studies (abry et al., 2015; grace & brandt, 2006; hatcher et al., 2012; hollingsworth & winter, 2013), as k-teachers rated ‘socio-emotional’ goals as more important compared to ‘academic’ goals. in addition, given the context of the pandemic, the goal of ‘socialization’ becomes the overriding goal of kindergarten, a finding that needs to be re-examined with the restoration of normality. in contrast, we found a low perception of k-teachers about the importance of ‘literacy’ and ‘digital literacy’ (rated as least important goal) regarding kindergarten goals. if the belief about the goal of ‘literacy’ is transferred to the level of everyday educational practice, it constitutes a potentially problematic situation, given the decline of ‘literacy’ due to distance learning (bao et al., 2020). the effect of distance learning on literacy seems, however, to be confirmed and also applies to mathematical skills (united nations children’s fund, 2022), which also seem to be underestimated as a kindergarten goal by k-teachers. similarly, the lower importance rating on ‘digital literacy’ contrasts with the importance of teachers in the implementation of innovation and the adoption of digital technology (jimoyiannis & komis, 2007; pelegrum & law, 2003). so, it becomes a potential inhibiting factor in the development and promotion of a goal that refers to the ability to apply information and communication technology for the rational and critical use of context with cognitive and technical skills (techataweewan & prasertsin, 2018), as well as critical thinking (naresh, 2020). k-teachers’ beliefs are likely to be influenced by the disruption of face-toface teaching during the pandemic and the difficulties that arose because of that, creating a broader wave of negative perceptions of technology as a learning tool. the findings of the survey, in its second dimension, seem to confirm hypothesis c, i.e., that k-teachers generally underestimate parents' beliefs about kindergarten goals relative to their own beliefs. in addition, k-teachers rate their own belief of the importance of kindergarten goals, except for ‘literacy’, higher than their perceptions of the importance they believe parents have, a finding that is also in line with previous research data (sverdlov & aram, 2016). we also found that k-teachers overestimate parents' beliefs about nikolaos oudatzis et al. 108 the ‘academic’ goals of the curriculum, a trend, however, that was not verified by the parallel investigation of parents' beliefs. searching for factors that might influence k-teachers’ perceptions about parents’ beliefs about the importance of kindergarten goals, we identified only the variable ‘years of service’. the statistical significance, however, of the variable on k-teachers’ perceptions does not appear to independently constitute an explanatory framework and is therefore subject to future investigation. in contrast, we found that teachers’ perceptions of parents’ beliefs differ depending on the type of school (private – public) they work in. parents corresponding to k-teachers, we investigated parents’ perceptions about the importance of the kindergarten goals. we found out that parents’ beliefs are quite high, although lower than k-teachers’ perceptions of themselves, a finding that confirms hypothesis d. parents, like k-teachers, also rate the importance of ‘socialization’ higher among the 14 goals. as regards hypothesis e, the findings of the study did not fully confirm that parents rate academic goals (literacy, math skills) higher than k-teachers. specifically, parents did indeed rate ‘literacy’ goal quite higher (m=4.45) than k-teachers (m=4.35), but lower the ‘math skills’ goal compared to k-teachers. as revealed, k-teachers rate ‘math skills’ goal (m=4.58) higher compared to parents (m=4.38). similarly, to k-teachers, parents rate ‘digital literacy’ to be one of the least important goals. this finding, about the ‘digital literacy’, may be due to a doubtful understanding of the goal and the additional burden and difficulties they had to face during the distance education process (dong et al., 2020; foti, 2020; garbe et al., 2020; lee et al., 2020). however, this overlooks the ‘opportunity’ for students to acquire enhanced digital skills during the pandemic (pavlenko & pavlenko, 2020). in this case, we expected a higher perception of the importance of the ‘motor skills’ goal (guan et al., 2020; the world organisation for early childhood education [omep], 2020), which we did not find. perhaps through the ‘socialization’ goal, which is rated as the most important by parents, the need for physical and social reactivation of children is expressed. our findings seem to converge with other extant research findings where, while cognitive items are identified as important, goals related to children’s development are also high or higher ranked (grace & brandt, 2006; hatcher et al., 2012). in hypothesis e, consistent with the literature, we expected parents with lower educational and socioeconomic levels to rank academic goals higher than parents of higher levels. the results indeed identify elements of variation that should be investigated further in future work. parents in ‘rural’ areas, given their significantly lower educational level compared to the survey population, seem to express a conventional orientation that recognizes the importance of ‘literacy’ and their own inherent inability to contribute in this direction (lareau, 2003; whitehurst & lonigan, 1998). in the same pattern the ‘tradition-religion’ is overestimated as a kindergarten goal by parents in ‘rural’ areas, a finding that can be explained by the coherent identity dimension of tradition and religion in small local communities (merry, 2005). according to the findings, parents of higher educational level are oriented towards mastery goals (kaplan & maehr, 2007), rating as more important goals the ones that emphasize higher level skills, rather than purely academic ones, a finding that is consistent with the existing literature (tang et al., 2021). the findings of the survey, in its second dimension, seem to identify interesting issues. parents express a more balanced perception between their own beliefs and k-teachers’ beliefs. the dimension of valuing kindergarten goals, which may determine k-teachers' and parents' expectations, perceptions and practices, seems to be maintained despite the extensive and enforced physical presence of k-teachers, parents and students, and their participation in the hybrid educational space (munastiwi & puryono, 2021) during distance education in the 2020/1 school year. thus, although a condition of mutual communicative exchanges and augmented partner interaction was imposed, (firmanto et al., 2020) which additionally constitutes a positive determinant of students' achievement (xu & gulosino, 2006) and overall experience (epstein, 1986), a significant belief divergence was identified. as we stated in hypothesis f, there seems to be evidence of greater consistency in the beliefs of parents and k-teachers in private schools compared to public schools. we would therefor argue that there is a harmonisation of perceptions in private schools between parents and k-teachers. we attribute, given similar findings, which converge on limiting the ‘what are the goals of kindergarten?’ consistency of teachers’… 109 influence of demographic factors, the correlation of the harmonization of k-teachers' and parents' beliefs to reasons possibly related to the selection criteria of private educational services and to processes of continuous active involvement, communication and interaction in the evolving educational actions between them. the results of the research can be used in two directions: for new research work and for updating the framework of communication and cooperation between key actors in early childhood education. on the basis of previous researches, we identified new parameters of reflection that seem to constitute new areas of influence on parents’ and teachers’ perception about kindergarten goals. therefore, re-examining them in identical or different national and cultural contexts will enhance our understanding of the dynamic influences on belief formation, potentially highlighting new research parameters. the survey results also seem to adequately substantiate the need to renew the institutional framework for teacher-parent communication and interaction. this dimension feeds the reflection on the activation of strategies for creative exchanges between school and family that could constitute a balanced framework of cooperation and mutual understanding of motivations, expectations, and beliefs. this framework could contribute positively to the improvement of the overall educational context of students. declarations authors’ declarations acknowledgements: we would like to thank k-teachers and parents who participated voluntarily in this study. authors’ contribution: all authors contributed equally to the final manuscript. competing interests: the authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article. founding: the authors received no financial support for this research, authorship and/or publication of the article. ethics approval and consent to participate: ethical consent is obtained from researcher’s institution, and informed consent forms are collected from participants. publisher’s declarations editorial acknowledgement: the editorial process of this article was carried out by dr carmen huser. publisher’s note: journal of childhood, education & society remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliation. references abry, t., latham, s., bassok, d., & locasale-crouch, j. 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(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) stem starts early: views and beliefs of early childhood education stakeholders in tanzania1 laurent gabriel ndijuye*, pambas basilius tandika** abstract: for about a decade, tanzania has intensely focused on developing literacy and numeracy skills in pre-primary and early grades programs. recently, the attention has shifted towards the significance of teaching science, mathematics, technology and science (stem) in the early years. to enhance the 21st century skills necessary for building a middle income and knowledge-based economies, the existing empirical evidence emphasizes the need for stem education starting from pre-primary level. this paper aims to unpack the state of the stem education in pre-primary education in tanzania. by using homogenous purposive sampling, two policy-makers, three ece academics, eight school principals, and eight pre-primary teachers from rural and urban public schools were recruited. data were collected by interviews, semi-structured survey questionnaires, and documentary analyses. though there was consensus among ece stakeholders that children should be exposed to stem environments as early as possible, findings indicated that even among ece practitioners, there is a very vague understanding of what entails of stem education in ece. further, while teachers were aware and guided to facilitate science and mathematics education, they were not aware and there were no specific policy briefs/circular instructions on how to facilitate technology and engineering education in ece. the paper concludes with suggestions on how to integrate stem in early childhood education, especially for tanzania. article history received: 09 november 2019 accepted: 11 january 2020 keywords early childhood education; stem in ece; tanzania; ece stakeholders; stakeholders’ views and beliefs introduction there is sufficient research evidence that the scientific dispositions demonstrated by adults have their roots in early childhood (edwards, gandini, and forman, 1998; heckman, 2006; katz, 1999). according to katz (1999), dispositions are mental inclinations that make an individual respond in specific ways under specific conditions. some of the typical examples of dispositions include creativity and curiosity (bowman, donovan, and burns, 2001; stylianidou et al., 2018). for one to develop scientific dispositions, one needs to receive experiences that stimulate and nurture specific mental habits required for scientific thinking (beghetto and plucker, 2006). in this paper, we argue that while the current efforts by the government of tanzania to enhance science and technology tend to target education levels other than early childhood education, more results that are positive would come from a focus on early childhood education. the need for developing stem dispositions among young children is a theme whose coverage in the literature is quite high (beghetto and plucker, 2006; doryan, cautam, and foege, 2002; ndijuye and rao, 2019; pasnik and hupert, 2016). while education stakeholders in developing countries are reported to direct most of the resources towards improvements of education offered in levels other than early childhood education (doryan et al., 2002), the critical window of opportunity is lost and consequently not much can be expected from such investments (heckman, 2006; ndijuye and rao, 2019).the foundations _____________ 1this paper was orally presentedthe 2nd international conference on innovative education and policy reforms for industrial economy in africa. the conference was held in dodoma – tanzania on 08th to 09th/november, 2019. * the university of dodoma, college of education, dodoma, tanzania, e-mail: buritojr1980@yahoo.com, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7712-6814 ** the university of dodoma,college of education, dodoma, tanzania, e-mail: tpambas@gmail.com, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8267-7493 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.20201128 mailto:buritojr1980@yahoo.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7712-6814 mailto:tpambas@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8267-7493 laurent gabriel ndijuye & pambas basilius tandika 30 for stem dispositions aredeveloped early in children’s lives and forward-looking education systems capitalize on investment in this level of education (duncan et al., 2007). no wonder, the recent surge of interest in the design and implementation of early childhood programmes targeting to lay strong scientific foundations in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (stem) has received enormous attention across the world (see pasnik and hupert, 2016). this paper presents an argument that if tanzania wants to prepare scientists for the future, a focus on early childhood education is inescapable. we argue this by targeting improvements in young children’s science laboratories. tanzania education system the urt follows the 1(2)-6-4-2-3+ formal educational model, which includes one (or two)years of pre-primary education, 10 years of compulsory basic education (six primary and four lower secondary), two years of upper/high secondary, and three or more years of tertiary. the system evolved from the inherited 4-4-4-4+ colonial education system. with tanzania’s rapid economic growth and social changes, and technological advancements throughout the world, by 2003 it was obvious tanzania’s existing education policy was not bringing the desired results. the education and training policy (etp), (ministry of education & culture [moec], 1995) targeted increased access to education without compromising the quality thereof, and to focus on issues related to inclusiveness, class sizes, improved teacher training, and attrition issues (ministry of education and vocational training [moevt], 2015). as such, educational practitioners had started to argue for changing the education policy to meet new demands. stem education in early childhood in tanzania while teacher education and professional development in the fields of mathematics and science has played significant contributions in the preparation of young children ready for schooling, establishment of science laboratories for children's science learning has recently occupied a central position in research (eshach and fried, 2005; watters, diezmann, grieshaber, and davis, 2000). overall, the introduction of science laboratories in early childhood classrooms is built on the premise that what happens to the child during early childhood lasts for a lifetime (black et al., 2016) and that early childhood education contributes to a sustainable society (pramling and kaga, 2008). tanzania would further be a strategy for improving the learning environment for children to explore and experiment on their free will. although tanzania has demonstrated significant efforts to improve early childhood education (moevt, 2015; mtahabwa, 2009, 2010; ndijuye and rao, 2018; tandika and ndijuye, 2019a), there is sufficient evidence that more effort is needed to improve this education sub-sector in general and science learning in particular. overall, most early childhood stakeholders in tanzania have limited understanding of what constitutes best practices in early childhood education and the benefits therefrom (mtahabwa, 2014; ndijuye, 2019). in this broad context, it is not surprising to find plans and activities targeted to strengthen scientific dispositions in young children less promising. the research base in the field of early childhood education in tanzania indicates that while studies in early childhood policy (see for example, mtahabwa, 2007; ndijuye and rao, 2018; tandika and ndijuye, 2019b), and those targeting curriculum and pedagogy (libent, 2015; machumu, 2013), have received adequate attention, focus on specific issues in early childhood curriculum areas – stem education in our case; has received insufficient research attention. as this remains the case, empirical evidence suggests that tanzania’s future in the field of stem will be problematic unless deliberate interventions are planned and implemented to rectify the current situation (semali and mehta, 2012; tandika and ndijuye, 2019a). this paper could contribute much to that end. objectives of the study this study was guided by the following objectives: 1) explore perceived beliefs and views of teachers on the current status of stem education in tanzania, stem starts early: views and beliefs of early childhood… 31 2) assess pre-primary school teacher’s experiences in teaching and learning of stem in early childhood education; 3) examine challenges faced by pre-primary teachers in facilitating stem dispositions in tanzania. method research approach and design the study employed a qualitative research approach with a phenomenological design. this is a design within the interpretivist paradigm that investigates different ways in which people experience something or think about something (bowden, 2005). this design allowed the researchers to locate commonalities of lived experiences (patton, 2009) of pre-primary stakeholders related to stem education in tanzania sampling technique and sample selection given the specific status and circumstances of stem education in tanzania, participants of the current study were those from schools selected to participate in the project titled “strengthening foundations for scientific dispositions in tanzania through improvements in young children’s science laboratories”. participants were selected using homogeneous sampling technique to obtain insights and understanding of the status, beliefs, challenges and perceived future of stem education in tanzania. though the idea of having some kind of childcare centres was conserved in 1982, pre-primary education in tanzania is relatively a new phenomenon. as such, two policy-makers, three ece academics, eight school principals (four were from public schools in urban area and four from public schools located in rural area), and from each school, one pre-primary teacher (total of eight teachers) from rural and urban public schools participating in the project were purposively recruited and involved in the study. given the objectives of the current study, the selected sample size was large enough to allow triangulation of data sources or informants (onwuegbuzie, leech, and collins, 2012), and data collection methods (patton, 2009) hence, saturation of analysed data (creswell, 2012). informants’ preliminary information. figure 1: informants’ distribution by gender and urbanicity informants’ educational characteristics as indicated in the figure 2 below, teachers in the visited schools had educational qualifications that made them employable by the government serve in public schools. though all of them had educational qualifications ranging from teaching certificate to bachelor of education, however, none had qualifications to teach at pre-primary level. most of them reported to have attended short in-service training organized by the government to learn about teaching and learning strategies for the pre-primary children, instructional materials preparation, and preparing learning environment for effective and efficient learning to occur. 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 te ac he rs po lic ym ak er s a ca de m ic s sc ho ol p ri nc pa ls te ac he rs po lic ym ak er s a ca de m ic s sc ho ol p ri nc ip al s urban rural female male laurent gabriel ndijuye & pambas basilius tandika 32 the inservice training courses attended ranged between ten days (five teachers) and one year (two teachers). the other teacher had attended one year of pre-service training on early childhood education in a private college in dodoma city. regarding their working experience at pre-primary level, five teachers had less than a year, while the remaining three had teaching experience in early child hood education ranging between one to two years. teachers revealed that the age of children ranged between 48 to 72 months. figure 2: informants distribution by gender (source: field data, 2019) study area and context in 2018, there were 1,340,090 pre-primary pupils enrolled in tanzania, out of an eligible pool of 1,535,000 pre-primary-aged children. among those enrolled, 63 percent were in rural areas, while the rest were living in urban or sub-urban centres. in the same year, there were 8,354 qualified pre-primary schoolteachers, making the teacher-pupils’ ratio 1:124 compared to a 1:25 official and international standard ratio (ministry of education, science & technology [mest], 2017). however, most of the qualified teachers preferred to reside and work in urban areas, resulting in lower teacher-child ratios in rural preprimary schools (ndijuye and tandika, 2019). the exact number of pre-primary teachers in rural areas is still unknown. data collection tools this study triangulated interviews, semi-structured survey questionnaires, and documentary analyses in collecting required data. due to its flexibility and time-efficiency, semi-structured survey questionnaires were used with schoolteachers. policy-makers and pre-primary school principals were individually interviewed. classroom setting was surveyed by using semi-structured observation kit which was section in the survey questionnaires. the targeted documents were the current education and training policy, pre-primary guideline, pre-primary syllabus and teachers’ lesson plan. the predominantly qualitative methods were used to reduce the risk of misinterpretation by informants. the techniques provided a chance of explaining the purpose of the study and clarifying queries raised during the course of discussion (creswell, 2012). also, these techniques permitted the establishment of rapport and cooperation between the authors and the informants. this was essential in enabling informants to reveal their views and beliefs in their own words (creswell, 2009; patton, 2009). data collection procedure the data collection process involved face-to-face conversations between the researchers and informants where information was noted down in the field notebook complimented by a tape recorder. later, the responses were compared with those of other groups in the study. for this study, the targeted documents were existing pre-primary education policy briefs and documents. the researchers decided to use this method because these documents could be secured quickly and easily, and covered a wider geographical area and longer reference periods without much cost (creswell, 2012; punch, 2005). further, the selected policy documents and briefs were selected based on the criteria that they informed about current status of ece in general and pre-primary stem education in particular. 0 1 2 3 4 male female stem starts early: views and beliefs of early childhood… 33 ethical issues ethical issues were observed by requesting permission and consent from national bureau of statistics, which oversees all research activities in the country, and the university of dodoma where the researchers are attached. further, the collected information from each participant was assigned pseudonyms as part of concealing participants’ identities. finally, as part of research ethical conduct; the researchers consulted the school authorities to obtain their consent to include their respective teaching staff in the study. confidentiality wasobserved by assigning passwords to files of softcopy data, and unauthorized person had no access to the collected hard and softcopy data. data analyses data were subjected to interpretational analyses by involving systematic set of procedures to code and classify qualitative data to ensure that important constructs, themes and patterns emerge (miles and hubberman, 1994). specifically, the raw data obtained from semi-structured questionnaires and interviews were coded to obtained relevant texts, repeating ideas, themes, theoretical constructs, research concerns and theoretical narratives. from repeating ideas, themes and sub-themes were developed. themes were organized into abstract ideas or theoretical constructs and later developed into theoretical narratives (patton, 2009) which were used to bridge between the concern of researchers and participants’ subjective experiences using their own words (creswell, 2012). further, some quantitative data were descriptively analysed to respond to some parts of the presented research question and concerns. in analysing documents, the following two issues guided how themes were developed: (a) how information was presented, and (b) the status of the policy brief/resolution/by-law/decision. in order to maximize objectivity, communicability, transparency, and coherence techniques were deployed (auerbach and silverstein, 2003). specifically, the authors triangulated data sources, data collection instruments, and bracketed all of their previous understandings, beliefs and assumptions during data analyses (onwuegbuzie et al., 2012). equally important, the data analyses processes were jointly done by the two authors. inter-rater reliabilities the two authors with doctorates (phd) degrees in early childhood education jointly collected and analyzed data. the first author coded the field notes to categorize patterns and constructs of differences in the participants’ views. to establish inter-rater reliability, 30 percent of the field notes were coded independently by the co-author, and inter-rater reliability calculated by the percentage of agreement among the three raters; at the end, 90 percent consensus was reached. findings perceived beliefs and views of stakeholders on the current status of stem education in tanzania this study intended to find out views and beliefs of pre-primary teachers on the status of science, technology, engineering and mathematics education in tanzania. the authors assumed that there should be some dominant views and beliefs among pre-primary teachers about stem education in tanzania. two sub-themes were developed, namely, teachers’ beliefs about stem education in pre-primary level, and teachers’ views about stem education at the pre-primary level. under the sub-theme about pre-primary teachers’ beliefs about stem education in tanzania, 7 (87.5%) teachers revealed beliefs that pre-primary children should be exposed to stem environment to build its dispositions for future success in this area. they further indicated beliefs that the foundations for future success in stem programs solely depended on the experiences gained during the early years. one of them said: most of the children in public schools come from lower ses families. the school is the only place they get some exposures on various knowledge and skills – including stem dispositions. as such, for the children’s future success in stem programs, it is very important to expose them as early as in pre-primary stage. one teacher believed that pre-primary children do not need exposure on stem dispositions because laurent gabriel ndijuye & pambas basilius tandika 34 children are born with intellects that enable them to learn anything at any stage in life. to him, pre-primary children are too young to be exposed to complex stem disposition, they still need time to grow and enjoy their childhood. in his own words, he said: given its complexities, stem education and its disposition is such a heavy burden. pre-primary children are too young to be exposed to stem. they still need time to mentally and physically grow before embarking in such laborious tasks. at this level, it is good for children to learn to read before they read to learn. further, some teachers were of the view that facilitating stem disposition among pre-primary children contradicts parental and school authorities’ expectations to have children learn basic literacy and numeracy skills. pre-primary teachers revealed that parents, school boards, and the communities around looks forward to having literate and numerate pre-primary children. as such, developing stem dispositions among pre-primary children is considered a waste of time. one teacher revealed that: while children are eager to learn stem dispositions, parents want them to learn reading and writing as early as possible and so are the school authorities. if you (a teacher) do not teach them such skills, you may find yourself in trouble. an interesting finding was the revelation that some school principals did not consider classroom arrangement and organization as an important component in facilitating stem disposition among preprimary children. separately, the researchers observed classroom arrangements and later asked teachers’ views about the best classroom structure, which may enhance children’s dispositions of stem learning. one of them revealed that: given the importance of stem education in modern world, we need to equip pre-primary children with a very strong stem foundation. this can be done in any environment and context. for our context, lecturing is better because these children do not know anything about stem, so how can i share and exchange stem knowledge with them? findings from the analysed documents indicated that there are neither specific policy briefs nor circular instructions on how teachers should facilitate stem education in the early years. the current preprimary syllabus and teacher’s guide (kiongozi cha mwalimu) does not have specific instruction on how to facilitate stem dispositions in young children. the existing pre-primary syllabus and teacher’s guide has specific instruction on how to facilitate mathematics foundations such as early number concepts and basics of mathematics. while there was consensus among ece academics about almost non-existing stem disposition in ece in tanzania’s education system, policy-makers were of the view that stem disposition is critically important at pre-primary level of education, and it should be given equal consideration and treatment when formulating and financing other domains such as literacy and physical development. however, school principals considered viewed ece as a preparatory class for grade 1, though not a necessary level in education system. as, stem disposition was considered as “bombarding children” with a lot of concepts unnecessarily. one of them revealed the following: if you look at the current curriculum, pre-primary children are already overwhelmed with a lot of things to study. i don’t think we need to add-up more things for them. remember, they (pre-primary children) are still too young to start learning complex technology and engineering concepts. i think numeracy and science concepts are enough at this level. teachers’ experiences in teaching and learning of stem at pre-primary level some teachers (6 of them) reported to be aware of the teaching and learning of science and math than technology. in their experience and understanding, they experienced that the two subjects (science and math) are among the six overarching competencies underlying the pre-primary education curriculum. two of them were hesitant and seriously concerned that teaching and learning technology for pre-primary children will be a premature activity. they established that equipment’s/materials involved in teaching and learning of technology are so advanced and sophisticated for the children to learn. one of them confided that: i do not teach my children/pupils technology because it is mostly based on globalization, which tends to influence children negatively and become addicted with technological equipment, hence pay less to caregivers. stem starts early: views and beliefs of early childhood… 35 in contrast, few pre-primary teachers revealed to teach technology in different areas of their lessons. one of them said that: “normally i teach technology by integrating concepts/ activities in every session and learning occasion. for instance, moulding different shapes using mud or boxes to make cars and/or balls. unlike limited understanding and poor experiences on teaching and learning technology, researchers learnt that science and math’s was learnt and taught well. one of them reported that: “i teach science by requiring children to mention things found in and outside the classroom including those found at home.” through identification of things found in different environment (home and school), teachers believe that they develop children in addition to familiarizing with the environment; they also learn to conserve the environment and able to identify things that are dangerous to their life. teachers identified things that could harm children are those with sharp edges such as nails. other activities includedwashing their clothes are cleaning the school and home compounds, practice cleaning utensils, tools/equipment they use in playing/filling the land, and watering garden. health practices such as children’s wearing shoes when going to toilet to protect them from direct contact with bacteria that could cause infectious diseases, enabled them to develop scientific knowledge and skills related to diseases and good health practices. scientific disposition is developed and enhanced at pre-primary level when children are involved in scientific acts like collection of insects and observe to identify parts and roles of each part. broadly, children learn to keep their health by doing health-related activities (cleaning utensils, cleaning their shoes, wearing shoes and ensuring that they do not go to the toilet bare feet; and also cleaning their body in general)and learn about things (both harmful and useful) found in their environment (home and school). classroom organization as part of the study, the researchers surveyed variations in classroom arrangements conducted before interviewing teachers. they came-up with the following findings: 1. talking walls, that’s most of the classroom had some pictures (teacher made) of different sciencerelated things such as fruits, numbers, letters and objects like people or houses; other pictures were of flowers, trees and some furniture. 2. traditional classroom organization in which arrangement of desks was in rows and columns that made all children face the chalkboard from which teachers lectured and facilitated learning. this implies that learning was more of the whole group discussion with occasional learner-teacher partner interaction. perhaps, the observed classroom arrangement could be due to extremely large number of children accommodated in the same room for learning. 3. the dominant teaching and learning method was lecturing. all of the observed pre-primary teachers preferred to use teacher-centred teaching and learning strategies. this method limited children’s interaction with teachers and content. this may have negative implication on children’s learning of stem and other dispositions. generally, in all visited schools, the state of the learning environments were poor characterized by limited materials and poor organization to promote face-to-face children discussion. teaching and learning environments there were varying responses regarding the quality of the working environment. about 75 percent of teachers and 80 percent of school principals expressed that the working environments at pre-primary level is poor. they claimed that it’s characterized by lack of specific classrooms for pre-primary children and unsupportive climate from school authorities. it was revealed that there was no specific classroom for pre-primary children. as such, they had to shift and change rooms in case any emergency or activity at school. one of the teachers reported that: laurent gabriel ndijuye & pambas basilius tandika 36 “almost every other month i had to move from one classroom to the next. for example, whenever there is an examination or tests for upper classes, we (pre-primary teacher and children) have to vacate our classroom for them. i think school authority do not consider pre-primary children as legitimate students of this school hence are least valued“ limited availability of textbooks to support stem learning was reported contribute on the state of working environment. pre-primary teachers reported to have only one copy of textbooks for each overarching competencies. they claimed that though these children have not developed other literacy skills, yet having extra copies of books would help them build strong stem foundations. family poverty including failure of caregivers to support their children for early and easy access to school (lack of transport); and poor care in terms of cleanliness, and hunger. this led into children’s poor emotional competences such as, inability to bond and interacts with their peers, outburst anger, and isolation. challenges facing teaching and learning of stem in tanzania the researchers were interested to understand challenges facing preschool teachers in effectively facilitating stem disposition in tanzania. informants revealed that (i) limited working resources (instructional materials, textbooks, desks), (ii) overcrowded classrooms were the main challenges facing pre-primary schoolteachers. limited working resources findings revealed that there were limited numbers of pre-primary books, play materials and childsized desks and tables which, in fact, limiting children to sit and learn comfortably. consequently, teachers reported that children could inadequately develop fine-motor skills (holding and using writing materials such as pencil and exercise books) and lacked freedom to move within and outside of the classroom. further, it was revealed that, even the available desks and tables were insufficient given the large number of children. the adult-sized desks and tables could accommodate between four to five pre-primary children. one of the school principals revealed that: “my school has about 2000 pre-primary and primary children. however, i have only 300 desks, which cannot serve all these children. in such context, the priority is given to examination grades (examination grades in tanzania are grades four and seven). equally important, though it is important, but i don’t have child-sized furniture for preprimary children” overcrowded classrooms and teacher qualifications informants’ responses and classroom observation data revealed that there are too many children occupying the same classroom with mixed ages. in all the observed schools, pre-primary children were found occupying a single room while they are at or above 150. great number of children in the single room under one or two facilitators, high number of children impacts teacher’s initiatives to reach every child to learn about their strength and weakness for appropriate support. teacher’s inability to reach each child during learning is a challenge as there are only 20 minutes allocated for a learning competency among the six they are required to learn. therefore, in the 20 minutes, it is difficult for the teacher to reach every learner and determine his or her achievement level for scaffolding. while working environment in terms of inadequate resources and fewer classrooms/ use of one classroom for many children was the major challenge in teaching and learning stem, children’s ability to learn was found to be good hence being not among the challenges impacting effective learning. this implies that children are eager and participate well in learning, as they are knowledgeable on many things that are found in their environment. the most interesting and perhaps important challenge revealed by teachers was absence of qualified pre-primary teachers. all of the teachers in this study were trained to teach at primary school level – none was trained at pre-primary level. however, school principals reported that they regularly send their preprimary teachers to attended various seminars and workshops related to teaching at this level. however, these in-service training were very rare and did not last more than 7 days each. nevertheless, something is better than nothing as one teacher revealed the following: stem starts early: views and beliefs of early childhood… 37 “i’m a trained primary school teacher with experiences of about 10 years. now, as you can see, i teach pre-primary class. these are very young children overcrowded in a single classroom of about 182 of them. teaching them is not the same as teaching more disciplined grade 4 children. last year i attended a 7-days workshop about teaching literacy at this level. i hope you guys will organize a workshop on how to facilitate stem learning as well.” the current circular on teachers’ scheme of service (2016) instructs that each individual teacher should be assigned responsibilities as par his/her professional qualifications. in other words, teachers trained and qualified to teach at primary level should be appointed and assigned to teach at that specific level. if tanzania does not have qualified pre-primary teachers to cater for the fastest-growing subsector, it is unlikely to find these unqualified teachers to facilitate stem dispositions for children in this cohort. discussion the current study aimed to explore perceived beliefs and views of teachers on the current status of stem education in tanzania, assess pre-primary school teacher’s experiences in teaching and learning of stem in early childhood education; and examine challenges faced by pre-primary teachers in facilitating stem dispositions in tanzania. beliefs and views of teachers on the current status of stem education in tanzania most of the tanzanian teachers were of the view that children should be exposed to stem during pre-primary stage to build a strong foundation for future academic and profession success in stem fields. this is consistent with other studies which indicated that young children are much more capable of learning stem concepts and practices than originally thought by the ecd research community (institute of medicine [iom] and national research council [nrc], 2015). a growing body of empirical evidences indicates a very strong correlation between early experiences with and exposure to stem subjects with later success in those subjects and career in those fields (duncan et al., 2007; duncan and magnuson, 2011; iom and nrc, 2015; kilbanoff, levine, huttenlocher, vasilyeva and hedges,2006; saçkes, trundle, bell, and o’connell, 2011). early exposure to mathematics during pre-primary years is said to predict later math achievement even during high school years (kilbanoff et al., 2006; saçkes et al., 2011). and the skills gained during the pre-primary years has been said to predict later academic achievements more consistently than early attention and reading skills (kilbanoff et al., 2006; saçkes et al., 2011). early math skills – including reasoning skills is considered to be an integral part of children’s development of “learning to learn” skills – such as fostering children’s ability to reason and talk about their mathematical thinking (kilbanoff et al., 2006; stem smart, 2013). further, available evidence supports children’s early exposure to science and technology inquiry (eshach and fried, 2005; kilbanoff et al., 2006; stem smart, 2013). children who are exposed and engage in scientific and technological activities as early as prekindergarten age develop attitudes toward science and technology fields (osborne, simon, and collins, 2003; saçkes et al., 2011; stem smart, 2013). the developed positive attitudes also correlate with later academic achievements in scientific and technological related subjects (patrick, mantzicopoulos, samarapungavan, and french2008; saçkes et al., 2011). and these children are more likely to pursue stem expertise and careers later on as adults (duncan et al., 2007; iom and nrc, 2015). in tanzania, with limited supportive environments for stem learning, teachers’ supportive views and beliefs towards stem disposition during the early years becomes critical (semali and mehta, 2012; tandika and ndijuye, 2019a). teachers’ beliefs are critical in children’s learning and development (farell and ives, 2015; o-saki, 2007; semali and mehta, 2012) since their teaching reflects their beliefs (farell and ives, 2015; tam, 2015). this is because pre-primary children develop stem disposition in informal and formal settings, and by engaging in experiential learning (osborne et al., 2003; saçkes et al., 2011). in tanzania, the existing education policy and circular documents are silent on how pre-primary children would be exposed to stem education. one of the indicators of the public seriousness and commitments in addressing needs of a social group is how those needs have been addressed in the existing laurent gabriel ndijuye & pambas basilius tandika 38 policy and practice documents (mtahabwa, 2010) and having clear implementation plans to handle and solve the underlying problems facing that group (mtahabwa, 2010; ndijuye and rao, 2018). the fact that pre-primary education policy and practice documents are quiet about how, when, and why children should be exposed to stem concepts and practice suggest that tanzania needs to comprehensively integrated approach to this matter. teachers’ experiences in teaching and learning of stem at pre-primary level findings of the current study revealed that pre-primary teachers in tanzania had experiences teaching math and science concepts than technology and engineering. this may be rooted in the existing pre-primary curriculum. the analysed documents disclosed that there is neither existing policy brief nor curriculum guideline about stem education at this compulsory level of education. however, such experiences are not uncommon in early childhood research. while there is a consensus among pre-primary researchers that children come to school with sufficient knowledge about the natural world (pantoya, aguirre-munoz, and hunt, 2015; shonkoff and phillips, 2000), can abstractly and concretely think (iom and nrc, 2015), but the early technology and engineering realms are less understood and taught (national association for the education of young children [naeyc] and fred rogers center for early learning and children’s media, 2012; pantoya et al., 2015). this may be due to misconceptions among many pre-primary stakeholders that engineering and technology as subjects at pre-primary levelmeans using digital and/or electronic technology, such as touch-screen tablets and construction of block buildings and bridges in a classroom. it is a well-known fact that stem dispositions at pre-primary level requires conducive and supportive teaching and learning environments such which facilitates children’s hands-on learning (clements, 2002; sarama, lange, clements, and wolfe, 2012). these environments include proper classroom organizations, learning corners, and “talking walls”. however, findings revealed that preprimary teachers preferred to use traditional, non-interactive methods such as lecturing and demonstrations. this may have unpleasant implications on the stem foundations for these children. use of teacher-centred methods may have been partly the result of exceedingly unmanageable class sizes of between 160 to 180 children congested in a single classroom with one or two teaching assistants. it is important to note that in tanzania the official teacher-child ratio is 1:25 (mest, 2017). further, it was found that most of the teachers serving public pre-primary classes in tanzania were not trained to cater for this age cohorts. they were trained as primary school teachers – were not even trained to serve early grades children. a growing body of empirical evidences indicates that in most developing countries with limited educational resources, quality of teachers complemented with supportive home learning environment, is a single most important factor in enhancing children’s development and learning (aboud and hossain, 2010; melhuish et al., 2008; ndijuye, 2019). teacher quality becomes more critical at the foundational pre-primary level, especially for fundamental fields such as stem (lauwerier and akkari, 2015; tandika and ndijuye, 2019a). however, it is important to note that something is better than nothing – while tanzania has successfully improved access to pre-primary services (mest, 2017), it is now a very high time to focus on quality of services so much so that to improve practices. challenges facing teaching and learning of stem at pre-primary level in tanzania limited teaching and learning materials such as stem-related play materials and books were reported to be one of the challenges facing teachers when facilitating stem dispositions in tanzania. this challenge is not new in public pre-primary classes in tanzania (ndijuye and rao, 2018; tandika and ndijuye, 2019b). comparatively, it is understandable that public budgetary investment in this subsector is relatively low (mtahabwa, 2015; ndijuye and rao, 2018), and not a priority of most primary school principals (mghasse and william, 2016; mtahabwa, 2015). however, scarcity of teaching and learning resources is exceedingly overstated. for example, while tanzania has abundant supply of natural and environmental-friendly play stem starts early: views and beliefs of early childhood… 39 materials for pre-primary children, teachers tend to poorly improvise such materials to serve specific purpose of the lesson such as stem dispositions (mtahabwa, 2015; tandika and ndijuye, 2019a). most of the science concepts can be taught by using tanzania’s exceedingly rich green environments, which are familiar, and fits well into the mental schema of children. nevertheless, improvisation of teaching and learning materials requires satisfactory teacher’s qualifications, commitments and adoptability (buckler, 2015). having an extremely overcrowded classrooms led with lowly qualified teachers is not something to be proud of. while tanzania has made tremendous gains in broadening access to basic education – including pre-primary education (mest, 2017; ndijuye, 2019) quality of services for these children is still low. in the context of the current study, quality pre-primary education is conceptualized to refer to both structural and process aspects of quality. the existing pre-primary guidelines instructs 1:25 teacher-child ratio (mest, 2017), however, the study revealed that on average, there were about 160 children in a single classroom in urban public primary schools served by two teachers, while in rural areas, the average classroom had about 180 children served with only one teacher. overcrowded classroom may have negative implications on how pre-primary teachers facilitated and children learned stem dispositions. conclusion and recommendations available empirical evidences suggest that generally tanzanians have limited exposure to stem learning. in other words, they struggle to understand why it matters and how it works. at pre-primary level, even important stakeholders of this subsector such as teachers and school principals do not a clear understanding of the importance and processes involved in equipping children with stem foundations. providing a clear illustration of a stem learning program—what participants learn and how they learn it, with what goals and outcomes—sketches a memorable picture that can fill in cognitive gaps. therefore, in a context with limited education resources, it is critically important to equip preprimary teachers and school principals with clear understanding of stem education and its importance to pre-primary children. the findings of this broaden our empirical understanding of the current status of stem education in one of the low-income contexts and how we can make use of the available limited resources to maximize children’s stem dispositions. given the socio-economic importance of stem education, there is a need for more research to examine the best ways to facilitate early stem dispositions in contexts with limited educational resources coupled with relatively low quality pre-primary teachers. further, while presence of excellent stem education policy does not guarantee good practices at classroom level, however, it is a very important milestone in improving children’s stem disposition. lack of policy and practice guidelines on how to facilitate stem education among pre-primary children in tanzania should be addressed. stem education should be inserted in the existing pre-primary teachers’ training curriculum. this should be done while exposing teacher’s college tutors to stem education. declarations this is an original work by the authors. it is part of the ongoing research project titled “strengthening foundations for scientific dispositions in tanzania through improvements in young children’s science laboratories” acknowledgements: the authors gratefully acknowledge funding support from the junior academic staff seed grant by the university of dodoma tanzania. authors’ contributions: in this paper, authors have 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(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) perspectives of teachers, children, and parents on the transition to first grade miriam breuer*, clodie tal** abstract: this research is a case study of a school that sought to ascertain what is required for the optimal adjustment of children to first grade from the perspective of each partner in the education triad – children, parents, and the teaching staff (teachers and assistant teachers). the research tools adapted to the participants are open-ended questionnaires to elicit the perspectives of the parents and teaching staff, and interviews of the children following their creation of a metaphorical collage to elicit their perspectives. participants were three first-grade teachers, the assistant first-grade teacher, ten children from one of the first-grade classes, and twelve parents of these children. all the children attend a regional primary school and come from [cooperative israeli settlements in central israel. the findings indicate that the emotional climate of the school was regarded as positive by all the respondents. although all respondents expressed a desire for more inter-personal communication with each other, the expectations of parents and teachers differed with respect to the desired frequency and setting limits on the communication between them. the paper also describes changes instituted to improve communication between the school and the parents in light of the research findings. article history received: 11 september 2019 accepted: 13 november 2019 keywords transition to first grade; parental involvement; children's perspectives; parent-teacher collaboration; listening to parents and children introduction this research sought to gain insight about what is required to facilitate the adjustment of children to first grade from the perspective of each participant in the education triad – children, parents, and the teaching staff – and to understand the prevailing relations. in particular, we wanted to learn how each participant in this triad perceives his or her own role and the role of the other in the child’s adjustment to first grade. for this research, in keeping with the ecological systems theory of bronfenbrenner, a role is defined as “a set of activities and relations expected of a person occupying a particular position in society, and of others in relation to that person” (1979, p. 85). to that end, research tools suitable for each participant were used: open-ended questionnaires to the parents and teaching staff to elicit their perspectives, and interviews of the children following a metaphorical collage they prepared to elicit their perspective. the transition of children from preschool to first grade is experienced by parents with a mixture of joy and fear, aware that the start of formal education is the foundation for learning and personal growth. parents bring with them memories of their own lives, the experience of raising children, and imprints of relationships with preschool teachers and caregivers prior to their child’s entry to first grade – a mix of trepidation and expectation. teachers bring to the first grade, besides their professional expertise, their experiences of relationships with parents in the past, expecting to be able to construct a new and positive set of relations with the new class. young children with a character set of their own bring varied experiences from their preschools. they are happy and fearful, still processing their separation from the preschool teacher and perhaps also from friends who remained behind, and they too hope for and expect a positive experience. _____________ * levinsky college of education, faculty of education, early childhood education, tel aviv, israel, miriambreuer@gmail.com, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0306-0071 ** levinsky college of education, faculty of education, early childhood education, tel aviv, israel, clodietal@gmail.com, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3047-1642 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.2020112 mailto:miriambreuer@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0306-0071 mailto:clodietal@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3047-1642 miriam breuer & clodie tal 4 in light of the importance of understanding the perspectives and relationships of the participants in their “natural” context, the ecological-systems theory of bronfenbrenner (bronfenbrenner and morris, 2006) was selected as a theoretical approach to guide the planning of the research, analysis of the data, and communication between the teaching staff, parents, and children. this microsystem is evident in the daily interactions of the child with his or her parents and teachers within the physical space of the home and school – the developmental context closest to the child –proximal processes that affect the child’s development. these relations are also affected by the traits of the child, the parents, and the teaching staff (the perceptions and expectations studied in this research are included in the traits of the “person”), which ultimately affect the development and adjustment of the child. relations between the children and their teachers are also affected by the “context” dimension, which includes the interrelations, cooperation, and coordination between the parents and teachers (relations situated in the mesosystem), each of which has a direct connection to the child in terms of bronfenbrenner’s original model (1979). the context also embraces specific geographic and cultural characteristics of the parents and teachers in each framework. in this study, for example, many of the families live in cooperative israeli settlements at some distance from the school, and therefore the children require transport to school. social and power dynamics in society between parents and teachers are among the macrosystem factors that indirectly affect the child’s development (addi-raccah and ainhoren, 2009; addi-raccah, amar, and ashwal, 2018). moreover, the “time” dimension in the early twenty-first century affects relations both on the level of daily planning in school and home and, correspondingly, on the level of contemporary life when technology dramatically affects communication options between people, even parents and teachers (schechtman and busharian, 2015). school is an organization in which its officials stand in power relations with each other and with the parents. in addition, as found by addi-raccah and ainhoren (2009), the balance of power between the establishment and the teachers and parents – more precisely, the relative power of each group – affects how teachers perceive their involvement with the parents. an equitable balance of power between the parents and teachers correlates with teachers’ positive attitudes toward the involvement of parents in school life. the power balance between parents and teachers has shifted dramatically since israel became a state. in the early years, teachers were perceived as the ultimate school authority, and parents were kept out of school decision-making; today, parents wield a decisive influence on their children’s education (erez, bienstock, and lukes, 2005) and what happens in the schools (bronfenbrenner and morris, 2006; friedman, 2010; greenbaum and fried, 2011; tal and bar, 2011). beyond the ecological approach, this research takes the view that children are full members of society and entitled to their own basic human rights, besides being part of their families (britto, 2012; dahlberg, moss and pence, 2013, p. 52; dockett and perry, 2014). hence, we also examined the perceptions of the children entering first grade as well as the perceptions and expectations of their parents and the teaching staff about their transition into primary school. an ecological systems approach to parental involvement in the transition to first grade a transition such as that from preschool to primary school is an inevitable situation that can be experienced in various ways. transitions are challenging because they are often linked to changes in an individual’s appearance, activity, status, general functioning, and, in particular, social functioning. what’s more, the changes may be associated with the use of physical and social space and may impinge upon cultural beliefs and educational practices that have repercussions for an individual’s sense of identity – in this case, a child entering first grade (vogler, crivello, and woodhead, 2008). the research presented here focuses on the perceptions of the parents, children, and teaching staff at the beginning of first grade, immediately following the transition of the children from preschool into primary school, conducted from an ecological systems approach, as noted, and in keeping with unicef’s conceptual framework of school readiness (britto, 2012) and the position paper of the australian ministry of education concerning transition to school (dockett and perry, 2014). the transition of children to school impacts their learning and development (hughes, luo, kwock, and loyd, 2008; sayers et al., 2012). a successful transition to first grade fosters the child’s positive attitude to school, a sense of belonging, and active participation in what happens there (dockett and perry, 2009; 2014). perspectives of teachers, children, and parents on… 5 the child’s family and educational frameworks, in addition to his or her characteristics, can affect how the child copes with transition (britto, 2012; dockett and perry, 2014). forcing children to cope without support or protection, for example, could diminish their competence in handling transitions in general. the educational institution provides opportunities for learning, and the family provides the scaffolding of support to the child in transition to complete the process of adjustment to a new framework. in this process, children also shape attitudes and expectations about their own ability to grapple with learning tasks (dockett and perry, 2014; erez et al., 2005; plotnik and eshel, 2007). furthermore, parentschool relations and partnerships are likely to influence the children's adjustment to the school environment, their wellbeing, and learning (acar, veziroğlu-çelik, çelebi, i̇ngeç, and kuzgunet, 2019). upon entering first grade and separating from the preschool, the child is expected to have a higher level of independence. this is a transition to a more achievement-oriented system, and therefore preschool teachers and parents worry about the fate of some first graders. the process can be facilitated by providing more information about school and opening the channels of communication between the preschool and the primary school; when a child is prepared for the transition, it becomes an opportunity for growth (dockett and perry, 2014; plotnik and eshel, 2007). in short, how the transition to first grade is handled greatly affects the sense of belonging, learning, and development of children, as well as their involvement in school activities (dockett and perry, 2014). a successful transition depends not just on the child’s characteristics, but also on the quality of the relationships between the parents and teachers, the parents and children, and the teachers and children (bronfenbrenner and morris, 2006; dockett and perry, 2007, 2014; pianta, 1999; vogler et al., 2008). based on the ecological systems approach to teacher-parent relations (bronfenbrenner, 1986), walker and hooverdempsey (2015) emphasize the need for each party to understand the perspectives of the other – that the parents understand the perspective of the teachers and children, and the teachers understand the perspectives of the parents and children. thus, the research presented here sought to ascertain what actually transpired and what is required for the successful adjustment of children to first grade from the perspective of each party to the education triad – children, parents, and the staff (teachers and assistant teachers). in particular, it sought to understand how each perceives his or her own role and the role of the other in the process of the child’s adjustment to first grade. research questions • how do the parents, children, and teachers in the school grasp their own role and the role of the other in the effort to create a good and supportive relationship during the child’s first year of primary school? • what are the parents’ expectations of their children’s teachers as the children begin first grade? • what expectations do the teachers have of the first graders’ parents? • what are the children’s expectations of their parents’ involvement in the school? • what are the children’s expectations of their teachers in general and specifically the teachers’ relationship with their parents? • in the opinion of the parents and teachers, how can the children themselves contribute to their adjustment to school and success at their studies? method type of research case study methodology was used to derive answers to the research questions. in this method, an in-depth study is conducted of a social or organizational phenomenon in a real-life context, particularly in cases where the boundaries between the phenomenon and its context are not clearly demarcated (yin, 2009, miriam breuer & clodie tal 6 p. 18). case study methodology was used here to ascertain the perceptions of the teachers, parents, and children about the transition and adjustment to first grade. this type of research is rich in data and requires multiple sources of evidence to enable triangulation of the data. furthermore, the methodology rests on theoretical assumptions, such as the ecological systems approach, which underpins this research. a qualitative analysis of the data allows for a broad and detailed examination of the phenomena, and brings into view a range of diverse findings and perspectives. one of the advantages of qualitative analysis is that it enables the linkage of findings and theory in a rich and compelling manner (shlaski and arieli, 2001). research of this type also allows for a description of the respondents’ reality as it is perceived by them. respondents and field of research research was conducted in the first grade of a public, regional primary school (1st to 6th grades) serving several cooperative israeli settlements. some of these children live at a distance from the school, and therefore require transport to and from the school, which raises concerns for many parents. this is a relatively big elementary school, serving 825 children at the time of the research (three classes at each age level). as part of the school’s vision, student entrepreneurship is encouraged – students are advised by experts to develop and sometimes sell various products. thus, the school encourages students to dare, think, invent, make mistakes, and be critical of ideas at the expense of the quantity of contents processed. to that end, the school partners with experts in education, ecology, business technology, and the arts. children's parents are also involved either at the stage of idea development or as experts. ten children – six girls and four boys – twelve mothers, three first-grade teachers, and one first-grade assistant teacher participated in the study. the participating children and their parents are all part of the class led by the first author as a first-grade teacher. the children: to grasp the children's perspectives, ten of the most expressive and articulate girls and boys in the class were selected to participate in the study, out of 32 children in total in the class. the students selected were those willing to share their thoughts and feelings with an adult and willing to have a group conversation. they are also students who spend more time touching creative materials and engaging in artistic work. six of these children get to school by the bus belonging to the regional council’s transport system, while the other four live in the cooperative settlement where the school is located and go to school on foot or by bike, alone or accompanied by a parent. distinguishing between children who come by bus and those who live near the school is significant in light of the concern shown by some parents and children related to the daily use of bus transportation to and from school. this is an issue with which some children and parents have to grapple upon entering first grade. the parents: questionnaires were distributed to all the parents of the class studied. twelve of the 32 mothers in the class responded, all of whom were married, have professions, and hold down a job. nine mothers live in this regional council and their children use the organized transport to get to school; three mothers live in the cooperative settlement in which the school is located and their children do not use the bus to get to school. the teachers: all three first-grade teachers in the school during the year of the research were interviewed. two had over twenty years of experience and one had three years of experience. the assistant teacher of first grade had served in this position for six years. one of the teachers who participated in the study is the first author of this study. the names of all participants in the research, the name of the school, and its location remain anonymous; names used in this paper are fictitious. the parents of the children gave consent to participate in the research. the children were also asked for their consent, which they gave both orally and by signing their name; they were also told that they may opt out of the study at any time. as noted, the first author of this paper was herself a first-grade teacher in this school and conducted interviews as part of this research. being a teacher may have been helpful in the good relations she has with the respondents; on the other hand, being a teacher could adversely affect the openness of the respondents in expressing their views. in retrospect, the findings indicate that the participants expressed both positive perspectives of teachers, children, and parents on… 7 and negative views about what transpires in the school. research tools to understand the perspectives of the various respondents, we interviewed the children following their creation of a metaphorical collage and administered partially open-ended questionnaires to the parents and teachers. data were collected in january and february 2014. the data obtained in the study, as shown below at the end of the findings section, catalysed changes in how the school management and teaching staff collaborated with children's parents. these changes are still in effect in 2019. furthermore, the approach adopted in this study of taking an interest in the expectations that children, parents, and teachers have for each other required that the school learn about these expectations and find ways to take action to meet the stakeholders' needs. details about the research tools. 1. interviews with the first-graders following their metaphorical collage. this tool makes use of visual language as the child creates images that can shed light on his or her perspective about the subject of the collage. in this activity, the children are engaged in reflection both during and following the creative act (russo-zimet, 2016). the children are already familiar with and enjoy creative activity. the researcher places on the table newspapers, magazines, and other accessories such as scissors, a stapler, colours, and paste, and gives the children the following instructions: “on the table are various materials. use these materials to express the subject, ‘i am in first grade, my parents and my teacher’ in any way you choose.” while the child is working, the researcher does not converse with him or her or intervene in any way to avoid influencing the child’s creation. if the child addresses the researcher, she approaches the child and responds directly to the question. the child must be allowed maximum freedom of expression and reminded of the instructions and the permission to use additional materials. after completion, the child is asked to explain the collage that is the product of his or her creative activity. discussion between the researcher and child leads to exposure of the thought underlying the collage and strengthens the personal connection between the researcher and the child. all discussions with the children were recorded and transcribed. a photograph was also taken of each collage. below we present an example of a metaphorical collage (figure 1) and an interview following it. upon completion of the collage, alon titled it, “a visit to first grade.” 1 = my teacher; 2 = the classroom; 3 = my mother; 4 = my father; 5 = my brother figure 1: alon’s collage: “a visit to first grade” 1 5 2 3 4 miriam breuer & clodie tal 8 the interview with alon: first of all, i like being here [in school], especially recess. a second thing, my mom…wow! it’s hard…i don’t have, don’t know what to say. three, my dad. sometimes he makes me angry and sometimes he teaches me important things. four, my brother, he’s cute. five, you, the teacher. that it’s fun that you’re teaching me. six, my big brother. he always bothers me and he also gets me angry with his blade and that’s it.” the researcher (the boy’s teacher): can you tell me about first grade and the roles of the people involved? yes, mom makes sure to remind me every day if i forget my schoolbag, she reminds me to take it. dad makes tea for me in the morning so i won’t be hungry in the bus. my little brother reminds me that i have school. the teacher teaches me. i put you in the classroom and them [the parents] in the workshop a little in the classroom, they’re not exactly there. i feel them in my heart. 2. a partially open-ended questionnaire administered to the parents of the first-graders. the parents were asked to write about their perceptions and desires concerning their children’s transition to first grade and the relationship they would want with the teachers. examples of questions: “in your opinion, what would be a very good relationship between you and the school?” and “what is a successful transition from preschool to first grade, in your opinion?” 3. a partially open-ended questionnaire administered to the first-grade teachers. this was designed to elicit the teachers’ perception of the roles of the parents, the children, and themselves in the transition of the children to first grade. examples of questions: “what can you do as a teacher to ensure a smooth transition and successful adjustment of the children to first grade?”; “how do you think the children regard the transition from preschool to first grade?”; “what do you think the child expects of his teacher?”; and “what do you think the child expects of his parents?” 4. a questionnaire to the assistant teacher of first grade had the same level of detail as the questionnaires to the other teachers. a pilot test to establish the content validity of the open-ended questionnaires for parents and teachers was conducted. this was administered to approximately 23 m. ed. students in an early childhood education research class at levinsky college of education. the students were preschool or firstand second-grade teachers completing their m. ed. degree in early childhood education. about half the students filled out the questionnaire as teachers and the other half were asked to fill it out as parents (they themselves were also parents). in the second stage, the students were asked for feedback and suggestions about the content and structure of the questionnaire itself. based on the pilot test and feedback, the questionnaires were modified and finalized. in the research itself, data from the responses of the teachers, assistant teacher, parents, and children were triangulated to enhance reliability. data analysis a content analysis was conducted of the responses to the questionnaires and interviews with all the respondents, including the interviews with the children following the metaphorical collage. an inductive approach to category development was adopted as categories were directly extracted from the data (mayring, 2000). the content analysis led to the identification of three categories underlying the texts, which emerged as subjects that study participants regarded as critical in the adaptation of children to first grade: 1. emotional climate in the home and classroom environment with reference to (a) the climate that exists; and (b) the desired climate. 2. parental presence at school, which included two subcategories: (a) the physical presence of parents in the classroom; and (b) parental presence as part of ongoing non-face-to-face communication with the school and educator (via telephone or digital media). 3. interpersonal relationships as a basis for building trust, strengthening security, and creating a learning environment. transcriptions of the interview and questionnaire responses were then broken down into statements perspectives of teachers, children, and parents on… 9 that were categorized according to the above three categories and subcategories related to the mutual perceptions about the roles of parents, teachers, and children during adjustment to first grade. categorization was initially performed by the first author and then independently by the second author. inter-judge agreement between the two authors on attribution of statements to categories was high (around 90%) and disagreements were subsequently resolved. results analysis of the interviews with the parents and teachers and of the post-collage interviews with the children revealed three main subjects on which the participants focused as promoting successful adjustment of the children to first grade: 1. the emotional climate in the home and classroom (a) the current emotional climate (b) the desired emotional climate 2. the presence of parents (a) physical presence in the classroom (b) indirect (not face-to-face) communication with the school or teacher (by telephone or digital media) 3. interpersonal relations as the basis for building trust, enhancing security, and creating a learning environment emotional climate in the home and classroom the current emotional climate. the emotional climate relates to the feelings shared by the members of a community or organization and is closely related to the quality of relationships among the people involved (de rivera, 1992). emotional (positive and negative) climate was therefore included in the classroom assessment scoring system (class) by pianta, laparo and hamre (2008) the children, parents, and teachers all addressed in their responses and evaluated positively the current emotional climate in the home and classroom. the children’s interviews following preparation of the collages also reflected positively on the classroom and good relations with the teaching staff. some respondents included aspects of learning (such as stating that it is fun to learn) as components of the classroom climate. that is, some children indicated that they were eager to learn and that experiential learning contributed to the positive climate of their classroom, while others perceived social encounters during recess as most contributing to the positive emotional climate of the school. a few linked the positive climate at home with the positive climate in the classroom, reflecting on how they view the environments in which they live. responses from the children. the following excerpts were extracted from interviews with the children explaining their collages. the children's descriptions of the positive climate in the classroom were spontaneous and not elicited by the interviewer's direct questions. alon stated, “first of all, i like being here, especially [i like] recess.” noy commented, “i like being in first grade, the lessons are fun, and i enjoy it here.” noga talked about the pleasant atmosphere during classroom learning, illustrated by noting, “things that children in first grade like – costumes, wigs.” responses from the parents. the parents' responses showed that they are aware of their responsibility in ensuring a good climate in first grade, and want to be involved in creating it. the mother na’ama emphasized the importance of the parents' contribution to creating a positive emotional climate in class: “parents should ask: how was it during the recess? how was it in the classroom? how does the teacher treat the children?” responses from the teachers. the teachers' responses show that they are aware of the emotional needs of the children and see themselves as responsible for creating a positive climate in their classrooms. one of the teachers stated, “i lay the groundwork, prepare a beginning that will be pleasant and helpful, miriam breuer & clodie tal 10 play with them [the children] a lot while instilling good work habits.”. nevertheless, one can see that the teachers are critical toward some aspects of the home environment, though they are not self-critical. nira, a teacher with many years of experience teaching first-graders, observes, “sometimes contradictions appear between the home and the classroom…”. in contrast, the parents praise the school for creating a positive climate. the mother of one child exclaimed, “the daily update on the website is wonderful! i don’t know what i would do without it.”. this indicates the importance that parents attach to having information about what takes place in school. the availability of this information contributes to a positive atmosphere. the desired emotional climate. analysis of the data showed that the participants addressed the desirable emotional climate at home and at school as facilitating wellbeing and learning: parents addressing emotional climate at home. parents talked about the desirable climate at home to support the children’s learning: one mother, noam, whose oldest child, a daughter, is in first grade, stated that it is the parents' role “to give space to talk about fears and expectations from school… one should also support the children in preparing homework.” parents addressing emotional climate at school. in relating to the school climate, parents focused on content related to both emotional and pedagogical aspects of how first grade should be conducted. they stated that the teachers should address many needs. the mother noam stated that “good relations with the parents, meetings with the child, being sensitive to the child [are needed for adaptation to school]” (emotional aspect). according to donna, the mother of a middle child now in first grade, learning should be “flexible experiential learning…mediating, explaining, cooperating, flexibility in seeing the effect of the transition on each child” (pedagogical aspect). the parents related to the children’s feelings and needs at home and at school, the learning process, and the children’s progress. they also related to what is desirable in relations with the teachers, not just the current relations. responses from the teachers. the first-grade teachers expressed their opinions about the desirable climate in first grade: the teacher tali noted that what she and the parents experience at the beginning of first grade is important: “the parents should feel comfortable approaching me.” iris, the teaching assistant, reflecting on the atmosphere in the class, said, “there must be cooperation, meetings through the course of the year.” summary of findings related to the desired climate in class. most references to the school climate by the children, parents, and teaching staff were positive. the respondents described the positive climate as the product of close relations that allow for frank communication between the parents and teachers. the children expressed positive feelings toward their parents and teachers, and their expectations differ little. the parents appear to be taking responsibility for being involved and are willing to contribute to the formation of a positive emotional climate in the class. in addition to parents and teachers agreeing about their perception of the classroom climate and what engenders it, parents wanted to express their views about how the class is managed, while the teachers are sometimes critical of what happens at home. yet not one of the participants, it should be noted, proposed a specific mechanism to discuss the issues in disagreement. the presence of parents the children, parents, and teachers underscored the importance of parental presence in school as a main factor affecting children's adaptation to this new environment. analysis of data showed that participants mentioned two types of parental presence in first grade: physical presence in school and indirect – not face-to-face – presence through telephone or digital communication between the parents and teaching staff. perspectives of teachers, children, and parents on… 11 physical presence in the classroom. perception of the children. analysis of the data suggests that the children feel a need for the physical presence of their parents in the school. gal, the oldest child in her family, describes a desire for involving her parents in her learning process: “i want them to come more because it’s fun to hear what the teacher says about me [to my parents]. they should see the things i made.” during the process of adjustment, the children developed coping mechanisms to deal with the desire for their parents to be physically present and the fact that this does not routinely take place. alon says that he feels his parents in his heart: “i put you in the classroom and them [the parents] in the workshop a little in the classroom, they’re not exactly there. i feel them in my heart.” galia is beginning to demonstrate her ability to separate from her parents for a longer period of time. she is independent in her new role as a first grader. galia and alon make note of the separation: “i go to school, they [the parents] go to work, and i’m in school.” in short, the children express a need for the physical presence of their parents, without specific mention of when they should be present (prior to the schoolyear, during the initial school period, or throughout the year). also, the children displayed two types of conscious mechanisms for coping with the physical absence of their parents: (a) thoughts that enable the children to symbolically feel that their parents are near them; and (b) development of a relationship with the teaching staff and other children as a way to enhance their emotional security. perception of the parents. with regard to a physical presence in the school during the transition period, the parents feel it is important to accompany the children prior to the start of studies and during the first days of school. gili, mother of a second son in first grade, says, “it’s good to accompany them physically at first.” ayala relates to the bus trips: “he [my son] was frightened of the trip [by bus]. he was afraid he wouldn’t get on the right bus, he wouldn’t know the way home, he wouldn’t know where to get off.” analysis of the parents’ questionnaires indicates that the parents view their physical presence as important for a smooth transition – prior to the school year and during the initial period in school. the parents expressed a need for physical closeness, especially since the children go to school by bus. bus trips are perceived by some parents as a particular difficulty, and grappling with this issue is shared by most of the children and parents. this is not relevant for the children and parents who live in the community where the school is located. perception of the teachers. the teachers also mentioned the need for the physical presence of parents in the classroom primarily prior to the beginning of the school year. the teacher ronit stated, “the parents should visit the school during the preparatory phase of transition to first grade.”. nira, also a teacher, attests that the presence of parents is important during the transition from preschool, which includes a visit by them to the school. iris, the assistant teacher of this grade, comments about the presence of parents, initially through communications media. her meeting with parents is limited to specific events “and i am very happy to meet them [the parents] on school trips and special events. it’s as if we all know each other already.” the teachers cited the importance of the physical presence of the parents as their children get to know the new physical setting or environment and new people. they were referring primarily to the period prior to the start of the school year, but the children expected physical presence of the parents throughout the year. the findings on this subject can be summarized by saying that the children express a desire for the physical presence of their parents more than the parents themselves or teachers do. the children would like to see their parents in their classroom throughout the school year, whereas the parents and teachers perceive parental presence in school as important before and at the beginning of the school year. indirect presence – telephone and digital communication with the school or teacher. analysis of data shows that parents' presence is evident in frequent communication between the parents and teachers via telephone or email, not only by face-to-face encounters. yet data show that parents and teachers hold miriam breuer & clodie tal 12 different attitudes toward the desirable frequency of telephone conversations. attitudes of the parents. analysis of questionnaires shows that even when everything is going smoothly in school, the parents feel a need for frequent contact with the teachers, both for the exchange of information and as the basis of forming and maintaining a good relationship. hila, one of the mothers, complained that communication with the first-grade headteacher is much less frequent than the daily communication with the kindergarten teacher: "missing is the daily encounter.” noam sees the importance of "having long conversations, passing on information, having meetings in transition to first grade, parent guidance, and getting to know the headteacher.". adi, the mother of a first-grader, asks for "teacher accessibility.". she expects her to be "responsive to requests and questions.". ayala adds, “and reporting to parents is crucial.". sima, the mother of a daughter in first grade, says: for me, the relationship with the school staff should not only manifest itself in the event of difficulties. [at present] there is no regular meeting on a monthly basis or any regular communication if everything is going smoothly. a good relationship is based on continuous interactions, even if there are no problems; a good relationship would even mean individual emails with two or three pieces of information. attitudes of the teachers. analysis of the data indicates that teachers do not always consider telephone conversations appropriate. ronit, a first-grade teacher, notes that in order to strengthen the relationship with parents, “it is important to use a variety of communications media. telephone conversations are sometimes inappropriate when the subject is not important, and they [the parents] sometimes cause conflicts between the home and classroom.”. the teachers are much less enthusiastic than the parents about frequent communication between them. while acknowledging the need for contact, the teachers want to set the limits in advance about how and when this takes place. nira the teacher also says that communication is important, but within limits. she feels that the rules about this are not clear, and that parents do not always respect existing rules. she writes in the questionnaire that the parents must “respect the communications rules that i set.”. in summary, though both parents and teachers recognize the importance of ongoing, open communication between them, parents show the need for frequent and regular conversations with teachers, while the teachers see the need to set boundaries on the amount and the media used for the communication. the parents, teachers, and children all cite the importance of the physical presence of the parents during the first year of school to facilitate adjustment, enhance the child’s sense of security, and cope with travel by bus, which is part of the transition from preschool to primary school. while a physical presence is regarded as critical by all the adults during adjustment to first grade, the need for regular communication via the media (particularly telephone conversations) is desired primarily by the parents and not the teachers. ongoing contact via the media replaces the physical presence of the parent, and the preferences for frequency and type of media vary from parent to parent. such communication serves a range of purposes: exchange of information about the child, guidance to the parent, and fostering authentic relations based on trust between the parents and teachers. relatively more children than teachers or parents emphasized the importance of the parents’ physical presence in the school. and yet the children find ways to cope with not having their parents physically present, whether through internal, symbolic means (thoughts about the parents being “in my heart”) or by forming good relationships with alternative figures (teachers or other children). the parents and teachers concur that communication is important for building relationships and fostering cooperation. the parents refer to communication with the teacher as a response to many needs, and they expect more regular contact than what currently exists, expressing the desire for frequent updates and use of all the communications media. while the teachers also view contact with the parents as an important component of their relationship and cooperation, the teachers cite the need for boundaries and rules, conventions that must be respected, and even how the parents should make contact. this issue reveals disparities in the expectations of the parents and teachers, and lack of clarity about boundaries and how to make contact. perspectives of teachers, children, and parents on… 13 interpersonal relations as the basis for building trust, enhancing security, and creating a learning environment the need for an interpersonal relationship as the basis for building trust, strengthening a sense of security, and fostering a learning environment appears in the responses that refer to qualities such as trust and openness. the children, parents, and teachers all relate to the nature of their relationships with each other. the emphasis of the children seems to be on having a close relationship with the teacher, which provides a sense of security. in alon’s words, “it’s fun that you’re teaching me.”. yarin’s drawing of the teacher shows her with open arms and a wide smile at the entrance to the classroom. gal notes, “it’s fun to hear what the teacher says about me [to my parents].”. the parents view their relationship with the teachers as a tool for information exchange and trust building; they cite the need for openness by the teachers, and assert that trust between the parent and teacher allows the parent to approach the teacher for information and guidance. donna, the mother of a middle child in first grade, says, “a first grader needs warmth and individual attention, therefore it’s important that the staff have a one-on-one meeting with each child. they can see who the child is and allow him to forge ahead in what he’s good at.”. the teachers emphasize that trust between them and the parents is critical to a good relationship. as nira the teacher notes, “the relationship can be meaningful if they [the parents] feel comfortable coming to me about issues concerning their children, and if i feel comfortable turning to them about the progress of their child, whether good or bad.”. tali, another teacher, also addressed the need for openness with the parents, “a good relationship is one in which the parents see me as an empathic listener.”. the teachers’ perception of the relationship with the parents is also based on experiences that were not always positive. tali asserted that the parents “must accept my opinion as authoritative, agree to share honestly, respect the norms of conduct i set, and behave with mutual respect.”. the children perceive the relationship with the teacher to be an emotional attachment, one that allows for a learning relationship and fosters a sense of personal security and physical closeness. statements by the parents and teachers indicate that they all ascribe importance to a trusting and open relationship. nevertheless, expectations between the parents and teachers differ about how the contact should take place, and this could undermine the quality of the relationship. parents expect to receive ongoing updates, information, support, and guidance. the teachers note the different expectations between them and the parents with respect to telephone calls – the manner, timing, and frequency of contact with parents are not always consistent with accepted norms or the level of importance of the subject. teachers appear to view information provision to parents as part of their job, but they do not see themselves as parental guides or supporters, even though parents mentioned this as a need. though both teachers and parents note the importance of regular contact and a good relationship in order to create the optimal climate in the classroom, teachers propose setting limits and rules about it, and are more critical of the parents at this early stage than the parents are of them. it also appears that teachers are willing to be perceived as the authoritative partner in the relationship with the parents – the person who sets the rules about communication between them. summary of findings the parents, children, and teachers agree on several points: the climate in the classroom and home is of critical importance as these are the main environments where the partners develop and the processes of adjustment and relationship-building take place between the children and teachers, and between the teachers and parents. the interpersonal relationships and communication with parents via physical presence or indirectly are subjects that the children, parents, and teachers all cite. disagreements appear concerning the frequency and manner of communication between the parents and teachers, and this issue is not discussed or addressed in either formal or informal frameworks. parents and children are looking miriam breuer & clodie tal 14 for a more profound partnership, while the teachers speak about the boundaries between involvement and interference. in addition, teachers perceive themselves as the senior partner in the relationships with parents. informal meetings with the teaching assistant are important for building the connection between the school and the parents, and creating a positive emotional climate in the school. the findings indicate that all partners to the education triad in the first year of primary school confirm that a positive emotional climate fosters learning. the findings also indicate that this school maintains good relations with the parents and children. what happened after completion of the study? after this research was complete and following personnel changes in the school administration, the first author initiated broad-based changes in concert with other staff members (teachers, school counsellor, and principal), parents, and students to address the needs that came to light in this research. this team, comprised of the school counsellor, the teacherresearcher now assistant principal, and the firstand second-grade coordinator, added the preschool teachers to the team of stakeholders whose perspectives and perceptions should be considered in order to create optimal adjustment conditions for the preschool children starting first grade. regarding the involvement of the parents, their physical presence in the school, and communication between the parents and teaching staff, many activities were introduced in addition to what had been done prior to the research. these actions involved the entire teaching staff and parents, and included: • meetings of the school counsellor, the principal, and the assistant principal for first and second grades with the parents in their communities during the summer vacation or before their children graduate kindergarten in order to clarify and coordinate expectations. • parents who wish to talk with the school staff personally are invited to meet with them prior to the start of the school year. • the teaching staff updates the parents about what takes place in the classroom both in a class internet forum and personally by email or phone concerning the functioning of individual students. • an evening roundtable is held once a year with the participation of teachers and parents to discuss subjects of concern to all (homework, educational innovations, etc.). • parents are invited to teach a class as experts in their fields, and to volunteer in the library on fridays. the intent is to increase the physical presence of parents in the school in response to the needs articulated by the children. • to increase the involvement of parents, activities were defined in diverse areas, such as taking responsibility for being in contact with the parents in the communities, inviting parents interested in educational innovations to learn about them and help introduce them to the classroom, etc. • these initiatives come from both the teachers and the parents. in 2016-17, parents replaced the teachers on teacher’s day, giving them a “different” type of morning, and this was made a permanent event by decision of the school staff and parent representatives at the beginning of the subsequent school year. • regarding bus transport, a task force was created to include representatives of the parents from the communities, a transport coordinator, and older students who serve as bus monitors. bus rules were written that give special attention to the youngest students boarding first. changes were made in the bus parking area to improve the conditions for students waiting for buses. these changes were adopted in response to the needs of the parents revealed by the research and also following requests by sixth graders in the school. conclusion and discussion the present research focused on how parents, children, and teachers perceive their own role and the role of the other in an effort to create a successful and supportive relationship in the children’s first year of school. the researchers sought to understand the perceptions and perspectives of the parents and teachers perspectives of teachers, children, and parents on… 15 based on the assumption that the successful adjustment of first graders is also contingent upon good relations among the partners – children, parents, and the teaching staff. this research therefore also takes into consideration the voices of the children so that a work plan can be designed that meets their needs. it should be noted that the preschool teachers who took part in preparing the children for first grade are also partners to the process, but their perspective about the adjustment of the children to first grade was not examined due to time constraints. an analysis of the interviews and questionnaire responses found three interrelated issues that are of concern to the first-grade children, parents, and teachers: the classroom climate, parental presence, and interpersonal relations. because parents and teachers have a common interest in promoting the children’s development, it is not surprising that the research participants have similar perceptions. the findings indicate that all the participants – parents, teachers, and children – agree that there is a positive climate in the home and classroom, that parental presence in the school makes a positive contribution, and that generally good interpersonal relations prevail between parents and teachers. in the view of the research participants, all these contribute to the successful adjustment of first graders, and are consistent with bronfenbrenner’s theory that when systems affecting the child are coordinated, they allow for optimal development of the child and strengthen each other (bronfenbrenner, 1986; bronfenbrenner and morris 2006). these findings reflect the current approach about the importance of collaboration between parents and teachers for the benefit of the child (acar et al., 2019; dockett and perry, 2014; greenbaum and fried, 2011). while perceptions were similar, differences were found in the expectations of parents and teachers regarding the amount and channel of communication between them. this finding is consistent with gavish and friedman (2007), who argue that the differences in perceptions between the parents and teachers may be rooted in the lack of clarity about the needs of each group, and/or insufficient sensitivity to the parents’ and teachers’ needs as individuals and groups. one important difference is how each group perceives the subject of parental presence in the school. both parents and teachers agree and accept that the physical presence of parents is vital at the beginning of the first grader’s school year, but when physical presence is replaced by mediated communication, particularly via the telephone, a gap emerges between the desires and needs of the parents, teachers, and children. the parents expect more frequent and ongoing communication than what currently exists, while the teachers assert that the parents lack limits about the frequency of their contact. what’s more, teachers view some of the phone calls with parents as lacking importance. the children speak clearly in favour of the physical presence of their parents in the school throughout the school year, not just during the adjustment period. this is consistent with dayan’s findings (2011) about the longing of preschool children for their parents to spend more time with them in the physical school and get to know it more intimately. the children, however, find ways to cope with their parents’ physical absence by symbolic means and by creating meaningful relationships with their teachers. the children also expressed a desire to involve their parents in their learning and the products of their learning. it is important to understand that, prior to this research, the school under study had no mechanism for parents and teachers to work through the issues in disagreement. had it not been for this research, the first author as a head teacher would not have known what the parents think about contact with the teachers, and to what extent they long for ongoing, personal contact with the teaching staff beyond what they currently have. furthermore, the teachers would not be aware of the importance the children ascribe to the physical presence of their parents throughout the school year or their need to share with their parents the products of their learning activities. another concern of the parents that appears in the findings relates to the bus rides between their homes and the regional school. technically, the school handles the transport arrangements: the children are escorted to the bus stops, and supervised for orderly boarding. although the school does not view this as an issue, parents have expressed considerable concern about it, which the school staff was not aware of. this is where many parents find it hard to grapple with their physical absence from the school and worry miriam breuer & clodie tal 16 about the security of their children. note that the children do not raise the subject of the bus in their interviews, nor does it concern them after the initial adjustment period. it is important, however, to raise this issue in discussions between the parents and teachers as a concern of the parents. parents and teachers express dissatisfaction when the issues of concern to them are not properly addressed by the school staff. this observation, which also appears in the research literature, was apparent to some extent in the findings of this research. greenbaum and fried (2011) argue that the school system is still fearful of the involvement of parents in the school system, which may explain the failure of the system – unaware of the parents’ perspective – to address the needs of this group. the bus rides to school, for example, illustrate that each party has its own perspective: the school believes that the matter is being handled, therefore it is not raised in teachers’ conversations with the parents. from the parents’ perspective, however, this sensitive subject, which preoccupies and concerns them, does not get a hearing in the parentteacher exchanges. from the teachers’ perspective, their needs vis-à-vis parents are also not being addressed. the teachers want to set limits on contact with the parents, limits that they believe are not sufficiently clear or understood by the parents. the lack of dialogue on this issue between teachers and parents leads to criticism of the parents by the teachers, criticism that could undermine relations between them and cast a pall on the atmosphere in the classroom. the parents, on their part, speak of the need to increase the frequency of meetings or dialogue with the teachers, paying little regard to the teachers’ needs to set limits on the frequency or the subjects discussed. failure to address the need for limits ignores the needs of the teachers, who are subject to ongoing, frequent contact with a large number of parents. for a partnership among the parents, children, and teachers to be authentic, the needs of each group must be addressed, hence it is important to ascertain the unrealized needs of each group through dialogue among the partners. these broad subjects as well as the different needs of the parents are not adequately addressed, hence the importance of engaging in research that offers ways to deepen the relationship between school staff, parents, and children, and more adequately respond to the needs of the stakeholders (pianta, kraft-sayre, rimm-kaufman, gercke, and higgins, 2001). this kind of research should be conducted beyond first grade in the school studied and indeed in all schools as part of the ongoing educational praxis. this would mean conversations in every educational framework to clarify expectations – identifying and defining needs and monitoring the changing needs of children as they adjust to first grade and later. identifying needs and clarifying the expectations of the parents, children, and teachers could facilitate creation of a work plan relevant for the entire school in each educational framework. for example, in the school in which this research was conducted, the need arose to think of ways to increase the physical presence of parents in the school, to provide more information to parents about the bus transport of their children, and especially to reach agreements acceptable to both teachers and parents about the frequency and channels of communication between them. the focus of the work plans may be different in other schools, in accordance with the needs that arise from clarifying the expectations of the stakeholders. what emerges from this research is the importance of creating agreedupon mechanisms for parents and teachers to resolve disagreements that may arise and a framework for clarifying the expectations of each side. it is important to note that it is the school's responsibility to institute regular communication mechanisms with parents and families. addi-raccah et al. (2018) found that in cases in which teachers overcome their fear of "strong" parents, the teachers can be perceived as "carriers of social change through a relational system.”. it was suggested that teachers, led by influential principals, who form reciprocal relations with students' parents can have an improved impact on their communities. in the case presented in this study the principal and vice principal (the first author) led the teaching staff and the parents to forming a real partnership that did not exist before the research. this partnership built a mechanism for checking the expectations of stakeholders and one that enabled adoption of actions to meet the children's, parents’, and teachers' expectations. perspectives of teachers, children, and parents on… 17 declarations limitations of the study: in light of the small number of respondents, the scope of this research was limited, and should be expanded to the entire school. furthermore, only mothers responded to the questionnaires even though they were distributed to both mothers and fathers. in the future, greater efforts should be made to involve fathers in the study and hear their perspective. the findings could help create a partnership of teachers, parents, and children with a more contemporary perception of school as a safe space that conveys a sense of belonging and in which the child develops abilities to meet complex needs. the involvement of parents and teachers together can create a real partnership that will enhance learning and the motivation to learn for the benefit of the children (israel ministry of education, 2001; sagi-schwartz and gini, 2008). references acar, i. h., veziroğlu-çelik, m., çelebi, ş., i̇ngeç, d., & kuzgunet, s. 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(2008). early childhood transitions research: a review of concepts, theory, and practice. working paper no. 48. the hague: bernard van leer foundation. retrieved from http://oro.open.ac.uk/16989/1/vogler_et_al_transitions_pdf.dat.pdf. walker, j. m. t., & hoover-dempsey, k. v. (2015). parental engagement and classroom management. in e. t. emmer and e. j. sabornie (eds.), handbook of classroom management (pp. 459-478). new york and london: routledge. yin, r. k. (2009). case study research: design and methods (4th ed.). thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. journal of childhood, education & society volume 1, issue 1, 2020, pp. 63-77 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.20201132 research article ©2020 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) early childhood preservice teachers’ debugging block-based programs: an eye tracking study lucas vasconcelos*, ismahan arslan-ari*, fatih ari*** abstract: learning computational skills such as programming and debugging is very important for k-12 students given the increasing need of workforce proficient in computing technologies. programming is an intricate cognitive task that entails iteratively creating and revising programs to create an artifact. central to programming is debugging, which consists of systematically identifying and fixing program errors. given its central role, debugging should be explicitly taught to early childhood preservice teachers so they can support their future students’ learning to program and debug errors. in this study, we propose using eye-tracking data and cued retrospective reporting to assess preservice teachers’ cognitive strategies while debugging. several eye-tracking studies have investigated learners’ debugging strategies though the literature lacks studies (a) conducted with early childhood preservice teachers and (b) that focus on blockbased programming languages, such as scratch. the present study addresses this gap in the literature. this study used mixed methods to triangulate quantitative findings from eye movement analysis and qualitative findings about employed debugging strategies into the creation of descriptive themes. results showed that participants developed strategies such as simultaneous review of output and code, use of beacons to narrow down the area to be debugged, and eye fixation on output to form hypotheses. but most often, debugging was not informed by a hypothesis, which led to trial and error. study limitations and directions for future research are discussed. article history received: 22 december 2019 accepted: 27 january 2020 keywords debugging; block-based programs; eye tracking; cognitive strategies; early childhood preservice teachers introduction learning computational skills such as programming is important for k-12 students given the increasing need for a workforce proficient in coding and computing technologies (burke, 2012; k-12 computer science framework steering committee, 2016; obama, 2016). various resources have been created to inspire programming instruction in k-12 classrooms such as low threshold block-based programming languages (bau, 2015; cooper, dann, and paush, 2000; resnick et al., 2009) that are easy and appealing to youth, open access courses for teachers on computer science (code.org, n.d.; google, n.d.), exemplary instructional materials for integrating programming into subject areas (computer science teachers association & international society for technology in education, 2011; project growing up thinking scientifically (guts), n.d.), among others. however, little has been done as professional learning on programming in early childhood preservice teacher preparation programs (kim, yuan, vasconcelos, shin, and hill, 2018). training preservice teachers to program involves not only teaching how to successfully apply computer science concepts and commands, but also fostering important computational thinking practices _____________ *university of south carolina, college of education, department of educational studies, columbia, usa, email: limadel@mailbox.sc.edu, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-00019074-203x *university of south carolina, college of education, department of educational studies, columbia, usa , email: arslanai@mailbox.sc.edu, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-00033497-7058 ***university of south carolina, college of education, department of educational studies, columbia, usa, email: arifatih@mailbox.sc.edu,orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-00019512-1312 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.20201132 mailto:limadel@mailbox.sc.edu https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9074-203x?lang=en https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9074-203x?lang=en mailto:arslanai@mailbox.sc.edu https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3497-7058 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3497-7058 mailto:arifatih@mailbox.sc.edu https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9512-1312 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9512-1312 lucas vasconcelos, ismahan arslan-ari & fatih ari 64 such as debugging (basu, 2016; brennan and resnick, 2012; vasconcelos and kim, 2019). debugging is a fundamental part of programming that entails addressing program errors or an unintended output on the screen (mccauley et al., 2008; yen, wu, and lin, 2012). training on programming and debugging is essential for early childhood preservice teachers to properly support their future students’ learning to program and debug errors (kim et al., 2018). debugging programming is an intricate cognitive task (vihavainen, airaksinen and watson, 2014) in which one combines units that encapsulate specific concepts and commands from a computer science language to create an output. given the complexity of this task, it is unlikely that one will create a program that does not need revisions in one attempt. therefore, it is critical to explicitly teach error debugging skills during programming instruction. debugging, also known as troubleshooting, is defined as the process of identifying error(s) in a program and using problem-solving strategies to fix it (mccauley et al., 2008; proctor, 2019; yen et al., 2012). debugging is an inherent part of programming, and programmers spend a significant amount of time doing it (alqadi and maletic, 2017; beller, spruit, spinellis, and zaidman, 2018). different from random trial and error, debugging is a systematic and thoughtful process in which one tests hypotheses and applies strategies to locate and overcome the cause of a program error (kim et al., 2018; shute, sun, and asbell-clarke, 2017). despite its importance, explicit instruction about debugging strategies is rarely featured in computer science instruction (proctor, 2019). debugging for early childhood preservice teachers. teaching k-12 students to program has emerged as a crucial instructional goal for school teachers (kalelioğlu, 2015; kazimoglu, kiernan, bacon, and mackinnon, 2012; lye and koh, 2014). and yet, preservice and in-service teacher education programs are still in need of a nationwide curriculum that supports integration of programming and other computational skills such as debugging at the k-12 level (paul, 2016). learning to program and debug program errors can be a daunting task for preservice teachers, especially if they are novice learners with limited to no background in computing. this is because novice learners tend to overestimate the complexity of programming tasks, encounter a higher number of program errors, and consequently experience decreased motivation towards learning to program (isong, 2014; sun and hsu, 2019; yukselturk and altiok, 2017). integrating programming and debugging into k-12 teaching does not entail adding another component to the curriculum. it can help young learners develop crosscutting concepts and skills such as abstraction, conditional logic, and pattern identification (grover and pea, 2013; sengupta, kinnebrew, basu, biswas, and clark, 2013). empirical studies on debugging strategies used by early childhood preservice teachers are limited. recent studies found that preservice teachers who are learning to program struggle at systematically forming and testing hypotheses to guide their debugging as well as explain the cause of an error even when a problem is fixed (kim et al., 2018). in another study, preservice teachers ended up simplifying a program by removing a problematic area to avoid problem solving (kim et al., 2016). further empirical studies are needed. professional learning on programming and debugging for preservice teachers may have a crucial impact on their future students, such as providing underprivileged populations (e.g., females, students with special needs, people of color) with access to stem learning experiences, and influencing students’ dispositions to advance their education and pursue jobs in stem fields (leonard et al., 2016; national research council, 2011). use of eye movements in programming education. research that uses eye-tracking devices to assess learning in computer science has increased in recent years. a survey on the use of eye-tracking in programming instruction research revealed that program comprehension and debugging are two mostly studied areas (obaidellah, al haek, and cheng, 2018). among these studies, several have used eye movement data to assess “learners’ problem-solving processes objectively” (sun and hsu, 2019, p. 67) as early childhood preservice teachers’ debugging block-based… 65 learners attempt to understand and/or debug programs. for instance, lin et al. (2015) examined university students’ cognitive processes during debugging tasks. the study found that novice learners in programming followed a linear, line-by-line approach as they debugged computer programs whereas students with prior programming experience followed a more logical, strategic approach. in a similar study, bednarik (2012) used eye movement data to investigate visual attention patterns as a function of expertise during debugging. findings showed novices’ eye transitions between code and output areas early in the debugging task but later on they focused on the program itself. alternatively, experts demonstrated systematic eye transitions between the code and output with focused attention on the output area throughout the debugging task. further, papavlasopoulou, sharma, giannakos, and jaccheri (2017) used eye-tracking data to examine children’s learning processes of coding during block-based programming activities. they grouped children into two groups: (1) ages of 8-12 and (2) ages of 13-17, and compared visual attention patterns, time spent on areas of interests (aois), and transitions between aois. results indicated that younger children focused mostly on sprites, the visual aspects of the programming tasks, whereas older children focused mostly on script, output, and command areas. papavlasopoulou et al. (2017) also asserted that a higher number of transitions between these areas indicate two types of processes, active debugging and hypothesis testing. eye tracking devices have been used not only as a data collection method, but also as part of an intervention to support programming education. sun and hsu (2019) implemented an eye-tracking scaffolding system that instantly gauged learners’ attention by providing just-in-time hints as learners worked on programming tasks. the system tracked participants’ eye movements (i.e., fixation positions and durations) to evaluate the level of attention. if, for instance, a participant did not fixate on the area that contained key information, then the system would highlight the area to direct the participant’s attention. compared to peer scaffolding and mixed scaffolding, learners using the eye tracking scaffolding demonstrated higher programming self-efficacy. however, no difference was found in terms of learning performance between experimental conditions. in another study, bednarik, schulte, budde, heinemann, and vrzakova (2018) explored the effect of eye movement modeling examples on program comprehension and program reading. researchers recorded eye movements of an expert programmer when s/he was working on programming tasks and used the video as a model to support novice learners’ program comprehension and program reading. findings revealed significant improvements in novice learners’ program comprehension. these studies demonstrate the potential of using eye trackers to understand learners’ cognitive processes during complex programming tasks. however, most research has been conducted with higher education individuals from the field of computer science, and involved text-based programming languages (obaidellah et al., 2018). to our knowledge, the present study is the first attempt to use eye tracking to understand preservice teachers’ cognitive processes during debugging block-based programs. hence, the present study addresses this gap in the research literature. purpose and research question this study examined how early childhood preservice teachers used cognitive strategies while debugging block-based programs using eye movement data and cued retrospective reporting. this research question was investigated: what cognitive strategies do early childhood preservice teachers use during debugging block-based programs? method this was a mixed methods case study (leedy and ormrod, 2013) in which we used qualitative and quantitative data to provide an in-depth understanding of early childhood preservice teachers’ cognitive processes while debugging block-based programs. quantitative and qualitative data were concurrently collected, had equivalent weight (leech and onwuegbuzie, 2009), and consisted of eye movement data and cued retrospective reporting transcripts respectively. lucas vasconcelos, ismahan arslan-ari & fatih ari 66 research setting after approval by an institutional review board (irb), data was collected in two sections of a course on early childhood mathematics teaching offered at a large southeastern university in the united states. one of the week-long modules of this course covers stem education in early childhood. during this week, researchers hosted a 2-hour workshop on block-based coding during a class meeting in a computer lab. a total of 41 preservice teachers attended the workshop, 19 in course section a and 22 in course section b. during the workshop, preservice teachers learned to program with scratch, a free block-based visual programming tool and language. each preservice teacher worked individually in an assigned computer. after an introduction about scratch features (e.g., block palette, output), preservice teachers followed step-by-step instructions to create an animation in scratch such as making a sprite fly and coding a knockknock joke. next, they completed two debugging activities in which they attempted to identify and fix a problem in a faulty program. they debugged the code to make a sprite move between two points on the screen and to make a sprite travel on a square pattern. at the end of the workshop, preservice teachers were invited to participate in an individual data collection session about coding and debugging. a gift card was offered as incentive though only two participants, one from each course section, accepted to join the individual session. participants participants were two 21-year old female preservice teachers in the senior year of their bachelor's degree in early childhood education. pseudonyms are used in this paper. convenience sampling was used given that these were the two preservice teachers who accepted to partake in individual activities after the workshop. regarding ethnicity, mila was white, and emmy was african american. prior to attending the scratch workshop, neither one had previous experience with textor block-based programming languages. according to a self-rated prior knowledge test administered before individual debugging activities, both participants reported that they knew the functions of most of the blocks used in the debugging activities. study procedures participants attended one individual data collection session in a human computer interaction lab. first, each participant was explained the purpose of the study, and their informed consent was collected. they were introduced to the eye tracking equipment (tobii x3-120), which was attached to a 22 in computer monitor. then, participants’ eye movements were calibrated by following a red ball, called calibration dot, on the screen. this calibration adjusts the eye tracking system to the geometric characteristics of participants' eyes. after calibration, participants completed the first debugging activity in scratch. while working on debugging activities, eye movements were tracked and video recorded. participants had 10 minutes to identify and fix the fault in the code. next, researchers replayed participant’s eye movements and conducted cued retrospective reporting. cued retrospective reporting was video recorded with the tobii pro studio software. the same procedure was repeated for a second debugging activity. individual debugging activities. two debugging activities were designed based on the content covered in the workshop. ten minutes were allocated to each debugging activity, and participants worked independently, without validation from researchers. participants were informed that they could add, delete, or reorder blocks, as well as undo their own actions to start over. instructions for the first debugging activity were “liam wants to code his cat to dance until the end of the song, but he noticed the cat continues dancing after the song stops. can you help liam fix the bug in the code?”. figure 1 presents the faulty program and output. reducing the number of loops in one of the repeat blocks would solve this problem. in the second debugging activity, participants were instructed: “lucia would like the cat to move following a rectangle path, though the code that she put together is not working. let’s help lucia fix this code.” figure 2 shows the faulty program and output. to debug the error, participants could place the first move block inside the loop (repeat) right before the first turn block, and increase the number of steps in early childhood preservice teachers’ debugging block-based… 67 one of the move blocks. figure 1. first debugging activity in individual coding section figure 2. second debugging activity in individual coding section data collection methods to collect data that answers the research question about early childhood preservice teachers’ cognitive strategies during debugging block-based programs, an eye tracking device and cued retrospective reporting were used. also, participants’ prior knowledge of programming was measured with a prior knowledge test. prior knowledge test. to assess prior knowledge of programming, participants rated 12 statements about their knowledge of specific blocks on a 5-point scale ranging from ‘‘i don’t know at all” (score 1) to ‘‘i know very well” (score 5). statements targeted blocks used in debugging activities. for example, “i know the functions of repeat block.” and “i know the functions of when i receive block.” moreno and mayer (1999) also used a similar self-assessment instrument on a different topic. lucas vasconcelos, ismahan arslan-ari & fatih ari 68 eye tracking device. while working on the debugging activity, participants’ eye movements were recorded with a tobii x3-120 eye tracking device using the sample rate of 120 hz. tobii x3-120 is a screenbased portable eye tracker that attaches to the bottom of a computer monitor. it uses near infrared sensors to capture eye gaze. tobii pro studio software was used to calibrate, record, and analyze eye movements. cued retrospective reporting. cued retrospective reporting is a verbal reporting technique in which the participant watches their recorded eye movements and retrospectively verbalizes what they were thinking as well as their problem-solving strategies. this cued retrospective reporting technique is adopted from van gog, paas, van merriënboer, and witte (2005). participants were told “please watch the recording of your eye movements and tell me what you were thinking during debugging.” while watching their eye movements, participants were asked questions, such as “where in the screen did you look to fix the error?” and “what was the cause of the problem in the debugging activity?” researchers paused or replayed the video recording as needed. participants’ reporting was video recorded with the retrospective reporting feature in the tobii pro studio software. data analysis methods tobii pro studio software was used to analyze participants’ eye movements. first, eight specific sections of the screen were assigned as area of interests (aois), and they remained constant throughout debugging activities (see figure 3). description of aois are provided in table 1. figure 3. eight aois of scratch table i description of aois aois description block categories general categories of blocks, such as motion or sound blocks palette available blocks within a selected block category. script area where a program is created by dragging and connecting blocks. control panel buttons to control the program output. the green flag runs a program and the red octagon stops it. output the visual output of a program is displayed in this area. sprite control panel controls to change sprite features, such as size and direction. sprites thumbnails of sprites (characters) that the program controls. backdrops thumbnails of backdrops used in the scratch output quantitative data consisted of total fixation duration and total fixation count calculated for each aoi. early childhood preservice teachers’ debugging block-based… 69 fixation duration refers to how long participants looked at a specific area on the screen, while fixation count reflects the number of times participants looked at that same area. percentage values were calculated given that participants completed debugging activities at different times. also, transitions between aois were calculated to deepen the understanding of each participant’s cognitive strategies during debugging. two types of transitions were calculated: (1) between script and output and (2) between blocks palette and script. specifically, transitions were computed by summing up the number of times the eye fixation is moved from the script to output and from output to script. transitions between aois are often used as metrics in eye-tracking research (sharafi, soh, and guéhéneuc, 2015), including studies that assess program comprehension or debugging (e.g., bednarik, 2012; lin et al., 2015; papavlasopoulou et al., 2017). qualitative data included researchers’ notes about trends and patterns in participants’ eye movements, transcriptions of cued retrospective reporting, and heatmaps. heatmaps provide visual evidence of participants’ eye movements based on the distribution of eye fixations on the screen (sharafi et al., 2015). the first and second authors used constant comparison methods from qualitative grounded theory research (glaser and strauss, 1967; strauss and corbin, 1998) to review eye movement videos and transcripts line by line. open coding techniques were used as “a starting point to provide the researcher with analytic leads for further exploration” (saldaña, 2013, p. 101). specifically, salient patterns and interpretations from each data source were compared with patterns and interpretations from other data sources for triangulation of findings (greene, 2007, 2008). for example, researchers noticed that (1) eye movements frequently alternated between code and output, (2) participant reported that she was trying to connect certain animated actions with specific blocks in the script area, and (3) the heatmap showed significant eye fixation on the specific block mentioned by the participant. finally, all authors reviewed findings about participants and created qualitative themes (braun and clarke, 2006) to describe employed cognitive strategies while debugging block-based programs. results eye movement analysis mila. mila completed the first debugging activity in 516.90 seconds. during this activity, mila had more eye fixation on scripts (57.07%) and output (34.34%) followed by sprite control panel, blocks palette, and control panel in descending order (table 2). alongside that, mila’s fixation count relied predominantly on scripts (56.06%) and output (34.03%). eye movement analysis revealed that mila’s eyes often alternated between scripts and output areas as an attempt to understand the script, especially at the beginning of the debugging activity. during cued retrospective reporting, mila explained that she tried to focus on the output, but not the script, to inform hypothesis creation. as she said, “i just kept watching it to i guess just to see what he was doing. so i didn’t really have an idea.” in other words, mila did not have a hypothesis about what caused the error, which was reflected in the patterns and number of eye transitions captured by the eye tracker. there were 129 transitions between the scripts and the output area but only 5 transitions between the block palette and the scripts area (table 3). this suggests that mila did not consider adding a new block and/or replacing an existing one in the program. further, mila often mentioned during cued retrospective reporting that she was “just trying things” as she moved blocks around and/or changed block parameters. she found a clue that the repeat (loop) block was the problematic one, and she tried two debugging strategies: (1) entering zero as parameter to prevent the block from running, and (2) deleting blocks within the repeat block, but not the repeat block itself. by trial and error, mila was able to fix the error in the first debugging activity. mila mentioned that she found the second debugging activity easier, and she completed it in 416.306 seconds. eye fixation duration was predominantly on the scripts (65.32%), and output (23.23%) and fixation counts were also mostly on scripts (61.60%) and output (24.58%) (table 2). this time, however, mila was more strategic in her debugging. when prompted to share if she had a hypothesis about how to fix the faulty program, mila said that “there wasn't enough turns and moving, so that's why you had to add more.”. mila then searched for blocks in the palette to add to the code sequence, which explains the higher number of eye fixation on the blocks palette area (6.87%), and more transitions between code and lucas vasconcelos, ismahan arslan-ari & fatih ari 70 palette area (n=34) compared to the first debugging activity (table 3). when she encountered an unexpected error (e.g., sprite drawing a square rather than a rectangle), mila knew that she had to change the move block to increase the number of steps for two sides of the shape. she was able to use the output (cat drawing a shape) and her mathematical knowledge about rectangles to inform her debugging strategies. in summary, she implemented three strategies while debugging: (1) deleting blocks, (2) changing the number of steps in the move block, and (3) deleting blocks within the repeat block. table ii fixation duration and fixation counts for each debugging activity participant debugging activities backdrops block categories blocks palette control panel output scripts sprite control panel sprites mila debugging activity 1 fixation duration (%) 0.06 0.09 1.53 1.12 34.34 57.07 3.62 0.71 fixation count (%) 0.07 0.07 2.61 0.07 34.03 56.06 3.35 1.21 debugging activity 2 fixation duration (%) 0 0.15 4.77 3.24 23.23 65.32 1.90 0.20 fixation count (%) 0 0.31 6.87 2.82 24.58 61.60 2.14 0.31 emmy debugging activity 1 fixation duration (%) 0.18 1.53 20.76 1.34 31.56 41.65 0.36 0.30 fixation count (%) 0.38 2.36 25.97 1.45 23.08 42.50 0.61 0.61 debugging activity 2 fixation duration (%) 0.04 1.28 8.80 1.13 31.08 53.72 1.42 0.90 fixation count (%) 0.11 1.87 10.26 1.47 28.40 52.61 1.98 2.04 table iii transitions between block categories and script, and script and output participant block palette-script script-output debugging activity 1 debugging activity 2 debugging activity 1 debugging activity 2 mila 5 34 129 100 emmy 35 26 82 114 emmy. emmy fixed the error in the first debugging activity in 479.80 seconds. during this time, she fixated the most on three of the aois, scripts (41.65%), output (31.56%), and blocks palette (20.76%) (table 2). emmy seemed more strategic about debugging strategies. after examining the script from top to bottom, she reviewed the output to evaluate the outcome of the program. then, her eye movements alternated between the script and output areas to find the error. after she figured out the error, she focused on the block palette to locate blocks to fix the error. during this process, her eye movements alternated between block palette and scripts 35 times. as emmy was watching her recorded eye transitions between block palette and scripts, she explained that she was “trying to figure it out what [i] should add or take away.” further, she said that she created two hypotheses: (1) to make the cat stop dancing and (2) to stop the music. after she was not able to stop the cat, she tried the second hypothesis. while trying to test both hypotheses, emmy added new blocks and made transitions between the blocks palette and scripts. the high number of fixation counts on scripts (42.50%) and blocks palette (25.97%) aois aligns well with her explanations. after emmy updated the script, she assessed the output. after multiple trials, she went back to the top of the script to review it. during the first debugging activity, emmy’s transitions between script and output areas amounted to 82 times total (table 3). overall, she used three debugging strategies to fix the error in the first debugging activity; (1) changing the parameter of the repeat block, (2) adding a new block named stop at sounds, and (3) deleting the second repeat block along with all other blocks within that loop. emmy successfully completed the activity after removing one of the loops from the code and using trial and error to tweak the number of loops that controlled the cat movement. emmy’s eyes fixated on scripts (53.72%) and blocks palette (8.80%), and these parameters changed dramatically compared to her fixation durations in the first debugging activity. this time, emmy focussed less on the blocks palette but more on the scripts. her fixation durations on the output in both debugging activities were very similar (table 2). emmy found this activity harder as she explained that she could not early childhood preservice teachers’ debugging block-based… 71 remember how the pen down block works. to figure out its function, she disconnected all other blocks except for the pen down block and searched the block palette to find a clue. however, this strategy did not help her in identifying the block function. compared to the first debugging activity, there were more transitions between the script and output (n=114) as emmy tried to interpret the script and figure out the error. she removed blocks and changed parameters, and she was able to make the sprite draw a square. by using her mathematical knowledge, she created a hypothesis, but she did not know how to execute it in the script. as she explained, “i was trying to think how i could make the size shorter. so i put both 50 [number of steps in move block], but that didn’t work the way i thought. and it just made the square bigger.” therefore, emmy spent more time on the script (53.72%). also, even though she did not add new blocks to the code, she had a high number of fixations on the blocks palette (10.26%). in her cued retrospective reporting, she explained “i didn't know what i was actually looking for.” this confusion is also evident in her rapid eye movements from one area to another area on the screen. emmy was not able to successfully complete the second debugging activity within the allocated time. cross-case analysis: qualitative themes 1. frequent and continuous eye fixation on output for hypothesis generation. participants’ eye fixation focused significantly on output, which served as an aid for hypothesis generation about the cause of the problem. output was the second most fixated aoi for both participants in both debugging activities (table 1). the pattern of their eye fixation on output is well represented in figure 4, which is a heatmap of one participant’s fixation. participants ran the code multiple times (see fixation counts in table 2) to craft a hypothesis/idea, and then they would review the program. when prompted to explain this, mila said “i was trying to see why he [cat] was not stopping. i think at this point i didn’t really know where to go, so i just kept watching it just to see what he was doing.” this behavior is indicative of hypothesis generation through interpreting the output first and relating corresponding actions of the character to the code blocks to identify where the error(s) might possibly be located. figure 4. heatmap as example of mila’s eye fixations in the first debugging activity (based on fixation duration). green represents short fixation duration while red represents longer fixation duration 2. simultaneous output visualization and top-down block review. early in the debugging activity, participants played the program multiple times. analysis of their eye movements revealed that they attempted to simultaneously observe the output and perform a top-down analysis of the block sequence. they used this strategy to understand the function of blocks even before debugging the code, and participants confirmed this during cued reporting. indeed, the number of script-output transitions was much higher than the number of block palette-script transitions (table 3). when showed her eye movements, emmy recalled that she reviewed the code from “top to bottom”, and that she was “looking at everything and then pressed play (...), trying to understand everything, looking at every step [block].” lucas vasconcelos, ismahan arslan-ari & fatih ari 72 this aligns with the literature on novice learners’ program comprehension and debugging, as they often follow a linear, line-by-line approach. 3. eye fixations and debugging targeted the bottom of a block sequence. participants primarily focused on the bottom of a block sequence, which led to them adding and deleting blocks rather than reordering blocks or tinkering with other blocks at the top. when emmy was asked about why her eye movements were focusing at the bottom of the code, she said “the most important stuff is usually up top.” this suggests the participant may think of bugs as errors that occur towards the end/bottom of a code sequence. because their debugging was often limited to adding/removing blocks at the bottom, they ended up with inefficient and long programs, even when they successfully accomplished the goal. 4. eye fixation on faulty block only occurred if participant had a hypothesis. participants were only strategic about reviewing a faulty code if they had a hypothesis for fixing the error. their eye movements pointed straight to the hypothesized faulty block. for instance, mila said that “the repeat part [block] was throwing me off because there were two repeats.” when asked to elaborate on this, she added “i thought, well if it’s repeating it, if it’s just going and going, it must be an issue with like the repeats in the code.” although it was not possible to calculate fixation counts and time on specific blocks, the videos clearly showed mila repeatedly fixating on the repeat block. 5. random eye movements indicative of random trial and error. participants often used trial-anderror techniques, and this was reflected in random eye movement transitions between aois, as well as along the block sequence. when asked about this, participants simply argued that they did not have a hypothesis. interestingly, both participants acknowledged using trial and error. mila added that another factor was helpful in fixing the faulty block: “a little bit of luck.” participants were unsure if they had a hypothesis, even when they actually had one. this could be indicative of a misconception in which they associate having a hypothesis with correctly understanding the cause of the problem and mastering a programming concept. 6. recognizing a key block helps narrow down area to be debugged. participants used cues in the output to identify the faulty block area. as they reviewed the output, they associated the fun speech bubble with the block “say fun for two seconds”. as mila said, “i thought that the problem was like after the fun.” eye movements showed participants alternating between output and the analogous block. this recognition led participants to narrowing down the part of the program to be debugged, given that they used debugging strategies such as adding/deleting blocks after that block. 7. eye fixation relied more on block palette when they understood the program. when participants understood the program, they made more attempts to add new blocks to the script. consequently, there was a higher number of eye fixations on blocks from the palette. mila focused on the blocks palette aoi and added new blocks in the second debugging activity, which she confirmed was the easiest because she understood the block sequence. on the other hand, emmy acknowledged that she did not understand the second debugging activity as much as the first activity, which led to fewer fixation counts on the blocks palette aoi. emmy reported in the prior knowledge and cued retrospective interview that she did not know what the pen down block does. analysis of her eye movements showed that she focused on the pen down block for a longer period of time as she attempted to understand it. discussion and conclusion this mixed methods study used eye movement data and cued retrospective reporting techniques to explore early childhood preservice teachers’ cognitive strategies as they debugged block-based programs. quantitative analysis of eye movements revealed that participants’ eye fixation relied mostly on the output and scripts aois, and consequently, there were more script-output eye transitions. participants primarily fixated on the output as an attempt to form hypotheses although participants often reported that they failed at it during retrospective reporting. in a study about cognitive strategies and visual attention during debugging, bednarik (2012) found that novice programmers reviewed output first to form hypotheses while more experienced programmers used only the scripts or a combination of output and scripts. in a early childhood preservice teachers’ debugging block-based… 73 study with kids, papavlasopoulou et al. (2017) found that those who spent more time on output and/or characters while coding in scratch were outperformed in terms of learning gains by kids who spent more time reviewing scripts. it is important to support preservice teachers in purposeful and strategic consideration of both scripts and output for hypothesis generation. follow-up research could feature scaffolding prompts (ge and land, 2004) that guide preservice teachers in associating certain events in the output with corresponding blocks/commands in the scripts. this could be helpful for program comprehension, identification of the faulty code area, and purposeful hypothesis generation. study participants had a significantly higher number of script-output transitions as they attempted to simultaneously review output and script. a study that compared programming performance in experts and novices found that experts switched between scripts and program more often than novices (hejmady and narayanan, 2012). frequent eye movement between script and output is considered typical behavior of hypothesis testing as one modifies the program and refers to the output to evaluate it (papavlasopoulou et al., 2017). however, mila’s and emmy’s debugging strategies were rarely informed by a hypothesis. they identified critical aois to focus on, but they could not systematically review output and block script. further, they did not know how to structure their debugging process, as they would say “i didn’t know where to go.” qualitative data analysis revealed that participants mostly resorted to trial and error techniques to identify and fix errors in a faulty code. other debugging strategies include using a zero parameter in a block to prevent it from running, deleting blocks within a loop (repeat), and adding/deleting blocks at the bottom of a block sequence. participants were not sure of the cause of the error even when they correctly completed the task. mixed methods analysis combined qualitative and quantitative findings into themes that provide indepth accounts of participants’ debugging. it was noticeable that participants (1) frequently and continuously fixated on output for hypothesis generation, (2) attempted to simultaneously visualize the output and review the program from top to bottom, (3) primarily fixated on and debugged the bottom of a program, (4) only fixated on faulty blocks if they had a hypothesis to inform such eye movement, (5) often engaged in random trial and error and random eye movements, (6) identified key blocks to help narrow down which area to be debugged, and (7) fixated more on the block palette when they properly understood the code sequence. creating a conceptually grounded hypothesis while programming is critical (brooks, 1983) as it informs debugging actions. it was noticeable that participants in this study often engaged in random trial and error, which was also evident in random eye movements. this finding is extensively supported by the literature, which characterizes trial and error as a debugging strategy that is repeatedly used by novice learners (fitzgerald et al., 2008; jadud, 2005; simon et al., 2008). creating a hypothesis and strategy prior to debugging is typical of more experienced programmers (gould and drongowski, 1974). in this study, participants would only review the block palette aoi if they had a hypothesis and understood the scripts, such as mila’s idea to use a stop block to make the cat stop. she scrolled through block categories in search of that block. identifying where the bug is in a long code sequence is critical for effective and efficient debugging. research has found that a line-by-line, top-down approach to understand and debug code is typical of novice learners (alqadi and maletic, 2017; busjahn, schulte, and busjahn, 2011; yusuf, kagdi, and maletic, 2007). experts, on the other hand, are more strategic about processing the code, which occurs in a nonlinear manner compared to novices (busjahn et al., 2011). expert programmers often search and locate beacons (crosby, scholtz, and wiedenbeck, 2002), which are defined in the computer science literature as a structure, statement, or operation that aid programmers in creating and testing a hypothesis (lin et al., 2015). both participants in this study successfully identified an event in the output (fun bubble) and an analogous block (say fun for two seconds) during the first debugging activity. they used the block as a beacon to realize that the faulty part of the code was located after that block. studies on comprehension of text-based languages found that experienced programmers recognize beacons to create and verify hypotheses (e.g., aschwanden and crosby, 2006; crosby et al., 2002). however, in most instances, participants in the present study tried to modify the bottom area of a code sequence as a strategy to debug lucas vasconcelos, ismahan arslan-ari & fatih ari 74 the code. perhaps it would be beneficial to provide not only visual cues on the screen to guide participants’ attention to key information (sun and hsu, 2019), but also a guided framework for hypothesis construction, testing, evaluation, and revision. the latter of these two recommendations has been proposed by kim et al. (2018), who identified preservice teachers’ struggles with hypothesis-driven programming of educational robots. professional learning that prepares preservice teachers to address the learning needs of 21st century students is critical so preservice teachers can feel more confident in offering integrated stem learning experiences to their students. in fact, it has been found that most k-12 students in u.s. are not offered instruction that features coding until they reach high school (google and gallup, 2015). results of this study will inform and inspire teacher educators to design and develop professional learning on coding and debugging for teacher preparation programs so that preservice teachers can integrate developmentally appropriate coding instruction in early childhood grades and beyond. limitations and future research there are several limitations to this study. first, this case study examined the cognitive strategies of only two early childhood preservice teachers, which limits the generalizability of findings to larger populations. follow-up studies with larger populations are invited. second, participants attended a 2-hour workshop about coding, which means they still had limited knowledge about scratch and block-based coding. the duration and content of the workshop should be expanded in future research to provide preservice teachers with opportunities to develop a more sophisticated conceptual understanding of key computer science concepts (e.g., loops, variables) prior to data collection about debugging. third, both study participants were novice programming learners. follow-up studies could compare cognitive strategies used by novice and more experienced early childhood preservice teachers. fourth, study participants worked on debugging activities individually. literature on programming instruction states that pair programming is an effective strategy (braught, wahls, and marlin eby, 2011) given the potential for peer scaffolding. one possible avenue for research is to investigate pairs’ co-construction and implementation of debugging strategies using interaction analysis (jordan and henderson, 1995), as well as to examine similarities and differences in pairs’ eye movements (pietinen, bednarik, glotova, tenhunen, and tukiainen, 2008). finally, debugging activities were created by the researchers. however, early childhood preservice teachers will need to fix errors in programs created by children when they become in-service teachers. it is quite likely that children’s programs may not produce an output and/or may include many blocks that were not supposed to be attached to each other. therefore, to make the debugging experience more authentic, future research might consider using block-based programs developed by children. declarations acknowledgements: authors’ contributions: l.v. and i.a.a. conceived the study idea. l.v. designed workshop activities and debugging activities. l.v., i.a.a., and f.a. refined workshop activities and debugging activities. l.v. and i.a.a. implemented workshop and debugging activities, collected and analyzed data, and interpreted findings. f.a. contributed to interpretation of findings. lv., i.a.a., and f.a. contributed to the final version of this manuscript. competing interests: the authors declare that they have no competing interests. funding: this study did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. references alqadi, b. s., & maletic, j. i. 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(2007). assessing the comprehension of uml class diagrams via eye tracking. in proceedings of 15th ieee international conference on program comprehension (pp. 113–122). alberta, canada: ieee. https://doi.org/10.1109/icpc.2007.10 https://doi.org/10.1145/1592761.1592779 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-012-9240-x http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.infsof.2015.06.008 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2017.09.003 https://doi.org/10.1080/08993400802114698 https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-898x.11.4.237 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-019-09724-w https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12453 https://doi.org/10.1109/icpc.2007.10 early childhood preservice teachers’ debugging block-based programs: an eye tracking study journal of childhood, education & society volume 1, issue 2, 2020, pp. 103-115 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.20201236 research article ©2020 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. silence and its mechanisms as the discursive production of the ‘normal’ in the early childhood classroom karen watson1, zsuzsa millei2, eva bendix petersen3 abstract: in this paper, we aim to better understand and trouble the discursive (re)production of what is taken as the ‘normal’ in ‘inclusive’ early childhood classrooms. we do so by exploring the practices of the ‘including’ group, the so-called ‘normal, in relation to or in the presence of those who are variously labelled as ‘non-normal’. we highlight those mechanisms that are associated with silence and taboo, and through which the including group produces and maintains itself. we present data produced during a six-month ethnographic study in three early childhood classrooms in australia. using the notion of category boundary work in the analysis, we illuminate the practices of silence: ‘ignoring’, ‘moving away’, ‘turning away’ and ‘keeping silent’ through which children undertake the category work of the ‘normal’. the effect of this category work, we argue, is that disability or the diagnosed subject becomes ‘the elephant in the room’, strongly present but avowedly ignored. we draw out some considerations for practice in the concluding part of the paper. article history received: 27 february 2020 accepted: 14 may 2020 keywords category boundary work; inclusion; taboo; poststructural; normal; early childhood; ethnography … from a discourse theoretical point of view, it is not possible to explain why communities are more or less inclusive. we can only investigate how the inclusion and exclusion processes take place and get a better and deeper understanding of these processes (hedegaard hansen, 2012, p. 97). introduction in the above quote hedegaard hansen (2012) calls for the exploration of social practices in everyday settings through which inclusion and exclusion happen. more specifically, hedegaard hansen (2012) and others argue for exploring the idea and mechanics of inclusion around dilemmas such as, who needs to participate in the including, what are the limits of inclusion, what structural issues obstruct inclusion, and ‘into what’ does inclusion needs to happen (davis & watson, 2001; graham, 2006). inclusive early childhood education in australia as in other parts of the world is an obligation (nutbrown & clough, 2009; united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization [unesco], 1994) but exclusionary structures and practices form considerable obstacles to the realization of this commitment (cologon, 2014). the idea of ‘inclusion’ implies that there is a ‘need’ to include and that there is somewhere to be included into. graham (2006) defines ‘inclusion’ as a ‘bringing in’ which implies a dualism, where there are those who are ‘automatically’ and ‘naturally’ included – the ‘normal’, and those who are ‘automatically’ not included but are in ‘need’ of including. therefore, the challenge for inclusive practice is not to think about how to do inclusion better (slee, 2013). instead, inclusive practice is about detecting, understanding and dismantling exclusion as it presents itself in education. it entails exploring the mechanics of inclusion and exclusion. in this article, we set out to identify and problematize some of the mechanisms of ‘inclusion’ practiced by the including group, or the ‘normal’. this exploration remains important since research often _____________ 1 university of newcastle, faculty of education and arts, newcastle, australia, e-mail: karen.watson@newcastle.edu.au orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5456-1888 2 tampere university, faculty of education and culture, tampere, finland, e-mail: zsuzsa.millei@tuni.fi orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4681-6024 3 roskilde university, department of people and technology, roskilde, denmark email: evabp@ruc.dk orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4583-6007 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.20201236 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:karen.watson@newcastle.edu.au https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5456-1888 mailto:zsuzsa.millei@tuni.fi https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4681-6024 mailto:evabp@ruc.dk karen watson, zsuzsa millei & eva bendix petersen 104 highlights how, from the perspectives of children with special needs, the experience of inclusion often comes with “exclusion, isolation, loneliness, and bullying, and difficulties finding friends” (macarthur, 2013, p. 793). the concept of ‘inclusion’ is not well defined or understood in education. the illusion of ‘inclusion’ as a finished product (slee & allan, 2001) is potentially problematic graham and slee (2008) argue that inclusion infers a ‘benign commonality’ where unchallenged assumptions view inclusion as a taken-for-granted phenomenon, with a shared common meaning and understanding. this is however potentially dangerous as it conceals differences and creates a hazardous familiarity that avoids confronting or talking about difference (allan, 2010). the problem of inclusion is often located ‘within the child’ as a deficit (davis & watson 2001; harwood, 2006). at the same time, regulatory practices in early childhood education seek to “normalize” children deemed to have deficits (dalkilic & vadeboncoeur, 2016). this deficit driven medical model perspective (purdue, 2009; slee, 2010) together with the ubiquitous developmental and psychological thinking that orientates diagnosis of any deviance from the norms, are firmly embedded in early childhood classrooms (burman, 2008; cannella, 1997). the societal and educational focus on the child ‘in need of including’, is detrimental to all children as it assigns privilege to the ‘normal’ while marginalizing those who do not fit the normalized vision, producing them as deficient, wrong or abnormal (walkerdine, 1988). in this study, we turn away from the child to be included and focus on the including group, those without a diagnosis, what we term here as the ‘normal’, the peers who participate in the including. in current special and inclusive education relations with peers are less explored (ferreira, 2018). focusing on peers also troubles the individualizing gaze that further marks the child as ‘the problem’ and fixes the child’s position at the margin. drawing on data produced as part of a larger study (watson, 2015), we examine some of the complex ways in which young children act in inclusive settings, re/producing and guarding their position of being included, or being ‘normal’, and how they further mark and exclude the ‘others’ in early childhood settings. this is an important concern as “the main motives of parents for sending their child with a special need to a regular school … is to grow up as far as possible in a normal environment” (koster, nakken, pijl, & van houten, 2009, p. 118, our emphasis) i.e. in an environment together with the so called normal peers. in this paper, we explore some of the mechanisms through which the ‘normal’, the norms that position the including children as such, are mobilised and exercised by ‘normal’ children (children without a diagnosis). methodology foucault (1977, p. 184) describes the norm as “the new law of modern society” as it gives muscle to a homogenous social body. the norm imposes uniformity and at the same time individualises and marginalises those who differ. psychological sciences have produced the technical means of individualization (petersen and millei, 2016). these are applied in institutional settings, such as the early childhood classroom where comparisons to norms and judgements are made about children by their teachers and by children. those who ‘measure up’ are categorised as ‘normal’ subjects and those who do not fit the parameters are classified as the different or ‘not normal’ subjects. this exploration of the normal follows poststructural thinking (davies, 1993, 1998; foucault, 1977; law & davies, 2000; petersen, 2004) by paying attention to the constitutive force of discourse and particular discursive practices (davis & harré, 1999). we explore ‘what is going on in situations?’ and focus on the particularities and complexities of lives in context, always paying attention to how the researcher herself mediates and creates the data that is being produced (stronach & maclure, 1997). the focus is on discourses understood as meaning-systems and meaning-making, recognising how everyday utterances and actions are linked into larger ‘regimes of truth’. thus, we are interested in examining what discourses do, what their effects are in the constitution of the ‘normal’ and for so called ‘inclusionary practices’ (foucault, 1972). thinking with childhood studies (james, jenks, & prout, 1998) and acknowledging that our positioning is a discursive construction itself, we view young children from an early age as capable, silence and its mechanisms as the discursive production… 105 competent, and active negotiators in their social world and aware of diversity and difference (cannella, 1997; davies, 1989). in the process of becoming a culturally intelligible person, children learn to navigate binaries offered to them as a way of making sense of themselves and others: male/female, white/black, ablebodied/disabled, etc. davies (1989) argues that children also learn that the categories in the binary are not equal, but that one is relatively subjugated. this awareness shape the ways children behave toward others and go about their everyday activities (beazley & williams, 2014; davis & watson, 2001; koster et al., 2009; robinson & jones-diaz, 2006). young children identify normalising discourses around their own identities and adjust their actions accordingly. they observe norms and the behaviour of others around them, and decide whether or not those are applicable or the same or different to their behaviours (robinson & jonesdiaz, 2006). the early childhood classroom is arguably the first institution, other than the family and the media, that introduces children to the world of human as well as nonhuman differences (millei and cliff, 2014). by using norms, labels and categories made available to them via the discourses in a particular context, children readily include and exclude their peers based on their differences (connolly, smith, & kelly, 2002; davis & watson, 2001). thinking with these ideas about children, difference and the ‘normal’, the data was created. the data was created over a six-month period using ethnographic methods in three australian early childhood settings. ethnographic methods are regarded as a key approach in exploring the social worlds of young children (alderson, 2008; christensen, 2004; james et al. 1998; traweek, 1988). the research participants included both the children and the educators in the classrooms. informed and ongoing consent was obtained from parents, carers and educators as well as from the children themselves. the study received approval from the university of newcastle’s ethics committee. multiple classrooms were invited to participate with three assenting. the classrooms, all located within early childhood centres, were situated in two regional urban centres of new south wales, australia. while each preschool classroom was unique in its own way, they all provided for the most part, a ‘standard’ child-centred program. approximately, 75 children aged between two and six years, and twelve educators participated in the project. all the participants’ names have been replaced with pseudonyms. each classroom had several children with a diagnosis enrolled. there is intentionally no commentary on the children’s diagnostic labels. the discursively produced labels and associated homogenising characteristics that define and prescribe the diagnosed child, and their behaviours, are challenged in this study. the child is marked by the diagnosis bestowed upon them. the ‘details’ of the diagnosis do not alter the child’s marked position among the children. making no mention of the diagnosis is one way of disrupting acknowledgement of it, of ‘refusing to be in the know’. in creating the data, close attention was paid to the undiagnosed children’s encounters with and around each other and the diagnosed child/children. sometimes photos of the children were used to start conversations about their encounters with each other and their daily activities. the conversations were often audio-recorded, always with the children’s and their parent’s consent. the diagnosed child was initially the focus of the photographs as they went about their day in the play context, in an attempt to elicit conversations. the child with a diagnosis became inadvertently conceptualised and viewed as a catalyst in this study, allowing for the examination of the normal and its discursive constitution. however, it became apparent that the children liked to see themselves in the photos and talked about what they were doing, rather than talking about the diagnosed child. moreover, they seemed to find discussions about the diagnosed child uncomfortable, usually changing the topic of the conversation or being silent. looking reflexively, this strategy may have in some ways inadvertently contributed to the diagnosed child’s marked position, it did however, allow for the workings of the normal to be clearly observed. the uncomfortable feelings of peers disappeared by changing the conversation and they could also leave the situation freely. adopting a poststructural perspective, the researcher observed and participated with children and their educators in daily practices, in which she focused on the operation of discourses, knowledges and power relations that produced particular subject positions, privileging the ‘normal’, while subordinating others. as heuristics to analyse the data and inspired by foucauldian discourse analysis, we used positioning theory (davies, 1989) and the analytical concept of category boundary work (petersen, 2007). karen watson, zsuzsa millei & eva bendix petersen 106 positioning theory proposes that discourses make certain subject positions available to people and these subject positions are negotiated and constituted relationally (harré & van langenhove, 1999, p. 16). children learn how to position themselves within discourses and variously take up membership in associated categories in social practice. once having taken up a position as one’s own in a situation, the person sees the world from that vantage point with those storylines, images, metaphors and concepts that this position shores up (davis & harré, 1999). categories are linked to actions that are taken for granted as characteristic activities of a member of the category (maclure, jones, holmes, & macrae, 2012). importantly, positioning is not static and fixed but one that is constituted and reconstituted through the shifting situations and many discursive practices in which a person might participate. the following is a selection of scenarios that illustrate how the unmarked ‘normal’ children took up particular category membership positions made available via multiple circulating discourses when they encountered a child with a diagnosis. having taken up their membership, the children work on knowing how to belong and they also aspire to be correctly located as a member (davies, 1993). they engage in category maintenance work to uphold this membership. in this way, the ‘normal’ is produced, reproduced and maintained in the social practices of the children and the classroom by the ways each acts, talks, and shifts his/her/their practices; this is made discernible most clearly and dramatically in the effects that these practices produce (butler, 2004, p. 41). our choice of term, ‘child with a diagnosis’ is intentional to describe how the child is marked by psychological and medical discourses and consequently how the child’s identity is produced in the classroom (davis & watson, 2001). using this term emphasises that the child ‘was given’ this position by a medical, psychological or educational professional, and therefore was ‘marked’ by this diagnosis as different to or compared to others who are considered ‘normal’. the ‘child with a diagnosis’ became the catalyst for examining the active and sustained production and maintenance of the ‘normal’ more visible. while we aimed to maintain our focus on children without a diagnosis, the ‘child with a diagnosis’ is still present in our explorations. practices that re/produce the ‘normal’ and their effects there are multiple discourses in the classroom that prescribe what it is to be and act as ‘normal’, such as being ‘big’ and ‘little’, ‘friend’ or ‘not friend’, ‘helping’ and ‘being helped’, or ‘i have learned this’ and ‘they are just learning’. while prevalent in the children’s narratives and also in their practices, these discourses were also obvious in actions that were not accompanied by words. in this paper, we turn our attention to the things that were not seen, not said and not heard. the focus is to explore the ‘silences’ as they are a critical part of the whole, “the relevant speech act ‘spoken’ beneath the surface” (mazzei, 2007, p. xii). as foucault (2008, p. 27) explains: ‘silence’ is considered a discursive practice. silence itself – the things one declines to say, or is forbidden to name, the discretion that is required between different speakers – is less the absolute limit of discourse, the other side from which it is separated by a strict boundary, than an element that functions alongside the things said, with them and in relation to them within over-all strategies. keeping ‘silent’, being ‘silent’ or not speaking, or perhaps moving out from the situation or speaking about something in different terms in order to avoid speaking, are examples of what could be cogitated as discursive moves (mazzei, 2007). silences contribute to the meaning between words that helps to think differently about our data (mazzei, 2007). these discursive moves shape the category boundary of the ‘normal/abnormal’, while at the same time, they are also a product of it. what are the effects of ‘silences’? how does ‘silence’ position subjects? in discourse analysis, the qualitative researcher looks for meaning but meaning can be masked if one only interrogates the spoken in the data. ‘silences’ have much to teach the researcher (mazzei, 2007). in examining the ‘silences’, it is crucial not to create a binary between speech and ‘silence’, that is between what one says and what one does not say, but instead, theorising with foucault, it seems: [w]e must try to determine the different ways of not saying such things, how those who can and those who cannot silence and its mechanisms as the discursive production… 107 speak of them are distributed, which type of discourse is authorised, or which form of discretion is required in either case (foucault, 2008, p.27). ‘silences’ pervade discourses and become part of them to exclude those who do not ‘speak’ from the authorised (normal) discourse and in contrast privilege those who do. we focus on two every day, and in many ways, ‘invisible’ or seemingly ‘unremarkable’ actions that accompany silence: ‘moving away’ and ‘ignoring’. we understand these practices as effects of the constitution of the ‘normal/abnormal’ (re)produced by the unmarked children. to begin this analysis, we start with an observation where two unmarked children encounter each other in a sandpit and mobilize power to remove a child with a diagnosis who disturbs ‘normal play’. in drawing attention to this interaction, we aim to show how it juxtaposes the rest of the data, where the unmarked children’s encounters with the marked child, produce a very different effect through ‘silence’. not silent elliot (a child without a diagnosis) is in the sandpit digging a deep hole and i am sitting nearby. elliot: “come and see how big my hole is.” me: “it’s huge!” kane (a child without a diagnosis) moves closer to take a look and stands in elliot’s freshly dug hole. elliot: “get out of it!” (loud and angry) kane: “no, i’m not.” elliot: (to researcher) “he’s in my hole……he’s in my hole.” karen (researcher) does not respond verbally but gives elliot a sad look. kane: “i’m not getting out…..it’s everyone’s hole.” (kane is now stomping in the hole making the sides collapse inward, the big hole is getting smaller.) elliot: “no, stop doing it.........i’m strong!” (standing his ground and looking into kane’s eyes) kane: “i’m strong.” (staring straight back at elliot) they start to push each other. kane uses a spade and pushes it into elliot’s chest. elliot’s twin sister penny (a child without a diagnosis) moves in on the scene. she gives kane a big shove in his chest and says: “don’t do that!” kane falls backward onto the sand and out of the hole. kane: “i’m going to play somewhere else!” (looking angry and defeated.) elliot: “good!” kane runs off and elliot re-digs his hole. a teacher who had been sitting at the other end of the sandpit approached me and asked me why i had not intervened. i said that i thought the children could best resolve it themselves. she looked at me with surprise. (watson, 2017, pp.152-153) this scene of a child digging a hole in a sandpit would be considered a ‘normal’ activity in any preschool day. sandpits adorn most, if not all, preschool playgrounds in australia. pedagogical, developmental and historical discourses inform early childhood practitioners of the value of ‘sensory experiences’ (winderlich, 2012) and the potential of sensory learning for development made available in sandpit play. in addition, the sandpit provides a place for social interactions and social development as well as a space where fine and gross motor skills can potentially progress (jarrett, french-lee, bulunuz, & bulunuz, 2010). sand pit play also encompasses rules about particular ways of playing and being in the sandpit, which might be problematic for some children. sandpit play as a discursively constructed activity produces a code of conduct that individuals take up to manage the space and each other. elliot draws attention to the hole he has dug and enthusiastically asks the researcher to look at it. he positions himself as playing in the sanctioned way. his hole digging performance demonstrates his category membership with ‘the normal’ and as he draws adult attention to his achievement he reinforces karen watson, zsuzsa millei & eva bendix petersen 108 this membership. however, with the arrival of kane, elliot now needs to re-position himself to defend his category as ‘normal’. kane disrupts the acceptable way to play by standing in the hole and making movements to cave it in. elliot responds by asking for my assistance to reconcile the situation. elliot uses the strategy of “use your words”, an endorsed form of resolving conflict in the classroom, to tell kane to get out of his hole. “use your words” is a very familiar phrase encouraged by adults and children in many ‘western’ early childhood settings to assist in resolving conflict (blank & schneider, 2011). kane responds with another acceptable strategy by saying that: “it’s everyone’s hole”. he refers to the norm, that the children are often reminded about: preschool equipment and toys ‘belong’ to everyone. this pedagogical expectation in the early childhood classroom is thought to inspire children to learn to share. according to some pedagogical frames, ‘sharing with others’ shows a developing theory of mind and growing moral awareness (arthur, powell, & lin, 2014). others argue that ‘sharing with others’ is an indicator or a milestone in social competency as it encourages young children to develop friendships (mcdevitt & ormrod, 2007). this pedagogical approach forms a part of the normal way of being in this early childhood classroom, and sets the rule: ‘everyone is to share everything at preschool’. both children have drawn on these acceptable and sanctioned behavioural and pedagogical discourses in this ‘standoff’. elliot then comments on his physical strength: “no, stop doing it.........i’m strong!” to which kane replies the same. the children’s voices increase in volume and emotion, as they demonstrate power. they now take up masculine discourses (blaise, 2005; davies, 1989), arguably also acceptable in this context, and the ‘standoff’ continues by becoming more physical. elliot’s twin sister penny moves in to provide a resolution. penny, perhaps drawing on ‘sisterly’ protective discourses, is looking out for her brother. she is also conceivably drawing on a discourse that produces a particular code of conduct in the sandpit, where it is not acceptable to jump in to another person’s hole or push someone using a spade. elliot at first tried to maintain his category membership by using various strategies to remain recognisable as ‘normal’, but as kane became more aggressive (drawing on acceptable discourses of masculinity while also taking it to an unacceptable extent), elliot might have appeared to run out of options, his only choice seem to be to retreat. penny reclaimed the hole for elliot by giving kane a “big shove in his chest” and saying: “don’t do that!” kane left the sandpit with the comment “i’m going to play somewhere else”. his way of engaging in the sand was not tolerated, and penny and elliot let him know this. what is interesting here, as it will soon become apparent, was that kane’s behaviour was not ignored; it was confronted, spoken about, and dealt with. he left the sandpit. he had been put back into place to uphold the social order and a distinct code of conduct. kane challenged the social order, but the children themselves eventually maintained it. adult intervention was not necessary as the ‘normal’ with the support of elliot and penny did its regulatory work on kane. silence: moving away on this morning, there is a lot activity in the sandpit. there are about ten children digging and building. as i start to observe, i notice michael (a child with a diagnosis), on the edge of the sandpit with a teacher nearby. anna, michaela and lucy (children without diagnoses) are sitting in the middle of the sandpit in a circle formation digging a deep hole. michael, who has been digging on his own about a metre away, stands and moves over towards them and starts to stomp on the hole they have been digging. nothing is said. the girls observe him while he destroys their hole, with their eyes wide and open mouthed. they wait. after about a minute anna says: “hey let’s make a castle over here (she stands up and moves) ... over here”. anna beckons the others to follow as michael has now destroyed the hole they had dug (watson, 2017, p.155). in the early childhood classroom authoritative regulatory discourses regarding the ‘right way to play’ are ubiquitous (grieshaber & mcardle, 2010). often intertwined with these regulations and rules are psychological discourses of social competency and social development, prescribing appropriate ways to play and interact. anna, lucy and michaela seem to understand the sand pit ‘etiquette’ playing as the ‘normal’ sandpit player. in performing this position, one must share the space, must not ruin others’ work in the sandpit, and generally cooperate with the other children and share. michael might have a different perspective on sandpit play. perhaps, he builds so he can destroy, practicing his ‘trajectory’ and ‘vertical silence and its mechanisms as the discursive production… 109 schema’, concepts known from developmental psychology (atherton & nutbrown, 2013). however, in this discursive context, where the imperative is to ‘use words’ and ‘play co-operatively’, michael’s way is not an ‘acceptable’ practice. when michael destroys the hole the others have been digging, they do not outwardly protest, they say nothing. it is the unsaid that makes exclusion visible. their silence ‘speaks’. it articulates and makes public their normal position in the discourse and their positioning of michael as ‘not normal’, for whom the rules of play in the setting do not always apply, who can be exempted from the rules. ferfolja (2008) acknowledges that normative discourses on some levels impose ‘silences’, which consequently marginalise those who are positioned outside the norm. the children, look at michael silently, eyes wide, mouths open, referring to each other. they wait for a minute and then move away together. they observe him destroying the hole but do not engage with him. by moving away and disassociating themselves from michael, they maintain their recognisability as ‘normal’ and their membership in the ‘normal’ category. at the same time their category boundary work reinforces michael’s positioning as ‘not normal’. the unmarked children here do not say anything to michael, they silently move on. foucault argues that “[p]eople know what they do; they frequently know why they do what they do; but what they don’t know is what what they do does” (dreyfus & rabinow, 1982, p. 187). the children in their silence and actions ‘do’ something. their actions exclude michael subjecting him as the ‘not normal’ and not the same as them. they do not acknowledge his way of being, they reject his action as not a part of theirs and do not attempt to explicitly discipline him. they move away, which disassociates them from michael’s ‘unruly’ action that might also mark them as ‘not normal’. this stands in contrast to the many other occasions where thee ethnographer observed children, boys as well as girls, explicitly regulating the other. they would loudly complain and ask for adult help when someone destroyed their sand creations, as elliot did in the previous scenario. when michael acted, different discourses are drawn on as the children make sense of his play. avoiding michael, leaving him to stomp in their hole without a protest, makes visible how the discourses that produce the marked child shape something that is unspeakable, a silence or a ‘taboo’ around the discursive subject. the unmarked children’s ‘silence’ also (re)produces the category of the ‘normal’ for themselves that beckons them to move away. they position themselves by not participating in the situation created by the unruly behaviour of michael, associated this time with his diagnosis. the unmarked children in their ignorance of the actions of the ‘child with the diagnosis’ declare their category membership in the ‘normal’, while at the same time indicating the unacceptability of the disruption to the social order of the sandpit caused by the marked child. in the previous scenario, the unruly behaviour of kane was understood within the frame of ‘normal behaviour’ applicable for each child in the early childhood setting. in this scenario, ‘acting normal’ was a positioning available only for children who form the including group, the ‘normal’, positioning michael as the ‘not normal’ in this setting. silence: ignoring in the following scenario, the ‘child with the diagnosis’ is loud and heard by children. teacher odette has been struggling with sam (a child with a diagnosis) for about 15 minutes trying to keep him away from the door. she looks to another teacher anne and says: “just debating whether i should let him go?” as she speaks, the director sue arrives on the scene, leaving her office possibly because of the noise sam is making while crying and banging on the door. sue picks up sam off the floor near the door opening to the outside area and takes him back inside the room. sam kicks and screams even more loudly. a group of children (children without a diagnosis) are sitting on the veranda nearby, eating their morning tea. only two children of the group turn to look briefly at sam and the director sue. the rest of the children just continue not seeming to notice what is going on (watson, 2017, p. 166). when observing this scene the ethnographer asked herself: how did the children not respond to this child’s crying and screaming? however, in thinking more about it, they did respond. the response was to silently ignore. the early childhood classroom promotes particular disciplinary practices, which work to ‘civilise’ (leavitt & power, 1997) children by regulating their behaviour and emotions. in particular, sounds and feelings are scrutinised and controlled by educators (millei, 2005, p. 133). for example, there is ‘inside voice’ and ‘outside voice’ and there is ‘quiet time’. these regulatory discourses normalise, discipline and karen watson, zsuzsa millei & eva bendix petersen 110 homogenise actions in the classroom (davies, 1983). there are certain ways to ‘be’ and ‘act’ and being quiet inside is one of those. sam’s loud protest is ignored. the silence of the children suggest that they read sam’s actions as unacceptable for a ‘normal’ child as it clearly transgressed these civilizing rules and normalizing discourses. in silence, the children (without a diagnosis) distanced themselves from sam’s act and continued eating in a civilized manner their meal. eating in silence and screaming re/produced the binaries of ‘normal’ and ‘not normal’. sam might also be subjected in this context, by particular ‘regimes of truth’ produced by special education and psychological discourses. his ‘characteristics’, ‘symptoms’ and possible actions warranted by his diagnosis, make him who he is. they construct a way of ‘knowing’ him: ‘a child with x diagnosis who is often loud or defies authority’. a diagnosis provides the means to identify and describe his “abnormality and the rationale for intervention when reality and normality fail to coincide” (rose, 1999, p. 133). the unmarked children know sam this way. according to laws and davies (2000), a person who has a marked difference (in this case a diagnosis) is often the target of pathologizing discourses from an early age. by constituting themselves through the ‘othering’ of ‘the child with the diagnosis’ (so to remain not pathological), they reject from themselves those possibilities that do not fit with the way they understand their ‘i’ to be. sam’s positioning as a child with some pathologies deviate from how they position themselves, as ‘without’. as davies (2006, p. 72) explains, individuals, in our case sam, “can deviate but their deviation will give rise to category maintenance work”. the very act of ignoring through which the unmarked children looked over sam transgressing the rules, made their maintenance – keeping themselves within the category of ‘not pathologized’ work visible. by seemingly not noticing, not talking about and not attending to the transgression, silence was created, which we will return to later. silence: turning away hugo (a child with a diagnosis) approaches the small trestle table to have his fruit break. he sits down with his banana shaped container but as he cannot open it he hands it to the researcher without a word. the researcher opens it for him. as the other children (without a diagnosis) at the table continue to eat, hugo turns himself around so that his back is now facing the children opposite and he begins to make loud roaring like noises. sitting at the table with the pre-schoolers is a child (without a diagnosis) who is having an orientation visit with his parent. hugo stands and walks toward the parent ‘roaring’ loudly at them with his face very close to their face. the parent, eyes wide and mouth open and then frowning, turns her body away from hugo and looks around her. she does not respond to hugo. the other children at the table look at hugo with wide eyes and open mouths also. they continue to eat their fruit (watson, 2017, p. 180). at fruit break the children without a diagnosis regulated themselves sitting quietly and eating their fruit. children in early childhood classrooms become familiar with the rules, routines and restrictions aimed at their bodies, as preschools are one of the first institutions outside the family “where children’s bodies are constituted and regulated through institutionalised discourses” (millei and cliff, 2014, p. 245). hugo ‘roared’. hugo’s ‘roaring’ at the visiting parent was met with ‘silence’ from the parent and the children. the parent turned away her body and looked away possibly indicating her discomfort with the loud roaring and closeness of hugo. the parent possibly mobilized a discourse around discipline or behaviourism, which suggests one should not reward undesirable behaviour with attention or just simply expressing puzzlement this way. hugo could have been playing a particular game or creating a character using his imagination. he could have been attempting to invite the others to join his game or he may have been using his ‘roar’ as a welcome to the parent as if acting a lion or an invitation to play. the parent could have engaged in this game or asked: ‘are you a lion?’ the parent could have told hugo to stop or reminded him of table manners. instead the parent looked around, perhaps looking for clues to understand what was going on, and in the silence of the table the clue was given. the unmarked children ignored hugo and remained silent. the parent avoided eye contact with hugo and ignored him too. by drawing on tomkin’s definition, skattebol (2010, p. 78) describes affect as “a tangible, embodied force that operates between people”, and that works at a physiological level and “beyond consciousness” to organize intersubjective relations. skattebol (2010, p. 78) continues by explaining that “[a]ffects are generative and contagious; they are innate activators themselves, for example, shame can produce a blush the red heat that in turn produces more shame”. the discomfort generated by hugo’s ‘roar’ and the silence and its mechanisms as the discursive production… 111 closeness of his body might have made the parent feel as if under ‘attack’. the parent looked around possibly scanning the table and the playground for some help to make sense of hugo’s action. the children without a diagnosis acted in a required manner, within the rules, and ignored hugo. their actions did not only inscribe hugo as ‘unruly’ but perhaps also made his unruliness acceptable. hugo’s ‘unruliness’ was tolerated. at this moment on the borderline of being ‘unruly’ or something else not yet comprehended or fully expressed, hugo was constituted on the latter side. the silence and the tolerance positioned him on the “other side of the border” (davies, 2006, p. 75). perhaps feeling under attack due to the ‘unruly’ behaviour and physical proximity that was tolerated despite the discomfort it produced, the parent and unmarked children silently agreed to position hugo as a potentially ‘dangerous’ subject – dangerous of invading other’s space, potentially contacting others’ bodies uninvited or being loud that violates others’ peace, thus better ‘turned away’ from. the generative effect of of discomfort in this situation helped produce hugo as ‘dangerous’. there is ‘danger’ in his potential to disrupt the social order and there is ‘danger’ in becoming unrecognisable as the ‘normal’ if one engages with him. the elephant in the room we find the idiom ‘the elephant in the room’ helpful to discuss how the discourses and their effects produced something that was better ignored, moved or turned away from, or tolerated in silence in these early childhood classrooms. ‘the elephant in the room’ makes its presence felt by taking up space and being awkward. it is never talked about or addressed directly, but is nevertheless created by the shared obviousness. acknowledging the marked child’s behaviours in these mainstream classrooms became a taboo, which the unmarked children accept and uphold. douglas (1966) argues that a taboo is one way of dealing with difference. avoiding the anomalous, she asserts, “affirms and strengthens the definitions to which they do not conform” (douglas, 1966, p. 39). if a person has no place in the social system, they become regarded as a marginal being. the marginal being incites fear and precaution against its dangerousness that springs from the ‘normal’ as the marginal “cannot help his abnormal situation” (douglas, 1966, p. 97). silence, in its different forms, was enacted to tolerate the marginal, while at the same time it was performed as a precaution. perhaps these actions were intended to include, however, the practices of ignoring, moving away and becoming complicit produced forms of exclusion that we have made visible here with our analysis. they created a shared ‘taboo’: ‘the elephant in the room’. discussion the implications of the perspectives offered here are many. by problematizing everyday practices and understandings, we, like many other foucauldian researchers, seek to enable a ‘practice of freedom’, which means opening up possibilities for thinking and acting ‘otherwise,’ and the potential of pedagogy as discursive practice. the pedagogy of discursive practice draws on “generative philosophies and understandings that make possible … teachers’ pedagogies of social justice [that] lie in their capacity to examine critically the social processes and discourses that shape their ways of teaching and their students’ ways of learning” (nayler, & keddie, 2007, p. 212). part of this pedagogy is giving up all references to things being ‘normal’ or ‘natural’ and taking seriously that everything (people, categories, classrooms, diagnoses, etc.) is continuously made and that we are all implicated in making them. as researchers, we are shaped by our own take up of the ‘normal’ and our own positioning in the re/production of the binaries in the ‘inclusive’ setting. thus, we are cognizant about the ways in which our analysis further positions children with a diagnosis, despite our attempts to gaze on the ‘normal’. understanding how these practices are historically and culturally contingent allows researchers and practitioners to examine which practices seem to have taken hold, or seem to dominate in particular places, and what the effects of these are. for this work, we suggest to grapple with the following questions: • how do the markings (with a diagnosis or without a diagnosis) and discourses i have taken up as my own compel me to think and act? karen watson, zsuzsa millei & eva bendix petersen 112 • what do these discourses compel me to do and feel and say, or remain silent about or ignore in the everyday flows in the classroom? • in what way may i be implicated in continuing to categorize and position myself and others that get in the way of a practice that engages with difference differently? specifically, in terms of the suggestions around the idiom of ‘the elephant’ we have offered here, practitioners can ask themselves how they and the other human and non-human actors in their own contexts contribute to or disrupt the marginalization of marked children through the taboo producing practices that we have explored here. what do the active and sustained silences and ignoring around ‘uncomfortable difference’ achieve? we suggest that they achieve a separation and isolation that remains unaddressed, and therefore produces fear that further separates. harwood (2010) in a similar way contends that pathologising discourses create isolation. she draws a connection to foucault’s discussions of asylums in madness and civilisation: a history of insanity in the age of reason (1967), referring to the discursive power of the diagnosis and how it might move with the pathologised child, containing the child in a ‘mobile asylum’. here, we have offered a few different ways to illustrate how children without a diagnosis ignore and move away from the child with a diagnosis. maintaining separation, these practices indeed seem to create a ‘mobile asylum’ in which the child is kept contained within the inclusive setting. even those actions that might make ‘good sense’ in the case of another child (without a diagnosis), the actions of the child with a diagnosis are understood in terms of the diagnosis assigned to them by psychological and medical discourses. children also learn how these children are “best contained”. children come to learn that difference is problematic and unsanctioned ways of being and acting in early childhood classroom bring about feelings of discomfort. they also learn that one way of acting in the face of difference is to not ask questions or offer alternative positionings. this line of thought provokes us to think about what we could do to disrupt practice-as-usual? are there ways of talking about, acknowledging and addressing difference in differently productive ways? perhaps as teachers we could stop creating difference as problematic, and something that needs to be silenced, changed or fixed. we could interrupt our incessant speaking of ‘otherness’ and instead challenge ‘sameness’. we could break the habit of overlooking the unfair encounters we witness between children and between adults and children, where some children are ignored, isolated or separated. we could learn to address the silences and ‘the elephant in the room’ and start discussing difference, and with that become curious and open to the uncertainty. we realise that in this paper we offer many questions to explore in one’s own practice. we believe in the power of new thought and in the possibilities that thinking anew, or thinking again, affords. of course, collegial discussions around this, policy advocacy and so on are central to making change happen, yet these efforts are in vain if they are not infused with new insights on old practices. declarations funding: this work was not supported by any funding. references alderson, p. 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(2012). sensory play and learning (vol. 10). deakin west, a.c.t.: early childhood australia. https://doi.org/10.3726/b10726 journal of childhood, education & society volume 4, issue 2, 2023, 156-175 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.202342264 research article ©2023 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. parenting young children with developmental disabilities: experiences during the covid-19 pandemic in the u.s. megan kunze1, douglas gomez2, elizabeth glenn3, bonnie todis4, ilka riddle5, christina m. karns6, ann glang7, laura lee mcintyre8 abstract: high-stress events (e.g., natural disasters, political unrest, disease) significantly impact the lives of children and families. the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) is one event that has brought numerous hardships to families and children with developmental disabilities (dd), likely exacerbating already heightened levels of stress. for this study, we interviewed mothers living in the u.s. (n = 14) of 2to 8-yearold children with dd about how covid-19 has affected their family life. the interviews examined how the pandemic impacted (a) their child’s educational, therapeutic, and medical services, (b) their stress and resiliency, and (c) their parenting role as an advocate, educator, and interventionist. the results of our thematic analysis of the qualitative data highlight four domains with themes that describe families’ experiences as indicated by the mothers interviewed. voices of families are essential in the delivery of effective and ethical early intervention for young children with disabilities. based on the data from these interviews with mothers, suggestions for family-focused intervention to support families during high-stress events are discussed. as the long-term effects of the pandemic remain unknown, suggestions for future research to continue to examine the impact of high-stress experiences on young children with dd and their families are also presented. article history received: 06 february 2023 accepted: 06 june 2023 keywords parenting; early intervention; early childhood special education; developmental delays disabilities; covid-19; qualitative methods introduction early childhood (i.e., infancy through 8 years) represents a particularly critical time for children with developmental disabilities (dd) where early intervention services and supports (e.g., educational, speechlanguage, occupational, and physical therapy, respite care, social work, service coordination) are critical to promote learning and to enhance positive child and family outcomes. the timing and intensity of early intervention services are essential contributors to positive outcomes. children receiving appropriate services at an earlier age in conjunction with family support often have more favorable outcomes than those receiving services later (guralnick, 1997; nahmias et al., 2019). during the early responses to coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19), parents experienced rapid shifts in their daily life, including delayed early intervention services and the loss of essential supports such as respite care, social networks, and financial stability (chen et al., 2021; patrick et al., 2020). covid-19 restrictions led many parents of children with dd to experience extreme stress, challenging their resiliency due to unexpected changes in routines and daily life (asbury et al., 2021; cooke et al., 2020; gonçalvespinho et al., 2021; iacob et al., 2020; neece et al., 2020). parents reported low mood and feeling overwhelmed as they became wholly responsible for their child’s early intervention, resulting in feelings of worry for their child’s development and future . many parents of young children with dd described balancing work, _____________ 1 university of oregon, center on brain injury research & training, eugene, or, usa, e-mail: mkunze@uoregon.edu, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4449-2719 2 university of oregon, center on brain injury research and training, eugene, or, usa, email: dgomez4@uoregon.edu, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3437-1793 3 university of oregon, special education and clinical sciences, eugene, or, usa, email: eglenn2@uoregon.edu, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1901-1976 4 university of oregon, center on brain injury research and training, eugene, or, usa, email: todisb@cbirt.org, orcid: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-9306-9098 5 university of cincinnati, center for excellence in developmental disabilities, cincinnati children’s hospital, cincinnati, oh, usa, email: ilka.riddle@cchmc.org, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9681-2991 6 university of oregon, center on brain injury research and training, eugene, or, usa, email: ckarns@uoregon.edu, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2488-6059 7 university of oregon, center on brain injury research and training, eugene, or, usa, email: aglang@uoregon.edu, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3057-1977 8 university of oregon, college of education, eugene, or, usa, email: llmcinty@uoregon.edu orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0424-2624 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202342264 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:mkunze@uoregon.edu https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4449-2719 mailto:dgomez4@uoregon.edu https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3437-1793 mailto:eglenn2@uoregon.edu https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1901-1976 mailto:todisb@cbirt.org https://orcid.org/0009-0000-9306-9098 mailto:ilka.riddle@cchmc.org https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9681-2991 mailto:ckarns@uoregon.edu https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2488-6059 mailto:aglang@uoregon.edu https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3057-1977 mailto:llmcinty@uoregon.edu https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0424-2624 megan kunze et al. 157 virtual school, lack of childcare, changes in routine, and family mental health needs as significant burdens (asbury et al., 2021; jeste et al., 2020; neece et al., 2020). research suggests that the stress and overall adverse effects of covid-19 have been high for parents of preschool-aged children with dd (manning et al., 2020). indeed, throughout the pandemic, parents have needed to provide direct support and mediate therapies for their young child with dd while carrying the ordinary responsibilities (e.g., managing daily living and responding to challenging behaviors) associated with their child’s unique needs and their own (jeste et al., 2020). thorell and colleagues (2022) examined parents’ experiences in providing education to their children with mental health conditions during covid19 restrictions and school closures in several european countries. parents reported negatives to isolation, including high stress, family discord, and disconnection from support networks. their findings showed minimal variation across locations, suggesting that the adverse effects of covid-19 restrictions are not bound by geography . changes in parent stress, children’s development, and support systems evidence suggests a reciprocal relationship between child behavior problems and parenting stress over time in children with dd, with child behavior problems contributing to parenting stress and parenting stress, in turn, contributing to further child behavior problems (neece et al., 2012; taylor et al., 2001). several studies have documented that mental and behavioral health has worsened during the covid-19 pandemic in school-aged and preschool-aged children with dd (asbury et al., 2021; bentenuto et al., 2021; neece et al., 2020; nonweiler et al., 2020; patrick et al., 2020; schmidt et al., 2021). the pre-existing high parental stress and challenging child behavior were exacerbated to extreme hightened levels by the onset of the pandemic and shutdown in the u.s. the pandemic eliminated essential therapeutic services (e.g., speech, occupational, physical, and behavioral therapy). in a national u.s. survey, a quarter of families reported losing access to all services, negatively affecting their children’s social-emotional development (jeste et al., 2020). studies have begun to establish a link between those service deficits and increased challenging behaviors by children with dd (bentenuto et al., 2021). the increases in challenging behaviors could also be exacerbated by a child’s limited ability to understand why changes to routines and services were happening (asbury et al., 2021). for children with primary speech and language delays, preschool is a period of significant growth in functional and pragmatic language skills, making it a critical period for intervention (conti-ramsden & durkin, 2012). jeste and colleagues (2020) report that during the pandemic, up to 52% of children no longer received speech therapy, and 43% lost educational services due to school closures. for children with delays in social reciprocity and communication, such as children experiencing an autism spectrum disorder (asd), the loss of formal and informal socialization opportunities (e.g., social skills groups, community recreation, in-person preschool) has broadened their developmental differences from their peers. the rise in behavior challenges and developmental concerns in response to limited services will likely continue to emerge for families with young children with dd. in a recent scoping review of the global impact of service disruption in early education, kunze and mcintyre (2021) summarized research findings as suggesting that the extent of the disruption caused by covid-19 will unfold over many years. such disruption in education and support has exacerbated various risk factors (e.g., geographic isolation, low socioeconomic status, severity of child’s behavior) in families with young children who experience dd. many research outcomes in this review call for systemwide educational change, including the requirement of broader availability of early education and an increase in quality standards for school and therapeutic services to prepare for the unfortunate likelihood of future emergency interruptions. positive outcomes despite reporting significant challenges, parents also report positive aspects of receiving early education and therapy in the home during covid-19 restrictions. for example, 35% of parents of schoolage children (as young as age 5) with mental health conditions in europe reported positive effects on themselves, and 24% reported positive effects on their children during school closures (thorell et al., 2022). parenting young children with developmental disabilities: experiences… 158 during the early pandemic response, many parents of preschool children with dd reported that the pandemic had some valuable outcomes, most commonly reported as more time with family and the opportunity to observe their child’s developmental gains (neece et al., 2020). additional favorable effects of closures were noted in children who felt most comfortable at home due to social anxiety (asbury et al., 2021). studies of preschoolers specifically have noted gains in developmental and adaptive skills while receiving telehealth intervention services during covid-19, especially in those interventions with parent coaching components (kunze et al., 2021; neece et al., 2020). in the context of covid-19 and other high-stress experiences, research highlights the importance of resiliency and advocacy for parents of young children with dd (iacob et al., 2020; patterson, 1991; rossetti et al., 2021). resiliency, specific to families with children with dd, as defined by patterson (1991), is the parent’s ability to recover from adversity and adapt to changes caused by hardships. in a crisis, resilient families can reorganize and reconnect with their support systems to withstand the weight of a stressful situation. advocacy is defined as redirecting adverse thoughts and feelings into constructive actions (rossetti et al., 2021). this call-to-action mentality speaks to parents’ drive and skill set to respond to inequity and injustice, ultimately seeking outcomes advantageous to their needs. the outcomes of familyfocused early intervention research suggest that parent empowerment, often achieved through bolstered knowledge of diagnoses and child development, skills in seeking and accessing services, and social resources to build support networks, all improve resiliency and lead to advocacy (iacob et al., 2020; patterson, 1991; rossetti et al., 2021). theoretical framework two frameworks are relevant to understanding early intervention and systems of support for familiesbronfenbrenner’s ecological model (bronfenbrenner, 1979) and the transdisciplinary model (bricker et al., 2020) are described here. while bronfenbrenner’s (1979) ecological model is not specific to children with dd, the representation of support systems surrounding the child and family are appropriate for this context. specifically, bronfenbrenner places the child in the center of a circle which is then surrounded by a support system (e.g., family and educational services). specifically, this group is called the microsystem, which in the context of early intervention, would provide specific services and supports for the child. when the microsystem is functional, the intervention services (e.g., speech pathologist, behavior therapist), interact with the family to best support the child. the intervention service providers also interact with one another, suggesting a transdisciplinary model. a transdisciplinary model in early intervention allows for goals within various developmental milestones to be practiced in different contexts and repeated with multiple professionals for an increased likelihood of improved skills and familial competency. promoting the transdisciplinary model can support families with young children in advocating for services as their voice is valued and central to decision-making. (bricker et al., 2020). capable professional support systems can act as a buffer for other stressors (estes et al., 2019). the covid-19 pandemic impacted young children with dd and their families at a disproportionately higher level due to an increase in stressors to an already overburdened family unit (ren et al., 2020). additionally, the removal of necessary support systems (i.e., intervention services) due to school and business closures, negatively impacted family functioning (hochman et al., 2022). figure 1, the importance of service support, is based on the ecological and transdisciplinary models as described here. figure 1 provides a visual model of a functional microsystem with intervention support (i.e., speech therapist, occupational therapist, and behavior analyst) and collaboration (i.e., arrows suggesting interaction) in place creating a protective barrier which blocks stress for families. this functional microsystem is compared to a dysfunctional microsystem where supports are removed and the family is exposed to stress depicting the situation for many families during the covid-19 pandemic. megan kunze et al. 159 figure 1. the importance of service support current study high-stress events (e.g., natural disasters, political unrest, disease) significantly impact the lives of children and families in the u.s. the covid-19 pandemic is just one example. thus far, research suggests this event will warrant an increase in mental health, educational, and developmental services for all children, especially those with disabilities, well into the future (howard-jones et al., 2022). this study aimed to elucidate how service delivery loss and change affected children, parents, and family units. we conducted qualitative interviews with mothers to answer three research questions about their experiences in the wake of the covid-19 pandemic. the research questions (rq) we sought to answer were: rq 1: how have changes in educational, therapeutic, and medical services affected families and children with dd? rq 2: what effect have covid-19 restrictions had on parental stress and resiliency toward pandemic challenges (e.g., reduction or loss of employment, limited respite care opportunities, social isolation, and homeschooling)? rq 3: how have parental roles (i.e., advocate, educator, and interventionist) been affected by covid-19 restrictions? this study followed an initial set of qualitative interviews which examined the impact of covid-19 on early childhood special education professionals (see gomez et al., 2021). this study was funded by the national institute on disability, independent living, and rehabilitation research-funded project tiered online training and supports, which also focuses on young children with dd and their families (award # 90dphf0003). method participants and recruitment parents were recruited from two geographical regions (mid-west and pacific north-west) in the us. participant recruitment was done through outreach to professionals within a children’s medical center (e.g., administrative representatives), early childhood special education professionals (e.g., early intervention providers and teachers), and advisors from community organizations (e.g., social workers and case managers). after receiving permission to contact participants, research staff informed parents about study details and collected demographic information before conducting interviews. the participants that agreed to receive a consent form by email identified as mothers, and therefore mothers became the focus of the study. a research assistant emailed 17 mothers of children with dd. three mothers did not respond, and the other 14 consented to participate in the interviews. after completing 12 interviews to reach the recommended number for potential saturation of themes (guest et al., 2006), researchers decided that completing the final two interviews, which were with participants with historically marginalized parenting young children with developmental disabilities: experiences… 160 racial/ethnic backgrounds, would add unique context and perspective to the study. children varied in diagnosed disability (e.g., asd, cerebral palsy). the parents who were interviewed represented a range of educational levels, employment statuses, household incomes, and marital statuses. more than half of the parents had multiple children with a diagnosed disability or delay. participants each received a $70 honorarium for their participation. demographic information for participants is provided in table 1. table 1. participant demographics participant demographics m (sd) or % range or n child age (years) 4.43 (1.60) 3-6 child sex male female child developmental disability* - - 9 4 asd 57.14% 8 adhd 14.29% 2 global developmental delay 28.57% 4 speech delay 28.57% 4 genetic syndrome 14.29% 2 motor disorder 21.43% 3 other mental/behavioral 14.29% 2 multiple children with a disability 64.29% 9 parent age (years) 34.50 (7.53) 24-52 parent marital status, married/living with partner 64.29% 9 parent ethnicity, non-hispanic 85.71% 11 parent race latina/o/x black/african american - - 1 1 mixed race -1 white/caucasian -11 parental education less than hs 7.14% 1 high school/ged 0% 0 some college/associate’s/trade school 50% 7 college degree 28.57% 4 graduate degree 14.29% 2 employment status full-time 50% 7 part-time 21.43% 3 unemployed/stay at home 28.57% 4 geographical category urban 14.29% 2 suburban 64.29% 9 rural 21.43% 3 note. *categories are not mutually exclusive. asd = autism spectrum disorder; adhd = attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; ged = general education degree thirteen of the fourteen participants reported their child attended either a school program or daycare, and ten families participated in outside therapeutic services (e.g., applied behavior analysis, speech, occupational, and alternative) before the covid-19 pandemic. all families reported an interruption in their child’s schooling or therapeutic services once covid-19 resulted in a national lockdown. virtual schooling and therapies were offered to all families. two families declined to continue school, and four discontinued therapies for their child with a disability via a virtual platform. interviews all authors collaborated to create interview questions that specifically targeted parent experiences. the interview protocol was developed by members of the research team who had experience working with megan kunze et al. 161 early childhood special education populations and piloted in previous research (see gomez et al., 2021). the interview protocol was then reviewed with two 15-member advisory boards (ab), one in the mid-west and one in the pacific northwest. these abs are an extension of the board serving the nidlrr-funded parent project (mcintyre et al., 2018). two-thirds of the ab members are self-advocates and family members, and one-third are professionals in the field of dd. interview questions and probes aligned with the rqs as shown in table 2. table 2. study research questions, interview questions, and probes rq# interview questions and probes 1 question 1 • how have services for your child changed during this time? probes: tell me a little about how services were before covid compared to now. how do you feel about that? are you using video conferencing (zoom, skype, facetime) or other ways of connecting with service providers? how has this been working? is your child being asked to learn things through a virtual environment? how is that going? question 2 • during this time, what are your thoughts about the quality of services you received? probes: challenges? positive changes? what are your service providers doing that works well during this time? what could be better to meet your service needs? question 3 • if your services were put on pause and then reconvened, how did that look? probes: how many days or weeks were the services put on pause? which services/evaluations came back for your child? which ones are you still waiting for? what was communication like with your service provider(s) during the period when they were shut down? 2 question 4 • have there been benefits or surprising opportunities for you during this pandemic? probes: in this extended time together, have you learned anything new about your child or yourself as a parent? question 5 • to what extent have the changes in services affected your family/child? probes: have you discovered any new strategies that have helped your child/family throughout the day? question 6 • what coping strategies are you using for yourself during this time? question 7 • how do you see the coronavirus pandemic affecting your services/family/child long-term? probes: have you observed any changes in behavior? how do you feel about those changes? 3 question 8 • how are things going for you since the beginning of the stay-at-home orders, social distancing, and remote services due to covid-19? probes: what has been most challenging? what is going well? have your family/child/personal needs shifted due to covid-19? have life circumstances changed? question 9 • are you being asked to teach your child skills while you are at home? how is that going? probes: are you getting specific instructions from your provider? how is that working? could you describe this to me? final question 10 • what are your hopes for the future? is there anything else you would like tell us? note. each session was scripted to begin with “we want to first acknowledge the extraordinary circumstances we all find ourselves in because of the global pandemic, covid-19. we would like to ask you some questions about your experience during this difficult time to see how your child and family have been impacted. as always, if there are any questions you don’t want to answer, please tell us you’d like to skip.” participants completed interviews using hipaa-protected zoom video conferencing technology, which lasted 60–90 minutes. the interviews were conducted by a doctoral researcher trained in early childhood special education and a graduate student with experience interviewing for qualitative research. both interviewers have extensive experience collecting interview data from parents of children with dd and working with this population in clinical settings. the five-member analysis team consisted of two qualitative research experts, one doctoral researcher with extensive experience working with the population of interest (content expert), and two additional researchers who conducted interviewers with the content expert. interviewers followed a semi-structured protocol to allow the participants to share their open-ended, nuanced, and salient experiences, which are best captured through interviews. participants were asked parenting young children with developmental disabilities: experiences… 162 questions about their family structure, how services have changed during the pandemic, coping strategies, and the potential long-term impact of changes in service delivery. interviewers followed up questions from the protocol with probes to foster a conversational interview environment and provide more opportunities for detailed responses to protocol questions. to ensure data accuracy, interviewers transcribed and edited their interviews (i.e., adjusted for common homonyms in the english language such as their and there). the analysis team met weekly throughout data collection to review interviews and discuss emerging themes. data analysis thematic analysis, a structured method for rigorously analyzing interview data and identifying salient patterns or themes, was the primary framework for analyzing the data (braun & clarke, 2006, 2020). the analysis team used the entirety of the data set to determine organized themes inductively after carefully reading the data and then identifying semantic (as opposed to latent) themes within a critical realist epistemology. we chose a critical realist epistemology because we believe these participants are capable of examining the systems in which they participate, resulting in conclusions about the tangible or material ways they have been affected by covid-19. conversely, we also value that, within a critical realist epistemology, we are not required to discount additional causal factors that impact the systems in which our participants operate as a result of covid-19 (bhaskar, 1989). additionally, critical realism provided a framework for the careful analysis of underlying relationships between the events being studied, while still leaving room for the authors to provide strategic recommendations and implications (fletcher, 2017). each design decision listed above is essential to a rigorous thematic analysis, which was discussed and finalized before the start of the study (braun & clarke, 2006). the analysis process was iterative. after the conclusion of each interview, the analysis team read the data carefully to identify potential codes or salient ideas. to improve the reliability of the coding process, the analysis team met weekly to discuss their findings and reach a consensus on the salient codes. the consensus was achieved through a three-step process. first, each researcher identified codes they found to be relevant during their analysis. second, each section of data associated with a specific code was discussed synchronously by the analysis team to determine how each researcher categorized and described the same section. third, the analysis team came to a consensus about how each example of text would be described and coded in future interviews. notably, researchers recognized that each of our identities, perspectives, and goals impacted the ways in which we analyzed data. though we came to consensus we acknowledged that all analysis is affected by inherent biases. after consensus about the unique codes, the qualitative research experts identified themes within the data. the analysis team then met to determine which statements of participants were exemplars of each of the themes. next, the analysis team finalized, defined, and described each theme. after themes were finalized, domains were created to organize and categorize the themes identified in the data. codes were initially documented on the transcriptions in microsoft word and then were transferred into dedoose (2019) to document the creation of themes. an example of the process in its entirety: (a) the analysis team noted that some sections of the data were coded as positive aspects and outcomes of covid-19. the team came to a consensus determining that these data would be coded as positive outcomes of the pandemic leading to the theme entitled future worries and positives, which ultimately fell under the domain of effects on education and school. the analysis team used the recommended practices made by brantlinger and colleagues (2005) throughout the analysis to facilitate a trustworthy and credible qualitative study. such practices included engaging in investigator triangulation (through coding by consensus), first-level member checking, engaging in collaborative work in each step of the analysis process, debriefing with authors/peers who were not on the analysis team, and creating an extensive audit trail of each decision concerning code, theme, and domain creation. braun and clarke (2013) also identified the importance of “dependability” or “trustworthiness” in the analysis process, and engaging in the decision-making process as a function of completing a thematic analysis, further echoing brantlinger and colleagues’ (2005) critical perspective of a trustworthy and credible qualitative study. megan kunze et al. 163 results our analysis produced four domains in which families reported significant effects from covid-19. each domain contains the research team's frequent and salient themes. the organization of the domains and themes paired with each rq and the number of participants who discussed those themes can be found in table 3. parents reported both positive and negative experiences, including suggestions for remediation. each domain includes themes specific to participants' resiliency, examples of positive outlook, and coping strategies. the results are presented with participant quotes by domain and theme in relation to the study rqs. domains 1-3 support findings in response to rq1 and rq3. domain 4 supports findings in response to rq 2 and rq 3. quotes are identified by participant (p) number. table 3. domains and themes domain # domain description themes and number of participants who commented 1 effects on education and school (rq 1 and 3) • disparities for children with disabilities (n = 13) • school and community support (n = 13) • importance of communication (n = 12) • future worries and positives (n = 14) 2 effects on therapeutic and medical services (rq 1 and 3) • loss and changes in services (n = 14) • navigating the service system (n = 14) 3 effects on child with disabilities (rq 1 and 3) • change in routines and transitions (n = 14) • social engagement (n = 12) • positive outcomes (n = 13) 4 effects on parents and family (rq 2 and 3) • pre-covid challenges magnified (n = 11) • parent resourcefulness (n = 14) note. each participant contributed to each domain. themes were not mutually exclusive. domain 1: effects on education and school to answer rq 1 and 3, all fourteen participants described positive and negative aspects of how school closures and changes in service delivery affected their child’s education and school experiences. parents’ unique experiences with schooling during the pandemic are presented in quotes and summarized as four themes: (a) disparities for children with disabilities, (b) school and community support, (c) importance of communication, and (d) future worries and positives to carry forward. participant quotes are labeled by participant (p) number with a description of their child’s age and primary diagnosis. disparities for children with disabilities (n = 13) parents identified disparities in how covid-19 restrictions affected school services for their child with a disability and those without disability. the issue of educational inequity was mentioned across interviews and included concerns about the legality and lack of individualization of their child’s education. parents voiced fears about losing the right to educate their child in public schools. one parent commented: i think that was a fear for a lot of parents the concern that we were going to lose our rights…making sure that our kids had their services that they were entitled to. moving forward, just staying hypervigilant and trying to make sure that that doesn’t happen. (p5: mother of twin five-year-old children with asd) individualized learning in hybrid, virtual, or limited in-person sessions was also a concern for parents. a mother of two children with asd discussed virtual learning for her 3-year-old and said: i do feel there is a difference with families that have kids with disabilities and those that don’t. i stopped doing it. i just didn’t feel it was productive enough for us, for me, to sit down and zoom where i could do something better with those 40 minutes. (p3: mother of three-year-old with asd) one mother described remote learning as having minimal focus on the iep goals for her daughter: “i tried remote learning with her. but the remote learning the school offered wasn’t based on ieps. so, it made it a lot harder.” (p7: mother of a six-year-old with speech disorder). parenting young children with developmental disabilities: experiences… 164 parents discussed specifics about their children’s ieps and special educational needs overall. exceptions and limits to what schools could provide were an issue for many families. for example, some schools provided limited or no bus service. my child can’t go to school today because they can’t get a bus for him to ride? it’s in his iep… that’s a service that you’re required to provide to him by law. and you’re just going to email me in the morning and tell me that you can’t do it? it’s not acceptable. (p5: mother of twin five-year-old children with asd) another concern discussed by parents was the limited progress made by children on ieps during the pandemic. my kids have fallen behind further than what they were already… it sort of feels like schools are using covid as an excuse for that, “don’t worry that your son can’t write his name anymore, even though he could before. because all of the kids are falling behind.” it feels like it’s an excuse… they’re not trying as hard as they could. (p6: mother of a four and six-year-old with asd) school and community support (n = 13) experiences with support varied across families. supports include respite care, social work, service coordination and therapeutic services (e.g., educational, speech-language, occupational, physical). some participants indicated that they received support from the school or early childhood programs. a parent provided the following examples: when we had the toilet paper shortage, head start was the ones that actually ordered it. they were ordering hand sanitizer by the gallon and toilet paper and giving it to families that couldn’t get it. (p6: mother of a four and six-yearold with asd) elementary schools were recognized as providing some support as well. parents said their schools provided activity options, ideas to assist with self-regulation, and visual tools for communication and scheduling. one parent shared that covid-19 prompted more outreach between school and home: at first, they kind of pushed the information on me. and then i was like “okay this thing works, so let me ask about this too.” they do give really good resources and information. if i need help with something, they’re willing to help. (p7: mother of a six-year-old with speech disorder) some mothers found support by reaching out to other families in similar situations and relying on extended family members. for others, covid-19 eliminated the opportunity to rely on others. for example, some families felt it was not safe to use grandparents in child care as they did prior to the pandemic. other families created small groups with extended family members to limit exposure with people outside of that designated group. with children out of school, one single mother had to rely on others for support but found it difficult to get help: “my support system has gone from humongous, down to like 10 people… if i’m lucky.” (p2: mother of three-year-old with asd, four-year-old with global delay and six-year-old with adhd). importance of communication (n = 12) parents discussed the importance of communication between the school and families and focused on concerns, including variability in the amount of communication (e.g., too much, too little) and mode of communication (e.g., virtual) a parent recounts difficulty navigating virtual communication during iep meetings. when we had an iep virtually i thought “oh, everyone’s here!” but then they just leave and didn’t even say bye, they just left. i didn’t even know that they weren’t in the meeting anymore until the end. and i was like, “wait, we lost the person.” it affects the trust. (p5: mother of twin five-year-old children with asd) the content of communication was also addressed. for example, a parent reported receiving limited information about the kindergarten transition: “when he turned five, they cut out his services completely because it rolls over to the elementary school, but schools are closed, so his services have been in limbo” (p1: mother of five-year-old with speech delay). this parent found that navigating the kindergarten transition without assistance from the school was difficult. “i thought you can sign paperwork, and your kid’s in school. and now, i have multiple emails and multiple different contacts, and not even a start date for when they may even have school open for him to begin”(p1). megan kunze et al. 165 another parent described frustration with limited communication about school placements. she questioned the school’s plan: he was supposed to be in a general education class. nobody said anything to me. then come to find out... his biggest issue is transitions. they’ve got him transitioning every half hour [in general education]so then they moved him in with the special education teacher so he wouldn’t have a hard time…they just did not say anything to me! (p4: mother of five-year-old with asd). future worries and positives (n = 14) parents expressed concern about the future, such as the possibility of schools remaining virtual. they also described the irreversible loss of developmental progress. a mother expressed her worry: my fear is for the future. because he’s not prepared for the school system when he gets there, and that’s coming. because if things don’t change, how am i going to serve my child? how am i going to make sure that he gets the education he’s supposed to get? (p10: mother of 6-year-old with odd and adhd) another mother pointed out the added stress of in-person schooling because she worries about her child’s possible exposure to the virus. this mother detailed her vigilance as part of her role as a mother: i don’t know what the future holds… it’s going to be here permanently…i feel more comfortable with them being at home, even if i have to work my butt off and maybe running around crazy, you know, being wonder woman, but i rather do that and keep my kiddos safe. (p3: mother of three-year-old with asd) other positive outcomes of the pandemic identified by parents are smaller class sizes as a result of social distancing and additional online resources that were not previously available. one mother said that, prior to the pandemic, her child was not able to handle the length of the bus ride and the high number of children on the bus: if not for covid, we would have been driving my son to school because he couldn’t handle a bus ride with 30 or 40 kids. because of covid, there’s half the kids on there, and the ride is much shorter. (p6: mother of a 4 and 6-year-old with asd) parents also talked about things that would have improved distance learning and should be implemented in case of future school closures. those include teaching kids to use technology while in the classroom, standardizing technology platforms in a school district, and allowing usability across devices (e.g., android and apple). domain 2: effects on therapeutic and medical services continuing to answer rq 1 and 3, all fourteen participants discussed how covid-19 affected therapeutic and medical services for their child with dd. these reports were categorized into two themes (a) loss and changes in services and (b) parents’ stories of navigating the service system. loss and changes in services (n = 14) beyond school closures due to covid restrictions, many families experienced changes in therapeutic and medical services. during the pandemic, therapeutic service offerings ranged from limited in-person to virtual-only to suspension. therapy previously provided in school settings was often canceled due to school closures. as a parent of two children with autism, one in kindergarten and the other in preschool, this mother described her frustration with the school’s cancelation of therapy for one of her sons: i was really bothered that schools weren’t trying to offer therapy virtually... yes, the schools need to close, but only [a few] kids need to have therapy. why can’t they come in one day week and social distance? occupational therapy is the major issue [for my son]. not getting that has really, really hurt him. (p6: mother of a 4 and 6-year-old with asd) participant 6 continued by describing how the absence of therapeutic services affected her daughter as well. we tried to get the doctor to refer her out for speech services because that was her biggest delay. the university where we would go to get speech therapy actually closed down. so, there was no option of getting speech around us; we would have to drive about two hours just to go once a week. (p6: mother of a 4 and 6-year-old with asd) medical services were a stressor for some families. changes in medical services included delayed parenting young children with developmental disabilities: experiences… 166 diagnosis, delayed surgery, and canceled intensive interventions in hospital settings. a mother described her family’s experience when she recognized that therapy for her son would end very soon due to the pandemic: we basically were just waiting for them to shut the door on us and sure enough they said everything’s canceled. we had to eject from the program early and then went home, and of course school was closed, so in terms of the services that was the big shift, and then also the local outpatient therapies were closed. (p8: mother of five-year-old with cerebral palsy) once schools and therapy providers began offering virtual sessions, there was still a delay in services for many. this delay also changed therapy options for some, which added to frustration of parents. for example, a parent of kindergartener with developmental delays said: “so he’s missed a lot. he’s only been to a therapy session three times since his iep services started in early november [six months prior]. he was supposed to have 45–60 minutes per week” (p10: mother of six-year-old with odd and adhd). similarly, the mode of delivery for therapy was difficult for families, and the changes in delivery were noted in delayed development and skills. a mother recounts their experience: she has ot virtually. and that’s one of the hardest ones to do virtually, because i don’t know how to teach her how to write, and it just does not translate over the computer. t i think they realized that she has missed out on a lot. [if she was]in the classroom, she would have been working on writing and getting that extra support, which she is not getting at home. (p17: mother of three-year-old with down’s syndrome) navigating the service system (n = 14) the unforeseen barriers to getting therapy prompted many parents to become advocates for their child with dd. identifying services and getting their therapy and medical needs met was difficult. one parent discussed her challenges in getting her child’s medication needed for various complications with his syndrome. some medications with the pandemic were harder to attain or, if not completely sold out. and so, it’s a constant phone call to either the doctor or the pharmacies. and then you go from having one pharmacy to three pharmacies, just so you can make sure you can get the different medications that he needs to be in a good health status. (p11: mother of six-year-old with asd and charge syndrome) while the mothers interviewed were persistent in successfully navigating the service system, it was a trying, multifaceted task. advocacy was challenged by the barriers of the pandemic. one mother whose child was newly diagnosed with asd and also had medical complications during covid-19 provides details of her situation: the problem that i’m going to have is that i need to call the hospital for this. we’re doing all these alternative tests, and i would love to meet a dietitian that specializes in autism, because i have no clue what i’m doing. ..unfortunately this past year has put everything on hold. her diagnosis was over zoom; i dropped the ball on referrals.…. i mean, i need to make dental appointments, and i have no idea what to do. (p12: mother of three-year-old with asd) delays in diagnostic appointments required additional navigation by a parent. one mother reports the trouble she had in getting her child diagnosed with asd during the pandemic: the doctor, [told] me it would be a month before the specialist was going to call me. then two months later, i finally called them and they said, “oh, we’re just now getting to referrals from january, so it’s still going to be another month or two before they call you”. covid had everything all backed up… their wait times are ridiculously long anyway, but covid added a significant amount of time. (p4: mother of 5-year-old with asd). during the pandemic, it became more difficult to get prescriptions filled and arrange for in-home services and appointments for children with disabilities. nonetheless, parents demonstrated resourcefulness during this challenging time. one parent describes her perseverance in maintaining routines and appointments, “we have to stay on top of it… we have to make profound decisions that would work for us because we can’t miss a beat” (p14: mother of six-year-old with asd). another mother relied on resources for help: i went directly to the special education director, and she helped me navigate what i needed to. she sat in with me in meetings, which was very useful and helpful because i wouldn’t have known to do this or do that. i’m 52 years old and never had a child. now i’ve got a child, and i’m trying to navigate all these things that i’m supposed to do for megan kunze et al. 167 him. (p10: mother of six-year-old with odd and adhd) navigating these systems requires parents to be advocates. one mother, whose kindergarten-aged son experienced severe medical complications said, i-f i don’t get the answer i like from one person… i’ll call again just to make sure that i actually get them thinking about this outside the box. i think if the child’s parent isn’t like that, it is a lot harder to get what you need… (p8: mother of five-year-old with cerebral palsy) domain 3: effects on child with developmental disabilities in support of rq 1 and 3, participating mothers reported the effects of covid-19 on their families overall. this domain highlights the specific effects on their child with dd. this domain is presented in three themes: (a) changes in routines and transitions, (b) social engagement, and (c) positive outcomes. change in routines and transitions (n = 14) various participants described the difficulties their children have with changes in routine and unexpected transitions and noted that the restrictions implemented by state governments were unpredictable. one mother said, “you're always trying to explain it, [but really just] say “i don't even know what to tell you” because in an hour, the governor could tell us something completely different is about to happen” (p13: mother of four-year-old with global delay). the mothers recounted that the abruptness of the covid restrictions, followed by continued uncertainty, made things even harder for their children to regulate. once hybrid school opened again, unpredictable transitions and routines continued. one mother described how the issue of school personnel being out affected her twins with asd in multiple ways: for the girls, it's the change in routine, and i have noticed when those schedule changes happen — it affects a little bit of their behavior at home, especially with sleep patterns. also, their self-stimulation and repetitive behaviors have increased. (p5: mother of twin five-year-old children with asd) a single mother of three children under the age of six with various disabilities has seen several changes in behavior due to routine and schedule changes. here, she describes what it has been like for her toddler, who was recently diagnosed with asd and experiences several other health impairments: they can't come in and do home visits. school is not open. we get phone calls, but the phone calls don't help. there are virtual story times, but there's no in-person services. we relied on those! they came in, and they worked with her when she wasn't at school. and now we're not getting anything, and i feel like... we're definitely.... we're having more meltdowns, we're having more issues. (p2: mother of three-year-old with asd, four-year-old with global delay and six-year-old with adhd) social engagement (n = 12) a common theme was concern about the limited opportunities for social engagement due to covid restrictions. for many children, social engagement was an area of focus or a goal in their iep. due to the limited exposure to people beyond the immediate family, mothers were concerned that their children would make limited gains in social-emotional development and possibly experience social skill regression. one mother commented, “thinking about it, really the social piece was probably the biggest thing that she’s missing out on. she was really starting to click at head start, knowing other kids’ names” (p6: mother of four and six-year-olds with asd). another parent said of her child’s social connections: i think he does miss being around other kids because he is a social kid. …and a lot of his iep goals are socialemotional, which is really hard to work on when you're not around other kids. (p17: mother of three-year-old with down’s syndrome) one mother said that even though she tries, she feels that the social opportunities available during the pandemic are not enough for her son: i mean, i still feel that [i’m not enough] in some sense, with like the social piece; those types of skills are what i get nervous about — those little things that i can't teach them. it's something that they learn and they observe and those parenting young children with developmental disabilities: experiences… 168 are the things that i think that make me worry. he needs that social piece.. (p13: mother of four-year-old with global delay) positive outcomes (n = 13) despite school and community routines being interrupted, some families found that home routines were strengthened, which decreased child anxiety and facilitated progress in skills on which the parents could focus in some cases. one mother described their experience: i think because of the pandemic, everything was sort of simplified. we've established more family routines in terms of eating at similar times now and establishing a morning routine like sitting on the couch and reading books. (p8: mother of five-year-old with cerebral palsy) another mother shared, it's nice, especially for my daughter with anxiety, it's nice to not have that pressure of constantly running around and being on time for things. not having to be in a certain place at a certain time and navigating and juggling their different therapies. we’re still juggling them, but it's a lot easier when you can just open up your computer.(p17: mother of three-year-old with down’s syndrome) some families described progress in their child’s development when they were expecting regression. parents reported an increase in their child’s vocalizations (p13: mother of four-year-old with global delay) and more reciprocal interactions with family members (p3: mother of three-year-old with asd) and pets (p12: mother of three-year-old with asd). family experiences of child progress varied across participants. one mother described how she carried on in the unpredictable journey of raising her son with asd: if you work with people and maintain good relationships with them, i think you can make anything happen. if this [therapist] can't identify that barrier or wall and they can’t get to your child, there is going to be another specialist out there that probably is going to get to your child. it's just a patience game. and then, when you run out of patience, you have a higher being you could talk to…or you vent a little and cry a bunch. and then you reset. (p14: mother of six-year-old with asd) domain 4: effects on parents and family to answer rq 2 and contribute to rq 3, this domain summarized how the covid-19 pandemic has affected parents and family members of children with disabilities beyond the changes to schooling and therapeutic and medical services. parents describe the loss of seeing extended family for visits, as well as the loss of their assistance providing care. families miss routine breaks, such as family vacations, holidays, and spousal date nights. parents also describe a sense of loss for neuro-typical siblings in the family whose activities and celebrations (e.g., birthdays, community outings) have also been limited. all participants agreed that covid-19 had both positive and negative effects on family life. their experiences are explained here using unique quotes and stories in two themes: pre-covid challenges magnified and parent resourcefulness. pre-covid challenges magnified (n = 11) challenges that were already part of these families’ lives pre-covid became more difficult during the pandemic. for one family, health issues became extremely difficult to navigate due to trips to the hospital for spousal health problems during covid restrictions and limited child care: “so it was like almost juggling knives at this point with just, the amount of [stress]…i don’t know where we’re going to go from here” (p11). additional perspectives from parents describe the limitations of living with a child with a disability, pre-covid. so, we were going to the hospital a lot. and so that was like we were already kind of going through our own pandemic. i think the hard thing is we’ve just felt like we’ve been living in a pandemic since our son was born, and that’s been a lot of trauma. there’s been a lot of acute issues from infantile spasms to unexpected issues; he’s going to have major hip surgery in the spring. all of that’s not even related to covid. i remember my sister-in-law saying, “oh, my family is just not used to not being able to do what we want to do,” and i just thought, “well, welcome to our world, pandemic aside!” (p8: mother of five-year-old with cerebral palsy) homeschooling multiple children during covid is difficult. when the children have a disability megan kunze et al. 169 and difficulty learning, the challenge is magnified. one mother with two children with disabilities describes her experience: you know bouncing back and forth between two kiddos and sometimes…. yeah, i do feel pressure because i feel like i’m not giving one enough, i’m not giving the other one enough…there’s just one of me. so yes, it can be challenging. (p3: mother of three-year-old with asd) parent resourcefulness (n = 14) similar to past themes, mothers described examples of their resourcefulness. a mother who was furloughed for three months during the pandemic used that time to focus on her family. it was like vacation. i got to grow with my older daughter, i got to grow with my nine-year-old. i spent time with my dogs and trained them better. i mean, i just had the time. and then school and everything was going great, and i was home if one of the kids had to be quarantined for any reason. i was hoping they’d fire me, but they didn’t. that was my little secret [laughter]. (p14: mother of six-year-old with asd) in addition to resourcefulness, mothers shared means of coping during the pandemic. one mother said about her own self-care, “let me push the reset button and figure out what needs to happen from here. so, i made an appointment with a doctor, went in, and now just try to be vigilant with my own mental health” (p11). maintaining a positive outlook was a coping strategy for some mothers. for example: we have really tried to be super positive and look at how fortunate we are. we've been healthy, and we haven't had any major issues with this whole situation. yes, we've been inconvenienced, and that is super frustrating. but in the grand scheme of things, it could be way worse. . (p13: mother of four-year-old with global delay) other mothers described self-care opportunities. one mother said she “takes some time in the morning to walk or run or whatever, whereas usually, we were running out the door. i've been able to read more and meditate more” (p17: mother of three-year-old with down’s syndrome) discussion the current study aimed to elucidate some of the impacts of the covid-19 pandemic on family life for parents and young children experiencing dd. qualitative interviews with mothers were used to measure the influence of this unpredictable event. overall, the results indicate that events (e.g., school closures, loss of therapeutic services) in response to the covid-19 outbreak negatively affected families and children with dd and these changes in daily life were described as stressful by mothers results further highlighted that despite many negative reports (e.g., limited support systems, increase in child-rearing responsibilities), some parents spoke of positive outcomes, their increased resiliency, and advocacy actions. this discussion will summarize participant voices in response to the research questions targeted in this study. implications for practice, future research, and limitations are described. impact of changes in educational, therapeutic, and medical services (rq1) early intervention and early childhood special education services for young children with dd provide necessary developmental support and services ( warren & stone, 2011; zwaigenbaum, et al.,2015). delays or lack of access to early intervention services negatively impact a child’s growth trajectory and can result in a limited gain or loss of skills, thus increasing the disparities between children with dd and their typically developing peers. some mothers in this study suggested that limited social opportunities due to isolation, as required to decrease exposure and spread of covid-19, stunted their child’s social-emotional development. similarly, parents discussed significant concerns about academic performance (i.e., writing, reading, and math). these mothers hypothesized that their child’s disability, combined with the interruption in education, caused their child’s academic progress to be minuscule compared to a typically developing peer despite all children being denied educational opportunities. the examples listed here are supported by other literature about parenting experiences during covid-19 (hochman et al., 2022, neece et al., 2020; ren et al., 2020). however, the perspectives included in the current study are unique as they are results of direct quotes from the participants, rather than cumulation of survey data. parenting young children with developmental disabilities: experiences… 170 implication for practice eliminating service disruptions may decrease further disparities due to lack of availability. training professionals to coach parents and deliver interventions or academic lessons virtually allows skill development to continue despite extenuating circumstances (kunze et al., 2021; lerman et al., 2020). virtual interventions have been explored in addressing disparities in rural communities and may have similar positive impacts on families who experience isolation under various circumstances. due to covid-19, professional training protocols have become more available based on the demand for guidance on how to deliver virtual intervention (see poole et al., 2020). evidence-based training and practices for professionals in the delivery of effective virtual interventions are still evolving and have yet to become a standard part of pre-training and in-service education for early intervention providers and educators. further research is necessary to test the fidelity of virtual intervention delivery, the efficacy of parent-mediated technologies delivered via distance, and the efficacy of training protocols to prepare professionals to deliver such services. additionally, the positive influences of the covid-19 shutdown should be considered in practice and policy. some mothers shared that the shutdown put a temporary stop to constant therapeutic and educational appointments leading to feelings of being overscheduled. they found that spending time at home was a welcomed break. as these interviews represent one snapshot in time, the next steps in understanding the impact of covid-19 on families should consider the family’s view of scheduling, commitment, and breaks from back-to-back appointments. because early intervention is family-focused, it is vital to consider both social validity and usability of parent-mediated interventions delivered via distance, which decreases a family’s commitment to appointments outside of the home. effects on parental stress and resiliency (rq2) our findings suggest that covid-19 has increased parental stress, which aligns with other pandemic research (asbury et al., 2021; cooke et al., 2020; gonçalves-pinho et al., 2021; howard-jones et al., 2022). at the same time, participants’ descriptions of their pandemic experiences also highlighted their resiliency. some mothers described their connection with their spouse, spiritual practices, and social supports may have acted as protective factors for their mental health. for example, participant 11 described an experience of reaching her “breaking point” and using her resources (i.e., medical doctor, spouse) to support her recovery, preventing further stress-induced mental breakdowns. in addition to external support, parents reported using a positive outlook, patience, prayer, and emotional outlets to cope. implications for practice the results of this study highlight the critical role of support systems in the lives of families with young children experiencing dd. professional support in therapeutic and educational services can provide mental health guidance for families through referrals and social networking suggestions (bronfenbrenner, 1979). professionals can prepare the families they serve for interruptions in services due to unexpected high-stress events by assisting families in identifying their strengths and resources. established strategies such as routines-based interviews (rbi)(mcwilliam et al., 2009), ecological-mapping (ecomaps)(mccormick et al., 2008), and motivational interviewing (mi)(williams, & wright, 2014) demonstrate promising outcomes in early intervention. these strategies can assist families in establishing healthy routines, identifying supports, and following through on goal setting to increase family resiliency in response to disruptions, ultimately protecting families from the negative impacts of unforeseen stressors. research specific to parental stress and the use of established strategies (e.g., rbi, eco-maps, mi) is necessary to better understand the role of support systems in high-stress events. additionally, future research and practice should consider each families’ unique experiences during covid-19. because many parents were left without support systems (e.g., missing therapists, professionals, and teachers from microsystem; broffenbrenner, 1979), parents were able to experience what providers and services were most essential. this increase in understanding of the necessary interventions for their child may have been amplified by an increase in parental awareness resulting from time with their child. this informed and megan kunze et al. 171 critical viewpoint possibly highlighted who is important and what services are not. multiple parental roles and responsibilities (rq3) mothers described the difficulty they had in taking on additional roles as a result of covid-19 restrictions. parents were left to take on the many roles previously filled by various professionals (e.g., teacher, behavior analyst, physical therapist). this lack of educational and therapeutic support for children was also heard in the legal concerns posed by parents: school and therapy closures affected children with disabilities to the point of decreasing their quality of life and producing inequity in education. ultimately, covid-19 isolation contradicts both the purpose (i.e., to promote progress) and urgency (i.e., more developmental gains are made when access is early) of early childhood intervention (mcintyre et al., 2021) implications for practice parents emphasized difficulty fulfilling and navigating services between schools, therapists, and service providers. being the go-between for schools and professionals was perceived as a burden by the parents in this study. early childhood practitioners are uniquely positioned to provide this link by, for example, facilitating communication between a clinic and school. mothers interviewed in this study emphasized their need for a professional to assume the role of “parent educator” and “family supporter” (p10) and to “think outside the box” (p8) in their practice with families. these findings echo parents’ need for help with disability education, system navigation, and advocacy. using a transdisciplinary model, commonly cited as a best practice for early intervention, is one option to support families using special education services during early intervention and through their time in school (bricker et al., 2020). however, this delivery model, where the family is central to intervention delivery, goal-setting, and choice-making for their child, is typically only used in early childhood education, under age five. in these initial years of identification and vital intervention, families have a team of professionals that provide services, collaborating with one another to increase the amount of opportunities for a child to succeed in their milestone achievement. however, once children with dd move into a school system (e.g., kindergarten and beyond), the services often become isolated rather than collaborative. it is likely that due to the distance of professionals from one another and from the family, service delivery did not follow the suggested transdisciplinary model during the early part of the pandemic and became isolated rather than remaining collaborative. limitations there are several limitations to note within this research. first, parents’ responses were likely linked to their child’s disability severity (e.g., disability severity influenced parents’ perspective of their effectiveness in caring for their child). while disability information was collected, the severity of the disability was not measured. second, spousal and partner support was a topic volunteered by participants in several interviews; however, the quality of those relationships was not measured. additional questionnaires could have been used to measure whether familial relationships moderate stress levels and the participants’ capacity to handle the additional burdens set forth by the pandemic. third, the variation among the participants was minimal; thus, broad generalizations to diverse populations are cautioned. the sample overall was small, generally middle to higher ses with minimal representation from black or hispanic families. fourth, details on stopping and starting therapies and in-person education were collected in an interview format, which relied on parents to recall their child’s experiences retrospectively. the participant experiences presented here were drawn from parent reports and represent individual experiences and should be interpreted with caution beyond those of each family. last, the timing of the interviews, each family’s geographic location, and ses likely impacted the family’s experiences. the variability between these differences may hinder the opportunity to draw broad conclusions, especially considering the ongoing pandemic. parenting young children with developmental disabilities: experiences… 172 conclusion early childhood intervention is crucial in supporting child development and family well-being (zwaigenbaum et al., 2015). covid-19 has drastically altered education, intervention, and services for families with young children, and the effects of those service changes for young children with dd and their families continue to unfold. this study examined a snapshot in time during the onset of covid-19, capturing the stories of the families’ experiences to better understand its impact on their family life. the voices presented here suggest valuable lessons to prevent future educational and therapeutic disparities, provide family support in schools and communities, and hold on to hope for the future. the findings of this study are in line with research suggesting that families with children with dd have higher levels of stress than other families, and covid-19 restrictions may exacerbate that disparity. the findings from this study are uniquely framed in the theoretical framework of bronfenbrenner’s ecological model (1979) and the transdisciplinary model (bricker et al., 2020) used in early intervention. these models are used to highlight the importance of service support systems for families. intervention providers can act as a protective barrier preventing some stressors from impacting a family unit. when such supports are unavailable, families become vulnerableallowing for an opportunity for additional stressors to negatively impact their family. the unfortunate fact that covid-19 will remain with us, and that future high-stress events may lead to service and school interruptions, makes further research necessary. understanding family experiences during high-stress events, such as covid-19, will highlight individual support needs by suggesting modifications and adaptations increase equity and quality in service delivery at times of unprecedented challenges (lerman et al., 2020). future research should work to identify post-pandemic needs, including systematic response to crises, the efficacy of virtual education, essential support systems for families, and the impact of service interruption during vital windows of opportunity in the development of young children. declarations authors’ declarations acknowledgements: we would like to acknowledge the contributions of kandyce kelley for the assistance in scheduling interviews with participants. the tots advisory board for their support in recruitment and feedback on interview questions and protocol. we thank all parents who took the time to share their experiences. authors’ contributions: the individual contributions of authors to this manuscript are as follows: all authors created the interview questions and protocol. mk and eg conducted the interviews. mk and dg take responsibility for the integrity of the study and data analysis. mk, dg, eg, bt, ir were responsible for the data analysis. study concept and design: all authors. acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of the data: mk, dg, eg, bt, ir; drafting of the manuscript: mk and dg; critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content: mk; statistical analysis: dg. all authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript. competing interests: the authors declare that they have no competing interests. funding: funding for this research was national institute on disability, independent living, and rehabilitation research (nidilrr) (award # 90dphf0003). ethics approval and consent to participate: this research was approved by the institutional review board of the university of oregon [irb# 09142018.017]. prior to partaking in interviews, participants provided written informed consent, including consent to record the interview and withdraw their consent or end the interview at anytime. publisher’s declarations editorial acknowledgement: the editorial process of this article was carried out by dr. eleonora teszenyi. publisher’s note: journal of childhood, education & society remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliation. references asbury, k., fox, l., deniz, e., code, a., & toseeb, u. 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(2015). early intervention for children with autism spectrum disorder under 3 years of age: recommendations for practice and research. pediatrics, 136 (suppl. s1), s60–s81. parenting young children with developmental disabilities: experiences during the covid-19 pandemic in the u.s. journal of childhood, education & society volume 3, issue 2, 2022, 177-199 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.202232203 research article ©2022 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. allowing for segregation in ecec? legal conditions, administrative structures and enrolment practice in germany gesine nebe1 abstract: supposedly children are to learn together in surroundings mirroring the overall democratic and diverse make-up of society. segregation in ecec is undesirable. however, substantial segregation exists even in systems designed for universal, highquality ecec provision. while some research has already carved out the role of parents´ choice of institutions, little is known about how children are selected by institutions. this article attempts to shed light on institutional choice as a variable for segregation. including a detailed picture of the german ecec system and pointing out administrative relations between municipalities and providers in germany, this article will depict enrolment. it will draw an empirically based ‘tryptich’, focusing on municipalities´, provider organisation managers` and ecec centre managers` views on enrolment. findings will lead to a call for providers and municipalities to join efforts in order to design and implement enrolment procedures that prevent segregation. article history received: 08 april 2022 accepted: 11 july 2022 keywords segregation; legal conditions; administrative structures; enrolment practice; ecec allocation introduction "it is a system that first strikes me as strange, and eventually as utterly unfair..." (okwonga, 2021, p. 28) in his 2021 novel “one of them. – an eton college memoir.” author musa okwonga gives insight into his five years at eton college and oxford. despite having been an insider of most prestigious schools he feels that he stayed an outsider in british society. – he feels that coming from a ugandan immigrant family, being a person of colour – he has to work harder, achieve more, even be more. only slowly it dawns on him that this is not to do with him personally but instead with the distribution of wealth, systemic racism and other wider social questions in great britain. the more he reflects on different starting points and paths towards social positions classmates attained, the more he becomes irritated with the system he used to refer to as normal. it “first strikes” him “as strange and eventually as utterly unfair”. as a researcher, focusing on segregation in the early childhood education and care (ecec) system i found myself most intrigued in particular by this short statement. because, indeed, at first it struck me, too, as rather strange that in germany enrolment 2 practices should be in place, that potentially lead to segregated ecec services3. the deeper my empirically based knowledge of conditions, structures and practices of child care distribution grew, the more i came to understand that the legal conditions and administrative structures indeed allow for ecec enrolment procedures that, albeit on the surface might appear “utterly unfair”, from a micro perspective, must be considered neither fair nor unfair but perhaps are worthy of improvement. _____________ 1 martin luther university halle-wittenberg, faculty of philosophy iii, institute for pedagogy; halle/saale, germany, email: gesine.nebe@paedagogik.uni-halle.de, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0920-8241 2 enrolment procedures is the term that will be used to describe actions and interactions between individuals regarding an aspired use of an ecec service. clearly, it is defined by its end point which is the actual conclusion of a service contract between the child´s legal representatives and the child care provider organisation. besides that it potentially comprises a multitude of possible encounters between municipality-, providerand centre-staff and can involve artifacts such as documents, forms etc. 3 in the following out-of-home education and care for children aged one year to their school entry in youth welfare institutions will mainly be termed early childhood education and care ( or for readability reasons the abbreviation ecec), day-care centres, day-care services, ecec settings and early education. those terms will be used synonymously. https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202232203 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:gesine.nebe@paedagogik.uni-halle.de https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0920-8241 gesine nebe 178 in this article i will present readers with empirically based findings that underpin the latter and might inspire administrative levels such as municipalities as well as provider management to tend to enrolment procedures. therefore, after introducing data and methods of the research, i will, first, give an overview of the german ecec system in place. also, a schema will be introduced – coined the “child care distribution triangle” – which helps to better understand the relations between parents, municipalities and ecec providers/centre managers. furthermore, aiming to give a detailed description of enrolment, i will depict an ‘enrolment tryptich’: enrolment will be described as it emerged from interviews and other data gathered on the municipality level, the provider level and the centre management level. i will discuss the findings presented accentuating the overall question of ‘how segregated ecec programmes happen’ c.f.:(frankenberg, 2016, p. 21) and therefore link the depicted enrolment procedures to administrative and legal conditions in the german ecec system. at last, the conclusion will suggest that the system might ‘allow’ for segregation but at the same time, in general, it demands responsible decisions preventing segregation. tending to (re)shaping decision-making processes accordingly is urgent challenge municipalities and ecec providers (including centre management staff) must master collectively. segregation in ecec in germany ‘beneficial for all’, ‘inclusive’, ‘most effectfully influencing positive development of children’, helping ‘reverse disadvantage’ (european commission, 2011, p. 3–4) – those are only a few, yet, paradigmatic beliefs about the positive influence of ecec regarding inclusion and educational equality. in particular, since peer groups are believed to have great impact on children´s, the composition of child care settings is held important, too (vandenbroeck, 2015a, p. 107; 2015b). positive effects are in particular linked to mixed groups. however, homogenous groups or groups with high concentration of children from disadvantaged and under-privileged families negatively influence children´s learning composition effects regarding language development (hogrebe, pomykaj et al., 2021). segregation, defined by hogrebe, pomykaj et al. (2021) as “an unequal distribution of population groups resulting from spatial differentiation, sorting, and separation processes” (p. 37) is an issue that has been on the core of urban sociology for decades. here in particular two of the main issues ethnic and social segregation – have been studied (farwick, 2012, 2018). taking into account what has been said regarding negative effects of homogenous peer groups, it is clear that ethnic as well as social segregation are relevant issues in childhood research, too. besides, since attendance of ecec in most cases is a child´s first step into society it is held important (vandenbroeck, 2015a) as to “mirror” (p. 109) society regarding plurality and democracy. segregated ecec, “contradicts (…) the idea of social inclusion and democracy” (hogrebe, pomykaj et al., 2021, p. 37). however, research on the issue is alarmingly insufficient. what we do know, though, is: high concentrations of children with disadvantages are found in particular in urban agglomerations in westgermany (autorengruppe bildungsberichterstattung, 2020) and lower concentrations can be found in rural areas in east-germany (olszenka & meiner-teubner, 2020). we also know that it is more likely for children from migrant backgrounds to have peers from migrant backgrounds (gambaro, 2017; gambaro et al., 2020). interestingly, segregation in ecec services in certain neighbourhoods is not directly linked to residential segregation. it goes beyond; the composition of neighbourhood does not always carry over to ecec clienteles (hogrebe, 2014). there is some indication to ecec segregation being linked to provider specifics – here in particular parent initiatives are remarkable examples, as hogrebe showed (hogrebe, 2016b). some research, in addition, gives first evidence of the relevance of enrolment procedures that are in place in segregation (hogrebe, mierendorff et al., 2021; nebe, 2021). in general, research on segregation in ecec is scarce internationally, too. research on segregation in the u.s. focuses on racial segregation and partly on social segregation, results cannot easily be transferred to the german system, due to historic and structural differences (hogrebe, pomykay et al., 2021). however, that research should problematize segregation in ecec is underpinned by results of a study undertaken in the study of oslo: drange and telle indicate on the basis of extensive data about the enrolment procedures in the municipality of oslo, that even in an inclusive and universal ecec system as allowing for segregation in ecec? legal conditions, administrative… 179 the norwegian substantial segregation exists. they, also, point to certain procedures that make it for example less likely for disadvantaged families to have their child enrolled in certain ecec services (drange & telle, 2021). if – and to what extent and due to which structures and legislative conditions segregation in ecec exists internationally, is yet to be researched. the role of parental and institutional choice as to the question of how observed segregation in ecec was actually ‘done’ or from what practices it results, we cannot draw on much research, either. hogrebe, pomykaj et al. (2021) rightly state, it "seems immediately understandable that local population and supply structures influence the demographic makeup of ecec settings” (p. 37). to them it is far “less clear to what extent” other levels (hogrebe, pomykaj et al., 2021, p. 37) are involved. furthermore, in 2020 the national education report stated that too little is known about the effects provision plurality in germany actually has on the structural, organisational and conceptual configuration of ecec (autorengruppe bildungsberichterstattung, 2020, p. 87), at the same time stating, that providing organisations and their strategies regarding enrolment and parent fee regulation are strongly suspected to “possibly have segregating effects” (ibid.). while there is not much research to be found on segregation in ecec in germany in general, the existing body of research on segregation in the educational system sets one focus on parents selecting educational institutions for their children. focusing on parents and their role in segregation consistently leads to questions of the choices they make for their children´s education (ernst, 2018; hogrebe, 2016a; mierendorff, 2021). segregation researched from that perspective is viewed as resulting from parents´ desire for distinction (ernst, 2018; hogrebe, mierendorff et al., 2021; lobato, 2021; ramos-lobato & gross, 2019). however, shedding light on parental choice only has been critiqued as far from sufficient, too (vandenbroeck, 2015b, p. 173). because: while parents indeed do select an institution (or more institutions), after all it is the institution offering the conduct of contract to families. institutions, hence, select from the total number of families who would like their child to attend the service, those children that are taken in. so, not only parental choice but ‘institutional choice’, too, is rightly suspected to cause segregation (see above). segregation research in ecec therefore needs to focus on structures, conditions and practices across the ecec system makeup levels that allow for ecec institutions to sort, choose and select children according to their ethnic, religious, social (and other possible) characteristics. while it has been stated that it is well documented that (vandenbroeck, 2015a) “priority criteria as well as enrolment procedures might unwittingly create thresholds that discriminate against poor and migrant families” (p.107), so far not much research has been undertaken to underpin that. the insights and results to be shared here were gathered in a research project that set out to start filling this gap. its title is "preschool provision and segregation. a quantitative-qualitative study on the investigation of social and ethnic segregation in centre-based child care"4 and it was launched in january 2019. it produces knowledge about the interrelatedness of the highly pluralistic provider structure in germany with social and ethnic segregation. this is done in two indepentently operating subprojects, one taking a macro perspective and using a structural analysis approach to look at provider specific segregation patterns. project titled “ecec provider specific segregation patterns in germany” (set:id)5 uses nationally representative data from the national educational panel study (neps) and the socio-economic panel study (soep). the subproject titled “provider specific organisation cultures and practices”6 has generated qualitative data in conducting in-depth-interviews and gathering documents. while generally working independently, researchers from both subprojects collaborated, e.g. discussing each others research results, posing questions, presenting papers together etc. this article presents results from research undertaken in subproject set:oha only, taking into account that in collaborative research projects findings accrue in collaboration and are hence stipulated by many conversations, fruitful discussions and critique with _____________ 4 in german: "segregation und trägerschaft. eine quantitativ-qualitative studie zur untersuchung von sozialer und ethnischer entmischung in kitas. set. 5 in german: “segregation und trägerschaft: trägerspezifische segregtionsmuster in deutschland. set:id“ 6 in german: “segregtion und trägerschaft: organisationskulturen und handlungspraktiken. set:oha“ gesine nebe 180 colleagues from subproject set:id. method sub-project set:oha, the qualitative research part of the project set, followed a general grounded theory approach in data gathering and analysis. in this section the issues of theoretical sensitivity and the theoretical sample/sampling will be addressed. sample and data (gathering) as mentioned, the research body is insufficient so far; but observed disparities between western and eastern agglomerations and rural regions in ecec lead to the decision to conduct research in two regions accordingly: one situated in west-germany, the other in east-germany. since both german states had very different ecec systems it was the aim to make sure to potentially integrate persisting differences. also, in each region one major city and one rural municipality were selected, taking into account that demand and supply of child care capacities differ in areas with dense population (cities) and rural areas. in each of the four selected municipalities – west/rural, west/city, east/rural, east/city interviews were conducted with participants from three different groups of actors involved in ecec distribution: (1) municipality´s staff assigned to/ responsible for child care organisation and planning, (2) ecec providers and (3) managers of child care centres. the sample consists of 30 interviews in total (six interviews with staff on municipal level, eight interviews with provider managers and 16 interviews with centre managers). in addition, five interviews with different stakeholders in the municipalities were included. a general interview guide was applied, making sure that the same areas of information were part of the interviews and the focus in each interview was kept on child care distribution and enrolment procedures. all interviews were semistructured in-depth interviews (scanlan, 2020) with the exception of four focus group interviews: interestingly, in all four municipalities the responsible authority the researcher contacted preferred group interviews over individual interviews and strongly suggested to include responsible staff instead of interviewing only the head of department. this resulted in focus group interviews with numbers of participants ranging from two to six interviewees. accepting this meant accepting a free flowing discussion between participants, only moderated to some extent by the interviewer(s) (morgan, 1997) and it proved fruitful. due to the nationwide lock down and strict visitor regulations in child care centres in 2020 and 2021 because of the covid 19-pandemic most interviews had to be conducted as telephone interviews. interviews lasted between 35 and 120 minutes; they were recorded, transcribed and anonymized. when reporting results the author is in addition paying attention to securing interviewees` anonymity. this is especially crucial taking into account that some german regions as well as providers are very distinctive according to their legal structures and conditions. in addition to interviews data gathering included the collection of institutional and organisational documents. those documents comprised for example brochures and information websites published by the municipalities in the sample and articles in newspapers about child care distribution in the municipalities. also, brochures, documents, forms and lists that were subject of discussion in the interviews were collected. theoretical sensitivity unsurprisingly and in line with corbin and strauss (corbin & strauss, 2015) theoretical sensitivity became and remained a major issue in research. the author/ researcher is experienced in the field of ecec, having studied in a european masters course on ece as well as worked as a child care centre consultant, teacher in vocational training and lecturer in advanced training courses for child care staff. it was therefore necessary to become aware of one´s own theoretical knowledge about the research field in order acknowledge it as well as suspend it at times in order not to force theory on data (corbin & strauss, 2015; kelle, 2005) what will be presented in this article as the “ecec distribution triangle” in particular is a result of taking theoretical sensitivity (corbin & strauss, 2015) seriously. – the schema emerged early in the research process, resulting from the necessity to pin point previous theoretical knowledge and it evolved while allowing for segregation in ecec? legal conditions, administrative… 181 analysing data. later in the research progress it continuously proved to “help see relevant data and abstract significant categories from (...) scrutiny of the data" (glaser & strauss, 1976). also, it helped the researcher to avoid drowning in data (kelle, 2005), stay focused. the schema not only fostered a better understanding of the positions of actors involved in child care distribution processes in germany. it also facilitated and stimulated questions that were posed during the data gathering process, but at the same time fostered the analysing and data coding processes by making possible to map arguments of interviewees and data according to the general outline of the triangle. in that sense, it was one of the first results as well as a precondition for findings) presented in this article. data analysis in data analysis coding and sorting methods were applied following the goal of breaking up and describing the data (corbin & strauss, 1990). revising the data gathered (documents only at first, transcripts of interviews later in the research process) time and time again, taking notes about particular remarks and observations (bryman, 2001) slowly a coding system emerged and developed. coding, memoing helped posing the general question “what is going on here?” and kept the researchers permanent dialogue with the field in general and her data in particular alive. sticking to a rather free coding practice (which did not necessarily rely on coding every line) data was abstracted into categories, making intertextual analysis possible. this, in effect, made it possible to flesh out commonalities and isolated events and therefore made it possible to group data and build a first theoretical framework. what will presented here as the ‘enrolment tryptich’ stems from data analysis applying the general grounded theory approach. memoing, coding and intertextual analysis was facilitated by the software “f4 analyse”. findings ecec provision in germany ecec is an integral part of germany´s child and youth welfare system. it is – despite extensive discussions about necessary reforms not part of the educational system (franke-meyer, 2016). in the following section a detailed insight will be given – based on literature and in parts on own calculations based on public statistics. the universal right to child care ecec is not compulsory. yet, in september 2021 nine out of ten children aged 3 to 6 years and 34,4% younger than three attended child care (statistisches bundesamt, 2021). with the introduction of legal entitlement to child care germany follows a universal approach to ecec (scholz et al., 2019). children´s right to child care is regulated in book viii of the social welfare code, §24 underpinning entitlement for every child from their7 1rst birthday onwards. it grants access to ecec, legally provided for by the body responsible for youth welfare in the municipality. the right is universal in that sense, that it applies to every child fulfilling the only condition of having turned one. the child care market: providers in total 3.8 million children attended 58500 ecec services8. in germany (statistisches bundesamt, 2021) in 2021. all these institutions are under patronage of a legal body, be it a registered association, a church or religious community, a non-profit organisation, a for-profit limited organisation, a municipality or an owner-operated municipal enterprise. those legal bodies are in german called “träger” and in youth welfare they bear responsibility for planning, funding, providing, ideally promoting and conceptually developing social work in youth welfare (bieker, 2011; merchel, 2018). there are three types of ecec providers: (1) public providers, (2) private non-profit providers and (3) private for-profit providers. to _____________ 7 throughout this article i will use the gender neutral singular pronoun “they” (them, their) when referring to individuals whose identified pronouns are not known or when the gender of a generic or hypothetical person is irrelevant within the context. i will do so according to guidelines for inclusive and respectful language given by the american psychological association apa (2019, 2020). 8 those could be supplying ecec only for children younger than 3 years – kinderkrippe (creche), institutions taking in children aged 3 until school entry – kindergarten or day care centres (kindertagesstätten) which take in children from birth until school entry. furthermore, there are child care centres that take in children under three until school entry and beyond for after-school-care. gesine nebe 182 become a private non-profit provider in ecec legal bodies have to undergo examination processes, usually carried out by the state youth welfare office. approved providers become part of the ecec system in the municipality, including public funding etc. (see also: olk, 2018). the three types of providers share the ecec market which has therefore been referred to as a mixed economy (hogrebe, 2016b). by march, 1rst in 2022 the share of organisations engaged in ecec working for-profit is low, specified with 1663 institutions across germany (statista, 2022a). in contrast, almost two thirds (or 37 543) of ecec institutions are operated by private, non-profit providers (statista, 2022a, 2022b). public providers take a big share of one third (or 19 294) in total (statista, 2022a). providers vary widely, e.g., regarding the number of services they provide as well as regarding their standing in the welfare system: some providers operate child care services only, some operate a multi-faceted portfolio of youth and welfare services (e.g., stationary care, educational consultancy etc.). some are operating one or two services in a small area, others ‘spread’ widely across one municipality or even municipal borders, operating a multitude of services. some providers have existed for decades and have run ecec services for a very long time, other providers have just been approved. funding, governance, responsibilities: the “multi-level structure” “funding mechanisms are rather complex and characterised by large regional differences” in germany (scholz et al., 2019) due to an “interdependent multi-level structure” (ibid.). regarding governance there are four levels in the ecec system: (1) the federal level, (2) the state level, (3) the local/municipal level and (4) the provider level. all four levels of governance have different and differing responsibilities and competencies within the system (see table 1). regarding funding, all four levels share the responsibility – in differing and different amounts plus the child´s parents share the responsibility for funding child care (parental fees). according to calculations from 2018 the greatest share of ecec funding (51,3%) in germany lies with the municipalities/, followed by a funding share of 28,6 % by the state (scholz et al., 2019). a share of 19,6% in total is mutually paid for by parents’ fees and the providers (ibid.). the federal level´s quota is as low as 0,5% (ibid.) responsibilities for child care provision in germany are shared across a multi-level system based on the general federal organisation of german welfare (fuchs-rechlin & bergmann, 2014; scholz et al., 2019). regarding ecec provision governance, there are the federal level, state level and municipal level, each bearing particular legislative as well as legal and administrative responsibilities, as comprised in table 1, below. the fourth level in the multi-level system, the provider organisation level, operates child care services according to standards formulated by superordinate levels but also sets standards for the service delivered in its centres. provider organisations are responsible for the general organisation, administration and management necessary for the actual child care service. the latter, then, is the fifth level: the level of pedagogical practice, the level of service delivery and day-to-day-routines. however, centre managers´ responsibilities are not to be underestimated: the provider level can assign centre managers with tasks such as developing a pedagogical concept for the centre and staff roster issues etc. also, crucial issues like personnel recruitment and service addressee recruitment and responsibility for enrolment procedures can be delegated downward to the centre level. table 1. actors in german ecec: responsibilities, competencies, tasks(scholz et al., 2019, p. 46, extensively augmented by the author) level responsibilities, competencies, tasks federal government level (federal government: bund) responsible for guidelines specified in federal law : (social code book viii; child and youth services act as the legislative framework, specifying e.g., the entitlement to child care, standards etc.) stimulatory competence: programmes and initiatives funding only in the form of project funding state government level (state government: 16 bundesländer) regulatory competence: ecec legal framework regarding service provision in each of the 16 states individually (state law) allowing for segregation in ecec? legal conditions, administrative… 183 regulatory competence comprising: setting service provision standards, licensing provider organisations (träger) as well as individual child care institutions, setting and examining/evaluating provision standards, development and implementation of curricula, staff qualifications funding: targeted funding as investment programmes, federal programmes, tax reduction municipal government level (ca. 11 000 municipalities & districts) planning, organising of ecec service ensuring sufficient provision in the municipality/district according to entitlement to ecec for each child (in case the local levels fail to ensure sufficient provision: compensation of parents´ loss of earnings) funding: municipalities decide about the finance volume according to their priorities as well as their overall budget/indebtness (besides, municipalities can take on the role of ecec provider/public provider, too.) provider organisation level (approved legal bodies assigned with the task to deliver provide) service provision according to standards = service operation participation in ecec planning/organisation in the municipality/district (represented on local youth welfare boards) co-funding (in 12 of the 16 states providers contribute financially to the service they are providing for, ratios differ widely) professional management of child care services, including contracting staff, general management of facilities, contracting service users, personnel management, management of funding issues such as regulations regarding parents´ fees etc.) service centre level service delivery according to general (federal, state, municipal/district) and the provider organisation´s standards, including actual service delivery: education and care practice with children and their families service management and organisation (e.g., staff roster issues, staff meetings, management of contact to potential addressees and potentially: management of recruitment and familiarisation of incoming children etc.) diversity/plurality9 & subsidiarity: two principles shaping child care provision rooted in the long corporatist welfare history, there are two interwoven principles in place that shape child care provision: the so-called principle of diversity for one and also the principle of subsidiarity. many of the german ece system´s characteristics are owed to them. the principle of diversity refers to the concept of parents´ choice: social code book viii (section 5) guarantees addressees of youth welfare choice in service as well as in pedagogical approaches in place in the services in order to make sure the service meets their and their child´s needs and preferences. provision plurality as such is also guaranteed in social code book viii (section 3). specifically, in youth welfare – and accordingly in child care those providers are to be “favoured, which allow addressees of their services a high degree of influence” (olk, 2018). in principle, private providers are believed to act in line with what their addressees want (or need) and because of that they are trusted to supply the best possible, locally confectioned service. for doing so providers are granted the remarkable high degree of autonomy. taking into account that administrative regulations, standards and concepts on governance levels have to be transferred into sufficient supply and practice on service level, the role of providers in the ecec system is crucial: they implement administrative regulations existing at federal, state and municipal level; they are the ones to ‘translate’ legal regulations into actual practice. they, also, enjoy a remarkably high degree of autonomy in molding ecec, which partly is owed to the principle of plurality but besides that, to subsidiarity. subsidiarity is fundamentally woven into the system; it is the “principle that a central authority should have a subsidiary function, performing only those tasks which cannot be performed at a more local level” (oxford english dictionary, n.d). hence, municipalities only are to operate services only, if no other providers are willing to do so. when there are approved organisations offering provision, they should be assigned the task. so, despite substantially _____________ 9 in german: trägerpluralität. authors translate it either as ‘principle of diversity’ or ‘principle of plurality’. both terms will be used synonymously in this article. gesine nebe 184 funding provision, due to the principle of subsidiarity, municipalities are not substantially in charge or control of the actual shape of provision. both principles promote a remarkable diversity. the sheer unnumerable quantity of different providers in the field acting to a high degree autonomously determining most aspects of practice naturally results in a huge variety of ecec practice, regarding e.g., service centres´ values and religious/philosophical/political orientation, but also in opening hours and holiday closing times, pedagogical approaches and concepts and parents´ fees and many practical aspects more. parental choice as well as institutional choice are reflected in, owed to and backed by the two interwoven principles of welfare provision diversity and provider autonomy. when targeting ‘institutional choice’ in researching segregation in ecec, the issue of ecec distribution and capacity allocation in general and enrolment procedures in particular are to be looked at as part of the practice diverse ecec providers mold autonomously as well as from a general system make-up perspective. in the following section the general distribution principles are comprised in the schema ‘ecec distribution triangle’. the “ecec distribution triangle” figure 1: ecec distribution triangle actors in germany welfare services` distribution is organised as an interplay between three actors: the person entitled to a service, the legally responsible provider and the service providing organisation. this triangular interrelatedness is commonly referred to as the ‘welfare triangle’. in the sphere of social legislation it illustrates the legal relations between actors involved in provision, production, regulation, funding and use of social -, health, and other right based services. in ecec, figure 1 illustrates, the distribution of the service: the triangle includes the (potential) user (addressee) of the service (the entitled child), the legally responsible provider for ecec (the municipality) and the ecec provider. those three actors are interconnected by different and manyfold relations. person entitled to child care, legal provider, service provider the person entitled to child care, addressee and potential user of ecec service is the child. since 2013 every child aged one year or older has the right to child care (see above). because a child, though, is not in possession of neither the legal right nor capacity and ability to enrol or sign a contract. it is therefore legally represented by their parents who can claim the child´s right. while legal entitlement to ecec is granted by federal law and juridically specified on federal state level, implementation of the legal claim is assigned to the administrative level of a regional authority. that means that the municipality is the legally responsible provider of ecec. municipalities have to ensure, plan for and organise sufficient supply of ecec in the region. also, when municipalities lack sufficient person entitled to ecec [child/legal representative(s)] ecec provider [legal body/organisation operating ecec centre(s)] legally responsible provider [municipality] allowing for segregation in ecec? legal conditions, administrative… 185 supply and fail to provide a child with an adequate child care spot, the child´s legal representatives 10 are can file a distribution is law suit against the legally responsible provider: if, due to not returning to an employment because of the lack of ecec, they can claim compensation of their loss of earnings. ecec provider by definition is any legal organisation, certified forand assigned with the task of operating services providing early childhood education and care. as mentioned above providers on the ecec market in germany are either private non-profit, public or private for-profit organisations the relations between child, child care provider and legally responsible provider: a bermuda triangle? figure 2: ecec distribution triangle relations (source: own) the (legal) relations between actors in this triangle are – in particular for parents – rather confusing and often referred to as ‘rather opaque’. some authors pin point that; kunkel even compared the welfare triangle with the proverbial bermuda triangle, suggesting it was possible to get lost in it (kunkel, 2008). in particular for parents of a child entitled to child care who wish to use ecec services, it might appear opaque as to whom to reach out to: the legally responsible provider or an ecec provider or one or more child care centres? ecec provider – legally responsible provider the municipality has to ensure a sufficient ecec system in the region. calculations regarding birth rates, rates of use, ecec supply capacity and their forecasted developments youth welfare planning is undertaken on a yearly basis. plans include the development of ecec capacities. based on youth welfare planning municipalities conduct service contracts with approved ecec providers; those contracts comprise issues such as ecec aim and quality of the service and financial compensation for the service. ecec providers supply ecec service according to the covenant – regarding capacity as well as according to quality standards etc. usually, the covenants entail agreements about regular reports of numbers and names of enrolled children; the latter is the basis for financial compensation proceedings from the municipality. legally responsible provider – legal representatives parents who wish to use ecec service for their child have to register their demand first and foremost with the legally responsible provider. this is the necessary legal step in order to ensure the child´s formal right can be implemented and the child can – so to speak – enter the ecec system at all. the legally responsible provider therefore has to inform parents (sufficiently) about ecec in the region. should parents – on their own not be able to find a child care centre they wish their child to attend, the _____________ 10 most commonly the legal representatives of a child are their legal guardians who most commonly are referred to as parents. all three terms are used synonymously in the following. person entitled to ecec [child/legal representative(s)] ecec provider [legal body/organisation operating ecec centre(s)] legally responsible provider [municipality] information consultation demand registration information demand registration conduct of care contract negotiation of supply & conditions according to standards conduct of service contract gesine nebe 186 municipality is to assist them. should parents after all not be successful in finding a service that would enrol their child and, hence, are not offered an ecec spot for their child, parents can file a lawsuit. legal representatives – ecec provider parents in search for ecec can approach service centres in their region, making contact, gathering information that will help to select a service centre supplying a service meeting their family´s needs. most service centres and/or ecec providers document prospective users’ information; therefore, parents register their demand with the centre, handing in a registration form made available by the service provider. once parents succeeded in finding an ecec centre suitable to their child´s and the family´s needs and the desired service centre offers them an ecec spot, enrolment procedures will be finalised by conducting a service contract with the legal body operating the service centre. the contracting parties therein agree on the admission date, rights and obligations of the contracting parties and the quality of the particular service provided for by the centre. allowing for choice and selection: ecec allocation principles ensuring sufficient ecec provision in the region is assigned to the municipality. the latter organises and plans a system corresponding with the region´s residents` needs regarding capacity and quality. whereas the municipality alone has to make sure that there are enough child care spots available for every child, the allocation of child care spots is decentrally organised and in principle and legally ‘out of municipality´s hand’. this is reasonable and easily understandable: legally, the municipality is not in a position to decide who an ecec provider conducts a service contract with. since a care contract is conducted between parents and an ecec provider, both parties are free to decide whether or not they agree on the contractual object and resulting rights and obligations. both potential parties – parents as well as ecec providers are, as a matter of principle, free to choose each other. clearly, choice and selection are principles of ecec allocation in germany. a funcion of the latter, it is in general sole and autonomous responsibility of the ecec providers to make up allocation procedures: from designing forms and/or lists for demand registration, management processes regarding prospective service users, and determining key dates through to shaping processes for enrolment decision making and contract conduct. needless to say: all those procedures have to meet legal standards and, furthermore: design and conduct of those procedures desirably have to be in accordance with the common sense of justice. discussion: ecec allocation and enrolment procedures-a tryptich in the following three sections research findings regarding child care allocation/enrolment will be presented and discussed. a picture of enrolment procedures and allocation proceedings will be drawn, which organises research results and their discussion as condensed and focused as possible in three segments: research results will be presented and discussed focusing on the three relevant actor levels – municipality, provider, centre management. as a result readers are presented with a research result tryptich. enrolment tryptich, part 1: steering (almost) impossible? – the municipal level interviews with municipal staff in general revealed tensions between the legal responsibility for child care provision and providers´ autonomy. as interviews were conducted in 2020 and 2021 urgent lawsuits regarding child care provision were still an issue. after the universal entitlement to child care was enforced in august 2013 some municipalities faced a flood of lawsuits filed. in particular big cities had to deal with being charged (collins, 2017; deutschlandfunk, 2013; gröger, 2014; staeubert, 2018) by parents who claimed the legal provider of child care had not supplied them with adequate child care spots in time. as a result of those lawsuits municipalities in germany were sentenced to compensate parents´ loss of earnings (kaufmann, 2016); high debits on fiscal accounts then, were to be managed. for municipalities child care distribution can indeed, be a most critical issue; one municipality´s staff reported tensions and allowing for segregation in ecec? legal conditions, administrative… 187 tasks resulting from many cases of parents charging the municipality; the other three municipalities´ staff referred to the possibility of being charged. ensuring “sufficient” provision and efficient capacity allocation basically, since the implementation of the right to child care, for municipalities the task of ensuring sufficient provision partly has become a matter of preventing lawsuits. municipalities, hence, not only substantially promote non-profit and for-profit providers in their expansion efforts. besides, many municipalities expanded the numbers of centres under their own management in order to make child care demand and child care supply meet. furthermore, local authorities identified the need to ensure that already existing child care capacities are managed more efficiently. so, vacant child care spots were to be allocated as soon as possible which led municipalities across germany to developing and implementing software. most municipalities have therefore launched websites, so-called child care portals, in recent years (nebe, 2021, 2022). for municipalities those portals are a tool for bringing together parents and child care centres, and moreover a tool for keeping track of the demand for child care and of free capacities. in general, the need to map the child care capacity occupation status across the municipality and to keep this ‘map’ up-to-date, was emphasized as an important tool for better and more efficient administration and planning (nebe, 2022). so, by making parents use the portal for mandatory demand registration with the legally responsible provider (indicating name, birth date, occupation address of their child and the date they wish to start using ece) and by assigning ecec providers not only to keep their centres´ profiles on the website up-to-date but more importantly, to report vacant spots in the service, municipalities can accomplish a good overview over demand and supply. mostly, portals include the possibility for parents to register their priorities for certain service centres; if they use this function their demand is forwarded to the centres. for municipalities it is most important, as was stated by interviewees, to gain a good overview over supply and demand because that is the essential basis for the endeavour of ensuring sufficient ecec provision. (no) control over capacity allocation? – steering impossible? however, relying on software or not, for municipalities any direct influence on the actual allocation of child care capacities is not at hand, as interviewees stated. interviews revealed that local authorities partly seem to struggle with providers´ autonomy regarding capacity allocation as it is referred to as significantly limiting the municipalities´ steering opportunities. while this is referred to as a given, steering ideas seem to be linked with somewhat directly taking action so, interviewees at municipal level generally linked their opportunities for steering to the degree of being able to dispose child care capacities according to the responsible providers´ agenda or need. the role of public provision is especially intriguing, as the municipality in its double-role as legal provider of ecec and provider operating services seems to entail options to ‘convince’ centre managers to take in children when particularly needed from the ‘municipality´s-as-legal-provider’-perspective. it was expressed that while the public provider of course was granted provider autonomy and hence were to decide freely, and yet, as one interviewee said public ecec centres “belong to us” and hence, could be made liable to a certain extent. nevertheless, regarding group composition in certain child care centres, municipal staff made the point that that was an issue they were not at all in control of. one municipality´s (big city/west) manager for child care quality for example, pointed out that she knew of two centres operated by the same provider, both centres homogenous in clientele. according to the interviewee one centre was almost exclusively attended by children from families with high social status, the other one by children coming from families with very low social status and migrant background. the interviewee said that from her perspective this was of course undesirable and yet, it was something she (respectively the municipality) could not control or influence due to the child care provider´s autonomy. municipalities’ staff, however, expressed different perceptions of the relation between providers/child care centres and the municipality regarding ecec capacity allocation and, in particular of options to influence child care spot allocation processes. whereas in one municipality staff declined any possibility of influencing providers in their enrolment decisions, staff in another municipality claimed to “at least have a say” in centre composition. the latter emphasizing gesine nebe 188 that when staff found that the composition of clientele was disadvantageous/too homogenous they would contact centre managers and/or provider managers in order to stipulate amendments enrolment procedures and decisions. in general, municipalities´ staff´s ideas regarding steering of ecec capacity allocation seemed restricted to the potential of actually enrolling or influencing enrolment of children in certain service centres, directly determining clientele composition. the tenor of all six interviews was ambiguous and rather negatively toned regarding municipalities` position in ecec capacity allocation. interviewees reviewed the municipalities´ position rather weak and discussed it critically. particularly when they reported lawsuits filed or impended by parents, the ‘municipality´s weakness’ issue surfaced: being made legally responsible for supplying sufficient ecec, then, seems to be looked upon as contradictious to not having control over capacity allocation. enrolment tryptich, part 2: “we are not the ones to favour anyone; we mustn’t do that and we don’t do that!” – the provider level in this section some of the facets of child care allocation will be presented as they emerged in particular from interviews with service provider managers and supplement document analysis. data reveals on the one hand, that child care allocation procedures are (only) one of many issues providers have to tackle – and especially among the search for staff (there is an overall lack in workforce in the field in germany), funding and contract issues it is referred to as ‘not the most urgent one’. it showed that, to providers, the enrolment procedures are perhaps predominantly an instrument for taking good care of capacity utilisation leading to balanced finances. furthermore, the variety of enrolment procedures reflects the plurality of providers. – in general, every provider and sometimes even each centre operated by the same provider seems to implement their very own procedures. to some provider managers enrolment procedures were an issue important which they willingly discussed with the researcher and to some it seemed an issue unnecessary to discuss at all. some facets of enrolment practice will be carved out focusing on enrolling children under conditions of excess demand, responsibility for the process, the ‘paper work’ and personal encounters involved and lastly, idea of group composition. enrolling children under conditions of excess demand overall, providers emphasised that at the moment any enrolment still is done under conditions of excess demand. thus, providers stated that they usually have (a lot more) registered children wishing to be enrolled than they have actual spots to distribute. understandably, since the balance of finances is at the forefront of providers´ attention and the latter is linked to the degree of capacity utilisation, providers find themselves in a rather comfortable situation: they know, that technically speaking competition lies in the field of consumers, not of the suppliers. enrolment for providers, from that point of view appears a rather easy task. responsibility spheres clearly, ecec providers in principle uphold their autonomy; interviewees insisted that the allocation of ecec spots was an issue of their concern only, rejecting the possibility of the municipality interfering with enrolment decisions. at the same time, though, providers mentioned that regarding municipalities´ pressing cases (e.g., parents claiming urgent demand for child care) collaborative relations between municipality and providers made way for making capacities ad hoc accessible, if needed and if there were vacant spots. so, for one responsibility for ecec allocation was certainly claimed by providers; nevertheless, granting municipalities´ requests as gestures of goodwill. besides that, data revealed a great variety to whether taking responsibility for providers was a matter of actually practically getting involved in ecec allocation or whether responsibility was delegated down to centre manage level: while some providers leave enrolment entirely up to the centre managers, others take it into their sphere e.g., by structuring enrolment procedures, suggesting processes, bindingly implementing the use of forms, lists or enrolment management software. none of the providers in our sample tackled the task of enrolling children in their centres centrally or without at least consulting the allowing for segregation in ecec? legal conditions, administrative… 189 centre managers. delegating responsibility for enrolment procedures and to the sphere of responsibility of centre managers seems most common. data also reveals that providers express great trust in the centre management’s capability to best ensure that enrolment procedures go smoothly with the effect of balanced capacity utilisation and also of smooth routines regarding the organisation of familiarisation phases for incoming children etc. all the same, some providers expressed it was their task to make sure that enrolment procedures do not get too time-consuming and hence it was up to them to work out effective and efficient procedures. one provider for example emphasized it had been necessary to implement new application forms and enrolment processes in the centres in order to reduce the vast amount of time centre managers spent organising and managing enrolment processes. also, the same provider claimed, it was indispensable to make the whole enrolment process transparent for parents, making sure that even under conditions of excess demand, all parents – even those whose children could not be taken in at a certain date – were content with the process as such. he said, he made sure that descriptions of the enrolment procedures, forms and processings were made public by centre managers as well as on the provider´s website. before making the process ‘less tenuous’, as he called it, it had sometimes happened that long waiting lists and the way these were managed, became issues of discussion among parents and even reason for complaint. (some parents felt they had registered their demand before someone else who, however, was enrolled before them.) demand registration: personal contact and/or paper work whether enrolment procedure responsibility is actually and practically taken on by the provider level or whether it lies with the centre managers – enrolment as such is characterised by a variety of practices. including paper work as well as personal contact between parents and a certain centre´s or the provider`s staff. regarding personal contact as part of enrolment practices most personal encounters happen between centre managers and parents. it appears that the smaller the provider (that is: the lesser centres it operates) the more probable it is that parents approach a provider manager in order to register their demand for child care. but interviewees reported that usually service staff is approached first. if parents do make contact to the provider level first, apparently, they will be informed about the different centres the provider operates and asked to make contact to centre managers. also, paper work is included in the enrolment procedures: it comprises notes, forms and lists of different kinds, serving different purposes. those purposes are on the one hand the registration of the parents’ demand and wish for institutional care for their child in the centre and information exchange between both parties on the other hand. the latter may comprise information brochures as well as websites the provider makes available for parents. those contain information about child care in general, about certain centres, their pedagogical approaches, their facilities and also, essential contact dates, such as telephone numbers, email addresses etc. websites operated by providers commonly also supply information about how to register ecec demand, which mostly is also presented either online or via a downloadable document. those documents are indeed rather interesting and present a fruitful source for further research; here only few issues shall be mentioned: ecec providers present forms to be used by parents in order to express their wish for child care either in one particular centre or in any centre operated by the provider. furthermore, what terms providers use to title those documents varies widely and comprise “request for a child care spot with provider […]”11, “registration notification for a child care spot in centre […] supplied for by provider […]”12 or “application for admission to child care “13 and others. those terms mentioned are just three examples out of a far greater variety to be found across germany. while this will not be discussed here, it proves fruitful to analyse those documents because they seem to represent different approaches to child care distribution: it can be assumed that it is far from trivial whether providers title those forms “application” or “demand registration”, “registration notification” or “request” because the _____________ 11 german original title: antrag auf einen platz in einer kindertageseinrichtung bei träger […] 12 german original title: voranmeldebogen für kinderbetreuung in der kindertagesstätte […] bei träger […] 13 german original title: bewerbung um aufnahme in kindertagesbetreuung gesine nebe 190 title as well as the information gathered with those forms can be assumed to reflect providers´ understanding of (their role in) child care allocation. regarding documents the information gathered varies widely, too. some providers only ask for essential information such as the child´s birth date, address and names of parents as well as the date parents wish to start using child care. others ask for a lot more, rather personal, information, such as the sex of the child, the number, age and sex of the child´s siblings, the family´s language, parents´ civil status and their education, religious confession, profession and employment status and more. all things considered, documents involved in enrolment appear to be at least signed off if not designed by providers; they are designed to serve the purpose of managing the enrolment process. according to providers´ freedom to decide on general practice issues, congruously there seem to be various approaches towards content and design, leading to various documents in place in the municipalities. as concerns documents, neither the amount of information gathered nor the question of how information is processed is negotiated or standardized across providers and centres in municipalities. centres operated by the same provider seem to tend to use the same documents and gather the same amount of information. as to differences between providers, the least to say is, that providers design their own documents. generally speaking, providers with strong links to churches (such as individual parish or agencies church administration unions) commonly include specification of the family´s religion while public providers and others don´t. apart from that there are no recognisable patterns regarding to which provider asks for which information. at least one share of ‘paper work’ is to be done utilizing so-called child-care portals (kita-portale). as mentioned above, those are operated in many municipalities across germany. providers apparently are obliged to use the municipalities’ portals; commonly this is agreed upon between providers and local authority as part of regular revisions of service contracts. so, mostly those portals have become part of the contracts between the legally responsible provider and the child care provider; municipalities intending to map child care options as well as to display and manage available child care capacities (see above). despite being obliged to utilization of the portals, the extent to which provider level and centre level make use and promote those portals varies widely (for further detail see: (nebe, 2022)). our data indicates that the implementation of those portals encountered resistance by providers, because of the latter claiming having to make use of portals interfered with their autonomy. a question of making just(ifiable) decisions at the moment not much is known about if and how the information gathered in those forms informs the actual admission or enrolment process. our data indicates that some information crucially and commonly informs enrolment decisions while other information is rather irrelevant in the process. however, what information about the child and the family leads to greater likelihood for parents to actually get a child care spot stays largely obscure. while at the core of discussion, the overall existence of ‘criteria lists at the provider level cannot be confirmed on the basis of the sample. only one – public provider in the sample mentioned guiding enrolment decisions by implementing a criteria list (see below). the provider managers interviewed were practically not very much involved in the actual decisionmaking processes regarding enrolment. still, they critiqued the ranking of children: for providers it seemed crucial to emphasize that all children entitled to ecec had the same right and chance to be enrolled; and thus, any discrimination – be it positive or negative – was to be prevented. the idea of favouring one family over another in general was rejected, stressing that it was any provider´s duty to be welcoming each and every child, whatever the family´s language, religion, social status etc. ambiguity, though, showed on the one hand when provider managers talked about the idea of ‘helping’ those in need, stressing that centre managers should always be able to prioritise for example children whose parents were attending training courses (professional or language) or children of single parents or children with special pedagogical needs over other children. ‘picking’ certain children and families for their services and hence, matching incoming children to the child care provider`s as well as centre´s concept or current clientele, was in principle condemned. at the same time, though, providers held it possible that some centre managers might actually pick and match allowing for segregation in ecec? legal conditions, administrative… 191 children to the centre. in particular, giving priority to children with siblings already attending the centre seemed reasonable and justifiable, as well as picking those children who for different reasons matched the existing group. for example, some providers second the idea of picking children according to their age or sex when the centre was organised in groups and a favoured group composition was to be balanced (e.g., resulting in just as many boys as girls in the group). having said that, one provider strictly condemned picking children because of their sex, stating that the idea of composing groups of just as many girls as boys as obsolete. th provider manager argued that centre managers should not at all intend to compose groups or centre clientele, relying on any information about the child or their family. the only viable information – from his point of view was to be the date of birth and the date of demand registration, because, in his opinion, it was up to the pedagogical staff´s pedagogical competence and professional ability to deal with more or less randomly composed groups. from experience the provider manager emphasised that in case there were more girls to be enrolled centre managers should not intend to favour (and enrol) boys over girls but to find professional ways of dealing with a group of girls. interestingly, one provider upheld the possibility to pick children. she said, she looked at enrolment as one way of shaping the work environment for pedagogical staff. so, in her opinion it was legit and plausible that centre managers should chose children and families in accordance with their ideas of ecec as well as their knowledge about the pedagogical team´s professional skills. back up and guide centre managers’ decision making against the background of short supply, providers – despite in principle rejecting the idea of favouring families over others, cherry picking children vindicate prioritising and ranking as a viable way for centre managers to deal with excess demand. apparently, good reasons respectively plausible justifications for enrolment decisions seem necessary. providers talked about the need for centre managers to work towards decisions they can fully support. as mentioned before, in particular favouring families in need over other families seems a ‘good’ reason for prioritising them. furthermore, it seems justifiable to prioritise employed parents who need to get back to their job over unemployed parents. cherry picking, on the other hand, was stated as not justifiable. providers seem to ‘work around’ the need to intricately justify enrolment decisions for example by relying on key dates only: a number of providers have implemented registration and enrolment procedures which are claimed to only take into account the date of demand registration in combination with the child´s birth date as relevant information. therefore, by implementing ‘first come, first serve’ manner-procedures seem to be deemed to lift the ‘enrolment decision weight’ off centre managers´ shoulders. at the same time, it objectifies decisions, making them rather easy and indisputable. those enrolment decisions are considered just because they are – in principle – made without regard to person (child/family). enrolment tryptich, part 3: “it is a challenge, this whole place allocation process” – the centre management level in this section some of the dimensions that characterise child care allocation practice will be presented as they emerged from analysing data regarding the centre management level. data indicates: enrolment of new children/families and all the tasks involved seem to make up a big part of the centre managers’ job. it appears common in the field of ecec that responsibility for the actual enrolment processes is assigned to centre managers: according to the project´s data, centre managers tend to be the ones whom parents encounter for first centre contact, they are the ones who inform parents about enrolment proceedings in particular and about the centre in general, who manage, order and process registration forms and possibly continuously process wait lists, keeping an eye on the centres use of capacity. because they are the ones addressed by parents registering their demand for child care, they also most probably are the ones to inform parents about if and when their child can be taken in – or not. centre gesine nebe 192 managers, thus, are the ones finding themselves in positions having to justify enrolment decisions if necessary. demand registration: personal contact and/or paper work all in all, to the centre managers interviewed enrolment as such seemed a burden. all interviewees emphasised that in general the tasks linked to enrolment of children added up to a work load consuming a great share of their working hours. while most of them found it well worth the while, others stated they would not mind ‘outsourcing’ the task at all, if for example, any administrative work was in the provider´s sphere of responsibility. on the other hand, many centre managers in general seem to appreciate that being responsible for enrolment procedures also gives them the opportunity to get to know new families first. also, centre managers emphasized that to them it was a crucial as well as rewarding task which could not possibly be tackled centrally by the provider but had to be taken care of in the centre. some centres organise open-house-presentations regularly as one manager stressed, in order to save time by informing many families at once. other centre managers schedule one-on-one meetings with individual families, stressing that it was particularly good to get to know a family individually before they even handed in their registration. one ‘was able to get a feeling’ about the family and about what the family expects, one interviewee said. regarding registration forms, mostly forms provided for by providers seem to be in place. all the while some centre managers just put down names (of child and family), contact details, the child`s birth date as well as the requested date to start using child care. some centre managers organise those dates digitally, using self-made tables, software provided for by the provider organisation or individually constructed files and some make use of ring binders, notebook and pen. also, if the municipalities use an ecec portal and this website included the possibility for parents to register their demand for ecec spots in certain centres, this request is automatically forwarded to the centres. in those cases, centre managers (can) make use of this digital function and accept or reject requests, invite parents for one-on-one-meetings etc. if and how individual information about the child enters wait lists – if the latter exist at all seems to vary widely, too. some centre managers document each incoming registration in one file, others just file all the registration forms in a binder. just as interesting is, what information is targeted in those documents: data indicates that a multitude (!) of information is potentially gathered. what information exactly is collected from parents ahead of the enrolment decision making varies widely (see section ‘paper work’/provider level above); it may – among information such as name, birth date, occupation address of the child as well as name, birth date, address and telephone numbers of their legal guardians. furthermore, the documents ask for information such as the preferred date to start service attendance and hours of care required per day. besides, parents could be asked to specify information about the child´s sex, their siblings, the family`s language, nationality, their religious confession. also, some of the documents ask for information about the parents´ education and employment status of parents etc. as mentioned before, there are no recognisable patterns as to what information is asked by what kind of provider or by which ecec centre. processing information about the child and their family – making decisions in general, the practical starting point of enrolment proceedings on the centre management´s side is the ascertainment of vacant child care spots. the actual opportunity to enrol new children occurs regularly when children enter school. so, how many children are about to leave the centre makes centre managers start working on enrolment ahead of that date. furthermore, children might be leaving the centre due to the family moving house or any other reason. when ecec spots are (going to be) vacant, centre managers spring into action: then forms will be checked and information about the children will be processed. taking into account, that – as interviewees put it – many child care spots can be ‘given to sibling-children’ (that is, families who already have a child attending the centre gain ecec for their next child) and hence, calculatively many theoretically vacant spots are excluded from that, there will be vacant spots and management will have to decide whom to give allowing for segregation in ecec? legal conditions, administrative… 193 those to. then, folders will be opened, registration forms or wait lists will be checked and more information about other children and their families will be proceeded. rigid criteria or criteria lists don’t seem to be in place. but instead, the information about different children will be weighed up against one another in situ, resulting in decisions about who will be offered a spot. as a result, the centre manager will have reduced the number of prospective users registered to a number of families who will be offered a spot. the centre manager, then, will get in touch with those families, asking, if they are still interested. some might already have succeeded in conducting a service contract with another centres, but those still wanting their child to attend the centre in question will be invited to a one-on-one meeting to conduct the contract. enrolment procedures generally, seem to be based on principles rather than firm (or even rigid) systematically worked out decision-making-criteria. one of the few principles is the dictum to always enrol ‘sibling children’ first, another, to have an eye on the urgent need single parents or persons in training courses might have. and in addition, parents who need to return to their job after parental leave seem to be prioritised. also, all providers in the sample said they would always try to ‘make room’ for ‘social-workcase-children’. furthermore, there is indication that church operated centres do prioritise parish members, but this does not seem to be generally the case. priority, however, is given to children of company employees in company-operated centres – and the same sometimes is the case with priority regarding municipality employees in public ecec centres and church (charity) employees in centres operated by church. when processing information in order to guide enrolment decisions it seems that age as well as the sex were information quite commonly made relevant, too. also, some centre managers stated they were trying to balance capacity utilisation well, which to some deciders meant that whether or not parents were entitled to all-day-ecec because that was relevant regarding finances. this, though, does not seem to result in some deciders generally rejecting children entitled to only half-day ecec but if balances got troublesome, this information could possibly be made relevant in the decision, too. at large, research revealed that very different facts known about the child and the family are being weighed up against each other. findings point to the application of prioritising procedures in the decisionmaking process. but those are mostly not systematically and consistently or rigidly applied. enrolment procedures, from a general perspective, could best be considered ‘in-situ-information-processing-andbalancing decision making’ rather than ‘criteria-based systematic decision making’. data indicates that centre managers develop their own individual, yet, usual and common paths towards enrolment. hence, in each service centre there seems to exist a somewhat common enrolment procedure. but even then, decisions can be made, leaving the beaten paths of decision making completely. a question of making just(ifiable) decisions? while data does not reveal how exactly and to what extent the decision-making process regarding enrolment of children includes which information about a child and their family, the centre managers seem to have a great interest in making decisions that are justifiable and acceptable – for themselves, team members, the provider and last but not least at all the parents. rigid criteria lists seem to be rare; centre managers rather reject the idea of using those. yet, there is information that is elevated to the status of decision criteria: age and sex of the child is such information, for example. both are relevant for those managers aiming at certain ideas of group composition – e.g., balanced quota of girls and boys, mixed age groups etc. so, including both characteristics of children into decision making seems justifiable according to the centre´s pedagogical conceptions. furthermore, the registration date is justifiable firstly, because universal entitlement to ecec grants every child whose legal representatives register demand ecec; so, demand must be met by supply and no child should have to wait for ecec. the interviews indicate that, the longer a family´s demand had been registered, potentially the more probable their admission became. also, children of single parents, in particular single mothers were likely to be taken in prior to children living with both parents. this seems to be justifiable due to the idea that – if parenthood is not shared, one parent should be relieved from some work load regarding the upbringing of a child alone. furthermore, children whose parents were studying, were in vocational training or were assigned to attend language or gesine nebe 194 further education courses were mentioned to be potentially prioritised. this is justifiable on the background of future family income prospects. children whose siblings already attended child care in the centre are clearly ranked higher than other children; the reasoning behind that is given in the intent to help families organise their daily routines, in particular by helping keeping daily travel times low. besides, from centre perspective the familiarisation process for children was mentioned to be easier if siblings already attend the day care centre. so, when information about siblings is elevated to the status of a decision criterion, it is justifiable, too. also, the distance between the child’s permanent residence and the child care centre was described as relevant and potentially decisive information: children living closer to the centre were said to be prioritised, because for one, ecec should promote neighbourhood networks and also, because parents who have to travel larger distances everyday must be expected to try and find ecec for their child closer to their home – and hence, they would potentially leave the centre. the latter, then, from centre perspective would result in avoidable extra effort (having to enrol a new child). aside from that, apparently information about a family´s language or migrant back ground, the child´s physical handicaps, parents´ attitude towards the centre´s pedagogical concept or the provider´s profile was mentioned to potentially to lead to either enrolling or to not-enrolling children for the very reason. justifications regarding the inclusion of such information as relevant were manifold, sometimes contradictory. for example, one manager stated that sometimes it was reasonable to reject a child when it was clear there were neither staff members nor children going to be able to speak the child´s and their family´s language. so, she said, in the best interest of the child, it was the best decision not to take that child in. another manager, in contradiction, mentioned that she had in the past taken in a child because neither the child nor the family were able to speak german and she was certain that child and parents would be able to learn the language faster when using the child care service. so, when applying an open information-weighing-decision-making process for enrolment in ecec, as done by our interviewees and as it seems by many decision makers, the crucial point with weighing information in situ is that it is almost impossible to be objectified and to be made transparent. it is, in principle, left open as to how exactly information is being weighed. as the example showed: whether or not a child speaking another language than the majority of children and staff in the centre do is being enrolled depends on the deciders assessment of the current situation, regarding the child, the group of children already attending the centre, staff members´ pedagogical approaches and professional abilities, spatial and facility preconditions and also to a certain degree the provider organisations rationales. findings indicate, that enrolment decision making is a highly individual centre-based task. it is commonly routinely tackled by centre managers who, in general, do look upon enrolment as rather challenging: one centre manager summarised: “one really has difficulties to do a good job [here]. yes, it is a challenge, this whole allocation process.” conclusion: do legal conditions and administrative structures allow for segregation in ecec? germany has a complex and extensive system of right based, universal provision of ecec which in general is designed to supply high quality ecec for every child. some authors and certainly most politicians have (had) high hopes for enhancing equality especially with regards to the implementation of universal access to ecec. the entitlement to ecec may at last “level the field” for all children (cornelissen et al., 2018; havnes & mogstad, 2015), some emphasized. it turns out, though, there are still access barriers to be found (klinkhammer & erhard, 2018): while in principle all children equally enter the system (groos et al., 2020; klinkhammer & riedel, 2018), those children who do enter are not equally distributed across services (hogrebe, 2016a; hogrebe, mierendorff et al., 2021; hogrebe, pomykaj et al., 2021). instead, substantial segregation shows. so, the field appears not as levelled as hoped for. the question, this article pursued, is what practices, legal conditions and administrative structures make segregation possible. light was shed on the overall legal and governmental make-up of the ecec system in germany, administrative structures resulting from relations between the three actors allowing for segregation in ecec? legal conditions, administrative… 195 child/parents, ecec provider and municipality. and, most notably, an empirically based, threefold picture of enrolment was presented. apparently, despite being legally responsible for ecec, having to make sure every child entitled to ecec is supplied with an ecec spot and also despite taking the biggest share of funding, municipalities´ options for steering the distribution flow of children towards ecec provision are more than limited. most members of municipality staff rejected having any option to steer where children from different backgrounds are taken in. as could be shown by presenting the ‘ecec distribution triangle’, this is due to administrative structures resulting from the common distribution principle of welfare in germany. municipalities are, indeed, neither more nor less than the authority promoting and ensuring sufficient provision in the region. hence, providers as legal bodies conducting the care contracts with parents, are the ones in control of the question who is enrolled – and who is not enrolled. at the same time, providers uphold their right to autonomy, including the right to select their service users. according to our data, providers tend to delegate the actual responsibility for enrolment down to centre managers, granting them latitude in framing procedures. provider management levels do, in different degrees, supply centre managers with general guidance regarding enrolment procedures, papers, lists etc. the picture of enrolment on centre level, then, is a most complex and variational one. apparently, centre managers take the responsibility for user recruitment very seriously. their scope for action regarding decision-making is big. the option to select prospective service users is fleshed out according to key dates and guidelines by the provider (if those exist). there apparently, are no standard enrolment procedures nor standards for criteria to include in enrolment decision-making processes. instead, decision-making is fleshed out in consideration of parameters such as the child or family´s assumed need, the pedagogical staff´s competences, the existing clientele composition in the centre or in certain groups, personal and professional attitudes of team members and provider organisation, the centre´s facilities, etc. enrolment decision-making routines are, above all, practices carrying an individual imprint – by the person carrying it out, the centre – its clientele, staff, pedagogical approach, history, neighbourhood etc. enrolment, in that sense however, appears neither arbitrary nor should it therefore be looked upon as an incident of intentional and systematic discrimination or unilateral preference on the centre managers´ or providers´ side. instead, it is a highly individualised procedure, due to the freedom to shape practice under given conditions and structures. as was shown, legal conditions grant providers autonomy and latitude in molding provision. in combination with administrative structures that limit municipal options for steering – the make-up of the ecec system lays the ground work for distribution flows potentially channelling children towards centres in ways that potentially result in homogenous clienteles in centres. in other words: legal conditions and administrative structures leave actors on the provider side (provider management and centre management) with the freedom to choose service users – and they, indeed, do use those options. some providers as well as centre managers look at that choice as a duty (c.f. ramos-lobato & gross, 2019), while others find it rewarding. above all, we can see: legal conditions and administrative structures allow for different and heterogenous approaches to enrolment procedures – on provider, centre management and individual level. interviewees are well aware of the potential segregating effect different enrolment procedures can have and yet, none of the interviewees tended to challenge procedures systematically addressing segregation. when we keep in mind that providers shape practice they substantially determine the conditions that shape the working conditions for staff as well as the learning conditions for children (peucker et al., 2017; scholz et al., 2019), it might neither be strange that enrolment procedures are fleshed out so individually nor that providers and centre managers take advantage of the granted autonomy and freedom. it might appear, though, strange that neither of the actors involved in ecec distribution tend to enrolment systematically so far. in the opening section i cited musa okwonga who said “it is a system that first strikes me as strange, and eventually as utterly unfair..." (okwonga, 2021, p. 28). concluding i would gesine nebe 196 like to ask: ‘is the child care distribution system unfair or is it strange, even?’ – in light of the research presented the answer would have to be indecisively ‘yes and no’: yes, legal structures and administrative structures indeed allow for practices that can result in segregated child care centres. but, no, the ecec system in germany is neither strange nor unfair as it is because it certainly does not compellingly shape enrolment practices leading to segregation at all. furthermore, as to the decision-making process on the provider and centre management level, accountability of enrolment decisions is currently oriented on maintaining functioning child care centres. when in a position of having to select children, there is, indeed then, a possibility and probability of weighing characteristics of children and their family against one another. desirable, then, seems composing a clientele that is ‘manageable’ for the staff and in general, promoting smooth operations and daily routines. following frankenberg ( 2016) i would therefore state, that segregated ecec at the moment “happens” more than it is intentionally fabricated by individual (centres or providers). and, by the same token, as diverse ecec is not something that will just “happen” (frankenberg, 2016, p. 21) but instead needs “efforts to create and sustain” (ibid.), some efforts need to be made. while segregation is in principle unintended and unwanted, enrolment practice does not account for de-segregation just yet. hence, municipalities should join efforts with ecec providers and centre managers in the endeavour to design child care allocation procedures that promotes equal distribution and inclusive ecec in the territorial community. due to legal conditions and administrative structures, only in a joint and voluntary effort providers and municipalities could negotiate and attain binding enrolment principles across all ecec services in the community. having said that, while steering, understood as controlling distribution flows, is not at stake for the municipality level, it is quite possible for the latter to initiate negotiations accordingly. municipalities, in addition, should closely examine possibilities of obliging providers to join in that endeavour: if enrolment procedures were defined as part of provision quality, they could even become object of the regular negotiations between the municipality and the providers in the community. one of the most important issues that would need to be addressed, in my opinion, are: the (amount) of information that is gathered about the child and their family and what information is to be made relevant in the actual enrolment decision process. – why would every provider and potentially every centre design their own demand registration lists, collecting a vast amount of information about the child and their family? would it not be more appropriate to standardise those guided by privacy as well as antidiscrimination policies and law? regarding the information gathered, negotiators should revise documents and forms used and examine, what information is gathered, what information is actually needed. as drange and telle (2021) indicated, tending to enrolment procedures applied by institutions may not entirely prevent segregation; even in a system relying on strong regulations, parental choice seemingly promotes segregation. hence, it is important to relate findings regarding segregating effects of parental choice to findings about institutional choice in order to negotiate and decide on regulations and guidelines for fair and just enrolment. the answer to the question posed, therefore would have to be, that legal conditions and administrative structures do indeed allow for enrolment practices making use of the freedom to ‘institutional choice’ in the ecec system which in result potentially leads to segregation. but it does not, in principle, allow for segregation. because in principle in the german welfare state any institutional choice needs to be accountable and with respect to issues of equality, diversity and anti-discrimination. hence: research presented here accumulates in the call for providers and municipalities in germany to design enrolment procedures that foster accountable choice, following the goal to “create and sustain” (frankenberg, 2016; frankenberg & piazza, 2019) diverse ecec. due to highly diverse provision as well as the subsidiarity principle the ways in which this can be achieved are per se diverse. municipalities and providers, hence, can and need to design eligible procedures appropriate to the regions´ exigencies. crucially, the task would be to collaboratively revise procedures in place and sensibly designe new procedures that prevent segregation. needless to say that those procedures should be based on a negotiated agreement – and be implemented as binding for all. allowing for segregation in ecec? legal conditions, administrative… 197 declarations authors’ declarations acknowledgements: i want to acknowledge and thank prof. dr. nina hogrebe and stefan schulder, m.a. (subproject set:id) and prof. dr. johanna mierendorff (set:oha) for stipulating discussions and collaboration. invaluable was – in addition – the work of marie linde and roman jaworsky, both student research assistants actively engaged in the research process. authors’ contributions: all research included in this article is made by the author. competing interests: the author declares that she has no competing interests. funding: the research was made possible by the federal ministry of education and research in germany. project funding was granted according to the subsidy guideline (2017) titled “quality development for good education in early childhood”. funding duration: 01/2019-06/2022. ethics approval and consent to participate: all interviewees were adults who were informed about the aim and method of the research both ahead of the interview (in a letter/email) as well as verbally (before the interview started). all interviewees gave their consent to audio recording and transcription of the interview. the transcripts are anonymized. all data is stored and handled dataprotection-complient, according to the martin-luther-university´s guidelines. all research was conducted according to the code of ethics of the german society for educational science. publisher’s declarations editorial acknowledgement: the editorial process of this article was carried out by dr. mehmet toran. publisher’s note: journal of childhood, education & society remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliation. references apa. 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(2015b). qualtiy ecec for all: why we can’t afford not to invest in it. in e. shaker (ed.), moving beyond baby steps: building a child care plan for today’s families (vol. 24, pp. 171–182). canadian centre for policy alternatives. allowing for segregation in ecec? legal conditions, administrative structures and enrolment practice in germany segregation in ecec in germany data analysis the universal right to child care funding, governance, responsibilities: the “multi-level structure” diversity/plurality8f & subsidiarity: two principles shaping child care provision the “ecec distribution triangle” references journal of childhood, education & society volume 1, issue 2, 2020, pp. 87-102 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.20201234 research article ©2020 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. teachers' perceptions of integrating kindergarten and first-grade primary school language curricula zoi apostolou1, nektarios stellakis2 abstract: the purpose of this research paper is to investigate the perceptions of kindergarten teachers and first-grade primary school teachers on the integration of kindergarten and first-grade of primary school language curricula. this research is part of a broader study of the relation between natural/early and conventional/school literacy, the teachers' perceptions of the possibility of integration of language curricula, as well as practices resulting from the study of curricula. the data were collected through a questionnaire sample of 326 kindergarten teachers and 306 teachers who were teaching at the time of this study the first-grade of primary school in two greek prefectures. research data has shown that first-grade teachers appear to be more positive than kindergarten teachers towards integrating the two curricula. both kindergarten teachers and first-grade teachers seem to partially agree with the creation of a curriculum with common goals and objectives. nevertheless kindergarten teachers appear more hesitant, expressing their concerns and fears of a potential “schoolarization” of the kindergarten. article history received: 20 january 2020 accepted: 29 april 2020 keywords literacy; kindergarten; primary school; teachers’ perceptions; integration; curricula introduction in recent years, the issue of enhancing child literacy has been a growing concern for the international community. literacy has been shown to be linked to the subsequent school success or failure of the child and can therefore contribute in the end to social well-being, social justice and the development of democracy (united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization [unesco], 2005, 2007, 2015). according to the unesco (2004), literacy is defined as: the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate and compute, using printed and written materials associated with varying contexts. literacy involves a continuum of learning in enabling individuals to achieve their goals, to develop their knowledge and potential, and to participate fully in their community and wider society (p.21). interdisciplinary research in recent decades has greatly expanded the scope of mastering literacy, adding new data on children's familiarisation with literacy and leading to a revision of it, regarding how literacy is enhanced and how language is taught. research conducted internationally (see for example: heath, 2009; hindman and wasik, 2011; powell, diamond, bojczyk and gerdel, 2008; scull, nolan and raban, 2013; snow, burns and griffin, 1998; strickland and shanahan, 2004; zeegers, 2012; zhu, 2010) but also in greece (see for example: aidinis and grollios, 2007; giannikopoulou, 2001; kondyli and stellakis, 2006; papoulia-tzelepi, 2001; porpodas, 2002; tafa, 2001; xefteri, 2017) demonstrates that early language stimulation have great importance for reading development and children’s literacy learning occurs through actions that have a meaning for them and a clear purpose. various pedagogical, social, and psychological factors interact and influence learning to read and write, reflecting on the drafting of greek curricula, related school textbooks, and the theoretical and methodological approaches proposed by _____________ 1university of patras, department of educational science and early childhood education, division of social theory and analysis, greece, e-mail:apostolo@upatras.gr, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4359-397x 2 university of patras, department of educational science and early childhood education, division of social theory and analysis, greece, e-mail:nekstel@upatras.gr, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1934-8715 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.20201234 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4359-397x https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1934-8715 zoi apostolou & nektarios stellakis 88 them for kindergarten1 (4-6 years) and primary school2 (6-12 years). curricula set out the purposes and goals of education, the specific objectives, the fundamental pedagogical principles, the content, the methods of teaching and learning, the indicators of success and modes of assessment, the learning environment, school-family relationships and some complementary activities (alahiotis, 2002). in greece, for kindergarten (4-6 years old), cross-thematic curriculum framework for kindergarten (hereafter referred to as ctc) (ministry of education/pedagogical institute [moe/pi], 2002b) is the curriculum and preschool teacher’s guide (hereafter referred as ptg) (dafermou, koulouri and basagiannis, 2006)3 consist the basic tool for kindergarten teachers. for first-grade of primary school (6-7 years old), crossthematic curriculum framework for greek language of compolsury education 4 (moe/pi, 2002a) is the curriculum, teacher’s book for teaching language in first-grade 5 (moe/pi, 2008b) is the guideline book for teaching language at first-grade and student’s book for first-grade 6 (moe/pi, 2008a) is the textbook for the students. the study of the objectives of the greek curricula of the kindergarten and the first-grade of the primary school on the language module indicates reference to modern teaching approaches, such as the holistic approach, emergent literacy, the communicative approach and functional use of language. the conflict between traditional skills based approach, focusing on code understanding and the whole language approach that focuses on meaning has led to the adoption of a balanced / equilibree approach model (see for example: aidinis and nunes, 2001; comber and nichols, 2004; morris, 2015; pearson, raphael, benson and madda, 2007; pressley, 2002; xue and meisels, 2004) which tries to combine the best elements from other approaches. xue and meisels (2004, p.222) state that “in order to learn to read effectively, children _____________ 1 in greece, preschool education connected to primary education: law 1566/1985 stipulated that preschool education belong to primary education (children 6–12 years old); a great part of its operation follows the same legislative regulations that are in force for primary schools. specifically, early childhood education is provided in kindergartens, which operate independently or in centres together with state primary schools for children aged 4–6. since september 2007, under the provisions of law 3518/2006, the second year of childhood education is compulsory for young children who have completed their fifth year of age by 31st december of their enrollment year. most kindergartens are state-run, while the number of private ones is quite limited. since 1984, preschool teachers trained at university departments of education, a fact that has contributed to elevating the status of early childhood education (sofou and tsafos, 2009). 2 in greece, primary education lasts six years (6-12). children who turn six by december 31 can enroll in the first grade. attendance is obligatory. cross thematic curriculum framework for compulsory education (depps) organised into 6 levels, each of them corresponding to one (1) out of six (6) primary school grades. the teaching subjects of primary school are religious education, language, mathematics, history, study of the environment, geography, natural sciences, ict, e.t.c. modern greek language at firstgrade is teaching for 9 hours per week (european commission [ec], 2019). 3 the preschool ctc provides instructions for planning and developing activities in the following five school learning areas: language, mathematics, environment studies, creation and expression (through fine arts, drama, music, physical education) and computer science. according to the ctc, these learning areas not conceived as independent subjects for independent teaching. instead, the teachers consider these areas when planning and implementing meaningful and purposeful activities for the children. thus, 3 years after curriculum’s publication in the government journal in 2003, the moe/pi published a 431 page-long book, the preschool teacher’s guide (hereafter referred as ptg) (dafermou et al., 2006). the ptg contains theoretical and methodological support, guidelines on the teaching of the five learning areas described above and good practice examples of development and planning of activities. ptg included a separate chapter for literacy (sofou and tsafos, 2009). 4 in line with lifelong learning literacy theory, the aim of teaching greek language in primary school is to develop pupils’ abilities to communicate effectively in speech and writing, in order to participate confidently in school and public life (moe/pi, 2002a). to achieve this aim an eclectic approach to language is attempted, combining elements from different language theories on the basis of teaching and learning needs. the curicullum includes guiding principles (oral speech: speaking and listening, written speech: reading, written speech: handwriting and producing written discourse, literature, vocabulary, grammar, information management) and general goals for these principles (moe/pi, 2002a). 5 the teacher’s book for teaching language in first-grade contains texts and appropriate activities for the processing of these texts, which concern the main axes, as well as the categories of the teaching objectives of the curriculum of the language studies for the primary school (moe/pi, 2008b). 6 school textbooks have been elaborated based on national curricula, applicable to all subjects, grades and education levels. they are distributed free of charge to pupils across the country (ec, 2019). teachers' perceptions of integrating kindergarten… 89 need a balanced instructional approach that includes learning to break the code and engaging in meaningful reading and writing activities”. within this theoretical framework, the primary school language curriculum cannot ignore and underestimate the experiences and knowledge children have acquired in the family environment and in the kindergarten. school literacy is a continuation of the early / natural literacy (hasan, 2006; matsagouras, 2007), not only because it is subsequent, but because school literacy must be built on the basis of natural literacy, since natural and school literacy are not distinct stages but adjacent parts of a continuous (kondyli and stellakis, 2006). within the framework of adopting a balanced approach to literacy, an important supporting factor is the continuation of the culture, traditions and learning experiences that children experience both in kindergartens and in primary schools (broström, 2002; fabian and dunlop, 2006). in line with lifelong learning literacy theory (see for example: djonov, torr and stenglin, 2018; education, audiovisual and culture executive agency [eacea], 2011; hanemann, 2015, 2019; hanemann and krolak, 2017; kennedy et al., 2012; silva joyce and feez, 2016; unesco institute for lifelong [uil], 2010, 2017, 2018; unesco, 2005, 2007, 2015, 2017; xue and meisels, 2004) mastering literacy is an ongoing process and smooth transitions of students from one level to another can be greatly facilitated if educators from one grade, for example the pre-primary school, cooperate with those of the next grade, that is, the primary school, and vice versa (bredekamp and copple, 1997; o’sullivan, 2005). kindergarten teachers and firstgrade teachers must exchange curriculum information and modify it appropriately so that the curriculum can exhibit continuity, and children can continue their learning process and achieve greater future progress (department of education and early childhood development [deecd], 2009). only in such a framework of shared approaches, perceptions and practices can the pupils work and continuity not be interrupted (broström, 2002; deecd, 2009; eacea, 2011; fabian and dunlop, 2006; frank-oputu and oghenekohwo, 2017; hanemann, 2015, 2019; hanemann and krolak, 2017; neuman, snow and canizares, 2000; national institute of child health and human development early child care research network [nichd], 2005; o’sullivan, 2005; unesco, 2017; wasik, bond and hindman, 2006; world education forum [wef], 2000). according to the basic goal of ctc for kindergarten, preschool education in greece is an integral part of our educational system (dafermou et al., 2006; moe/pi, 2002b) and therefore, national planning of a structured transition from pre-primary to primary school seems more important than ever. therefore, the question arises of the need to integrate the two programs, kindergarten and first-grade, in particular as regards the language learning area. the adoption of a common pedagogical approach, common pedagogical and theoretical principles, objectives, content, teaching and learning methods, a comparable learning environment in the two curricula, delineate the concept of the integration of the two programs. serving common goals in the light of a balanced approach and enhancing natural literacy could help to remove the potential discontinuity between curricula. in this context, a successful balanced approach to literacy requires the teacher on one hand to combine approaches, methods and techniques to become more effective for his students and on the other hand to stay informed, to train and collaborate (hall, 2003). collaboration between kindergarten and primary school teachers is considered as one of the most important factor in confronting the difficulties of the transition (ackesjö, 2013; alatalo, meier and frank, 2017; broström, 2007; dockett and perry, 2007; karydis, 2014; o’sullivan, 2005; sivropoulou and vrinioti, 2009) as “the continuity” between the two educational institutions related directly with the development of normal transition (see for example: dunlop and fabian, 2002; zeegers, 2012; zhu, 2010). in greece, research focusing on the study of curricula and the perceptions of kindergarten teachers and first-grade primary school teachers on their teaching approaches, their collaboration and the transition is extremely limited. in particular, no research has been found in the greek area concerning the perceptions of kindergarten teachers and first-grade primary school teachers about the integration of the two programs, as well as their interrelations. this research gap, identified in international and greek literature, is what this paper seeks to address. zoi apostolou & nektarios stellakis 90 method the purpose of the study the purpose of this research is to study the perceptions of preschool and early primary school teachers on the relationship between early / primary and conventional / school literacy, and in particular on the feasibility of integrating the two curricula and how they believe that unification could contribute to the optimization of the language teaching approach at both levels or the reasons for their disagreement with such a unification. we are going to deal with the answer to the following research questions: (a) what are the teacher’s perceptions (agreement/disagreement) about the potential integration of the two curricula? (b) which are the reasons of their agreement/disagreement about the potential integration of the two curricula and how they believe that integration could optimize the approach to language teaching at both levels (what teachers think about young learner’s adjustment to primary school if there existed a common methodological approach to language teaching at both levels)? the methodology of the study the present research was conducted using a self-fulfilling electronic questionnaire (surveymonkey) (bryman, 2017; cohen and manion, 2008; creswell, 2016; iosifidis, 2003; robson, 2010). the self-administered questionnaire was organized in some study areas (knowledge of curricula, perceptions of the methodology of language teaching as suggested by the curricula, perceptions of the collaboration of kindergarten teachers and teachers of the first-grade of primary school, language teaching practices, perceptions of the unification of curricula) with closed and open-ended questions. these areas and questions were developed based on the theoretical framework of a broader research (a thesis). the questions were developed to answer the research questions of each axis. for the purposes of this paper, we will present the 8th axis of the questionnaire which examines the degree of agreement of teachers regarding the integration of the language curricula of kindergarten and first-grade or the first two grades of primary school. questions (according to the topic of this paper) included in the questionnaire were: (a) a closed-ended question: “do you agree or disagree with the integration of the language curriculum of the kindergarten and first-grade or the first two grades of the primary school?” (b) an open-ended question: "identify why (the reasons) do you agree or disagree with the integration of the two curricula of kindergarten and first-grade or the first two grades of primary school (1st part) and how you think integration could help optimize (or not) the approach to language teaching at both levels, or the reasons for your disagreement (2nd part)?" with the open-ended question, the respondents were asked to answer or comment on them in a way that they think best (cohen, manion and morrison, 2007, p.321) with the purpose of investigating and understanding in depth the stated agreement / disagreement. to process data, the techniques used were the quantitative for the closed-ended question and content analysis for the open-ended question. the collected research data from the closed-ended question were categorized into classification and tables and then coded and entered into the statistical program spss 25.0 (statistical package for the social sciences) for analysis with descriptive statistics (frequency distribution tables) (bryman, 2017; creswell, 2016) in two categories: (a) agreement with the unification of the language curriculum of the kindergarten and first-grade or the first two grades of the primary school. (b) disagreement with the unification of the language curriculum of the kindergarten and firstgrade or the first two grades of the primary school. teachers' perceptions of integrating kindergarten… 91 for the open-ended question (for both 1st and 2nd part) we used content analysis, with the content of the sentence/phrase as a unit of analysis (creswell, 2016) for the written text. the various units of analysis that were highlighted were classified in a specific category of analysis. sentences are taken as the units of analysis, which are according to their semantic meaning (koustourakis, 2014; neves and morais, 2001). the sentences were placed into one of the following 9 categories of analysis (for both 1st and 2nd part of open-ended question) that emerged from the objective and the theoretical framework of the specific research (table 1). the first five (1-5) categories of analysis concern the answers of those who seemed positive towards the integration, while the last four (6-9) concern those who seemed negative towards the integration of the two curricula. table 1. categories of content analysis for the open-ended question categories of content analysis 1. common goals of the two levels 2. common activities 3. teachers cooperation 4. smooth transition of students 5. continuation of the curriculum and teaching practices with distinct boundaries for each level 6. schoolarization of the pre-primary school 7. different growth rate 8. different teaching curricula 9. different curriculum goals in designing and conducting the research we have taken into account ethical issues and ethics, by requesting permission and consent from moe/pi (bryman, 2017; cohen and manion, 2008). the questionnaires were accompanied by a letter stating the purpose of the research, the value of participation, the anonymity of participants and that the results of the research will be informed. further, the collected information from each participant was assigned pseudonyms (numbers) as part of concealing participants’ identities. confidentiality was observed by assigning passwords to files of softcopy data, and unauthorized person had no access to the collected hard and softcopy data (bryman, 2017; cohen and manion, 2008). the sample of the study the study involved 632 teachers, 326 kindergarten teachers (greek kindergartens) and 306 teachers teaching the year of the process in the first-grade (greek primary schools) in the prefectures of achaia and ilia (the population was 488 kindergarten teachers and 380 first-grade teachers). the questionnaire was sent electronically (surveymonkey 7) to the entire population and the survey sample for those kindergaten teachers and first-grade teachers who responded to it (cohen and manion, 2008; creswell, 2016). however, the sample size and the geographical limitation of the survey did not allow us to generalize the results. there may be differences in their perceptions and practices from region to region. the findings of this research (although not generalizable) are representative of teachers' perceptions of the issue under consideration. nevertheless, we believe that the findings should not lose their relevance but should serve as a basis for further relevant investigations. in terms of gender, 243 (79.4%) teachers (table 2) are women and 63 (20.6%) are men, while 325 (99.7%) kindergarten teachers (table 3) are women. 85% of teachers and 88.3% of kindergarten teachers 8 have completed basic studies (university or pedagogical academy and simulation degree), while 15% of teachers and 11.7% of kindergarten teachers have additional studies (retraining and/or postgraduate and/or doctorate). teachers (88.2%) and kindergarten teachers (84%) hold permanent teaching positions. 43.1% of teachers have been teaching for 0-10 years, 30.4% for 11-20 years, while 26.5% for more than 20 years, whereas in cases of teachers of the same school, most have been teaching less than 10 years. _____________ 7 surveymonkey is an online survey software allows you to launch any kind of online survey project. 8it is worth noting that in greece, both kindergarten teachers and teachers of primary schools receive equivalent university education and there is a uniform pay for all teachers in the greek public sector. zoi apostolou & nektarios stellakis 92 regarding kindergarten teachers, 50.6% have been teaching for 0-10 years, 31.8% for 11-20 years and 17.6% for more than 20 years. 91.8% of teachers work in classical primary schools, with 48.7% of them located on the same premises as kindergartens. 244 (74.8%) kindergarten teachers work in two-grades kindergartens and 82 (25.2%) teach in small one-grade kindergartens in the two prefectures, with 151 (46.3%) being co-located with primary schools. 181 (59.2%) teachers and 182 (55.8%) kindergarten teachers work in urban schools, while 20% of teachers and kindergarten teachers work in semi-urban or rural schools (rural areas). table 2. individual characteristics of first-grade primary school teachers first-grade primary school teachers gender education years of service region of school co-located schools male female basic additional 0-10 11-20 >20 urban semi-urban rural yes no frequency 63 243 260 46 132 93 81 181 63 62 149 157 percentage 20,6 79,4 85 15 43,1 30,4 26,5 59,2 20,6 20,3 48,7 51,3 (ν) 306 table 3. individual characteristics of kindergarten teachers kindergarten teachers gender education years of service region of school co-located schools male female basic additional 0-10 11-20 >20 urban semi-urban rural yes no frequency 1 325 283 43 165 103 58 182 75 69 175 151 percentage 99,7 0,3 88,3 11,7 50,6 31,8 17,6 59,6 23,0 21.2 53,7 46,3 (ν) 326 in the following section the research results are presented and analyzed. results the presentation of the research findings, which refers to the quantitative and content analysis of the research material that emerged from the answers at the questionnaires with greek pre-primary and first-grade primary school teachers' in the the prefectures of achaia and ilia, takes place in accordance with the categories of analysis outlined above. results of closed-ended question: agreement and disagreement with the integration of the two curricula greek pre-primary and first-grade primary school teachers' perceptions on the integration of preprimary and first-grade language curricula appear to fall into two categories. on the one hand are those who (partially) agree with the integration, and on the other hand are those who strongly disagree. in particular, answering the closed-ended question “do you agree or disagree with the integtation of the language curriculum of the kindergarten and first-grade or the first two grades of the primary school?” 190 kindergarten teachers (58.3%) agree and 136 (41.7%) seem to disagree. 228 first-grade primary school teachers (74.5%) seemed to agree, while only 78 (25.5%) disagreed with integration (table 4). in fact, this differentiation between kindergarten teachers and teachers is statistically significant (cramer's v = 0.171, x2 = 18,560, df = 1, p <0.001). table 4. agreement and disagreement of first-grade teachers and kindergarten teachers “do you agree or disagree with the integration of the language curriculum of the kindergarten and first-grade or the first two grades of the primary school?” kindergarten teachers first-grade primary school teachers agree disagree agree disagree frequency 190 136 228 78 percentage 58,3 41,7 74,5 25,5 (ν) 306 326 kindergarten and first-grade teacher’s results of open-ended question (1st part): why agree or disagree with the integration of the two curiccula regarding the 1st part of open question "identify why (the reasons) do you agree or disagree with the teachers' perceptions of integrating kindergarten… 93 integration of the two curricula of kindergarten and first-grade or the first two grades of primary school", 142 (43.3%) of the kindergarten teachers and 75 (24,5%) of the first-grade primary school teachers answered, as they were optional. initially the responses were categorized (in line with the categoris presented in table 1) into agreement, disagreement with curriculum integration as well as some unclassified (table 5). table 5. the reasons for agreement or disagreement with the integration of curricula (a) "identify why (the reasons) do you agree or disagree with the integration of the two curricula" first-grade primary school teachers kindergarten teachers agree disagree unclassified agree disagree unclassified frequency 50 24 1 85 51 6 percentage 66,67 33,33 1,33 59,86 35,92 4,23 (ν) 75 142 next, in order to categorize the responses, their analysis was carried out based on categories that emerged from the answers themselves, which were re-sorted into the original agreement / disagreement categories. of the 142 (43.3%) kindergarten teachers that responded, 85 appeared to favor integration, while 51 when answering this optional open-ended question appeared to be opposed to integration of the curricula, expressing their fears and concerns. of the 75 (24.5%) first-grade primary school teachers who answered, 50 seem to be in favor of integration, while 24 appear to be opposed to integration of curricula. six of these responses provided by kindergarten teachers and one by a teacher did not fall into either of the two categories (table 6). they referred to the reasons of their aggrement (common goals, common activities, cooperation, smooth transition, continuity) or disagreement (schoolarization, different growth rate, diffeent curricula, different goals). their answers are presented in more details to the next part of results, as these are directly related to the findings of the 2nd part of the open-ended question and explain their agreement or disagreement. table 6 9. the reasons for agreement or disagreement with the integration of curricula (b) kindergarten teachers first-grade primary school teachers agree disagree agree disagree common goals (10) [8] schoolarization (40) [6] common goals (3) [13] schoolarization (9) [4] common activities (13) [9] different growth rate (3) [12] common activities (1) [5] different growth rate (11) [4] cooperation (9) [9] different curricula (3) [17] cooperation (10) [7] different curricula (3) [4] smooth transition (8) [13] different goals (5) [8] smooth transition (3) [4] different goals (1) [9] continuity (45) [1] continuity (33) [5] total 85 total 51 total 50 total 24 unclassified (6) unclassified (1) total 142 total 75 kindergarten teacher’s results of open-ended question (2nd part): how integration could (or not) optimize the approach to language teaching at both levels theacher’s answers to the 2nd part of the open question “how integration could (or not) optimize the approach to language teaching at both levels?” are presented below through some indicative responses of kindergarten teachers and first-grade primary school teachers. these answers categorized10 according to the ways they propose to optimize the language teaching approach on both levels, are presented below. kindergarten teachers who respond that integration could optimize the approach to language teaching at both levels (table 7), refer to: _____________ 9 next to each category is the number of replies categorized in it. in [ ] indicated the number of responses received in this category as the second, third or subsequent choice of respondents. 10 analysis categories for the 2nd part of the open-ended question are the same as those of the 1st part but these are presented here in more detail. zoi apostolou & nektarios stellakis 94 table 7. how the integration could optimize the approach language (kt) categories of content analysis for the second part of open-ended question (a) the existence of a common language curriculum and study guide, “continuity” of the lesson objectives, common goals, common language teaching hours and joint activities. (b) smooth transition of children from kindergarten to primary school through the adoption of a joint curriculum (the creation of a common framework) and joint language activities, interactive linguistic approaches that will arouse the interest of children on both levels, with separate boundaries for each grade, the joint organization of activities and the joint participation in school events. (c) collaboration, exchange of views by educators, expansion of knowledge, mutual support, (educational) continuation of teaching practices, joint seminars, mutual knowledge of both curricula, sequenced goal-setting, co-housing of kindergartens and primary schools for the purposes of cooperation and continuity. (d) support by both levels school counselors. these categories aim to a common approach of language for the two levels with some possible differentiations due to age variation. i̇n particular, the integration of the two curricula for kindergarten teachers mainly concerns the continuity (a) and smooth transition of children from kindergarten to primary school through the adoption of a joint curriculum and joint activities (b). characteristically a kindergarten teacher said: there should be a common curriculum (in some areas) of the kindergarten and the primary school as long as the toddler is not deprived of certain activities that only in the kindergarten there is the time and the appropriate climate to carry out. because there are some differences regarding the priorities of the kindergarten and those of a primary school (kt1)11, the integration of kindergarten and first-grade primary school curricula would provide a common practice in language teaching, reducing inconsistencies in the content but also in the methodology of language teaching (kt2). kindergarten teachers seem to place a great deal of emphasis on the playful nature of learning, stating: there must be collaboration between kindergarten teachers and first-grade teachers, and goals that will be analyzed by both sides, without the kindergarten becoming a “school grade”. play is dominant in kindergarten (kt3). the results of the integration of the two programs, according to the kindergarten teachers, would be particularly effective for the children (b): by integrating curricula, the children will learn from the beginning a common way of approaching language teaching and there will be no confusion in their transition from one grade to the next ", " in preschool, infants have the opportunity to consolidate linguistic concepts that lead to school success, so the teacher "builds" on what was constructed in the kindergarten (kt4). a kindergarten teacher also point to the effectiveness of integration for themselves (c): kindergarten teachers would be less pressured to systematically teach the alphabet by parents and teachers, and teachers would be less demanding (kt5). as far as teachers are concerned, the only references (a) made by kindergarten teachers concerning their work are the following: the primary school curriculum needs to be a continuation of kindergarten one. teachers need to know what children have achieved from kindergarten so they can continue and not start assuming that children have the same starting point (kt6). there is a clear reference to the need for primary school teachers to cooperate with kindergarten teachers (a and c) from a kindergarten teacher: i think that to some extent it is already integrated. i believe that it would be better for it to only apply to the kindergarten and first-grade of primary school because these two stages are when children are essentially introduced to literacy. it would ensure, on an official level, continuity between the two levels for the benefit of the students, without, of course, removing the need for cooperation between teachers. however, i consider the choice of a different methodology to meet the special needs of the preschoolers a precondition (kt7). kindergarten teachers referred to parents' expectations and concerns about language teaching (c), _____________ 11 kindergarten teachers will be marked with kt and primary school teachers with pt and a number for each of them. teachers' perceptions of integrating kindergarten… 95 which seem to affect their predisposition but also to some extent shape their work: creating a common framework and thus facilitating children's understanding of how it works, continuity between the two grades, reassuring parents that they will participate and understand the language goals (kt8). the following statement of a kindergarten teacher includes all of the above (a, b, c and d): on basic principles there could be set certain common goals to promote the building of language teaching, always taking into account the particularities of children’s age, through curricula that will not schoolarize the kindergarten, but will transfer to the first-grade of primary school elements of the kindergarten (mostly learning in a playful way), so that the transition from one grade to another is smooth and enjoyable for children. the adoption of common elements in curricula would enhance the smooth transition of children and would set more specific goals without leaving the implementation of any of the programs being carried out, to an opportunistic and nontestable application of it. i find it essential to integrate into individual goals, always prioritizing the smooth transition that will help children, also giving teachers the opportunity to continue the educational process, without thinking only of what the parents want and ask for (kt9). kindergarten teachers who disagree with integration (table 8) refer to: table 8. how the integration could not optimize the approach language (kt) categories of content analysis for the second part of open-ended question (a) the different developmental level, the different learning abilities of kindergarten children compared to primary school children. (b) the different approach to language teaching, the differentiation between the goals of the curricula and the working methods for the kindergarten and first-grade, different learning goals and “different interests, even between two so close ages, different linguistic and mental maturity”. (c) they emphasize socialization, teamwork, collaboration, spontaneous involvement of the child with the language; also the emerging, free and spontaneous character of literacy approach in kindergarten, but they mostly express their fear for a schoolarization of the kindergarten. kindergarten teachers express their fears and worries about the diefferent developmental level (a and b): learning abilities and perception rates are different at every age level. to “blackmail” a 4-year-old to climb linguistically and cognitively in order to reach higher linguistic goals before he has matured phonologically is not right. language is not autonomous, and is determined by the psycho-emotional needs of preschoolers, which are at a different level from that of first or second grade primary school children. that is why, in my opinion, the two curricula should not be integrated, because phonological conquest from grade to grade requires different goals, methods and evaluation. something i think an integrated curriculum cannot achieve (kt10), i disagree because i don't want kindergarten to be a miniature primary school. the preschool plays an important role and should not be turned into a hardcore school where children will act as soldiers for the sole purpose of acquiring skills that will help teachers in their work. on the contrary, i firmly believe that, if teachers were trained to transmit the love for knowledge through activities (like kindergarten teachers), education would have another impetus in the public education system. teachers who teach in the first-grades of primary school must pass special exams and work with preschool counselors (kt11). they dispute (c): if consolidation happens, i am afraid that the kindergarten will lose its current purpose and will be schoolarized. up until now, unfortunately, only kindergarten teachers have taken the initiative faced with indifferent teachers (kt12), and express their fears about the playful nature of the kindergarten that will be lost (c): tthe teaching of the language subject in the first-grade is based on mechanisms of knowledge and continuous repetition, while in the kindergarten it is emerging, freer and spontaneous, this stops with the introduction of children into primary school and systematic teaching. in no case should the kindergarten become primary school; however the first-grades of primary school should be like a kindergarten. learning through play (kt13). another kindergarten teacher, condensing the above (a, b and c), says: i believe that integration should be for three years: from kindergarten to 2nd grade. the teachers of the two levels should work together and of course the teachers should keep a portfolio, not just the "grades book". in fact, i think it would be more effective if the portfolio was the same from the beginning of the child's education in kindergarten. then the teacher of the 1st and 2nd grade would update it. then it would make sense for this portfolio to exist, which no one is paying attention to now ... i think it would be useful if, at least in first-grade, teachers created a few ‘corners’ in their classrooms. for example, they could have a mat for students to sit there to read their fairy tales or to be the talking circle or even a couple of kindergarten tables, like an "artist's bench"! ... they should also make the zoi apostolou & nektarios stellakis 96 most of the flexible zone's time for an approach to language by creating children's stories, poems, limericks, posters or advertisements ... and so much more ... through the implementation of school activity programs, or other educational programs, the kids would have the ability to work together as a team and inevitably use the language in all its forms .... i have an example from my daughter, who now goes to the 4th grade ... she is not so good at spelling, but she has excellent vocabulary, a lot of imagination and oral fluency. she also draws quite well. when she drew a "board", she was seriously concerned with how to write the title, that is, with the correct spelling, but on the contrary, she was not interested in learning the spelling assigned for the next day in order to get a good mark! the sterile repetition of the same spelling has not helped her much so far ... teachers should eventually have to attend compulsory language teaching seminars ... by the way, if i can express my complaint ... when our little ones from kindergarten go to primary school, teachers treat them like students of high school! sitting behind the chair, stern, distant ... without a caress, a hug, a kiss ... when the kids "move up" in the school system they change, they transform. they get tougher, more competitive, i think, and it's not just the fact that they're getting older...(kt14). first-grade teacher’s results of open-ended question (2nd part): how integration could (or not) optimize the approach to language teaching at both levels the responses of first-grade teachers to the integration of kindergarten and first-grade curricula and how it could optimize (or not) the approach to language teaching at both levels, although numerically fewer than those of kindergarten teachers, are interesting. first-grade teachers who believe that integration could optimize the approach to language teaching at both levels (table 9) referred to: table 9. how the integration could optimize the approach language (pt) categories of content analysis for the second part of open-ended question (a) common goals, continuity of teaching practices, creation of a common framework, common linguistic activities, joint organization of activities. (b) cooperation, exchange of views of teachers. (c) continuity of the teaching objectives of the lesson with distinct limits for each grade. (d) the transfer of preschoolers’ portfolios and assignments. they referred to the close cooperation between kindergarten teachers and school teachers as well as to the primary and high school cooperation (b) in a single teaching framework (a): an effective collaboration could exist between kindergarten and primary school on a curriculum basis, as long as it is institutionalized. there should be similar cooperation between primary school and high school (pt1), i think that the collaboration of teachers and kindergarten teachers is very important as kindergarten teachers could benefit from the theoretical background of teachers, while teachers from the playful forms of teaching introduced by kindergarten (pt2). they also mentioned the continuity (c) that can be secured by the integration of the two curricula, in particular, a first-grade teacher refer: a) students' preparation and first contact with writing should be done in kindergarten, so that they can proceed smoothly to learning to read and write, b) they will not be taught the same things, which is boring for them, but will continue from where they left off, c) inevitably, some children learn from their family to write before 1st grade, so there is a gap between the children who know how to write and those who do not; therefore we have a twospeed class, so integration would help avoid this situation. it could help immature children before entering primary school and experience failure (pt3). a first-grade teacher refer to the collaboration of teachers very characteristically: teachers should be aware of the curricula of both levels at an early stage. then it would be possible to integrate so that first-grade teachers would continue the work of kindergarten teachers and not start from scratch (pt4). first-grade teachers who believe that integration could not optimize the approach to language teaching at both levels of the two curricula (table 10) refer to: table 10. how the integration could not optimize the approach language (pt) categories of content analysis for the second part of open-ended question (a) the different developmental level and the different learning abilities of kindergarten and first-grade children. (b) the different approach to language teaching, the differentiation of the objectives of the curricula and the way the kindergarten and primary school function, the different learning goals and ‘different interests, even between two very close ages, different linguistic and mental maturity’. teachers' perceptions of integrating kindergarten… 97 (c) the different roles of two school, emfisizing at the socialization character of kindergarten and expressing their fear about its schoolarization. (d) protection of their labor rights. they refer to the different objectives of the two curricula (a and b): i disagree with the integration of the curricula of kindergarten and first-grade primary school because the learning process in kindergarten is more playful, while in primary school it becomes more "serious", as it is the stepping stone for the student's entrance into the school environment. i also think that the integration of the curriculum of the first two grades of primary school is not feasible since the child intended for first-grade does not have the maturity to meet the teaching objectives of the second grade (pt5). one teacher's response (a and c): the kindergarten places or should place a greater emphasis on the socialization of the pupils, the receptivity of the new, the group. it cannot be integrated with first-grade because i believe the child will this way be going backwards, due to his/her age. the first-grade is the next step in the ladder. the kindergarten has to feed the horse and the primary school has to urge it to run (pt6) is typical. some teachers are critical of kindergarten literacy work (b and c): kids in kindergarten are not prepared at all with prewriting exercises. in many cases they cannot even spell their name. so these must be done in the first days of primary school. so students are pressured from the beginning to learn too much. these must therefore be taught in kindergarten so that there is continuity in the curriculum for both levels (pt7). they refer to the different roles of the two schools (c): the role of the kindergarten is not the same as the role of primary school. the one or two-year age difference of these children is crucial with regard to their abilities. the difference in their capabilities also dictates different goals in the curriculum (pt8). they express their concern about the schoolarization of the kindergarten (c): i think that with this integration there will be a lot of knowledge and concepts that will have to be taught to children from a very early preschool age. in the effort to get students to acquire all this knowledge, i think there will be stress and pressure to obtain the knowledge required. but what is the goal in the end, the range of knowledge or learning in an enjoyable way? (pt9). finally, first-grade teachers express their concerns about their labor rights, but also the confusion that may arise concerning the work of kindergarten and school teachers (d): i think that there has to be relevance, but there is no need to integrate the curriculum because if that happens, on the one hand, kindergarten teachers are given the opportunity to teach in primary school and teachers to teach in kindergarten (which is not right for any of our labor rights), and on the other hand, i find that the teaching approach is very different in kindergarten compared to primary school. primary school curriculum should come as a continuation of kindergarten curriculum and not identify with it (pt10). conclusion and discussion the research questions concern the perceptions of kindergarten and first-grade teachers about the need to integrate the two curricula on the language learning area and ways to optimize the approach to language teaching at both levels in the context of integration or their reasons to disagree with it. the findings lead to the following conclusions: from the findings of the closed-ended question, first-grade teachers appear to be more positive, compared to kindergarten teachers, on integrating the two curricula. this differentiation seems to reflect their general pedagogical beliefs, their philosophy as well as their teaching practices. however, both kindergarten and first-grade teachers seemed to view positively the possibility of cooperation, exchange of views and work, joint organization of activities in the linguistic field, to form the bridge between the two levels; common goals, the (educational) continuity of teaching practices, the creation of a common framework, the transfer of student files and work. these findings are in line with greek and international research findings (see: ackesjö, 2013; alatalo et al., 2017; broström, 2007; byrnes and wasik, 2019; dockett and perry, 2007; karydis, 2014; sivropoulou and vrinioti, 2009; zeegers, 2012; zhu, 2010). in particular, in the context of information, cozoi apostolou & nektarios stellakis 98 education, cooperation and exchange of views, the adaptation and co-creation of theoretical principles and teaching practices under a common practice could be encouraged (alatalo et al., 2017; djonov et al., 2018; eacea, 2011; wef, 2000; zeegers, 2012; zhu, 2010). from the findings of the open-ended question and accordingly to international studies (ackesjö, 2013; alatalo, meier and frank, 2016; cruickshank and haefele, 2001; hjelte, 2005; karydis, 2014) our findings stated that kindergarten and first-grade teachers refer to the reasons of their aggrement (common goals, common activities, cooperation, smooth transition, continuity) or disagreement (schoolarization, different growth rate, diffeent curricula, different goals) with the inegration of the two curricula. first-grade teacher’s responses at the 2nd part of the open-ended question explain their agreement or disagreement more specifically, as they seemed to be significantly influenced by the burden of the responsibility for language teaching (barrett et al., 2007; byrnes and wasik, 2019; djonov et al., 2018; eacea, 2011; hanemann, 2015, 2019; hanemann and krolak, 2017; kennedy et al., 2012; xue and meisels, 2004) and to be critical of the results of the 'teaching' of kindergarten teachers, considering it merely as a basis and a reinforcing element for the systematic teaching and substantive work of the primary school. their answers suggest a view of the role of kindergarten as an earlier stage of preparing children for the first-grade of primary school rather than as an autonomous stage of building knowledge to be then used in primary school (hidi and boscolo, 2006; morris, tyner and perney, 2000; neuman et al., 2000; nichd, 2005). they expressed the view that the kindergarten operates at a different 'lower level'. the fact that children come from different kindergartens that taught different things (due to the lack of a common textbook) makes it difficult for them to detect what children know, so they do not use students' prior knowledge in their teaching. kindergarten teachers who disagree with integration explain their disagreement as strongly express the fear of a schoolarization of kindergarten and the loss of the emergent, free and spontaneous nature of literacy in the kindergarten (deecd, 2009; paris, byrnes and paris, 2001; wasik et al., 2006). some researchers (see for example: ring and o’sullivan, 2018) call the global trend of preparing children for school by prescribed curriculum ‘an epidemic’. but, accordingly to ackesjö and persson (2019), the process of schoolarization on one hand tends to narrow the aim of the preschool class to a focus on isolated learning outcomes for children and on the other hand, it may create a sense of wholeness in the educational system as the preschool class moves closer to, and becomes a clear part of, primary school. in line with these findings (ackesjö and persson, 2016, 2019; broström, 2017; sahlberg, 2016) our kindergarten teachers seem to exprees their fear that pedagogical integration and the introduction of the preschool pedagogy into school education could be replaced by more schooloriented, knowledge-economy arguments that emphasize increased goal achievement. however, firstgrade teachers who disagree with integration insist on the inability of preschoolers to acquire knowledge intended to be acquired by primary school children, who are theoretically in the age group with the relative cognitive, mental and emotional maturity (ackesjö and persson, 2016, 2019; o’sullivan, 2005; silva joyce and feez, 2016; wasik et al., 2006; xue and meisels, 2004). morever, both kindergarten and first-grade teachers, at the 2nd part of the open-ended question, emphasize the need for co-operation, but not integration, as even those who agree delineate and define it within a specific context. they are concerned about how integration will take place and propose common goals and teaching approaches that will be governed by continuity and consistency. in line with lifelong learning literacy theory (djonov et al., 2018; eacea, 2011; hanemann, 2015, 2019; hanemann and krolak, 2017; kennedy et. al., 2012; silva joyce and feez, 2016; uil, 2010, 2017, 2018; unesco, 2005, 2007, 2015, 2017; xue and meisels, 2004) the issue of enhancing child literacy has been one of the most important factor for subsequent school success or failure of the child and therefore contributing in the long run to social well-being, social justice and the development of democracy (unesco, 2005, 2007, 2015, 2017). they want to keep the game as the primary teaching and learning tool in kindergarten and systematic teaching with elements of the playful kindergarten learning system in the primary school (o’sullivan, 2005; silva joyce and feez, 2016; xue and meisels, 2004; xefteri, 2017). their answers, in line with international research findings (see for example: hurst and reding, 2000; keely, smith and buskist, 2006; kramer, 2003; stronge, 2002; xefteri, 2017), show the professionalism and conscientiousness with which they practice the teaching profession. it is surprising that, while referring to change and the https://www.tandfonline.com/author/alatalo%2c+tarja https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/20020317.2019.1642082 teachers' perceptions of integrating kindergarten… 99 creation of an integrated framework, few consider their need for continuous and systematic training on contemporary teaching matters, although it is a widespread demand of teachers (hanemann and krolak, 2017; silva joyce and feez, 2016; zeegers, 2012; zhu, 2010). we consider that this study provided valuable insights into how preschool and first-grade of primary school teachers made sense of the possible integration of the two curricula. the results could constitute the pillars for institutionalizing a more co the goal is to have continuity through a balanced literacy curriculum and smooth transition of children to elementary school. the results could be the pillars for establishing a framework that could function as a bridge between kindergarten and primary school with obvious positive outcomes for young students, teachers and the school community at large. according to the basic goal of ctc for kindergarten (moe/pi 2002b) and ptg (dafermou et al., 2006), preschool education is an integral part of our educational system and therefore national planning of a structured transition from kindergarten to primary school seems more important than ever. declarations acknowledgements: not applicable. authors’ contributions: study concept and design: both of the authors. analysis and interpretation of data: author 1. drafting of the manuscript: author 1. critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content: author 2. statistical analysis: author 1. study supervision: author 2. competing interests: the authors declare that they have no competing interests. funding: not applicable. references ackesjö, h. 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completing a semester-long assignment created within a family, schools and community course for students in an early childhood teacher preparation program. preservice teachers’ responses to a survey and their final written reflections were analyzed using the process of axial and open coding. results indicated the importance of communication and understanding different dynamics and challenges in parent-teacher partnerships. therefore, educators should continuously strive to equip pre-service teachers with the skills they will need to succeed as they work with schools, the community and especially in their work with parents. article history received: 16 march 2020 accepted: 11 july 2020 keywords parent engagement; preservice teachers; teacher preparation; early childhood; parent-teacher partnerships introduction schools continuously seek to improve children’s academic success and overall development. research points to the strong association between engaging parents and children’s success in school (de bruїne et al., 2014; d’haem & griswold, 2017; epstein, 1994; gilroy, 2018; pemberton & miller, 2015; tekin, 2011). additionally, it is well documented that the home is a great socializing agent where the child is shaped by parental attitudes towards learning, and that parents’ support plays a pivotal role in children’s future school success (harris & goodall, 2008). therefore, children who receive support with their academic work at home tend to do well in school and their parents are more inclined to communicate with teachers and seek ways to better support their child at home. educators understand the critical role that parents play in their children’s education (mitsch, branch, & weglarz-ward, 2020) and this calls for continued efforts to build strong home-school partnerships (buchanan & buchanan, 2019). developing productive relationships with families is part of a teacher’s professional role (de bruїne et al., 2014), thus as teacher candidates embark on their professional journey, having knowledge on how to establish strong parent-teacher partnerships is critical. when pre-service teachers communicate with families, they are more likely to make informed decisions on parent engagement as well as become more aware of different family circumstances that can impact the process of building teacher-parent partnerships (mitsch et al., 2020). moreover, as scholars continue to argue that developing productive relationships with families is part of a teacher’s professional role, they also acknowledge that creating parent-teacher partnerships is challenging for teachers (de bruїne et al., 2014). further, it is worth noting that in most teacher education programs little attention is paid to preparing prospective teachers for forming these partnerships (buchanan & buchanan, 2019; de bruїne et al., 2014; evans, 2013; mitsch et al., 2020). therefore, despite increased attention to family engagement in teacher education, teachers continue to feel unprepared since _____________ 1 university of north carolina greensboro, department of human development and family studies, greensboro, united states, rjboit@uncg.edu, orcid: https://orcid.org/00000002-8775-2189 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.20201238 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:rjboit@uncg.edu https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8775-2189 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8775-2189 rachel boit 168 parent-teacher partnerships are not adequately addressed in ways that prepare them to work with families (brown, harris, jacobson, & trotti, 2014). literature addressing how teacher candidates are prepared to work with parents is scarce (evans, 2013; miller, coleman, & mitchell, 2018) and few have focused on preservice teachers in early childhood programs. moreover, although some studies continue to point to the important role that communication plays in parent-teacher partnerships (buchanan & buchanan, 2019), few have focused on real-life experiences that offer teacher candidates opportunities to work directly with parents. through incorporating an assignment in a child, family and community course, the current study sought to explore the experiences of pre-service teachers (enrolled in an early childhood program) in their communication with parents and their overall experiences about what it takes to form parent-teacher partnerships. home-school partnership framework there is no one single formula or blueprint that creates a successful home-school partnership. however, there are models that provide guidelines on how to establish programs that actively involve families in their children’s education (olsen & fuller, 2008). one such model is epstein’s (1995, 2001, 2011) framework that describes the home, school and community as overlapping spheres of influence where members collaborate to support children’s learning and development. this model indicates that children do not learn and grow in the context of home alone or school alone but in three influential contextshome, school and community (olsen & fuller, 2008). the family-school-community partnership framework (epstein 1995, 2011; epstein et al., 2018) is described as a comprehensive approach that highlights the importance of the three entities working together to support children’s development and education (epstein, 1995). although this framework has been used extensively, previous studies have acknowledged the mixed messages that this model seems to portray. for example, de bruїne et al. (2014) and kroeger & lash (2011) talk about dominant power relations where school is seen as the major force transmitting the dominant culture, thus placing teachers in a position to speak while parents listen. in hindsight, pre-service teachers will most likely encounter these relations during their field experience; therefore, during teacher preparation, it is necessary that pre-service teachers become aware of the bi-directional relationship that leads to collaboration as opposed to a power dynamic. despite few identified weaknesses, this framework is merited for guiding family-school partnerships. within this model, six types of family involvement are necessary for successful family-school partnerships. they are parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision-making, and collaborating with the community (epstein, 1995). parenting involves schools and communities working together to assist families with parenting and child rearing skills to support children’s development and education. parents and teachers support children’s development by sharing information related to the child’s development both at home and school. both teachers and parents use this information to guide the child’s learning. in communicating, schools and communities work to promote effective communication between families and teachers about children’s educational progress (coleman, 2013; epstein, 1995). communication between teachers and parents is not only vital for building relationships between schools and families, but also in creating a school community where families are incorporated into their children’s learning (bartels & eskow, 2010; graham-clay, 2005; henderson & mapp, 2002). specifically, henderson and mapp (2002) highlight that when teachers and parents have strong partnerships it improves student achievement. successful communication between teachers and families may therefore help improve the quality of the school and programing, thus providing more opportunities for educational success (henderson & mapp, 2002; li et al., 2019). although communication is important, unfortunately teachers are not always equipped with the training and tools needed to successfully implement effective communication practices that build strong partnerships (bartels & eskow, 2010; henderson & mapp, 2002). in addition, most pre-service teachers continue to indicate a need in more preparation on ways to communicate with parents (buchanan & buchanan, 2019; de bruїne et al., 2014; de bruїne et al., 2018; evans, 2013; miller et al., 2018). teacher preparation programs are therefore essential in equipping pre-service teachers with the competencies they will need to effectively engage in communication with families. volunteering is another key factor in parent involvement. it involves schools and communities navigating the process of building parent-teacher partnerships… 169 working to recruit family assistance in support of children’s education and parents are welcome to help with activities in the classroom, (coleman, 2013; epstein, 1995). when parents feel welcome by the school, they are more likely to volunteer in their children’s classrooms. learning at home is another type of involvement where schools and communities engage families in their children’s learning experiences (coleman, 2013; epstein, 1995). however, since each family’s situation is different, the way in which parents get involved in their children’s schoolwork at home may vary. thus, teachers’ knowledge of circumstances that families face fosters an understanding of how to form supportive partnerships that are informed by different family contexts. schools and communities should also involve families in making decisions about school operations (epstein 1995); this allows them to become leaders and representatives for educational decision making and advocating for their children (coleman, 2013). when parents understand that their voices are valued, they will be more open to participating in their children’s schools. this is an easier way for teachers to tap into parent’s knowledge of their role in school and their understanding of school policies, thus aiding in establishing reciprocal relationships bound by respect for everyone’s opinion as opposed to power dynamics that always seem to exist between parents and teachers or school administrators. the final form of family involvement that epstein discusses is collaborating with the community. this type of involvement calls for schools and communities to coordinate families’ access to community services to promote the total wellbeing of children. in this model, epstein (1995, 2011) highlights the importance of family, school and community working together to support children’s development and success in education. most often, pre-service teachers have minimal knowledge of community services available for families in their neighborhood. helping pre-service teachers identify these services is beneficial when they must refer families. for teachers of young children especially, having this information is important as they seek to work successfully with parents; all these begin at teacher preparation. engaging parents in schools education policies continue to push for mandates related to parent engagement in their programs (de bruїne et al., 2014; fields-smith, 2005). in the united states of america (u.s.a.), for instance, family engagement is federally mandated under title i of every student succeeds act of 2015 and calls for the establishment of parent partnerships with schools for the betterment of student achievement (ford, vakil & boit, 2016; grant & ray, 2010). furthermore, goals 2000: educate america act of 1994 brought the importance of parent involvement to the forefront of school improvement initiatives by mandating that every school promote partnerships that increase parent engagement and participation to support the social, emotional, and academic growth of children. additionally, the no child left behind act of 2001 required schools to organize and implement programs to engage families in their children’s education in ways that help students improve skills and gain higher learning achievements (de bruїne et al., 2014; evans, 2013; kroeger & lash, 2011). rigorous standards for teacher preparation programs, licensure/certification and professional practice also ensure that teachers at all levels recognize that effective teaching depends upon partnerships with children’s families (mitsch et. al, 2020). for example, in its standards for teacher preparation, the national association for the education of young children (naeyc) specifies that “educators know about, understand and value the importance and complex characteristics of children’s families and communities” (naeyc, 2011, p. 30). these legislative mandates clearly point to the importance of teachers promoting parent involvement in early school experiences and this emphasis needs to be an intentional component of teacher preparation programs (mitsch et al., 2020; taylor & kim, 2020). therefore, as theoretical and empirical perspectives support the critical role of parents in students’ success, pre-service teachers too must continue receiving training on ways to engage with parents (d’haem & griswold, 2017; epstein & sanders, 2006; hoover-dempsey, walker, jones, & reed, 2002). in their work, epstein and sanders (2006) surveyed administrators in 161 teacher preparation programs and found that, although respondents agreed on the importance of involving families, few believed that graduating students were fully prepared to do so. emphasizing the need for specific courses on school, family, and rachel boit 170 community partnerships, the benefits of family engagement in student academic and social success is highlighted (delgado-gaitan, 2007; epstein, 2006; epstein et al., 2018), and teacher educators are challenged to prepare future teachers for effective partnerships with families (d’haem & griswold, 2017). in particular, the lack of preparation for pre-service teachers on how to work with families has been highlighted as being problematic and despite some progress within initial teacher preparation programs, few pre-service teachers have access to full courses on how to form partnerships with families (willemse, thompson, vanderlinde, & mutton, 2018). it is no wonder that most pre-service teachers report learning no competencies in establishing strong partnerships with families (d’haem & griswold, 2017; patte, 2011) and often face many obstacles in achieving meaningful parent-teacher relationships (bofferding, kastberg, & hoffman, 2016). thus, teacher education programs should consider offering at least one required course on school, family, and community partnerships (d’haem & griswold, 2017; epstein, 2001). additionally, pre-service teachers need to have real life encounters with parents (de bruїne et al., 2014; taylor & kim, 2020) as part of their preparation. however, evidence shows that during their professional preparation, most pre-service teachers have limited opportunities for interacting with parents (de bruїne et al., 2014; evans, 2013; taylor & kim, 2020). this can be achieved by providing experiences where pre-service teachers interact directly with parents so they can develop skills needed for establishing effective partnerships and to give meaning to knowledge gained in the classroom (buchanan & buchanan, 2019; de bruїne et al., 2014; mitsch et al., 2020). these interactions should take place within a prolonged period and should not be limited to only school but also to interacting at home and community. this allows them to see the complexity of parenting and realize how contextual factors can impact parent participation. in their study, de bruїne et al. (2014) found that teacher candidates expressed a wish to have more meetings with parents at school and believed that learning by doing was the best way to further understand familyschool-partnerships. in their follow-up study, de bruїne et al. (2018) concluded that most students wanted to accomplish their learning goals by gaining real life experiences as this would provide them opportunities for learning how to hold meaningful conversations with parents. it is not surprising that novice teachers often report that they do not know how to effectively incorporate parents into their classrooms early in their careers (mitsch, branch & weglarz-ward, 2020). de bruїne et al. (2018) further advocate for curriculum changes that explore family-school-partnerships in a much more in-depth fashion but also acknowledge the challenges with large-scale changes to curricular in teacher preparation. however, substantial attention to this topic needs to begin with small scale changes that teacher educators can make in their courses; for example, adjusting course content by adding specific assignments or changing part of an already existing class activity (de bruїne et al., 2018; mitsch, branch & weglarz-ward, 2020; taylor & kim, 2020). in many cases, real-life experiences and more authentic situations (de bruїne et al., 2014) are not common practice and thus, the current study takes a leap in that direction. addressing best practices for parent engagement during teacher preparation helps teachers learn different ways of forming sustainable parent-teacher partnerships. this is especially important for early childhood pre-service teachers in that this collaboration is an essential ingredient for student learning right from the early years. furthermore, understanding that successful early childhood education depends upon partnerships with children’s families and communities, pre-service teachers in early childhood programs need to understand the complex characteristics that exist among families and communities. this aids in creating respectful, reciprocal relationships, involving families in their children’s learning and development, and focusing on the educational, social and cultural aspects of home, school and community collaboration. thus, the current work focused on experiences of preservice teachers enrolled in an early childhood teacher education course. particularly, the goals were (a) to understand the experiences of preservice teachers in their communication process with parents and, (b) to explore their overall experiences about what it takes to form parent-teacher partnerships. activities undertaken in this study as well as the findings and implications for teacher preparation are discussed. navigating the process of building parent-teacher partnerships… 171 method the study utilized the qualitative phenomenological approach. this methodology provides a systematic way for greater understanding of phenomena within complex contexts (creswell, 2013). through their written reflections and surveys, pre-service teachers provided different perspectives and meaning into parent-teacher partnerships. data were gathered over a nine-week period during which families and pre-service teachers interacted. the sources of data were the pre-service teachers’ surveys and their final written reflections. the written reflections were informed by teacher interviews, in-class observations, pre-service teacher child interactions, family correspondence and the family and community enrichment night. for the purpose of reporting the findings, the project’s proposal was approval by the university’s institutional review board and researchers sought permission from students to report on their work. views from the students who accepted, are included in the findings. setting and participants this work took place at a private preschool located within an urban setting close to a public university in one of the states in the mid-western region of the united states. the preschool served families who were diverse in both their socioeconomic and racial backgrounds and offered programs for children from infancy through age 5.a total of 75 children (0-3yrs=16; 3-4yrs=25 and 4-5yrs=34) attended the preschool. there were 9 classrooms in total; 2 for children aged 0-3 years, 3 for the 3-4-year-olds and 4 for those 4-5 years old; thus, there were 9 classrooms in total, each with a lead teacher and a teacher assistant. in total, 44 families agreed to participate with their children. of the 44 families, 41 each had one child participating while three families had two children each: bringing the total number of child participants to 50. six teachers had participating families in their classrooms with the 50 children unevenly spread out into the six classrooms. additionally, there were 50 pre-service teachers enrolled in the child, family, and community course during the spring semester (course is open to all students prior to student-teaching). they were all female and 43 identified as white, five black, one hispanic, and one asian. thirty-three were in their third year in the program while 17 were in their second year. they were all in their early twenties and none of them had prior experience teaching in a preschool setting. procedures prior to starting the project, the preschool director together with the course instructor sent out a newsletter to all parents at the beginning of the semester inviting them to be part of an upcoming opportunity to engage in activities that aim at strengthening parent-teacher partnerships. the letter indicated that this was going to be a semester-long project filled with different fun activities for the children and their families. parents also received information about pre-service teachers enrolled in the early childhood teacher preparation program, who would be interacting with the preschool children in the classrooms (guided by the teachers). furthermore, the letter detailed the activities of the project, what parents should expect, as well as what their responsibilities and input would be. the details included (a) family correspondence, (b) pre-service teacher – child interactions and (c) family and community enrichment night. parents who were interested signed an informed consent form and returned it to their child’s teacher. all the pre-service teachers were randomly placed in each of the six classrooms and each assigned a child with whom they would work. families who did not give consent did not have their child assigned to a pre-service teacher and therefore whenever the preservice teachers visited the classrooms, these children continued with their regular activities with the classroom teacher. since there were only six teachers and 50 pre-service teachers, four teachers had eight pre-service teachers placed in their classrooms, while the remaining two teachers were each assigned nine pre-service teachers. each pre-service teacher introduced themselves to the family whose child had been assigned to them and arranged for an informal meeting. this meeting took place either at the child’s preschool, at the child’s home or at a playground of the family’s choice. during that meeting, both pre-service teachers and families focused on establishing relationships by learning about one another. this was also an opportunity for the pre-service teachers to explain to the parents the work they were doing with their preschool children. following this initial meeting, rachel boit 172 parents/guardians corresponded with the pre-service teacher on a regular basis. with permission from the parents/guardians, their contact information was shared with the pre-service teachers who were then required to communicate with the families regularly. the pre-service teachers stayed in contact with the child’s family via email or messages sent in the child’s folder. this lasted for nine weeks, where each preservice teacher individually worked with the preschool teachers and families of the preschoolers assigned to them. data collection two main sources of data informed the study: namely, pre-service teachers’ reflections and preservice teacher surveys. pre-service teachers’ reflections. this comprised the written reflections submitted by the pre-service teachers at the end of the semester. each pre-service teacher wrote a seven-page reflection paper detailing their experiences engaging with parents, preschool children and the preschool teachers. experiences included in the reflections captured the nature of their interactions with the children, teacher interviews, family correspondence and family and community enrichment night. for each of these interactions, preservice teachers were expected to take detailed notes that would inform their reflections. the sections below describe the different activities and interactions pre-service teachers reflected on. teacher interviews. for each of the six classrooms, there were at least eight to nine pre-service teachers assigned depending on the number of participating families in that classroom. on one particular day during the regular course meetings, time was allocated for developing interview questions. during that time, pre-service teachers sat in groups according to the preschool classrooms they had been assigned to and brainstormed on questions to ask. each group developed at least 8-10 questions that they thought would allow them to gain a deeper understanding of the teacher-parent interactions and the strength of their partnerships, the challenges faced by teachers in their attempt to involve parents, and ways in which teachers engaged parents in their classrooms. some questions focused specifically on understanding how to best work with their assigned child. a sample of interview questions from one group are presented in table 1. table 1. teacher interview questions teacher interview what do you see as the benefits to family and community involvement in the classroom? what do you see as the drawback to engaging family and community members? how do you communicate with families? how do you help families choose how or in what ways they would like to be involved? in what ways are the children’s families involved in the child’s work and what benefits of this involvement do you observe for the children? since there were groups of eight to nine preservice teachers assigned to one teacher, each group selected a team leader who contacted the teacher to set up the interview time. once a time was agreed upon, the teacher and pre-service teachers met and the team leader asked the questions. during the interview, each pre-service teacher took individual notes of the teacher responses and asked any clarifying or follow-up questions which they later used to write reflections on their understanding of the teachers’ views about parent-teacher partnerships. pre-service teacher – child interactions. each child (whose parent agreed to participate in the project) was randomly assigned to a pre-service teacher with whom they worked for the entire project period at the preschool. during their first visit to the classroom, the pre-service teachers spent an hour conducting in-class observations of their focus child. during this activity, they took notes focusing on the child’s learning styles, interaction with peers, potential challenges the child faced, and overall engagement in activities within the classroom setting. they also asked the teacher for any other information that they needed to know about their focus child. this was followed by weekly, one-hour visits of interaction with the preschool children for a total of nine hours (spread throughout the semester). during these nine onehour visits, the pre-service teachers and children worked on engaging and fun activities that were prepared by the pre-service teachers. these activities ranged from crafts, picture book reading, painting, science navigating the process of building parent-teacher partnerships… 173 experiments, etc. at the end of each visit, the pre-service teachers put the day’s work together with any work to be completed at home in a folder that was sent home to the parents and returned back to school within that week or the following week. in the folder, the pre-service teachers included a note written to the parent/guardian about what they accomplished/did not accomplish with the child and provided directions for any follow up activities to be completed at home. pre-service teachers kept records of when and if these folders were returned, as well as records of any emails sent by the parents/guardians. family and community enrichment night. the project culminated with the family and community enrichment night which brought together members of the school, home and community. the family community enrichment night featured fun activities for all families served by this preschool, whether their children participated in the project or not. as a group, pre-service teachers developed a plan to host what they termed as a family and community enrichment event at the preschool. pre-service teachers communicated with their respective families, inviting them to offer suggestions for activities or provide input into the planning. the family and community enrichment night was a firsthand experience for the pre-service teachers to engage directly with the families at the school setting. the event brought together community partners, the preschool teachers and staff, as well as the children and their families. below is a brief description of each of the three phases undertaken in the planning process for the event. phase i: at this initial stage, pre-service teachers worked in groups of four or five to explore ideas for the family and community enrichment night. these included, but not limited to literacy activities, hands-on science and math learning stations, face-painting, community services and resource stations, as well as creative, sensory, and dramatic play stations. selection of activities focused on those that aimed at providing opportunities for the pre-service teachers to engage, communicate and interact with the families. each pre-service teacher communicated with the family they worked with to suggest activities they would like incorporated into the event. phase ii: in partnership with the school community and the preschool director, pre-service teachers began developing plans and activities for the family enrichment night. they wrote mini proposals to outline their plans, materials required, estimated cost as well as identifying family learning goals. the day and time selected were one of two days on the preschool year calendar that had previously been allocated for “family event” and did not have a pre-planned activity. since families already had that on their children’s’ calendars, the preschool director sent out reminders to all families to hold that date for a family fun night event. phase iii: the final planning stage included pre-service teachers coordinating with partner families to promote attendance as well as finalize all details and materials. with the help of the parents and teachers, pre-service teachers developed activity stations in the various classrooms where children and their families would visit. resources and materials needed were secured and attendance or information contribution by community resource persons was confirmed. finally, arrangements were made to confirm guests, representatives from various community agencies or networks, and every effort made to ensure attendance from students and families. all planning was completed 10 days prior to the date set for the event. pre-service teacher surveys. the course instructor developed a short survey which was completed by each pre-service teacher at the end of nine weeks. each one of them was expected to give a detailed account of their experiences with the semester-long project. table 2 below contains a list of the survey questions. table 2. survey questions pre-service teacher survey questions what did you take away from this experience? how did this experience contribute to your knowledge of building teacher-parent partnerships? how did this experience contribute to your knowledge of families? what else do you wish to learn that this experience did not provide? rachel boit 174 analysis pre-service teachers’ responses to the survey together with their final written reflections were read and analyzed using the process of axial and open coding (corbin & strauss, 2008). analyses were done on responses from 27 pre-service teachers who gave permission for their work to be used in this study (there was no penalty on students who did not want their work to be use in the study). first, all the 27 written reflections were read carefully to ensure they covered all the areas of the project’s focus. out of those twenty-seven, nine were found to have omitted at least one or two of the focus areas; they were deemed incomplete and therefore not included in further analysis. the remaining eighteen were read a second time to identify common codes emerging from the written reflections. to capture thoughts from the same participants, survey responses from the eighteen pre-service teachers whose reflections were analyzed, were included in the next step of analysis. the survey responses were each read carefully and once again any new codes that emerged were recorded. overall, examples of the codes generated include, communicating with parents, challenges in engagement, parent availability, teacher-parent relationship, parent expectations, school expectations and relationship building. emerging themes were then created, and codes assigned to the new themes. findings are presented in the section that follows. findings this project focused on the extent to which pre-service teachers in a teacher education course gained a deeper understanding of parent involvement through real life experiences working directly with families of young children. the goals for this project were (a) to understand the experiences of pre-service teachers in their communication process with parents and, (b) to explore pre-service teachers’ experiences in what it takes to form parent-teacher partnerships. results indicated that; (1) pre-service teachers acknowledged the power of communication as a critical skill in the process of cultivating good relationships between teachers and parents, (2) pre-service teachers saw firsthand the multidimensional challenges that both teachers and parents face in their attempts to form strong teacher-parent partnerships, and (3) pre-service teachers reported on how the project shaped them as they prepared to engage parents in their future teaching careers. below are the findings presented under three themes. the power of communication in cultivating good parent-teacher partnerships all pre-service teachers agreed that communication is the most important factor when cultivating relationships with families. they also acknowledged the importance of the content and the way to convey information as critical. therefore, it is not just communicating for the sake of it, but more attention needs to be paid to the detail of that communication. epstein (1994) posits that parents are eager to help their children if schools will help them understand what they should do. parents are also interested in knowing what goes on in their children’s classrooms and therefore communication between the teachers and the parents is paramount in becoming partners in children’s education (bofferding et al., 2016). the kind of information sent out to parents, how conversations with parents are held, and all kinds of interactions must be clear as ensuring two-way communication between home and school is key (grant & ray, 2010). most of the pre-service teachers were young adults (between the ages of 19-21) and recognized their own challenges in the way they use language. for many of them, using certain words or phrases to substitute for standard english words is very common in their communication and as they started communicating with the families, they began to realize that the way one uses language matters. one preservice teacher noted: “… i learned that it is sometimes difficult to find just the right words to use when telling them about their child. even when i was not saying anything negative, i needed to be aware not to use slang words. i do not think a teacher should use slang words in general, but i felt especially strongly about using very clear language with my student’s family….” navigating the process of building parent-teacher partnerships… 175 moreover, being clear in what teachers communicate to parents is important (grant & ray, 2010). it is sometimes possible for a teacher to assume that parents are ignoring their messages or that parents do not want to communicate; this misunderstanding could be a result of parents not understanding the information. another pre-service teacher noted that: “i learned that you have to be clear in what you would like the parents to do. i know i would have gotten more activities completed with the family if i had asked more directly for what needed to be done rather than ask in a manner that allowed them to choose not to complete or return activities… i think it’s really important for teachers to be very direct and concise about what they are expecting families to do while still being very respectful.” intentionality and clear expectations are key if parents are to be involved. it is good practice for teachers to set goals and not merely send information home to parents without being specific about what is needed. murray, mcfarland-piazza and harrison (2014) note that educators should “create a welcoming environment where all children and families are respected and actively encouraged to collaborate in curriculum decision making with educators to ensure that learning experiences are meaningful”, and educators and families should “communicate freely and respectfully with each other” (p. 2). facilitation of parent involvement and the development of supportive relationships and respectful communication with families are key features in quality early childhood teacher preparation. quality preparation allows pre-service teachers to learn and utilize different communication preferences for families in order to facilitate communication with parents. when parents know that their voices are heard in decision making, they feel encouraged to work closely with the teachers and school. this makes parents feel more involved and connected to their child’s school experiences and their child’s school life and for the teachers, they get to know about the child’s home life. being respectful to families and encouraging their collaboration was also brought up by pre-service teachers as one of the factors determining the extent to which partnerships are created and maintained. this is in line with epstein’s (1995) notion of collaborating with families so they feel that they are part of the larger community. pre-service teachers acknowledged the experiences gained while undertaking this assignment. they especially noted that they learned more about parents and ways to best communicate with them. for all of them, this was the first time that they had ever been afforded an opportunity to work directly with parents. in her reflection, one pre-service teacher summed up her thoughts: “during the nine weeks i spent with the child and corresponding with his family, i learned a lot about family involvement and communication…this was the first time i have ever been required to interact not just with the student but with their family in a direct way.” challenges in parent engagement during their interaction with families, pre-service teachers became aware of the myriad of circumstances that may place families in situations that present challenges in their ability to be more involved in their children’s schooling and school activities. these may range from workplace demands (i.e. having to work for long hours or sometimes conflicting schedules to family demands), a lack of transportation to merely not knowing what the school expects from them. the statements below sum up the thinking of some pre-service teachers: “…many family members work during the day, so they are unable to come to the classroom to participate in that manner and this does not mean they are uninterested in their child’s education…” another teacher candidate offered a different perspective about how teachers sometimes view families negatively and easily reach conclusions about their participation. as pre-service teachers interacted with families, they understood the importance of getting to know families well in order to avoid making wrong judgements. in one statement, one pre-service teacher noted: “…as a teacher, i learned a lot from this process…i learned that parents may be involved but may just not have the time to communicate as much with the teacher…i recommend that we do not judge a family before really getting to know them…you may have a preconceived notion about them, but you could be completely wrong…” rachel boit 176 rather than pointing to weaknesses in parent involvement, one teacher who participated in the teacher interviews seemed to see the high level of involvement of some parents and the complete lack of involvement of other parents as natural. while this teacher would likely see it as positive if each learner's parents attended some or all the available events, she understood that the home and work life of some parents prohibited their involvement. she did not seem to label or speak negatively of these parents. other teachers pointed to a lack of resources (time, financial resources, and educational resources) as reason for the lack of involvement (both in school and at home) of some parents. these teachers did not blame parents, but rather explained their circumstances as contextual. this discussion provided a rich learning opportunity for the pre-service teachers. while volunteering in their children’s classrooms is always encouraged, parents may not always find the time to volunteer due to certain contextual factors that may hinder participation. one of them noted: “…i learned from this experience that while family members may sometimes not help or volunteer in the classroom, they typically really enjoy getting to see their child’s educational environment and meet with the child’s teacher during other school events…during the family enrichment night, i witnessed several parents volunteering at different stations…” interactions with the children in the classroom and during the family enrichment night event proved to be powerful learning experiences for the pre-service teachers. they witnessed families take pride in their children’s activities and most of them offered to help at different stations. this is an affirmation that parents are willing to volunteer in the classrooms but may not do so due to other commitments. it is also true that parents may not volunteer due to a lack of intentional commitments on the part of the teachers to welcome parents into the classrooms. deeper understanding of relationship building all pre-service teachers agreed that the opportunity to work with families allowed them to learn how to connect and build relationships with families. coleman (2013) affirms that demonstrating a commitment to family-teacher relationships is one of the professional standards that teachers will be expected to demonstrate and in fact, their commitment to children will in part be judged by their commitment to the children’s families. as such, future teachers should be passionate about conveying a strong sense of commitment to the students and their family’s involvement. when teachers and families work together, the children are more likely to become successful in their academic pursuits. the statements below were common among the pre-service teachers: “…this course project has made me realize how important family involvement is in the school setting…the experience gave me a good idea of what it will be like working with families and getting them involved…” “…as a teacher, i will need to make sure i create a strong relationship with my students and their families so that everyone can feel comfortable…these relationships are crucial in helping the child create a bridge between school and home life…” in terms of parents’ opinions about involvement, most pre-service teachers reported that parents truly wanted to be engaged and informed about their children’s progress and activities going on at school. they noted that while most parents were eager to form strong relationships with their children's teachers and schools, it was also true that for some parents it was not always possible to be this involved and they would sometimes miss activities taking place at their children’s school. pre-service teachers indicated that the preschool teachers expressed their eagerness to have parents volunteer in their classrooms. they valued the contribution that parents and community members made and as professionals, they were not threatened by the presence of parents in their classroom. their understanding of their students' and their parents' needs and abilities likely helped create a welcoming atmosphere in which children learned and parents engaged in activities with their children. as the preservice teachers worked with the preschool children one-on-one, they came to fully understand the child and his/her learning styles. engaging parents via the children’s folders sent home became the best channel for pre-service teachers to involve them in what their children were doing in the classroom. most prenavigating the process of building parent-teacher partnerships… 177 service teachers reported that some parents sent the folders back while others did not and acknowledged that they now understood why they hardly heard back from some parents. in summary, the preceding results indicated that pre-service teachers witnessed first-hand what it takes to establish relationships with parents. for most of them, this was the first time that they had interacted directly with families. within the nine-week project period, most of them reported that they began to understand the challenges that parents sometimes face in their efforts to be engaged with their children’s schools. they also understood the important role that communication plays in establishing and maintaining meaningful parent-teacher partnerships and the role that both play in these relationships. it is therefore vital that during teacher preparation, pre-service teachers are provided with opportunities to work directly with families. discussion and conclusions the results clearly indicate that pre-service teachers benefited from the family engagement assignment added into the course. by incorporating an assignment focusing on family-school partnerships into an early childhood course, the study utilized epstein’s (2011) framework to understand (1) the experiences of pre-service teachers in their communication process with parents and; (2) explore preservice teachers’ experiences in what it takes to form parent-teacher partnerships. the pre-service teachers were able to demonstrate an understanding of what it takes to form partnerships with families, and they saw first-hand the powerful role that communication plays in parent-teacher partnerships. although communication has always been considered important when working with families, it is also true that teachers are not always equipped with the tools needed to successfully implement effective communication practices that build strong partnerships (bartels & eskow, 2010; henderson & mapp, 2002). the pre-service teachers in this study found that when communicating with parents, teachers must be clear about information being sent home. this is supported by the work of bartels & eskow (2010) and henderson & mapp (2002) who stress that teacher preparation programs continue to intentionally focus on the importance of communication and implementation of programs that help pre-service and in-service teachers learn how to develop lasting partnerships with families in the community. while there are multiple strategies for communicating with parents, for teachers, having interpersonal skills that make communication interactive, meaningful, and comfortable for the parents ensures that relationships are enhanced. in the current study, pre-service teachers valued interacting directly with parents since it allowed them to learn skills on how to maintain reciprocal relationships. consistent with current literature (mitsch et al., 2020), teacher preparation programs are essential in introducing pre-service teachers to the skills necessary to effectively engage in communication with families and more attention should be paid to equipping future teachers with skills that will be helpful as they build partnerships with families. additionally, taylor & kim (2019) did a similar study where pre-service teachers worked directly with parents and concluded that providing pre-service teachers opportunities to work directly with families as part of their educational program holds promise for the possibility of transformative learning to occur (taylor & kim, 2019). another outcome from the current study suggests that pre-service teachers did not only point to the importance of communication, but also expressed the significance in being intentional, clear, and choosing the right language when reaching out and conversing with parents. these sentiments are consistent with the thoughts of grant & ray (2010), who stress that intentionality and clear expectations are vital when communicating with parents. furthermore, the pre-service teachers indicated that they were able to understand the families better and thus, invited them in their decision-making process about the child’s learning and solicited their input towards the planning of the family enrichment night. in her work, esptein (2018) talks about involving parents in decision-making at their children’s schools. teachers make this possible when they acknowledge parent’ perspectives and allowing for their voices to be heard. as such, parents feel accepted in the school and thus, more willing to volunteer in their children’s classrooms and other school activities. henderson and mapp (2002) further suggest providing both, the pre-service and in-service teachers with learning rachel boit 178 opportunities that help them connect and work with diverse populations, recognize the advantages of communicating and collaborating with families, and understand the benefits of creating respectful and inclusive relationships with families. overall, teachers can benefit from learning to communicate and collaborate with families to ensure a continued strengthening of partnerships and to have a more positive experience in the classroom. evidence from the current study showed it was through their interaction with parents that preservice teachers learned about families’ daily experiences, their participation in school and other activities and generally the realities of daily life challenges. in the absence of opportunities like these, pre-service teachers may not know what families go through, which sometimes leads to making assumptions and affecting the way they will relate to each family. an understanding of families’ backgrounds helps teachers create stronger bonds and strive to recognize the realities that families face (epstein, 2018; graham-clay, 2005). being aware of families’ needs, allows teachers to tailor their efforts into finding suitable ways of working with each individual family to support the children’s learning at home. the pre-service teachers appreciated the opportunity to interact directly with families; this was a new experience for most of them. unfortunately, in many teacher preparation programs, the opportunity for pre-service teachers to work directly with families is limited (mitsch et al., 2020; taylor & kim, 2020). this is despite the expectation that when teachers enter the teaching profession, they should possess skills to successfully interact and involve parents in their classroom. this suggests that when it comes to parentteacher partnerships, we are asking a new generation of teachers to do a great deal in the classroom yet they may have not been prepared for it. rohr & he (2010) indicate that the challenge for teacher educators is to ensure that pre-service teachers leave our teacher preparation programs knowing how to effectively communicate with and involve parents of all students. furthermore, as epstein (2018) pointed out, parentteacher partnerships are a core professional skill and practice which requires development within any program of initial teacher education. educators bear the responsibility for equipping our pre-service teachers with the skills they will need to succeed as they work with schools, the community, and especially with parents. this requires ongoing efforts in revising our teacher preparation curriculum to align with the best practices of parent-teacher partnerships. it may also mean that assignments that focus on such partnerships are intentionally added to the courses that pre-service teachers take before completing their program. engaging parents, families and communities contributes to raising the educational aspirations and attainment of young people (state government victoria department of education and early childhood development, 2008). a wealth of evidence highlights parental engagement in schooling as positively influencing pupil achievement and attainment (desforges & abouchaar, 2003). epstein (2018) notes that without teachers’ efforts on partnerships, many parents will continue to be limited in whether, and how, they motivate and guide their children’s learning and development at every grade level. she continues to add that, most importantly, without teachers and parents working in partnership, many students will continue to be denied the support and encouragement for education that has been shown for decades to influence student success in school. such evidence should be compelling enough to drive changes in the way teachers are prepared to work with families. this study had some limitations; one such limitation was that parent participants were not interviewed to gather their thoughts about parent-teacher partnerships. even though they had a meeting with the pre-service teachers at their homes or arranged for a playdate earlier in the project, the goal was not for them to be interviewed but rather to have a rapport where they and the pre-service teachers got to know one another. this assignment was also being piloted on a small scale and had its focus on the experiences of pre-service teachers; therefore, future studies should be designed to include interviewing parents. another limitation is that the study comprised a small fraction of early childhood pre-service teachers enrolled in a teacher preparation program in one university; all of whom were female and mostly white. these results cannot therefore be generalized to a larger population. a similar study with a more diverse group of participants is warranted. navigating the process of building parent-teacher partnerships… 179 building successful parent-teacher partnerships is a process that takes a long time. it is built through trust in a dual communicative relationship. as teacher preparation programs strive to continue preparing pre-service teachers for these partnerships, there should be concerted efforts at every local and state education departments to put in place policies that require and support the promotion of parent engagement at all grade levels. without doubt, parent engagement in children’s learning makes a difference and remains one of the most powerful school improvement levers that we have (harris & goodall, 2008). parents should be encouraged to be a part of their children’s education and as such it calls for a strong team of educators who are committed to making this happen. we know that pre-service teachers and novice teachers need to work together with parents, however, for this relationship to be productive teachers need to be confident in their abilities to involve parents. building such confidence must begin at our teacher preparation programs. declarations acknowledgements i wish to thank the pre-service teachers for allowing their work to be included in this 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(2018). family-school partnerships: a challenge for teacher education. journal of education for teaching, 44(3), 252-257. https://doi.org/10.1080/02607476.2018.1465545 https://doi.org/10.1177/0013124513508979 https://doi.org/10.1080/03055690903148530 https://doi.org/10.1080/10901027.2018.1514334 https://doi.org/10.1080/02607476.2018.1465545 navigating the process of building parent-teacher partnerships: experiences of early childhood pre-service teachers journal of childhood, education & society volume 4, issue 2, 2023, 176-192 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.202342282 research article ©2023 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. promoting decoding among young students with swedish as a first and second language within a response to intervention model helén egerhag1, linda fälth2, camilla nilvius3, heidi selenius4, idor svensson5 abstract: many young students with swedish as their second language need support to acquire reading ability. there is a need for evidence-based reading instruction in early reading education for students with swedish as their first or second language. therefore, the current study investigated whether early reading education based on a response to intervention (rti) model with a focus on decoding skills can promote reading ability among young students with swedish as their first or second language. in grades 1 and 2, 113 students with swedish as a first and swedish as a second language were followed. applying the rti model, teachers used evidence-based reading instruction in the whole class. besides, additional instructions were provided in small groups and individually for students with weak decoding. results of the study showed that the additional instruction provided within the rti model had the potential to promote decoding, but to a different extent among students with swedish as their second language. the importance of differentiated instruction, early monitoring and support, a bilingual approach in reading education for second language students, and collaboration between teachers are discussed. article history received: 21 march 2023 accepted: 14 june 2023 keywords rti; swedish as a second language; reading; young students introduction competent reading is crucial for students’ development in school and is a prerequisite for academic achievement (herbers et al., 2012). therefore, acquiring good reading ability during the first school years is essential (arnold & doctoroff, 2003; herbers et al., 2012). students with another first language than the school language often need more support from the teacher to acquire good reading ability (abedi & gándara, 2006). in international evaluations, such as progress in international reading literacy study (pirls, 2011; 2016) and programme for international student assessment (pisa, 2012; 2015; 2018), second language (l2) students in grades 4 and 9 in sweden perform weaker in reading comprehension compared to first language (l1) students. their word decoding and vocabulary also lag behind their l1 peers (fälth et al., 2023). about 20% of l2 students in grades 1-3 in sweden need additional instruction to develop decoding skills, and 18-38% need additional instruction to strengthen reading comprehension. to our knowledge, no previous studies address both l1 and l2 students’ reading development in swedish in early reading education using the response to intervention (rti) model with three tiers. therefore, the current study investigated whether early reading education based on an rti model with a focus on decoding skills could promote early reading ability among young students with swedish either as their first or second language. theoretical frameworks in the theoretical model, the simple view of reading (gough & tunmer, 1986; hoover & gough, 1990), reading comprehension is conceived as the product of two factors, decoding and linguistic comprehension _____________ 1 linnaeus university, department of pedagogy and learning, växjö, sweden, e-mail: helen.egerhag@lnu.se, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1506-8409 2 linnaeus university, department of pedagogy and learning, växjö, sweden, e-mail: linda.falth@lnu.se, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7261-590x 3 linnaeus university, department of pedagogy and learning, växjö sweden, e-mail: camilla.nilvius@lnu.se, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1653-6120 4 stockholm university, faculty of social sciences, department of special education, stockholm, sweden, e-mail: heidi.selenius@specped.su.se, orcid: https://orcid.org/00000003-1502-055x 5 linnaeus university, department of health and life science, linnaeus university, växjö, sweden, e-mail: idor.svensson@lnu.se, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2608-6204 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202342282 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:helen.egerhag@lnu.se https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1506-8409 mailto:linda.falth@lnu.se https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7261-590x mailto:camilla.nilvius@lnu.se https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1653-6120 mailto:heidi.selenius@specped.su.se https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1502-055x https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1502-055x mailto:idor.svensson@lnu.se https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2608-6204 helén egerhag et al. 177 (r = d x l). the factors are combined multiplicatively, and according to the model, both fast and accurate word decoding and linguistic processes contribute to reading comprehension. if one factor is zero, the product, i.e., the reading comprehension, is zero. consistent with the model, it is also claimed that automatized word decoding frees resources for comprehension in reading. therefore, both decoding and linguistic comprehension must be stimulated and trained for both l1 and l2 students to acquire reading comprehension. likewise, in l2 reading comprehension, word decoding and linguistic comprehension are two major components contributing to reading comprehension (lee et al., 2022). in orthographic decoding, there are links between phonology, orthography, and vocabulary knowledge (ehri, 2014). therefore, word decoding and linguistic comprehension should not be seen as two separate processes. as a further development of the simple view of reading, duke and cartwright (2021) described an active view of reading, where different components of word decoding and language comprehension overlap and bridge to each other rather than influencing reading independently. for example, students with a limited vocabulary and unsecured word pronunciation might struggle to acquire decoding skills. an additional useful framework for understanding l2 students reading acquisition is the linguistic interdependent hypothesis (cummins, 1979; 2021). according to cummins, languages within multilingual learners do not develop in isolation. strong linguistic skills can be transferred between languages, and developed concepts in one language are more easily available in another. crosslinguistic transfer in reading tends to be stronger when the languages are similar according to the orthography and syllable structure (cummins, 2021; jeon & yamashita, 2014). consistent with cummins (2021), the transfer can be seen in phonological and morphological awareness, metacognitive strategies, pragmatic aspects of the language, and understanding the concepts of elements and words. melby-lervåg and lervåg (2011) reported that the association between l1 and l2 decoding is higher if both l1 and l2 are alphabetic writing systems. early reading in l1 and l2 the importance of students cracking the alphabetic principle to be able to decode is well-known; students must be taught that graphemes symbolize phonemes in alphabetic writing systems (castles et al., 2018). the national reading panel (2000) summarized what teaching reading in both l1 and l2 should focus on, namely phonological awareness and the correspondence between phonemes and graphemes, to synthesize the sounds into words, to decode words confident and correct and to make sure that the students reach reading fluency. when the student can connect phonemes to graphemes and decode isolated words without effort, this can free resources for reading comprehension (oakhill et al., 2014). skills underlying reading comprehension in l1 and l2 are similar, and fluent word recognition skills are essential for both (lipka & siegel, 2012). according to jeon and yamashita (2014), four components demonstrate strong correlations with students’ reading comprehension in l2, namely their word decoding (r=.56), vocabulary (r=.79), and grammar knowledge (r=.85). moreover, reading comprehension in l1 is positively associated with the reading comprehension in l2 (r=.50). these components are also moderated by age of the reader, l2 proficiency, the distance between l1 and l2 in both script and structure of the language. furthermore, crucial for reading comprehension in l2 is also phonological awareness, orthographic knowledge, morphological knowledge, listening comprehension, working memory, and metacognition. longitudinal studies demonstrated the significance of word decoding skills for l2 reading comprehension, particularly in the early grades (hou et al., 2021; lervåg & aukrust, 2010; verhoeven & van leeuwe, 2012). grabe (2009) argued that for l1 students, the connection between fluent word decoding and reading comprehension is strong, although more complex for l2 students since the language proficiency for l2 students varies more than for l1 students. nevertheless, lee et al. (2022) stated that the language comprehension abilities of l2 readers play a more critical role when word decoding has become fluent and efficient. moreover, vocabulary might be crucial for reading comprehension in l2 readers (droop & verhoeven, 2003; lervåg & aukrust, 2010; nation, 2009). therefore, vocabulary instruction in grades 1-3 is also necessary for l2 students to develop and acquire good reading comprehension (lervåg & aukrust, 2010). promoting decoding among young students with... 178 consistent with lovett et al. (2017), early identification of students with reading difficulties is essential, and l2 students should be offered evidence-based interventions to prevent long-term difficulties. however, few studies on reading interventions address l2 students’ individual needs in reading and their various second languages (hall et al., 2019). rivera et al. (2009) recommended that reading interventions should be carefully matched to the student’s individual needs and provided within a rti model. early reading interventions for l2 students and the response to intervention there is substantially less evidence of effective interventions for l2 students than for l1 students (hall et al., 2019). however, students learning english as l2 seem to benefit from the same explicit and systematic early interventions as l1 students (august & shanahan, 2017). according to ludwig et al. (2019), the reading interventions should not be postponed until l2 students have reached a certain level in english as an oral second language. they tend to benefit from reading interventions despite their oral language proficiency at different levels. early reading interventions for students learning english as l2 are recommended to focus on phonological awareness, grapheme-phoneme correspondence, and word decoding (hall et al., 2019). the instructions should be explicit and systematic and delivered in small groups of students (ludwig et al., 2019). however, languages differ, so research on various languages is needed. it is still unclear whether l2 students with swedish as their second language show the same benefits from early reading education as l2 students learning english. thus, there is a need to establish whether results from l2 students learning to read in english apply to l2 students acquiring reading in swedish. for example, compared to english, swedish has a shallower orthography with a more consistent grapheme-phoneme correspondence, whereas the syllabic complexity is more equivalent between these languages (seymour et al., 2003). consequently, such differences might affect the outcome of an intervention, as both syllabic complexity and the orthographic depth in a language affect decoding skills development. as mentioned, rivera et al. (2009) recommended that reading interventions for l2 students should be provided within an rti model. fuchs and fuchs (2006) described rti as a prevention model in two to four tiers with evidence-based reading instruction and early identification of students with difficulties throughout the different tiers. when using rti, the efforts increase gradually, become more individualized and rely on specialized educators to enable each student to reach the best possible result. the student’s progress is regularly monitored throughout the intervention to check that the students benefit from core classroom reading instruction and targeted and tiered interventions. data from monitoring is used to decide if there is a need for changes in curricula, materials, or instructional procedures or moving students from one tier to another. the model aims to identify students at risk of reading difficulties, provide struggling students with early support, and adapt the teaching to the needs of the students. it has been used mainly in the us (denton, 2012; mellard, 2010). the education is evidence-based and based on assessment data in different tiers (denton, 2012; fuchs & fuchs, 2006). according to fien et al. (2011), multitiered support systems can support all students’ early reading development, including english language learners, especially when l1 and l2 are alphabetic languages. according to denton (2012), three tiers in an rti model for preventing reading difficulties must include effective and explicit instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, and automatic recognition of high-frequency irregular words. moreover, vocabulary, reading fluency, and comprehension should be promoted. tier 1 is differentiated and evidence-based core classroom reading instruction. the differentiation in instruction is based on data from progress monitoring. in tier 2, additional interventions are typically provided in smaller and more homogenous group settings with more intensity, systematic, and explicit instruction based on data from student curriculum-based reading assessments. similarly, the interventions in tier 3 are based on data from the student curriculum-based reading assessment, but the instructions are more individualized and provided one-to-one with even more intensity. although there are studies (e.g., arias-gundín & garcía llamazares, 2021; gersten et al., 2020) demonstrating the importance of supporting students’ reading development in several tiers, haager (2007) discussed cautions with rti for students learning to read english as l2. for example, the evidence-based helén egerhag et al. 179 and flexible teaching in tier 1 and the additional instructions in tier 2 regarding explicit teaching in phonological awareness, letter-sound relationships, and decoding must be integrated into meaningful contexts to be appropriate for l2 students. there is limited research on rti among second-language learners. however, earlier studies have shown positive results of early tier 2 small-group reading interventions for spanish-speaking students learning english as l2 (kamps et al., 2007; nelson et al., 2011; o´connor et al., 2014). in the kamps et al. (2007) study, tier 2 interventions with small groups of 6-15 students positively affected the l2 students’ phonological awareness, grapheme-phoneme correspondence, word decoding, reading fluency, and reading comprehension. findings in the study by nelson et al. (2011) demonstrated that instructions within tier 2 positively affected root word vocabulary and word decoding among l2 students. in addition, o’connor et al. (2014) reported significantly higher outcomes in phonological awareness, nonword decoding, and word decoding at the end of grade 2 for students attending tier 2 interventions compared to a control group. in addition, o’connor et al. (2014) did not find significant differences between l1 and l2 students in response to the tier 2 treatment condition. aim of the present study no previous studies have, to our knowledge, addressed the rti model and targeted young students’ individual needs to develop basic reading skills and word decoding, focusing on l1 and l2 students. therefore, it is also unclear whether early reading education using an rti model could support both l1 and l2 students’ reading development and prevent them from later reading difficulties. early reading instruction should have a strong focus on supporting young students to acquire a secure phonemegrapheme correspondence, cracking the alphabetical principle, and decoding skills (castles et al., 2018), which one of our previous studies on a multi-tier rti model focused on and showed positive outcomes in students’ development of decoding skills (nilvius, 2022; nilvius et al., 2023). the proportion of students with weak decoding skills was significantly reduced after two years of reading education compared to a reference group. however, whether the l2 students benefitted from the multi-tier reading instructions is unclear. therefore, the present study investigated whether early reading education based on an rti model with a focus on decoding skills could promote early reading ability among young students with swedish as their first or second language. the following research questions guided the study: • do l1 and l2 students have different letter knowledge, listening comprehension, decoding, and reading comprehension skills at the beginning of grade 1? • what proportion of l1 and l2 students perform below or at the 25th percentile in decoding tests after one semester of evidence-based reading education within tier 1 and were therefore provided additional decoding instruction within tier 2 during grade 1? • what proportion of l1 and l2 students performed below or at the 25th percentile in decoding tests in grade 2 and were provided additional decoding instruction within tiers 2 and 3? materials and methods context of the study the present study was conducted in grades 1 and 2 in three swedish schools in rural areas. in sweden, parents can choose a school, but most commonly, students attend the school nearest their homes. the year the students turn six, students in sweden start a compulsory preschool class. preschool and compulsory school are free of charge (swedish education act, 2010:800). in elementary schools in sweden, teachers are expected to meet students' diversity (e.g., ethnicity, educational background, language, special needs) and adjust the education for all students in the classroom. the swedish national curriculum (swedish national agency for education, 2022a) emphasizes the importance of including play in preschool class education. in addition, educational activities within the preschool class aim to stimulate language development and prepare students for reading education. the year students turn seven years old, they start first grade, and the formal teaching of reading in the subject swedish or swedish as a second language starts. there are two options for l2 students: they can follow the curriculum for swedish or swedish as a second language. the principal will decide for each l2 student promoting decoding among young students with... 180 which curriculum is most appropriate (swedish school ordinance, 2011:185). teaching in swedish as a second language starts from a second language perspective, but the knowledge requirements in reading in the two subjects are similar and specified for grades 1-3. in both swedish and swedish as a second language, the connection between sound and letter and strategies for word decoding are addressed. in the current study, the teaching for both l1 and l2 students was conducted in the same classroom. participants in the current study, 113 students participated, 53% were boys, and 47% were girls. at the beginning of the study, they attended first grade in elementary schools in sweden. their mean age was 7.2 years (sd=0.3), and 30 (27%) students had swedish as their second language. the first language of the l2 students was albanian (n=1), arabic (n=3), assyrian (n=1), bosnian (n=10), chinese (n=2), finnish (n=1), polish (n=1), syrian (n=1), tigress (n=1), twi (n=1), and vietnamese (n=4). five (4% of the total sample) students arrived in sweden close to the school start in grade 1, which was also the same time as the start of the present study. therefore, these five students had not attended preschool or preschool class education in sweden. consequently, the participating students had different educational backgrounds, exposure to swedish as l2, and had reached different levels of their oral second language. all students and their caregivers signed an informed consent form. the study has received ethical approval (dnr 2019-04814). measures we used several reading tests to measure the students’ letter knowledge, decoding of nonwords and words, listening comprehension, and reading comprehension in grades 1 and 2. the tests were retrieved from legilexi (fälth et al., 2017). legilexi is a non-profit, free-of-charge, educational online resource for teachers reading education of swedish students in grades 1–3. during the school year 2021 to 2022, about 20000 teachers were registered for using legilexi’s tests, and about 126000 students were assessed with the tests (legilexi, 2023). legilexi’s tests have also been applied in previous reading research (hallin et al., 2022; fälth et al., 2023). for the present study, legilexi was contacted, and we received cut-off scores for the 25th percentile based on the performance of over 16 000 students. the cut-off scores were delivered for each test and grade. the test procedure was standardized and followed the instruction in the test manual (fälth et al., 2017). paper and pen versions of the tests were applied in the current study. the researchers collected all data at the beginning, middle, and end of grades 1 and 2 with six tests described in more detail below. letter knowledge letter knowledge was measured in a group setting three times during first grade. the test leader pronounced the phoneme, articulated the sound, and stated, for example, l as in lamp and s as in the sun. the students were instructed to choose the corresponding grapheme from 10 possible alternatives. students could receive scores between 1 and 12, where a higher score indicated better performance. the test took five minutes to complete. the test-restest correlation for grade 1 is r=.58 (fälth et al., 2017). listening comprehension the listening comprehension test was conducted in a group setting three times in grade 1 and on the last test occasion in grade 2. the test leader read a text out loud, and the students were instructed to choose one picture out of five corresponding with the text. it starts with simple sentences like today the sun is shining, and leo goes out without a jacket. then the sentences become more numerous and extended; for example, it is friday. when school is over, sara calls home. she wants to bring leo home to play, but sara's mom says they are going to the supermarket to shop for the weekend. she says sara will get to choose ice cream for their friday treat. sara and leo are disappointed but decide to play tomorrow instead. what does sara do after school? the helén egerhag et al. 181 scores on the test are between 0 and 12, and high scores indicate better performance. the test-retest correlation reported for grades 1 and 2 is r=.65-.59 (fälth et al., 2017). decoding words the test leader accomplished the test by measuring word decoding skills individually with each student. the student was requested to read aloud common words with increasing length and difficulty as quickly and accurately as possible within one minute. the test initiates with elementary two-letter words, e.g., on, in, me, to gradually increase the number of letters to a maximum of seven and complexity, specifically in consonant clusters, e.g., think, summer, before, running. one correct read word represented one score. the maximum test score was 144. for students in grades 1-2, the reported test-retest correlation is r=.88-.89 (fälth et al., 2017). decoding nonwords the test measuring nonword decoding skills was also completed individually with each student. the students were asked to read aloud nonwords from a horizontal list of nonwords with increasing length and difficulty. in line with the decoding words test, this assessment commences with two-letter words and progressively increases the number of letters to a maximum of seven. one correctly read nonword represented one score; the maximum test score and the maximum score was 84. the test-retest correlation is r=.84-.85 for grades 1 to 2 (fälth et al., 2017). reading comprehension – short text the reading comprehension “short text” test was carried out in groups of students. the task for the student was to read short texts of one to three sentences silently on their own and mark the corresponding picture from a choice of five options. the test commences with short sentences, such as sara jumps high, and gradually increases in length and complexity, exemplified by sentences like simon runs and runs. he climbs over a fence, runs under a bridge, and then up a high hill. there, the headwind blows fiercely. the test is timelimited to five minutes. the maximum score for the test was 12, and the test-retest correlation reported for grades 1 to 2 is r=.73-.80 (fälth et al., 2017). reading comprehension – long text the second applied reading comprehension test, “long text”, is developed for students attending grades 2 and 3. the test was completed in a group setting. the task for the student was to read silently on their own and mark the correct answer out of three multiple-choice questions corresponding to the text. the length and complexity of the six texts in the test increased; the time limit was 7 minutes. for example, one of the texts was: the sun is shining, and it is warm outside. when axel looks out the window, he sees grandma coming. she is carrying a large cake and three small packages. she walks carefully on the small road that leads up to the house. the maximum score was 18, and the reported test-retest correlation for grade 2 is r=.82 (fälth et al., 2017). procedure the study was implemented according to the rti model in three tiers, and all participating teachers and special needs teachers were given training before the study. primary school teachers and special education teachers implemented the intervention. there were seven teachers, each responsible for a class, and all qualified to teach reading at the primary school level. their working experience ranged from 4 to 30 years. besides, each of the three participating schools had one special needs teacher. none of the teachers or the special needs teachers had prior experience working with rti in practice. therefore, the research team presented the project plan and provided the teachers with training to familiarize them with the rti model and intervention content, which focused on balanced and evidencebased reading instruction following the recommendations of taube et al. (2015). the recommendations comprise systematic and explicit instruction of grapheme-phoneme correspondence, counteracting word guessing in reading (secure correct decoding), repeated reading to obtain fluency (as a motivational promoting decoding among young students with... 182 activity), implicit and explicit word activities, and reading comprehension strategies. in addition, the teachers had an introduction to legilexi and how the test material could be applied to monitor individual students’ progress during the project. students were assessed at the beginning, middle, and end of grades 1 and 2. from the middle of grade 1, those students scoring at or below the 25th percentile on the tests measuring word or nonword decoding were considered in need of additional instruction provided in tier 2 or 3. monitoring was conducted by the researchers and occurred before, in the middle and end of tier 2 and 3. the teachers and the research team jointly analyzed the data obtained from the reading test and the observations made by teachers in the classroom regarding the reading development of each student. this monitoring aimed to facilitate the differentiation of teaching methods and interventions and to determine the students who would benefit from tier 2 and tier 3 interventions and the extent to which these interventions should be provided for each student. evidence-based instruction in grade 1 the teaching in grade 1 followed evidence-based recommendations for early reading education (taube et al., 2015). in the first semester of grade 1, l1 and l2 students were taught together in the classroom. they were all provided reading instruction within tier 1, and no additional teaching was provided for l2 students. students’ reading was monitored with several reading tests (see the section on measures). those identified as having weak grapheme-phoneme correspondence knowledge and decoding skills at the beginning of grade 1 were explicitly highlighted to the teachers as needing targeted instruction during the first semester in tier 1. after one semester of reading education in tier 1, students scoring at or below the 25th percentile on the tests measuring word or nonword decoding were considered in need of additional instruction offered in tier 2. therefore, during the second semester in grade 1, students were taught reading in tiers 1 and 2. tier 1. ordinary teaching for all students was provided within tier 1 in the current study. consequently, all students participated in tier 1 in the classroom setting during the first semester in grade 1. they were taught together in the classroom, and the teachers provided differentiated reading instruction for 7 hours per week. the teaching followed evidence-based recommendations for early reading education from taube et al. (2015), including explicit and systematic teaching of grapheme-phoneme correspondence, counteraction of word guessing to secure correct decoding, repeated reading to obtain reading fluency and motivation, implicit and explicit word activities, and reading comprehension strategies. the teachers strived for a balanced reading program. the students used a reading book in swedish for beginners (felth sjölund et al., 2011) with three different decoding levels, enabling a joint reading experience for the whole class. a new chapter, a new grapheme, and the corresponding phoneme were introduced weekly. students were instructed to read the week's chapter several times at school and at home to enhance reading fluency. the most advanced book was also used when the teacher read for the students to stimulate language development, listening comprehension, and vocabulary. in addition, multisensory activities were used for grapheme-phoneme correspondence training. the reading in the book was inspired by reciprocal teaching (palinscar & brown, 1984). in reciprocal teaching, the teachers educate students to acquire reading comprehension strategies. difficult words from the chapter were explicitly explained. the tier 1 instruction also contained additional reading of fiction books, writing activities, and illustrations and dramatizations of the texts. tier 2. students with weak letter knowledge or decoding skills (i.e., <25th percentile) were provided additional instruction within tier 2. a special needs teacher provided the tier 2 instruction in small groups with 2-5 students in three 30-minute lessons for five weeks, a total of 15 lessons. l1 and l2 students were mixed in small groups. the teaching was primarily focused on grapheme-phoneme correspondence using the fonomix material (löwenbrand-jansson, 2018). this material is inspired by lindamood and lindamood (1998) and is multisensory, and concretizes the phoneme-grapheme correspondence. in addition, the students practiced phoneme synthesis by decoding lists with words and nonwords (wendick, 2018) and reading fluency by repeatedly reading texts from a swedish book series for beginners (natur & kultur, 2020). when students spontaneously asked questions about the meaning of single words or texts, helén egerhag et al. 183 the special needs teachers explained the content. materials and instruction were differentiated in word complexity level according to each student's progress. evidence-based instruction in grade 2 in grade 2, the students continued to be taught reading in tier 1, and the teachers used evidencebased teaching based on recommendations by taube et al. (2015). data from continuous monitoring informed the teachers during grade 2 regarding students’ progress in reading, especially decoding. those who had not reached the 25th percentile in word or nonword decoding were provided additional instruction in tiers 2 or 3 during the first and second semesters of grade 2. when a student reached the 25th percentile on nonword and word decoding, the student participated only in regular teaching within tier 1. tier 1. a balanced reading program was provided to l1 and l2 students, who were educated together in the classroom. their education was mainly based on a reading book (felth sjölund et al., 2012). the book was available in two versions with different text complexity but the same content, which enabled the teacher to differentiate the reading instruction and give the students a joint reading experience. each week a new chapter in the book was presented to the students, who read the text several times in school and as homework—the repeated reading of the chapters aimed to enhance each student's reading fluency. the teacher explicitly taught difficult words and reading comprehension strategies following recommendations by palinscar and brown (1984) and strived to enhance the students’ motivation to read and their ability to formulate their ideas in writing. the students also illustrated and dramatized text from fiction books during the lessons. tier 2 and tier 3. a special needs teacher provided additional instruction for students with weak decoding skills (i.e., <25th percentile). teaching in tier 2 was offered to 2-5 students in a group. l1 and l2 students were taught together and provided three 30-minute weekly lessons for five weeks, a total of 15 lessons. if needed, the students were, after four weeks, offered 15 additional lessons within tier 2 and, after that, moved to tier 3 for one-to-one tutoring. in tier 3, students were provided five 30-minute weekly lessons for three weeks, a total of 15. the content of tiers 2 and 3 was the same as provided in tier 2 in grade 1, with instruction differentiated in complexity level to each student’s individual needs. when the students cracked the alphabetic code by training in grapheme-phoneme correspondence, this increased the training in phoneme synthesis and word decoding. this was followed by training in reading fluency by repeatedly reading. fidelity in the current study, all teachers were qualified to teach both the subject swedish and swedish as a second language in grades 1-3. furthermore, the research team advised and guided the teachers and special needs teachers throughout the study. students’ progress according to the test results was discussed during six meetings between researchers and teachers and special needs teachers. at these meetings, joint decisions were made about students’ needs for additional instruction in tiers 2 and 3. a logbook was used by the teachers and the special needs teachers during the study. they documented the content of the lessons within tiers 1-3, and the logbooks revealed that they followed the instruction recommended by taube et al. (2015). moreover, to secure fidelity, one of the authors visited all special needs teachers during at least one tier 2 or tier 3 session to observe whether the instructional recommendations were applied accurately. it was noted that special needs teachers typically followed decided instructions. analysis of data data were analyzed with ibm spss statistics, version 29. in order to evaluate differences in test scores between l1 and l2 students independent sample t-test was applied, whereas the pearson chi-square test was used for category data. fisher’s exact test was applied in cases with less than 5 cases in a cell. the promoting decoding among young students with... 184 decrease of students scoring at or below the 25th percentile in word and nonword decoding was conducted with the mcnemar test. the significance level was set to 5%, and we applied two-tailed tests. results l1 and l2 students' reading ability at the beginning of grade 1 at the beginning of grade 1, all students performed tests in alphabetic knowledge, listening comprehension, decoding of words and nonwords , and reading comprehension. the test scores of l1 and l2 students at t1 were compared, and no significant differences were found except in listening comprehension (see table 1). table 1. comparison of reading test scores between students with swedish as l1 and l2 at the beginning of grade 1. l1 (n=83) l2 (n=30) test m (sd) m (sd) t (111) p letter knowledge 10.5 (2.1) 9.5 (2.9) 1.70 .08 listening comprehension 9.8 (1.7) 8.2 (2.7) 3.16 .01 decoding words 21.6 (18.7) 19.0 (22.0) 0.58 .36 decoding nonword 8.7 (7.9) 8.4 (9.7) 0.15 .38 reading comprehension, short text 3.7 (3.3) 3.0 (3.7) 0.88 .79 the proportion of l1 and l2 students in need of additional decoding instruction during grade 1 students ' word and nonword decoding was assessed after one semester of evidence-based teaching in tier 1. those who scored at or below the 25th percentile in any of the two tests were considered at risk of reading difficulties. there were students scoring at or below the 25th percentile in either of the two decoding tests (n=46, 41%). in the word decoding test, l1 students (n=30, 36%) and l2 students (n=13, 43%) scored at or below the 25th percentile (χ2=0.48, df=1, p=.49, phi=0.49). the difference was not significant. in the nonword decoding test, l1 students (n=32, 39%) and l2 students (n=16, 53%) scored at or below the 25th percentile (χ2=1.97, df=1, p=.16, phi=0.13). consequently, many l1 and l2 students needed additional decoding instruction during the second semester of grade 1. this instruction was provided in tier 2 for l1 students (n=19, 23%) and l2 students (n=15, 50%). the proportion of the l2 students requiring additional instruction was higher, but the difference was not significant (χ2 =7.70, df=1, p=.01, phi=0.26). the students’ decoding skills were assessed at the end of grade 1. in the word decoding test, l1 students (n=15, 18%) and l2 students (n=8, 27%) still scored at or below the 25th percentile, and in the nonword decoding test, l1 students (n=19, 23%) and l2 students (n=10, 33%) scored at or below the 25th percentile. the proportion of students who scored at or below the 25th percentile in word decoding decreased during the second semester (χ2 =18.05, df=1, p<.001), as well as in nonword decoding (χ2 =12.00, df=1, p<.001). the decreased number of students with weak word decoding was significant among l1 students (χ2 =13.07, df=1, p<.001) but not among the l2 students (χ2 =3.20, df=1, p=.06). a similar pattern was found in nonword decoding; there was a significant decrease of l1 students with weak decoding (χ2 =8.47, df=1, p=.01) but not l2 students (χ2 =2.50, df=1, p=.11). some l1 and l2 students still needed support to develop their decoding at the end of grade 1. table 2. the proportion of l1 and l2 students scoring at or below the 25th percentile in reading tests at the end of grade 1 total sample (n=113) l1 (n=83) l2 (n=30) test n (%) n (%) n (%) x2 p ϕ letter knowledge 9 (8) 3 (4) 6 (20) 8.07 .01 .27 listening comprehension 6 (5) 2 (2) 4 (13) 5.23 .04 .22 word decoding 23 (20) 15 (18) 8 (27) 1.00 .32 .09 nonword decoding 29 (26) 19 (23) 10 (33) 1.26 .26 .11 reading comprehension, short text 21 (19) 11 (13) 10 (33) 5.87 .02 .31 note: chi2 was calculated with pearson chi-square. effect sizes are presented with phi, and .1 is considered a small effect, .3 is a medium effect, and .5 is a large effect. helén egerhag et al. 185 besides the decoding tests, the students were assessed with letter knowledge, listening comprehension, and reading comprehension at the end of grade 1. a significantly higher proportion of l2 students scored at or below the 25th percentile in letter knowledge, listening comprehension, and reading comprehension than l1 students at the end of grade 1 (see table 2). among the l2 students with weak letter knowledge, 3 of 5 students had arrived in sweden close to the start of grade 1 compared to 3 of 25 l2 students with experience of swedish preschool class education (χ2 =5.69, df=1, p=.05, phi=-0.44). however, no significant differences in word and nonword decoding among the l1 and l2 students were found at the end of grade 1. the proportion of l1 and l2 students in need of additional decoding instruction during grade 2 at the beginning of grade 2, students were again assessed with decoding tests to evaluate their need for additional instruction. in the word decoding test, l1 students (n=16, 19%) and l2 students (n=9, 30%) scored at or below the 25th percentile. the proportion of students with such low scores in word decoding did not differ between l1 and l2 students (χ2 =1.47, df=1, p=.23, phi=.11). in the nonword decoding test, l1 students (n=14, 17%) and l2 students (n=7, 23%) scored at or below the 25th percentile. the proportion of students with weak nonword decoding skills did not differ between l1 and l2 students (χ2 =0.61, df=1, p=.44, phi=.07). during grade 2, students with weak decoding skills were offered additional instruction in tiers 2 and 3. both l1 (n=17, 21%) and l2 students (n=7, 23%) were supported in tier 2, whereas l1 students (n=8, 10%) and l2 students (n=6, 20%) had additional instruction in tier 3. a slightly larger proportion of l2 than l1 students were supported in tier 2 and 3 in grade 2 (33% vs. 27%). the difference was not significant (χ2 =2.18, df=1, p=.19, phi=.14). the proportion of students scoring below or at the 25th percentile in any of the word and nonword decoding tests decreased during grade 2. from 22% to 13% in word decoding (χ2 =8.10, df=1, p=.004) and 19% to 11% in nonword decoding (χ2 =4.92, df=1, p=.02). further analyses revealed that the proportion of l1 students with weak word decoding had significantly decreased during grade 2 (χ2 =5.14, df=1, p=.02), but the proportion of l1 students with weak nonword decoding did not significantly decrease (χ2 =1.79, df=1, p=.12). according to our results, the proportion of l2 scoring below or at the 25th percentile in word decoding (χ2 =1.33, df=1, p=.25) and nonword decoding (χ2 =2.25, df=1, p=.13) had not significantly decreased. for the proportions of l1 and l2 students with weak decoding skills, see table 3. besides the decoding tests, the students were also assessed with listening and reading comprehension tests at the end of grade 2. the proportion of students scoring at or below the 25th percentile is presented in table 3. the proportion of students with weak listening comprehension was significantly higher among the l2 than l1 students. similarly, a higher proportion of the l2 had weak reading comprehension of a long text than the l1 students. table 3. the proportion of l1 and l2 students scoring at or below the 25th percentile at the end of grade 2 total sample (n=113) l1 (n=83) l2 (n=30) test n (%) n (%) n (%) x2 p ϕ listening comprehension 9 (8) 3 (4) 6 (20) 8.07 .01 .27 word decoding 15 (13) 9 (11) 6 (20) 1.61 .21 .12 nonword decoding 12 (11) 9 (11) 3 (10) 0.02 1.00 .01 reading comprehension, short text 18 (16) 10 (12) 8 (27) 3.52 .06 .18 reading comprehension, long text 30 (27) 17 (21) 13 (43) 5.90 .02 .23 note: chi2 was calculated with pearson chi-square. effect sizes are presented with phi, and .1 is considered a small effect, .3 is a medium effect, and .5 is a large effect. conclusion and discussion the present study investigated whether early reading education based on an rti model with a focus on decoding skills could promote reading ability among young students with swedish as either their first promoting decoding among young students with... 186 or second language. the result showed that early reading education based on an rti model with a focus on decoding skills, aiming to support all students but not with a particular focus on l2 students, has the potential to promote decoding among l1 and l2 students in grades 1 and 2. the decoding instructions must be differentiated to each l1 and l2 student's reading development and needs. the proportion of l1 and l2 students scoring at or below the 25th percentile in word decoding decreased in grades 1 and 2; however, the decrease was only significant for the l1 students. an explanation could be the more limited vocabulary knowledge among l2 than l1 students. this might entail that it is more difficult for l2 students to build up an l2 reading vocabulary and to use contextual clues in word decoding, and the orthographic processes might be slower for l2 students than for l1 students (see verhoeven, 2000). therefore, word decoding and comprehension should not be seen as separate factors but rather as overlapping and influencing each other (duke & cartwright, 2021). the more positive results among l1 students might also be explained by statistical power due to the limited sample size of l2 students. however, comparing l1 and l2 students revealed small word and nonword decoding effect sizes. this indicates that early reading education based on an rti model with a focus on decoding skills, aiming to support all students and not with a particular focus on l2 students, has the potential to promote reading ability in swedish among both young l1 and l2 students. consequently, many of the students were able to develop early basic reading skills, such as cracking the alphabetical principle, developing secure grapheme-phoneme correspondence, synthesizing the sounds into words, and decoding words confidently and correctly. these are essential skills to focus on in early reading education (national reading panel, 2000; verhoeven, 2000). the importance of fluent word decoding for the development of reading comprehension has been highlighted in reading research for both l1 and l2 students (lipka & siegel, 2012). the l1 and l2 students’ development of decoding skills in the current study could be explained by the early identification of their needs in basic reading skills (lovett et al., 2017). another explanation could be that both l1 and l2 students were monitored throughout the early grades and that the tiers were matched to the individual needs of each student according to the rti model (rivera et al., 2009). worth noting is that a larger proportion of the l2 students were supported during both the second semester in grade 1 and during grade 2 compared to the l1 students, but the difference was not significant. this is in line with abedi and gándara (2006), who stated that students with another first language than the school language often need more support from the teacher to develop good reading ability. their challenges in learning to read in a second language could result from difficulties grasping the linguistic patterns of the second language (verhoeven, 2000). it is also possible that the larger proportion of l2 students in need of additional support in word decoding could be related to the fact that the l2 students, to a higher degree than l1 students, may not have known the meanings of the words. vocabulary knowledge is crucial for early reading in l2 (droop & verhoeven, 2003; lervåg & aukrust, 2010). as decoding a word can be supported by the student's understanding of the word or the surrounding words (ehri, 1998; 2014), the special needs teachers in the current study explicitly taught difficult words and reading comprehension strategies, especially in tier 2. such instruction will support the student in predicting which word will come next, thus facilitating decoding. subsequently, the early reading instructions within the current study might have contributed to the support of l2 students' development of word decoding skills. the positive effects of the rti model with a focus on decoding skills to promote early reading development among l1 and l2 students with weak decoding skills could be related to teachers' high expectations of both l1 and l2 students. l1 and l2 students were considered as having reading difficulties if they scored at or below the 25th percentile and had the same assess to additional instruction in tier 2 and 3. that might have led to high expectations for both l1 and l2 students' development of decoding skills. the importance of high expectations of students’ academic achievement independently of their ethnic group has been highlighted previously (peterson et al., 2016). high expectations are also a part of the conceptualization of differentiation in education. eikeland and ohna (2022) described four levels of differentiation: differentiation as individualization, as an adaption to specific groups, as adaptions within diverse classrooms, and in a systematic perspective. at the first level, i.e., differentiation as individualization, teachers’ high expectations of their students to achieve their full academic potential is helén egerhag et al. 187 essential. in addition, at this level, differentiation means adapting the tasks and teaching to each student’s different needs and skills in early reading. adapting teaching to specific groups and within diverse classrooms entails finding effective strategies for teaching learners of different levels of reading development and proficiency in a second language. the fourth level of differentiation is a systematic perspective, which includes a broader context beyond just teachers and classrooms. it includes school leadership's role in making differentiation an everyday school practice. in the rti model used in the current study, the instruction in three tiers was differentiated as individualization in specific groups and diverse classrooms, trying to find effective strategies for learners of different levels. further, tomlinson (2015) highlighted assessment as a part of the differentiated classroom and instruction centered on the learner, knowledge, and community. in the present study, data from assessing students’ letter knowledge, decoding of nonwords and words, listening comprehension, and reading comprehension continuously informed the teachers on how to differentiate the instruction into different tiers. the present study showed that word decoding interventions might effectively support students with swedish as a second language at different stages. this aligns with ludwig et al. (2019), who argued that such interventions should not be postponed until students have reached a confidence level in the oral abilities of the second language. given that languages do not develop in isolation, cross-language carryovers can be possible regarding phonological awareness and early reading skills (cummins, 1979; 2021; jeon & yamashita, 2014). consequently, a student with well-developed language proficiency in l1 may find it easier to develop reading skills in l2. likewise, it might be a greater challenge to develop early reading in l2 if the student has an l1 that differs regarding the alphabetic writing system, orthography, or syllable structure in the current l2 (jeon & yamashita, 2014; melby-lervåg & lervåg, 2011). waiting to provide additional instruction can leave l2 students lagging behind their peers in developing decoding skills. all students should have the opportunity to acquire fluent word decoding as soon as possible. the relationship between basic reading skills and vocabulary is highlighted by stanovich (1986), who describes the matthew effect whereby the ‘rich-get-richer.’ for example, students who read with success in the early grades get a richer vocabulary, and a richer vocabulary and language skills contribute to success in reading development. the relationship between regular early reading, a developed vocabulary, and a deeper understanding of reading is also confirmed in later studies (keuleers et al., 2015; nation, 2009; schoonen & verhallen, 2008). consequently, good decoding ability is essential for both l1 and l2 students at all levels of language acquisition to create a positive spiral. that means it is essential as soon as possible to provide all students with learning opportunities to acquire basic reading skills in their early school years. all students should have the possibility to practice reading and become better word decoders and build vocabulary through their reading. practical implications one useful model for planning and teaching reading education to young l1 and l2 students is the simple view of reading (gottardo & mueller, 2009; jeon & yamashita, 2014; sparks, 2019). this model by gough and tunmer (1986) highlights the importance of focusing on both decoding and linguistic comprehension to acquire good reading comprehension. results from the present study showed that decoding skills can be taught to both l1 and l2 young students. however, teachers should be aware that decoding and linguistic comprehension are related (see the active model of reading, duke & cartwright, 2021). consequently, both decoding and linguistic comprehension should be included in early reading education to promote all students reading acquisition. the results of our study highlighted the importance of early monitoring of all students’ reading abilities to support their teachers in providing differentiated instruction. early and differentiated reading education provided in the whole class, in small groups, and with individual students has the potential to meet the needs of both l1 and l2 students and to develop their word decoding skills. l2 students at different levels of their second language development can benefit from interventions regarding word decoding. we argue that there is no need to delay interventions regarding basic reading skills until l2 students have reached a certain level in the second language, in line with earlier research on students promoting decoding among young students with... 188 learning english as l2 (ludwig et al., 2019). l1 and l2 students needing support should be identified and supported to develop secure word decoding in tier 2 as early as possible. the study indicated that early reading interventions for l1 and l2 students could be provided in the same groups according to the rti model to support all students' word decoding skills. when l1 and l2 students attend the same group, their heterogeneity might benefit the students' decoding skills development (woore, 2010). for example, l2 students might find distinguishing between graphemes in swedish easier when they hear accurate pronunciation from their l1 peers when attending the same group. our findings also revealed that only 15 lessons of small group interventions in tier 2 could improve word decoding during grade 1 for some l1 and l2 students. monitoring the students’ reading ability and the differentiated teaching in tier 1 during both grade 1 and grade 2 could also motivate both l1 and l2 students who have reached secure word decoding skills and reading fluency to develop reading comprehension further. some l1 and l2 students still needed support at the end of grade 2. therefore continuous monitoring and support of the reading development in grade 3 are essential. students who still score below the 25th percentile in decoding at the end of grade 2 should continue to be provided instruction in tier 2 and tier 3 in grade 3. to enable all students to crack the alphabetic principle and develop secure grapheme-phoneme correspondence in the first part of the first semester in grade 1 (castles et al., 2018), we first suggest monitoring letter knowledge and word decoding skills during the first semester in grade 1. we also recommend providing additional decoding instruction in tier 2 as early as possible, i.e., in the second part of the first semester in grade 1, especially for l2 students in need of developing secure grapheme-phoneme correspondence. according to verhoeven (2000), being able to distinguish sounds can be more challenging for l2 students, and the orthographic processes can be slower than for l1 students. therefore additional instruction could be necessary for l2 students who struggle with grapheme-phoneme correspondence and word decoding. of course, early reading education should focus on more than just developing the students’ decoding skills; a balanced approach is preferable (taube et al., 2015). our results indicate that systematic decoding instruction limits the number of students with weak decoding skills, although not significantly among l2 students. similarly, some students might need more intense and systematic instruction in vocabulary, grammar, and reading comprehension strategies (e.g., jeon & yamashita, 2014) to acquire reading comprehension. collaboration between class teachers, second language teachers, first language teachers, and special needs teachers in assessment, evidence-based teaching, and interventions is crucial during the early school years. this suggestion aligns with fuchs and fuchs (2006), who argued for involving more specialized educators throughout the rti model to enable each student to reach the best possible result. the second language teacher has knowledge about second language acquisition and teaching from a second language perspective in all tiers. the first language teacher could contribute with knowledge about the structure of the student's first language and the language proficiency in l1 to take cross-linguistic carryovers between languages into account (cummins, 1979, 2021; jeon & yamashita, 2014). besides, the special needs teacher’s competence in reading difficulties, assessment of reading development, and content of the interventions to meet each student's reading development needs are valuable in the different tiers of rti. limitations and future studies the current study has some limitations. firstly, the nonsignificant results could result from the small sample size that limits the statistical power. secondly, the group of l2 students is heterogeneous in language and exposure to swedish. besides, like l1 students, these students' results could be influenced by additional factors such as developmental disorders, social-economic status, and other cultural and social factors. moreover, the student’s exposure to the latin alphabet could vary. these factors were impossible to control for in the present study due to the limited number of l2 students in each group, but they could be a focus of future studies. the proportion of l2 students was 27% in the current study and corresponded to the national average of l2 students in grades 1-2 in sweden, which was 26% in grades 1-2 in the school year 2021/2022 helén egerhag et al. 189 (swedish national agency for education, 2022b). in replicating the study with more participants, the proportion of l2 students should still correspond to the national average proportion of l2 students. also, in a future study, it would be valuable to include a comparison group without additional instructions in the multi-tier rti model to evaluate the effects of the different tiers on the reading ability among l1 and l2 students. according to our results, l2 students had a weaker result than l1 students in reading comprehension at the end of grades 1 and 2. this aligns with grabe (2009), who argues that the connection between word decoding and reading comprehension varies more for l2 and l1 students. therefore, future studies should investigate the impact of an rti model on vocabulary and comprehension skills in l1 and l2 students in grades 2 and 3. future studies should also investigate whether differentiated teaching in tier 1 or tier 2 and 3 interventions is more effective for developing vocabulary, grammar, and comprehension skills. differentiated instruction in tier 1 might be preferable regarding how much additional instruction the students can handle. the fourth level of differentiation (e.g., eikland & ohna, 2022) is also essential to consider in future studies, i.e., differentiation in a broader context than teachers and classrooms and the role of the school leadership in making differentiation a norm pattern in schools. the evidence-based teaching in tier 1 in the current study was based on taube et al. (2015) recommendations but did not have a particular focus on second language development. therefore, evidence-based teaching from a second language perspective in tier 1 could be a focus of future studies. besides, it is crucial to integrate instruction within all tiers into meaningful contexts to be suitable for l2 students (haager, 2007). tier 1, aimed at supporting all students, may need to provide more explicit, scaffolded instruction and practice for l2 students (fien et al., 2011). accordingly, fien argued that future studies should examine the intensity and the length of the interventions to develop the language proficiency of l2 students. l2 students need more time and teaching from a second language perspective to develop cognitive academic language proficiency (cummins, 1979; 2021). declarations authors’ declarations acknowledgments: the authors want to thank john rack for the language review. authors’ contributions: he conceptualized and wrote the present study. it is part of a research project designed by lf, cn, and is. both cn and lf trained teachers and collected data. he reviewed and summarized the literature. hs performed the statistical analysis and revised and edited the article. lf, cn, and is reviewed the article. competing interests: the authors declare that they have no competing interests. funding: he and cn have been part of the swedish research school special education for teacher educators (set), funded by the swedish research council (grant no. 2017-06039). ethics approval and consent to participate: the study has received ethical approval (dnr 2019-04814). all participants received both oral and written information about the study, which was voluntary. all participants agreed to participate. publisher’s declarations editorial acknowledgement: the editorial process of this article was carried out by dr. ibrahim h acar. publisher’s note: journal of childhood, education & society remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliation. references abedi, j., & gándara, p. 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engagement; childcare; toddlers introduction today, there is an ever-growing number of children with and without disabilities playing and learning together in childcare programs across the nation (division for early childhood/national association for the education of young children (dec/naeyc, 2009). in 2019, 59% of children from birth to age five participated in nonparental childcare (national center for education statistics [nces], 2021). with this growing demand for childcare, centers must work to find ways to engage families in their children’s early education. family engagement is a high-quality indicator in childcare programs that underscores early childhood inclusive practices (soukakou, 2016). family engagement refers to a partnership between families and early educators where acceptance, communication, support, collaboration, and bidirectional feedback are common practices to support positive gains in child outcomes (soodak et al., 2002; soukakou, 2016). xu and filler (2008) noted family engagement within childcare programs is one of the strongest child development predictors. furthermore, comer and ben-avie (2010) emphasize that combining quality educational practices and family engagement practices effectively promote young children’s learning and development. as families and educators engage with one another, mutual feelings of belonging and community develop that impact how children play, learn, and develop new skills as learners (comer & ben-avie, 2010). when high-quality programs implement family engagement practices, both families and young children benefit (el nokali et al., 2010; powell et al., 2010). bronfenbrenner (1979) explained that the family is a highly effective system for encouraging and _____________ 1 university of southern mississippi, graduate student of education and human sciences, school of education, hattiesburg, us, email: julianna.lieb@usm.edu, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6775-0610 2 university of southern mississippi, faculty of education and human sciences, school of education, hattiesburg, us, email: audra.classen@usm.edu.edu, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1196-8167 3 university of southern mississippi, faculty of education and human sciences, school of child and family sciences, us, email: lindsay.wright@usm.edu, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4636-4243 4 university of southern mississippi, faculty of education and human sciences, school of education, hattiesburg, us, email: hollie.filce@usm.edu, orcid: https://orcid.org/00000001-7352-2326 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.202342251 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:julianna.lieb@usm.edu https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3a%2f%2forcid.org%2f0000-0002-6775-0610%3flang%3den&data=05%7c01%7cjulianna.lieb%40usm.edu%7c80f86fc2ee8c463f8d1208db8175e8f1%7c7f3da4be2722432ebfa764080d1eb1dc%7c0%7c0%7c638246115676034523%7cunknown%7ctwfpbgzsb3d8eyjwijoimc4wljawmdailcjqijoiv2lumziilcjbtii6ik1hawwilcjxvci6mn0%3d%7c3000%7c%7c%7c&sdata=f%2bwuz6v8ypwhe59bj%2fwgkytld21lub7j%2bn324%2fnp7um%3d&reserved=0 mailto:audra.classen@usm.edu.edu https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1196-8167 mailto:lindsay.wright@usm.edu https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4636-4243 mailto:hollie.filce@usm.edu https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7352-2326 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7352-2326 julianna lieb et al. 194 sustaining a child’s development. parent engagement in inclusive childcare programs has shown positive correlations with early development. powell et al. (2010) found collaboration and communication quality between parents and educators affected development and increased school readiness during the preschool years. furthermore, parent involvement studies have reported positive changes in students’ social and emotional skills, decreased problem behavior, and improved mathematic skills (el nokali et al., 2010; powell et al., 2010). parental engagement was linked to long-term effects such as increased high school graduation percentages and lower unemployment and crime rates (yoshikawa et al., 2013). although research has shown that positive student and family outcomes result from parent engagement and strong teacher-parent relationships in childcare programs, programs still face challenges in supporting and promoting parent engagement (classen & westbrook, 2020; el nokali et al., 2010; powell et al., 2010; soukakou et al., 2014). using the inclusive classroom profile (icp), family and professional partnerships are one of twelve items measured on a 7-point scale (i.e., 1 = inadequate, 3 = minimal, 5 = good, and 7 = excellent). an international study using the icp reported a 3.27 rating for family and professional partnerships (soukakou et al., 2014) while a study conducted in a southern state that currently does not have a quality rating system reported a rating of 1.06 (classen & westbrook, 2020). both studies show a need to implement more evidence-based family engagement practices within childcare programs (classen & westbrook, 2020; soukakou et al., 2014). furthermore, according to mereoiu et al. (2015), parents have reported challenges in building and maintaining partnerships with early educators. levickis et al. (2022) stated that parents reported limited engagement with early educators and other families when attendance resumed during the first year of the covid-19 pandemic. further exploring family engagement experiences can provide insight to assist in implementing and improving family practice quality (mereoiu et al., 2015). most research to date exploring family engagement was conducted with families who had preschool-aged children. this study sought to explore family engagement practices from the perspective of parents who had a toddler enrolled in inclusive childcare settings. literature review the literature on early childhood education provides professionals with a clear family engagement definition which includes inclusion components and guidance from professional organizations on best practices. family engagement theories have provided insight and assistance in explaining what impacts child development. research exploring family engagement experiences and practices in childcare programs is growing. family engagement: a critical inclusion component effective practices that support high-quality early childhood inclusion include children and families having full access and participation in quality environments with needed support and services (barton & smith, 2015). it is critical to define family engagement expectations and practices for childcare programs to fully support all families (dec/naeyc, 2009). as stated in the joint position statement from the dec/naeyc (2009) there are three defining early childhood inclusion features: access, participation, and support. access according to barton and smith (2015), access refers to providing frequent and challenging learning opportunities across different settings for all children by identifying barriers including structural, relationship, and program content barriers. providing physical access to the program and program content and social access to encourage relationships can promote a sense of belonging and community with families (barton & smith, 2015). to meet family needs, multiple communication styles are used in their home or preferred language (halgunseth, 2009; soukakou, 2016). welcoming relationships can increase trust and understanding between parents and educators, thus encouraging family engagement (soodak & erwin, 2000). family experiences of engagement in inclusive childcare… 195 participation as barton and smith (2015) explained, in quality childcare programs, all children and families have the right to fully participate in all opportunities. to provide the opportunity to fully participate, early childhood educators must provide many opportunities for learning and engagement through various instructional methods (barton & smtih, 2015). family capacity building in programs encourages and promotes using at-home learning activities that may generalize skills and enhance early learning. these opportunities can increase early learning in the home and encourage families to meet the goals established (halgunseth, 2009). reciprocal communication between the early childhood educator and parents can assist in addressing their child’s concerns, resources, priorities, or needs (soukakou, 2016). furthermore, early educators and families can collaborate during the decision-making process including creating goals for individualized plans and implementing practices that convey the family’s primary concerns and addresses the child’s developmental strengths and needs (dec, 2014). promoting participation also encourages relationships within the classroom between all peers as well as relationships between families and educators (barton & smith, 2015). strong relationships built through family empowerment and participation within a program can positively impact each family (comer & ben-avie, 2010). strong programs focused on family engagement often solicit feedback from parents concerning the program’s quality and seek improvement efforts (soukakou, 2016). supports supports refer to broader system features including stakeholders such as educators, service providers, families, and community members (barton & smith, 2015). furthermore, high-quality inclusion includes communication and collaboration between families and stakeholders (dec/naeyc, 2009). supports are a critical component for family engagement and professional development for early childhood professionals (soodak & erwin, 2000). soodak and erwin (2000) state that collaboration with community stakeholders can provide access to further resources and support to encourage family engagement. high-quality inclusion in childcare programs requires ongoing professional development and coaching opportunities that encourage team collaboration critical to supporting all children and families (barton & smith, 2015). turnbull and colleagues (2015) described family professional partnership elements that encourage family engagement to include building trusting relationships, maintaining competence, assisting families in accessing knowledge and resources, discovering and implementing solutions to problem solve, and increasing social communication skills. family engagement professional organization guidance professional organizations, including the dec and the naeyc, have provided recommended practices and standards to guide early educators and practitioners in improving child outcomes. all are evidence-based, created by professional experts in the early childhood field, and expected to be provided from high-quality childcare programs. when early educators implement and adhere to these practices and standards, positive outcomes are expected for both children and families (dec, 2014; naeyc, 2019). division for early childhood recommended practices in 2014, the dec established recommended practices as guidelines for practitioners and families on how to effectively enhance learning outcomes and encourage child development. included in these recommended practices were family practices which focus on being family-centered, building family capacity, and facilitating family and professional collaboration. family-centered practices value showing respect to all families, individualizing family needs, understanding family situations, giving family members unbiased information to make well-informed decisions, and including the family throughout all educational processes. the second theme includes opportunities for families to gain additional knowledge and skill in parenting practices that increase self-efficacy. the final theme includes family and professional collaboration which focuses on practices that strengthen relationships between families and educators who collaborate to accomplish mutually beneficial goals that build on family competencies and assist with the child’s development (dec, 2014). julianna lieb et al. 196 national association for the education of young children standards the naeyc and pre-k now joint report in 2009 provided guidance for programs wanting to improve family engagement. first, high-quality inclusive programs invite families to participate in decision-making and goal-setting for their child through participation in parent-teacher conferences (halgunseth, 2009). successful meetings include a collaborative exchange of vital information including progress-monitoring results and other child-related information between families, early childhood educators, interventionists, and service providers (soukakou, 2016). for students with disabilities, the individualized family service plan (ifsp) and the individualized education program (iep) require collaborative decision-making processes that include families sharing resources and information while educators seek information about family priorities and strengths in regular bidirectional communication between the childcare center and families (halgunseth, 2009; soukakou, 2016). high quality inclusive programs provide support to early childhood educators to attend iep meetings with providers, families, and local educational agencies (soukakou, 2016). finally, programs are encouraged to use home and community learning activities to broaden the child’s learning environment and invite families to provide feedback and suggestions for program-level improvements (halgunseth, 2009). family engagement theories family engagement theories have contributed to the literature on early childhood development and assist professionals when serving children and families. family engagement theories can provide explanations when viewing a young child’s social environment, cultural background, or family system and how both direct and indirect relationships impact a child’s development. furthermore, theories can provide insight into factors that impact or contribute to family experiences related to engagement in childcare programs. bronfenbrenner’s ecological model in 1979, urie bronfenbrenner created an ecological model of systems to explain the direct and indirect influences on a child’s development and how each system influences one another. the first layer, the microsystem, includes a child’s immediate environment such as the family, school, peers, educators, childcare, health services, and religious organizations. researchers in multiple studies highlight that safe and secure environments impact how trusting relationships between children and early educators are developed (mereoiu et al., 2015; purvis et al., 2007). furthermore, positive relationships built in early childhood can set the foundation for future relationships throughout the child’s life (levy & orlans, 2014). the next layer, the mesosystem, connects the immediate settings in a child’s life including the link between the home and the early education program. negative experiences, especially during the diagnosis phase, can cause a lack of trust between parents and early educators, and parents are left feeling devalued during the decision-making process (coussens et al., 2021; stoner & angell, 2006). children are affected by the experiences in the home and at the childcare program but also by the indirect experiences linked between the home and early education program (bronfenbrenner, 1979). “the developmental potential of a mesosystem is enhanced to the extent that there exist indirect linkages between settings that encourage the growth of mutual trust, positive orientation, goal consensus, and a balance of power responsive to action on behalf of the developing person” (bronfenbrenner, 1979, p. 216). the exosystem, the next layer in the ecological model, includes social structures such as government agencies, school boards, extended family, the media, and family economic levels. the macrosystem encompasses the culture that the child is developing within. the final outside layer, the chronosystem, includes the environmental changes that occur within the child’s life including historical events or major transitions (bronfenbrenner, 1979). family systems theory turnbull et al. (1986) created the family systems framework to describe family characteristics. the framework views all family components as interrelated and greater than individual members’ characteristics. family structure, family interaction, family functions, and the family life cycle make up the family experiences of engagement in inclusive childcare… 197 four family system components. family structure refers to the family size, relationships with each member, and their characteristics including disabilities, values, and beliefs. family interactions include quality interactions among family members. family functions define the responsibilities and the family’s daily routines. a parent delineates and places value on certain responsibilities and functions whether it be financial, social, educational, or emotional. the last component, the family life cycle, refers to how the family evolves due to changes in development, relationships, roles, and functions over time (pang, 2010; turnbull et al., 1986). in conjunction with this research, turnbull and colleagues (2015) also reported that utilizing a family-systems approach and promoting positive relationships between the educator, parent, and child result in positive child outcomes. early educators can benefit from being able to identify the family systems framework components for the families they serve. when considering a family’s structure, characteristics, functions, and life cycle, much information can be obtained to understand different priorities, needs, values, beliefs, and other family dynamics. furthermore, the family system can give insight into facilitators and barriers to family engagement in the decision-making process (mcbride & peterson, 1997; turnbull et al., 1986). culturagram in 1994, culturagram was first developed to better understand families who come from nondominate cultures within the community (congress, 1994). the culturagram can assist early educators in being more culturally sensitive when engaging families in their child’s education. congress (1994) discussed ten areas to consider when providing support. early educators must consider causes for relocation, the family’s legal status, a child’s age at the time they relocate, languages spoken inside and outside the home, health care beliefs, special events and holidays celebrated, trauma’s impact, value placed on education, and access to cultural resources in the community. utilizing the culturagram, early educators can respect diversity and provide culturally responsive family partnerships and learning environments (congress, 1994). skilled dialogue framework the skilled dialogue framework (barrera & corso, 2002) was created to increase two-way communication between professionals and families through respectful, reciprocal, and responsive interaction. respect is honoring a person’s individual identity as a valued community member. reciprocity is believing that a person’s voice is equally valued as one’s own. responsiveness requires the desire for connection including other’s beliefs and perspectives. the skilled dialogue framework discusses six strategies: welcoming, sense-making, joining, allowing, appreciating, and harmonizing. welcoming includes using words and behaviors that express our recognition of a person’s value and dignity. when we allow diverse beliefs and perspectives to be present, we do so as to not change them. attempting to understand a person’s words or behaviors during face-to-face interactions describes the strategy of sensemaking. appreciating another’s perspective can deepen relationships by acknowledging and explaining the significance it brings to the situation. after welcoming and seeking to understand (i.e., sense-making) shared information and/or behavior, educators must attempt to join or co-create a solution based on mutual understanding and shared responsibility. harmonizing can help bring conflicting perspectives together and create a third choice in decision-making. incorporating these six strategies during two-way communication between professionals and families can increase collaboration and joint decision-making (barrera & corso, 2002; barrera et al., 2003; barrera & kramer, 2009, 2017). family engagement practice studies along with family engagement theories, related research studies that contribute to the literature on family engagement are growing. studies have focused on family engagement in preschool programs in regard to individualized education plans, learning activities, assessment, professional development, educator and parent experiences, and covid-19 restrictions. figure 1 shows a family engagement literature summary organized by topics including how many studies address each topic. julianna lieb et al. 198 figure 1. family engagement practice studies family engagement in ifsp and iep development iep development has long been a discussion topic when it comes to involving and engaging families in the process. under the individuals with disabilities improvement act (ideia) 2004, the law requires an iep for all children aged three and above to be implemented if being provided special services for a categorized disability (ideia, 2004). successful ifsp and iep development requires a partnership between educators and parents (despain & hedin, 2022; singh & keese, 2020). ideia discusses parents being the most important team members involved in the ifsp and iep development (ideia, 2004). for families with young infant or toddler children, early educators often provide the family with the first impressions of early intervention services (kuhn & higgins, 2020). thus, it is important for early educators to build trust and provide support that is responsive to the families’ needs and priorities during one of the most vulnerable times for families who have young children with delays/disabilities. singh & keese (2020) stated that ieps should be developed by merging all team members’ knowledge and creating a plan to encourage children's academic and functional success. this is an opportunity for all team members to come together to collaborate on what is in the child’s best interest. furthermore, the iep development is designed to support and provide convenience for families such as providing yearly meeting notices with mutually convenient and beneficial meeting times for all parties (singh & keese, 2020). qualitative research has been conducted on parent and educator experiences related to these partnerships. when interviewing parents and educators, researchers have found various results. first, researchers have found that one party dominates the other during conversations when discussing opinions and concerns (fish, 2008; turnbull et al., 2015). specifically, it has been found that parents feel that they don’t have a voice during the process and aren’t afforded the opportunity to discuss their parental observations, judgments, or knowledge (fish, 2008; turnbull et al., 2015). frequently, decisions have already been made about placement and goals before the meeting takes place with the parent as a team member (kurth et al., 2020; ruppar & gaffney, 2011). specifically, parents feel powerless or express feeling like an invisible team member (zeitlin & curcic, 2014). harry (2008) stated that to build trusting relationships and increase partnership, the families’ priorities and goals must be valued and considered. bruder and dunst (2015) found that educators, specifically early childhood special educators, were more confident in a family-centered approach than they were competent. when educators dominate the meeting, parents begin to shut down from intimidation and take a back seat in the conversation (carlson et al., 2020; fish, 2008; zeitlin & curcic, 2014). zeitlin & curcic (2014) found that parents experience judgment and feel family experiences of engagement in inclusive childcare… 199 they won’t be able to meet expectations set by educators. carlson et al. (2020) reported that parents wished educators would share more positive information, give them time to speak in meetings, and collaborate during the goal development. family engagement in learning activities research on family engagement in learning activities has been explored. several studies have concentrated on the impact home learning activities have on increasing positive child academic outcomes. garbacz et al. (2019), hindman and morrison (2011), lin et al. (2019), and mendez (2010) explored parental experiences during family engagement opportunities including at home learning activities. garbacz et al. (2019), hindman and morrison (2011), mendez (2010) found that a positive parent-teacher relationship and program support encouraged parents to engage in the activities. specifically, parents had positive experiences with shared reading in the home when provided additional support and relationships were positive between parents and educators. lin et al. (2019) found that parents felt that open, consistent communication with educators about their child’s development contributed to their engagement in athome learning experiences. family engagement in assessment researchers have examined family engagement during the assessment process, specifically, during the initial phases. developmental concerns for a child can arise in the early years from early educators or parents, and it is important to establish a parent-teacher partnership to collaborate through the assessment process. parents may develop a concern for their child’s development when comparing them to other sameaged peers and early educators are known to serve as an informant (marshall et al., 2020). the dec recommended practices state that early educators are responsible for including families in gathering assessment information and reporting results to families (dec, 2014). if parents are invited to observe the child’s development and offered an opportunity to share that information this could help them feel more prepared for meetings rather than feeling surprised. for example, braiden et al. (2010) and marshall et al. (2020) found that parents endured stress, anxiety, and uncomfortable feelings after early educators shared screening or monitoring results and concerns about their child’s development. mcconachie et al. (2018) stated that most parents expect to be included in the decision-making. studies have shown that parents wanted to be given information that is relevant and applicable to their child to better understand their child’s development (auert et al., 2012; braiden et al., 2010). researchers found that if professionals had concerns for development, especially autism, parents preferred to understand the initial signs or red flags (braiden et al., 2010). furthermore, parents in this study reported a hesitancy from professionals when discussing a potential diagnosis but preferred to know cause for concern early (braiden et al., 2010). family engagement professional development several researchers have examined the family engagement professional development impact on educator change or implementation (classen & westbrook, 2020; cummings et al., 2015; herman & reinke, 2017; kuhn et al., 2017; sheridan et al., 2010). professional development training and coaching opportunities in the classroom are effective in providing early educators with practices that encourage and increase family engagement (classen & westbrook, 2020; cummings et al., 2015; herman & reinke, 2017; kuhn et al., 2017; sheridan et al., 2010). specific practices include establishing and maintaining parentteacher partnerships, fostering parent-child relationships, collaborating to solve problems and address concerns, and implementing steps to assist with the decision-making process (kuhn et al., 2017). sheridan et al. (2010) found that when implementing both professional development and parent training on family engagement, child outcome measures were positive for both academic and social-emotional skill development. a professional development training program was implemented to examine its effects on parent-teacher and parent-child relationships and the correlation with positive student outcomes. the training program was found to increase positive relationships, thus increasing positive student outcomes (sheridan et al., 2010). julianna lieb et al. 200 parent and educator family engagement experiences qualitative studies have researched family and educator experiences related to parent engagement in childcare programs. rech et al. (2021) explored the use and perceptions of the naeyc family engagement principles among early childhood educators in addition to barriers to implementation. classen et al. (2019) identified barriers and facilitators between military families and early childhood educators when collaborating to meet the needs of young children with disabilities. using interview questions aligned with the dec recommended practices, the study found that families viewed educators who encouraged collaborative partnerships as showing empathy, communicating often, and exhibiting professionalism. practices such as communication and parent-educator partnerships were important to parents and educators (classen et al., 2019). macy et al. (2019) stated that positive, trusting relationships can ensure effective two-way communication. also, professional development was deemed important and requested from families and educators. when considering family engagement, families discussed how important it is for educators to understand family structure and functions to assist in overcoming barriers (classen et al., 2019). likewise, douglass (2011) studied early educators' perspectives regarding their desire to collaborate and engage with families, support needed to assist collaboration, and facilitators and barriers impacting family engagement practices. the study found that family engagement is desired by families when childcare programs establish relationships involving caring educators and shared power. modeling caring relationships and shared power within the program between educators was shown to facilitate family engagement. power struggles and limited empathy between educators were reported as a barrier in building positive, collaborative relationships with families (douglass, 2011). family engagement during covid-19 restrictions covid-19 restrictions on family engagement have been explored in several research studies. for example, levickis et al. (2022) found that major barriers to family engagement are the few opportunities for face-to-face interactions with educators and chances to observe their child within the childcare environment. parents reported that, before covid-19 restrictions were implemented, face-to-face interactions provided them with knowledge about their child’s experiences in the classroom and made them feel like they belonged (levickis et al., 2022). levickis et al. (2022) found that parents continued to experience limited access and interactions with educators even when covid-19 restrictions were reduced. of more concern, keengwe and onchwari (2022) found the mutual shared relationships between the infant/toddler, parent, and educator were lower after restrictions began to be lifted than those reported during the pandemic. specifically, parents who had infant and toddlers reported less opportunities for two-way communication than those parents who had older children (keengwe & onchwari, 2022). parents reported limited access to walk inside the classroom and assist in settling their child before leaving resulting in parent and child distress. also, covid-19 restrictions resulted in programs providing various levels of support and resources depending on digital capabilities, funding, and program operations (levickis et al., 2022). purpose statement the purpose of this study was to explore family members’ experiences related to their engagement in decision-making processes across various childcare programs. 1. what are families’ decision-making experiences in inclusive childcare programs? 2. what facilitators and barriers exist that may impact family engagement in inclusive childcare programs? 3. what engagement opportunities have early educators provided or not provided to families? hypothesis 1. families may describe a variety of comparable decision-making experiences in inclusive childcare programs. family experiences of engagement in inclusive childcare… 201 2. families will report various facilitators and barriers that may impact family engagement in inclusive childcare programs. 3. the amount and quality of engagement opportunities provided by early educators may differ among families. methodology a phenomenological qualitative research design was implemented to gain a better understanding of family engagement experiences in inclusive, toddler childcare programs. this research design was chosen because the authors were interested in the “affective, emotional, and often intense human experiences” (merriam, 2009, p. 26) that families with young children who have disabilities often experience. this section provides information regarding the methods used to collect data from participants to answer each research question. recruitment convenience sampling (gravetter & forzano, 2012) was utilized to recruit families from childcare programs in the mid and south regions of mississippi. specifically, researchers recruited family members from childcare centers where the educators were involved in an inclusive practice professional development as part of a larger grant-funded project (i.e., mississippi early childhood inclusion center [mecic]). the childcare center directors or the technical assistant specialist discussed the family recruitment with the early educators. then, the early educators from three childcare programs sent an email or written letter providing information about the research study to families. the pi followed up with the educator participants to gather family consent forms and contacts. before the interview began, the signed consent forms were gathered by the pi. participants for this study, and to add to the research in the early childhood education field, it is important to explore relationships between variables among various participant and center demographics. eight parents participated in the study with four of the eight parents having a child with a diagnosed disability or at-risk for a developmental delay. one parent aged 18 years and older from each family was asked to participate. parents participating in the study had a child with or without disabilities enrolled in one of five classrooms across three programs. in table 1, the reader will find the parent demographic information including educational background, age, race, and parental experience. table 1. participant demographics parent parent’s age (years) parent race child age (months) education level parenting experience program disability or child at-risk parent 1 32 w 30 associates 12 years 1 yes parent 2 36 w 18 bachelors 18 months 2 yes parent 3 27 w 25 masters 25 months 3 yes parent 4 26 w 22 highschool diploma 5 years 6 months 1 yes parent 5 32 w 24 technical degree 2 years 1 no parent 6 27 w 24 associates 2 years 3 no parent 7 28 w 19 bachelors 9 years 3 no parent 8 29 b 15 bachelors 9 years 3 no data collection procedures a semi-structured interview style was used to collect family participant responses. this style assisted the researcher in leading a natural conversation with families and providing further questions for clarification. the interview protocol was constructed using the crosswalks of dec recommended julianna lieb et al. 202 practices with early intervention (ei)/ early childhood special education (ecse) standards, and early childhood education (ece) standards (early childhood personnel center, 2020). the interview protocol can be viewed by the reader on request. the interview question protocol included questions about the participants' demographic information, family engagement opportunities provided by early educators, family engagement experiences and beliefs, and facilitators and barriers that may impact family engagement opportunities. the interview protocol was developed to stay within the one-hour interview parameters. as the interview protocol is followed, the pi audio recorded the interview conversations to assist in transcribing. after the interviews were completed and transcribed, member checking (doyle, 2007) occurred by providing a transcript copy to the participants to review for accuracy. using member checking added to the study’s credibility and trustworthiness (doyle, 2007). along with a transcript, participants were given follow-up questions for clarification if needed. one parent reviewed the transcript without any necessary changes and provided answers to follow-up questions. the researchers used the inclusive practice indicator rubric scores from early educators previously collected from the larger grant-funded project (i.e., infant and toddler special needs inclusive practice credential: mecic) to triangulate data. specifically, the research looked at the family engagement portion of the rubric. the rubric, scored by a mecic technical assistance specialist, was a 3-point likert scale to assess classroom practices that support children with and without disabilities in inclusive programs. the scale ranged from 0 to 2 with 0 being not applicable, 1 needing improvement, and 2 implementing in an exemplary manner with 10 being the total possible score for family engagement. early educators were observed to evaluate practices promoting family partnerships including creating opportunities for open, two-way communication with families, utilizing multiple communication forms, creating and maintaining positive, trusting partnerships, involving families in program activities, and empowering families as valued educational team members. data analysis the data were analyzed through a thematic analysis approach (glaser & straus, 1967). a thematic analysis focuses on identifying and describing ideas or themes within the data collection. through a thematic analysis, constructs and patterns were explored to provide insight into participants’ family engagement experiences through the decision-making process (namey et al., 2008). after the interview responses were transcribed verbatim, and data was analyzed by hand. once all interviews were transcribed, the data were reviewed multiple times by the pi and an expert researcher. the pi proceeded with the initial coding to reduce and categorize responses into themes. after, the expert researcher reviewed all coding for validation, and then, any discrepancies were discussed between both researchers (miles & huberman, 1994). then, the pi made comparisons between discovered themes and developed constructs to better understand family engagement opportunities provided by early educators, family engagement experiences and beliefs, and facilitators and barriers that may impact family engagement opportunities. results in this section we will present the initial themes and subthemes that emerged during the data analysis. themes and subthemes will be presented as they collectively answer the research questions about families’ decision-making experiences, facilitators and barriers that may impact family engagement, and opportunities early educators have provided or not provided to encourage family engagement in inclusive, toddler childcare programs. families’ reported decision-making experiences this study aimed to understand families’ decision-making experiences within inclusive, infant/toddler childcare programs and the unique perspectives shared by parents who have young children with and without disabilities. table 2 provides the reader with the initial themes, subthemes, definitions, and example quotes used to answer research question one. after table 2, detailed reports of decisionmaking experiences related to communication, collaboration, resources, parent rights, and active family experiences of engagement in inclusive childcare… 203 involvement are shared. decisions were reportedly experienced through different communication methods including passive and active communication. parents reported brief, passive communication through text, notes, apps, or inperson communication related to topics concerning daily routines, incidents, and activities. “every morning when i drop him off, we talk about like what they’re going to do, and in the afternoon, she’ll tell me how his mood was, how long of a nap he took, what and how much he ate, and what kind of activities they did” and “they send out weekly newsletters or monthly newsletters letting us know what they’re doing for the week.” table 2. coding related to decision-making initial sub definition example quotes communication • passive • active communication is defined as parents and professionals listening to one another, clearly describing their wants and desires, and being honest and open (turnbull et al., 2015). twoway communication involves both the family and professionals (butera et al., 2016). passive “they had yet to communicate that he’s trouble in the classroom. the only concern i had was them not communicating when my son was disrupting the class so that we could try to fix the problem.” active “k and i communicate back and forth. it’s helpful the way she communicates with you.” collaboration • program planning collaboration refers to the purposeful process in which families and professionals identify problems and create plans to solve them (friend & cook, 2021). “i gave them the handouts [from speech therapy] because they were more likely to be able to do the handouts with her than i was.” resources • screening • evaluation • public resources • unsure/none practitioners work with the family to identify, access, and use formal and informal resources (dec, 2014, f7). “they offered us the contact information for early steps and a couple different resources for that area, and we talked with them.” parent rights • policy • unsure practitioners help families know and understand their rights (dec, 2014, f9). “they did provide me with a handbook that goes over all of that stuff.” activity involvement • learning activities • events practitioners engage the family in opportunities that support and strengthen parenting knowledge/skills and competence and in ways that are individualized (dec, 2014, f6) “they’ve brought me in here to do little lessons and read to him.” “it’s because of covid we can’t [be more involved in program activities].” one parent explained using an app, “by app, they sent me pictures to let me know he had an allergic reaction to medication right when it began. i get to watch what he eats, diaper changes, every nap, and anything that’s going on within the facility.” similarly, another parent preferred the app communication method over paper, “i didn’t really like the piece of papers. i really like the app interaction. if there is anything initially wrong, i’ll automatically get a notification right then, and then i, myself as a parent, get to make the decision if i need to go to him.” some parents reported difficulty during the decision-making process with early educators due to passive communication. one parent explained, “i do wish there was more over the phone interaction or either face-to-face interaction rather than just via text/the app” while another parent stated, “i have to ask questions to get feedback about development.” several parents reported preferences for an active communication style by stating, “in person or through texts, [teacher c] is very good at communicating things within the classroom or things that is he is learning.” additionally, parents reported positive experiences through active communication by one reporting, “if you have a problem, being able to verbalize [any concerns] and [resolve them] versus ignored is a positive thing” and another reporting, “[teacher b] gives me her undivided attention to actually listen and have that opportunity to express my feelings. [what i’m saying is] not just going in one ear and out julianna lieb et al. 204 the other. she’s actually taking it into consideration.” parents reported decision-making experiences through collaborative program planning. parents reported that early educators involved parents through weekly or monthly communication regarding program plans. many parents reported the desire to extend learning at home by practicing skills taught at the program. for example, a parent reported, “when [teacher a] started doing colors [at the program] then i did colors at home. when [teacher a] started counting numbers one to five, i started doing that at home. we were all on the same page. we communicate when [teacher a] is going to potty train him here. i’m going to be able to start potty training him at home. i don’t want to start at home if they’re not going to do it here because [it will not be successful]. that helps everything work out together without going around in a circle.” other parents had similar experiences stating, “i really like the newsletters that [teacher c] sends out letting me know what they’re learning that week so that i can follow up with teaching him the same thing at home” and “each month [teacher e] sends out like a letter or monthly calendar so that we can also practice at home with our child.” although parents reported educators communicating daily activity plans, only a therapist was reported providing at-home strategies for furthering development explaining, “they [the therapist] would show me exercises that i could do at home to work with him.” parents reported a resource variety within the programs. specifically, parents reported resources including screenings, evaluations, and public resources. few were provided developmental screeners and/or evaluations. for example, “[the director] went out of her way to go and get two people that were going to do the screener because they knew i was struggling [with correspondence from an outside agency].” another parent reported, “[the program] did some kind of evaluation on the children making sure that they were meeting their milestones appropriately and [they provided directions on] what we needed to do if our kid was behind.” a parent also reported being informed about public resources stating, “i have spoken with people at the public assistance office where they do wic and stuff.” a few parents were unsure or stated that no resources have been provided to them. one parent stated, “[the program has] not [provided any additional supports or resources] that i can think of. i remember doing [a checklist],” and another reported, “i’m not sure what resources are available.” the limited parental rights knowledge played an important role in family decision-making experiences. parents reported not knowing their rights or recalling program policies being provided. one parent stated, “nothing [was shared with me regarding parent rights] that i can think of off the top of my head” while another shared, “they gave us a handbook the first day and i’m pretty sure there’s a section of your rights and stuff.” only one program discussed parent rights regarding special services at a local school district stating, “[the program] said that if i go to the public school that they have to [conduct an evaluation] if i request it.” when exploring activity involvement, parents reported the desire to be involved in the decisionmaking processes, planning, and learning activities. a parent shared her willingness to assist by stating, “if they need volunteers or assistance with anything, just let me know.” other parents provided suggestions on how to increase activity involvement in the programs. for example, parents stated, “[i suggest] maybe [planning] a parent-kid day where the parents, kids, and the teacher all get to go and just have a little party interacting with other parents and children as a whole. “another parent reported the program’s desire to provide opportunities by stating, “i guess it would really require them having more activities that i can help with or help do with her [to become more involved].” this study’s findings presented differences and similarities in family engagement experiences during decision-making among parents who have children with and without disabilities or are at-risk for developmental delays. parents reported differences in communication preferences modes and whether resources were provided by programs. the study found similarities when programs offered useful information regarding program planning and parents desired more active involvement within the program. parents who had children with and without disabilities reported different communication preferences. for example, parents who had children with disabilities reported a preference for family experiences of engagement in inclusive childcare… 205 communication apps but desired a face-to-face conversation or a phone call as needed for a follow-up. parent 3 stated, “it starts over our app where we get daily updates. i ask them to call me up if i just need to further explain because i hate texting.” similarly, parent 4 preferred the communication app with immediate notifications so she could engage in decision-making. parent responses were similar regarding decision-making experiences. parents who had children with and without disabilities enjoyed receiving monthly or weekly newsletters containing useful program planning information to extend learning at home. importantly, all parents seemed to be equally interested in decision-making in regard to planning learning activities or events within programs. in addition, public resources were equally shared with parents who had children with and without disabilities. reported facilitators and barriers to family engagement this study’s secondary goal was to gain insight into family perspectives regarding facilitators and barriers to their engagement in early education decisions. specifically, this study explored the unique perspectives of families who had young children with and without disabilities ages 18 to 30 months. table 2 and table 3 provide the reader with the initial themes, subthemes, definitions, and example quotes used to answer research question two. below you will find the family perspectives regarding family engagement facilitators by creating trusting relationships, providing active communication, supporting families’ priorities, being culturally responsive to the family’s values and beliefs, and parent knowledge and/or skills. family engagement barriers were described as passive communication, limited support for family priorities, few training opportunities for parents, and limited parental rights knowledge. facilitators most parents reported positive trusting relationships between the parent and educator, the parent and child, and/or the child and educator. safety and security seemed to play an important and common role in facilitating trusting relationships. participants explained relationships between the parent and educator by stating comments such as, “[teacher a] made me feel at ease [when scheduling conflicts occurred]” or “[ i felt] very comfortable in the beginning that [teacher a] was very open and honest about all the [policies and procedures].” one parent felt comfortable leaving the child for the first time at the program explaining, “me leaving him was a big, big worry for me, and they made it very easy to feel comfortable leaving him. i never had any worry [about whether] they [were] educated enough to take care of his needs and provide for his needs.” table 3. coding related to facilitators and barriers. initial sub definition example quotes trusting relationships • safety/security trusting relationships refer to the connection between families and professionals based on mutual confidence in each other (turnbull et al., 2015). “he’s attached to my hip, but since starting the program, he will now sit down and play with his toys by himself.” family priorities • family time • religion • health • education • marriage • career development family priorities are defined as differing values such as work, or education based on the family’s culture (congress, 2004) “our priorities are eating together as a family, family time, making sure every need is met, being there for everything that we can, going to the doctor if they’re starting to get sick, and reading books.” culturally responsive • religion • diversity culturally responsive is defined as having mutual respect and understanding for families’ cultures, values, and languages (dec, 2010). “they do different little activities. they include different cultures, and she has [pictures of] different races in her class. i think i’ve seen some different cultural musical instruments.” julianna lieb et al. 206 parent knowledge/skills • parent training • intervention for behavior and communication challenges practitioners support family functioning, promote family confidence and competence by acting in ways that build on family strengths (dec, 2014, f5). “i don’t think any [parent trainings have been offered]. if they would, i would participate.” it was reported that parents also felt a stronger bond with their children knowing they were safe and secure while being cared for at the childcare center. one parent described a positive parent-child relationship, “[the program played a part in our relationship by] possibly making [our relationships] better when i’m away because when i pick him up, he’s super happy.” another parent stated “he’s (her child) so excited to see us after being separated during the day. it’s helpful when any of us drop him off, [that] he’s not crying”. similarly, parents reported a key element to trusting relationships included the child and educator. “[teacher a] built a connection with [my son]” and another stating “[my child] was very clingy [with me]. i feel like [teacher a] has kind of brought him out of his shell. he’s not scared or anxious about going to her or being in the classroom”. participants provided active communication examples that facilitated positive relationships such as, “[teacher d] personally calls and tells me when there’s an issue with [my daughter]”. some parents reported active communication strategies used such as partnering to problem solve and asking for feedback. for example, one parent stated, “i’ve had to really advocate for her to be in the older classroom to make sure that she’s challenged. they started transitioning her to the two-year-old room, so they know it’s important to me and they keep pushing for it” and another stated “they do surveys and ask for feedback about your priorities and concerns”. also, a parent experienced active listening when she reported that teacher b took her feelings and concerns into consideration. parents had similar responses when reporting family priorities. priorities among families included family time, religion, health, education, marriage, and career development. several parents explained development as being a top priority with one stating, “everybody being able to communicate with him and him being able to communicate with us are important to me”. another explained concerns about development and how the early educator provided reassurance such as “i noticed he didn’t [know skills or met certain developmental milestones] like i’ve noticed some of the other kids really know. she lets me know there is nothing to worry about.” one parent reported faith as being the family’s main priority and how the childcare center was supportive in following similar religious beliefs. a parent stated, “our faith is our main priority. reading the bible at night with her and making sure she’s involved in church at a young age. the curriculum at her school is christian-based and taught by christians”. parents discussed how educators were culturally responsive to religion and diversity. one parent said that “our cultural background is probably very similar to the program’s cultural background which was the deciding factor [for choosing the program]. i feel like i’m supported in that because i know that most of the workers there are members of the church”. another parent stated, “you see all children and even [early educators] of all shapes and sizes and colors. i think it’s really good for all kids to see that.” parents reported the desire to attend training to increase parent knowledge and skills. most parents expressed a willingness to engage in center-hosted family training opportunities to learn more about communication challenges and interventions for behavior challenges. one parent explained, “i would like to learn more about understanding and communicating [with my son]” while another stated, “i would want to learn more about the terrible twos, [following directions such as] getting dressed in the morning, and meltdowns”. one parent wanted to understand more about development stating, “[i want to know more about] what to expect next in the [developmental] stages.” barriers a barrier that parents experienced included engaging in passive communication. as example quotes were previously presented, parents reported passive communication as a barrier to family engagement by explaining a dislike for written communication and the need to ask questions to gain feedback. family experiences of engagement in inclusive childcare… 207 furthermore, passive communication was reported as a barrier to building a positive trusting relationship between the parent and educator and/or the educator and child. for example, one parent explained, “we had an incident where he kept getting bit. i was asking, what is he doing for this kid to keep biting him. they just kept telling me nothing. then, she proceeded to tell me how he troubles in the classroom every day. they had yet to communicate that he troubles in the classroom. the only concern i had was them not communicating when my son was disrupting the class so that we could try to fix the problem. they said that they would watch out more (for biting) and keep a better eye on it and address the child that was biting.” similarly, parents described covid safety procedures as a barrier. as one parent stated, “because we can’t go in there because of covid, we’ve only met the teacher one time” to explain a barrier to building a trusting relationship with the educator. the parent further explained, “we don’t even know a lot as far as how the program works and what goes on [due to lack of access inside the center and interactions with the teacher].” family priorities were reported as a barrier to family engagement through trusting-relationships. specifically, a parent reported feeling like the educator had limited developmental knowledge. this was a concern for the parents since development was a major family priority. the parent explained, “i think [developmental knowledge] could be improved. [teacher e] didn’t point out [my daughter] was at-risk for a speech delay. i had to point it out [to the educator]. i wasn’t satisfied with that screening [that the program provided] so i did a second screening on my own.” although several parents were willing to attend trainings to increase parent knowledge and skills, all parents reported few training opportunities offered in the programs.” one parent explained, “i haven’t had any [parent training] opportunities offered”. parents were hesitant when trying to recall if any opportunities had been communicated or offered in the past explaining, “[they have not provided] any [training opportunities] i can think of” or “i don’t know that they’ve offered any [parent trainings] yet”. parents reported being unsure whether programs provided information about parent rights. many parents were unsure if their rights were discussed or what parent rights were within the program or other early intervention agencies. as previous example quotes stated, information was not provided regarding parents’ rights. one parent explained, “i know that they did send out a handbook”. one parent reported some knowledge of parent rights provided from an outside agency including the school district from explaining, “he's going to when he goes because he’ll be three. i know all about ieps [and] 504 [plans] because of my older son.” this study’s findings presented similarities and differences in facilitators and barriers that may affect family engagement among parents who have children with and without disabilities or at-risk for developmental delays. parents reported differences in family priorities, however, some parents shared similar priorities. parents who had children with disabilities or at-risk for delays discussed development as a potential facilitator and/or barrier to family engagement. parents 1, 2, and 3 reported child development as a major family priority, whereas some parents who had children without disabilities discussed other priorities such as health or careers. for example, parent 5 reported, “right now, i’m in school so it’s like two full time job,” and parent 6 reported, “health is a priority to us.” also, parent 1 had some parental rights knowledge due to material provided by a school district while all other parents associated parent rights with school policies. parents who had children with and without disabilities discussed family time as a priority. the majority discussed passive communication through newsletters or communication apps. in addition, all parents reported limited opportunities within the programs to increase parent knowledge. families’ reported engagement opportunities this study’s third goal explored engagement opportunities provided or not provided to families within inclusive, toddler childcare programs. insight into engagement opportunities was gained from families who had children, ages 18 to 30 months, with and without disabilities. as previously defined, family engagement refers to a partnership between families and early educators through acceptance, communication, support, collaboration, and soliciting and providing feedback to increase positive child julianna lieb et al. 208 outcomes (soodak et al., 2000; soukakou, 2016). table 1 and 2 shown above provide the reader with the initial themes, subthemes, definitions, and example quotes used to answer research question one. below you will find engagement opportunities provided to parents by building open, trusting relationships with early educators, engaging in communication, being culturally responsive, and collaborating. a lack of opportunities provided to families to engage with educators and other families due to limited parent training, resources, and activity involvement. engagement opportunities provided trusting relationships were shown to increase opportunities for engagement. one parent explained, “i’ll come [to the program] early at like 2:00 and then, i’ll just sit outside at the park with all the kids and the teachers and play.” similarly, a parent stated, “we’re allowed to pop in whenever we choose.” a parent described the program as accepting and welcoming stating, “i feel like they have accepted [my child] with open arms. they are open and accepting of everyone.” engagement opportunities were reported by communication exchanges between early educators and parents to increase positive outcomes. as the example previously stated, a program communicated with a parent regarding the mother’s concerns about the child’s placement and development. in addition, a parent reported the opportunity to engage in the decision-making process with the early educator. when expressing feelings, a parent described teacher b as attentive and proactive. engagement opportunities were provided by a program requesting feedback from parents as stated, “they asked about our christianity [religious] beliefs in a questionnaire.” one parent shared, “we did a little questionnaire before we went into the program. they would ask a bunch of different questions.” most parents discussed programs’ efforts to engage families in collaboration on program planning. for example, a parent reported, “each month they send out a letter or monthly calendar so that we can also practice [skills] at home with our child.” similarly, a parent discussed asking for and receiving support as explained, “i gave them the handouts [from speech therapy] because they were more likely to be able to do the handouts with [my child] than i was.” another opportunity reported by parents was at-home activities provided to families. a parent shared, “[the early educator] is good about sending stuff home for us to do with him that will go back to class with him. we’ll all sit down together and work on it together so we can send it back”. potty training was a collaboration example with a parent stating, “we communicate on when she’s going to potty train him here. i’m going to be able to start potty training him at home. i don’t want to start at home if they’re not going to do it here. that helps everything work out together without going around in a circle.” it was reported that early educators provided engagement opportunities by supporting families in finding additional resources. screening and evaluations were resource examples provided to families. one parent reported, “they’re going to have somebody come to the campus and evaluate the kids and discuss [developmental progress].” other parents reported, “they did some kind of evaluation on the children making sure that they were meeting their milestones appropriately and what we needed to do if our kid was behind” or “it was a checklist asking if your child had met these goals. somebody came, like a therapist, and evaluated him. it was comforting just to have an outside source to tell me that he didn’t need any therapy.” other engagement opportunity examples included public resources. parents shared, “[the program] offered us the contact information for [the state early intervention program] and a couple different resources for that area, and we talked with them” and “[the program] did send a message out to remind families there was a family night at the church.” parents discussed activity involvement as an opportunity to engage in programs. described in a previous quote, a parent shared an experience inside the classroom involving learning activities. similarly, a parent stated, “we had a dr. suess parade and parents actually got to help design costumes and [the children were able to] parade them around the school.” one parent reported activity involvement through invitations to events hosted by the programs. for example, two parents shared, “they do let us know when they’re having school parties so if we want to be involved, we can” and “they have done a few events where we can come outside.” family experiences of engagement in inclusive childcare… 209 limited engagement opportunities provided limited parent training to improve parent knowledge and skills was reported as well as parents’ desire to participate in training to learn more. in an example quote previously provided, a parent explained her desire to learn about behavior management. similarly, a parent stated, “the [parent training] thing, i’ve never actually done that. [i] would like to learn more about understanding and communicating [with my son]. i can’t do anything about it because i can’t help him.” along with parent training, parents reported limited resources offered by programs. for example, “[they have] not [provided any additional supports or resources] that i can think of. i remember doing [a checklist]”. additionally, a parent described knowledge about available resources, however, no resources had ever been offered by the program. the parent stated, “i haven't had to ask for [any resources], but i know that resources are available.” additionally, parents shared that covid safety procedures prevented activity involvement within programs. a parent explained, “it’s because of covid we can’t [be more involved in program activities]. having more opportunities for more events to get to know the [program staff] a little bit more.” similarly, a parent shared “we started [the program] towards the end of covid so we haven’t gotten to do as many things as parents usually do, but they try to give us as many opportunities to come see the kids as possible.” although a parent reported the teacher communicating daily activities by sending her child’s artwork or pictures in the classroom, the parent shared the inability to be engaged in activities inside the classroom stating, “they do send like artwork and pictures. so, the pictures help with seeing her [and] seeing she’s actually doing stuff while we can’t actually be in the room with her [because of covid].” this study’s findings presented similarities and differences in family engagement opportunities among parents who have children with and without disabilities or are at-risk for developmental delays. parents who had children with disabilities reported an opportunity regarding program planning. the study found similarities when parents experiences engagement opportunities through trusting relationships and when resources were provided. only parents who had children with developmental delays reported engagement opportunities that included program planning and collaboration regarding individual goals. as a previous quote stated, parent 1 expressed satisfaction in knowing when the early educator started potty training so it could be continued at home. also, handouts from speech therapy were provided to the early educators because parent 2 felt they would be more successful in implementation. parents who had children with and without disabilities or at-risk for delays reported opportunities for engagement through welcoming, trusting relationships and developmental resources including screenings and evaluations. as example quotes previously explained, parent 1 stated that the program director provided a developmental screening as a resource and parent 6 described evaluations provided to the children from an outside agency. also, many parents reported a desire to engage in parent training opportunities. inclusive practice indicator rubric: family engagement in table 4, the reader will find an inclusive classroom rubric score summary used to triangulate the family reports about teacher practices and parent engagement practices. this study found connections between rubric scores and families’ experiences of opportunities provided for engagement and preferred communication modes. parent 1 stated, “[teacher a] and i communicated back and forth. it’s helpful the way she communicates with you” and “she personally calls and tells me when there’s an issue with [my daughter]”. when measuring two-way communication and various communication forms based on family preferences, teacher a scored a 1. parent 4 reported, “[teacher b] gives me her undivided attention to actually listen and have that opportunity to express my feelings. [what i’m saying is] not just going in one ear and out the other. she’s actually taking it into consideration.” teacher b scored a 2, the highest score, on providing two-way communication and a 1 on using various communication modes based on families’ preferences. limited two-way communication was reported when parent 3 stated, “i have to ask questions to get julianna lieb et al. 210 feedback about development” while parent 6 stated, “i do wish there was more over the phone interaction or either face-to-face interaction rather than just via text/the app.” both parent 3 and 6 had a child in teacher e’s classroom, and teacher e’s scored a 1 on using two-way communication and using various communication forms based on families’ preferences. when discussing teacher c parent 2 stated, “i really like the newsletters that they send out letting me know like what they’re learning that week so that i can follow up with teaching him the same thing at home.” teacher c scored a 2, the highest score, in including and engaging families in activities and engaging families in meetings and program planning. however, when discussing program 3, parent 6 stated, “[i would like the program to] allow us to be able to participate when they have parties and [events] so that we can get to know the parents, the other children, and the teachers and be able to assess the way our children interact with other kids and their teacher.” as previously shared in a quote, parent 3, whose child also attends program 3, stated that covid19 was the reason for the lack of involvement in program activities. parent 3 went on to explain that having more activities would provide the families with an opportunity to get to know the staff more. to confirm these reports, both teachers from program 3 scored a 0 on including and engaging families in activities. table 4. childcare program rating program 1 program 2 program 3 average per item family partnership scoring items teacher a teacher b teacher c teacher d teacher e teachers promote family partnership by… item 1: using two-way communication. 1 2 2 0 1 60% item 2: using various communication forms based on families’ preferences. 1 1 2 0 1 50% item 3: maintaining responsive practices that promote trust. 1 2 2 0 1 60% item 4: including and engaging families in activities at the center. 0 0 2 0 0 20% item 5: engaging families in meetings and program planning by listening to opinions, suggestions, and guidance. 0 0 2 0 0 20% teacher average 30% 50% 100% 0% 30% 42% program average 40% 100% 15% discussion this study’s overarching goal was to understand perspectives of families who had children with and without disabilities who were 18-30 months old regarding their decision-making experiences, and facilitators and barriers to family engagement. below you will find a discussion including how the findings contribute and compare to existing literature. family systems framework the family systems framework describes families based on their characteristics, family structure, and family interactions (turnbull et al., 1986). from participant reported decision-making experiences, trusting relationships facilitated family engagement. this study’s findings showed three different relationship types (i.e., parent-teacher, child-parent, and child-teacher) parents reported as key to promoting positive decision-making experiences. these findings expand work by turnbull et al. (2015) as parents expressed all key relationships in the decision-making process were important. family experiences of engagement in inclusive childcare… 211 positive parent-teacher relationships have been reported in other studies focused on preschool-aged children. for example, prior studies by douglas (2011) and mendez (2010) found that parents (with the majority of children in preschool) desired more positive parent-teacher relationships, and this encouraged more family engagement in programs. this study’s findings are similar, in that our families desired and appreciated positive parent-teacher relationships. furthermore, our study expands previous research findings (soodak & erwin, 2000), where parents who had preschool aged children with disabilities reported that a welcoming environment and increased trust between parents and teachers promoted positive relationships. research studies focused on early intervention (birth to age 3 years) are limited; therefore, this study’s findings are important in the early childhood field. this study’s unique parent perspectives regarding their experiences in the early intervention age range added to the research by showing the importance of not only parent-teacher relationships but also parent-child relationships and teacher-child relationships in relation to facilitating family engagements. parents who had access to the educator attributed their strong relationship with their child to both their relationship and trust with the educator coupled with positive, responsive relations between the educator and their child. this further supports research found by levickis et al. (2022) when parents reported child and parent distress when unfamiliar adults accompanied children inside the program or when parents were denied access to the classroom to settle their toddler during drop off times due to covid-19 restrictions. healthy, positive relationships between children and caregivers begin through a safe and secure environment (purvis et al., 2007). furthermore, positive, trusting relationships set the foundation for future relationships throughout adolescence and adulthood (levy & orlans, 2014). like mereoiu et al. (2015), parents included in this study shared difficulties forming positive relationships with early educators when a lack of safety and security and limited access to the classroom environment existed. the present study found that trust between a parent and the early educator suffered due to initial diagnosis experiences just like previous research reports (stoner & angell, 2006). in addition, one parent in this study reported a strained relationship and felt devalued as a team member during the decision-making process equivalent to findings by coussens et al. (2021). figure 2 makes a connection between this study’s findings regarding positive parent-teacher, parent-child, and teacher-child relationships and family systems theory concepts. figure 2: trusting relationships bronfenbrenner’s ecological model the findings from the present study illustrate bronfenbrenner’s ecological model (bronfenbrenner, 1979) by showing that development is directly and indirectly influenced by a child’s social environment. according to parent reports in this study, covid-19 created barriers to family engagement and restricted engagement opportunities within early education programs. the chronosystem includes environmental changes throughout the child’s life such as the covid-19 pandemic that can have an impact on their julianna lieb et al. 212 development. following the outermost layer, as shown in figure 3, the exosystem represents influences such as government agencies, school boards, social services, and health care (bronfenbrenner, 1979). during the covid-19 pandemic, health and safety procedures and policies were suggested by government health agencies, social services, and surrounding school boards. influenced by the government health agencies and surrounding school district policies, the childcare programs created program-wide policies and procedures affecting parents’ opportunities for engagement. for example, parents reported difficulty building trusting relationships due to restricted physical access to early educators. this included limited opportunities to be engaged, allowed, or invited into the programs for activity involvement. levickis et al. (2022) found that due to covid-19 restrictions eliminating full access to the classroom, parents were not given opportunities for active communication, were unaware of their child’s experiences in the classroom, didn’t feel they belonged, and were not provided with community resources. research found that during the covid-19 pandemic, parents who had infant and toddlers reported less opportunities for two-way communication than parents who had older children (keengwe & onchwari, 2022). this study’s findings were comparable to previous studies reporting little active communication between toddler parents and educators due to limited physical access to the early learning environment (keengwe & onchwari, 2022; levickis et al., 2022). in return, fewer interactions during the pandemic with the educators and access to the program could have prevented shared resources, collaboration during decision-making, and limited consideration of family priorities. as bronfenbrenner (1979) suggested from the exosystem and the microsystem, resources can have a direct and indirect impact on families and a child’s development. resources discussed in this study included screenings and/or evaluations from early educators and state agencies and other public resources. figure 3. ecological model of exosystem culturagram as the culturagram (congress, 1994) describes, the participants in this study shared experiences related to family culture. the culturagram defines family values, health beliefs, and cultural institutions to better understand families’ cultural backgrounds and how they impact the family (congress, 1994). building trusting relationships and collaborating with families requires early educators to consider families’ priorities and goals (harry, 2008). as presented in figure 4, this study’s findings presented various family priorities including family time, religion, health, education, and career. some parents experienced support from programs regarding religion. parents shared that when choosing a program for their child mutual religious beliefs were a high priority. programs chosen were reported to support and teach similar religious beliefs to children and families they serve. additionally, as the culturagram family experiences of engagement in inclusive childcare… 213 (congress, 1994) suggests, family experiences can be influenced by values on family, education, and work. like previous research, this study found that parents share a high value in their child’s development and education as well as how skills can be furthered (mereoiu et al., 2015; stoner & angell, 2006). furthermore, like those previous studies, little educator knowledge about toddler development and monitoring for red flags was important to families. interestingly, most participants had mutual perspectives regarding prioritizing the allocation of quality family time and programs sharing and supporting health as a high priority. figure 4. family priorities skilled dialogue framework as macy et al. (2019) states, active, effective communication occurs when positive, trusting relationships are present. much the same as previous research (classen et al., 2019), this study presented parents desiring more active communication to create partnerships as a major theme. passive communication with the early educator during decision-making and limited communication from the educator about concerns occurring in the classroom was exemplified in parental reports. ultimately, only the educator’s opinion and solutions were reportedly shared. as found in the study by fish (2008), one side often dominates the other when sharing opinions and concerns. open communication requires the educator to be respectful and responsive regarding families’ concerns (dec, 2014). furthermore, to effectively collaborate both the parent and the educator must maintain shared responsibility during decision-making to optimize everyone’s expertise (butera et al., 2016). the skilled dialogue framework (barrera & corso, 2002; barrera et al., 2003; barrera & kramer, 2009, 2017) can be an essential tool to use during two-way communication between parents and educators. to assist in bilateral decision-making and to encourage more parent engagement, parents and educators should engage in skilled dialogues (barrera & corso, 2002; barrera et al., 2003; barrera & kramer, 2009, 2017). examples of this framework occurred in the present study during active communication between parents and educators. from one program, feedback about priorities and concerns was reportedly requested from parents. in addition, parents reported a welcoming environment, willingness to listen to concerns and suggestions, and support received in beliefs and values from educators. turnbull et al. (2015) stress the importance of encouraging a friendly environment, listening to each expert in the child’s life, clearly describing desires and concerns, and being open to sharing information. it is important for educators to engage in two-way communication and active listening to learn from parents’ unique perspectives and to exchange ideas, suggestions, and concerns (butera et al., 2016). julianna lieb et al. 214 limitations although this study presents a few limitations to consider, the findings extend previous research and offer new findings relevant to parent perspectives and preferences regarding family engagement in inclusive childcare programs. first, defining “culture” during the parent interview may have provided needed context to families so they may have been able to elaborate and depict culturally responsive experiences within programs. participants may not have been aware of all family culture aspects when asked about program support. secondly, additional participants from various racial backgrounds may have provided a more in-depth family engagement understanding. third, participants were recruited from a grant-funded project resulting in a limited population. results must be considered carefully with the understanding that the small sample size may not represent everyone’s perspectives within our larger diverse population. similarly, this study’s parent participants only represented faith-based and university centers. faith-based programs represent the majority. having various program types could have provided other unique insights into parent engagement. it is important to consider that this study’s participants may be a more engaged sampling due to their agreement to participate in the study. having a more diverse parent participant sampling with more variance in family engagement may have yielded different perspectives. implications for further research this study added to the existing research regarding parent engagement experiences within inclusive childcare programs. however, further research is needed to further understand family engagement experiences within infant and toddler programs which include children with and without disabilities. first, when designing future research careful revision should be given to the question protocol to include context for families and appropriate follow-up questions. specifically, when asked the question “with the country moving towards embracing various cultures, races, religions, beliefs, and values, describe how your program has supported your cultural background?” most participants in this study focused their responses on religion. revising this question to be multiple questions may provide participants with an opportunity to respond more holistically to how their programs exhibit culturally responsive practices. second, future researchers should seek to include early head-start centers, private centers, faith-based, and university centers in urban and rural settings to capture a more diverse population that is representative of the united states. in addition, the covid-19 pandemic is a relatively new and current influence on parent engagement in childcare programs. parent reports and the inclusive classroom rubric scores showed covid-19 effects on parent engagement experiences regarding activity involvement and including families in meetings and program planning. four out of five classrooms scored a 0 on the classroom observation tool. parents in these two centers reported limited access to the program due to covid-19 restrictions. more research concerning the pandemic is needed to contribute to existing research. as program restrictions were enforced by state and local agencies when the covid-19 pandemic emerged, future research is needed to examine quality family engagement practices as early education programs and families return to life activities post-pandemic. implications for practice this study indicates facilitators for encouraging family engagement in inclusive, toddler childcare programs. however, several barriers were reported that could hinder families from participating in engagement opportunities or the decision-making process. in addition to parent reports, the inclusive classroom rubric scores provided insight into changes that are warranted to increase parent engagement. the scores show that early educators must encourage parent engagement beyond foundational components including providing various communication modes that support positive relationships. classen and westbrook (2020) reported similar scores within the state when measuring parent-professional partnerships. higher education professionals or professional development coaches may use this study’s findings to develop training material. disseminating quality professional development opportunities could provide early education professionals with the necessary strategies to encourage higher-quality family engagement practices. classen and westbrook (2020) found that when early educators were provided family experiences of engagement in inclusive childcare… 215 professional development training and in-class coaching, parent-professional partnerships increased. through professional development, early educators could gain knowledge on topics such as building trusting relationships, ensuring two-way communication, considering family priorities during program planning, and collaborating with parents during decision-making. in addition, these findings could be used to create training material for parents with infants and toddlers. researchers (sheridan et al., 2010) found that when implementing both family and parent training opportunities, positive child outcomes increased. furthermore, positive parent-teacher and child-teacher relationships can increase by participating in family engagement training programs thus increasing positive child outcomes (sheridan et al., 2010). conclusion the family is a highly effective system that directly affects a child’s early development (bronfenbrenner, 1979). with 59% of children from birth to age five participating in nonparental childcare, it is important to encourage effective family engagement practices (nces, 2021; soukakou, 2016). this study fills a needed research gap in the literature related to family engagement experiences within childcare programs serving toddlers with and without disabilities or at-risk for developmental delays. unlike key research studies reviewed (classen et al., 2019; classen & westbrook, 2020; mereoiu et al., 2015; sheridan et al., 2010), this study included parents who had toddlers with and without disabilities who participate in inclusive childcare programs. specifically, this study found that positive, trusting relationships between parents and their children increased when positive relationships between parents and educators as well as between educators and the children were present. in addition, this study provides insights, like levickis et al. (2022), into the covid-19 impact on family engagement experiences. by better understanding family engagement experiences during decision-making processes, facilitators and barriers that may impact family engagement, and engagement opportunities provided or not provided, effective strategies can be developed to increase family engagement in programs. declarations authors’ declarations acknowledgements: not applicable. authors’ contributions: this manuscript was part of a specialist culminating research study. members of the specialist project committee are all included as authors as they all contributed to the development. specifically, ms. julianna lieb conducted the literature review and collected and transcribed the data. ms. julianna lieb and dr. audra classen completed the thematic analysis and triangulated data. with support from drs. audra classen, hollie filce, and lindsay wright, ms. julianna lieb wrote the manuscript. all authors were involved in editing the manuscript. competing interests: the authors declare that they have no competing interests. funding: this smaller study was not specifically funded. however, both classen and westbrook (2020) and the grant (mecic, 2021) were funded by the mississippi department of human services. ethics approval and consent to participate: irb approval (21-384) was gained from the university of southern mississippi before beginning the recruitment of participants. the principal investigator obtained signed consent forms from all participants. publisher’s declarations editorial acknowledgement: the editorial process of this article was carried out by dr. ibrahim h acar. publisher’s note: journal of childhood, education & society remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliation. references auert, e., trembath, d., arciuli, j., & thomas, d. 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https://doi.org/10.1177/1088357606021003060 https://www.adi.org/journal/fw08/xufillerfall2008.pdf https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ed579818.pdf https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2013.776493 journal of childhood, education & society volume 2, issue 2, 2021, 194-199 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.20212291 review article ©2021 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. the acquisition of autonomy, through benevolence, of children who are victims of domestic violence priscelle andeme ngui valandro1, loïc chalmel2 abstract: from its etymology bene (good) and volens (will), benevolence means desire to do well. benevolence is not an arbitrary notion or a theoretical apprehension. it unquestionably reveals man's humanism, which must combine in its daily practice and management with his fellow human beings and even with himself. in education, benevolence is crucial in mother-child relations. we believe that a mother must be benevolent, at the same time as; a child who has received the love of his mother (or parents) can love himself. this is a prerequisite for the acquisition of independent thought. the true cement of any family unit is the mutual love of all those who are called to live together. paradoxically, love is not the foundation of all families. unfortunately, there are dysfunctional families in which there are various and varied forms of violence. children from this type of environment find themselves victims of abuse with all the possible traumatic consequences. based on this observation, it is easy to reason by deduction: if family love conditions the acquisition of autonomy and children who are victims of family violence do not benefit from it within their families, then children who are victims of family violence are at a disadvantage in acquiring autonomy, or even that they cannot be autonomous. thus, one may wonder to bring a child victim of family violence to the acquisition of his autonomy? what tools can be used to help a traumatized child become autonomous? how to rebuild a child who has suffered family trauma with a view to his or her autonomy? this article offers the reader benevolence, not as an instruction manual or prescription to be applied, but as a transferable and impactable posture. article history received: 17 february 2021 accepted: 22 june 2021 keywords autonomy; benevolence; naive transfer; child victim of domestic violence introduction whatever the type of family -sociological, poly or monogamous, endogamous, exogamous, tribal, nuclear, homoparentalthe reader of this article will recognize that the family is a rather difficult institution to define. summarizing the definition of the dictionary le petit larousse illustré (famille, 2002, p. 420): “all persons of the same blood, living under the same roof and more particularly the father, mother and children”. poirot (1973) speaks of coexistence under the same roof and the blood ties of people. at the same time as for him, these two criteria are insufficient for coexistence; he posits love as the driving force for the coexistence of parents and children within a family. however, there is unfortunately another reality contrary to the criterion of love that should govern a family: violence within families. among the types of families, there are so-called dysfunctional families. within this type of family, there are various forms of violence: conjugal, physical, psychological, sexual, abandonment, rejection, parentification. the readings indicate that the family context in which a child evolves, has a profound impact on his health and wellbeing being because of reproduction or imitation. this is to say that this violence alters the psychological development of child victims. the child’s “i” is then shattered because of traumas suffered. however, hoffmans – gosset (2002, p. 27) mentions the importance of the “i” as subject and actor in the acquisition of autonomy. at this level, we then find ourselves confronted with a problem that brings us face to face _____________ 1 lisec laboratory, department of educational science, university of haute alsace, 11 rue des frères lumière, 68100 mulhouse, france, e-mail: v.priscelle@yahoo.fr. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6092-8474 2 lisec laboratory, department of educational science, university of haute alsace, 11 rue des frères lumière, 68100 mulhouse, france, e-mail: loic.chalmel@uha.fr. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4449-608x https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.20212291 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:v.priscelle@yahoo.fr https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6092-8474 mailto:loic.chalmel@uha.fr https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4449-608x priscelle andeme ngui valandro & loïc chalmel 195 with an “i” shattered by the traumas on the one hand. on the other hand, the same “i” is strongly solicited to acquire autonomy. in order to get out of this dilemma that puts the child’s “i” in a dualistic position, this article puts at the heart of both portraits the benevolent impulse that propels towards autonomy. it is structured in two parts. first, we will see theoretically how by a benevolent posture one transfers autonomy. then we will see in a practical way the feasibility of our reflection through a methodology that we propose. the posture of any researcher begins with a questioning. let us take up again the questioning that guides our work: how to bring a child victim of domestic violence to the acquisition of his autonomy? by which tool can a traumatized child become autonomous? how to rebuild a child who has suffered family traumas for his autonomy? to answer this question which is the subject of our research, we postulate that it is possible for a child shattered by family violence to rebuild his or her autonomy through the phenomenon of reproduction and transfer of benevolence or by imitating the benevolence of the guardian who accompanies the child victim of family violence, without necessarily making the child fall into a form of dependence on his or her guardian. in order to test our hypothesis, let us first define and circumscribe the field of autonomy. the rest of this paper is organized as follows: the first part deals with the theoretical construction in which the child victims of domestic violence and their consequences are first examined, the second part includes a definition and circumscription of field autonomy. in the following, the “i” heteronomy of the child victim of domestic violence is presented followed by the benevolence: carl ransom (1902-1987) then the benevolent and autonomous “i” of the guardian and finally the heteronomy to autonomy through the pedagogy of naive transfer. the second part is devoted to an example of the theoretical construction in which the natural method of transfer: from the bottom up is presented and the placement chart of the child by the transfer of the bottom up naive is established. the conclusion is presented at the end of the paper and summarizes the salient points. theoretical construction children who are victims of domestic violence and the consequences for bovay (2008) quoted in valandro and chalmel (2020, p. 3), “violence refers to physical behavior and actions: it consists of the use of force against someone with the damage it causes”. valandro and chalmel (2020) write that a child who is a victim of domestic violence is a child to whom his or her family system offers conditions of survival and not of life, moreover, interspersed with violence. these include physical, psychological, sexual, abandonment, rejection, parentification...and many other forms of child abuse within the family. cudré-mauraux (2012) recognizes that psychological violence: verbal aggression (threats, insults...) attacks psychological integrity. savard and zaouche (2011) point out that exposing children to physical violence leads to disorganization in the child’s life. note also that children’s exposure to violence has traumatic consequences valandro and chalmel (2020). cyrulnik and jorland (2012, p. 175) defines psychological trauma as all the psychological and physiological damage resulting from an event suffered, where any form of violence experienced physically or morally varies individually, being linked to personal history. autonomy: define and circumscribe the field the word autonomy comes from the greek word autonomia, which means the power of one who is autonomos, that is to say, who determines for himself the law (nomos) to which he obeys. for lafon 1905 -1980) quoted by hoffmans gosset (2002, p. 15), autonomy consists in making oneself even one’s own law and self-determination in values. the “i” is the principle of autonomy and we can only speak of autonomy when there is self-awareness. connac (2017) even evokes different types of autonomy: functional, moral, legal and intellectual. as for our work, we will follow in the footsteps of hoffmans gosset (2002, p. 30) and speak of affective autonomy. hoffmans gosset (2002) explains in this regard that this type of autonomy is translated into being, that is to say that it is a state, it is experienced bodily, it is valued and is gratifying. she writes clearly that “a pleasant, satisfying state seems to come from a practice the acquisition of autonomy, through benevolence, of children… 196 of autonomy”. in order for autonomy to exist, it must be experienced, it cannot be given just as one cannot speak of someone else’s autonomy when one is in the order of affectivity. autonomy touches something in us in the order of vitality and survival. it explains that it cannot be given as a manual, in which case it is no longer autonomy. and the person claiming it is not an autonomous person. the “me” heteronomy of the child victim of domestic violence to understand this logic of hoffmans gosset (2002), affective autonomy is an evolutionary construction. it is constructed, in the same way as the “me” is constructed. it must be built within a framework that is empowering or favorable to the construction of identity. let us specify that the empowering environment is an environment that offers an affective basis to a child for his identity construction and development. with this in mind, we call again on the reader of this work to remind him/her of the living conditions of a child victim of family violence. he/she (reader) will recognize that the family is supposed to be a favorable environment for the construction of identity. however, we are in the sad reality that the family is not an enabling environment for the construction of the autonomy of a child victim of family violence due to a lack of affectivity. in the same way that the child's “i” has not been built, his autonomy has not been built either. fortin (2010), and even cyrulnik (2017) show that the environment has a strong impact on the child's entire personality. the more favorable this environment is, the more stable and constructed the child is. it conditions the child’s education and autonomy. however, for connac (2017), heteronomy is a constraint which consists in acting under the law of another, the will is determined by an external object. it results in the exercise of submission (whether consensual or not) to a power and leads to forms of assistance where the commitment is triggered by constraint or an external impulse. this “i” is opposed to any logic of autonomy as we have developed it. benevolence: carl ransom (1902-1987) in this paper, we choose to refer to the philosopher carl ransom and to treat benevolence from an educational perspective. he speaks synonymously of empathy to bridge the gap between psychology and pedagogy. it (benevolence) calls upon human sensitivity, humanism towards others and a spirit of openness towards others. in the same spirit, the psychologist carl ransom (1995, p. 21), taken up by chalmel (2018), places empathy at the crossroads between christianity and psychology. he therefore uses the same terms such as “to feel the emotions of the student, to share his feelings...” chalmel (2018). he goes on to say that in education, the concept of empathy does not take shape if the teacher initially examines himself and his examination is confined to his repeated questions chalmel (2018): am i authentic and am i aware of who i am? am i capable of positive relationships? do i have the strength to be distinct from the other? do i have enough inner security to leave the other free? the interest of these questions lies in the thinking subject: the teacher, whom we call the child's companion. from his reflection emerges his posture, his way of being which must be based on what he embodies and on what he is. we would even say that he must be confident in what he is. in this regard, chalmel (2018) specifies that "tutoring is based on trust. any other constraint produces mistrust". the benevolent and autonomous “me” of the guardian the guardian, which we develop in this article, is the one who does what he says, who is what he says. he is the one whose discourse is the practice, a coherent tutor. his behavior must bear witness to the responsibility of the one who carries out his work as a tutor. freire’s (2006, p. 80) requirement of teachers is such that he writes: "if one cannot expect his agents to be angels and saints, one can and must nevertheless demand from them righteousness and a serious attitude". in fact, when we read paulo freire’s pedagogy of autonomy (2006) which is a key book on the acquisition of autonomy, we come across a strong anaphoric repetition of the verb “to demand”, evoking the different attributes of the teacher. he writes, for example, that “teaching requires humility...” freire (2006, p. 81). also, he writes: “teaching requires joy and hope”, freire (2006, p. 86). the verb “to demand” challenges us in such a way that it must be an ethically imposable posture. this demand is the one we want to transfer to the guardian of benevolence with regard to a child who is a victim of domestic violence. priscelle andeme ngui valandro & loïc chalmel 197 from heteronomy to autonomy: through the pedagogy of naive transfer for professional training, we based to the inspiration of the pedagogue paulo freire, we allow ourselves to establish the naive transfer as a suitable method to accompany a child victim of domestic violence towards his autonomy, or at least to build the autonomy of a child victim of domestic violence. this naive transfer is built around an ethical positioning in which we situate this article. indeed, freire (2017, p. 48) speaks of epistemological knowledge and naive knowledge. he explains that naive knowledge is made up of pure experiences and attributes it to the curiosity of analgabetes persons. moreover, there is no break between naïve knowledge and epistemological knowledge. we want to highlight the fact that the transfer that is going to take place will be a transfer based on imitation of the behavior of the tutor supervising the child. stakes of the pedagogy of naive transfer through this model of accompaniment by transfer of naive knowledge, we want to highlight the posture of the accompanier of a child who has suffered trauma within his family. this pedagogy is built around two instances, the “me” of the tutor and the “me” of the child. the pedagogical action is only the tutor's “me”: all that it is and embodies as values. the “me” of the oppressed is invaded by the shadow of the oppressor; the oppressed has the duty to expel this shadow and replace it with his or her autonomy. through this pedagogy, we want to invite the transmitting “me” to incarnate the values it claims to embody so that through its behavior, its teaching will echo. the heteronomous “me” of the child is influenced by outsiders. in order for this child's “self” to become autonomous, he will simply have to imitate his tutor. therefore, the tutor must embody a good posture so that the child imitates him in a natural way. the tutor therefore does not need to teach the child autonomy as a lesson to be studied. the tutor must be natural to transmit his natural posture to the child. clearly, we situate this passage in the paradigm of “such i am and such you must be”. given that “imitation is the fundamental conduct by which the child accomplishes his conquests”, nadel and zazzo (1986, p. 21). naive transference is a natural method that makes practical use of the guardian's posture. the child's "me" will be imitated. example of the theoretical construction we believe that all scientific reflection should aim at a plan for putting the theory developed into practice. this step is only the feasible or living part of the ideas developed. moreover, in his praxeological approach freire (2006, p. 48) clearly writes that “critical reflection on practice becomes a requirement of the theory/practice relationship, without which theory can turn into blah-blah, and practice into activism”. thus, in our work, we have thought about the autonomy of a child victim of domestic violence. we propose, as a practical example, a type of accompaniment towards the construction of the autonomy of this type of child. for this accompaniment, the tutor in charge of the child’s care must embody a posture, the said posture will be transferred to the child by what we have called: the pedagogy of naive transfer. that is to say, from the autonomous “i” of the tutor to a heteronomous “i” of the child, this heteronomous “i” which, by imitating the values of the tutor, will become autonomous. natural method of transfer: bottom up the naive transfer pedagogy that we have developed in our theoretical approach will be confined to what we will call in our methodology the “bottom up” approach. definition bottom-up is an ascending approach (from the bottom to the top) that will bring out theories of practice. our theories put us in front of two instances: a shattered and heteronomous “me”. this “me”, in our methodology, will be identified with the position of the bottom, because of its lack of autonomy following the various traumas it has undergone. we recognize that this unfulfilled instance is the “me” of the child victim. the second instance of our theories is also an “me” that opposes the unfulfilled “me”. this “i” is that of the guardian, benevolent and autonomous. in our bottom-up method, the autonomous “me” of the guardian occupies the position of the top. this high position is recognized because of its construction, the acquisition of autonomy, through benevolence, of children… 198 its autonomy and its benevolence. the bottom-up methodology, as we conceive it, is unconscious or naive because of the type of transference we have evoked in our theories. let us acknowledge, however, that this method is inspired by the pedagogical experience developed by pestalozzi (1799) in neuhoff and quoted in lettre de stans (1996, p.30). indeed, the pedagogue opens an institute that takes care of orphans, the poorest and most abandoned children. for these little orphans he opts for a purely family approach, from which he believes that “every good education requires that the strength of the educator be no other than that of a father, animated by the presence of all the circumstances of domestic life”, pestalozzi (1985, p. 18). his method is based only on the benevolence he intends to transmit to this public. “my way of proceeding in this regard was based on the following principle: seek first to enlarge the hearts of your children and to bring their sensitivity, experience and activity into contact with love and benevolence...”, pestalozzi (1985, p. 30). in the pedagogue's approach, two important things attract us: the creation of a family context and benevolence as a pedagogical tool for the acquisition of autonomy. also, in pestalozzi’s experience, children, whose “i” is completely destroyed, were asked to rebuild themselves according to the pestalozzi model itself. in this approach, we find the bottom-up method of unconscious transference which is the basis of this part of the work. in concrete terms, there is talk of setting up a type of care for children who are victims of domestic violence within a caring family. placement chart of the child by the transfer of the bottom up naïve method table 1 shows the transfer of the child from two institutions: from an institution in his or her biological family environment to a foster family. the placement is subject to legal proceedings following a report. with regard to the child's problems, the choice of foster family is based on a family composition close to the child's family. the main objective is to enable the child to build his or her emotional autonomy. this can be verified when the child unconsciously inspires the adoptive parents to set up a support program for his or her follow-up. in other words, through observation in gestures, words...the child will express desires about his activities. these desires will be studied and analyzed by the tutors, who will judge by this language a certain freedom of the child to build himself and be autonomous. "respect for the autonomy and dignity of each person is an ethical imperative and not a favour that we may or may not grant to one another”, freire (2006, p. 75) it should be noted that guardians do not coerce the child in any way. they leave him a certain freedom of action with, of course, advice, guidance, guidance, adjustments, to avoid falling into the trap of letting him go. they live with the child as they are. table 1. table of placement chart of the child by the transfer of the bottom up naive child family institution legal placement at home is selected by the juvenile judge criteria non-autonomous from a dysfunctional family capable of operating autonomously. caring. stable. type 10 to 15 years identical to the composition of the biological family. objectives 1/ at the end of the stay, the child must be able to demonstrate independence in daily activities. 2/express your wishes and desires gradually, freely and unconsciously to lead the child to build his autonomy. translate the child's requests into a support tool. methodology bottom up (imitation) pedagogy of freedom bottom up by naive transfer requirements orientation-adjustment – freedom to behave expected results autonomy priscelle andeme ngui valandro & loïc chalmel 199 conclusion the work we have done is aimed at two very important players. on the one hand, a person, or at least a child, who is a victim of violence and who wants to rebuild his or her life. and on the other hand, a tutor to accompany them towards reconstruction. it presents benevolence as a tool for acquiring autonomy. he opts for a transfer of benevolence in a natural way: from a “senior “i” benevolent” to a “junior “i” benevolent”. with all that we have developed, it is possible that the autonomous benevolent being creates autonomy through human contact. the reader of this article will have quickly understood the positioning or ethical dimension in which we situate our work. or better still, he or she will have understood the challenge or awareness of the values that underpin human dignity, which are at the heart of everything we have developed. the discerning reader will have quickly understood that there is a pressing challenge to benevolence for any accompanying tutor. this article advocates an embodiment of benevolence that goes beyond professional constraints. the reflection we have conducted also invites professional actors in caring for people who want to be part of a neo development process to a critical examination of their values. far from being a work of accusation, our work makes a point of saluting the nobility and humanity of their profession and also saluting the efforts they make to reintegrate others into a beautiful life expectancy. declarations acknowledgements: not applicable. authors’ contributions: the authors declare that they have equally contribution. competing interests: the author declares that they have no competing interests. funding: this work was not supported by any funding. references chalmel, l. 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(2020). emotional detachment–resilient space: child in family difficulty. european journal of education studies, 7(1), 62-71. https://edudoc.ch/record/87081/files/?ln=fr the acquisition of autonomy, through benevolence, of children who are victims of domestic violence journal of childhood, education & society volume 2, issue 2, 2021, 117-125 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.20212266 research article ©2021 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. parents’ perspective on a children’s learning adrijana višnjić-jevtić1 abstract: contemporary curricula of early childhood education were founded on perspective of playing learning child. although that approach leads to children’s wellbeing, research by yahya (2006) has shown that parents do not want their children to learn through play, rather to focus on early and preschool education and teaching academic skills. if parents expect professionals to deliver the knowledge necessary for the development of academic skills to their children, research has been conducted on parental experience of a child’s learning. the aim of the research was to find out how parents understand their children's learning and approach to the contemporary concepts of child learning as well as children’s competence. the research was conducted in the period from november 2017 to may 2019. parents involved in the study, documented how their children learn in a family environment, assessing their children’s competencies. results show that parents see learning through everyday situations whereas learning was related to the academic mode (direct teaching of letters), has only appeared in one example. at the end of the research, parents participated in a group interview, discussing their expectations of the institution towards educating children. the results showed that parents expect the institution to encourage the development of a child's social knowledge and skills, while academic knowledge and skills are ranked lower. article history received: 14 october 2020 accepted: 31 may 2021 keywords competence; early years; image of the child; learning; play introduction by adopting the un convention on the rights of the child (1989), a child is recognized as a subject of rights and accepted as active, competent researcher of his or her own environment and creator of his or her own development (bašić, 2011). the changed view of a child and childhood, understanding and appreciation of a child's perspective and perception of a child as an active participant in their own learning, have sparked discussions about a position of children in contemporary society (bogatić, visnjic jevtic, campbell-barr, & georgeson, 2019; clouder, 2014; sylva, 2010; toros, tiko & saia, 2013). although, childhood has been in scientists’ focus of interest for a long time, these changes have led to a scientific rethinking of child’s well-being and in this context, the importance of the environment for learning and developing young children (dahlberg, moss, & pence, 1999). determining the environment for children's learning may differ. rodger (2012) describes learning environment as environment that, based on children's interest and current stage of development, acts on children's development by setting challenging but attainable goals. sommer, pramling samuelsson, and hundeide (2010) state that, in addition to the material and social environment of learning, special emphasis is placed on the importance of the key person with whom a child relates. mcdowal clark (2017) emphasizes the importance that the environment enables children to acquire different experiences, to ensure more successful learning. considering the results of research, indicating the link between the enabling environment and child development (bridges and hoff, 2014; gopnik, meltzoff and kuhl, 2003; moss and petrie, 2002; papatheodorou and moyles, 2009), it is reasonable to conclude that both, the material and social environment are equally necessary for learning, and therefore the development of a child. _____________ 1 university of zagreb, faculty of teacher education, zagreb, croatia, e-mail: adrijana.vjevtic@ufzg.hr, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3812-7472 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.20212266 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:adrijana.vjevtic@ufzg.hr https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3812-7472 adrijana višnjić-jevtić 118 responsibility for providing an enabling environment, for the development and learning, lies on the adults and communities in which children grow up. a responsibility is extremely high, because of intervening in the context of growing up and influencing the development of a child. therefore, the most important task for adults is to understand a child as a learner, as well as a child’s learning strategies. the key people in supporting a child’s development and learning are parents. unlike professionals, parents usually do not have formal parental support. support in the republic of croatia refers to material forms of support (for example, paid parental and maternity leave, child allowance). due to the lack of support from immediate and extended families (widmer, 2016), support for strengthening parental competencies occurs in various programs such as schools for parents. in croatia, these programs are most often available to parents in larger places for a fee. thus, residence, along with economic status, is a discriminatory factor for strengthening parental competencies. parents whose children attend early childhood education settings should receive support there. the research by dobrotić, matković, and menger (2018) shows that more than half of parents (58%) of children attending early childhood education settings receives support in the settings. documents governing early and preschool education (i.e. national curriculum for early childhood education (ministarstvo znanosti, obrazovanja i sporta 2015)) emphasize the importance of partnerships between families and institutions, including support for parents. this paper discusses children's learning within the cultural-historical wholeness approach (hedegaard, 2012), defines the parental perspective of children's learning and brings these concepts into relation with empirical research. some research indicates that parents equate learning with the acquisition of academic skills (for example, yahya, 2016). given the lack of such research in the republic of croatia, it was justified to investigate whether parents see children's learning (exclusively) as the acquisition of academic skills. learning in the early childhood early childhood is the most sensitive period for learning. some of the research (i.e. shumow 2001) is talking about early childhood period as preparation period for future, (mostly) academic success. it may lead to perception of early childhood as a waiting room for school, adulthood, life. this is contradictory to the image of childhood as a period with its own values, norms, and cultures (babić, 2014). visković and višnjić jevtić (2019) see early childhood as a period of intense (active and participatory) learning, development of personality, skills, and socialization, and emphasize a role of a child as a co-creator of his/her own development. cultural-historical wholeness approach learning doesn’t happen without children’s agency. rather, it is a construct of children’s interactions with material and social environment. constructivist conception of learning is rooted in the works of, amongst others, bruner (1961) and vygotsky (1962). founded on socio-constructivist theory, hedegaard (2012) discuss cultural-historical wholeness approach, highlighting the influence of life conditions on every person involved in the learning process. hedegaard (2012) systematizes the contexts significant for a child’s development by categorizing them in three planes: • “a formal societal plane reflecting historically evolved traditions in a society that is formalized into laws and regulations as conditions for the existence of an institution (in the model depicted as cultural traditions in a society for different institutions, reflecting different value positions); • a general institutional plane reflecting informal conventional traditions and demands (i.e., related to school and home), taking form as practices (in the model depicted as, respectively, home, school, and day care practice); parents’ perspective on a children’s learning 119 • a specific plane reflecting the shared activity settings of persons in a specific institution (i.e., a specific home or a specific school, depicted as activity settings in the model).” (hedegaard, 2012, p. 129–130) the presented planes are interconnected and influence learning and development. to analyse children’s learning situation all above mentioned planes must be considered. hedegaard (2012) pointed out that children’s activities happen in various institutions (i.e. families, ece settings) and meet different traditions and values, and result from different social situations. formal societal plane usually focused on regulations establishing family as community (defining family, divorces, fostering the child,…) but rarely on upbringing practices in family (hedegaard, 2012). regarding the ece institutions formal societal plane may be seen in various regulations. the general institutional plane and a specific plane occur in various activities within both, and families and institutions. in republic of croatia formal societal plane might be seen in various acts and guidelines. family law (republic of croatia, 2019) states that parental care presupposes the responsibility, duty, and rights of parents to promote the rights and welfare of the child. it states that the care and education of the child must be in accordance with the child's age and maturity, without any further guidelines. it may lead to different interpretations of the children wellbeing and/or appropriate care practices. ece institution practices are regulated by national curriculum of early childhood and education (mzos, 2015) and gives a framework for appropriate practices. both abovementioned documents recognize the need for respecting different educational practices. respecting the differences arising from this approach, it is not possible to determine only one practice that would suit all parents and institutions in the republic of croatia. every family and every institution are unique and should be approached as such. learning trough play the process of learning in the early childhood education is closely connected to playing. because of its importance in a child’s development, play is an integral part of the early education curriculum worldwide i.e. early years foundation stage (department for education, 2017), te whariki (ministry of education, 2017), curriculum for the pre-school: lpfö 98. (swedish national agency for education, 2010), aistear (national council for curriculum and assessment, 2009). although, playing is not related exclusively to a period of early childhood, learning through play is usually associated with a period of early childhood. pramling samuelsson and asplund carlsson (2008) throwing into question, how playing and learning are often generally separated in the context of early and preschool education. thus, they state that playing is associated with free-time activities, and learning with the organized activities. the authors mcinnes, howard, miles and crowley (2011) have similar thinking, associating playing with child led activities, and learning with adult led activities. this way of thinking is contrary to the contemporary understanding of a child as a naturally curious and enterprising organizer of its own learning (carter & roe, 2013). the play gives children possibility to construct (new) knowledge based on their previous experiences and new understanding of previous ideas. pramling et al. (2019) emphasizes, how indisputable is learning through play, but the content of learning is questionable unless, there is an adult intervention. it is the role of adults to facilitate children's play by providing a supportive environment (baumer, 2013; coates & pimlott-wilson, 2019). such interventions represent an encroachment on the context of development, and therefore, the responsibility of providing time and space for playing. if adults organize play activities, it is possible to throw into question, whether it’s a free or didactic play we’re talking about. some scientists (i.e. coates & pimlottwilson, 2019) emphasize, how learning happens during a free play, while the others (pramling et al., 2019) emphasize, a didactic play is a prerequisite for learning. both agree on the benefits that play has for the overall development of a child. most research into children's learning starts from an adult perspective. adults create expectations about desirable (required) content, and ways of learning it, and according to that, expected outcomes of learning. it is possible that the adult's perspective on a child's needs may differ adrijana višnjić-jevtić 120 from a child's actual needs. it is also possible, for adults to misinterpret a child's capabilities, and to organize the learning environment in accordance with the desired, rather than actual developmental capabilities. this approach probably resulted in marginalizing the role of play in learning and focusing on academically measurable skills. although, measurability can provide a clear definition of one's success according to certain criteria, the question is who determines the criteria. van oers (2003) concludes that complete development cannot be measured uniquely. the promotion of measurable results possibly influenced the reduction of playing time, regardless of the scientific knowledge of the values that playing brings. it is possible, that imperatives of successfulness, have led to perception of success as academically measurable achievement. parents’ perspective – a child-oriented or outcome-oriented perspective a child-centred approach starts from an environment that is organized for a child to develop according to his or her interests and abilities. chung and walsh (2000) define child-centred approach from a few standpoints, (a) a child in the centre of the world; (b) a child in the centre of learning and (c) a child as an active creator of his/her own learning. speaking of the first two standpoints, (a child in the centre of the world, and a child in the centre of learning) they might be seen as perspectives of adults in relation to the position of a child. it is possible that the standpoint, of a child in the centre of the world, more often refers to parents than to educators. partly because of the trend of parental overprotecting, that is, subordination of the world to a child. this trend has led to the appearance of new terms in parenting, such as, over parenting (bernstein & triger, 2011), helicopter parenting (cline & fay, 1990) or curling parents (hougaard, 2004). all these terms refer to parents who uncritically place children at the centre of their worlds and try to shape it in a way that cannot harm a child, with its potentially risky environment. approach to a child in the centre of learning, refers to learning aligned with a child's interests and needs. considering that educators usually organize a learning environment, it is probably about being a childcentred, but from educators’ perspective. educators’ professional competences presuppose an understanding of how children learn and understanding of different learning strategies (campbell-barr, 2019; visković & višnjić jevtić, 2019). therefore, an approach in which child is in the centre of learning might be part of an educator's professional habitus. considering different responsibilities for children's development and learning, parents’ and educators’ approaches to children's learning are likely to be different from each other. contemporary society emphasizes the need for mutual support, two-way communication, and the sharing of responsibilities between parents and educators (višnjić jevtić, 2021). de vries (2013) emphasizes, while a clear division of the responsibilities is (still!) present in the context of primary education (the school is primarily responsible for education, and the family for upbringing), in early and preschool education institutions’ attitudes and expectations are changing. it is assumed that educators can influence the development of pedagogical competence of parents, especially understanding how children learn. despite the changes, some research concluded that parents do not want their children to learn through play, rather, they want early and preschool education institutions to focus on teaching academic skills (yahya, 2006). kehily (2013) quotes, that the upbringing of children today is a compound of romanticism, consumerism and the science promoted in the media. at the same time, the media provide guidance on how it’s possible to increase the iq of a child in prenatal period, implicating cognitive abilities as obligatory for child’s development (hardyment, 2007). kluczniok, anders, sechtig and rosebach (2016) start from determining the quality of institutions of early and preschool education, in terms of securing high development achievements, with an emphasis on early reading and numeracy. this reflection is on the trace of shumow (2001) research, which showed that 61% of parents expect traditional transfer of knowledge in the fields of reading, writing and mathematics from educational institutions. o'gorman and ailwood (2012) emphasize, that although parents show an understanding of the value of play in their child's development, they still do not consider it sufficient to prepare a child for future education. however, construction of the (good) parenthood and appropriate parental behaviour is related to the society and the culture. therefore, parental behaviours differ across the societies. it is possible that parental attitudes toward the ways in which children learn in early childhood can present a challenge for educators. the challenge for educators is even greater considering how contemporary understanding of the partnership parents’ perspective on a children’s learning 121 between parents and educators, assuming an active parental role in creating curriculum of early and preschool education. method considering the image of a child as an active and competent person who learn trough play and in interaction with material and social environment, it is justified and necessary to explore parents’ view on children’s learning and competences in early years. the aim of the conducted research was to find out more information about parent’s perspectives and understanding on children’s learning (i.e. how they define learning in early years; what skills they see as necessary for the child’s participation in society; how they perceive success in relation to their own child). parent’s perspective was explored in the field research, within the framework of the qualitative paradigm, by means of a photo diary and focus group. the research was approved by the ethics committee of the faculty of teacher education in 2017. participants were informed and agreed with the purpose and procedure of the research. the research was conducted from november 2017 to may 2019, with parents whose children were attending the same kindergarten class. the research was conducted in two cycles. the first cycle lasted from november 2017 to may 2018, and fourteen parents participated in it (n=14). the second cycle lasted from september 2018 to may 2019 and twenty-two parents participated in it (n=22). the research was based on the concept of photo diaries (chaplin, 2011). photo diary is recognized as auto ethnographic method that represent authors’ own voice on research problem. although the described research does not fully correspond to autoethnographic method, it is possible to connect it in a broader sense with research procedures that are close to this type of research. for example, parents themselves record their own perception of children's learning, in situations that they themselves consider significant. the research included an initial parent meeting with a lecture on children development. afterwards, over two months the parents documented with photographs how their children were learning. they also described in their own words, what a child learns in the photographed situation. after completing the documentation cycle, photographs were analysed. to facilitate analysis of collected photographs, they were categorized according to two keys the type of activity, which described learning (academic activities, life-practical activities, play, research, and creative activities) and social environment (whether a child is alone, or with family members in a learning situation). after this part of the research, a focus group was held with the parents, followed by a lecture and the results were presented. in the beginning of a new school year, a new cycle of monitoring and documenting children started, with an emphasis on children's competencies. the research ended with a presentation of the parents’ opinions of their children. results and discussion the analysis of the photographs showed that parents most often perceived life-practical and work activities (n=6) such as cooking, tidying up and participating in family rituals as learning situations. parents related these activities to learning, as follows: photograph 1 child bakes cookies. she was taught organization, patience, creativity, and satisfaction which follows after completing a successful job (baked cookies). photograph 2 child bakes and prepares tortillas with her mother. rearranges colourful vegetables in dough, decorates with ketchup, sour cream, and dips. this activity enhances emotional, cognitive, social activities… and as the child says "our bellies are very happy!” photograph 3 child walking with a little brother. being outdoors, identifying with the role of big brother, protector, and mom's sidekick. a child develops self-esteem and confidence. photograph 4 child tightens the screws. develops hand motions turns screws, develops working skills. adrijana višnjić-jevtić 122 the next activity, which was recognized as a stimulus for learning, was playing (n=5). most parents, who decided for playing as a learning activity, documented a free play (n=4), while one parent documented a social play. one of the parents clarified the children's learning, describing the symbolic play of “a fruit shop”: the game started so that we played fruit shops, the child prepared the fruit, distributed the coins, but then realized that some fruits were bigger (heavier) and some smaller, “so that they did not have to be paid the same”. a parent explained how a child learned to cope with victory and defeat in the social play, which is important for functioning in society, and in addition learned colours and numbers. three parents (n = 3) concluded that their children learned different creative activities. only one parent emphasized reading and writing as activities he recognized, as a learning one. analysing the social environment, it was possible to conclude that most parents (n = 10) estimated that their children were learning with another person. although there were equal number of photographs showing only children (n = 7) and photographs showing children with families (n = 7), to provide a more detailed insight into the situation parents' written statements were also used to analyse this criterion. based on the results of the first part of research it is visible, that the parents who participated in the research, do not associate learning exclusively with academic skills, unlike in some earlier research. (i.e. kluczniok, anders, sechtig & rosebach, 2016). at the same time, research has shown that parents understand the value of playing in their child's learning, which confirms the results of o'gorman and ailwood (2012). a group interview was held for further clarification of parents' understanding of the importance to stimulate skills. an interview was attended by twenty parents (n=20). through conversation, they identified a group of different skills, which should be stimulated. the skills were divided into five categories social skills, emotional skills, self-care skills, motor skills, and academic skills. parents ranked skills according to their assessment of importance. they rated social skills as the most important, following the self-care, emotional and motor skills. academic skills were assessed as the least important. it is possible, that these assessments were influenced by lectures that emphasized a different approach to the previously known concept of school readiness. it is also possible, given the years of the previous research, that standing point towards upbringing and educating children is changing on behalf of socio-emotional skills. changes in understanding of contemporary parenting are precisely what induced the third part of the research. assuming, that most contemporary parents are overly protective of their children, and even complete tasks instead of them, there was a need to research the parental opinion of children and their competences. to determine the parental opinion of their children, the parents photographed and documented the activity in which their child was successful, that is, an activity that demonstrates a child's competence. the photographs were divided into categories, according to common features. the categories were, social competence (n = 3), emotional competence (n = 1), cognitive ability (n = 3), motor skills (3), creative expression and creativity (n = 8), the play (n = 2), and work ability (n = 2). analysing a child's competencies, one child’s parents emphasized the interest in participating in jobs that he/she is interested in. they consider a child to be able to use the knife in situations that require it (documented with a photograph of a child cleaning a fish after fishing, independently). one of the parents stated that his/her child is competent in all forms of play and playing. a photograph that demonstrated these competencies showed a child doing handstand activity. it is very interesting how a lot of parents, especially parents of girls’, described their children as successful / competent in various forms of creative expression. in this part of the research, only two collected photographs showed children in potentially risky activities (using a knife and a drill). given that most of the photos showed children as the centre of family life (for example, four photographs showed children during a musical performance, while other members of a family applaud them), it is possible to take a stand that parents truly see their child as the centre of their world. a parent of the youngest child who was part of the research, was the only one who gave a photograph of his/her child participating independently in decision making: as the youngest member of our family, k. loves being independent, and that reflects the most on her ability to choose and make decisions. these are small things that do not affect our family responsibilities or our schedule, but they mean a lot to her: for example, choosing a t-shirt, choosing apples or bananas for a snack, choosing a bath or shower, parents’ perspective on a children’s learning 123 choosing a song before bedtime. she is proud when she makes her own decisions. previous research (nikiforidou, 2017) states, that the parents see a child as precious and fragile, and in need of protection. this kind of parental thinking is on the trace of the contemporary concept of parenting. it is possible, that the results are consequences of systematic work with parents to strengthen their parenting competences. parents allow children to use different tools and materials that were not intended solely for playing. it can be assumed, that this is one of the ways in which they show that they accept and promote the various interests of children. they also recognize competencies as a development category (a child reads the draft independently and stacks the dice towards it. he used to do this with someone helping him!) parents also show how they are willing to provide children with different sorts of experiences. it is possible that previous thought may confirm parental understanding of how children experience a meaning based on their own experience activities (bašić, 2011). although this research included a smaller group of participants, the results may provide a basis for future research on parental opinions about children. the limitation of this research is that the concept of the research did not predict individual interviews with parents, only their statements, which were in a form of brief written notes. this prevented a deeper understanding of their children's learning of concepts and children's competencies, and ultimately their opinion about them. conclusion the conducted research showed how parents involved in the research understand how children learn. in doing so, they value social and emotional skills as a prerequisite for successful functioning in society and a precondition for the acquisition of other skills. research participants (parents) see a child as competent, motivated, curious, successful, and willing to learn in different ways. it can be concluded that they are the ones who provide an enabling environment for the development of such children. even though the research focused on the assessment of children, it provided insight into the participants' parenting competences. parental considerations can be used by educators, to better understand the family culture of children and to provide an environment for each child individually. the research was conducted with parents whose children are involved in ece settings; therefore, it is likely that they had professional support in their parenting. by repeating the research in a different form, for example by collecting parental narratives, a more complete insight into parental understanding of children’s learning would be obtained. the results of the research provide insight into the understanding of learning within a particular socio-cultural community. while it is certain that the results would be different within other growing communities, similar research could clarify the understanding of children’s learning in families at risk of social exclusion. given that ece settings are obliged to support parents, such research can give them insight into parental understanding of child development. consequently, professionals can provide parental support in accordance with modern scientific knowledge about the child's development. declarations 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instruction on mathematics achievement outcomes bilge cerezci1 abstract: the examination of teaching quality in mathematics in relation to student learning outcomes has become increasingly important following the research reports indicating that early mathematics teaching and learning experiences are critical contributors to students’ learning and later achievement in mathematics and other content areas. the purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between the quality of early mathematics instruction and students’ mathematics learning outcomes in 73 pre-k to 3rd grade classrooms in an urban public schools system. the results suggested that the quality mathematics instruction varies across observed classrooms but mostly mediocre. limited but significant associations between instructional quality and mathematics achievement were also documented at the classroom level. more specifically, there was a positive significant interaction between quality of mathematics teaching and students’ mathematics achievement at the end of the school year in classrooms where ratings of the instructional quality was identified as “high,” after controlling for students’ pre-test scores and gender. article history received: 03 june 2020 accepted: 20 july 2020 keywords early mathematics; instructional quality; mathematics achievement introduction in today’s global knowledge economy, mathematics proficiency is critically important for all members of the society to achieve, as it constitutes the core of any productive economy. for our society to develop citizens who are knowledgeable and globally competitive, it is essential to provide them with excellent quality mathematical experiences to facilitate their math abilities (ritchie & bates, 2013; watts, duncan, siegler, & davis-kean, 2014). mounting evidence indicates the dependence of later school performance on the quality of early math experience (aunola, leskinen, lerkkanen, & nurmi 2004; carr, peters, & young-loveridge, 1994; duncan, et. al., 2007; lange, brenneman, & mano, 2019). if a student falls behind mathematically during the critical years of early schooling, it becomes increasingly unlikely that the student will catch up as he moves up the grade levels (aunola et. al., 2004; bodovski & farkas, 2007). this discrepancy may exist because many students are not developing foundational mathematics knowledge, skills, and confidence needed for success during elementary schooling (gervasoni & perry, 2017). moreover, research suggests that students’ struggles in elementary mathematics are related to weaknesses in early number competence, a fundamental early mathematics concept (gersten, jordan, & flojo, 2005; national research council, 2009). such research results are both distressing and indicative: early mathematics education is foundational and attention to early math education and instruction is vital to improving students’ performance in mathematics. background the beginning of this century saw the development of two position statements on early childhood mathematics, which set the precedent for the myriad of studies that document the implications of early childhood mathematics knowledge. the first released in the us by the national association for the education of young children (naeyc) and the national council of teachers of mathematics (nctm). _____________ 1 national louis university, national college of education, early childhood education, chicago, usa, e-mail:bcerezci@nl.edu, orcid: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9648-2387 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.20201248 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ the impact of the quality of early mathematics instruction… 217 the national council of teachers of mathematics and the national association for the education of young children affirm that high quality, challenging, and accessible mathematics education for three-to-six-year-old children is a vital foundation for future mathematics learning. in every early childhood setting, children should experience effective, research based curriculum and teaching practices. such high-quality practice in turn requires policies, organizational supports, and adequate resources that enable teachers to do this challenging and important work (naeyc & nctm 2002/2010, p.1). following the footsteps of naeyc and nctm, the early childhood australia (eca) and the australian association of mathematics teachers (aamt) put forward the following statement: the australian association of mathematics teachers and early childhood australia believe that all children in their early childhood years are capable of accessing powerful mathematical ideas that are both relevant to their current lives and form a critical foundation for their future mathematics and other learning. children should be given the opportunity to access these ideas through high quality child-centered activities in their homes, communities, prior toschool settings and schools (aamt & eca, 2006, p.1). both of these statements reiterate the importance of early childhood mathematics education and urge making high quality mathematics teaching and learning a shared experience for all students. these statements also suggest that providing mathematics instruction as early as possible may be particularly beneficial if the early childhood teachers guide children’s mathematical thinking and learning through intentional and explicit teaching. in addition to these leading institutions efforts to turn their nation’s attention to implications of early mathematics teaching and learning, two major research developments have led to growing appreciation of the importance of early math instruction at the global level. research has suggested that early mathematics performance significantly influences: (1) overall school achievement in mathematics and later life (aunio & niemivitra, 2010; aunola, et. al., 2004), and (2) other subject areas (carmichael, macdonald, & mcfarland-piazza 2014; geary, hoard & hamso, 2013). first line of research indicated that children’s mathematical competences differ considerably in early childhood years (anders & rossbach, 2012; sonnenschein & galindo 2015) and achievement in early mathematics has a profound impact on later success in mathematics (aunola et al., 2004). a longitudinal study by aunio & niemivitra (2010) with 212 kindergarten children suggested that specific mathematics skills such as counting in kindergarten are associated with learning basic and applied arithmetic skills and the overall quality of mathematics achievement in the first grade. another study done by aunola and his colleagues investigated how children’s mathematics development occurs from pre-k to grade 2. the results suggested that differences among children’s math performance increase over time and these discrepancies exist as early as preschool years (aunola et al., 2004). further, consistent with previous studies, recent literature also suggests that early number competence is a strong predictor of future mathematics and school success. for example, jordan, kaplan, ramineni and locuniak’s (2009) study of early mathematics suggests that early number competence in kindergarten predicts rate of growth in mathematics achievement (between grade 1 and grade 3) and achievement levels in grade 3. the impact of early math skills is not limited to academic achievement in primary grades but carries on through high school and beyond (duncan & magnuson, 2011; 2011; entwisle & alexander, 1990; national research council, 2009; stevenson & newman, 1986). for example, duncan and magnuson (2011) examined the mathematics achievement of children who consistently exhibited persistent problems in understanding mathematics in elementary school and analyzed it in comparison to children who had stronger early math abilities. the results of the study revealed that 13% of the children with persistent problems were less likely to graduate from high school and 29% of them are less likely to attend college than those who had stronger early mathematics abilities. in other words, the initial differences in mathematics skills in early years may lead children to lag behind their more knowledgeable peers not only in primary grades but also throughout their formal schooling (geary et al., 1999). second line of research studies showed the predictive power of early math skills compared to other academic skills, such as reading (duncan et al., 2007; duncan & magnuson, 2011). lerkkanen, raskuputtonen, aunola and nurmi (2005) investigated the relationship between mathematical performance and bilge cerezci 218 reading comprehension among 114 children during the first and second years of primary school. the results indicated that early mathematics skills predict not only later achievement in mathematics but also later reading achievement. similarly, duncan and colleagues (2007) conducted a meta-analysis of six largescale longitudinal data sets to examine the relationship between early learning and later school achievement. their meta-analysis revealed that early math skills were consistently a stronger predictor of later achievement compared to reading and level of attention (duncan et al., 2007). consistent with the educational attainment analyses (duncan & magnuson, 2011), early math achievement found to be the most powerful predictor of later school achievement (duncan et al., 2007). studies mentioned above have become the cornerstone of the growing movement among researchers, early childhood educators, and policy makers to better understand mathematics instruction in early childhood years (barnett, 2008; clements, sarama & dibiase, 2004; national research council, 2009). in a contemporary society where universal early childhood education has become a reality, the focus of attention has shifted from the availability of early childhood education to its quality. how can we provide our youngsters with the necessary skills and knowledge to succeed in math? how can we ensure that high quality early mathematics teaching and learning experiences is a norm for all children? examining early mathematics teaching practices in more detail and depth by using measurements of instructional quality at the classroom level, based on the activities that the students and teachers are engaged in during early math lessons, can be a first crucial step in finding an answer to these questions. the current study quality of instruction and students’ instructional experiences in early mathematics lay the foundation for the formal systems of mathematics that will be taught later in school. despite its importance, our knowledge about quality of mathematics instruction in relation to student achievement outcomes is quite limited (ball & rowan, 2004; brenneman et al., 2011). in order to address this gap in the literature, current study investigates to what extent the quality of mathematics teaching predicts children’s mathematical gains over the course of an academic year in pre-k to 3rd grade classrooms. early mathematics instruction is documented, analyzed and assessed according to specific indicators in several areas: the quality of early mathematics content, the quality of implementation, and the extent to which the instruction is facilitated developmentally appropriate learning experiences. examining the quality of early mathematics instruction through these lenses may shed light on the characteristics of early childhood teachers’ mathematics teaching and how to better support young children’s developing mathematics understanding. method sample description teacher participants. 73 early childhood teachers (pre-k to 3rd grade) from 8 public schools in a large midwestern city in the u.s. participated. descriptive analysis of the available data about the sample revealed that the number of teachers from each school ranged from 3 to 12. there are 37 teachers from the primary grades (e.g., first, second, and third) and 36 teachers from pre-kindergartens and kindergarten (see table 1). table 1. distribution of teachers by grade level grade n % pre-k 15 20.5 k 21 28.8 1st 11 15.1 2nd 12 16.4 3rd 13 17.8 1-2 1 1.4 total 73 100 note: n= 73 1-2: 1st and 2nd graders mixed class the impact of the quality of early mathematics instruction… 219 student participants. 546 students (pre-k to 3rd grade) participated this study. recruited students were included in this study, if they were also; a) enrolled in the classroom of the participating teacher, b) able to complete the student assessments in english or spanish, c) 4-years-old or older by the time they were first assessed at the beginning of the academic year. table 2 shows the overall child-level data in terms of their grade level. table 2. distribution of students by grade level pre-k k 1st 2nd 3rd total n 131 160 89 75 91 546 % 24 29.3 16.3 13.7 16.7 100 instruments assessment tools that were used in this study include his-em (the early math collaborative, 2011), wj-ap subtest (woodcock, mcgrew, & mather, 2011) and “about my teaching” on-line survey. high-impact strategies for early mathematics (his-em) is a lesson-based observation tool designed to be used in pre-k through 3rd grade classrooms in order to measure the quality of mathematics teaching (the early math collaborative, 2011). as an observation tool, his-em focuses on the intentional instructional activities of a teacher; for that reason, the period of observation is from the start to the finish of a single teacher-directed mathematics lesson. his-em categorizes indicators of quality of early mathematics teaching first according to three primary domains: (1) foundational knowledge of the mathematics (i.e., what); (2) understanding knowledge of young children’s learning in mathematics (i.e., who); and (3) effective use of instructional support in mathematics (i.e., how). three dimensions further define each domain. “what” domain is assessed through evaluation of the clarity of the learning objectives, the use of math representations and promoting mathematical concept development. “who” domain includes teacher’s attention to developmental trajectories, response students’ individual needs and use of developmentally appropriate learning formats. the third his-em domain, “how,” reflects the teacher’s ability to plan well organized math lessons, facilitate student engagement and establish math learning communities during the course of mathematics instruction. the his-em measures the extent to which these dimensions of quality teaching practices in early mathematics, both individually and collectively, are present in an observed lesson. scores are assigned (to each dimension) on a 7-points likert scale categorized by low (1, 2), medium (3, 4, 5), and high (6, 7) quality ratings. the construct validity of the his-em established through an extensive literature review and consultation with experts in early math education. reference to the nctm standards and principles (2000) guided selection of the indicators for the his-em. high levels of inter-rater reliability (.88) and internal consistencies (cronbach’s alpha .97) have been reported (cerezci, 2020). the woodcock-johnson-iii applied problems subtest (wj-ap) is an individually administered norm-referenced test that measures skills in analyzing and solving practical math problems with 60 items. it is the 10th subtest of woodcock johnson-iii (woodcock et al., 2011). the test administered verbally presents items involving counting, telling time or temperature, and problem solving. items are ordered in terms of their age-appropriateness. testing begins with an item corresponding to the subject’s age and is discontinued after 6 consecutive errors. the score is determined by summing the number of correct responses. internal alpha reliability estimates are reported as .88 to .94 for english speaking children ages 4 to 7 years. about my teaching is an online survey collecting participating teachers’ demographic information and teaching and learning experiences about early mathematics education. the questions included in the survey were aimed to elicit information about a participating teacher’s educational background, experience in participating pre-service and in-service workshops teaching mathematics, as well as his or her experiences working with english language learners (ell). for example, teachers were asked to answers questions such as: how many years have you been teaching?; about how many hours of in-service math bilge cerezci 220 education workshops have you taken in the last two years?; and how many years of experience do you have working with ell students in a classroom setting? procedure for data collection classroom observations. trained observers conducted live in-class observations in the fall (pre-test) and spring (post-test) at each participating classroom only one his-em observation per classroom in spring and fall at each participating classroom collected. each his-em observation at each time point (spring or fall) is considered a snapshot representing how mathematics instruction may function across a given school year. all classroom observations were scheduled in advance and conducted during the time the teacher allocated to teach mathematics or the mathematics lesson time period. scheduled observations were not specific to mathematical content (e.g., number and operations or geometry or etc.), or a particular instructional day (e.g., start or end of a weekly math unit). observers remained in each classroom for the duration of the mathematics lesson. applied problems subtest of woodcock–johnson tests of cognitive abilities, 3rd ed., (wj-ap). young children’s mathematical achievement was assessed via wj-ap subtest (woodcock et al., 2011) in the fall (pre-test) and spring (post-test) in each participating classroom. because only the children whose parents consented to the study could be assessed, the number of students assessed in each classroom was not consistent. however, the total number of children from each classroom never exceeded 10. for example, if more than 10 students gave consent in any given classroom, only 10 students among all the consenting children were randomly selected and assessed. if the number was not more than 10, then all the consenting children were assessed. data analyses in order to examine the relationship between quality of mathematics teaching measured by his-em and students’ learning gains in mathematics over a school year, three-level hierarchical linear modeling (hlm) analyses (raudenbush & byrk, 2002) was conducted by using the hlm program. in this analysis, students (level 1) were nested within teachers (level 2), who were nested within schools (level 3). using three-level hlm, relationships between students’ math achievement and quality of mathematics teaching was estimated after controlling for school variations. results this study examined the degree to which quality teaching can be used as an indicator for student learning outcomes in mathematics. the association between quality teaching in mathematics and students’ learning gains explored by analyzing data from participating teachers and students. the distribution of his-em and its domain scores results suggested that overall teaching quality was medium level (m=4.19), ranging from 1.67 to 6.78, with a standard deviation of 1.32 (n=73) (see table 3). table 3. descriptive statistics of overall his-em and his-em domains mean (sd) minimum maximum his-em (average) 4.19 (1.32) 1.67 6.78 what (foundational knowledge in mathematics) 4.22(1.30) 1.67 7.00 who (knowledge of young children) 4.17 (1.30) 1.67 6.33 how (effective use of instructional support) 4.18(1.51) 1.33 7.00 note: n= 73 the impact of the quality of early mathematics instruction… 221 table 4 provides sample sizes, means, standard deviations, minimum and maximum wj-ap standardized score at each time point. as suggested by the wj-ap standardized score, assessed students’ math performance was lower than the national norm (m=100). on average, wj-ap scores were 95.14 (ranged from 48 to 134) at pre-test and 96.60 (ranged from 49 to 136) at post-test. on average, male students scored higher at both pre-test and post-test compared to female students and pre-k students scored higher compared to students between kindergarten and 3rd grade (see table 4). table 4. descriptive statistics of students’ mathematical performance at pre-test and post-test by grade level and gender wj iii applied problems pre-test (standardized score) wj iii applied problems post-test (standardized score) group n mean sd mean sd pre-k 131 99.47 11.40 99.03 11.51 k 160 95.56 11.53 96.58 12.26 1 89 92.88 13.78 93.51 11.45 2 75 93.37 13.73 95.89 15.17 3 91 91.85 14.57 96.74 14.41 male 259 95.67 13.29 97.56 12.78 female 287 94.59 12.72 95.73 12.81 overall 546 95.14 12.99 96.60 12.85 note: n=546 relationship between quality of mathematics instruction and teaching and professional development experiences descriptive analyses of the number of years of teaching experience the observed teachers had and the number of math education pd hours they have attended suggested that, on average, observed teachers had 13.7 years of teaching experience, ranging from 1 to 41 years, with a standard deviation of 9.93 (n=73). the number of pd hours teachers attended, on average, was 12.1, ranging from 0 to 80 hours, with a standard deviation of 16.63 (see table 5). table 5. descriptive statistics of teaching and professional development experiences mean (sd) minimum maximum the number of years of teaching experience 13.7 (9.93) 1 41 the number of math education pd hours attended 12.1(16.63) 0 80 regression analysis performed to investigate the relationship between teachers’ teaching and professional development experiences and their mathematics teaching quality as measure by his-em. the results revealed no statistically significant relationship between commonly used indicators of teacher expertise (i.e., number of years of experience and the number of pd hours teachers attended) and scores on the his-em (observational measure of mathematical teaching quality), r2= 0.27, f (2, 70) = .973, p= .383. the prediction of students’ math outcomes by teaching quality in order to examine the relationship between quality of mathematics teaching measured by his-em and students’ learning gains in mathematics over a school year, three-level hierarchical linear modeling (hlm) analyses (raudenbush & byrk, 2002) were conducted by using the hlm program. hierarchical linear modeling (hlm) is a type of regression model often used for analyzing education data sets because they tend to include multiple layers of data that are correlated with one another because they share similar traits (raudenbush & byrk, 2002). three-level hlm analysis conducted where students (level 1) were bilge cerezci 222 nested within teachers (level 2), who were further nested within schools (level 3), to explore whether students’ math outcomes (measured by wj-ap) was predicted by teachers’ quality of teaching in mathematics (measured by his-em), after controlling for school level variances. in this analysis, students’ mathematics learning was level 1 outcome variable and teachers’ mathematics teaching quality was level 2 predictor variable. model testing is completed in two phases; null model (without predictors) and random intercept and slope model (with predictors at level 1 and level 2). the null model. this model was run first in order to determine the partitioning of variance among the three levels of analysis. the fully unconditional hlm model for wj-ap test results at post-test used as outcome in 3-level hlm analysis is represented below: math performance at post-testijk = γ000+ r0jk + u00k + eijk analysis of this model revealed χ2 (7) = 11.73, p =.109, and icc was .01, suggesting that there were not any significant differences in the students’ math performance measured by wj-ap at the school level. between level 1 (i.e., student level) and level 2 (i.e., teacher level), χ2 (65) = 141.01, p<.001, and icc was .14 suggesting that there were significant differences in students’ math performance between classes (within the same school); about 14% of the variance in students’ math performance indicated by wj-ap was between classrooms (i.e., teachers), and about 85% of the variance in students’ math performance was between students within a given teacher’s classroom. for this reason, additional predictors to level 1 and level 2 were added for further analysis. specifically, predictors at the teacher level (his-em, level 2) and student level (pre-test wj-ap standardized score and students’ gender) were added to different models to explore whether, and to what extent, the mathematics performance at pre-test, students’ gender, and quality of mathematics teaching measured by his-em explains the differences in math performance at post-test. the random intercept and slope model. this model predicts the level 1 intercept on the basis of the other grouping or predictor variables. this model was performed after partitioning the variance among the three levels. the wj-ap pre-test scores (centered around the group) and students’ gender (coded dichotomously) were entered to this model as level 1 predictors of math performance at post-test. the three-level hlm analysis for this model was the following: math performance at post-testijk = γ000 + γ100*genderijk + γ200*wj-ap-preijk + r0jk + u00k + eijk the addition of gender and math performance at pre-test to this model at level 1 indicates students’ math performance is a function of the mean math performance at post-test in the classroom, plus some effect of gender and math performance at pretest, plus some individual variation. the results indicated that the gender partially significantly predicted the intercept of the level 1 model (r= -1.38, p= .07), suggesting that on average boys scored higher than girls in wj-ap at both preand post-test. also, the pretest score significantly predicted the slope of the level 1 model (r= .66, p<.001), suggesting that the higher the pre-test score, the more likely those students performed higher in the post-test as well. in order to further investigate the effects of level 2 on level 1 variables, predictors at the level 2 were added to random intercept and slope model. in this new model was performed in which both wj-ap pre-test results and students’ gender were kept as predictors of math performance at post-test and mathematics teaching quality measured by his-em added as predictor at level 2. the three-level 3-level hlm analysis was the following: math performance at post-testijk = γ000 + γ010*hisemjk + γ100*genderijk + γ200*wj-ap-preijk + γ210*wjap-preijk*hisemjk + r0jk + u00k + eijk the results indicated that the his-em score did not significantly predict the intercept of the level 1 model (r= .559, p= .353), suggesting that his-em did not predict students’ learning in mathematics after controlling for students’ pre-test scores and gender and school level characteristics. using one standard deviation above the mean represent high quality mathematics teaching (high scores on his-em), one standard deviation below the mean to represent low quality mathematics teaching (low scores on his-em), and mean score as the average quality of mathematics teaching, observed teachers’ his-em scores were the impact of the quality of early mathematics instruction… 223 categorized as high, low and medium and entered to the model to be analyzed in relation to student mathematics achievement. even though the overall his-em did not predict students’ mathematics learning, the results also suggested that there are varying effects of teachers’ math teaching quality on students’ mathematics learning. more specifically, teachers who scored high on his-em (one standard deviation higher than the overall mean) more likely to have a positive effect on students mathematics learning at the end of the year (r= .15, p=.027). on the other hand, the effect of students’ mathematics performance at the beginning of the school had significantly less effect on their mathematics performance at the end of the school year if they had a teacher who scored average on his-em (r= -.206, p=.001). the negative interaction suggested that while there is a positive relationship between students’ pre-test and post-test performance, medium quality of mathematics teaching decreased this relationship. similar kinds of significant relationships between students’ math performance and teachers’ math teaching quality were not observed for teachers who score low in his-em (r= .11, p=.16) (see table 6). table 6. descriptive statistics for levels of teaching quality in relation to student mathematics achievement n r se p high his-em 15 .15 .07 .027** medium his-em 41 -.20 .06 .001** low his-em 17 .11 .07 .160 note: n= 73 **the correlation is significant at .01 level. conclusion and discussion this study investigated the relationship between the quality of early mathematics instruction and student mathematics achievement as measured by the wj-ap subtest. the current study did not reveal a significant prediction of students’ mathematical learning over a year after controlling for the impact of students’ pre-test scores1 and gender.2 the findings of the study also revealed that indirect indicators of teaching experience (i.e., years of teaching and the number of pd hours teachers attended) did not demonstrate any significant association with mathematics teaching quality. however, the results did find mixed effects of teachers’ degree of mathematics teaching quality on students’ mathematics learning. specifically, overall mathematics-teaching quality in early childhood classrooms as measured was linked to positive child outcomes when the quality of mathematics instruction was identified as “high.” teaching and professional development experiences the results showed no statistically significant relationship between commonly used indicators of teacher expertise (i.e., number of years of experience and the number of pd hours teachers attended) and scores on the his-em (observational measure of mathematical teaching quality). existing research has also shown mixed results on this matter. for instance, rockoff (2004) found that the teaching experience of teachers matters, but only up to a certain point. it is generally true that less experienced teachers are less likely to provide quality instruction compared to teachers who have ten to fifteen years’ experience. this difference begins to disappear after the less experienced teachers taught about four years (kane, rockoff & staiger, 2006; rivkin, hanushek & kain, 2005; rockoff, 2004). in terms of the relationship between the number of hours teachers participate in professional development in mathematics and higher quality teaching, some found the positive correlations (king & newmann, 2000) while others reported mixed results (goldhaber & brewer, 2000). _____________ 1 students’ pre-test score was a significant predictor of their post-test test score. in other words, if a student received a high score at pre-test, they were more likely to receive high score at post-test as well, and vice versa. 2 on average, boys received higher scores on mathematics achievement tests as compared to girls on both the pre-test and post-test. bilge cerezci 224 despite the inconclusive results, the current finding is noteworthy because it indicates that the effects of experience, whether measured in years of teaching or hours of professional development, are complex and their association with quality of early mathematics teaching is not linear, at least for this group of teachers. even though no one would claim that years of teaching experience or professional development services do not contribute to teachers’ capacity to provide quality of mathematics teaching, lack of associations might imply that teacher education and professional development programs in early mathematics are not well developed to support teachers. perhaps the content of these programs and services is not staying up on the latest curricular and pedagogical advances in early mathematics teaching, therefore making it less likely for teachers to deliver quality mathematics instruction regardless of their years of teaching. while what teachers know has tremendous impact on students’ learning outcomes (darling-hammond & bransford, 2005), it is important for the field to redesign the content of teacher education programs and in-service professional development to ensure the continuity of quality mathematics teaching experiences for all students. varying teaching, varying outcomes the present findings indicate that students who scored lower in pre-test tend to score similarly in post-test. similar trends also observed among the high scoring students. when the student mathematics achievement are further analyzed in relation to instructional quality, such a trend is not observed. in other words, mathematics instruction in early childhood classrooms as measured by his-em does not predict students’ learning in mathematics. however, when observed teachers’ his-em scores were categorized as high, low and medium and examined in relation to students’ learning gains in mathematics, the results of this study revealed three interesting findings. first, there was a positive significant interaction between quality of mathematics teaching and students’ mathematics achievement at the end of the school year in classrooms where ratings of the instructional quality in mathematics was identified as “high,” after controlling for students’ pre-test scores and gender. these findings exemplified the significance of higher quality mathematics instruction in facilitating students’ mathematics learning. specifically, teachers who simultaneously exhibited (1) understanding of mathematics content, (2) ability to discern the math content based on students’ development and learning, and (3) skills in employing a range of strategies to move students along, were able to facilitate their students’ mathematics learning. even though the impact of high quality mathematics teaching on students’ learning was rather small and only concerned a subgroup of students, these findings are consistent with other studies indicating the positive effects of high-quality mathematics teaching on mathematics achievement. that is, students of teachers who provide high quality mathematics teaching make more gains in mathematics than their peers in classrooms with lower quality mathematics teaching (kyriakides & creemers, 2008; nye, konstantopoulos, & hedges, 2004; rockoff, 2004). second, in classrooms where teachers provided average levels of quality mathematics instruction, there was a negative interaction between quality of mathematics teaching as measured by his-em and students’ pre-test and post-test performance. while students’ pre-test performance was predictive of their post-test performance, the strength of this relationship decreased when teachers provided mediocre levels of mathematics teaching. this result, however, should not imply that all mediocre quality mathematics instruction is deleterious for students’ mathematics learning. rather, it raises an interesting point, which suggests that teachers with average his-em scores may fail to provide consistent level of mathematics teaching and evenly support their students with varying degrees of mathematical abilities. for advanced students, their instructions may not be challenging enough. for students who are behind, adequate support may not be provided. third, neither positive nor negative interaction was detected between teachers who provided low quality mathematics instruction and their students’ mathematics performance. this finding implies that when teachers failed to; (1) provide students with meaningful mathematics content, (2) provide opportunities for students to engage with and make sense of the mathematics content that is developmentally appropriate, and (3) creating a learning environment conducive to learning mathematics by using effective instructional support in mathematics, no significant relations can be detected between the impact of the quality of early mathematics instruction… 225 mathematics teaching and learning gains in mathematics. it is not clear why there is no link between the lower quality of mathematics instruction and students’ mathematical learning gains. much remains to be learned about the lower level of quality mathematics teaching and how it affects students’ learning in mathematics. despite these interesting findings, one lingering question remains unanswered: why did teachers’ mathematics teaching quality envisioned in the his-em not correspond to student achievement gains? one reason for the lack of the association could be the need for more data about students. there are multiple factors (e.g., parents, tutors, and the availability learning materials, classroom size) affecting students’ learning outcomes besides the quality of instruction (epstein, 2018; garcia & weiss, 2017; koretz & hamilton, 2005), and the existence of these influences on students’ learning make it more difficult to test the relationship between the ratings of quality teaching and mathematics achievement (sass, 2008). such information about students, which can have a potential effect on their mathematics learning, was not collected in this study. thus, further multifaceted data about students is needed in order to determine how mathematics teaching quality influences mathematics achievement. another reason for the lack of relationship between teachers’ instructional practices and mathematics achievement could involve the state of early mathematics teaching in early childhood classrooms. for example, a study of kindergarten classrooms found that a disparity exists between mathematics teaching and students’ abilities: often, teachers spent significant time on mathematics concepts, such as counting and shapes, which most students had already mastered (engel, claessens & finch, 2013). it is a possibility that the majority of the observed teachers’ understanding of their students’ abilities in mathematics and of what they need to learn might be misaligned with their students’ actual abilities and needs. such misalignment would make it more difficult to test the mathematics teaching quality as measured by his-em in relation to mathematics achievement, because the tool’s framework is based on teachers’ understanding of the mathematics content and ability to introduce math concepts that are aligned with their students’ development and needs through the use of instructional strategies. last but not least, it is also important to note that the his-em is developed to be used across multiple grade levels. this, inadvertently, might have carried the risk of failing to document the quality of mathematics instruction to its fill extend. while some aspects of early mathematics instruction are likely to be general, cutting across grade levels, other features of instruction are almost certainly grade level-specific, requiring constructs and indicators that are applicable for each grade level that the tool is designed to be used in. even though some of the his-em constructs are claimed to be appropriate across varied grade levels (pre-k to 3rd), the indicators listed might not be necessarily indicative of the quality of instruction across these grades. therefore, the lack of relationship observed between mathematics instruction and mathematics achievement might be unfortunate result of the tool design and its broad range of applicability in pre-k through 3rd grade. taken altogether, the results indicated that the interactions between quality of mathematics instruction and the relationship between students’ pre-test and post-test math performance were not consistent with regard to the degree of their teaching quality. when there was a statistical impact of teachers’ instructional quality on students’ learning, the impact was rather small and only concerned a subgroup of students who were taught by high quality teachers. it is also worth noting that no significant relationship was found between low quality mathematics teaching and students’ learning gains in mathematics. preliminary evidence supporting predictive validity of his-em produced mixed results and made it difficult to capture and reveal clear linkage between quality of mathematics teaching and students’ outcomes in mathematics across the whole sample of students. limitations and future directions clearly, the results presented here are promising, yet limited. first, the current study involves a limited sample future research should examine the applicability of these results in wider array of early childhood classrooms with greater diversity at both child and teacher level. second, lack of significant associations obtained may be a function of the data collection procedures used and decisions made both at bilge cerezci 226 the student and teacher level. this study acknowledges that “standardized achievement tests, in particular, are exceedingly blunt instruments for measuring what students might learn in a given year from a given curriculum” (national research council, 2001, p. 479), and standardized test scores do not always reflect students’ actual state of knowledge and abilities (erlwanger, 1973; schoenfeld, 1988). it is possible that even though wj-ap is a standardized and commonly used measure to test students’ math achievement, it only provides a snapshot of student achievement at a particular point in time and with limited content coverage (e.g., restricted topics, usually only number). using outcome tools that measure students’ mathematics learning in different mathematics content areas might yield stronger and more consistent results. furthermore, all teacher level data was collected in single-day observations in each teacher’s classroom. unfortunately, single-day observations may not necessarily reflect teacher practice across the entire school year. synthesis of multiple observation cycles could reveal the true relationship between quality of mathematics and instruction and student achievement that was unable to be detected in this data set. last but not least, it is also possible that there may be other contributors to students’ scores that account for additional variance amongst students’ learning gains in mathematics and were not measured either by his-em or the wj-ap subtest. future research should also examine how multiple observations within a short timeframe impacts the estimates of quality of mathematics instruction in relation to mathematics achievement. when considered in light of the fields’ substantial attention to issues of quality of early mathematics teaching and how best to promote students’ early mathematics understanding and learning, this study goes a considerable distance in ascertaining which factors indicate the quality of mathematics teaching. introducing the high impact strategies in early mathematics (his-em) as a measure to document early mathematics teaching quality represents a beginning contribution to this effort. the vision of mathematics teaching that guided this study is based on pedagogical content knowledge (pck) framework put forward by shulman (1986); and claims that for quality mathematics instruction to occur, early childhood teachers need to familiarize themselves with foundational mathematics content (i.e., what) and the ways in which young children learn, specifically in terms of mathematics (i.e., who), and adopt developmentally appropriate teaching strategies to maximize children’s mathematics learning and growth (i.e., how). hisem was designed as an observational measure to document and assess the quality of early mathematics teaching in relation to this vision for mathematics instruction. while the study will help to contribute to the literature on how to measure early mathematics instruction, more research is needed. if low level of mathematics achievement is ever to be interrupted, and if students are to ever have a chance of succeeding in mathematics, observation measures of early mathematics teaching should continue to seek to understand and identify the characteristics early mathematics instruction that lead to high quality teaching and learning experiences in mathematics. identifying which types of early mathematics instructions are associated with which developmental outcomes and for whom reflects the sophisticated and nuanced understanding of quality mathematics teaching that is needed to serve the diverse needs of students in our classrooms. declarations acknowledgements: not applicable. competing interests: the author declares that they have no competing interests. funding: not applicable. 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(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) parents’ role in adolescents’ leisure time use: from goals to parenting practices annelore van der eecken*, bram spruyt**, lieve bradt*** abstract: inspired by ann swidler’s toolkit theory, this qualitative study aims to achieve a better understanding of social class differences in parenting practices and, in turn, in young people’s leisure time use. to that end, 32 semi-structured face-to-face interviews with parents from middleand working-class families were conducted in a small city in belgium. an inductive thematic analysis revealed substantial social class differences with respect to three parenting practices: (1) setting an example, (2) resolving conflicts and (3) facilitating leisure activities. the interviews showed that these differences were mainly linked to social class differences in parents’ resources: working-class parents more often lacked flexible time, financial resources, an extensive social network on which they could rely and the institutionally required attitudes, skills and experience to engage in the above-mentioned parenting practices. we conclude that young people’s (continued) institutional leisure participation puts high requirements on parents and not all (workingclass) parents are able to live up to such requirements. in that way, contemporary leisure settings reproduce rather than mitigate inequality in the use of leisure time. article history received: 07 december 2019 accepted: 29 january 2020 keywords parenting practices; adolescents; leisure activities; resources; social class differences introduction today, policymakers and researchers pay a lot of attention to young people’s participation in adultsupervised, regular and rule-led activities that occur in an institutionalised setting (bennett, lutz and jayaram, 2012). such organised activities are believed to contribute to young people’s skills and attitudes, and in that way, prepare them for their adult lives (european commission, 2015; muyters, 2014; wyn and woodman, 2006). however, young people’s participation in organised activities differs according to socioeconomic status: working-class young people are often underrepresented (bennett et al., 2012; furlong and cartmel, 2007). as these young people are believed to miss out on important learning opportunities, policymakers and researchers problematise their non-participation and try to increase their participation levels (van de walle, coussée and bouverne-de bie, 2011). based on the finding that parents play an important role in young people’s leisure time use, policymakers and researchers approach parents as ‘leisure providers’ and ‘facilitators’, who are expected to make sure that their children’s leisure time is wellspent, that is, in assumed beneficial organised leisure activities (council of europe, 2003; fawcett, garton and dandy, 2009; zeijl, 2001). research demonstrates, however, that there are persistent social class differences in the role parents play in their children’s leisure time use. lareau (2003) and vincent and ball (2007) found that while middle-class parents actively encourage their children’s involvement in organised leisure activities, working-class parents impose less structure on their children’s activities and focus less heavily on such participation. for middle class parents, steering their children to a great variety of organized activities was a key component of the planned ‘developmental trajectory’ they designed for their _____________ *ocmw dilbeek, belgium, email: annelore.vandereecken@dilbeek.be, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0830-2137 **vrije universiteit brussel, sociology department, brussels, belgium, e-mail: bram.spruyt@vub.be, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0573-724x ***ghent university, faculty of psychology and educational sciences, department of social work and social pedagogy, ghent, belgium, e-mail:lieve.bradt@ugent.be, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4882-7675 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.20201130 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0830-2137 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0573-724x https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4882-7675 annelore van der eecken, bram spruyt & lieve bradt 44 children. although it is not yet clear why social class differences in the parents’ role and, in turn, in young people’s leisure time use, come about in practice, researchers and policymakers plea for initiatives to inform, advise, convince and educate parents of these so-called non-participants (i.e. often working-class parents) about the educational benefits of organised leisure participation (council of europe, 2003). what is remarkable, though, is that we found in an earlier study that there are no large differences in the educational goals that parents from different social class backgrounds pursue for their children: our earlier work documented that when asked about the educational goals parents attached to their young people’s leisure time, both middleand working-class parents referred to the same goals to which leisure activities should contribute: teaching young people skills and societal values and norms, having social contexts, fostering independence and offering relaxation (see van der eecken, spruyt and bradt, 2019). this means that differences in young people’s leisure time participation cannot be explained by differences in educational goals of workingand middle-class parents. given this lack of clarity, this study aims to gain a better understanding of social class differences in the role of parents and, in turn, in adolescents’ leisure time spending using data from 32 interviews with a socio-economically diverse group of parents of adolescents (aged between 12 and 18 years old) in flanders (the dutch-speaking part of belgium). the class perspective used in this paper is inspired by the work of pierre bourdieu (1986, 1993). according to bourdieu, tastes, attitudes and behaviour vary with cultural (skills, knowledge, values, educational degrees and professional titles), social (resources accrued by virtue of possessing a network) and economic (material and financial resources) capital. the overall volume of capital can be seen as a continuum on which individuals occupy different positions (bourdieu, 1986; woodman and wyn, 2015). in this paper, we are interested in parents who strongly differ in terms of their general volume of capital: middleand working-class parents. though we recognize that both middleand to a lesser extent working-class parents cannot be considered as homogenous groups (and in fact vary in terms of their capital composition), in this study we aimed at identifying clear dimensions of stratification between working-class and middle-class parents. we, therefore, categorise parents into two groups. in the following section, we first go into the toolkit theory of swidler as our main theoretical framework. from goals to strategies of action: culture as a toolkit this paper aims to advance our understanding of social class differences in the role parents play in adolescents’ leisure time activities. in this section, we argue that a shift from a focus on people’ goals to people’s strategies of action might help us to get a better grip on these differences. as already mentioned, previous research (van der eecken et al., 2019) suggests that social class differences in parents’ role cannot be explained by social class differences in the goals that parents pursue through their children’s leisure participation. this finding aligns with a more general observation that what people want contributes little towards explaining their effective behaviour (swidler, 1986). indeed, ann swidler was one of the first scholars to show that people may have similar aspirations while remaining profoundly different in the way they act. her ideas criticised the traditional view of culture in which, for example, poor people were thought to hold low aspirations and to reject middle-class values and norms, and for these reasons did not seize opportunities to improve their situation. in contrast, swidler (1986, p. 275) holds that poor and lower-class people share the goals and ideals of the middle class: “in repeated surveys, lower class youth say that they value education and intend to go to college, and their parents say they want them to go”. given the similarities, she concludes that values and aspirations are of little use in understanding differences in behaviour. in changing circumstances there is a continuity in the way of life, not because the ends people want to achieve remain stable but because of the persistence of their strategies of action: if one asked a slum youth why he did not take steps to pursue a middle-class path to success (or indeed asked oneself why he did not pursue a different life direction) the answer might well be not ‘i don’t want that life’ but instead ‘who, me?’ one can hardly pursue success in a world where the accepted skills, style and informal know-how are unfamiliar. one does better to look for a line of action for which one already has the cultural equipment (swidler, 1986, p. 275). parents’ role in adolescents’ leisure time use: from goals… 45 swidler’s work has influenced scholars who approach culture as a toolkit of resources that people rely on for constructing strategies of action (see also lamont and small, 2008; lizardo and strand, 2010; vaisey, 2010). these strategies do not refer to a conscious and fully thought out action plan that is directed towards certain predetermined goals, but rather to habitual ways of ordering action through time. from a more analytical point of view, then, the toolkit approach argues that people fail to take up chances to reverse their situation not so much because they remain committed to their ‘cultural values’ but because they have adopted strategies of action for which they already possess the resources. thus, instead of strategies being developed on the basis of values or ends, actions and values are organised to benefit from the resources that are available to them. this is not because people despise the possible advantageous effects of new strategies of action but because the resources needed to develop them would demand strong retooling. the toolkit approach enables us to understand the apparent inconsistencies between what people want and what people actually do. for instance, even though a mother may find it important that her children are signed up for an organised activity, she may give her children a freer rein in choosing their own hobbies. she may not want to waste her limited financial means on activities that turn out to be not interesting. thus, as some people do not have the necessary resources (here: money), they are not likely to pursue certain courses of action. in other words, the toolkit theory shifts the attention from the goals people pursue and directs it to the resources that are available to them and which form the basis for their action. informed by the preceding arguments, this study examines the parenting practices related to adolescents’ use of leisure time and aims to better understand social class differences in these practices. parenting practice is here used not in the conventional sense of goal-oriented parenting actions (fletcher, elder and mekos, 2000), but rather to refer to the routine practices of parents in relation to their adolescents’ use of leisure time. method this study is based on 32 interviews with middleand working-class parents living in ninove, a medium-sized city in flanders. ninove has a population density of 526 inhabitants per km² (population affairs department ninove, 2016). choosing a medium-sized city has the advantage that people live in relatively close proximity to each other. in that way, we attempted to rule out differences in parenting practices attributable to local differences in accessibility and availability of the leisure facilities and programmes between the respondents. in addition, as this city is the first researcher’s living environment, the researcher had prior knowledge (e.g. knowledge of the city’s leisure facilities, meeting places and youth policy) that allowed her to ask more specific questions and to understand subtle remarks. ninove is an average flemish municipality, which is like many other cities in flanders, characterised by a diverse population in terms of income, migration status and family composition. ninove scores average on income statistics. in 2013, the average income per tax return in euro was 31,521, which is comparable to the average income per tax return in the belfius medium-sized cities where it was 31,088 and slightly lower than in the flemish region, where it was 32,275 (agency internal governance and research department of the flemish government, 2016). some statistics, however, indicate that some households live in adverse financial circumstances. in 2016, the number of persons with an (equivalent) minimum substance income in the context of the right to societal integration per 1,000 inhabitants was 4.9 in ninove (compared to 5.0 in the belfius medium-sized cities and 5.4 in the flemish region) and the number of persons with an increased allowance in the sickness insurance – in belgium this allowance is only granted in case of high costs and proven low financial means – per 1,000 inhabitants was 147.7 in ninove (compared to 143.0 in the belfius medium-sized cities and 137.2 in the flemish region) (agency internal governance and research department of the flemish government, 2016). in 2015, the number of persons (18 years and older) that fell behind on financial loans per 1,000 inhabitants was 30.3 in ninove (compared to 28 in the belfius medium-sized cities and 26.4 in the flemish region. to summarise, although we do not claim that ninove is a municipality with severe poverty and disadvantage, the statistics illustrate that there is a group that is suffering hardship (as in other flemish annelore van der eecken, bram spruyt & lieve bradt 46 municipalities). recruitment of participants and data collection in setting up the methodology, we followed the general ethical protocol of the faculty of psychology and educational sciences of ghent university (https://www.ugent.be/pp/en/research/ec/overview.htm). as mentioned above, we aimed to involve both middleand working-class parents in our study. as it is well-known that families from different socio-economic groups live in different districts of the city (hamnett, 2001), parents were recruited from two predominantly working-class districts and two predominantly middle-class districts in the city centre of ninove. most respondents were randomly addressed on the street (20 parents of whom 13 were working-class), asked whether they had a child in the age group 12 to 18 years old and, if so, they were invited to take part in our study. we also recruited one working-class respondent through an advert in a local social media group, five middle-class parents via the local neighbourhood committees and four middleand two working-class parents via snowball sampling. parents were free to choose whether they did the interview alone or together with their partner. in general, the mother preferred to do the interview (alone), which is common in research on parents (see wheeler, 2014). after parents gave their written consent to participate in the study, semi-structured audio-recorded face-to-face interviews were conducted between september and december 2016. respondents were informed that all information of the interview would remain confidential, that they did not have to answer questions they did not feel comfortable with, and that they even could end the interview without having to give a specific reason for this. the length of most interviews varied between one and two hours. as a starting point and to gain insight into adolescents’ use of leisure time, parents were asked to provide an overview of how the adolescent spent his/her leisure in the week before the interview. for that purpose, parents relied on their personal definitions of ‘leisure’ and ‘leisure time’.1 the interviews further focused on how young people’s use of leisure time came about and the parents’ role therein. examples of specific questions included, but were not limited to: ‘how did s/he get involved in a particular leisure activity?’, ‘were there moments that s/he wanted to give up on an activity and how did that go?’ and ‘are there activities that you prefer and how do you facilitate them?’ sample we interviewed 37 (step-)parents (i.e. biological parents and/or their partner). the interviewees consisted of 27 mothers and 10 fathers (five mothers and fathers were interviewed together) with at least one (step-)child2 in the 12 to 18 years old age group. the families had between 1 and 6 children with ages ranging from 0 to 31 years. the mean age of the child in the 12 to 18 years old age group was 14.8 years. as middle-class parents may live in working-class districts and vice versa, parents were asked about their own and their partners’ highest educational qualification as an ‘individual check’. as argued before, we were primarily interested in parents who strongly differ in terms of their general volume of capital (bourdieu, 1986). education was used as a proxy for parents’ volume of capital because (1) it provides a clear hierarchy (especially in flanders where differences according to educational institutions are small, people’s level of education is an excellent indicator of people’s general volume of capital3) and (2) it applies to everyone (i.e. in contrast with occupational categories). when applicable, the educational level of both parents was taken into account because we assume that parents influence each other’s ideas and behaviours (schofield and weaver, 2016). families were categorised as ‘middle-class’ in our study if at least one parent had obtained a tertiary education degree and ‘working-class’ if none of the parents had done so. sixteen families were categorised as working-class and 16 as middle-class families. if we look at our sample, the data _____________ 1 thereby, little social class differences were found: both middleand working-class parents defined leisure activities as activities that the adolescents have chosen themselves, that aren’t obligatory, that suit them, that interest them, that they enjoy, that develop them, that are useful and that relax them. 2 stepchildren refer to the biological children of one’s partner. 3 indeed, research indicates that people in belgium with a bachelor’s and master’s degrees have seen their wages rise more sharply in recent years than employees without higher education (see: https://statbel.fgov.be/en/themes/work-training/wages-andlabourcost/overview-belgian-wages-and-salaries) https://www.ugent.be/pp/en/research/ec/overview.htm https://statbel.fgov.be/en/themes/work-training/wages-and-labourcost/overview-belgian-wages-and-salaries https://statbel.fgov.be/en/themes/work-training/wages-and-labourcost/overview-belgian-wages-and-salaries parents’ role in adolescents’ leisure time use: from goals… 47 confirmed that parents in families with different educational qualifications indeed differ in ways that are typically associated with the distinction between the middleand working-class. after all, in higher educated families at least one of the parents had a job involving responsibility and accountability and/or requiring higher qualifications. for instance, occupations mentioned by respondents in higher educated families were manager, director, advisor, teacher, (higher) clerical employee, technician, driver, nurse and social worker. parents in lower educated families, on the contrary, had jobs without these features: they mentioned labourer, cleaning lady, (routine) clerical worker and patient care assistant. three working-class respondents were disabled4 and four were housewives. there were eight single parent families (of whom four were working-class) and six stepfamilies (of whom four were working-class). no systematic class differences in family forms could be noticed. five families had a migration background,5 amongst whom four working-class families had a non-european background. in line with previous findings of bennett et al. (2012) and lareau (2003), we found social class differences in young people’s leisure patterns: while children of middle-class parents participated extensively (and simultaneously) in different types of organised leisure activities (the average number of organised activities per adolescent was 1.63, based on 27 children of middle-class parents), children of working-class parents were more likely to spend their leisure time in an informal setting (the average number of organised activities per adolescent was 0.46, based on 24 children of working-class parents). two examples serve to illustrate this observation: lucas, a 14-year-old middle-class boy, participated in scouts, athletics, hockey, music school and harmony and combined this with gaming, using the internet, reading books and meeting friends. levi, a 13-year-old working-class boy, spent most of his time bmxing in the park and in the city, gaming, using social media, watching television and engaging in family activities. a schematic overview of the participants and their children’s leisure activities can be found in the supplementary material (see table 1 as an appendix). analysis the interviews were transcribed. though the interviews dealt with both parents’ educational goals and parenting practices, for the purpose of this study we only focus on the data in relation to parenting practices in relation to young people’s leisure time. our analysis was theory-inspired in the sense that the toolkit theory directed our attention to the routine parenting practices in the domain of adolescents’ leisure activity. inductive thematic analysis was used to code the interview transcripts. the first author coded all passages referring to the routine parenting practices and found that these could be organised into three themes (hsieh and shannon, 2005). additional coding identified the resources necessary for engaging in particular parenting practices. it was thus the researcher who looked for connections between parenting practices and resources. as explained in the introduction, the focus of our study was directed to comparisons between middleand working-class parents (and not so much on within class variation). the discussion and revision of the results together with the second and third authors ensured the trustworthiness of our study (lietz, langer and furman, 2006). to enable readers to adequately judge whether the findings of this study can be transferred to other settings, we have provided a clear and detailed description of the recruitment and characteristics of the participants, the interview procedure and the analytical process. the underrepresentation of fathers in our study is a limitation and must be kept in mind when interpreting and transferring the results. in the following section, the results of the study are presented. in doing so, we focus on the parenting practices for which the largest social class differences could be noticed. in no way we claim that this is an exhaustive list of differences. one cannot determine in abstracto how large a difference must be in order to consider it as important. this decision always depends on the aim of the analysis. the aim of this analysis was gaining a better understanding of social class differences in parents’ role and, in turn, in adolescents’ use of leisure time. therefore, we used the following criteria for including parenting practices in our study: there are class differences in (1) relying on a specific parenting practice and (2) the impact of that practice on young people’s leisure time use (e.g. continued involvement versus dropping-out). social class _____________ 4 disabled refers to being unable to work for more than one year. 5 families with a migration background are families where at least one of the parents is immigrated themselves or had parents who did. annelore van der eecken, bram spruyt & lieve bradt 48 differences were more remarkable in parenting practices related to young people’s organised leisure participation. as a result of particular characteristics of organised leisure activities (e.g. the presence of formal rules, the regular, consistent and timely attendance), young people’s organised leisure participation, as we will show, placed heavier demands on parents, that is, required more resources which are unequally distributed across social class (mahoney and stattin, 2000). to illustrate our findings we added quotations. all names used are pseudonyms. the letters ‘mc’ and ‘wc’ after the pseudonyms in the citations refer respectively to middleand working-class parents. the letters ‘i’, ‘m’ and ‘f’ in the citations refer respectively to interviewer, mother and father. results the largest social class differences were found in the following parenting practices: (1) setting an example, (2) resolving conflicts and (3) facilitating leisure activities. while setting an example was related to guiding young people into leisure activities, resolving conflicts was concerned with preventing young people from dropping out from activities. facilitating young people’s leisure activities was concerned with both aspects. setting an example although it may sound obvious, setting an example is an important mechanism for guiding young people into particular leisure activities. as expected, the interviews showed that middleand workingclass young people grew up in families where different kinds of leisure activities were undertaken. through engagement in particular leisure activities (as a participant or as a professional/volunteer), parents awoke their children’s interest in them. such parenting actions were not always based on rational calculation. because my wife plays music, my daughter is also interested in piano, singing, guitar, … (dirk, mc, 17-year-old daughter) i watch a lot of television. […] he also spends a lot of time on his what’s that thing again… where he can watch movies on… he does that a lot! […] or he watches television with me. (peter, wc, 15-year-old daughter and 15-yearold stepson) especially middle-class parents also took their children with them to leisure activities such as cultural performances, exhibitions, concerts and sports, to stir up their interest: xxx never was attracted to museums and he certainly does not do that spontaneously. if we go on a trip, he reads in the foyer but in germany, children could get in free and then i said: ‘at the end, i’ll come for you and then we go look at two or three paintings that i like to show you!’ (lea, mc, 18-year-old daughter and 14-year-old son) thus, if passing on leisure interests did not happen spontaneously, middle-class parents actively guided their children into certain activities. because middleand working-class parents differed in their leisure time patterns, simply ‘being themselves’ created and reproduced class differences in their children’s leisure time patterns. while middle-class parents were engaged in a diversity of leisure activities outdoors, several working-class parents spent most of their leisure time engaging in ‘passive activities’ at home, such as watching television. these activities are cheap and require little physical effort. such activities are dominantly seen as less valuable because they are sedentary and do not improve health, social skills and cognitive thinking. working-class parents’ less intensive leisure life (outdoors) was related to their more physically exhausting jobs and to their lack of flexible time. indeed, middle-class parents had more time for leisure activities outdoors primarily because of flexible working arrangements: they were able to telework, start and stop earlier and alternate shorter with longer workdays, which improved their ability to schedule their outdoor (family) leisure activities. working-class parents, however, generally had fixed working hours: if you’re working full time, you don’t have an excessive amount of free time. […] ever since august, i am thinking: ‘hmm, what if i were to do sports one evening a week? […] [but] i don’t even have any time for that. […] how do they [other parents] do sport in the week? i don’t get it. (alice, wc, 16-year-old daughter) moreover, several working-class parents declared that they were too tired to take part in outdoor parents’ role in adolescents’ leisure time use: from goals… 49 leisure activities. they perceived their leisure time as a time they required to rest, recharge their batteries and to sit around with the family: watching television, going shopping once… but real real [activities]… no, we don’t have any of that. we just don’t get around to it. f: if i come home from work, i’m not in the mood to do anything anymore. (mira and ben, wc, 13year-old daughter) middleand working-class parents further differed in the extent to which they were able to let their children experiment with a broad range of leisure activities. common to many young people is that they want to experiment and try out different kinds of leisure activity before they find one that fits their interests and talents. in this context, middle-class parents’ financial resources enabled them to give their children more opportunities to get a taste of different activities. they could better afford the cost of an activity that their children ultimately quit doing and in many cases they also had the financial means to present those activities repeatedly (as a deliberate attempt to get their children to like the activity). in contrast, workingclass parents were less inclined to introduce their children to (costly) outdoor leisure activities. they reasoned that if the adolescents did not enjoy them, they would have paid tickets for events, membership dues, leisure materials, etc. for nothing. they preferred to let their children follow their own leisure preferences to ensure that they ‘stuck with’ the activity: she may do anything she wants but it isn’t acceptable that she chooses a sport and that you’re starting to make arrangements and that she says a month later: ‘i don’t like it!’ sorry but i also need my money! […] my two other children did that. they followed dancing lessons in the sports hall until i had paid for those t-shirts and stuff. then they said: ‘mom, i don’t like it anymore!’ then i said: ‘god damn it!’ (karen, wc, 14-year-old daughter) not only their financial means but also their familiarity with (institutional) leisure activities outdoors enabled middle-class parents to present their children with a greater diversity of activities. working-class parents had less experience with such activities (for young people), which was related to their own life history: they were not engaged in such activities as a child. i never have played [organised] sports [as a child]. (an, wc, 18-year-old son) interestingly, the (working-class) parents’ limited resources and experienced barriers (e.g. being tired after work) could be ‘circumvented’ by leisure clubs’ attempts to recruit young people via the school: they came to her school in september to recruit new members and she immediately wanted to start with it [the youth organisation]. she brought a folder home, which she showed to her brother and sister. all three then started. and they really like it so… (elisa, wc, 14and 12-year-old daughters) all the quotes given so far clearly illustrate that leisure interests are created by parents as much as they are discovered by children. for instance, visiting museums was not an activity that lea’s son would do spontaneously. young people’s leisure interests are not ‘innate’ but (at least partly) the result of an everyday family modelling process (bourdieu, 1993; de graaf, de graaf and kraaykamp, 2000; mullan, 2010). those informal learning processes are not available to all: working-class parents generally lack resources (e.g. flexible time, money and experience) for and experience barriers (e.g. being exhausted at the end of a workday) to transmitting societally valued leisure interests to their children. resolving conflicts parenting practices were not only concerned with getting young people involved in particular leisure activities, but also with preventing young people from dropping out from activities. most (young) people reach a certain point where they want to quit an activity (allison, adlaf, dwyer, lysy and irving, 2007; furlong and cartmel, 2007). on such occasions, especially middle-class parents then intervened (at an early stage) to prevent their children from giving up the activity. they felt (1) a sense of urgency, (2) a responsibility for finding a solution for issues and problems in the leisure setting, and (3) entitled (collectively) to call to account trainers/leaders/youth workers: letting a child of fourteen years old play [only] 2 minutes in the football game… that is actually a punishment! […] xxx went through that once. […] i said to the coach that i didn’t like that. [thereafter, it didn’t happen anymore.] (karel, mc, 17-year-old daughter and 15-year-old son) we just undertook action with the parents. we called all parents after the ‘transition weekend’. we grouped our annelore van der eecken, bram spruyt & lieve bradt 50 thoughts – about the things that happened – and then we struck up a conversation with the leaders. […] there were two things that weren’t right at all for us. […] humiliation or pain, psychological pressure. […] and also, the drinking of alcohol. they are old enough but they were even forced to drink alcohol. […] we then asked the leaders: ‘can we come by to talk to you?’ and then they said: ‘yes, after a meeting on sunday, you are certainly welcome!’ […] they were going to discuss it with the group leaders but i still haven’t heard from them. i also don’t know if we will receive any feedback. but they make house visits, you can indicate that when signing them up. then they give information about their operations for the year and then we definitely can talk about that once. (lea, mc, 18-year-old daughter and 14-year-old son) working-class parents were more hesitant about approaching youth workers6: i’m not a person that would immediately say: ‘yes and my child that and my child that…’. they have to figure it out themselves and do it on their own. until a boundary is crossed where i say: ‘now i have to take action!’ or if something happens, then i will say my opinion. but otherwise i think: ‘yeah, they have to handle it themselves!’ (alice, wc, 16-year-old daughter) this quote demonstrates that ‘once a line was crossed’, working-class parents also intervened. however, at this later stage, problems had already worsened to an extent that a solution was no longer possible with drop-out as a result: he had to sit on the bench because he hadn’t got enough ball technique and then i was thinking: ‘i’m not paying to just sit on the bench, i’m not investing my time to always watch to a bench!’ and finally, i asked him [the coach] about that and he said: ‘yes but he isn’t good enough and i want to demote him to a lower group’. but he didn’t want to do that. i said: ‘look, he doesn’t want to do that, then i quit with it and he doesn’t come anymore!’ (sien, wc, 13-yearold son) the interviews made clear that resolving problems was facilitated by intervening rapidly and frequently in young people’s leisure activity and mobilising other parents to respond collectively to incidents. a rapid intervention ensured that problems did not reach such proportions that they become insoluble. especially middle-class parents were proactive in seeing that their children’s needs were met; they felt entitled to demand more from leisure organisations. working-class parents waited longer – until a line was crossed – to take action because they were more likely to see youth workers as experts that should not be questioned. moreover, several working-class parents had not (completely) mastered the dutch language, which operated as a barrier to opening up a dialogue. further, addressing problems in a group put more pressure on youth workers to find a solution. middle-class parents were – due to their extended parental networks (see below) – able to react collectively when confronted with problems. working-class parents, however, often responded to problems individually: only the parent and youth worker were involved. however, in this context we also found examples of youth workers who managed to resolve problems by breaking down barriers for (working-class) parents. for example, by proactively addressing parents in an effort to resolve prevailing problems, youth workers ensured that problems or issues did not grow and remain soluble: here they [the leaders] are very good, really! attentively, attentive to differences. they pose questions… i was positively amazed about the fact that they talked to me about it [her daughter’s language disorder] on the phone and i went down there… like an appointment… […] they will make the necessary adjustments. for example, xxx will not have to recite the law of the scouts. (rosalie, wc, 13-year-old daughter) youth workers who guided the same group of children for years could anticipate difficulties without any need on the part of the parents to intervene repeatedly: xxx has a lack of empathy and she has some difficulties with [accepting] authority. that has always been a problem but i have discussed that with the coach and in the meantime, he already knows how she is because she has had the same coach for years. he kept his team each year. (ines, wc, 18-year-old son and 14-year-old daughter) to conclude, although middleand working-class parents were confronted with similar issues/problems, especially middle-class parents succeeded in resolving them (and assuring continued leisure participation) and in making leisure clubs work to their advantage. _____________ 6 youth workers here refers to the volunteers and people professionally qualified in a range of different types of work with young people (e.g. youth organisation, sports and music lessons). parents’ role in adolescents’ leisure time use: from goals… 51 facilitating leisure activities facilitating leisure activities was related to both guiding young people into, and preventing them from giving up on, particular leisure activities. parents paid membership dues, provided leisure materials (e.g. books, sports equipment, skateboard and bmx), brought their children to their activities by car, gave permission to undertake informal activities outdoors (e.g. playing football, skating and meeting peers), accommodated family life to meet their children’s leisure schedules, washed their sports equipment and ‘trained’ their children at home. although facilitating young people’s leisure activities was at times difficult for all parents, the crucial difference was that middle-class parents’ flexible working arrangements, financial means and social network offered them many more opportunities to cope with challenging situations. indeed, the data showed ample examples of how small advantages accumulated over time into larger benefits and in this way created and reinforced class differentials. many leisure organisations (and certainly those that are youth-led), for example, occasionally make late changes and/or communicate at the last minute about what is going to happen. middle-class parents’ financial means enabled them to manage these last-minute arrangements more easily. after all, money not only provides for paying membership dues and buying clothes or other leisure attributes but also for having (a) car(s). while middle-class parents generally had two cars, several working-class parents indicated that they could not afford a car. not having a car made it difficult to be flexible in anticipating changes in leisure schedules: if they said: ‘we meet up there at that hour’ and then it was at another time and another place, then i thought: ‘yeah but….’, you know? all very last minute… you always must ensure that you could jump, as a manner of speaking. (alice, wc, 16-year-old daughter) another example is that all parents were sometimes pressed for time because of work and/or family demands, which limited their options for facilitating their children’s leisure activities. feeling short on time was, however, even worse for employed working-class parents because they did not have flexible working arrangements: sometimes it [driving her children] is difficult, because i work in shifts. if i have to work in the morning, then there is no problem but if i have to work in the evening, then it is difficult. […] i also work every other weekend. (ines, wc, 18-year-old son and 14-year-old daughter) being a single parent also reinforced parents’ time problem. the problem is that the activities [of my children] overlap. if you have a partner, then it is easier. one goes to that activity and the other to another activity. then you can arrange it. but i’m single. (eva, mc, 15and 13-year-old son) middle-class parents not only had more flexible working arrangements, they also had sufficient financial resources and a strong, extended and available social network to compensate for their lack of time. for example, in one case their financial means enabled them to hire a nanny to drive their children to and from their activities: on monday and wednesday, it is training and on saturday match. on saturday, my husband does it and on monday, tuesday and thursday, we have a nanny for the children. she comes here after school and she brings xxx to the football training. (katrien, mc, 12-year-old daughter) the middle-class parents made carpooling arrangements with co-participants’ parents, neighbours or family members. working-class parents did not have close contacts with residents in their district and faced difficulties in building up relationships with other parents at the leisure setting. they rather relied on kinship networks which were, however, generally less resourceful (e.g. not having flexible time and an available car). some family members of parents with a migration background were also living far away. i have always lived in this district but things here have become much worse… i: in what sense? m: scum… boorish [people]… a lot of immigrants came [to reside in this district]… (mira, wc, 13-year-old daughter) there was already an introduction, to let us know how it is going there [the youth organisation]. […] i’m not in contact with them [the co-participants’ parents]. […] you see that they aren’t that open. you see that they aren’t such social people. i have the quick tendency to talk to everyone. if i am at the butcher and a stranger is standing next to me, i can say: ‘what are you going to eat today?’ i would dare that! but there it wasn’t like that… (elisa, wc, 14and 12year-old daughters) annelore van der eecken, bram spruyt & lieve bradt 52 this last quotation illustrates that institutional leisure contexts demanded a certain ‘code of behaviour’ that was less familiar to working-class parents. in addition, middleand working-class parents often lack a shared frame of reference (e.g. different working conditions and leisure activities), which hindered communication. on top of that, several working-class parents (with migration background) spoke another language, which may have served as an additional barrier. when working-class parents did establish relationships with co-participants’ parents, the relationships were rather weak and weak ties were less likely to bring advantages such as carpooling arrangements. especially middle-class parents forged strong ties: they undertook activities together, independent of the young people’s leisure activities, often stimulated by their children’s involvement in the same activity for several years and/or their children’s participation in the same range of activities. working-class parents’ encounters with other parents were generally limited to those at the leisure venue: we meet each other also outside the ice hockey [setting], not everyone, but two couples. because of [the children’s] ice hockey [involvement], we became friends. we even go on ski trips with them. (charlotte, mc, 15-year-old son) the parents of xxx [daughters’ friend] have a tearoom… sometimes we go there… [but] it’s not like we sit together. (sarah, wc, 18-year-old daughter) middle-class parents in our study thus benefitted from more extensive toolboxes, which allowed them to build strong ties with other parents who also had more flexible working hours, larger social networks, etc. in this way, the homophily of social networks clearly further reinforced already existing class differentials in parental support for children’s leisure time consumption. a last example is that, although all parents had some difficulties with giving their children more autonomy as they got older, facilitating (cf. giving permission for) young people’s informal leisure activities outdoors (with friends) was less evident for working-class parents because their children were more ‘at risk’ of putting up with ‘wrong’ peers they met in their immediate living environment: in the park, there is a lot of ‘mixture’. it is true that there are youngsters that play basketball or football or that ride on bmx bikes but there are also people using drugs. (aida, wc, 12-year-old son) also in the school of xxx, there are youngsters using drugs and who got into trouble with the police. (malika, wc, 18and 13-year-old sons, 16-year-old daughter) thus, the working-class families involved in our study were not only constrained by their ‘individual tools’ but also by their living environment (neighbourhood and school). in sum, although all parents struggled with facilitating their children’s leisure activities, middleclass parents’ larger, resourceful and nearby social network, flexible working arrangements, financial means and immediate living environment enabled them to overcome their difficulties more easily. thereby, relatively small benefits accumulated into greater benefits. no matter how persistent and challenging, this accumulation of advantage for middle-class parents (and relative disadvantage for working-class parents) is, however, not inexorably determined. indeed, a crucial observation was that in some cases (working-class) parents’ lack of flexible time, an available car and a (strong) social network to rely on could be bypassed by carpooling systems organised by clubs, as well as other initiatives such as hiring buses: they could ride with the football trainers and with the other parents. (gertie, wc, 18and 13-year-old sons and 12year-old stepson) conclusion and discussion this study aimed to advance our understanding of social class differences in the parents’ role and, in turn, in young people’s use of leisure time. based on 32 interviews with a socio-economically diverse group of parents, substantial social class differences were found with respect to three parenting practices: (1) setting an example, (2) resolving conflicts and (3) facilitating leisure activities. these differences were systematically related to social class differences in resources: although middleand working-class parents faced similar difficulties when it came to young people’s use of leisure time (e.g. last-minute changes in organisations and young people’s changing interests), middle-class parents’ flexible time, financial means, parents’ role in adolescents’ leisure time use: from goals… 53 extensive social network, institutionally required attitudes, skills and experiences and immediate living environment enabled them to overcome such difficulties more easily and engage smoothly in the aforementioned parenting practices. although, it often came down to small, subtle (though persistent) things, the sum of small things led to big consequences (see also currid-halkett, 2017). overall, it confronted working-class parents with more difficulties in shaping their children’s spending of leisure time. our findings are in line with previous studies on social class and parenting. similar to previous studies on parental involvement in the school context, we found that working-class parents felt less entitled to question the approach of professionals (de graaf et al., 2000; lareau, 2003). in their study on parental cultural capital and educational attainment, de graaf et al. (2000) noted that middle-class parents feel more confident to intervene in (school or leisure) institutions because they are ‘insiders’ in the (school or leisure) field (i.e. parents participate (d) themselves in higher education and institutional leisure). related to this, horvat, weininger and lareau (2003) drew attention to the different personal network composition of middleand working-class parents: in contrast to middle-class parents, who included parents of peers and professionals in their network, working-class parents mainly relied on support from relatives and neighbours. parents of peers and professionals provide middle-class parents with resources which they can use to overcome difficulties. for instance, middle-class parents can call upon other parents to collectively respond to problems in school institutions (horvat et al., 2003). largely similar results were found in this study. an exception is that only a minority of the working-class parents referred to neighbour support. time and context may explain these different findings. the study of horvat et al. (2003) is based on data collected in 1989-1990 in the (ethnically) segregated usa. there was a large inflow of migration over the last years and ethnic segregation is less pronounced in belgium. not surprisingly then, we observed that the working-class parents in our study lived in increasingly ethnically mixed districts with limited interactions among neighbours. our findings also somewhat deviate from those of horvat et al. (2003) in the sense that we found that the support working-class parents receive from relatives had rather limited compensatory value. the fact that we included several working-class parents (with migration background) whose family members did not live nearby (e.g. they lived in the capital of belgium or in another country) may at least partly explain these differences. however, the family was definitely a major source of emotional support for parents and especially working-class parents. because of working-class children’s less organised use of leisure time, working-class families had more room for time with family members (e.g. calling to, skyping with and/or visiting relatives). the ‘culture as toolkit’ framework (swidler, 1986) enables us to understand the paradoxical observation made in the literature that even though working-class parents value (institutional) leisure activities, they – at least at first glance – less actively encourage their children’s participation in them. our interviews showed that young people’s continued (institutional) leisure participation placed heavy demands on parents and not all parents, especially not working-class parents, were able to live up to such requirements. institutional leisure settings are predominantly organised around middle-class standards of good parenting whereby parents are seen as ‘leisure providers’ and ‘facilitators’ (zeijl, 2001; zinnecker, 1995). for example, parents are (implicitly) expected to make their children aware of the wide array of interesting (i.e. educationally important) activities available, to make the first approach to the youth workers should problems or issues arise, to drive young people to football games, etc. as a result, leisure initiatives are not always tailored to the living conditions of working-class families. being aware of that is crucial to our understanding of inequality because it enables us to see how leisure organisations unwittingly contribute to inequality in the use of young people’s leisure time. what do these findings imply for future leisure time policymaking and practice? the current focus of policymakers on changing parents’ presumed unawareness of the importance of their children’s participation in (organised) leisure (see e.g. council of europe, 2003; geudens, costanzo, hofmann, amorim and pavlovova, 2013) will not change social class differences in leisure time use patterns. as our findings show, young people’s non-participation in institutional leisure activities stemmed not so much from a lack of interest from parents as from the availability of resources that enabled them to engage in annelore van der eecken, bram spruyt & lieve bradt 54 particular institutionally valued parenting practices. reversing inequality in leisure participation demands that leisure institutions critically reflect on how their way of working might hinder or facilitate vulnerable young people (and their parents) to take part in particular activities. in other words, it demands that leisure settings no longer start from middle-class conceptions of the parents’ role in young people’s use of leisure time (institutionally driven) but from families’ concrete living conditions (lifeworld-oriented): what is happening in concrete situations and how can we tailor our way of working to the practices and living circumstances of these families? our study shows that a number of relatively small adjustments can already have a major impact. for example, our findings showed that there were leisure clubs that used the school as a recruiting station, facilitated carpooling by connecting parents seeking respectively passengers and drivers, hired buses for young people’s movement to games or performances, took the first step to approach parents if problems showed up, ensured continuity in youth workers, etc. such relatively small things often had big consequences in the sense that they appeared to contribute to maintaining young people’s participation in leisure activities. our findings show that this kind of pedagogical engagement of these clubs can be important in circumventing parents’ constrained resources. in view of the finding that the ‘small problems’ experienced by families were relatively easy for youth workers to overcome, youth workers must reflect on the actions that they can undertake to reverse exclusionary processes (e.g. selective dropping out) and on what they can do to take the parenting practices and living conditions of all families into greater account. this suggests that instead of being occupied with organising young people’s leisure time and guiding young people into organised leisure activities, youth policymakers should be more concerned with supporting young people in their (family) context (coussée, 2006). to get a complete picture of the strategies youth workers (can) use to circumvent exclusionary mechanisms within their organisation, further qualitative research with youth workers from diverse leisure contexts (football clubs, music school, youth organisations, etc.) is needed. furthermore, longitudinal data is needed to establish unequivocally whether and how the identified strategies of parents and youth workers influence young people’s leisure participation. declarations acknowledgements: not applicable. authors’ contributions: avde, bs and lb contributed to the design of the research, the analysis of the results and to the writing of the manuscript. avde carried out the data collection and initial data analysis. competing interests: the authors declare that they have no competing interests. funding: this research was part of the youth research platform, which is funded by the flemish government, department of culture, youth and media. the flemish government had no role in the design of the study, nor in the data collection and interpretation. references agency internal governance & research department of the flemish government (2016). municipal profile ninove. brussels: agency internal governance and research department of the flemish government. allison, k. r., adlaf, e. m., dwyer, j. j. m., lysy, d. c., & irving, h. m. 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(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) appendix table i overview of the participants inter view pseudonyms parents’ gender adolescents ’ gender (and age)7 number of children in the family8 family composi tion families’ migration background 9 parents’ occupation families’ education al level10 assigned social class position 11 adolescents’ leisure activities 12 i1 sofie mother girl (16) 2 twoparent family no migration background social assistant high middle class ballet (*), youth organisation (*), fitness, going out, going to a pub, using social media, surfing the internet, watching series, meeting up with boyfriend, reading books, family activities (e.g. shopping and going to a restaurant). girl (14) ballet (*), youth organisation (*), using social media, watching series, watching (creative) youtube videos, baking, family activities (e.g. shopping and going to a restaurant). i2 laurien mother girl (14) 2 twoparent family migration background nurse high middle class playing soccer (*), youth organisation (*), using social media, surfing the internet, gaming, playing soccer with friends at home, doing nothing, family visits. cristiano father boy (13) technician ballet (*), kickboxing (*), using social media, activities with friends (e.g. going to the city and going to a movie theatre). i3 an mother boy (18) 2 single parent no migration background disabled13 low working class fitness, activities with friends (e.g. playing paintball, bowling, going to a movie theatre), swimming, watching television, gaming, surfing the internet, family activities (e.g. going to a movie theatre and doing sports). i4 dirk father girl (17) 2 twoparent family no migration background teacher high middle class singing, playing piano and guitar, reading books, watching television and movies, meeting friends at home, cooking and baking, family activities (e.g. making city trips, travelling), family visits. i5 charlotte mother boy (14) 2 twoparent no migration administrati ve assistant high middle class hockey (*), horticulture, using social media (e.g. class chat), watching television, family activities (e.g. making city trips and day trips), _____________ 7 biological as well as stepchildren (i.e. the biological children of one’s partner). 8 biological as well as stepchildren. 9 families with a migration background are families where at least one of the parents or the grandparents had immigrated. 10 the families’ educational level is based on both parents’ highest educational qualification. we call families’ educational level as ‘high’ when at least one of the parents has a higher education and ‘low’ when none of the parents obtained a higher education. 11 the assigned social class position is based on the families’ educational level. 12 activities with an asterisk (*) are organised leisure activities (i.e. adult-supervised, regular and rule-guided activities that take place in an institutional setting (bennett, lutz & jayaram, 2012)). 13 disabled refers to being unable to work for more than one year. annelore van der eecken, bram spruyt & lieve bradt 58 michael father stepfamily14 background driver activities with relatives (e.g. bowling and playing snooker with cousins), family visits. i6 rosalie mother girl (13) 3 single parent no migration background sick leave low working class youth organisation (*), music school (*), watching television, using social media, surfing the internet, family activities (e.g. shopping, doing household tasks, watching television, helping with cooking and cleaning, going to a restaurant, sitting on a terrace). i7 aida mother boy (12) 3 twoparent family migration background cleaning lady low working class kickand thai boxing (*), running, riding a scooter, surfing the internet, gaming, reading books, playing football in the park with friends, phoning with family (e.g. on skype), family activities (e.g. going to a fite nite, going to a restaurant, praying, enjoying food at home). i8 eva mother boy (15) 3 single parent no migration background teacher high middle class playing soccer (*), going out, attending parties, meeting friends at home, meeting friends in the city and in the park, etc., gaming, using social media, family activities (watching television, going to the seaside, watching movies, doing daytrips, etc.). boy (13) gaming, riding a scooter, bmxing (in the skate park and in the city), meeting friends in the city, in the park, using social media, surfing the internet, family activities (watching television, going to the seaside, watching movies, doing daytrips, etc.). i9 keicha mother girl (14) 5 twoparent stepfamily migration background housewife low working class watching television, reading strips, family activities (watching television, sitting together in the living room, joining her younger brother at his soccer training and games, making apple fritters, etc.), family visits. i10 alice mother girl (16) 2 twoparent family no migration background (routine) clerical worker low working class ksa (*), weekend work, babysitting, using social media, watching television, going out, going to a pub, surfing the internet, activities with relatives (parties, day trips, meeting cousins, etc.), family activities (e.g. watching television). i11 marie mother boy (18) 2 twoparent family no migration background teacher high middle class floorball (*), following swedish lessons, visiting museums, drawing, reading books, surfing the internet, going to a pub, watching television, babysitting, using social media, gaming, meeting up with girlfriend, doing chores, watching television. boy (16) floorball (*), fitness, meeting friends in the city, watching television, surfing the internet, using social media, gaming, babysitting, doing chores, meeting up with girlfriend. i12 sien mother boy (13) 1 twoparent family no migration background (routine) clerical worker low working class bmxing, skateboarding, riding a scooter and penny board in the skate park and in the city, activities with friends at home (e.g. gaming), using social media, meeting friends in the city and in the park, watching television, watching movies, family visits, family activities (e.g. watching television, shopping, going to a restaurant, _____________ 14 stepfamily refers to a family where the children of at least one of the parents are not biologically connected to the partner of the parent. parents’ role in adolescents’ leisure time use: from goals… 59 watching movies). i13 katrien mother girl (12) 2 twoparent family no migration background finance director high middle class dancing (*), youth organisation (*), watching television, watching movies, using social media, being busy with her mobile phone, activities with friends at home, surfing the internet, family visits, family activities (watching television, city trips, etc.). i14 stijn father boy (14) 3 twoparent family no migration background bank manager high middle class playing soccer (*), youth organisation (*), gaming, playing soccer at home with friends, watching youtube videos, skateboarding and bmxing in the skate park and in the city, watching television, activities with cousins. i15 diara mother girl (13) 5 twoparent family migration background housewife low working class watching television, reading books, babysitting, family activities (e.g. watching television, going to church and praying). denzell father labourer i16 carol mother boy (17) 2 single parent no migration background entrepreneu r high middle class cycling, gaming, playing football with friends at home, watching football games in real life or on television, activities with friends (e.g. going to a movie theatre, going to a show/performance), doing nothing, letting the dog out, helping with household tasks (e.g. cooking, mowing the lawn), weekend work, using social media, being busy with his mobile phone, reading books, family activities (e.g. watching television). girl (16) going out, going to a pub, watching movies, meeting friends at home, activities with friends (e.g. going to a movie theatre, going to a show/performance), using social media, surfing the internet, being busy with her mobile phone, reading books, doing nothing, helping with household tasks (e.g. cooking, mowing the lawn), letting the dog out, family activities (e.g. watching television, shopping). i17 sarah mother girl (18) 1 twoparent family no migration background sick leave low working class meeting friends in the city, going to a pub, going out, meeting up with boyfriend, watching television, helping out with household tasks, surfing the internet, using social media, doing nothing, family activities (e.g. shopping, going to a restaurant, watching television). i18 celien mother girl (16) 2 twoparent family no migration background (higher) clerical employee high middle class athletics (*), youth organisation (*), hockey (*), going out, meeting up with boyfriend (at home), going to a pub, using social media, watching youtube videos. nathan father boy (14) (higher) clerical employee playing soccer (*), youth organisation (*), gaming, watching youtube videos, watching television, family activities (e.g. watching television). i19 karel father girl (17) 3 twoparent family no migration background computer scientist high middle class fitness, meeting friends at home, going to a pub, drawing, tinkering, being on her own in her room, doing chores, surfing the internet, using social media, family activities (e.g. city trips), family visits. boy (15) playing soccer (*), youth organisation (*), gaming, watching football games in real life or on television, doing chores, using social media, family activities (e.g. city trips), family visits. annelore van der eecken, bram spruyt & lieve bradt 60 i20 lore mother boy (17) 1 single parent no migration background advisor high middle class playing soccer (*), watching football games in real life or on television, watching television, gaming, using social media, going out, surfing the internet, attending a stand-up comedian show, cooking, family visits, family activities (e.g. city trips, voluntary work). i21 peter father girl (15) 4 twoparent stepfamily no migration background disabled low working class meeting friends in the city, watching television, using social media, going out, doing someone’s hair, family activities (e.g. shopping with her stepmother, going to a restaurant). boy (15) activities with friends (going to a movie theatre, going to the city), watching television, weekend work, gaming, watching youtube videos, playing with the dog, family visits, family activities (e.g. going to a restaurant). i22 mira mother girl (13) 4 twoparent stepfamily no migration background housewife low working class watching (creative) youtube videos, being busy with make-up, going to the city with friends, meeting friends at home, watching television, listening to music, being busy with her mobile phone, surfing the internet, using social media, doing nothing, helping out a little bit around the house, family activities (e.g. resting together, going to an amusement park). ben father labourer i23 lea mother girl (18) 3 twoparent family no migration background teacher high middle class harmony (*), music school (*), youth organisation (*), youth orchestra (*) symphony orchestra (*), reading books, tinkering, sewing, family activities (e.g. going out for an ice cream, going to museums, voluntary work). boy (14) youth organisation (*), athletics (*), hockey (*), music school (*), harmony (*), using social media, watching television programmes and youtube videos, reading books, learning to cook, meeting friends at home, family activities (e.g. going out for an ice cream, going to museums, voluntary work). i24 emma mother girl (15) 5 twoparent stepfamily no migration background teacher high middle class music school (*), drawing academy (*), watching television, reading books, going to the opera, doing chores (e.g. emptying the dishwasher), family activities (e.g. going to a movie theatre, classical concert, cultural centre). boy (14) hockey (*), youth organisation (*), watching television, reading books, using social media (e.g. class chat), listening to music, doing chores (e.g. emptying the dishwasher), family activities (e.g. going to a movie theatre, classical concert, cultural centre). girl (12) music school (*), using social media, watching television, listening to music, doing chores (e.g. emptying the dishwasher), family activities (e.g. going to a movie theatre, classical concert, cultural centre). i25 malika mother boy (18) 4 twoparent family migration background housewife low working class fitness, activities with friends (e.g. going to the city, swimming), weekend work, gaming, watching television, using social media, watching youtube videos, praying, going to a mosque, family visits. parents’ role in adolescents’ leisure time use: from goals… 61 girl (16) watching television, using social media, watching youtube videos, family activities (e.g. shopping), household tasks (e.g. doing the dishes), activities with friends (e.g. shopping, eating a snack), praying, going to mosque, family visits. boy (13) watching television, gaming, praying, going to a mosque, family visits. i26 elisa mother girl (14) 3 single parent no migration background cleaning lady low working class youth organisation (*), using social media, surfing the internet, watching television, activities with friends (going to the fair, the city, etc.), meeting friends at home, meeting up with boyfriend, family activities (e.g. shopping, going to a fair, an amusement park, the seaside). girl (12) youth organisation (*), using social media, watching television, surfing the internet, family activities (e.g. shopping, going to a fair, an amusement park, the seaside). i27 karen mother girl (14) 3 single parent no migration background cleaning lady low working class using social media, meeting friends in the city and in the park, watching television, family activities (e.g. shopping, going to the seaside), family visits, listening to music, doing nothing. i28 ines mother boy (18) 2 twoparent family no migration background patient care assistant low working class watching television, activities with friends (e.g. going to (birthday) parties, a movie theatre, holiday parks), gaming, surfing the internet, using social media, weekend work. girl (13) gymnastics (*), activities with friends (e.g. halloween tours, birthday parties, shopping, going to a movie theatre), reading books, watching (creative) youtube videos, watching series, using social media, tinkering. i29 martin father boy (16) 2 twoparent family no migration background sick leave low working class playing soccer (*), watching television, meeting up with girlfriend (at home), using social media, family activities (e.g. watching television, visiting amusement parks, doing nothing, having dinner together), family visits. boy (12) playing soccer (*), watching television, using social media, playing pool and snooker with father, family activities (e.g. watching television, visiting amusement parks, doing nothing, having dinner together), family visits. i30 tine mother girl (13) 1 twoparent family no migration background (higher) clerical employee high middle class water ballet (*), activities with friends (e.g. going to the city, eating an ice cream), meeting friends at home, family activities (e.g. going to the movie theatre, doing day trips), surfing the internet. i31 mona mother girl (17) 2 single parent no migration background teacher high middle class ballet (*), youth organisation (*), guitar lessons (private), weekend work, meeting up with boyfriend (e.g. going to a movie theatre), meeting friends at home (e.g. cooking together), going out, watching television, using social media, being busy with her mobile phone, watching youtube videos, doing chores (e.g. cleaning the table), family activities (e.g. going to a restaurant, travelling together), annelore van der eecken, bram spruyt & lieve bradt 62 family visits. boy (14) playing soccer (*), youth organisation (*), gaming, watching television, using social media, doing chores (e.g. cleaning the table), family activities (e.g. going to a restaurant, travelling together), family visits. i32 gertie mother boy (18) 6 twoparent stepfamily no migration background disabled low working class gaming, meeting up with friends in the district, going to a pub, weekend work, being busy with his mobile phone, using social media, doing chores (e.g. doing the dishes), family activities (e.g. swimming, watching television, walking, going to an amusement park). boy (13) gaming, meeting up with friends in the district, using social media, watching television, doing chores (e.g. doing the dishes), family activities (e.g. swimming, walking, going to an amusement park). boy (12) playing soccer (*), meeting up with friends in the district, gaming, using social media, watching television, doing chores (e.g. doing the dishes), family activities (e.g. swimming, walking, going to an amusement park). parents’ role in adolescents’ leisure time use: from goals to parenting practices setting an example resolving conflicts facilitating leisure activities journal of childhood, education & society volume 2, issue 1, 2021, 58-68 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.20212187 research article ©2021 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. enhancing the quality of teacher-child interactions in singapore pre-school classrooms nirmala karuppiah1 abstract: this exploratory study was aimed primarily at developing baseline data on the quality of teacher-child interactions in singapore pre-school classrooms. data were collected through observations of teacher-child interactions in 80 pre-schools, using the classroom assessment scoring system (class) in the three key domains which are 1) emotional support, 2) classroom organisation, and 3) instructional support (pianta, la paro, & hamre, 2008). it was found that the overall quality of teacher-child interactions in the singapore pre-school classrooms was low to moderate, with instruction support being the lowest. this finding is similar to that found in studies conducted in many other countries including china and the u.s. (slot, 2017). possible reasons and explanations will be presented, and suggestions to improve or enhance the quality of teacher-child interactions will be proposed. this study has implications on pre-school teacher education and professional development as well as government policies and regulations for the singapore pre-school sector. article history received: 04 january 2021 accepted: 17 february 2021 keywords teacher-child interactions; instructional support; teacher education; professional development; singapore pre-schools introduction as young children in singapore are spending a large part of their time in pre-schools, it has become increasingly important to determine the nature and quality of their experiences in pre-schools (childcare centres or kindergartens). while there is no universally accepted definition of quality in pre-school education, there are structural and process indicators that are important components of quality programmes which result in positive child outcomes (organisation for economic co-operation and development [oecd], 2018; thomason & laparo, 2009). structural indicators include programmes and features of the classroom such as class size, teacherchild ratios, and teacher qualifications, training and experience (oecd, 2018; ramey & ramey, 2004). these structural variables are the measurable components of quality and most often found in the licensing requirements set by the authorities to ensure that pre-schools provide the minimum quality of services (karuppiah, 2015; oecd, 2018). process indicators, on the other hand, include dynamic aspects of the classroom such as planning of learning activities, teacher-parent relationships and teacher-child interactions (oecd, 2018; ramey & ramey, 2004). while these process variables are not regulated by licensing requirements, they determine the quality of children’s experiences within the pre-school environment (karuppiah, 2015; oecd, 2018). researchers have identified teacher-child interactions as a key process indicator which contributes to the quality of children’s learning experiences (bertram et al., 2016; mashburn et al., 2008). broadly defined, teacher-child interactions are the exchanges that take place between the child and the teacher on both a formal (instructional) and informal (social) basis (hamre et al., 2012). the quality of teacher-child interactions are dependent on the professionalism of the teachers and the wisdom of their practice and are also influenced by the teachers’ background, beliefs and values (berthelsen, brownlee, & karuppiah, 2011). _____________ 1centre for research in child development, national institute of education, nanyang technological university, singapore, e-mail: nirmala.karuppiah@nie.edu.sg, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2182-6560 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.20212187 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:nirmala.karuppiah@nie.edu.sg https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2182-6560 enhancing the quality of teacher-child interactions… 59 in particular, responsive, sensitive, stimulating teacher-child interactions are reliably linked to the level of teacher education and specialized professional development training of teachers (burchinal, peisnerfeinberg, pianta, & howes, 2002; oecd, 2018). however, research indicates that teachers with higher qualifications together with specific training in early childhood education are most likely to provide high quality early childhood programmes (berthelsen et al., 2011; karuppiah, 2015). there seems to be greater interactions between teachers and children, and the children show greater social, cognitive and language abilities (burchinal et al., 2002; fukkink, helmerhorst, deynoot schaub, & sluiter, 2019). additionally, these teachers were found to be more positive and less punitive, employing a less authoritarian style of interactions with the children (fukkink et al., 2019). professional development and coaching are also found to have a positive impact on teachers’ interactions with children. however, it was found that the design, duration, delivery and focus of training is important to ensure the effectiveness of professional development for teachers (pianta et al., 2014). additionally, it was also found that for the professional development to be effective, it must provide opportunities for sustained training experiences and self-reflection (schachter, gerde, & hatton-bowers, 2019; zan & donegan-ritter, 2014). creating a positive organisational climate and setting up professional learning communities have also been found to improve teachers’ self-image and well-being as well as teacher-child interactions in the pre-school classrooms (oecd, 2018). research also suggests that child factors (e.g., characteristics, temperament, self-regulation, attention & socio-emotional skills) and home factors (e.g., maternal education, socio-economic status & stress) also affect children’s learning because they influence children’s engagement in activities and facilitate (or disrupt) classroom processes (ladd, birch, & buhs, 1999; pianta & stuhlman, 2004). although there is no definitive answer regarding the ideal teacher-child ratio, teachers in classrooms with smaller class size and lower teacher-to-child ratios tend to be more sensitive and responsive to the children than teachers who had more children in their care (hoang, holopainen, & siekkinen, 2018; national institute of child health and human development, early child care research network [nichd eccrn], 2004; oecd, 2018). since the pre-schools in singapore are regulated by the licensing requirements stipulated by the early childhood development agency (ecda, 2020), it is somewhat fair to conclude that all or most preschools do meet at least the minimum requirements for the structural indicators (karuppiah, 2015; tan, 2017). although there are many structural and process indicators which affect children’s outcomes, this study focuses specifically, on teacher-child interactions. since teacher-child interaction is identified as a key process indicator which contributes to the quality of children’s learning experiences, the key research question for this study is, ‘what is the quality of teacher-child interactions in singapore pre-school classrooms’? methodology the singapore kindergarten impact project (skip) was the first five-year longitudinal study aimed at tracking children from kindergarten 1 (k1) to kindergarten 2 (k2) and then, to primary one (p1) in singapore. this exploratory study which was part of skip, was aimed primarily at developing baseline data on teacher-child interactions in k (k1 & k2) classrooms in singapore. participants the sample consisted of approximately 120 teachers and 1530 k children in 80 pre-schools located across singapore. these pre-schools which belonged to three categories of providers (government, government-funded & private kindergartens or childcare centres), were recruited using a stratified sampling technique. hence, these pre-schools (mostly kindergartens with 3or 4hour programmes) provided a wide variability in terms of their social and economic status (ses), and racial and cultural backgrounds (chinese, malays, indians & others). prior to the study, approval for ethics clearance was sought from the nanyang technological https://search-proquest-com.libproxy.nie.edu.sg/education/indexinglinkhandler/sng/au/schachter,+rachel+e/$n?accountid=28158 https://search-proquest-com.libproxy.nie.edu.sg/education/indexinglinkhandler/sng/au/schachter,+rachel+e/$n?accountid=28158 nirmala karuppiah 60 university internal review board (ntu irb). once approval was obtained, teachers and children (through their parents) were invited to participate in the study through formal information and consent letters. written consent was obtained from the teachers and parents of the children who were willing to participate in the study. child assent forms were also completed by the children to confirm their willingness to participate in the study. the teachers, parents and children were briefed on the purpose of the study, data collection procedures and confidentiality of their responses. they were also informed that participation was voluntary, and that they could withdraw participation at any point of the study. data collection instrument the classroom assessment scoring system (class), which is an internationally recognised instrument (oecd, 2018), was used to measure the quality of teacher-child interactions in the singapore pre-school classrooms. class was developed by pianta and his colleagues (2008) at the curry school of education in virginia, united states of america. figure 1. domains & dimensions in class (pianta et al., 2008) as depicted in figure 1, there are ten dimensions in class which are positive climate, negative climate, teacher sensitivity, regard for student perspectives, behaviour management, productivity, instructional learning formats, concept development, quality of feedback and language modelling (pianta et al., 2008). each of these dimensions is described in table 1. classroom quality emotional support positive climate negative climate teacher sensitivity regard for student perspectives classroom organisation behaviour management productivity instructional learning formats instructional support concept development quality of feedback language modelling enhancing the quality of teacher-child interactions… 61 table 1. observable dimensions in class (pianta et al., 2008) domain dimension description emotional support positive climate this is the degree to which the classroom reflects 1) enthusiasm and enjoyment children display during learning activities, 2) respect displayed during interactions between the teacher and children, and among children, and 3) positive affect and positive communication. negative climate this is the degree to which the classroom has 1) a negative emotional and social tone, and 2) negative affect such as anger, harshness, punitive control, sarcasm and severe negativity such as bullying or physical punishment. teacher sensitivity this is the extent to which the teacher 1) provides comfort, reassurance and encouragement, 2) is aware of children’s needs for support, 3) provides individualized support, 4) is responsive to children’s emotions, 5) addresses problems in a timely manner, and 6) creates a classroom in which children are comfortable seeking out the teacher and volunteering responses. regard for student perspectives this is the extent to which the teacher 1) provides classroom activities which are rigidly structured or regimented, 2) shows flexibility with respect to children’s ideas, 3) follows children’s leads, supports autonomy and leadership, and 3) maintains a balance of teacher talk and child talk in the classroom. classroom organisation behaviour management this involves the teacher’s ability to 1) use effective methods to prevent and redirect children’s misbehaviours, 2) provide clear behaviour expectations, 3) monitor the classrooms and children’s behaviour, and 4) redirect children’s behaviour effectively. productivity this involves the teacher’s ability to 1) manage instructional time and routines so that children learn and make progress, 2) provide activities in a way so that children are not waiting or wandering, 3) have routines that the children understand and can follow in the classroom, 4) have brief transitions that may incorporate learning opportunities, and 5) have materials ready for activities to minimize waiting time. instructional learning formats this involves the teacher’s ability to use 1) available activities, method of presentation, groupings, and range of materials to maximize children’s engagement and exploration in learning, 2) questions to engage children and 3) activities to expand children’s learning. instructional support concept development this involves the teacher’s ability to employ strategies to promote children’s higher order thinking skills (e.g., open ended questions, brainstorming, prediction & integration of information) instead of focusing on rote & fact-based learning. quality of feedback this involves the teacher’s ability to provide children with 1) quality verbal evaluation about their work, and 2) comments, ideas and feedback with information to support their understanding of the process of learning instead of just the correctness of the end product. language modelling this involves the teacher’s ability to use quality language-stimulation and languagefacilitation techniques during individual, small-group, and large-group interactions with children (e.g., self & parallel talk, open-ended questions, repetition, expansion/extension & use of advanced language). procedure in this study, a team of two researchers trained in class visited the participating pre-schools to observe and video-record the teacher-child interactions in the k classrooms. each classroom was observed and video-recorded for 3 to 4 hours (depending on the duration of their program). as the purpose of the study was to capture instances of teacher-child interactions on a typical day in the participating pre-school, the teachers were not given any instructions or directions regarding the content or pedagogy for the activities to be observed and video-recorded. although the nurturing early learners (nel) framework (ministry of education [moe], 2012) was launched by the ministry of education in 2013, it is a recommended and not a mandatory guideline to be used by pre-schools to design and develop their curriculum (tan, 2017). hence, the curriculum (including the content & pedagogy for the activities) could vary among the pre-schools. data analysis a qualitative approach was adopted for the study in order to obtain rich and insightful data (bogdan & biklen, 2003; cohen, manion & morrison, 2011; creswell, 2008). a team of two researchers trained in class organised, observed and rated the video-recorded classroom observations of the pre-school classroom. nirmala karuppiah 62 table 2. class scoring for quality interactions (pianta et al., 2008) score range indication of quality interactions 1, 2 low few 3, 4, 5 mid some 6, 7 high many each of the video-recorded classroom observations was organised and divided into four to six rounds of 20-minute video segments, depicting the teacher in different classroom activities (e.g., mealtime, large group activity, small group activity, free play, etc.). each video segment was then followed by a tenminute scoring session. during the scoring session, each dimension was rated from 1 to 7. as summarised in table 2, a score of 1 or 2 indicates that the classroom is in the low range when there were few or no indicators of quality teacher-child interactions; 3, 4, or 5 indicates that the classroom is in the moderate range when there were some indicators of quality teacher-interactions; and 6 or 7 indicates that the classroom is in the high range when there were many indicators of quality teacher-child interactions. an average score across the four to six segments was then calculated for each of the ten dimensions. this average score obtained for each of the ten dimensions was then analysed by making reference to the literature. results the results from the study will be presented according to the three domains which are emotional support, classroom organisation and instructional support. figure 2 provides a summary of the results which is, most pre-schools scored in the moderate range (3 to 5) for emotional support and classroom organisation, but in the low range (1 to 2) for instructional support. figure 2. quality of teacher-child interactions in singapore pre-schools emotional support as a whole, most pre-schools scored in the moderate range (3 to 5) for this domain as they displayed some indicators of quality teacher-child interactions. as indicated in table 1, emotional support comprises the following dimensions which are positive climate, negative climate, teacher sensitivity and regard for student perspectives. of the four dimensions that contribute towards emotional support, scores for teacher sensitivity and regard for student perspectives were in the lowest range (table 3). 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 total score emotional support classroom organisation instructional support enhancing the quality of teacher-child interactions… 63 table 3. class scoring for emotional support dimension range indication of quality interactions positive climate moderate some negative climate moderate some teacher sensitivity low few regard for student perspectives low few as explained in table 1 above, teacher sensitivity involves the extent to which the teacher 1) provides comfort, reassurance and encouragement, 2) is aware of children’s needs for support, 3) provides individualized support, 4) is responsive to children’s emotions, 5) addresses problems in a timely manner, and 6) creates a classroom in which children are comfortable seeking out the teacher and volunteering responses. the low range scores for teacher sensitivity indicated that few or no indicators of this dimension were observed in the pre-school classrooms (table 3). teachers were seldom aware of students in need of extra support, assistance or attention. the teachers were responsive to children on a few occasions but most of the time, they were more dismissive or unresponsive; and they responded to the interests, needs and abilities of a few children but not the others. the teachers were also seldom effective in addressing children's problems and concerns; and children rarely sought support from, shared ideas with, or responded to questions from the teachers. as explained in table 1, regard for student perspectives involves the extent to which the teacher 1) provides classroom activities which are rigidly structured or regimented, 2) shows flexibility with respect to children’s ideas, 3) follows children’s leads, supports autonomy and leadership, and 3) maintains a balance of teacher talk and child talk in the classroom. the low range scores for regard for student perspectives indicated that few or no indicators of this dimension were observed in the pre-school classrooms (table 3). teachers rarely followed the children's lead, and were controlling most of the time. they seldom provided support for children’s autonomy and leadership, and opportunities for child-talk and expression. on most occasions, there was teacher-talk, and teachers seemed to be somewhat controlling of children’s movement and placement during the activities. classroom organisation as a whole, most pre-schools scored in the moderate range (3 to 5) for this domain as they displayed some indicators of quality teacher-child interactions. as indicated in table 1, classroom organisation comprises the following dimensions which are behaviour management, productivity, and instructional learning formats. of the three dimensions that contributed towards classroom organisation, scores for instructional learning formats were in the lowest range (table 4). table 4. class scoring for classroom organisation dimension range indication of quality interactions behaviour management moderate some productivity moderate some instructional learning formats low few as explained in table 1, instructional learning formats involves the teacher’s ability to use 1) available activities, method of presentation, groupings, and range of materials to maximize children’s engagement and exploration in learning, 2) questions to engage children and 3) activities to expand children’s learning. the low range scores for the instructional learning formats indicated that few or no indicators of this dimension were observed in the pre-school classrooms (table 4). teachers merely provided activities nirmala karuppiah 64 for the children, and rarely facilitated activities to encourage their engagement and involvement. teachers were inconsistent in their use of a variety of modalities and materials to gain children’s attention and participation during activities. hence, children did not seem to be engaged, interested or involved in the activities most of the time. instructional support as a whole, most pre-schools scored in the low range (1 to 2) for this domain as they displayed very few or no indicators of quality teacher-child interactions. as indicated in table 1, instructional support comprises the following dimensions which are concept development, quality of feedback, and language modelling. unlike emotional support and classroom organisation, the score for the three dimensions that contributed to instructional support were all in the low range (table 5). table 5. class scoring for instructional support (pianta et al., 2008) dimension range indication of quality interactions concept development low few quality of feedback low few language modelling low few as explained in table 1, concept development involves the teacher’s ability to employ strategies to promote children’s higher-order thinking skills (e.g., open-ended questions, brainstorming, prediction & integration of information) instead of focusing on rote & fact-based learning. low scores for concept development indicated that very few or no indicators of this dimension were observed in the pre-school classrooms (table 5). teachers rarely used discussions and activities to encourage analysis and reasoning, or provided opportunities for children to be creative and/or generate their own ideas and products. on most occasions, concepts and activities were presented independent of one another, and children were not asked to apply their previous learning. teachers also seldom related concepts to the children’s actual lives. as explained in table 1, quality of feedback involves the teacher’s ability to provide children with 1) quality verbal evaluation about their work, and 2) comments, ideas and feedback with information to support their understanding of the process of learning instead of just the correctness of the end product. the low scores for quality of feedback indicated that very few or no indicators of this dimension were observed in the pre-school classrooms (table 5). teachers seldom supported children’s learning, dismissed their responses or actions as incorrect, and ignored their problems in understanding. on most occasions, teachers gave only cursory feedback to children, and rarely queried, probed or prompted them to explain their thinking or actions. teachers also rarely provided additional information to expand on the children’s understanding or actions, or offered encouragement of children’s efforts that increased their involvement and persistence. as explained in table 1, language modelling involves the teacher’s ability to use quality languagestimulation and language-facilitation techniques during individual, small-group, and large-group interactions with children (e.g., self & parallel talk, open-ended questions, repetition, expansion/extension & use of advanced language). the low scores for language modelling indicated that very few or no indicators of this dimension were observed in the pre-school classrooms (table 5). the majority of teacher’s questions were closedended, and the teachers seldom repeated or extended the children’s responses. teachers rarely mapped their own actions and the children’s actions through language and description, and they did not use advanced language with children. this is also very much linked to the limited presence or absence of meaningful conversations in the classroom. enhancing the quality of teacher-child interactions… 65 discussion and conclusion the results for the three domains (emotional support, classroom organisation & instructional support) will be consolidated and discussed. possible reasons and explanations will be provided as well as suggestions to improve or enhance the quality of teacher-child interactions in singapore pre-schools will be proposed by making reference to the literature. as a whole, most pre-schools scored in the moderate range (3 to 5) for the domains on emotional support and class organisation as only some indicators of quality teacher-child interactions were displayed during the classroom observations. there are possible reasons for this result. firstly, the class size was large and the teacher-to-child ratio was rather high. there could be a maximum of 20 children in the k1 classroom and 25 children in the k2 classroom, and there was usually one teacher and sometimes, one assistant teacher who usually taught the mother tongue language. secondly, teachers needed to complete a tight and sometimes, inflexible schedule of activities within the 3or 4hour kindergarten programme. this left the teacher with very little time to pay attention and respond to each and every child during the tight programme in the classroom. activities were usually very much teacher-directed and as a result, there was very little child-talk or conversations as well as facilitation, support or scaffoldin for individual children’s learning. however, teachers could provide more positive support if they were skilful in breaking up the large group into smaller groups, and conducting free play and guided activities simultaneously in the various learning centres in the classroom (ng & bull, 2018). this requires the teachers to possess the necessary knowledge, skills and experience to organise and manage a large class size. hence, teacher-training institutes could take this into consideration in their teacher education, professional development and coaching programmes (karuppiah, 2015; ng & bull, 2018; pianta, et al., 2014; schachter et al., 2019; zan & donegan-ritter, 2014). there could also be other reasons such as child factors (e.g., characteristics, temperament, selfregulation, attention & socio-emotional skills) (ladd et al., 1999; pianta & stuhlman, 2004). for example, some children could require more attention, and the teacher had to spend more time with these children. this could potentially pose a challenge to maintaining quality teacher-child interactions, if the class size was large and the teacher-to-child ratio was high in that classroom (hoang et al., 2018; nichd eccrn, 2004; oecd, 2018). hence, in view of these challenging conditions, the government could review the class size and teacher-to-child ratio in the pre-schools. given the current shortage of good teachers (due to challenges in attracting & retaining them) in the singapore pre-school sector, this may not be a feasible option. hence, reviewing the curriculum in the preschool to free up time for quality teacher-child interactions in the pre-school classroom could be another option (bautisa, ng, munez, & bull, 2016; oecd, 2018; tan, 2017). however, parents in singapore are particular about their children maximising their learning time especially, in the academic areas (literacy & numeracy) while they are in the pre-school (bach & christensen, 2017; lim-ratnam, 2013). hence, besides governmental support, parental support and education would also be required for this option to work. as a whole, most pre-schools scored in the low range (1 to 2) for the domain on instructional support as only a few indicators of quality teacher-child interactions were displayed during the classroom observations. interestingly, the low score for this domain is consistent with findings from other countries including china and the u.s. (slot, 2017). there could be possible reasons for this result which are also similar to the ones provided previously on emotional support and classroom organisation. these reasons make it challenging for teachers to provide quality instructional support for children in the pre-school classroom. again, besides reviewing teacher education and professional development programmes (karuppiah, 2015; ng & bull, 2018; pianta et al., 2014; schachter et al., 2019; zan & donegan-ritter, 2014), the class size, teacher-to-child ratios and curriculum in the pre-school could also be reviewed (hoang et al., 2018; nichd eccrn, 2004; oecd, 2018; tan, 2017;). additionally, it is also important to consider the design, delivery and focus of training carefully https://search-proquest-com.libproxy.nie.edu.sg/education/indexinglinkhandler/sng/au/zan,+betty/$n?accountid=28158 https://search-proquest-com.libproxy.nie.edu.sg/education/indexinglinkhandler/sng/au/donegan-ritter,+mary/$n?accountid=28158 https://search-proquest-com.libproxy.nie.edu.sg/education/indexinglinkhandler/sng/au/zan,+betty/$n?accountid=28158 https://search-proquest-com.libproxy.nie.edu.sg/education/indexinglinkhandler/sng/au/donegan-ritter,+mary/$n?accountid=28158 nirmala karuppiah 66 (pianta et al., 2014) as well as provide opportunities for self-reflection (schachter et al., 2019) and sustained training experiences (zan & donegan-ritter, 2014) in order to ensure the effectiveness of professional development for teachers. since the score was lowest for this domain, it may also be important to consider providing coaching and useful resources (e.g., local videos of good practices) to help teachers understand, appreciate and acquire the necessary skills to promote quality instructional support in the pre-school classrooms (langeloo, mascareno, deunk, klitzing, & strijbos, 2019; schachter et al., 2019; zan & doneganritter, 2014). other factors such as higher salaries, a positive organisational climate and professional learning communities have also been found to improve teachers’ self-image and well-being as well as teachers’ motivation and teacher-child interactions in the pre-school classrooms (oecd, 2018). in summary, it appears that the quality of interactions was generally moderate for emotional support and classroom organisation but somewhat low for instructional support. hence, the overall quality of teacher-child interactions in singapore pre-schools could be described to be in the low to moderate range. possible reasons and explanations were presented, and suggestions to improve or enhance the quality of teacher-child interactions were proposed. these suggestions include reviewing teacher education, professional development and coaching programmes, developing local video resources, setting up professional learning communities, reviewing government policies and regulations, and improving teachers’ self-image, well-being and working conditions in the pre-schools. limitations although this exploratory study was a good start and would make a contribution to the pre-school sector in singapore, there are some key limitations which are as follows. the sample comprised mainly kindergartens. childcare centres which have a longer programme could potentially provide more time for the teachers to provide quality interactions with the children. however, this depends on the class size and teacher-to-child ratio as well as whether the teachers possess the necessary knowledge, skills and experience to support quality teacher-child interactions in the classroom. there could be researcher-bias in the analysis and interpretation of the data. however, all measures have been taken to ensure that researcher-bias was kept to a minimum by maintaining interrater reliability, and constantly referring to the literature and purpose of the study. implications and future research the information gathered from the study could contribute to the database on research in the care and education of young children in singapore. it could also be used to inform various stakeholders in the pre-school sector, on the importance of teacher-child interactions. teachers and leaders could engage in critical selfevaluation and reflection to enhance/improve their classroom pedagogies and practices. a new study comprising both kindergartens and childcare centres could also be carried out to ascertain if the duration of the pre-school programme would make a significant difference in the quality of teacher-child interactions in the classroom. findings from this study could also contribute to the growing research on teacher education and professional development for preand inservice teachers in singapore. more local resources (such as exemplary classroom videos of good practice) could also be developed to support teacher education and professional development programmes for teachers (hamre et al., 2012; langeloo et al., 2019; schachter et al., 2019). while teacher-training institutes could consider reviewing their pre-school teacher-education and professional development programmes, the government could consider reviewing their policies, regulations and the working conditions in the pre-sector. more research could also be done in identifying what teachers think are the factors which affect their interactions with children; and how they can improve the quality of interactions with children in the classroom. such valuable information from the teachers themselves could be used to inform policy, teacher education and professional development in very meaningful ways. https://search-proquest-com.libproxy.nie.edu.sg/education/indexinglinkhandler/sng/au/zan,+betty/$n?accountid=28158 https://search-proquest-com.libproxy.nie.edu.sg/education/indexinglinkhandler/sng/au/donegan-ritter,+mary/$n?accountid=28158 https://search-proquest-com.libproxy.nie.edu.sg/education/indexinglinkhandler/sng/au/zan,+betty/$n?accountid=28158 https://search-proquest-com.libproxy.nie.edu.sg/education/indexinglinkhandler/sng/au/donegan-ritter,+mary/$n?accountid=28158 https://search-proquest-com.libproxy.nie.edu.sg/education/indexinglinkhandler/sng/au/donegan-ritter,+mary/$n?accountid=28158 https://search-proquest-com.libproxy.nie.edu.sg/education/indexinglinkhandler/sng/au/schachter,+rachel+e/$n?accountid=28158 https://search-proquest-com.libproxy.nie.edu.sg/education/indexinglinkhandler/sng/au/hatton-bowers,+holly/$n?accountid=28158 enhancing the quality of teacher-child interactions… 67 declarations acknowledgements: the author would like to thank the researchers and participants in the study. competing interests: the author declares that there was no conflict of interest. the views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of the university. funding: this study was supported and funded by the office of educational research, national institute of education, nanyang technological university, singapore (grant oer 09/14 rb). references bach, d., & christensen, s. 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(2014). reflecting, coaching and mentoring to enhance teacher-child interactions in head start classrooms. early childhood education journal, 42(2), 93-104. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-013-0592-7 https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.40.5.651 https://doi.org/10.1007/s13158-018-0225-9 http://www.oecd.org/education/engaging-young-children-9789264085145-en.htm http://www.oecd.org/education/engaging-young-children-9789264085145-en.htm https://doi.org/10.1080/02796015.2004.12086261 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2014.06.001 https://doi.org/10.1353/mpq.2004.0034 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-019-00942-8 https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/docserver/9789264085145-6-en.pdf?expires=1613379403&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=a5bb59ece56c794fe9def6605f6a729f https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/docserver/9789264085145-6-en.pdf?expires=1613379403&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=a5bb59ece56c794fe9def6605f6a729f https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/docserver/9789264085145-6-en.pdf?expires=1613379403&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=a5bb59ece56c794fe9def6605f6a729f https://doi.org/10.1186/s40723-017-0033-y https://doi.org/10.1080/10409280902773351 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-013-0592-7 enhancing the quality of teacher-child interactions in singapore pre-school classrooms journal of childhood, education & society volume 2, issue 1, 2021, 1-13 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.20212165 research article ©2021 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. young students’ views on problem solving versus problem posing jorryt van bommel1, hanna palmér2 abstract: for decades, problem solving has been of interest to researchers, and several studies have tried to capture the influence of students’ beliefs, attitudes and emotions towards mathematics and problem solving. however, problem posing as part of problem solving has not been investigated to the same extent. this article focuses on six-year-olds’ views on solving and posing problems. how do the students themselves describe their views on solving and posing problem-solving tasks, and what similarities and differences can be found? an educational design research study was conducted in three classes where the students first solved and then posed problem-solving tasks. afterwards, the students were interviewed. in these interviews the students expressed positive views towards both solving and posing problem-solving tasks. the students expressed autonomy and challenge as positive when both solving and posing tasks. however, a posed task needed to be solved before being finished. further, not all students considered problem posing to be a mathematical activity, and a plausible explanation for this is the students’ limited experience of problem posing. article history received: 12 october 2020 accepted: 24 november 2020 keywords problem posing; problem solving; early childhood; mathematics introduction today there seems to be an international consensus that problem-solving education may start at an early age (ellerton, singer and cai, 2015). this is reflected in the curricula in several countries where problem solving is implemented in kindergarten and preschool (e.g. national agency for education, 2017; 2018; the stationery office, 1999, utdanningsdirektoratet, 2013). problem solving includes both solving and posing problem-solving tasks (niss and højgaard, 2019), and for students to become competent problem solvers, problem-solving education ought to include both solving and posing problem-solving tasks. however, the focus in school mathematics has traditionally been on the solving part of problem solving only, and research on problem posing is still in its early years (cai and hwang 2020; cai, hwang, jiang and silber, 2015; ellerton et al., 2015). even though research has pointed out possible applications of problem posing at elementary school level (see for example ellerton et al., 2015, and lowrie, 2002), the majority of the research in this field still focuses on solving problem-solving tasks (di martino, 2019; english, 1998; english and sriraman, 2010). this is why we know more about students’ ability to solve problem-solving tasks than their ability to pose such tasks (cai et al., 2015). the empirical material in this article is from an intervention investigating the potential in using problem solving as the start for the mathematics education of six-year-olds in sweden. in sweden, six-yearolds have not yet begun formal schooling but attend what is called preschool class. the aim of preschool class is to facilitate a smooth transition between preschool and school and to prepare students for the next step of their education. the basis for the intervention was a national inspection showing that mathematics education offered limited opportunities for students to develop their ability to solve problems (swedish schools inspectorate, 2009) even though both solving and posing problem-solving tasks are emphasised in the swedish curriculum (national agency of education, 2018a). despite the focus on both solving and _____________ 1 karlstad university, faculty of health, science and technology, departmen of mathematics and computer science, karlstad, sweden, e-mail: jorryt.vanbommel@kau.se, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6525-9871 2 linnaeus university, faculty of technology, department of mathematics, växjö, sweden, e-mail: hanna.palmer@lnu.se, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2217-6624 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.20212165 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:jorryt.vanbommel@kau.se https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6525-9871 mailto:hanna.palmer@lnu.se https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2217-6624 jorryt van bommel & hanna palmér 2 posing problem-solving tasks in the swedish curriculum, the intervention initially focused only on solving such tasks, where problem solving was both a purpose and a strategy. the intervention has been ongoing for several years and previous reports have shown positive results regarding students’ learning of mathematics (palmér and van bommel, 2018a, 2018b; van bommel and palmér, 2018) as well as their feelings towards working on problem-solving tasks (palmér and van bommel, 2018c). the students had previously evaluated problem solving as fun and accessible, even in cases when their initial solutions were incorrect and they have had to struggle a lot to solve a task. thus, understanding a task from the beginning or being able to solve it quickly are not necessarily prerequisites for young students to experience enjoyment when working with problem solving (palmér and van bommel, 2018c). however, as both the swedish curriculum and research have pointed out possible applications of problem posing at the elementary school level (e.g. ellerton et al., 2015), we found a need to expand the intervention to also include problem posing. this article will focus on the first time problem posing was included in the intervention. thus, the students were used to problem solving but to be able to pose a problem-solving task themselves, the students had to change perspective; instead of answering questions they were required to pose questions, and instead of interpreting information they needed to provide information. in this article, we will focus on the young students’ views on problem posing and compare with their views on solving problem-solving tasks. some cognitive but mainly emotional aspects of views will be focused on. 27 six-year-olds worked on both problem solving and problem posing, hence similarities and differences in their views on these two can be investigated. the following research question is elaborated on in the article: what similarities and differences can be found in young students’ views on solving versus posing problem-solving tasks? this question is of interest since previous studies have shown that students’ emotional experiences may influence their process of solving non-routine mathematical tasks (di martino, 2019; hannula, 2016; passolunghi, cargnelutti and pellizzoni, 2019), and they may also influence how students view themselves as learners of mathematics as well as of other subjects (clements and sarama, 2016). this study adds to the limited research on problem posing (cai et al., 2015) by providing insight into students’ views on problem posing and whether there are, from the perspective of the students, any differences between solving and posing problem-solving tasks. problem solving and problem posing connection between problem solving and problem posing research shows that a challenging level of the mathematical content can benefit students’ learning (claessens, engel and curran, 2014). however, such challenges are rare as routine tasks are more often included than challenging problem-solving tasks in early childhood education programmes (cross, woods and schweingruber, 2009; perry and dockett, 2008). a task becomes a problem-solving task when the methods for solving are not known by the student beforehand. a problem-solving task is thus challenging as the student does not know in advance how to proceed to solve it. instead, the student has to develop new (for him or her) strategies, methods and/or models to be able to solve the task (cai, 2010; lesh and zawojewski, 2007). offering a variation of problem-solving tasks to solve, where specific aspects are varied and other aspects are kept constant, will give the students an opportunity to distinguish the particular and discover the general (peng, li, nie & li, 2017). brown and walter (2004) put forward two reasons why problem posing and problem solving are connected. when solving a problem-solving task, new questions arise (e.g. what happens if…?; what if i were to…?), and these posed questions are a natural part of the problem-solving process. further, in order to be able to pose problem-solving tasks, students need to shift sides and change perspective. to be able to construct a problem-solving task themselves, the students have to change perspective; instead of answering questions they are required to pose questions, and instead of interpreting information they need to provide information. the understanding of both the mathematical content and the solution per se may be deepened young students’ views on problem solving… 3 by posing problem-solving tasks, as students will have to operate on and modify the mathematical content. modifying the content can of course be done without changing to problem posing. some researchers are more explicit and state that problem solving and posing are not only connected but include problem posing in the notion of problem solving (niss and højgaard, 2019). this implies problem posing as asking students to formulate, and thus to pose problem-solving tasks. such problem posing in mathematics can cover reformulation, reconstruction and imitation (kadir, adelina and fatma, 2018; stoyanova, 2005). for stoyanova (2005), reformulation means that the elements of the initial task are restructured by using different sentences. reconstruction would incorporate a modification of the properties of the initial task through a change of content, whereas imitation goes further and is realised by adding and expanding the purpose. similarly, lee, capraro and capraro (2018) explain reformulation as one way to pose problems, and they write that problem posing can be done in two ways: through reformulation or through the generation of tasks. in both ways, students can investigate and develop knowledge of mathematical content and ideas. reformulation, however puts a focus on students’ reflection on the existing problem-solving task (stickles, 2011). in contrast to reformulation as described by stoyanova (2005), lee et al. (2018) state that reformulation can mean asking students to pose a new task where either the structure or the method for solution remains similar to that in the initial problem-solving task. one way to work on problem posing is to ask the students to pose a new problem-solving task with a structure similar to that of an initial task (carrillo and cruz, 2016). cai and hwang (2003) classified such posed problem-solving tasks as (1) extensive, having the same structure as the initial task but with higher mathematical demands; (2) not extensive, having the same structure and level as the initial task and (3) other, having a structure different from that of the initial task. earlier, leung (1997) used a similar classification distinguishing between posed problem-solving tasks that were mathematical and those that were not. in his classification leung also included whether it would be possible to solve the given task and whether new mathematics would be needed. however, this does not mean that the students who pose the problems have to be able to solve the problem themselves (lowrie, 2002). several researchers have pointed out that problem posing enriches the learners’ experience and provides teachers and researchers with insights regarding students’ understanding of the content taught (e.g. carrillo and cruz, 2016; watson and mason, 2002). when students for example are asked to produce a similar task, their understanding on the initial task can be revealed, providing the teacher with information on students’ learning (carrillo and cruz, 2016). thus, problem-solving tasks posed by students are not to be evaluated in terms of right or wrong but instead in terms of aspects such as structure (e.g. carrillo and cruz, 2016), the level of the mathematical content addressed (e.g. cai and hwang, 2003; carrillo and cruz, 2016) and also in terms of the information provided in the task (e.g. leung, 1997). when students are asked to generate a problem-solving task there is no right problem-solving task to create. as such, problem posing can counteract the common view that there is one right way in mathematics. further, a shift from solving to posing problem-solving tasks can be seen as a shift of control from others to oneself. thus, problem posing may also promote a sense of autonomy and independence for students (brown and walter, 2004). problem posing in the curriculum in sweden, as well as in several other countries, problem solving has gained ground in the curriculum, and its emphasis has changed. in the past, students were encouraged to become problem solvers only after they had acquired the necessary mathematical knowledge needed to solve the tasks, nowadays the emphasis is on becoming a problem solver and how problem solving makes possible for students to acquire new mathematical knowledge (boesen et al., 2014; wyndhamn, riesbeck and schoultz, 2000). working with problem solving will enable students to develop important mathematical ideas and competences (csapó and funke, 2017; lesh and zawojewski, 2007; schoenfeld, 1992), and in order for students to become competent problem solvers, problem solving ought to be integrated in early childhood education instead of added after concepts and skills have been taught (cai, 2010). according to the swedish curricula, problem solving is to be part of mathematics teaching from jorryt van bommel & hanna palmér 4 preschool onwards, continuing throughout all grades. when the curriculum changed in 2011, competences were introduced and problem posing became an explicit part of the curriculum: one of five competencies emphasized for elementary school mathematics is to ”formulate and solve problems using mathematics and also assess selected strategies and methods” (national agency for education, 2017, p. 56). in preschool class the students are to be given conditions in which they can develop their abilities to experiment with and develop ideas, solve problems and put their ideas into action. further, the students should be challenged and stimulated to use mathematical concepts and reasoning to communicate and solve problems (national agency for education, 2018a). posing problem-solving tasks and solving problemsolving tasks are part of the curriculum for preschool and kindergarten as well (national agency for education, 2018a; 2018b). investigating students’ views studies have shown that young students’ achievement in science, technology, engineering, reading and mathematics is predicted by their interest in and feelings about mathematics and science (see for instance clements and sarama, 2016, for more details). in line with this, a special esm issue on affect and mathematics in young children was recently published in which “the importance of studying affect in young children who are in the early stages of acquiring formal mathematical skills” (batchelor, torbeyns and verschaffel, 2019, p. 202) is emphasised. leung (2013) has stated that (young) students’ feelings towards problem posing are of importance for teachers to consider and several studies have tried to capture the influence of students’ attitudes and emotions towards mathematics and problem solving. some studies indicate that students’ attitudes and emotions impact students’ learning of mathematics (di martino, 2019; giaconi, varas, tuohilampi and hannula, 2016; hannula, 2016; mason and johnston-wilder, 2006; schoenfeld, 1992) as well as students’ interest in the subject (clements and sarama, 2016; giaconi et al., 2016). for example, mathematics anxiety and mathematics difficulties are often connected to students’ attitudes and feelings towards mathematics and problem solving (antognazza, di martino, pellandini and sbaragli, 2015; liljedal, 2017), indicating correlations between attitudes, emotions and performance in mathematics (dowker, bennett, and smith, 2012; giaconi et al., 2016). feelings such as frustration, anxiety, confidence, surprise and curiosity have been shown to influence the process of solving non-routine mathematical tasks (di martino, 2019; hannula, 2016; passolunghi et al., 2019). however, there are also studies where no such correlations are found (dowker et al., 2012; pinxten, marsh, de fraine, van den noortgate and van damme, 2013), or where correlations found might be explained through cultural differences in students’ feelings towards mathematical problem solving (dowker, cheriton, horton and mark, 2019). in studies on affect and mathematics, a wide range of constructs are used, for example beliefs, attitudes, and emotions as introduced by mcleod (1992). of these, beliefs are seen as most cognitive and stable and least affective while emotions contrary are least cognitive, least stable and most affective (hannula, pantziara and di martino, 2018). hannula (2011) has developed a model of affective constructs where the three dimensions of cognitive/affective/motivational, state/trait and psychological/social/embodied are combined illustrating the large variety of possible constructs in affective studies. the intervention presented in this article takes a sociocultural perspective on mathematics teaching and learning which implies that knowing and doing mathematics is seen as a social and cultural practice (rogoff, 2003). the learning of solving and posing problem-solving tasks is a process of increasing participation in the practice of problem solving and, through that participation, becoming knowledgeable in and about solving and posing problem-solving tasks (see also lowrie, 2002). the students in the intervention presented here, had frequently participated in problem-solving activities. the focus of this article is on when these students are introduced to problem posing, an activity they had not participated in before. them taking part in problem-posing activities can promote thinking and feelings in new directions and expand the students’ participation in the social and cultural practice of school mathematics (e.g. jakobsson, 2012). in line with this, the notion of views will be used in the study. based on the above mentioned model of hannula, views are affective (what one feels), state-type (dynamical) and developed young students’ views on problem solving… 5 in social practices. an individuals’ views of a situation or a topic (for example solving and posing problemsolving tasks) includes what the individual feels and the ways the individual thinks of the specific situation. thus, views includes aspects of cognitive as well as affective elements (debellis and goldin, 2006; op’t eynde, decorte and verschaffel, 2001; wedege and skott, 2006). method the empirical material in this article is from one design cycle in the longitudinal intervention conducted in line with an educational design research. the aim of the intervention is to investigate the potential in using problem solving as the start for the mathematics education with six-year-olds in sweden. the study started in 2014 and has been ongoing, involving more than 40 swedish preschool classes from different schools and cities in different design cycles (see for example palmér and van bommel, 2018a, 2018b; van bommel and palmér, 2018, for more details on the different design cycles and their outcome). common in educational design research studies is the iterative design (prediger, gravemeijer and confrey, 2015), with the goal to develop theories that “guide, inform, and improve both practice and research” (anderson and shattuck, 2012, p. 16). each design cycle includes preparing for teaching, implementation of the teaching, and finally, retrospective analysis of the teaching and learning (cobb and gravemeijer, 2008). in this article, one specific design cycle on solving and posing a task within three-dimensional geometry is focused on with emphasis on student views on problem posing by reformulation. as this was the first time the students worked on problem posing, reformulation was chosen as it made it possible to explore students’ reflection on the initial problem-solving task (stickles, 2011). also, reformulation gives students freedom to pose a new task where either the structure or the method for solution remains similar to the initial task. the design cycle was divided into two lessons and an individual follow-up interview. selection of preschool classes three preschool classes were selected for this design cycle based on their teachers’ interest in participating. two of the schools are located in an urban area and one in a rural area. in accordance with the swedish research council’s (2017) ethical guidelines, the students’ guardians were informed about the study and they approved their children’s participation. altogether, 27 students from these preschool classes got approval and thus participated in the design cycle. the four teachers (two teachers work together in one of the preschool classes, thereof four teachers and three classes) working in these three preschool classes are educated as preschool teachers which implies that they have completed a three year university course in preschool teacher education. these teachers had participated in several of the previous design cycles and hence were familiar with problem solving, educational design research, and with the aim of the study. the teachers had taught mathematics through problem solving for some semesters why they had also implemented the problem-solving task on three-dimensional geometry several times before in other preschool classes. problem posing was however new for both the teachers and the students. the problem solving and problem posing lessons the two lessons were conducted in the usual classrooms of the three preschool classes. the lessons were designed in line with the previously described research on problem solving: the mathematical ideas were to be understandable, but the students should not have previously been taught a method for solving the tasks. in the first lesson, the students were to work on solving a problem-solving task, and in the second lesson they were to work on problem posing by reformulation by posing a similar problem to be given to a friend. by doing so, our focus on problem posing is very pragmatic and will provide only one experience to examine students’ views. however, in order to be able to deepen these views a narrow focus helps us as the students in the interviews will refer to the same experience of problem posing. in the first lesson the students were handed a picture of a building (figure 1). jorryt van bommel & hanna palmér 6 figure 1. pictures of the buildings used in the first lesson. (the building to the left is taken from http://ncm.gu.se/kangaru, milou, 2008, question 9). one of the preschool classes had previously worked with the building to the left in figure 1, so they instead worked with the building to the right in figure 1. the question asked was “how many blocks will you need to build the building?” the task deals with a two-dimensional representation of a threedimensional figure. to determine how many blocks they would need to build the building, the students had to imagine it from different perspectives. at first, they were to find a solution by themselves. after working by themselves the students were put in pairs to discuss and argue for their answers. in this phase of the lesson they were provided with blocks to build with, and a digital version of the building was also provided. the digital version provided an environment in which the students could build by swiping blocks to the building area and by doing so, creating a building similar to the one on paper. once they built the building, they could manipulate the building by turning and twisting it. further side views of the building were visible in this application3. finally, in a joint whole-class discussion, the three-dimensional aspects of the building were discussed. one student (out of the 27) initially gave a correct answer to the question “how many blocks will you need to build the building?” some of the answers from the other students indicated that they realised that there were more blocks than the visible ones. after building with blocks, all students explored the need for more blocks than the visible ones, and hidden blocks from different perspectives were explored in a whole-class discussion. this aligned with experiences from previous design cycles using this problem-solving task. results from around 200 preschool class students show that even though only visible blocks are considered by the students initially, a large majority of the students give answers involving reasoning on the number of hidden blocks in follow-up interviews (see palmér and van bommel, 2018a). the second lesson focused on problem posing. the students were first reminded of the problemsolving task they had worked on in the previous lesson, then they were asked to pose a similar problemsolving task to a friend. in accordance with the socio-mathematical norms (yackel and cobb, 1996) in these preschool classes, students could choose to work alone or with one or more classmates. as six-year-olds in sweden have just started reading and writing, the task was given orally. the students were free to use blocks if they wanted, and no specific instructions were given about how to design their posed problemsolving task. if needed, the teachers helped the students to document the tasks they posed. if the students had built a building, these were photographed. some groups of students took these photographs themselves, in other groups the teacher took the photograph making sure it captured what the students wanted it to capture. paper-and-pen work as well as photographs of the buildings built by the students were collected at the end of both lessons. together the students posed 14 tasks. interviews to explore the students’ views on solving versus posing problem-solving tasks, an interview was conducted one or some days after the second lesson. for practical reasons, the interviews had to be conducted when the rest of the students were involved in another activity thereof a difference in time. the _____________ 3 www.kubus.hotell.kau.se young students’ views on problem solving… 7 decision to conduct interviews was based on the age of the students and the fact that they, in line with the swedish school system, had just started reading and writing. thus, writing would not be possible for most of the students, and drawings could get away from the focus of the exercise, leaving too much room for interpretation during the analysis. in the educational design research study as a whole, the teachers have been taking an active role and similar to previous design cycles they were the ones conducting the interviews. to obtain comparability with four teachers involved, a structured interview guide was used and the teachers were instructed, in writing and verbally by one of the researchers, on how to carry out the interviews and how to take notes. in the interview, the students were asked of their views on the two lessons. as previous presented an individuals’ views includes what one feels and ways of thinking. table 1 presents examples of how the questions in the interview were connected to these two aspects. the questions in the interview were both open questions and questions where the students were to select between several pre-formulated alternatives. first in the interview the difficulty of solving and posing, as well as feelings while working on the two different types of tasks were addressed. the students were to finish sentence, for example – i think this task was… – by selecting among four alternatives: super easy; easy; hard; super hard (in swedish: jättelätt; lätt; svår; jättesvår). as a follow-up question they were asked the open question, what, specifically, made the task super easy/easy/hard/super hard? the students were also asked questions about preferring problem solving or problem posing and reasons for their preferences as well as questions addressing their feelings when other students were to solve “their” task. here the students got a positive statement, for example, i am happy when a friend can solve my task. then they were to select one of four alternatives: yes!; a bit; well, not that much; no; i don’t know (in swedish: ja!; lite grann; nja, inte så mycket; nej!; vet inte). after that, questions on mathematics, problem solving and problem posing in general were asked (ways of thinking). the students were asked if they knew what mathematics and problem solving were. these questions were asked because previous studies have shown that young students may not always have a good understanding of these words even though they have experience with both mathematics and problem solving (di martino, 2019). if the students said they knew what mathematics and problem solving was, they were shown tasks from the two lessons and asked if the two lessons involved mathematics and/or problem-solving. table 1. examples, alternatives and number of questions in each aspect of the construct of views aspect of views example of question alternatives total number of questions what one feels i think this task was … i am happy when a friend can solve my task … super easy; easy; hard; super hard a bit; well, not that much; no; i don’t know 6 ways of thinking what, specifically, made the task … (super easy/easy/hard/super hard) do you know what mathematics is? if yes, what is it? [no alternatives, open question] [no alternatives, open question] 9 the interview was tested in a pilot study where the choice of words was in focus; this was to make sure that the words used were related to the experiences of students at this age. some adjustments in the formulation of alternatives were made after this pilot study (e.g. hard instead of difficult). the interviews, together with the students’ documentation from the two lessons, were analysed by the researchers (author 1, author 2). based on the limited number of students, the analysis is qualitative, explorative and mainly on group level. first, each question was summarised and then patterns between questions were explored. even though some means are presented in the results, the intention is not to make any statistical analysis, as a larger sample would be needed for this. jorryt van bommel & hanna palmér 8 results in the results we first shortly focus on the students’ posed tasks in the second lesson. these solutions will serve as a background when presenting the data from the follow-up interviews as this lesson is the experience of problem posing of these students. the second lesson – students working on problem posing during the second lesson, when the students were to pose a similar task to a friend, the students had access to building blocks, paper and pens. as previously mentioned, they did not have to write their problem-solving task by themselves; instead, they could formulate it to their teacher, who wrote it down for them. all pairs/groups of students built a building with blocks, and all but one group posed a question connected to this building. the student who did not pose a problem-solving question was working by himself. he built a building with blocks but then said that it was not possible to pose a question. the other students both built a building and formulated a question, below are three examples of building built and questions posed by the students (figure 2). how many blocks are there in the building? (hur många klossar finns det i tornet?) how deep is the hole if it has 42 blocks? (hur djupt är hålet om den har 42 klossar?) how do you make them talk? (hur får man dom att prata?) figure 2. three examples of problem-solving tasks posed by students these tasks are examples of the three categories of tasks created by the students: (1) a task based on a building and a similar mathematical question as in the initial task; (2) a task based on a building but a different kind of mathematical question than the original task and (3) a task based on a building but with a non-mathematical question. these categories are in line with cai and hwang’s (2003) categories: not extensive (1), extensive (2) and other (3). the follow-up interviews first in this section students answers on questions focused on ways of thinking will be presented and after that follows students answer on questions focused on what one feels. on the question when a posed task is finished the majority (21) of the students thought that their posed task needed to be solved before they were finished with it. thus, from the perspective of the students, it is not enough to pose a problem-solving task; for them to feel that their work is completed someone has to solve the task. when asked what they would choose if they had to choose between solving and posing a problemsolving task, twelve of the students preferred to solve a problem-solving task, while 15 preferred to pose a problem-solving task. of the students who preferred solving, several motivated this by saying that it is easy to solve. other motives for choosing solving was it is quite exciting to think and i want to do clever things that someone else decides. there were however also students who answered that it is more difficult young students’ views on problem solving… 9 to make your own because then you have to do everything yourself and that this is why they preferred solving over posing. motives for preferring to pose a problem-solving task included that it goes faster, it is much easier, you may decide completely by yourself, you can think of how to make it more difficult and you can do what you want. thus, time is mentioned as a motive for choosing posing (goes faster to pose) while easy is mentioned as a motive for both solving and posing. for some of the students, the autonomy that goes with posing a problem-solving task seemed to be experienced as positive (you may decide completely by yourself), while autonomy for others was instead a motive for choosing to solve problemsolving tasks (it is more difficult to make your own because then you have to do everything yourself). seven students expressed not knowing what mathematics or problem solving was. the most common answer of the remaining 20 students to the question what mathematics is was to count. the most common answers to the question what problem solving is? were you ought to solve things that are tricky or you should solve problems. table 2 summarises if the students considered solving a problem-solving task as well as posing a problem-solving task to be mathematics and/or problem solving. table 2. students’ views on solving and posing problem-solving tasks solving problem-solving tasks posing problem-solving tasks …is only mathematics 1 2 …is both mathematics and problem solving 16 8 …is only problem solving 3 3 …is neither one 5 no answer / don’t know 2 16 of the students answered that solving a problem-solving task was both mathematics and problem solving. one student answered that solving a problem-solving task was mathematics but did not think it was problem solving, and another three students answered that solving a problem-solving task was problem solving but not mathematics. related to posing a problem-solving task, eight of the students thought this was both mathematics and problem solving. two students answered that posing a task was mathematics but not problem solving, and three answered that posing a task was problem solving but not mathematics. an argument for why problem posing was not problem solving was because you are the one who created the task. however, there were students who previous had explained problem solving in terms of you ought to solve things that are tricky or you should solve problems and who still considered both solving and posing problem-solving tasks to be mathematics as well as problem solving. five students explicitly stated that posing a task was neither mathematics nor problem solving. thus, the students did not think about problem posing and problem solving in the same way with regard to whether the activities are mathematics or problem solving. fewer students thought of posing a problem-solving task as mathematics and/or problem solving than solving a problem-solving task (13 and 20 respectively). further, some students thought that posing was neither mathematics nor problem solving; although none of these (or other) students expressed this explicitly when asked about solving a problemsolving task. related to feelings, when the students were asked if it was fun to pose a problem-posing task to a friend to solve their answers were scattered on all response options (scale yes! (4); a bit (3); well, not that much (2); no (1) and i don’t know (0)) but with a strong emphasis on the positive half (mean 3.58). similarly, the students’ answers to the statement i am happy when a friend can solve my task were positive (mean 3.79). the students also responded positively to the statements i am happy when a friend can solve my task (mean 3.79), mathematics is fun (mean 3.39) and it is fun to solve problem-solving tasks (mean 3.68). thus, the students expressed positive feelings towards both solving and posing problem-solving tasks. the students were also asked about their experienced difficulty of problem solving as well as the problem posing. the students thought that it was harder to pose a problem-solving task (mean 2.4) than to solve a jorryt van bommel & hanna palmér 10 problem-solving task (mean 2.23) but the difference was negligible (scale super easy (1), easy (2), hard (3) or super hard (4)). if connecting these answers to the students’ answers to what they would choose if they had to choose between solving and posing, there were no clear pattern. there were students who expressed both solving and posing as either hard or easy and then motivate their selection of solving or posing by wanting to work hard or easy. there were also students who found posing harder than solving who preferred posing, and vice versa. conclusion and discussion while previous research provides quite rich knowledge on students’ ability to and views on solving problem-solving tasks, there are more unanswered questions about students’ ability to and views on problem posing (cai et al., 2015). the questions elaborated on in this article concerned young students’ views on problem posing, in specific: the feelings and ways of thinking of young students when being asked to reflect upon their own experience in problem posing. since previous studies have shown that students’ attitudes and emotions may have an influence on their solving of non-routine mathematical tasks (di martino, 2019; hannula, 2016; liljedahl, 2017; passolunghi et al., 2019), and on how they view themselves as learners of mathematics and of other subjects (clements and sarama, 2016), these questions are of interest. the results indicate that posing, just like solving problem-solving tasks (see palmér and van bommel, 2020), can be introduced in early childhood education. even though this was the first time that these students were introduced to problem posing, all but one student posed a question. all categories of tasks – extensive, not extensive and other (cai and hwang, 2003) – were posed by the students. further, the students expressed positive feelings towards both solving and posing. solving and posing problem-solving tasks were equally popular amongst the students in the study: some students preferred to pose problemsolving tasks (15), while others preferred to solve such tasks (12). autonomy (previously addressed by brown and walter (2004)) was put forward as one reason to prefer problem posing as students experienced their freedom to be able to choose as something positive. conversely, autonomy was by other some students stated as negative in regard to problem posing as own creation was experienced as demanding and difficult compared to solving problem solving tasks. carrillo and cruz (2016) emphasise that problem posing can provide insight into students’ understanding, in this case of problem solving. therefore, it is interesting to note that the same arguments were used by the students to express their preference for either posing or solving. for example, arguments related to time were given as a motive for preferring posing but also, by others for preferring solving. another argument for the preference for either posing or solving was related to the difficulty, both when choosing solving and posing. yet another argument used for both alternatives was autonomy, phrased as either the possibility to choose for oneself or the burden of having to choose. these arguments provide some insights in young students’ views on both problem solving and problem posing and indicate that if both solving and posing become part of early childhood mathematics education this may attract a wider range of young students. in order to become knowledgeable in posing problem-solving tasks, students need to be involved as participants in the practice of problem posing (lowrie, 2002) and the students in this study were not accustomed to posing tasks, only to solving them. this might have influenced the students’ answers on the question of when a posed task was finished: 21 of them thought that a posed task needed to be solved before they were finished with it. also, fewer students thought posing (13) was mathematics, problem solving or both compared to those who thought solving was (20). there were even students (5) who thought that posing problem-solving tasks was neither mathematics nor problem solving. none of the students expressed this regarding solving problem-solving tasks. thus, from the perspective of the students, it is not enough to pose a task: for them to feel that their work is completed, someone has to solve the task. only few students thought that problem solving could consist of merely posing a problem-solving task without somebody solving it. a plausible explanation for this is the limited experience with problem posing of these specific students, especially compared to their experience in solving problem-solving tasks. early young students’ views on problem solving… 11 childhood education provides an opportunity to enrich young students’ problem solving skills via problem posing, as suggested in this article. declarations acknowledgements: we would like to thank the preschool class teachers gunilla, kristina, lena and åsa for their collaboration during the study. authors’ contributions: jorryt van bommel and hanna palmér contributed equally to this paper. competing interests: the authors declare that they have no competing interests" in this section. funding: not applicable references anderson, t., & shattuck, j. 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(1996). sociomathematical norms, argumentation, and autonomy in mathematics. journal for research in mathematics education, 27(4), 458–477. https://doi.org/10.2307/749877 young students’ views on problem solving versus problem posing journal of childhood, education & society volume 2, issue 1, 2021, 14-28 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.20212158 research article ©2021 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. revealing colonial power relations in early childhood policy making: an autoethnographic story on selective evidence norma rudolph1 abstract: the covid-19 pandemic exposes uncertainty, instability and glaring inequality that requires urgent global policy decisions. historically, bureaucrats regard uncertainty as the enemy and look for tested solutions (stevens, 2011). in contrast, fielding & moss (2010) acknowledge an uncertain future and encourage shifting policy making towards the search for possibilities instead of replicating singular solutions. escobar (2020) advocates for pluriversal politics, with many possibilities created through collective decision-making by autonomous interlinked networks. in this paper, i combine autoethnography with policy analysis drawing on my own experience in south african early childhood policy making. i argue for a fresh decolonial debate about early childhood policy to replace dominant imported evidence-based narratives. i pay attention to power relations and examine, not only the content of evidence, but who has authority to speak (mignolo, 2007). i introduce the bottom-up appreciative participatory dialogical policy making in the gauteng impilo project (1996 2000), as one attempt to resist the dominant policy trajectory. local networks, that can inform policy making and resource allocation though conversation and action, emerged from this experience. this article invites urgent inclusive policy debate that expands choices and can produce cumulative worthwhile change and new learnings to birth a better society. article history received: 18 august 2020 accepted: 13 november 2020 keywords covid-19; autoethnography; early childhood policy analysis; decoloniality; south africa introduction global instability and uncertainty during the covid-19 pandemic brightly illuminate inequality and ecological precarity, calling for new ways of being and action for energy, food and education sovereignty 2. inequality has persisted in south africa long after the end of apartheid. before coming to power in 1994, the african national congress (anc) promised to redress the legacy of apartheid. while much has been achieved, there have been major failures and south africa is one of the most unequal countries in the world. before the pandemic, nearly one-third of south africa’s children did not eat sufficient nutritious food and twenty percent of the population was food insecure3. the combination of poor water policy, degradation of infrastructure, and insufficient action to address climate change, has left a large portion of the population having to walk long distances and queue for limited access to water. the majority of south africans do not have access to good quality health, education and other essential social services. on 15 march 2020, a national state of disaster was declared in south africa (gazette no 43096) and from 26 march everyone was confined to their homes. the first five weeks of the south african lockdown went further than most countries, as adults and children were not permitted to leave their homes for exercise or sunlight, or even to take their dogs for a walk. however, government did not plan to simultaneously implement complementary testing, tracing and measures to mitigate the effects of the _____________ 1 university of jyväskylä, faculty of education and psychology, education, jyväskylä, finland, normarudolph610@gmail.com; norma.1.rudolph@student.jyu.fi, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2431-0236 2 while, i argue that covid-19 highlights the need for dialogue, my policy analysis does not relate directly to covid-19. 3 more than half a million households with children aged five years or younger experienced hunger in 2017. http://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=12135 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.20212158 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:normarudolph610@gmail.com mailto:norma.1.rudolph@student.jyu.fi https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2431-0236 http://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=12135 revealing colonial power relations in early childhood policy… 15 lockdown on the poor4. a small percentage of the population live in homes with gardens, but most live in densely populated informal settlements or inner-city high-rise buildings. physical distancing is impossible for the majority. in some ‘homes’, ten or more adults and children (who might not all be blood relatives) could be living together in a single small room. while a few children travel to school in private cars, the majority walk long distances or use public transport. the most accessible form of public transport is minibus taxis. the protest by taxi owners against the government policy that taxis must reduce the number of passengers on each trip during the pandemic, led to the revised decision that they merely needed to keep one window open. children in a few homes have devices and internet access and have been able to continue schooling and interact with friends on-line. most children experienced precarity and uncertainty and the majority of school children were not receiving the one free meal at school per day that they rely on. the national income dynamic study coronavirus rapid mobile survey (nids-cram)5 survey in the second month of the lockdown found that 7% of adults and 4% of children were perpetually hungry (hunger "every day" or almost every day) and half of the respondents had run out of money to buy food that month. soon after the start of the lockdown president ramaphosa confirmed that the pandemic had exacerbated inequality, that government food distribution had been unable to meet the “huge need” and he promised to “forge a new economy”…. “ founded on fairness, empowerment, justice and equality”6. eighteen weeks after the disaster had been declared and the level of lockdown had been lowered from level 5 to 3, the rate of infection and death had started to increase rapidly, and more than 5000 people had died. the focus on covid-19 had compromised human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) and tuberculosis (tb) testing and treatment as well as infant immunization and ante-natal services. debate raged about opening schools and early childhood services and several court cases were won against government, including a court order that grade r 7 and preschool children who attend non-government institutions can return to their centres and that the department of basic education (dbe) provide one nutritious meal a day to all qualifying school children whether they had returned to class or not. while insufficient, unfunded and underfunded early childhood services collapsed, the minister of social development announced the planned employment of thirty-six thousand (36 000) youth as compliance monitors in early childhood development (ecd) centres and partial care facilities at a cost of 1.3 billion rands 8. in this article, i examine anc policy-making for young children since the first democratic election in 1994 and invite debate about how policy-making might need to change to achieve ramaphosa’s recommitment to the pre 1994 anc goals of building a convivial society. i analyse power relations, dominant discourses and subjugated attempts to tell a different story. as covid-19 spotlights uncertainty and glaring inequality, this autoethnographic story invites conversation about early childhood policymaking in south africa. as an example of the primary focus of anc early childhood policy and financing, i trace the introduction and expansion of the extension of primary school downward, through what is referred to in south africa as grade r. south africa is poised to introduce grade rr, thus adding an additional compulsory year before grade r and entry into the formal primary school system, despite acknowledging that in the past 20 years grade r has increased inequality rather than decreased it. i argue for urgent inclusive debate about early childhood policy. walking and talking the world into being for a decolonial methodology this is not an easy story to tell. i aim firstly to deploy an approach, ‘reflexivity of discomfort’ (pillow, 2003), to reveal post-apartheid discourses and power relations that informed the initial decisions to pilot _____________ 4 2020 coronavirus rapid mobile survey compiled by 30 social scientists from five different universities across the country https://cramsurvey.org/reports/. 5 2020 coronavirus rapid mobile survey compiled by 30 social scientists from five different universities across the country https://cramsurvey.org/reports/. 6 https://apnews.com/3982bc2db40764467e8164f03c362aa9 7 initially referred to as the “reception year’, grade r is a year-long programme for children in the year they turn 5 and just before they enter the first year of primary schooling. these grade r classes can be in schools or in the community 8 https://www.gov.za/speeches/minister-lindiwe-zulu-socioeconomic-interventions-mitigate-impact-coronavirus-covid-19 https://apnews.com/3982bc2db40764467e8164f03c362aa9 https://www.gov.za/speeches/minister-lindiwe-zulu-socioeconomic-interventions-mitigate-impact-coronavirus-covid-19 norma rudolph 16 and then formally introduce grade r in 2001. secondly, i wish to stimulate debate about current early childhood policy in south africa by “pushing the reader to analyse, question, and re-question her/his own knowledge and assumptions brought to the reading” the same way i approach writing in this article (pillow, 2003, p. 188). in order to stimulate the debate about policy-making for young children in south africa, i use an autoethnographic method drawing on my own experiences in policy-making in the same geography and period of the policy-making discussed in this article. i draw on my memories as data to guide my story about juggling complex relationships with a variety of different institutions and individuals with different beliefs, paradigms and priorities. i contextualize this analysis within the framework of relevant theorists, and with reference to my archive which, in addition to published literature includes a variety of original documents, such as original reports and memoranda, personal communications and journal entries. i chose autoethnography for the possibility of disrupting colonial research methods, by reclaiming the subjective voice of those in marginalised communities, with whom i engaged in participatory action research over three decades in different geographic contexts. autoethnography has been positioned historically as disrupting eurocentric norms of research practice and representation (chawla & atay, 2018). i combine autoethnography and analysis of policy and policy-making processes. through focusing on questions about included and excluded actors, selected stories and the ends that are served by such choices (chawla & atay, 2018), i challenge myself, as the researcher, to pay attention to emotions and affect in all aspects of policy-making and research. i draw on pillow’s (2003) construction of ‘reflexivity of discomfort’ to help me think differently and try to avoid falling into my own trap of using the same language or categories that i reject. i try to be accountable to the “struggles for self-representation and self-determinism” of the characters in my story, including myself (pillow, 2003, p. 193). i continuously interrogate my shifting power relations and try to write the account in a way that could provide multiple possibilities. i avoid confessing personal historical failures or applauding my successes. whether or not the reader challenges the ‘truthfulness’ of my (re)telling, my aim remains constant: to stimulate discussion about future policy decisions. in this methodology, ethics is not derived from official ‘ethical clearance’ of the research design or informed consent of participants. the methodology “resituates ethics as the responsibility of researchers and readers” (pillow, 2003, p. 191 referring to st. pierre). as author, i pay attention to the ethical implications of all my research decisions and invite all to theorize our own lives and examine different frames. i construct a theoretical framework that combines stevens’ (2011) analysis of the social world of policy-making with the literature reconceptualizing early childhood education as well as decoloniality. moss and others discuss the transformation in early childhood policy-making (moss & dahlberg, 2008; fielding & moss, 2010; moss, 2007, 2014, 2019). they suggest that by being open to possibilities and nurturing a willingness for transformation, it is possible to move towards one of many versions that can produce cumulative worthwhile change and new learning (fielding & moss, 2010, p. 135). escobar (2020) advocates for pluriversal politics, with many possibilities created through collective decision-making by autonomous interlinked networks. stevens explains that there is very little examination of policy-making process and draws on his own observation and participation in the united kingdom to argue that ‘evidence’ is used as a tool of persuasion to sell certain policy proposals that have the greatest chance of being accepted within the particular context in which they are being presented (stevens, 2011). he argues that support for policy proposals relies on strategies such as avoiding complexity and uncertainty, as well as the ‘trustworthiness’ of the proponents. he describes how ‘evidence’ can be used to shift attention away from inequality and the challenging of “contemporary distribution of power” (stevens, 2011, p. 18). i acknowledge pam christie’s argument that “the nature of government in a modern state entails engaging with particular practices and ways of thinking which themselves set limits to the changes that are conceivable and credible” (christie, 2006, p. 374). i analyse these practices and ways of thinking in order to expose the danger of dominant policy-making practices and uncover the “disorder, confusion and chance happenings” that might have contributed to decisions that appear, in retrospect, to have been made with careful consideration in the best interests of all children (christie, 2006, p. 375 referring to foucault (1997)). i wish to explore the ‘rationalities that normalize acts of power’ (christie, 2006; foucault, 2000; revealing colonial power relations in early childhood policy… 17 green, 2012), and invite debate and discussion about other possibilities and opportunities for resistance. i hope to stimulate conversation across the country, in government, civil society, homes and other gathering places, about well-being and food, land, energy and education sovereignty. fragmented and inequitable services for young children in south africa when i entered the early childhood field during the last decade of apartheid, the available government funded services were unevenly distributed in terms of race and place, with urban children classified as ‘white’ receiving most resources, and rural children classified as ‘black’ receiving little if anything. responsibilities were fragmented across different government departments, including education and welfare. the segregated education system provided well-resourced pre-primary schools for children from 3 to 6 years old, mainly in urban garden suburbs, where only families classified as ‘white’ were permitted to live. before 1994, the most common form of provision was community-based ‘educare centres’ for children between the ages of 3 to 6 years. these ‘informal’ services were the responsibility of the department of welfare, which provided a small subsidy for a small number of educare services in mostly black urban areas; the rest were privately funded. staff had little or no training and relied on whatever minimal fees that very poor families could afford. in the 1994 situation analysis, mary newman described educare services, explaining that, “there are many places where children are crowded together, often with little or no food supplies, little adult attention and certainly no educational stimulation” (september & mokgoro, 1993, p. 19). different kinds of organisations offered adult early childhood training courses. formal institutions, such as teacher training colleges, prepared preschool teachers in the education system and a few urbanbased non-governmental organisations offered short courses for ‘practitioners’ in ‘informal’ services. between the mid-1980s and 1990s, the south african non-government ecd sector thrived and grew to about 100 training organisations (van den berg & vergnani, 1986). a number of foreign donors, including foreign government agencies that refused to cooperate with south africa’s apartheid government, redirected funding to non-government early childhood initiatives. van den berg and vergnani offer a comprehensive account of the early childhood sector in south africa in the mid-80s, identifying “an endemic and chronic disease of competition and suspicion” within the field and a volatile political climate with a “tumultuous level of conflict in many parts of the country” (van den berg & vergnani, 1986, p. 8-9). this continued into the mid-90s. at the same time the absence of government attention or regulation offered fertile ground for experimentation in the non-formal early childhood field. some training organizations, that i will refer to as resource and training organizations (rtos), had started to introduce innovative family-based programs, such as home-visitors and community-based integrated management of childhood illnesses (cimci). in particular, there were a small group of rtos who were drawing on the work of paulo freire and the training of anne hope and sally timmel (hope & timmel 1984), to use a conscientizing approach to empower marginalised communities. i started a small rto called woz’obona in the mid-80s, acknowledging that this was political work as we were essentially organising communities around the needs of young children (rudolph, 1993). the woz’obona curriculum was developed with marginalised partner communities from different parts of south africa and drew on beneficiary visions of childhood and society (rudolph, 1993). getting ready to govern after the anc and other organisations were unbanned on 2 february 1990, preparing for democracy was no longer clandestine. in october 1991, the process of multi-party negotiations for the transfer of power was initiated with preparation for the all-party congress. from 1991, while the multi-party negotiations determined the big issues for a democratic south africa, such as control of the security forces, the electoral process, state media and finances, the early childhood sector was also busy with its own negotiations on a much smaller scale. while the alliance represented by the anc in the national negotiations had been galvanised through the united democratic movement (udm), in the 1980s there was still fragmentation in the early childhood sector. there were several interlinked processes that norma rudolph 18 contributed to formulating the proposed policies that the anc would take to the electorate. in terms of my story in this article, i introduce the 1992 national education policy initiative (nepi) and the anc consultative process, including the 1992 ready to govern conference. anc policy guidelines for a democratic south africa were adopted at the national ready to govern conference held on 31 may 1992. the anc stressed its commitment to broad discussion and consultation, pointing out that the guideline would need to be adapted through consultation with the “broadest spectrum of south african public opinion”, in order to draw on the depth and breadth of experiences (anc, 1992a). the 1992 anc policy aimed to reflect the values and ideals of equality, sustainability and self-determination set out in the freedom charter (1955) (anc, 1992a). it also acknowledged the magnitude of problems generated by apartheid and the transformational challenges that would require difficult choices, given the diversity of citizens and the legacy of physical separation, spiritual alienation and inequality (anc, 1992a). the document emphasized the commitment to “equal rights, non-racialism, non-sexism, democracy and mutual respect” and “a broad, inclusive approach, free of arrogance or complexes of superiority or inferiority” (anc, 1992a, a.1). the intention was to develop a vision of our country “not distorted by the prejudices and sectarianism that has guided viewpoints on race and gender, in the past”. i was particularly encouraged by the expressed intention to “rely on the wisdom, life experiences, talents and know-how of all south africans, women and men” in “finding solutions to the problems created by apartheid” (anc, 1992a, a.1). the introduction to this important initial anc policy discussion document, as i read it, promised the beneficiaries of services (especially those most marginalized by apartheid) the authority to speak and design the kind of policies that would best suit their diverse circumstances. i looked forward to contributing from my experience in this kind of ‘bottom-up’ consultative process. side-lining bottom up consultative processes the 1992 national education policy initiative (nepi), which analysed different policy options for an equitable education system in a democratic south africa, constituted one important anc-initiated policy investigation towards preparing to govern. the results of this collective work was published in a series of 12 reports, including ‘early childhood educare’ (taylor, 1992). as part of the nepi investigation, linda biersteker brought together policy suggestions from different research initiatives and examined them in the light of the nepi and early childhood educare (ece) commission criteria (biersteker, 1992). this document served as a summary of the nepi ece research group. i was a member of that group. biersteker isolated three main trends in terms of ece services, taking into account the traditionally separate education and welfare policies at that time. these were “education policy re pre-primary education”, “welfare policy re day care provision” and she then synthesized these two into a third position, which she referred to as “development policy re early childhood educare provision” (biersteker, 1992, p. 2). biersteker explains that the education sector responded to high drop-out and failure rates in the schooling system from a ‘deficit’ construction, proposing an additional year of provisioning within the primary school and emphasising ‘school readiness’ (biersteker, 1992). their proposal ‘undervalued’ the pre-primary programme for children aged three to six years, provided in the privileged education system. this position was also influenced by the one-year bridging period programme that had been introduced by the apartheid government. the welfare policy suggestions were based on full day care for children of mothers working outside the home, to be subsidized by government only for the very poor. this perspective prioritized children's care rather than educational needs. the third ‘development’ position integrated education and care, within a broad context of health, education, community development and housing. it viewed the role of government policy as enabling and empowering communities to develop adequate services for their needs, in particular the holistic development of young children. this position generated more space for beneficiary agency and a wider range of possible programmes. at that time, many civic, early childhood and literacy programmes used an approach promoted in ‘training for transformation’ (hope & timmel, 1984). this approach, influenced revealing colonial power relations in early childhood policy… 19 by the work of illich (1973) and freire (1970) acknowledged the power of dialogue to transform relationships, build community and drive social change. while biersteker’s report offered an important first step in setting out the different positions and narratives, it failed to sufficiently acknowledge and describe the innovative conscientizing programmes that were not represented in the suggestions of the more established education research institutions. as i review biersteker’s document, what jumps out is the number of powerful education players who suggested “the downward extension of the primary school by adding a preschool year for five-year olds, either at existing primary schools or in community schools” (donaldson, 1992; human sciences research council [hsrc], 1981; mehl, 1991; reilly and hofmeyr, 1983) (referred to in biersteker, 1992, p. 2). this proposal was based on reports written by researchers published during apartheid and who worked in institutions such as the hsrc that was established and thrived during apartheid. next in my story, i point to the way that a few influential individuals were able to subjugate other proposals and elevate the proposal to extend primary school downward. reorganising power lines in the period leading up to the 1994 first democratic election, several different associations and umbrella organisations represented different groupings of early childhood training providers and practitioners. the history of separate services for different racial groups during apartheid was reflected in national organisations. among these, the south african association for early childhood educare (saaece) was the oldest and had been established by white nursery-school teachers in 1939. in the early 1980s, saaece began to open its membership to other population groups, but “continued to organise primarily in the urban areas and in relatively advantaged communities” (williams & samuels, 2001, p. 14). in 1990, the national interim working committee on educare (niwc) emerged from a consultative conference, hosted by the national education co-ordinating committee (necc) which was operating as the anc education desk, to consider a proposed university programme. the conference rejected the proposal as it did not take sufficient account of the context. at the end of the meeting, several people were nominated to take forward the process of building unity in the sector. i was one of about ten people nominated to this national committee that decided to call itself the national interim working committee on educare (niwc), and we started to hold regular meetings in fivestar hotels, which were the only available racially integrated accommodation at the time. despite the sector being predominantly female, all three niwc office bearers, the national chairperson, organiser and treasurer, were all men. after several meetings, a decision was made to approach the previously ‘white’ saaece to negotiate a ‘settlement’. so, while the political parties negotiated the future of the country, the educare sector held our own ‘negotiations’. williams and samuels (2001) report that “after a gruelling process of negotiation, saaece and niwc finally amalgamated in 1994 to form the congress of early childhood development (sacecd)” (williams & samuels, 2001, p. 10). while this might have appeared to be a democratic process, unequal power relations in the sector, including patriarchy, meant that some individuals were able to dominate. the majority of early childhood practitioners and all beneficiaries were excluded from any debate. the late roy padayachie9, who also led the world bank research group (padayachie et al., 1994), had been consolidating his influence in the anc and the early childhood sector. he had played an influential role in the early childhood policy-making processes leading up to the first democratic election and was elected as the first national chairperson of the south african congress of early childhood development (sacecd) in 1994. padayachie explained, in a presentation to a 1993 anc consultative meeting, that he saw his role as preparing the “educare constituency so that it is ready for the present challenge of building the new democratic order” (padayachie, 1993c). however, it is evident from a range of documents in my archive that padayachie was presenting a set of ideas to be accepted without discussion or debate (padayachie, _____________ 9 roy padayachie died of a heart attack on may 4, 2012, in ethiopia while serving as south africa’s minister of public service and administration. norma rudolph 20 1993a, 1993b, 1993c)10. these ideas included a vision for policy, resource mobilization and an appropriate national organisation that “speaks with a united and powerful voice” (padayachie, 1993c, p. 1). only a small group of people regarded as ‘experts’ were involved in the consultative process. my persistent inquiries, as a member of a local anc branch, suggest that no discussion about early childhood policy was taking place in local anc branches. even the records of the anc consultation at provincial and national level show that there was no open-ended discussion of possibilities for early childhood policy (anc, 1992a, 1992b, 1994). a charismatic storyteller and an accident: the birth of grade r at the time while i was participating in those early consultations, i did not recognize padayachie’s strategy of building a single narrative as clearly as i do in retrospect. padayachie’s narrative echoed the ’education’ perspective of the 1992 nepi educare research proposals. this was also the perspective being promoted by the world bank which commissioned a study led by padayachie to investigate the downward extension of primary school (padayachie et al., 1994). the power of this single story supported by the familiar apartheid era discursive tropes, and education experts from the same era, and told by a politically savvy and influential storyteller displaced discussion about the other nepi proposals. in particular, the proposal that emerged from the non-formal educare sector that had quietly been working in and with marginalized communities, could not mobilize the same authority. the more complex and innovative story that emerged from the bottom up, came with the uncertainty of empowering communities to design the kind of services that would support their visions of the childhoods and the society they hoped to achieve in a democratic south africa. the scope of this article does not allow for a detailed account of power relations and the ‘accidents of history’ during that period. however, to further illustrate the way that this single story emerged as the dominant narrative from the early anc education consultation, i briefly trace some nodal moments in the ‘ready to govern’ consultative process. despite the heartening anc promise of consultation, i was perplexed to see how this recurrent single educare story, by an influential storyteller, emerged without any meaningful opportunities for debate and discussion. my analysis of archival documents, and enquiries of anc leadership at the time, including mary metcalfe, head of the education desk, suggest that a critical historical accident might be found in a story that metcalfe told me in 2015. the story is about an early anc consultative meeting that took place before the 1992 getting ready to govern conference. the key controversial issue of the conference was the number of years of free and compulsory education that the anc could afford. financial modelling by the anc leadership had determined that ten years would be the maximum. however, the student movement and the affiliates of the necc 11 that had argued as part of the political struggles for free education up to end of grade 12, expected more than ten years. it was critical that this issue be resolved to avoid taking contestation into the election. metcalfe explained: at the end of the day when we were carefully managing the report back to the conference, the late ivy matsepecasaburri joined us as we were summarising and finalising the resolutions. she was a passionate supporter of educare (although not part of the educare sector) and asked why educare had not been included. we had been thinking specifically of schooling and had assumed that educare would be included more broadly outside of the school system. it was now too late to discuss this suggestion fully and she insisted that educare must be included. so, we included grade r as the first year of 10 years of free and compulsory education. so, we now have grade r with grades 1 to 9 as our 10 years of schooling but without the exit exam. then this became some kind of rule (mary metcalfe, 2015)12 it seems that part of this accident of history was the complexity of ‘educare’, which straddled more than one anc policy grouping in the consultative process. in addition, padayachie had already started elevating the dominant coloniality story in senior anc circles. consequently, the ready to govern conference report says little specifically about educare, but commits to _____________ 10 retrieved from my archive. 11 the national education crisis committee (necc) was launched in early 1986 with the support of the united democratic front (udf) and congress of south african trade unions (cosatu), in the context of militant anti-apartheid student action. 12 personal communication in my archive. revealing colonial power relations in early childhood policy… 21 … the provision of a minimum of ten years of free and compulsory education, which shall include, where possible, one year of preschool education. this commitment is based on our belief that ten years of quality education is the minimum necessary to prepare individuals to participate in the economy and society (anc, 1992a, section k.education, subsection 1. provision ). this position based on colonial thinking that had emerged from the apartheid education era was taken to the election as anc policy and has persisted into the present. ironed power lines: anc policy for young children according to the three key documents produced by padayachie between march and october 1993 (padayachie, 1993a, 1993b, 1993c)13, he emphasized the need for a movement that “speaks with a united and powerful voice”. he promoted niwc, which he chaired at the time, as the appropriate organisation to lead this process of preparation and articulating the selected education policy position (padayachie, 1993a, p. 1). he prioritized consensus and referred to several ‘discussion’ documents and ‘consultative meetings’ that did not provide any meaningful opportunities for debate or engagement. for example, an invitation14 to an anc early childhood educare policy workshop, held on 2 september 1993 in cape town, lists the aims as: “to discuss and make recommendations for anc early childhood educare policy; and to establish criteria and nominate a representative to the regional education and training forum 11 and 12 september” (padayachie, 1993b, p. 1 from archive of linda biersteker). a wide range of complex policy issues from guiding principles to budgets, governance to redistribution were all to be discussed, alongside the nomination of one representative to the anc regional forum, in the four hours scheduled for the meeting (padayachie, 1993b, p. 1-2). the style of the invitation and the unachievable agenda reflect the intention to inform and vote for given decisions, rather than consult. the ‘consultative’ documents circulated by padayachie present a deficit model of the users of services and assume that communication will be in one direction, from services to parents who need ‘to learn about and respond to their children’s developmental needs’ (padayachie, 1993a, p. 2). there is no reference to parents and communities knowing what is best for their children and society, nor how the proposed services would best serve their needs. the discourse frames parents as merely users of services in order “to take up work or further education’ (padayachie, 1993a, p. 2). the recommendations focus on the establishment of structures and limits local influence, rather than encouraging opportunities for listening, experimentation and meaningful participation. the emphasis is on generating awareness of the need for ‘early childhood care and development’, based on an assumption that there is consensus about what that means. the new umbrella organisation that padayachie was leading is positioned as the primary credible influence. it seems padayachie was a great bureaucrat, and excelled in performing what stevens (2011) refers to as “bureaucratic reason”, by combining “effective persuasion” with “control of uncertainty” and his personal “career incentives” (stevens, 2011, p. 12). padayachie selected the proposal with least uncertainty to tell a story about a new policy area, and at the same time identified himself as the primary storyteller. i believe padayachie was using discursive tropes, not to bring like-minded people into an advocacy coalition, but rather to show his worth in this “thought world” (stevens, 2011, p. 13). padayachie reinforced, rather than challenged, the “fundamental assumptions and tropes” of the preferred policy narratives of education experts of that time (stevens, 2011, p. 14). the story padayachie chose was from the apartheid era and so, perhaps unwittingly, he carried colonial thinking into the new democratic policy terrain. creating impilo as a participatory alternative my position was different to that of padayachie. i was inspired by the ingenuity and survival strategies of the marginalized communities in which i had lived and worked. i had started to read about integrated early childhood approaches and i was particularly inspired by the work of marta arango in _____________ 13 retrieved from my personal archive. 14 the document does not indicate the author, but it is most likely from roy padayachie. norma rudolph 22 colombia (arango & nimnicht, 1987, 2004). she and her husband wrote about decolonizing education and human development strategies, and introduced me to an “integrated policy” for young children as part of the “hope for creating a new society with social and economic justice” based on what citizens desire (arango & nimnicht, 1987, p. 37). it was with this understanding that i continued to challenge my own colonial thinking and to listen for other stories and possibilities for social justice. in particular, i took up this challenge through impilo, which used an experimental integrated approach in a three-year appreciative participatory action research process in 1000 community-managed sites in gauteng. impilo was based on the principles stated in the 1996 interim policy for early childhood (ipecd), which was the first step that the national department of education (doe), as lead department, took towards realising the anc’s promise for young children, families and communities. i was one of three ecd specialists given the task of drafting the ipecd (doe, 1996). our draft document emphasised an integrated approach, based on the narratives of the progressive non-formal sector, with possibilities for local communities to produce a range of stories about the kinds of services that would best enable them to support the well-being of their young children. when the policy was published, the ipecd acknowledged the importance of an integrated approach to address the “basic needs of families for shelter, water and sanitation, primary health care, nutrition, employment and adult basic education”, but it only committed funding for the reception year 15 (doe, 1996, p. 6). the interim policy envisioned that eventually children of reception year age would all be included in the school system. consequently, it emphasized the need for this one year of provisioning to be part of an integrated system of ecd programmes that could include a variety of strategies and a wide range of services, directed at helping families and communities to meet the needs of children from birth to at least nine years old. the introductory section of the ipecd set out in detail the principles of an integrated approach and identified the paramount task as building “a just and equitable system” directed at the “integrated needs of children, women, and families” (doe,1996, p.12). the policy specifically stated that funding for the reception year should not weaken funding for other kinds of services. despite the anc commitment to providing opportunities for wide consultation even after it was elected to power, this did not happen except in gauteng province. in gauteng we used action research to engage families and communities in conversation and action to support the well-being of young children, through the impilo project. with the support of education mec, mary metcalfe, the gauteng department of education (gde) attempted to resist the dominant discourse and included consultation with communities in the research design of the provincial implementation of the national ecd pilot. the scope of this article only allows for a brief overview of the impilo project. i took up the position in gde as chief education specialist responsible for primary and ecd policy during the period we were drafting the ipecd. in my new position in gde, and with the support of mary metcalf, we implemented the impilo project. i firmly believed at that time that it would be possible through action research to actively mobilize and demonstrate that there were possibilities, other than the single narrative of extending primary school downward. we had to negotiate with the national department of education (ndoe) to implement the national ecd pilot flexibly, as the national research design was limited to investigating the costing of one year of provision for four-year old children. the primary assumption of impilo was that the well-being of young children depends on the wellbeing of the families and communities. little can be achieved by taking children out of their homes for a few hours without taking steps to change their socio-economic circumstances. impilo sought to engage civil society and service providers in conversations about well-being by trying new paradigms, such as shifting from expert solutions to local solutions, and enabling dialogue, rather than merely pouring down simplistic messages for consumption by service users viewed as deficient (shiva, 2002). impilo included three linked action research projects for children from birth to nine years. the two additional projects were _____________ 15 the reception year was later called grade-r. revealing colonial power relations in early childhood policy… 23 added as funds became available, but the main project was the provincial implementation of the national ecd pilot, referred to as the district pilot. collective learning through action we contracted different consortia of rtos, to each work in one of the new education districts in close collaboration with the newly appointed ecd district officials. the aim was to learn with community groups through supporting them to make decisions, and if necessary, we could all learn through small missteps. at the provincial level, i started to meet with my counterparts in other departments such as health and welfare, to understand each other’s functions and find ways to collaborate. we spent a long time building a shared understanding of the definition of the new umbrella term ‘ecd’, as our health comrades pointed out that services and support should start from conception rather than birth. we were able to start building referral systems and help families to access available services across different departments. we also supported organizing and mobilizing to ensure everyone could access the services to which they were entitled and start advocating for additional services to fill the gaps. for example, we talked about food sovereignty and initiated community gardens, rather than merely providing information to families about how they should feed their children and offering some food to a limited number of children who could afford to attend centres. together, we learned about the importance of building ‘networks of care’, known as umusa (acts of kindness), with trusted helpers identified by the communities in which they live. deleting data that does not fit the frame the director responsible for ecd in ndoe dismissed the idea of allowing community groups, in dialogue with training providers, to make decisions about the kinds of service they wanted and how best to spend their small stipend. she said it could not be accepted as it could lead to corruption. i find this particularly ironic in the light of the scale of corruption committed by ex-president jacob zuma16. by the time the impilo project featured as the lead story in the unicef 2000 state of the word report (unicef, 1999), it was clear that other than the experiences that participants might carry forward, our attempt to take a new narrative into early childhood policy-making had failed. when i resigned from my position at gde, i understood what tsing, 2015, alludes to when she states that “a scalable research project admits only data that already fits the research frame” (tsing, 2015, p. 38). before the national ecd pilot started, the decision was made to scale up the one year of provision. consequently, the national ecd pilot research was designed for scalability and could not accommodate the meaningful diversity sought through impilo. with no open-ended research questions, the national research could not include any of the gauteng data. the research design was too narrow to accommodate any complexity and diversity. so it counted the 1000 sites (there were less than 1000 sites in all the other 9 provinces combined), included a short description of impilo (probably submitted by gde), noted that gauteng did not follow the ecd pilot project formula of r2 per child per day, and that was that (doe, 2001b). i also began to realize that in the post-apartheid national and provincial education departments, ‘uncertainty’ was the enemy and that power relations subjugated debate about policy options. despite the 1992 anc promise of broad consultation, policy decisions for public provisioning for young children in south africa during the first two decades of anc rule have favoured simple solutions that prioritize discrete and fragmented interventions instead of engaging with more complex challenges. the centre-based approach, which was uncritically borrowed from affluent countries with high employment rates and strong welfare programmes, persists as the most familiar and popular kind of ecd service provision. the primary focus of government ecd provisioning since 1996 has been the introduction and gradual extension of one year of additional schooling in the year before children join the formal school system, initially referred to as the reception year and now as ‘grade r’. this form of provisioning that _____________ 16 on 16 march 2018, it was confirmed by the director of public prosecutions that zuma (who was president from 2009 to 2018) would face 18 charges of corruption, including more than 700 counts of fraud and money laundering. norma rudolph 24 reproduces inequality has persisted despite government commitment to consultation and recognition, in new policies, of the need for broader ‘integrated’ approaches. the next part of my story briefly traces this trajectory and argues that the government commitment to ‘evidence-based planning and monitoring’ has reinforced this inequitable form of ecd provisioning. grade r: reproducing inequality on economic lines in 1996, the anc government committed to ten years of free and compulsory education, starting with a reception year for 5-year-olds (doe 1996). by the time the education white paper 5 on ecd was published in 2001, the national 3-year ecd (reception year) pilot had been completed. the anc’s ecd policy priority, as expressed in 2001, was the establishment of a national system of provision for children aged 5 years, with the majority of these classes located within the formal school system and a small number in community-based services (doe, 2001a, p. 5). despite the national integrated plan (nip) (rsa, 2005), the 2005 children’s act (dsd, 2005) and the national integrated early childhood development policy (niecdp) (republic of south africa [rsa], 2015), for nearly 20 years the primary focus of government services for young children has remained the introduction and expansion of this single year of provisioning for children before they enter primary school. despite the 2010 target for universal access, grade r is not yet available to all children and those living in urban areas and those with greater financial resources are more likely to be in a grade r class (biersteker, 2018). there is a problem of under-aged children from more resourceful families entering grade r classes in schools and spending more than one year in that class. these are families who realize they can get cheaper better-quality childcare by manipulating the system. since those classes attached to schools are better funded, practitioners prefer to be employed in schools. before the introduction of grade r, the standard model of ecd provisioning was in community-based centres with children from 3 to 6 years. this set-up more closely aligned to traditional childcare arrangements, that nurtured peer teaching and learning, with children in the village forming friendship groups (rudolph, 2017). the communitybased system of provision has been eroded by age-segregation and flight of practitioners to better paying jobs in schools. drawing on recent research, biersteker concludes that “while grade r was established as a means of reducing inequalities, it simply extended the advantage to children in more affluent schools” (biersteker, 2018, p. 305). after concluding that grade r is not cost-effective in terms of learning outcomes, the 2014 evaluation report nevertheless recommends that “the grade r programme be continued and that ways to improve its impact be explored” (van der berg et al., 2013, p. 3). the national department of basic education (dbe) agreed with the evaluators and rather than considering a different approach, it committed to improving training, increasing access to materials, developing high quality school readiness tests, and reverting to a higher percentage of community-based classes (dbe, dsd, & doh, 2017; samuels et al., 2015). the government cost-saving strategy to increase the percentage of community sites, after having decimated community-based services through neglect over 20 years, is particularly pernicious. none of these strategies addresses the uneven expenditure across different socio-economic groups, based on the socio-economic inequalities in the entire education system. although universal provision of grade r has not been achieved as planned, in 2019 an additional year referred to as grade rr will be introduced, in part to address the problem of under-age children in grade r (biersteker, 2018)17. referring to taylor (2014), biersteker (2018) explains the expectation that this extra year, with stricter enforcement of age-of-entry, will ensure smooth progress from one grade to another with children of their own age (biersteker, 2018). this is an example of what stevens (2011) refers to as the silencing of inequality. outcomes-based planning, monitoring and evaluation deepens inequality the grade r policy decision, initially drawn from the apartheid era and sold by padayachie, has been reinforced through the decision that all south african government planning, monitoring and _____________ 17 confirmed by the president in his 2019 state of the nation address (sona). revealing colonial power relations in early childhood policy… 25 evaluation functions be centralized in a single high-level department of planning, monitoring and evaluation (dpme) (the presidency rsa, 2015). in the context of the 2030 vision and anc election manifesto, the 2010 adoption of an outcomes-based approach to public management and the 2011 national evaluation policy framework (nepf) emphasizes “increasing the utilization of evaluative evidence in planning, budgeting and management decisions” (amisi, 2015, p. 1). despite the laudable intention of improving value from government spending, the nature and role of monitoring and evaluation (m&e), and the way that ‘evidence’ is understood, will determine whose judgments are valued and what kind of change is possible. the dominant ‘scientific evidence’ discourses prioritize the perspectives of experts over beneficiaries (rudolph, millei, & alasuutari, 2019). communication, in the form of messages, is viewed as a strategy for enlisting civil society buy-in, rather than enabling meaningful conversation that includes all concerned about child and community wellbeing. a series of articles18 published in the african journal of education, disseminate monitoring and evaluation developments in south african policy and planning and promote ‘evidence’ as the key policy driver (amisi, 2015; davids et al., 2015; samuels et al., 2015). amisi argues for communication as a tool for evaluators to improve the “usability and utility of evaluation evidence” (amisi, 2015, p. 6). this is what stevens (2011) refers to as using ‘evidence’ to sell a chosen story. according to amisi, the focus on communication among evaluators, practitioners and policymakers as users of evidence, encourages dialogue as adding “meaning to often complex and technical evaluation findings in a way that is understandable and enlightening to the target audience” (amisi, 2015, p. 5). this confirms that, from the perspective of the presidency, policy makers assume that avoiding complexity is necessary to sell their policies. there is no reference in any of the articles to dialogue generating new knowledge or the role of service users in the evaluation process. service users are constructed as deficient, unable to understand or engage constructively with different ideas. consequently, they need simple messages. amisi identifies two separate communication processes, between practitioners and evaluators in the evaluation process, and between government and civil society in different forums, in order to target messages distilled from findings. amisi cautions that at a later stage when “evaluations become imprinted in the operating processes of government”, there will be more scope for evaluation findings to be “communicated transparently and widely”, but in the meantime proposes “communication that generates interest and appreciation of evaluations, and encourages the application of lessons learned in policy and management practices” (amisi, 2015, p. 7). concerns are raised in all three articles about publishing evaluation findings that could “provide an opportunity to sensationalise critical findings to show government in a bad light” (davids et al., 2015, p. 7), especially if the dpme independently communicates “evaluation outcomes of another department’s programme” (amisi, 2015, p. 5). this statement highlights government concern for the way it is viewed, rather than the social justice outcomes of their policy choices. consequently, the singular solution is reinforced by refusing to learn through experience and possible missteps. a story without ending … early childhood policy-making and evaluation has used ‘evidence’ selectively in south africa to avoid complexity, uncertainty, or challenge to the dominant narratives, and in so doing ensures that government decisions are viewed positively. in this way, despite the good intention of the anc government, inequality has been silenced and even exacerbated through early childhood policy. this kind of mistrust of citizens has been carried into the coercive and heavy-handed government strategy during covid-19. government is not linking the disease response to local practical knowledges and culture19. citizens have not been invited to collaborate in solving the huge problems facing the country. dicta are handed down in the form of simplistic messaging, without any explanation of the thinking behind these _____________ 18 the first two articles relate directly to ecd and the third to the overarching national monitoring and evaluation process. 19 important lessons learnt in the ebola crisis in west africa and the aids pandemic in south africa. https://steps-centre.org/blog/science-uncertainty-and-the-covid-19response/ https://steps-centre.org/blog/science-uncertainty-and-the-covid-19-response/ https://steps-centre.org/blog/science-uncertainty-and-the-covid-19-response/ norma rudolph 26 decisions. most school children rely on the one meal a day they receive through the school nutrition program. many early childhood workers rely on the meagre fees paid to attend large ecd centres. consequently, experts debate whether schools and early childhood services should open, rather than engaging civil society in finding creative ways to feed and take care of children in their communities. the kind of integrated policy-making process used in impilo, based on trusting citizens and enabling co-operation between government and civil society, could provide the kind of environment that is urgently needed, so that citizens can understand as much as possible and choose to co-operate with government. impilo recognized the potential of a strong network of trusted helpers in every community, who know where young children are and engage with families as partners. they could surely play an important role in helping families access food and care close to their homes. as ‘essential workers’ with the necessary protective equipment they could link with families and find out the nature and location of urgent needs, including food, water, protection, exercise and sunlight, or anything else our government departments might not yet have identified. they could engage in dialogue to help everyone to understand the complexity of the pandemic, avoid discrimination and work together to experiment in finding the best strategies for survival and willingly implementing public health measures. in terms of policy for young children beyond the immediate escalating crisis of the pandemic, and in light of the expressed intention of our president’s messages during covid-19 to address inequality and forge a new economy, it is time to consider other options to the single story that has dominated early childhood policy. i pose the following questions to restart conversations: can we learn from the uncertainty of covid-19 in ways that open up debate and encourage a more democratic deliberation? can government acknowledge missteps and be open to proposals from service users? how can we extend the notion of evidence, and include in our conversations early childhood theorists who have long been calling for the reconceptualization of early childhood policy, such as peter moss who promotes hope through contestation (moss, 2015)? can we imagine another way of knowing, being and communicating that does not advantage the privileged few with devices, unlimited airtime and data packages? can we rebuild livelihoods and solidarity through recognizing the agency and voice of communities? can we all work together towards the vision of a convivial society set out in the 1955 freedom charter? declarations acknowledgements: the author acknowledges and would like to express her deep appreciation to her doctoral supervisors professor zsuzsa millei and professor maarit alasuutari for their prodigious help, support and encouragement. competing interests: the author declares that she has no competing interests funding: the author received a scholarship from the university of jyväskylä during part of the period of work on this article. references amisi, m. m. 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(2013). the impact of the introduction of grade r on learning outcomes. university of stellenbosch, stellenbosch. retrieved from http://resep.sun.ac.za/wpcontent/uploads/2014/06/grade-r-evaluation-1-3-25-final-unpublished-report-13-06-17.pdf williams, t., & samuels, m. (2001). the nationwide audit of ecd provisioning in south africa. pretoria, south africa: the department of education. revealing colonial power relations in early childhood policy making: an autoethnographic story on selective evidence despite the national integrated plan (nip) (rsa, 2005), the 2005 children’s act (dsd, 2005) and the national integrated early childhood development policy (niecdp) (republic of south africa [rsa], 2015), for nearly 20 years the primary focus of govern... journal of childhood, education & society volume 2, issue 1, 2021, 43-57 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.20212164 research article ©2021 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. children’s problem solving skills: does drama based storytelling method work? gökhan kayılı1, zeynep erdal2 abstract: this research aims to investigate the effect of problem solving training provided through the drama based storytelling method on the problem solving skills of five-year-old children. within the context of quantitative methodology, pretest-posttest control group quasi-experimental design was employed in the study. forty children, 20 in the experimental and 20 in the control group, were included in the research. in addition to the national education preschool education program, children in the experimental group were given problem solving training with drama based storytelling method one hour 2 days a week for 7 weeks. children in the control group were not included in this education, but continued their daily education programs within the scope of ministry of education preschool education program. the problem solving skills of the children participating in the research were measured using the scale of problem solving skills. the test was administered to children before and after the intervention period. in addition, it was read ministered to the experimental group 2 weeks later. results suggest that the problem-solving education provided with the drama based storytelling method, which is implemented in combination with the national preschool education program, has contributed positively to the problem-solving skills of five-year-old children. article history received: 30 september 2020 accepted: 29 december 2020 keywords preschool; drama; storytelling; problem solving skills introduction described as the golden age of childhood, preschool is a period when various skills are acquired and develop. basic problem solving skills, one of the most distinctive features of this period once the foundations of development have been laid, can be developed with the experiences gained and the programs implemented. educational opportunities and activities offered to help build problem solving skills enable children to recognize problems, produce possible solutions to the problems they encounter, and as a result, enable them to establish a cause-effect relationship between events. definitions vary on the problem solving skill and heppner’s (1987) definition differs from other definitions in certain aspects in studies dealing with this issue. according to heppner, problem solving has the same meaning as the concept of dealing with problems. personal problem-solving skill is defined as directing cognitive and emotional processes to a target in order to make behavioral reactions with the aim of adapting to internal or external demands in real life. based on this, it should be ensured that the teacher and the student use problem solving skills in order to develop all the features of the mind in the education process, students should be given problems appropriate to their level taken from life and then they should be asked to produce alternative solutions and to review possible results. if the educational environment is organized based on this philosophical idea, students will grow up to be individuals that have problem-solving skills (çavuş, 2004). with social problem-solving skills, children learn to be in good relationships with their friends and to be responsible for their behaviors by developing the skills necessary to communicate effectively with _____________ 1 selcuk university, faculty of health sciences, department of child development, konya, turkey, e-mail: gokhankayili@selcuk.edu.tr, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-00017959-4128 2 ministry of national education, kemal rızvanoglu primary school, konya, turkey, e-mail: erdal.zeynep@hotmail.com, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6159-5632 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.20212164 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7959-4128 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7959-4128 mailto:erdal.zeynep@hotmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6159-5632 gökhan kayili & zeynep erdal 44 their environment. in addition, thanks to this skill, children are able to understand their own emotions and the emotions of others and look at events from the perspective of others (bingham, 1998; shure, 2001). especially children with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder, who act impulsively and tend to be aggressive, are likely to experience social problem solving difficulties. this type of children behave aggressively, lacking an empathic perspective and acting without thinking about the non-aggressive solution. it is stated that children with problem-solving skills play more constructive games, are liked more by their peers, and exhibit more cooperative behaviors at home and at school (webster-stratton, 2012). children mature and develop greatly in social problem solving during their school years. around the age of seven, children tend to display prosocial behaviors, such as relying on friendly persuasion and compromise, rather than on antisocial behaviors like tugging, hitting, or insisting that the other child conforms to them, thinking about alternatives when their first strategy doesn't work, and resolving conflicts without adult intervention. however, children aged five cannot think that problem-solving behaviors will affect the future of their relationships. this is also related to their cognitive maturity (mayeux & cillessen, 2003; yeates, schultz, & selman, 1991). problem solving is a very important skill for individuals to cope with life's problems and adapt to life. as the individual ages, the conditions and environmental factors change over time and the problems they encounter become more complex. for this reason, individuals should gain problem solving skills in early childhood because if they cannot manage the problems and find solutions as they get older, they lose their self-confidence and are more likely to lead an unhappy life. a society of such individuals is in danger and can fall apart. only people with the necessary problem-solving skills can lead the society to a better future. thus, considering that problem solving skill not only affects the individual's own abilities but also the society in which s/he lives, the necessary importance should be given to solving social problems. one of the questions that arise here is whether problem solving is an innate skill, or whether it is gained later by various methods. however, kneeland (2001) has stated that in fact there are not many people with sufficient training to master this skill. intervening children with poor social problem-solving skills supports development in various ways. effective social problem solving allows children to successfully cope with stressful life situations, as well as the development of peer relationships. in addition, it reduces the risk of adjustment difficulties in disadvantaged children from families with low socioeconomic status (goodman, gravitt, & kaslow, 1995). readily accessible in the literature, intervention programs that support social problem-solving in children have made positive contributions to children's development (bash & camp, 1985; battistich, schaps & wilson, 2004; beelmann, pfingste, & lösel, 1994; brown, odom, & mcconnell, 2008; durlak, weissberg, dymnicki, taylor, & schellinger, 2011; goldstein & pentz, 1984; schneider, 1992; shure, 2001; websterstratton, 2012; weissberg, kumpfer, & seligman, 2003). the most effective and correct use of mental processes can only be achieved with a qualified education program. various methods and techniques are included by enriching the contents of the educational programs in order for children to find alternative solutions to their problems (clark, cuthbert, lewis-fernández, narrow, & reed, 2017). when these methods and techniques are applied at certain time intervals, they contribute to the skill acquisition of children. these include social problem solving education with direct teaching approach, social problem solving education based on cognitive process approach, collaborative learning method, peer-mediated teaching method, modeling and video modeling method, role playing technique, coaching, homework and drama method (gardner, cartledge, seidl, woolsey, & schley, 2001; webster-stratton, 2012; webster-stratton & reid, 2004;). the drama based storytelling method, which is used as an intervention method in the research, includes most of these methods with its eclectic perspective. especially in recent years, stories and drama have attracted great attention among the methods used in the development of problem solving skills. the origin of the word "story" comes from the word "mesel" in arabic, and the history of its literal usage today is quite recent. instead of this term, which has a history of 130 years, words that have their own meaning such as parable, epic and story were previously used. children’s problem solving skills: does drama… 45 the "mesel" form of the word, which will turn into a "story" over time, began to appear from the beginning of the 19th century, thus, a new meaning is loaded in addition to its old meaning of “mesel” (sakaoğlu, 2016). “story” in the dictionary of turkish language association is defined as "the literary genre, which is generally created by the folk, based on imagination, living in an oral tradition, mostly describing the extraordinary events experienced by humans, animals and beings such as witches, gnomes, giants and fairies (ministry of national education [mone], 2013). the boratav defines story as a short narrative spoken in prose, independent of religiosity and magic, beliefs and customs, completely imaginary, unrelated to reality and without any pretense to make anyone believe what it tells. according to him, the main feature that distinguishes the story from the legend and the epic, no matter what kind of story it is, is that it is a type of narration that gives the impression of the creation of dreams (boratav, 2019). stories and fairy tales foster children’s imagination and act as a bridge between the fantasy world and the real world. from stories, children notice the acceptable and unacceptable behaviors of the society they live in, and learn how to adapt them to their own life when they encounter problems arising from these behaviors especially in the preschool period. children also learn how to produce solutions in these negative situations since the events and characters encountered are advisory. we can say that stories that contain all these features have many advantages such as increasing vocabulary knowledge, developing attention and problem solving skills, and establishing cause effect relationships. today, based on these advantages, stories provide creation of awareness by combining their strengths with effective methods that can improve children’s skills. drama, one of the most effective methods used to create awareness, has been included in educational activities for many years (bolton, 2007; webster, 2010). drama, with its inclusion in education, beginning in england and america in the 20th century, is currently either used as a teaching method to teach certain subjects in schools of many educational levels or included in the programs as a stand-alone course (powell, 2020; sağlam, 1997). adıgüzel (2013) and szecsi (2008) defines drama as: “activities with actions inside that include internal and external movements in which one or more people interact with each other, the nature or other objects and their life situations to a large extent.”. preschool drama is an activity that aims to help the childlearn by doing and experiencing and supports all developmental areas.it has predetermined goals, is based on expressing events with verbal or non-verbal communication methods, and includes animations (ministry of national education [mone], 2013). practicing by giving the child an active role around a certain story ensures more effective learning in the educational drama, which is seen to be a valuable learning tool as one type of drama. therefore, stories can be considered among the techniques that are frequently used in the drama method. according to önder (2016), role-playing, the most basic technique of educational drama, has a quality that runs mental processes by putting oneself in another's place in her mind. the child can evaluate himself in different situations by acting different roles in role playing. thus, role-playing contributes to the child on development of self-perception, language development, knowledge of rules and empathy positively. in preschool education program prepared by the mone (2013), it is emphasized how important it is to carry out drama activities and include dramatic play centers in classrooms while planning daily activities. since drama practices are used in preschool education plans for educational purposes, children can recognize their own identity and body by the help of drama, maintain harmonious relationships with the people living around and the group they work in, produce new ideas and find different solutions to problems. also in the drama, attention should be paid to the acquisition rather than the artistic dimension in roleplays. creative thinking skills develop and permanent learning occurs when questions like who, what, why, when, how, and where are prioritized in drama activitiesand the activities are prepared within this framework (erdoğan, 2019; ritter & mostert, 2017). in ancient times, people used to tell stories to convey their experiences to other people and to spread the beliefs of society.accordingly, it can be said that the origins of storytelling date back to very old times. in every culture and society, storytellers take different names such as shaman, meddah, kıssahan, şehnamehan, mukallid, dengbej, minstrel, bard epic, story mother, story ancestor, nakkal, seanachaithe, rakugo, echo master and so on (berlin, 2001; topçam, 2019). the storyteller conveys events in words and gökhan kayili & zeynep erdal 46 images, often by improvising and embellishing. the training of the storyteller has been carried out in a master-apprentice relationship until this time, and the apprentice, growing up with a narrator, is encouraged by the master and passes the stories to other generations when the time comes. nowadays storytelling education is carried out in the form of in-service training courses or short and long term workshops. we can show argın kubin, şeyda çevik and aslı hazar as examples to those who have recently adopted storytellingas a profession. at the seiba international storytelling center founded by the storytellers nazlı çevik azazi, ayşe senem donatan and şeyda çevik who developed themselves in this field, professional storytellers are trained. also “basic level storytelling trainer training course” was given for the first time in 2019 as an in-service training by the ministry of national education general directorate of teacher training and development with a goal to teach various methods and techniques related to storytelling to teachers in various branches who want to improve themselves in this field (mone, 2019). in this sense, the main goal of this research is to find out whether the problem solving training providedthrough drama based storytelling method (dbsm) affects five-year-old children’s problem solving skills. accordingly, the following hypotheses will be tested: 1. does the problem solving training provided through drama based storytelling method affect the problem solving skills of the five-year-old children? 2. is the problem solving training provided through drama based storytelling method more effective in improving the problem solving skills of five-year-old children than the pre-school education program currently implemented? 3. is the effect of problem solving training provided through drama based storytelling method permanent? 4. does preschool education program that is currently implemented affect the problem solving skills of five-year-old children? method research design with an aim to examine the effect of problem solving training provided through dbsm, this study was done using quasi-experimental design, one of the quantitative research methods. in the quasiexperimental design, when the experimental and control groups are formed, forming groups from test subjects with similar characteristics rather than randomly chosen ones distinguishes this model from the true experimental design (fraenkel & wallen, 2006; stuart & rubin, 2007). in the research, pretest posttest control group experimental design was used. the scale of problem solving skills (spss) was administered to both the experimental group and the control group just before and soon after the intervention program. a follow-up test was given to the experimental group two weeks after the post-test in order to determine the follow-up effect of the program. personal information form was filled in for both groups after the study group was divided into experimental and control groups. afterwards, the spss pre-test was administered individually to 40 children from experimental and control groups. mone preschool education program was applied to control group. in addition to the mone preschool education program, problem solving training provided through drama based storytelling method was given to the experimental group one hour two days a week for seven weeks. in the problem solving training provided through drama based storytelling method, 14 stories were told twice per week for seven weeks and the drama of these stories were acted out. the spss post-test was administered to experimental and control groups following the problem solving training. a follow-up test was administered to the experimental group 2 weeks following the spss post-test. research group before starting the research, the proposal of the research was examined in terms of ethics at the board of directors of the social sciences institute of selcuk university and it was accepted on 18.04.2019. during children’s problem solving skills: does drama… 47 this period, families of children who would continue the intervention program were interviewed and consent forms with wet signature were filled in. the study group consisted of five-year-old children who received pre-school education in a nursery class affiliated to a primary school in the central district of selcuklu, konya, in the fall semester of the 2018-2019 academic year. multi-stage sampling was used when forming the sample. the multi-stage sampling method is defined as the sampling method in which the sampling process is completed in two or more stages (büyüköztürk, 2013; sedgwick, 2015). in the first stage, a nursery class affiliated to a primary school located in the central district of selcuklu in konya was selected by using the cluster sampling method, in which sample selection is made on a group basis. in the second stage, children were assigned to experimental and control groups based on their pre-test scores, considering their gender and age by using purposeful sampling. the researchers held a face-to-face meeting with the families of the children participating in the research group and made a commitment regarding ethical rules in this meeting. in this meeting, an agreement to participate in the research was signed with the parents of the experimental and control groups’ children. a total of 40 children, 20 in the experimental group and 20 in the control group, were included in the study. all the participants had oneyear preschool education at the time. the gender distribution of the children for both experimental and control groups was as follows: 12 (60%) girls and 8 (40%) boys for the experimental group, 11 (55%) girls and 9 (45%) boys for the control group. considering the distribution of paternal educational background of the children in the experimental group, 5 (25%) are university graduates, 8 (40%) are high school graduates, 5 (25%) are secondary school and 2 (10%) are primary school graduates. as with the distribution of paternal educational background of the children in the control group, 6 (30%) are university graduates, 7 (35%) are high school graduates, 6 (30%) are secondary school, and 1 (5%) is primary school graduate. overall, fathers in both groups showed varied educational backgrounds with 11 (27.5%) university graduates, 15 (37.5%) high school graduates, 11 (27.5) secondary school graduates and 3 (7.5%) primary school graduates. regarding the maternal educational backgrounds of the children in the experimental and control groups, 5 (25%) are university graduates, 6 (30%) are high school graduates, 7 (35%) are secondary school, and 2 (10%) are primary school graduates. considering the maternal educational background of the children in the control group, 4 (20%) are university graduates, 6 (30%) are high school graduates, 8 (40%) are secondary school, and 2 (10%) are primary school graduates. overall, mothers also had varied educational background with 9 (22.5%) university graduates, 12 (30%) high school graduates, 15 (37.5) secondary school graduates, and 4 (10%) primary school graduates. in order to test whether the pre-test mean scores of the children in the experimental and control groups showed similarity, the pre-intervention mean scores of both groups were analyzed using the mann whitney u test. table 1. mann whitney u test results related to pre-test scores of the experimental and control group according to table 1, no statistically significant difference was found between the spss pre-test scores of the children in the experimental and control groups (u=154.500, p>0.05). these values analyzed considering mean rank and sum of ranks indicated that pre-test scores of the experimental group children and the control group children were alike at baseline. the drama based storytelling method first of all, an extensive literature review was undertaken in turkey (domestic) and abroad while the drama based story-telling method was developed. the literature review indicated that various methods and techniques are used by enriching the contents of school programs in order to find alternative solutions to their problems in educational environments where children socialize. these methods and techniques contribute to the skill acquisition in children when applied at certain times. especially in recent group n mean rank sum of ranks x̄ sd u p experimental control 20 20 22.78 18.22 455.50 364.50 27.65 26.30 3.74 4.06 154.500 .215 gökhan kayili & zeynep erdal 48 years, stories or fairy stories and drama have drawn attention among the methods used in developing problem solving skills. based on this, 14 stories were written and drama plans were prepared for the animation of the stories by the researchers in accordance with the 18 problem situations in the spss. stories were finalized following their analysis by a storyteller and a drama instructor made drama plans. the researchers informed the children in the pre-test process that they would do activities together. after pretest data was collected, problem-solving training was provided to the experimental group with the drama based story-telling method, which was scheduled to be delivered in one-hour sessions two days a week for 7 weeks. 20 and 40 minutes were allocated for storytelling and drama respectively. firstly, the stories were told by the researcher, and then the characters and their roles in the stories were acted out by the children. after the drama, feedback was provided along with the evaluations. one of the researchers, who applied the program, participated in the storytelling and drama training certificate programs. this method is implemented in two stages: stage 1: the story is told following the preparation of the physical conditions and materials by the teacher or researcher. • first of all, an atmosphere is prepared in accordance with the storytelling method that can attract the interest and attention of children. during the storytelling, materials to be used with the story are included; these materials can be story carpet, candle, puppets suitable for characters, musical instruments, rhythm sticks, mirrors and so on. • before starting the story, children are informed about the rhythm and repetitions used in the story. for example when the narrator says “trik” while opening the closed doors in the story, he asks children to say “trak” (dede, 2017). • before the story, an imaginary cream is used to prepare the child’s body for the story. the child’s body, when applied this imaginary cream called invisibility cream, calms down and blood circulation slows down. cream, being invisible, acts as a shield for the child to feel safe and to protect himself from all kinds of evils in adventures with story heroes. • before the story, a song or a nursery rhyme is sung to attract the attention of the children. children focus on getting into the story and giving their full attention to the story along with the song or nursery rhyme. for example, “i peeled an orange, put it on my bedside, i made up a story, let the story hour begin. tick, ticking, tick, ticking, let the story hour begin". • a candle, lantern or oil lamp is used according to the preference of the narrator at the beginning and end of the story hour. these materials can be used when telling a story in this age group, as it shows the child the beginning and the end of the story concretely. for example, the child perceives that the time has started with the candle lit when the story begins, and when it is put out, he understands that the story ends. • the narrator should adjust his tone of voice, gestures and mimics in accordance with the story by integrating with the story during the storytelling. the narrator may use a set of story phrases to attract the attention of the audience at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of the story. these include, for example, "once upon a time", "once there was”, “along time ago”, "so, that is how the story ends", or "they lived happily ever after”. • the narrator actively engage children in the stories so that the ending of the story can be more effective and vivid in the children’s minds. while the storyteller says "at that time, three apples fell from the sky; one for the children listening to the story, one for the storyteller who tells the story, and one for the heroes of the story", he may ask the children to hold and bite the apple by throwing the first imaginary apple. he can grab and bite the second apple himself and he may ask the children to grab the third apple and throw it to the heroes of the story. thus, children will probably feel more joyful at the end of the story. • after telling the story, the narrator asks questions so that the children can recognize the problematic behavior and asks them to tell events from their own lives. then, preparations are made for children’s problem solving skills: does drama… 49 the drama of the story. stage 2: drama is created following the preparation of the physical conditions and materials by the teacher or researcher. • the teacher is both the storyteller and the leader of the drama in the drama based storytelling method. the teacher guides the children to act out the story in accordance with the stages of the drama after the storytelling. before the drama begins, costumes or masks that go with the characters, the story and the physical conditions suitable for the story can be created. • in drama based story telling method, the drama begins within the framework of drama plans in a way to be suitable for five-year-olds, and is prepared within the scope of the acquisition and indicators. the applied drama plans are prepared in a flexible way that may change depending on the attention span of the children and the conditions of the atmosphere. • the first phase of the drama is warm-up. the warm-up is a phase in which the rules are determined by the leader and the rules are more distinct than those in other phases. the body goes into action heavily and the senses are used simultaneously. it is essential to create a group dynamic such as gaining confidence and adapting. at this stage, children's games or some invented games are used effectively. for example; finding one’s partner, who has the hat, changing location by saying a name, who is missing, mirror and image are just a few of them. in addition, music and rhythm practices make it more fun by making it easier to warm up. • the second phase of the drama is impersonation. this is the stage in which impersonations are made in certain stages within the framework of a subject or theme, determined in line with the goals the leader wants to achieve. while applying the drama based story telling method, the stories written by the storyteller are animated at this stage. in this stage of the drama, improvisation and techniques of role playing are generally used more often. in accordance with the characters of the story, the roles are assigned starting first with the children who are eager or more enthusiastic to participate. the teacher, who takes on the leader role in the drama, just guides during the impersonation. he does not interfere with the children. within the framework of the general plot in the stories, the children act out the story by emphasizing problem behaviors with sentences they use as improvisation at that moment. • at the end of the impersonation phase, children find themselves in the relaxation stage, the third stage of the drama. exercises for relaxation can be done physically, mentally and spiritually. at this stage, children relax their bodies, their minds and spiritually themselves through activities such as melting the snowman, pretending, lying on the floor and making some movements with instructions and music. • the evaluation phase comes after the relaxation activity. in the evaluation phase, children sit on the floor by forming a semicircle under the leadership of the teacher. in the drama based story telling method, discussions are held about how problem behaviors in the stories are reflected, how it feels to have a difficulty and what is felt while enacting these behaviors and how to find solutions to these problem behaviors. in addition, questions about warm-up and relaxation exercises are also asked. data collection instruments “personal information form” and “the scale of problem solving skills (spss)” developed by oğuz and köksal akyol (2015) were used as data collection instruments in the research. the scale of problem-solving skills (spss): the scale of problem solving skills (spss) is an instrument that aims to determine the problem-solving skills levels of children attending kindergarten classes. the spss includes eighteen problem situations and eighteen drawings relevant to these problem situations. the spss is rated on a five-point likert-type scale. in the scale, points between “0-4” are taken for the solution produced for each problem situation. pointing system in the scale works as follow: “0” point for no suggestion, “1” point for one suggestion, “2” points for two suggestions, “3” points for three suggestions and “4” points for more than three suggestions. in order for the child to get points from the solutions he produces regarding the problem situation, each solution must be different from other solutions gökhan kayili & zeynep erdal 50 suggested. in practice, the child can repeat a solution he gives. repeated solutions are not rated. the score to be obtained from the spss ranges between 0-72. higher points in the spss represent better problem solving skills. in other words, the increase in the spss points of children shows that the child's problem solving skills have improved. in the spss, a child can get fifty points by responding to many problem situations. however, another child can get fifty points and produce a lot more alternative solutions, by responding to fewer questions. the important thing in the spss is that the child can produce more alternative solutions and the questions are only a tool. it does not matter which questions the child answers; the goal is the number of answers. the validity of the scale was tested by means of the content-validity index and exploratory factor analysis. the reliability of the scale was tested through cronbach’s alpha internal consistency coefficient and test-retest reliability coefficient. the indexes were analyzed for two aspects: the appropriateness of the items and the appropriateness of the drawings. finally, the content-validity indexes for the two aspects were 0.99 and 0.96 respectively. the exploratory factor analysis concluded that the spss had one-factor structure, which accounted for 30.68% of the total variance. cronbach’s alpha internal consistency coefficient was α=.86. the correlation coefficient was .60, which was significant and moderate. the mean scores in the first and second administrations of the spss did not differ significantly. the validity and reliability analyses demonstrated that the spss is an appropriate instrument for children aged 60 to 72 months (oğuz & köksal akyol, 2015). the test was administered by the researcher. each test took approximately 15 minutes to complete. analysis of the data in the research, the data obtained from the data collection instruments were analyzed using the mann whitney u test and wilcoxon signed ranks test. ibm spss 22.0 data analysis package program for social sciences was used for the data analysis. the reason for the use of nonparametric tests in the study is due to the fact that the data do not show normal distribution after normality test (shapiro-wilk test, p<.05). mann whitney u test was used to test whether the scores obtained from two unrelated groups differ significantly from each other and wilcoxon signed ranks test was used to test the significance level of the difference between the scores of the associated measure set. cohen’s d was calculated for the effect size between the means of problem solving skills scores. cohen’s d is simply a measure used to determine the distance between two means. regardless of its sign, cohen’s d value is interpreted as small (.2), medium (.5) and large (.8) (cohen, 1977, 1992). results this research was undertaken to test whether the problem-solving training given through dramabased storytelling method, the independent variable of the research, has an effect on the problem-solving skills of five-year-old children and in this part of the research, findings related to the sub-questions are presented. findings related to the spss pre-test and post-test scores of the experimental group the difference between the spss pre-test and post-test scores of the experimental group children was analyzed with the wilcoxon signed ranks test and findings of the comparison were presented in table 2. table 2. wilcoxon signed ranks test results and cohen’s d value related to the pre-test and post-test scores of the experimental group group n mean rank sum of ranks z p d negative rank positive rank equal 0 20 0 .00 10.50 .00 210.00 -3.923* .000** .70 *based on negative ranks **p<.001 as seen in table 2, a statistically significant difference exists between the spss pre-test and post-test https://www.tandfonline.com/reader/content/1743784be7d/10.1080/03004430.2017.1336168/format/epub/epub/xhtml/index.xhtml#cit0011 children’s problem solving skills: does drama… 51 scores of the experimental group children (z=3.923, p<0.001). considering the mean rank and sum of ranks, it can be said that the drama based storytelling method has an important effect on the development of the experimental group children’s problem solving skills. in the analysis regarding the problem solving skills scores of the experimental group children, cohen’s d value calculated for the group shows that the effect size is medium and explains 70% of the variability in the pretest and posttest scores. findings related to the difference between the spss post-test scores of the experimental and control group the difference between the spss post-test scores of the children in the experimental and control groups was tested with the mann whitney u test and the findings of the comparison were presented in table 3. table 3. mann whitney u test results and cohen’s d value related to the post-test scores of the experimental and control group *p<.001 in table 3, a statistically significant difference is seen between the experimental and control group children’s post-test scores on the spss (u=30.000, p<0.001). considering mean rank and sum of ranks, it was observed that the spss post-test mean score of the experimental group children receiving preschool education with drama-based storytelling method was higher than the spss post-test mean score of control group children who received the mone preschool education program. in the analysis of the problem solving skills of children in the experimental and control groups, the cohen’s d value calculated for the group shows that the effect size is medium, and being in different groups explains 70% of the variability in posttest scores. findings related the spss follow-up test scores of experimental group the difference between the spss post-test and follow up test scores of the experimental group children was tested with the wilcoxon signed ranks test and the findings of the comparison were presented in table 4. table 4. wilcoxon signed ranks test results for the spss post-test and follow up test scores of experimental group group n mean rank sum of ranks z p negative rank positive rank equal 7 3 4 5.71 5.00 40.00 15.00 -1.293* .196 * based on positive ranks as seen in table 4, there is no statistically significant difference between the spss posttest and follow-up test scores of the experimental group children (z=1.293, p>0.05). considering the mean rank and sum of ranks, it is seen that there is no relation in the experimental group children in terms of post-test and follow up test scores. these results of the follow-up test shows that children in the experimental program maintained their skill development. findings related to the spss pre-test and post-test scores of the control group the difference between the spss pre-test and post-test scores of the control group children was analyzed with the wilcoxon signed ranks test and the findings for comparison were presented in table 5. group n mean rank sum of ranks x̄ sd u p d experimental control 20 20 29.00 12.00 580.00 240.00 43.80 29.85 9.13 3.58 30.000 .000* .70 gökhan kayili & zeynep erdal 52 table 5. wilcoxon signed ranks test results and cohen’s d value related to the spss pre-test and post-test scores of the control group group n mean rank sum of ranks z p d negative rank positive rank equal 1 19 0 9.50 10.55 9.50 200.50 -3.583* .000** .42 * based on negative ranks ** p <.001 the data in table 5 shows that there is a statistically significant difference between the spss pre-test and post-test mean scores of the control group children (z = 3.583, p <0.001). considering the mean rank and sum of ranks, it can be said that mone pre-school education program currently implemented has an important effect on the development of problem solving skills of control group children. in the analysis regarding the problem solving skills scores of the control group children, cohen’s d value calculated for the group shows that the effect size is medium and explains 42% of the variability in the pretest and posttest scores. conclusion and discussion general results obtained based on research findings are presented in this section. it is the aim of this research to examine the effect of problem solving training provided through drama based storytelling method on the problem solving skills of five-year-old children. a total of 40 children, 20 in the experimental group and 20 in the control group, were included in the research. the research adopted pre-test-posttest control group design. the follow up test was administered to the experimental group 2 weeks after the post tests and the permanence of the intervention was evaluated. according to this research, 1. the problem solving training provided through drama based storytelling method affects the problem solving skills of five-year-old children. 2. the problem-solving training provided through drama based storytelling method is more effective than the mone preschool education program in improving the problem solving skills of five-year-old children. 3. the effect of problem solving training provided through drama based storytelling method is permanent. 4. mone preschool education program affects the problem solving skills of five-year-old children. in conclusion, the results of the research showed that problem solving training provided through drama based storytelling method implemented together with mone preschool education program makes a positive contribution to the problem solving skills of five-year-old children and it is more effective than the mone preschool education program. in addition, both the experimental group and the control group children’s spss post-test scores are higher than their pre-test scores. this means there is an increase in the scores of both experimental and control group children. this is an indication that the mone preschool education program makes positive contributions to the problem solving skills of five-year-old children. graves, frabutt, & vigliano (2007) found in their research that interpersonal problem-solving education given through drama and role-playing method increased the communication and social problem solving skills of primary and secondary school students. drama and role playing have been used extensively in the drama-based storytelling method. the child can use all kinds of elements of communication in drama processes. communication and sharing with individuals is the basis of drama. with this feature, drama requires using communication elements. every stage of drama is based on verbal and non-verbal communication. in addition, drama allows the individual to realize and express his / her own thoughts, emotions and body in a free environment without worrying about being judged. these features of drama may have contributed to the development of communication skills of children participating in the intervention program and thus their interpersonal problem solving skills because the basis of interpersonal children’s problem solving skills: does drama… 53 problem solving is to use the right communication methods (d’zurilla, nezu & maydeu-olivares, 2004). drama allows them to live by bringing the problems, situations and events in the social environment to the agenda of a certain group. the animation stage of the drama is based on the principle of using improvisation and role playing techniques, and the participants animate a topic individually, as a duo or as a group. the topics of drama usually include a problem, a conflict and tension. animating different social problems, situations and events with drama method enables individuals to better understand the society and the relations in the society. this interaction allows individuals to examine appropriate and alternative solutions to social problems, to enact and to experience their results. creative drama process helps individuals gain experience in solving problems (önder, 2016). this feature of drama may have increased children’s problem solving skills. research has shown that sociodramatic play in early childhood classrooms increases opportunities for peer interaction and collaboration fosters healthy social and emotional development as children use drama to solve problems, deal with conflict, conquer fears, adopt new perspectives, regulate emotions, and practice self-regulation skills. story dramas allow children to represent their ideas, feelings, and conflict resolution theories, as well as relate to other children’s stories. these are many of the important skills needed to form a community (curenton, 2006; paley, 1990). according to webster-stratton and reid (2004), there are three different approaches to teaching children social problem solving skills. these are parent training, teacher training and child training which includes direct practices with children. of these, child training is the most common approach and this can be achieved by means of preschool education programs. today, there are many different types of preschool education programs. all known early childhood education programs intend to support all developmental areas of children. it is therefore one of the main goals of these programs to make children individuals who can solve their problems independently by supporting them in all developmental areas. meta-analysis studies looking into the effectiveness of different training models designed to support children’s problem solving skills indicate that these programs have created a significant impact on individuals. however, it is argued that combined programs or those implemented in an eclectic way have produced more effective outcomes compared to single programs (anlıak & dinçer, 2005). it is underlined in the literature that children participating in various programs in early childhood make good progress in their problem solving skills (hutchings et al., 2011; webster-stratton, reid & hammond, 2001). in this research, eclectic way (drama and storytelling) is considered a factor that increased the effectiveness of the program. apart from that, the rituals of the storytelling method may have motivated the experimental group children. another factor thought to affect the research result is the use of drama method. the use of drama method for activities aimed at improving problem-solving skills enables the use of the problem solving steps by the experimental group children in different situations and influences the development of problem-solving skills. it is therefore suggested to provide the opportunity of using the problem-solving steps by organizing activities where problems encountered frequently in daily life are considered and also to support more active participation of the children in the problems that require solving social problems. however, role playing and improvisation are the basis of the techniques we use in drama education. in the stages of problem solving skill development, role playing and improvisation techniques in drama cover cognitive emotion and behaviors. we think that creating problems that include decision making and problem solving and animating them with improvisation and role-playing method contributes positively to children's problem-solving skills. the advantages of drama based storytelling method in educational programs as prepared for children include promoting creative thinking, developing critical thinking, enhancing listening skills, improving the recognition of others and empathetic skills, developing collaboration with the group and respect for peers and supporting positive perspective towards oneself. thus, problem solving skills of children are also supported (köksal akyol, 2018). in addition, children understand themselves, their friends, families and many aspects of the real life by creating, developing and reflecting in the drama and storytelling setting. upon review of various social events, they start thinking about how people live and act under different conditions. they may bring forward different views and analyze personal views https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10643-012-0544-7#ref-cr14 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10643-012-0544-7#ref-cr43 gökhan kayili & zeynep erdal 54 towards others. this will pave the way for children to dissent, discussion and solution (fulford, hutchings, ross, & schmitz, 2001). when the results of similar research on problem solving training provided through drama based storytelling method are examined, similar results have been obtained, supporting the findings of our research. kayılı and arı (2016) state that the presence of dramatic activities, puppets and stories that support conceptual development when used in social skills training programs are effective in the improvement of children’s problem-solving skills. başdaş (2017) examined the effect of the drama-based digital storytelling program on some social skills of 6-year-old children. a total of 48 children, 24 in the experimental and 24 in the control group, did warm-up exercises for the first two weeks and they were administered drama-based storytelling program three hours a week for the following 8 weeks. as a result of the research, a significant difference was observed in favor of the experimental group in sub-dimensions such as controlling anger behavior, adapting to changes, listening, creating goals and completing given tasks. pekdoğan (2016) included 60 children (30 in experimental group, 30 in control group) in his research to examine the effect of the story-based social skills education program on the improvement of social skills of 5-6 year-old preschool children. story-based social skills training program was provided to the children in the experimental group twice a week for 5 weeks. the results showed that there was a significant difference in the social skill scores between the experimental and the control group and the effect of the training program continued. alemdar coşkun (2016) included 66 children in her research in order to examine the effect of the problem solving training program on problem solving skills and interpersonal problem solving skills of kindergartners. during the research process, the problem solving education program prepared by the researcher was applied to 22 children in the experimental group 3 days a week for 8 weeks. it was found that the post-test scores were higher than the pre-test scores of the children in the experimental group in sub-dimensions such as realizing the problem, defining the problem, asking questions, guessing the reason, deciding the adequacy of the information for the solution, defining the elements of the problem, using objects in a different way, predicting the outcome of some actions, finding the most appropriate solution and choosing the most unusual solution among many possible solutions. besides, skills like understanding and defining a problem, collecting necessary information to solve the problem, determining the solution to the problem, choosing the most appropriate solution for the problem, applying the solution determined for the problem, solving and evaluating the problem and interpersonal problem-solving skills can also be improved with educational programs that support children’s problemsolving skills. recommendations the effect of the drama-based storytelling method on problem solving skills can be examined in new studies with larger sample groups and more children. this can be considered a limitation of the current research. the results obtained in our research have revealed the short-term effects of the training program. more studies therefore can be conducted to explore the long-term effects of the training program. the purpose of this research was to improve the problem solving skills of five-year-old children by developing the drama based storytelling method and providing problem solving training. different skill areas can be supported by providing training for these skill areas using the same method in future research. this research was conducted with children of 5 years age group. the follow-up effect of the drama based storytelling method can be tested in younger or older age groups in different research studies. in our study, an education program was prepared in a way that the method of storytelling and drama support each other. a training program can be prepared by combining the storytelling method with different methods in future research. the effect of the storytelling method on the mone preschool education program was analyzed. a research study can also be undertaken to compare storytelling method with different methods in future studies. in the preschool period, drama practices are applied within the framework of certain rules and stages and they are included in the national preschool education program. based on this, stories can be told according to certain rules within the framework of the concept of "storytelling" in the national preschool https://tureng.com/tr/turkce-ingilizce/analyze children’s problem solving skills: does drama… 55 education program and some stages which teachers can apply collaboratively can be included. in-service training related to “storytelling” can be popularized by the ministry of national education. “storytelling” classes can be added to educational programs in order for pre-service teachers to improve themselves or workshops can be created in undergraduate programs of universities. these trainings can be provided for students by establishing “storytelling workshops” in educational institutions. declarations acknowledgements: we would like to thank the experimental and control group children, teachers and families for their participation and cooperation. authors’ contributions: author 1 is the senior and corresponding author of this manuscript. research concept and design: author 1. statistical analysis: author 1. research supervision: author 1. drafting of the manuscript: author 2. collecting data: author 2. implementing the experimental program: author 2. preparation of experimental program: all authors. all authors wrote and reviewed the manuscript. competing interests: the authors declare that they have no competing interests. funding: this research was not supported by any funding. references adıgüzel, h. ö. 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(1991). the development of interpersonal negotiation strategies in thought and action: a social-cognitive link to behavioral adjustment and social status. merrill-palmer quarterly, 37(3), 369-407. https://doi.org/10.1016/0272-7358(92)90142-u https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.h4155 https://doi.org/10.1300/j007v18n03_02 https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412995627.d14 https://doi.org/10.1080/00094056.2009.10523078 https://doi.org/10.3928/01484834-20090918-09 https://doi.org/10.1097/00001163-200404000-00002 https://doi.org/10.1207/s15374424jccp3003_2 https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.58.6-7.425 children’s problem solving skills: does drama based storytelling method work? journal of childhood, education & society volume 1, issue 2, 2020, pp. 141-166 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.20201242 research article ©2020 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. effects of a parent training using telehealth: equity and access to early intervention for rural families deborah l. rooks-ellis1, sarah k. howorth2, susane boulette3, megan kunze4, ella sulinski5 abstract: children living in geographically rural areas may have limited access to early, intensive evidence-based interventions suggesting children residing in these areas are less likely to experience positive outcomes than their urban-dwelling peers. telehealth offers an option to rural families seeking early intervention by using communication technologies where providers are able to consult and deliver services in real-time over geographical distances. to our knowledge, no other study has examined the implementation of p-esdm in rural natural environments within the framework of the state’s early intervention program. using a multiple baseline design across participants, the current study investigated the effects of the parent-early start denver model implemented within a rural northeastern state’s existing idea part c early intervention program. parents demonstrated increased fidelity to intervention strategies and reported satisfaction with the program’s ease of implementation and observed child gains. statistically significant pre-to postchange in children’s asd symptomatology were reported for the domains of communication, social reciprocity and repetitive and restricted behaviors. support for parent-mediated interventions, the importance of fidelity of implementation for sustainability of intervention strategies, and the need to explore telehealth as a viable service delivery option to improve developmental trajectories for toddlers with autism are discussed. article history received: 05 may 2020 accepted: 09 july 2020 keywords early intervention; autism; parent training; telehealth; rural; family-practices introduction autism spectrum disorder (asd) is an early emerging neurodevelopmental disorder defined by delays in social-communication (i.e., social-emotional reciprocity, nonverbal communication, and social relationships) and the presence of restricted and repetitive behaviors, interests, or activities, (i.e., stereotyped or repetitive motor movements, use of objects, or speech; inflexibility; restricted interests or focus; or hyperor hypo-reactivity to sensory input) (american psychiatric association [apa], 2013). the prevalence of asd has steadily risen to the current rate of 1 in 54 children in the u.s. (maenner et al., 2020). in the past decade, the age for a reliable diagnosis of asd has decreased to as early as 14-months with the recommended age for early diagnosis at 18-months (hyman, levy, & myers, 2020; pierce et al., 2019). early diagnosis has led to an increased demand for developmental and behavioral early intervention. the supply of services has not kept up with this demand, forcing families to wait for these intervention services (hyman et al., 2020; smith-young, chafe, & audas, 2020). early intervention for asd population the benefits of early intervention are long established in research (chawarska, macari, volkmar, kim, & shic, 2014; estes et al., 2014; hyman et al., 2020). interventions initiated before age three have a greater and more positive impact on development than interventions that began after age five (kasari, _____________ 1 university of maine, school of learning and teaching, orono, me, usa, e-mail deborah.l.rooks@maine.edu, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4317-1593 2 university of maine, school of learning and teaching,, orono, me, usa, e-mail: sarah.howorth@maine.edu, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4292-301x 3 maine department of education, maine child development services, augusta, me, usa, e-mail: sue.boulette@gmail.com, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4566-7995 4 university of oregon, department of special education and clinical sciences, eugene, or, usa, e-mail: mkunze@uoregon.edu, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4449-2719 5 university of maine, school of social work, orono, me, usa, e-mail: ella.sulinski@maine.edu, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1830-5609 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.20201242 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:deborah.l.rooks@maine.edu https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4317-1593 mailto:sarah.howorth@maine.edu https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4292-301x mailto:sue.boulette@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4566-7995 mailto:mkunze@uoregon.edu https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4449-2719 mailto:ella.sulinski@maine.edu https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1830-5609 deborah l. rooks-ellis et al. 142 gulsrud, freeman, paparella, & hellemann, 2012; kasari, gulsrud, wong, kwon, & locke, 2010). specifically, children with autism who receive early, intensive interventions demonstrate improvements in social-communication and adaptive skills with decreased engagement in restricted and repetitive behaviors; often demonstrating improvements in adaptive functioning throughout childhood and later in life (lin & koegel, 2018; reichow, hume, barton, & boyd, 2018; shire, gulsrud, & kasari, 2016). the positive outcomes associated with early intervention have been attributed to systematically implemented evidence-based interventions (wong et al., 2015). evaluation of intervention effectiveness as measured by fidelity (caron, bérubé, & paquet, 2017), and assessment of these interventions for usability and acceptability (e.g., measurement of social validity, generalization to other caregivers, and maintenance over time), as well as flexibility (e.g., planning for uniqueness of individualized behavior targets), continue to raise the bar; ideally resulting in established, high-quality intervention packages to better target asd symptomatology and serve young children and families (matson & goldin, 2014; matson & konst, 2013; matson & rieske, 2014; rivard et al., 2017; zwaigenbaum et al., 2015). parent-mediated early intervention parent-mediated interventions are defined as “technique-focused interventions where the parent is the agent of change and the child is the direct beneficiary of treatment” (bearss, burrell, stewart, & scahill, 2015; bearss et al., 2018). parent-mediated interventions can positively impact child outcomes, which speaks to the importance of individualized, evidence-based early intervention by parents as mediators and adequate interventionist coaching (beaudoin, sébire, & couture, 2019; fettig & ostrosky, 2011). recent studies have suggested that when parents are actively engaged in the treatment process and are coached to incorporate specific behavioral and developmental strategies into daily routines and family activities, then positive outcomes are achieved for young children with asd (mcintyre & zemantic, 2017). likewise, researchers have demonstrated parent involvement helps to facilitate generalization across environments, thereby providing the “real life” intensity of services necessary for significant changes in many toddlers with asd (brian, smith, zwaigenbaum, & bryson, 2017; mcintyre & zemantic, 2017; wallace & rogers, 2010). telehealth (i.e., two-way computer-based videoconferencing) research when used with families of children with asd is increasing. for example, functional communication training (wacker et al., 2013, wainer & ingersoll, 2015), pivotal response training (nefdt, koegel, singer, & gerber, 2010), and behavioral consultation (simacek, dimian, & mccomas, 2017) have been successfully delivered using telehealth with this population. this transference of intervention skills through coaching of parents via telehealth has become more prominent (ashburner, vickerstaff, beetge, & copley, 2016). in fact, telehealth has shown to be a successful means of training educators and caregivers in both school and early intervention settings to conduct functional assessments, create individualized behavior plans and innovative classroom management techniques (neely, rispoli, gerow, & hong, 2016). similarly, it has been demonstrated that fidelity of parent-mediated intervention has been at higher levels when compared to similar interventions delivered face to face (mcduffie et al., 2016). more recently, telehealth has been used to train parents of young children with autism to implement early intervention strategies in their home using the parentimplemented early start denver model (p-esdm), which employs the science of applied behavior analysis and developmental, relationship-based intervention (rogers, dawson, & vismara, 2012; vismara et al., 2018). parents reported positivity toward the use of technology and telehealth as a means to learn parentled intervention skills, and findings demonstrated emerging support for p-esdm (rogers, et al., 2012; vismara et al., 2018). access for families in rural areas children living in geographically rural areas may have limited access to early, intensive evidencebased interventions suggesting children residing in these areas are less likely to experience positive outcomes than their urban-dwelling peers (mello, goldman, urbano, & hodapp, 2016). access to trained providers is also identified as a barrier for rural families as they are often made to wait their turn for services or face additional costs to travel long distances to obtain necessary services widening the equity gap due effects of a parent training using telehealth: equity and access to early intervention… 143 to geographical location (martinez et al., 2018). telehealth offers an option to rural families seeking early intervention by using communication technologies where providers are able to consult and deliver services in real-time over geographical distances. telehealth integrates principles of adult learning within the multimedia environment to increase parents’ understanding, retention, and use of early intervention (baggett et al., 2010). increasing the availability of evidence-based interventions through telehealth may be a valid solution to closing the gap between service demand and availability in rural and underserved areas. current study the current study investigated the effects of the p-esdm as implemented by an early interventionist present within the state’s existing individuals with disabilities education act (idea, 2004) part c early intervention program. the study examined the feasibility of parent implementation of p-esdm via telehealth to allow for statewide implementation of p-esdm across a rural northeastern state to improve outcomes for young children with asd and their families. additionally, researchers sought to understand the pre to post change in child’s asd symptomatology and the usability of the telehealth presentation for families, specifically for families residing in rural and underserved areas. to our knowledge, no other study has examined the implementation of p-esdm in rural natural environments within the framework of the state’s early intervention program. specifically, the research questions for this study were: research question 1: is there a functional relationship between parents’ fidelity of implementation of pesdm intervention strategies and their participation in p-esdm parent training via telehealth? research question 2: what changes in children’s asd symptoms do parents report? and research question 3: how do parents residing in rural areas describe the usability and acceptability of pesdm via telehealth? method participants and setting family participants. family participants were recruited through the state’s existing idea part c early intervention program with a specific focus on recruiting families from rural and underserved areas. families represented seven of the state’s nine idea part c early intervention program sites. inclusionary criteria for the parent-child dyads were as follows: (a) child was enrolled in the state’s early intervention program as defined by idea (b) child had high risk (i.e., m-chat scores, sibling with asd, informed clinical opinion) or an existing diagnosis of asd by a licensed psychologist or physician, (c) parents provided informed consent for at least one primary parent and child to participate in study activities, (d) participating parent was able to participate in all sessions, and (e) parent had access to technology to support zoom® video conferencing (e.g., internet, smart phone, computer, laptop, tablet). a total of ten parent-child dyads participated in the study. children ranged in age from 25 to 33 months at the start of the study, with a mean age of 29.3 months. none of the children were receiving services outside of the parent-implemented intervention during the course of this study. parent participants were female (9/10, 90%) and male (1/10, 10%) and reported as caucasian (8/10, 80%), hispanic (1/10, 10%), and native american (1/10, 10%), with 60% (6/10) having completed high school or some college, and 40% (4/10) having earned a college degree. participants were employed part-to-full time (6/10, 60%), others reported not being employed outside of the home (3/6, 30%), and one parent chose not to respond (1/10, 10%). six parents (60%) reported high internet usage (e.g., more than 5 hours/day) and four parents (40%) reported low internet usage (e.g., less than 5 hours/day). income was reported as $50,000/year or higher by 60% (6/10) participants, with 40% (4/10) having earned less than $50,000/year. using the u.s. census bureau’s measure of population size and density to define rural, 100% of participating families lived in rural settings. deborah l. rooks-ellis et al. 144 setting. assessment and intervention activities were conducted in family participants’ homes in person during baseline, and via internet-based telehealth during intervention. family demographic information is included in table 1. table 1. child and family characteristics baseline characteristics n=10 child’s age at enrollment (months) m=29.3 (sd=2.36) child’s gender male 6 female 4 child’s ethnicity hispanic 1 american indian or alaska native 1 caucasian 8 parent’s gender male 1 female 9 parent’s age 25-34 6 35-44 3 55+ 1 geographic setting rural 10 family income less than $50,000 4 more than $50,000 6 parent’s education high school 1 some college 5 college degree 3 graduate degree 1 parent’s employment not employed outside of the home 3 partor full-time employment 6 parent’s internet use low internet use 4 high internet use 6 experimental design research activities and training protocols were approved by the university’s institutional review board (irb). this study used a concurrent multiple baseline across participants design to evaluate the effects of a parent-implemented intervention for toddlers with asd in terms of three dependent variables: (a) fidelity of parents’ implementation of intervention strategies, (b) pre to post change in children’s asd symptomatology, and (c) parent description of the usability and acceptability of p-esdm via telehealth. each family served as its own control. to meet the quality indicators and standards of single-case experimental research, a minimum of three data points in the baseline phase were collected on parent fidelity and a decision to move to the next phase was based on the stability of the data (horner et al., 2005; what works clearinghouse, 2020). independent variable (iv) p-esdm intervention. in our rural northeastern state, parents and families of young children with autism are offered the early start denver model (rogers & dawson, 2010) as an option for idea part c early intervention services. for this reason, the p-esdm was chosen as the intervention for this study because it follows the same science of applied behavior analysis and developmental, relationship-based intervention of the esdm. the family-centered approach of p-esdm aligns with the state’s primary service provider model in which one member of the multidisciplinary team is selected to be the family’s primary contact for early intervention services. likewise, our state faces persistent personnel shortages in early childhood intervention, often cited as a barrier to accessing high quality services for families living in rural effects of a parent training using telehealth: equity and access to early intervention… 145 and remote areas (martinez et al., 2018). for this reason, telehealth was chosen as the means for implementation of p-esdm. during the 12-weeks of p-esdm intervention, parents were taught how to use the 10 topics of pesdm to target multiple skills within their child’s daily routines and activities to strengthen and support their child’s development. examples of family routines and activities included reading a book together, eating breakfast, diaper changing, and family outings. p-esdm topics included attention and motivation, sensory social routines, joint activity routines, nonverbal communication, imitation, joint attention, speech development, functional and symbolic play skills, and the teaching techniques of applied behavior analysis (see table 2 for p-esdm topics and strategies). intervention sessions were scheduled at a time convenient for the family and conformed to the detailed parent training manual, curriculum, and parent fidelity of implementation measures (rogers et al., 2012). table 2. p-esdm topics and strategies (adapted from rogers et al., 2012) topic goal strategy step into the spotlight: capturing your child’s attention increase child’s attention on parent for learning identify and follow the child’s interests, reduce outside distractions that interfere with child’s ability to attend and participate in learning opportunities find the smile: fun with sensory social routines increase child’s positive affect and social communication behaviors using songs, social games, and social exchanges introduce and build a repertoire of sensory social routines to optimize child’s energy level for learning it takes two: building back and forth interactions increase opportunities for child learning within daily activities and routines build joint activities and take turns with the child, use simple words, create new learning opportunities with additional materials, actions, and steps to the play, end the activity together and transition to the next activity talking bodies: the importance of nonverbal communication increase child’s nonverbal communication skills for promoting speech and language add gestures, facial expressions, and simple language to family activities and routines. identify communicative opportunities in which the child’s body language can be used to express feelings and interests do what i do: helping your child learn by imitating increase child’s imitation of sounds, gestures, facial expressions, actions and words imitate child’s play, sounds/ vocalizations, and movements and encourage imitation back from child inside toy play, songs, social games, and other daily activities let’s get technical: how children learn teach the basic strategies of applied behavior analysis for enhancing child learning identify and use antecedent-behaviorconsequence teaching principles for understanding child behavior and teaching new skills the joint attention triangle: sharing interests with others increase child’s interest to share objects and activities with others give, show, and point to objects and pictures for sharing enjoyment it’s playtime increase learning opportunities in parent–child toy play and support constructive, varied, and independent toy play. use play to build and practice skills, including social skills, and to create new ways to play with toys independently and with others let’s pretend develop child’s pretend play that is spontaneous, creative, and flexible use imitation to teach symbolic play actions to make scenes from life activities moving into speech increase child’s use and understanding of speech through active engagement with people, their facial expressions, and their gestures develop vocal games to increase child’s sounds and build up child’s vocabulary with more opportunities for listening and responding to language during the first 90-minute videoconferencing p-esdm session, parents shared which p-esdm topics seemed more or less relevant to their learning needs and strategies of interest that they may have read about in the parent manual. sessions 2-12 followed a similar format and began with a brief check in. parents shared their experience and an example of using the p-esdm topic inside an activity or routine with their deborah l. rooks-ellis et al. 146 child. next, the parent and the interventionist reflected about how the topic was used to support the child’s development and explored ways to expand or improve the activity to increase the child’s engagement and learning or to augment the child’s behavior. then a new topic was introduced, and the interventionist coached the parent through several activities with the child. parents used bluetooth ear buds during this part of the session so as to not distract the child with the interventionist’s voice. each session ended with the parent selecting activities and routines in which to use the new topic. after each session, parents were provided with an electronic handout of the goals and strategies taught during the session and the parentselected activities to try with their child. interventionist training sessions were delivered by a certified p-esdm interventionist with a master’s degree and 20-years of experience in the field of early intervention. the interventionist was trained to implement p-esdm by observing live and video-recorded intervention sessions, implementing intervention sessions, comparing self-completed fidelity checklists with trainer-completed fidelity checklists, and participating in reflection and problem-solving discussions. before participating in the study, the interventionist achieved a fidelity rating of at least 85% or above on three video submissions as measured by the p-esdm fidelity checklist. dependent variables (dvs) the study conducted observation coding and analyses. primary outcome measures included parent and interventionist fidelity with a secondary outcome of pre-to post change in their child’s autism symptoms as a result of parent-implementation. parent fidelity of implementation intervention sessions were provided with and recorded using the zoom® video conferencing system. recordings were observed by the interventionist following each session to measure parent fidelity using the p-esdm parent fidelity rating system. this is a likert-type rating scale with scores ranging from level 1 (e.g. poor or unacceptable) to level 5 (e.g. best possible example) across 13 adult behaviors related to (a) management of child attention, (b) quality of behavioral teaching, (c ) instructional techniques and application, (d) child affect and arousal, (e) management of unwanted behavior, (f) dyadic engagement, (g) child motivation for participating in the activity, (h) adult use of positive affect, (i) adult sensitivity and responsivity to child’s communicative cues, (j) multiple and varied communicative opportunities, (k) appropriateness of adult’s language for the child’s language level, (l) joint activity structure and elaboration, (m) transitions between activities, and (n) child engagement during unstructured times. interventionist fidelity of implementation to evaluate the quality of implementation, the interventionist’s fidelity was examined using the pesdm coaching fidelity rating system, a likert-type rating scale with scores ranging from 1 (i.e., no competence) to level 5 (i.e., high competence) across the teaching behaviors. fidelity was defined as no scores under 2 and a mean score of 80% or above on three consecutive coded sessions. the following activities were assessed (a) greeting and check-in, (b) warm up activity, (c) introduction of the topic, (d) coaching on the topic, (e) coaching activity 2, and (f) closing. coaching fidelity of these behaviors were examined (g) collaborative, (h) reflective, (i) nonjudgmental, (j) conversational and reciprocal, (k) ethical conduct, (l) organization and management, and (m) managing conflict and implementation difficulties. inter-rater agreement was defined as raters’ scores falling within 1 point on the likert-type rating scale for each item. reliability. inter-observer agreement was established prior to fidelity scoring and maintained throughout the study. two master’s level and certified esdm therapists independently rated 100% of baseline session video recordings, 30% of randomly selected intervention video recordings, and 100% of maintenance and generalization video recordings. an agreement was defined as both raters’ scores being within 1-point on the likert-type scale for each item. inter-rater agreement was defined as raters’ scores effects of a parent training using telehealth: equity and access to early intervention… 147 falling within 1 point on the likert-type rating scale for each item. the goal for achievement of fidelity was 80%. inter-observer ratings in this study were 95% for parent fidelity and 94% for interventionist fidelity. see table 3 for p-esdm fidelity scoring instructions. table 3. p-esdm fidelity rating instructions (adapted from rogers et al., 2012) instructions to raters 1 if rating from a video recording, watch the recording in a confidential setting with minimal distractions. 2 review the child’s objectives prior to coding. keep them available to check as needed. 3 read the language defining each behavior and anchor every score. 4 take brief notes during the session you are observing in order to remember examples of behavior. 5 when rating, be aware of rater biases. 6 observe each activity one time through without stopping. make notes and replay as needed. 7 when a coaching problem has occurred, decide what the main difficulty is and code the item most closely related to the problem accordingly. 8 if you are caught between two codes, then give the higher code. 9 one is considered to have achieved fidelity to the model if they have no scores under 2 and a mean score of 80% or above on three consecutively coded sessions. autism impact measure severity of children’s asd symptoms was measured using the autism impact measure, a 41-item parent-report measure of core autism symptoms (see table 7 for aim items). developed using a large sample of 440 children and adolescents with asd, test-retest reliability ranged from .65 to .85 for the frequency subdomains and .53 to .78 for the impact subdomains (kanne et al., 2014). given these sound psychometric properties, the autism impact measure was selected for the ability to track short-term improvement across clinically relevant asd symptom domains. items were rated on the following corresponding 5-point scales for frequency of symptom occurrence (1=never, 5=always) and symptomrelated impact on daily functioning (1=not at all, 5=severe). positively phrased frequency items 28-41 were reverse scored to ensure that all items reflected frequency of problematic behavior for analysis (kanne et al., 2014, p. 173). social validity: telehealth usability and acceptability questionnaire. parents completed a program developed electronic questionnaire following the intervention phase to characterize the intervention’s utility, acceptability and feasibility. parents responded to 17 likert-type 6-point scale questions about the usability and acceptability of the telehealth format, 18 likert-type 6-point scale questions about their level of satisfaction with the interventionist’s coaching, and three open-ended questions about the coaching process. example likert-type scale items (with response anchors of strongly agree, somewhat agree, somewhat disagree, and strongly disagree) included “i felt supported by the telehealth intervention and therapist coaching in spite of distance.”; “telehealth saves me time traveling for services.”; “the discussion and problem solving with the coach were helpful for reaching goals.”, “i think the visits provided by telehealth are the same as in-person visits.”, and “i was able to use the telehealth intervention to increase my child’s participation in activities and play.” open-ended questions included “what did you like best about the telehealth parent coaching?” and “what did you like least?” procedure project staff met with interested families, explained the project, and obtained informed consent from the parents. a routines-based interview (mcwilliam, 2010) was completed to gather information about the family’s priorities and concerns and information about their typical routines and activities. baseline phase baseline sessions were conducted in-person. the camera setting of an ipad was used to video-record a minimum of three 10-minute play sessions between the child and parent. the ipad was set up on a table or shelf to minimize distractions. parents were asked to interact with their child as they typically would during everyday activities, with no attempt to influence parents’ behaviors. examples of parent-child activities observed included playing with preferred toys, building with blocks, eating a snack among others. parent fidelity of implementation of intervention strategies was measured using the p-esdm deborah l. rooks-ellis et al. 148 parent fidelity rating system (rogers et al., 2012) by the interventionist, and no parent coaching occurred during baseline sessions. parents were provided a copy of the parent manual, early start for your child with autism: using everyday activities to help kids connect, communicate, and learn (rogers et al., 2012). additionally, the interventionist and parent worked together to set up and test-run the technology that would be used for the intervention sessions (e.g., ear buds for coaching, video-conferencing system on smart phone, tablet, or computer). parents were provided training as needed to operate the bluetooth ear buds and the zoom® video conferencing system. p-esdm intervention phase each 90-minute intervention session followed the format of the manualized p-esdm intervention. sessions were video recorded using the zoom® video conferencing system. parent fidelity was measured during the warm-up activity for previously taught strategies and during the coaching activity for new strategies. parents were encouraged to use the strategies in their everyday activities with their child; however, there were no specific requirements given to parents about the frequency and duration that parents should use to implement the intervention strategies. parents completed the telehealth usability and acceptability questionnaire following the intervention phase. maintenance phase the interventionist observed the family interacting with their child as they typically would during activities and play two weeks after intervention sessions were completed as a maintenance measure of the parent’s fidelity of intervention strategies. parent fidelity of implementation of intervention strategies was measured using the p-esdm parent fidelity rating system by the interventionist, but no parent coaching occurred during these sessions. this 90-minute telehealth session was video recorded. generalization phase two weeks following the maintenance session, parents were invited to submit a 10-20minute video recording to measure generalization of parent fidelity of implementation of intervention strategies. parent fidelity of implementation of intervention strategies was measured using the p-esdm parent fidelity rating system by the interventionist, but no parent coaching occurred during these sessions. data analysis the functional relationship between the p-esdm via telehealth intervention and dependent variable of parent fidelity of intervention strategies was analyzed through visual inspection and descriptive statistics of graphed data. the level, trend, variability of data across phases, and single case measures of effect for each participant provided the context for the analysis (kratochwill et al., 2010). data on dependent measures was analyzed using nonoverlap of all pairs (nap), tau-u, and percent non overlapping data (pnd). nap is a nonparametric measure of effect for measuring nonoverlap or between two phases. it does not include adjustment for data trends in baseline (scruggs & mastropieri, 1998). tau-u is a nonparametric measure to measure data overlap between phases. it allows for analysis adjustment for baseline trends and is a measure that can distinguish how much of the nonoverlap was an improvement over baseline. it is a way to determine whether or not improvement was due to the intervention versus chance (parker, vannest, & davis, 2011). the pnd was calculated using the following formula: the number of intervention data points that surpassed the highest baseline data point divided by the total number of intervention data points, then multiplied by 100 (scruggs, mastropieri, & casto, 1987). scruggs and mastropieri (2001) suggested interpretational guidelines of pnd when used to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention. using their guidelines, authors evaluated pnd greater than 90% as a highly effective intervention, pnd greater than 70% and less than 90% as an effective intervention, pnd greater than 50% and less than 70% as questionable effectiveness, and pnd less that 50% was considered unreliable effectiveness for interventions. statistical analyses of the pre-post autism impact measure responses were performed using spss statistics version 25. positively phrased frequency items were reverse scored, so that “all items reflected effects of a parent training using telehealth: equity and access to early intervention… 149 frequency of problematic behavior” (kanne et al., 2014, p. 173). in addition to descriptive statistics, the wilcoxon signed-rank test was conducted. the wilcoxon is a non-parametric statistical hypothesis test used to compare two repeated measurements on a single sample to determine if mean ranks differ. this non-parametric test was chosen because 1) the pre-post responses were measured at the ordinal level using likert scale questions, 2) the responses consisted of related pairs, and 3) given the sample size, the population was not assumed to be a normal distribution. results parent fidelity parents’ fidelity of implementation of p-esdm are reported in figure 1 (see appendix a) and tables 4 and 5. the intervention was delivered in one group of four families and two groups of three families. group 1 included families identified as f1, f2, f3 and f4, group 2 included families identified as f5, f6, and f7, and group 3 included families identified as f8, f9, and f10. data collected during the first three weeks indicated that the four families’ fidelity of implementation of the p-esdm intervention strategies (f1, f2, f3, f4) ranged from 40% to 65% during baseline. figure 1 shows a graphical display of these data. after a stable baseline, family 1 showed minimal change and a moderate amount of variability in implementation fidelity data beginning in session three of the intervention. maintenance data for family 1 does indicate an increase in fidelity compared to baseline levels, however a functional relationship was not established due to the lack of immediacy of change. for family f1, the implementation of p-esdm intervention resulted in a marked increased parent fidelity after the sixth intervention session (baseline m = 60%, intervention m = 68%). single case design (scd) measures of effect indicate that the intervention had a moderate effect: pnd & nap = 83%; tau = 0.67, z = 1.73, p = .08. the trend for intervention data was stable. these gains were maintained at an even higher rate (maintenance = 82%) when measured two weeks after completion of the p-esdm intervention. however, after a baseline with a decreasing trend, the fidelity of parent implementation of the pesdm intervention increased immediately and markedly for family 2 after the introduction of the telehealth p-esdm intervention. a functional relationship was established due to the immediacy of change. family f2 had a decreasing trend during baseline fidelity collection (m = 43%) that increased when the pesdm intervention was introduced (m = 72%). yet, scd measures of effect indicate that the intervention demonstrated a large effect: pnd & nap = 100%; tau = 1.0, z = 1.73, p = .009. although intervention data was variable, this change in level was maintained, and then generalized at levels above those of baseline, demonstrating a therapeutic effect. these gains were maintained at an even higher rate (maintenance = 87%) when measured two weeks after completion of the p-esdm intervention via telehealth. at generalization 8 weeks following the maintenance session, the parent fidelity for family f2 continued to be above the intervention mean (generalization = 80%). likewise, family f3 had a stable, but decreasing trend during baseline fidelity collection (m=39%) that increased markedly, although not until the second session of the p-esdm intervention (m=70%) limiting the interpretation of a functional relationship and the immediacy of effect of the treatment. yet, scd measures of effect indicate that the intervention demonstrated a large effect: pnd = 92%, nap = 96%, tau = 1.0, z = 2.60, p = .009. intervention data was relatively stable, and gains were maintained at a rate higher than baseline levels (maintenance = 83%) when measured two weeks after completion of the pesdm intervention. family f4 had a decreasing trend during baseline fidelity collection (m = 74%) that increased only after the third intervention session (m = 78%) limiting the interpretation of a functional relationship and the immediacy of effect of the treatment. similarly, scd measures of effect indicate that the intervention demonstrated a questionable effect: pnd = 41%, nap = 63%, tau = 0.33, z = .866, p = .39. however, when parent fidelity was collected at maintenance, there was an increased fidelity score (maintenance = 93%). at generalization eight weeks following the maintenance session, the parent fidelity for family f4 continued deborah l. rooks-ellis et al. 150 to be above the intervention mean (generalization = 85%) but did overlap with much of the intervention data. the following three families’ data (f5, f6, and f7) across four weeks of baseline indicate similar results and their fidelity of implementation of the p-esdm intervention strategies ranged from 48% to 63% during baseline. all three of these families also demonstrated an increase in p-esdm fidelity of implementation. after a baseline with a decreasing trend for family f5, the implementation of p-esdm intervention resulted in a marked increased parent fidelity, but only after the fourth intervention session (baseline m = 57%, intervention m = 67%) limiting the interpretation of a functional relationship and the immediacy of effect of the treatment. yet, scd measures of effect indicate that the intervention had a moderate effect, pnd = 75%, nap = 83%, tau = 0.67, z = 1.73, p = .08 and intervention data indicate an increasing trend. these gains were maintained (maintenance m = 65%) when measured two weeks after completion of the p-esdm intervention. family f6 had a stable baseline (m = 63%) that increased immediately, then markedly after the fourth intervention session to a mean of 81% demonstrating a weak effect based on visual analysis alone. yet, scd measures of effect indicate that the intervention had a large effect, pnd & nap = 100%; tau=1.0, z = 2.60, p = .009, and intervention data were relatively stable. these gains were maintained at a higher rate of fidelity (maintenance = 97%) when measured two weeks after completion of the p-esdm intervention. family f7 had an increasing baseline, and the fidelity of implementation of p-esdm increased during intervention sessions (baseline m = 48%, intervention m = 73%) limiting the interpretation of a functional relationship and the immediacy of effect of the treatment. yet, scd measures of effect indicate that the intervention had a large effect, pnd & nap = 100%, tau = 0.91, z = 2.38, p = .0172). these gains were maintained at an even higher rate of fidelity (maintenance = 80%) when measured two weeks after completion of the p-esdm coaching via telehealth intervention. at generalization eight weeks following the maintenance session, the parent fidelity for family f7 continued to be above the intervention mean (generalization = 82%). baseline was conducted across five weeks for the final three families (f8, f9, and f10). the fidelity of implementation of the p-esdm intervention strategies for these three families ranged from 50% to 55% during baseline. all three of these families demonstrated increased parent fidelity of implementation of pesdm after the introduction of the intervention. for family f8, after a variable baseline, the implementation of p-esdm intervention resulted in a marked and immediate increased parent fidelity (baseline m = 55%, intervention m = 74%) with a relatively stable trend, indicating therapeutic effects. yet, scd measures of effect indicate that the intervention had the following effects: pnd = 67% (questionable effect), nap = 93% (large effect); tau = 0.83, z = 1.17, p = .03 (large effect). therapeutic gains were maintained at a higher rate of fidelity (maintenance = 83%) when measured two weeks after completion of the p-esdm intervention. after a stable baseline (m = 50%), the data for family f9 increased immediately with a variable trend during intervention (m = 67%) indicating small therapeutic effects. yet, scd measures of effect indicate that the intervention had the following effect: pnd = 83% (moderate effect), nap= 93% (large effect); tau = 0.88, z = 2.30, p = .02 (large effect). therapeutic gains were maintained at a higher rate of fidelity (maintenance = 78%) when measured two weeks after completion of the p-esdm intervention and at generalization 8 weeks following the maintenance session (generalization m = 92%). lastly, family f10 had a stable baseline (m = 54%) that also increased, but not until the fourth session of intervention to a mean of 70% with moderate variability, limiting the interpretation of a functional relationship and the immediacy of effect of the treatment. yet, scd measures of effect indicate that the intervention had the following effect: pnd = 83% (moderate effect), nap = 96% (large effect); tau = 0.92, z = 2.38, p = .017 (large effect). gains in mean fidelity ratings were maintained at a higher rate of fidelity (maintenance m = 85%) when measured two weeks after completion of the p-esdm intervention, and at generalization 8 weeks later the parent fidelity for family f10 continued to be above the intervention mean effects of a parent training using telehealth: equity and access to early intervention… 151 (generalization m = 90%). table 4 displays the single case design measure of effect for parent fidelity and mean coaching fidelity. table 5 displays the mean baseline versus intervention parent fidelity. table 4. parent fidelity single case design measure of effect and coaching fidelity family baseline to intervention pnd baseline to intervention nap tau-u baseline to intervention mean coaching fidelity f1 83% moderate effect 83% moderate effect 0.67 z =1.73 p =.08 92% f2 100% large effect 100% large effect 1.0 z = 1.73 *p =.009 90% f3 92% large effect 96% large effect 1.0 z = 2.60 *p =.009 90% f4 41% questionable effect 63% questionable effect .33 z =.866 p =.39 92% f5 75% moderate effect 83% moderate effect .67 z = 1.73 p =.08 88% f6 100% large effect 100% large effect 1.0 z = 2.60 *p=.009 91% f7 100% large effect 100% large effect .91 z = 2.38 *p=.017 93% f8 67% questionable effect 93% large effect 0.83 z = 1.17 *p =.03 93% f9 83% moderate effect 93% large effect 0.88 z = 2.30 *p= .02 91% f10 83% moderate effect 96% large effect 0.92 z = 2.38 *p=.017 90% table 5. mean baseline as compared to intervention parent fidelity family mean baseline fidelity mean intervention fidelity maintenance fidelity generalization fidelity f1 60% 68% 82% na f2 43% 72% 87% 80% f3 39% 70% 83% na f4 74% 78% 93% 85% f5 57% 67% 65% na f6 63% 81% 97% na f7 48% 73% 80% 82% f8 55% 74% 83% na f9 50% 67% 78% 92% f10 54% 70% 85% 90% average 54% 72% 83.30% 85.80% telehealth usability and acceptability parents rated the 17 items on the program developed telehealth usability and acceptability questionnaire with strongly agree, agree and somewhat agree. parents felt well supported by the telehealth intervention and coaching process with 88.89% (8/9) strongly agreeing and 11.11% (1/9) agreeing with the statement. parents selected strongly agree with 100% (9/9) being satisfied with the telehealth intervention. parents felt the intervention increased their child’s participation in activities and play with 100% (9/9) reporting as strongly agree. additionally, parents reported that the intervention was effective in helping the parent create solutions for their child with 88.89% (8/9) strongly agreeing and 11.11% (1/9) agreeing deborah l. rooks-ellis et al. 152 with the statement. overall, parents reported they would use the telehealth services again with 77.78% (7/9) strongly agreeing and 22.22% (2/9) agreeing with this statement. parents responded to three open-ended questions. one parent summed up their experience with the p-esdm intervention via telehealth intervention by responding, “it helped me gain so much insight and knowledge about how to effectively play and interact with my child. i loved the book that was provided to me and found it an extremely helpful resource.”. another parent indicated the intervention’s impact by responding, i felt i was learning and using skills that were making a difference in my life as a ...parent giving me confidence that i could give our little one a real chance to be happy and healthy and to have the best shot at a full and rewarding life. being the person doing the work, studying and applying the knowledge makes this a life changer not just a program that is carried out by someone else and ends and is forgotten. any child and parent willing to commit to this program would have long term benefits. it’s a life solution not just a short-term intervention. families reported that the intervention conducted in their homes was convenient, and commented positively on the interventionist’s insight, input, support and suggestions provided during videoconferencing, “the guidance (of the interventionist) helped me expand my tools to help me help my child.”. autism impact measure pre-to-post change in autism symptomatology for child participants was examined. a wilcoxon signed-rank test revealed a statistically significant reduction in frequency of reported problematic behaviors after participating in the p-esdm intervention, z = 2.35, p = .019, with a large effect size (r = .53). the median frequency score decreased from pre-intervention (mdn = 91.0, sd = 20.30) to post-intervention (mdn = 75.5, sd = 11.44), indicating a positive change. additionally, the wilcoxon signed-rank test revealed a statistically significant reduction of the impact of problematic behaviors on everyday activities after participating in the p-esdm intervention, z = 2.55, p = .011, with a large effect size (r = .57). the median impact score decreased from pre-intervention (mdn = 67.0, sd = 21.51) to post-intervention (mdn = 54.4, sd = 12.09). to further answer the research questions, the difference between means was examined for each item. we report on statistically significant items below. because of the small sample, we use hedges’ g to report the effect size. see table 6 for statistically significant items and appendix b for items, means, standard deviations, difference between means and p values. table 6. statistically significant items and difference between means of the autism impact measure item# item pre-intervention post-intervention m sd m sd m difference p g frequency items 5 used someone else's hand to point, touch or perform a task 2.60 1.65 1.70 .823 0.90 *.041 .69 14 experienced problems in communicating with others 4.30 .949 2.80 .789 1.50 *.004 1.72 22 resisted changes in routines 2.50 1.58 1.40 .966 1.10 *.014 .84 26 experienced problems in social interactions 3.10 1.37 2.50 1.18 .60 *.034 .47 ^30 shared his enjoyment or excitement with others 1.60 1.07 2.50 1.43 .90 *.034 .71 ^33 used a social smile to greet people or respond to them 1.60 1.07 2.70 1.57 1.10 *.026 .82 ^34 used gestures to communicate 2.30 1.16 3.80 1.23 1.50 *.006 1.25 ^36 seemed interested in other children his age 2.33 1.58 3.20 1.75 .87 *.008 .52 impact items 7 had certain rituals or routines that have to be followed 2.00 1.41 1.40 .843 .60 *.034 .52 18 experienced problems in communicating with others 4.00 1.25 2.70 .823 2.30 *.010 1.23 22 resisted changes in routines 2.40 1.43 1.50 1.08 .900 *.024 .71 ^41 made eye contact with others 1.60 .966 2.70 1.25 1.10 *.026 .98 effects of a parent training using telehealth: equity and access to early intervention… 153 ^ denotes reverse scored items social reciprocity. a statistically significant difference between means was found for several items in the social reciprocity domain. following the intervention, parents reported their child shared enjoyment or excitement with others (prem = 1.60, sd = 1.07; postm = 2.50, sd = 1.43, p=.034), used a social smile to greet or respond to people (prem =1.60, sd = 1.07; postm = 2.70, sd = 1.57, p = .026), used gestures to communicate (prem = 2.30, sd = 1.16; postm = 3.80, sd = 1.23, p = .006), and seemed interested in other children of a similar age (prem = 2.33, sd =1.58; postm = 3.20, sd = 1.75, p = .008). children also had problems with social interactions less frequently (prem = 3.10, sd = 1.37; postm = 2.50, sd = 1.18, p = .034). communication and language. a statistically significant difference between means was found for two language and communication items, indicating positive change in children’s communication behaviors. parents reported their child used someone else’s hand to point, touch or perform a task less frequently following the intervention (prem = 2.60, sd = 1.65; postm = 1.70, sd = .823, p = .041). children experienced problems in communicating with others less frequently (prem = 4.30, sd = .949; postm = 2.80, sd = .789, p = .004) and with less impact on their daily functioning (prem = 4.00, sd = 1.25; postm = 2.70, sd = .823, p = .010). repetitive behaviors and restricted interests. parents reported their child was less resistant to change in routines (prem = 2.50, sd = 1.58; postm = 1.40, sd = .966, p = .014) and that change in routines had less impact on their child’s daily functioning (prem = 2.40, sd = 1.43; postm = 1.50, sd = .900, p = .024). in addition, a child’s certain rituals or routines were reported to have less impact on their child’s daily functioning (prem = 2.00, sd = 1.41; postm = 1.40, sd = .843, p = .034). conclusion and discussion the current study investigated the effects of the p-esdm as implemented by an early interventionist present within the state’s existing idea part c early intervention program. telehealth technology was used to coach parents to conduct the intervention procedures, and all families demonstrated an increased level of implementation fidelity of the p-esdm intervention as compared to baseline levels. the study demonstrated that positive outcomes for very young children with asd can be achieved when parents are trained to use this naturalistic developmental behavioral intervention within and across family routines and activities. the results are among the first to demonstrate the feasibility of statewide implementation of p-esdm in natural environments within the framework of a state’s early intervention program. the results of the current study are promising. first, the results extend support for parent-mediated early intervention for toddlers with autism. next, the results align with previous research about p-esdm and highlight that this low dosage intervention may be adequate to sustain intervention effects. next, a functional relationship existed between parent fidelity of p-esdm intervention strategies and parent participation in p-esdm training, expanding the literature on the use of telehealth to deliver early intervention services for families, specifically in rural and underserved areas. parent-mediated early intervention parent-mediated interventions develop a parent’s capacity to implement evidence-based strategies with their child. in fact, these interventions are based on the assumption that parents will implement the target strategies within their daily routines and activities with their child; thereby increasing the opportunities provided to the child to interact and engage with peers, others, and the environment (siller & morgan, 2018). in the current study, parents reported statistically significant positive change in their child’s autism symptoms, specifically in the domains of communication, social reciprocity and repetitive behaviors and restricted interests. these results are in agreement with the hypothesis that early intervention for toddlers at risk or diagnosed with asd may “remit or reduce the expression of symptoms” (webb, jones, kelly & dawson, 2014). this is promising given that even moderate and non-significant gain in asd symptom severity post-intervention have resulted in a significant reduction of symptom severity deborah l. rooks-ellis et al. 154 one year (green et al., 2017) and two years (estes et al., 2014) following the conclusion of the intervention. increased fidelity of p-edsm maintenance is often noted to be lacking in studies of parent-mediated interventions, limiting the ability to determine sustained implementation or potential outcomes (fettig, barton, carter, & eisenhower, 2016; roberts & kaiser, 2011). in this study, parent fidelity of implementation was shown to increase during the generalization and maintenance phases; a possible assurance that parents’ sustained implementation may likely impact the child’s developmental trajectory and targeted communication and social behaviors over time. this “real life” intensity of services is necessary for significant change in toddlers with asd, and these results are congruent with other researchers who have demonstrated that parent involvement helps to facilitate generalization across environments (brian et al., 2017; mcintyre & zemantic, 2017; wallace & rogers, 2010). telehealth a functional relationship between the p-esdm via telehealth intervention and parent fidelity of intervention strategies was demonstrated. this result is consistent with literature that telehealth can be used as a mechanism to deliver naturalistic developmental behavioral interventions and achieve positive child outcomes (mcintyre & zemantic, 2017; wainer & ingersoll, 2015). in rural areas, equity and access to early intervention and parent coaching services can be a challenge (olsen, fiechtl, & rule, 2012). the results of this study are encouraging in that they show that parents can be coached to implement evidence-based practices at a high level of fidelity using telehealth. providing intervention using telehealth as a service delivery model may alleviate higher costs of services associated with travel time, distance between families, and provider shortages (little, wallisch, pope, & dunn, 2018; olsen et al., 2012). findings from this study suggest the use of telehealth coaching may be an equitable response to a family's limited access to professional support due to rural location. likewise, social validity is imperative when determining the feasibility and utility of the parent training. parents in this study expressed high satisfaction with the telehealth delivery of the p-esdm and the intervention procedures. limitations the study had several limitations. first, cellular and broadband access were a challenge in very rural areas. this did not prevent family participation, but two parents did note that an intermittent connection interfered with the video stream and the ability to clearly hear and see the interventionist. next, the fidelity of implementation measure was coded by two providers who were trained and certified to implement esdm procedures; however, this was not a blind review, which could have hindered the validity of their coding. although we report large effect sizes, the analysis to examine pre to post change in autism symptomatology was limited to a non-parametric test, and we did not control for other outcomes such as age or gender. likewise, the sample was not highly diversified, limiting generalization of the results to the participants of the study. it is also important to note that the aim is a parent report measure, and as such is subject to potential informant bias. applied research is difficult to control for all potential confounding variables. generally, all families in this study did demonstrate an increased level of fidelity in implementing the p-esdm intervention compared to baseline levels. however, due to increasing and decreasing trends in the baseline data of many families, and the lack of immediate effect of the intervention, more research is needed to determine the functional relationship of the delivery of parent coaching via telehealth on the increase in parent fidelity to rule out maturity and test-retest effects. future research increasing the availability of evidence-based interventions through telehealth may be a valid solution to closing the gap between service demand and availability in rural and underserved areas. other effects of a parent training using telehealth: equity and access to early intervention… 155 studies have demonstrated effective results with telehealth as a service delivery model for behavioral consultation services as compared with on-site coaching (suess, wacker, schwartz, lustig, & detrick, 2016; wacker et al., 2013). more research examining the comparative effectiveness of p-esdm versus other models is needed. in this study, parent fidelity increased during maintenance and generalization, and positive longterm effects of parent-mediated interventions have been reported to be sustained up to 6 years following the end of the intervention (green et al., 2017; pickles et al., 2016). continued research is needed to examine long-term effects of parent fidelity to support increased improvement of autism symptoms and the developmental trajectories for toddlers with autism. intervention that builds parent capacity and supports children’s development and learning through the use of evidence-based practices in everyday activities can lead to positive parent and child outcomes. in the current study, the interventionist was nationally certified to implement p-esdm. more research is needed to examine p-esdm and other parent-mediated interventions implemented by primary service providers who receive state-level training and support but may not be nationally certified by the agency representing the intervention. declarations acknowledgements: not applicable. authors’ contributions: dlre provided table data. skh provided figure data. sb implemented the intervention. dlre, mk and es provided relevant literature. all authors wrote and reviewed the manuscript. competing 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https://alliance-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=tn_medline25578338&context=pc&vid=uo&lang=en_us&search_scope=everything&adaptor=primo_central_multiple_fe&tab=default_tab&query=any,contains,wong,%2520odom,%2520hume,%2520cox,%2520fettig,%2520kucharczyk,%2520brock,%2520plavnick,%2520fleury%2520&%2520schultz,%25202014.&offset=0 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-014-2351-z https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2014-3667e effects of a parent training using telehealth: equity and access to early intervention… 159 appendix a figure 1. parent fidelity of implementation of p-esdm baseline intervention maintenance generalization 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 family 1 (f1) family 2 (f2) sessions pa re nt f id el it y of e sd m in te rv en ti on im pl em en ta ti on deborah l. rooks-ellis et al. 160 baseline intervention maintenance generalization 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 family 3 (f3) family 4 (f4) sessions pa re nt f id el it y of e sd m in te rv en ti on im pl em en ta ti on effects of a parent training using telehealth: equity and access to early intervention… 161 baseline intervention maintenance 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 family 6 (f6) family 5 (f5) sessions pa re nt f id el it y of e sd m in te rv en ti on im pl em en ta ti on deborah l. rooks-ellis et al. 162 baseline intervention maintenance generalization 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 family 8 (f8) family 7 (f7) sessions pa re nt f id el it y of e sd m in te rv en ti on im pl em en ta ti on effects of a parent training using telehealth: equity and access to early intervention… 163 baseline intervention maintenance generalization 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 family 10 (f10) family 9 (f9) sessions pa re nt f id el it y of e sd m in te rv en ti on im pl em en ta ti on deborah l. rooks-ellis et al. 164 appendix b items and difference between means of the autism impact measure item # item pre-intervention post-intervention m sd m sd m difference p frequency items 1 shown fascination with parts of objects rather than the whole toy 3.10 1.10 3.20 1.40 0.10 .276 2 been fascinated with looking at, feeling, touching, and licking certain objects 3.10 1.66 2.70 1.57 0.40 .194 3 lined things up 2.00 1.70 2.60 1.65 0.60 .273 4 responded oddly or inappropriately to others 2.00 1.33 1.70 1.06 0.30 .453 5 used someone else's hand to point, touch or perform a task 2.60 1.65 1.70 .823 0.90 *.041 6 had speech problems or been hard to understand 4.00 1.41 2.75 1.26 1.25 .083 7 had certain rituals or routines that have to be followed 2.20 1.48 1.70 1.06 0.50 .160 8 used odd or unusual pitch, volume or tone when talking 1.70 1.16 2.10 1.37 0.40 .496 9 withdrawn from playing with children of the same age 2.60 1.67 2.67 1.51 0.07 .854 10 repeated actions over and over 2.40 1.26 2.10 1.29 .30 .317 11 had a strong interest in collecting things 1.80 1.46 1.10 .316 0.70 .102 12 shown repetitive hand or finger movements 2.90 1.37 2.00 1.33 0.90 .121 13 shown strong attachments to unusual toys or objects 1.00 .000 1.10 .316 0.10 .317 14 experienced problems with repetitive behaviors or restricted interests 1.80 1.14 1.60 1.07 0.20 .414 15 avoided certain sounds, textures or smells to an unusual extent 2.00 1.49 2.10 1.60 0.10 .891 16 appeared aloof, distant or detached 2.60 1.07 1.90 .876 .70 .068 17 had repetitive movements with his/her whole body 2.50 1.58 1.60 .843 .90 .059 18 experienced problems in communicating with others (verbally and/or nonverbally) 4.30 .949 2.80 .789 1.50 *.004 19 approached others in odd or in an inappropriate way 1.60 1.07 1.30 .675 0.30 .257 20 shown a preoccupation with one subject or area of interest 1.60 1.07 1.30 .675 0.30 .450 21 had difficulty showing or accepting affection 1.40 .699 1.20 .422 0.20 .414 22 resisted changes in routines 2.50 1.58 1.40 .966 1.10 *.014 23 had problems with pronouns 3.66 2.31 3.00 1.63 .66 1.00 24 used repetitive or odd phrases 1.50 1.22 1.56 1.13 .06 1.00 25 echoed words or phrases 1.86 1.36 2.10 1.66 .24 .705 26 experienced problems in social interactions 3.10 1.37 2.50 1.18 .60 *.034 27 used a private or made up language 2.40 1.90 1.80 1.03 .60 .180 ^28 played with same age friends 2.33 1.51 2.60 1.67 .27 1.00 ^29 held back and forth conversations 3.00 .817 3.67 .577 .67 .157 ^30 shared his enjoyment or excitement with others 1.60 1.07 2.50 1.43 .90 *.034 ^31 played cooperatively with groups of children 2.80 2.05 3.75 1.50 .95 1.80 ^32 responded positively to other children's approaches 2.11 1.69 2.20 1.56 .09 .480 effects of a parent training using telehealth: equity and access to early intervention… 165 ^33 used a social smile to greet people or respond to them 1.60 1.07 2.70 1.57 1.10 *.026 ^34 used gestures to communicate 2.30 1.16 3.80 1.23 1.50 *.006 ^35 comforted others when they were upset 3.60 1.43 4.67 .707 1.07 .058 ^36 seemed interested in other children his age 2.33 1.58 3.20 1.75 .87 *.008 ^37 played using his imagination 2.80 1.55 3.20 1.48 .40 .391 ^38 used social chit chat 3.50 1.73 5.00 .000 1.50 .317 ^39 used a number of different facial expressions 2.10 1.45 3.00 1.49 .90 .084 ^40 brought things to others just to share his interest 2.70 1.70 3.40 1.26 .70 .229 ^41 made eye contact with others 2.00 .942 2.50 1.08 .50 .276 impact items 1 fascination with parts of objects rather than the whole toy 2.10 .876 1.90 .994 .20 .516 2 fascination with looking at, feeling, touching, and licking objects 2.40 1.35 1.60 .843 .08 .071 3 lined things up 1.40 .966 1.20 .421 .20 .317 4 responded oddly to others 1.80 1.48 1.50 1.08 .30 .461 5 used someone else's hand to point, touch or perform a task 1.80 1.03 1.40 .843 .40 .157 6 had speech problems or been hard to understand 3.50 1.73 2.75 1.26 .75 .317 7 had certain rituals or routines that have to be followed 2.00 1.41 1.40 .843 .60 *.034 8 used odd or unusual pitch, volume or tone when talking 1.80 1.32 1.40 .699 .40 .357 9 withdrawn from playing with children of the same age 2.40 1.95 2.50 1.76 .10 .317 10 repeated actions over and over 2.10 .994 1.50 .850 .60 .063 11 had a strong interest in collecting things 1.50 1.08 1.00 .000 .50 .180 12 shown repetitive hand or finger movements 1.30 .949 1.00 .000 .30 .317 13 shown strong attachments to unusual toys or objects 1.00 .000 1.10 .316 .10 .317 14 experienced problems with repetitive or restricted behaviors 1.60 .843 1.40 .699 .20 .157 15 avoided certain sounds, textures or smells 1.80 1.32 2.00 1.63 .20 .655 16 appeared aloof, distant or detached 2.30 1.16 1.60 .843 .70 .066 17 had repetitive movements with his whole body 1.70 1.06 1.10 .316 .60 .109 18 experienced problems in communicating with others 4.00 1.25 2.70 .823 2.30 *.010 19 approached others in odd or in an inappropriate way 1.60 1.07 1.20 .632 .40 .102 20 shown a preoccupation with one subject or area of interest 1.40 .699 1.20 .421 .20 .414 21 had difficulty showing or accepting affection 1.2 .422 1.00 .000 .20 .157 22 resisted changes in routines 2.40 1.43 1.50 1.08 .90 *.024 23 had problems with pronouns 1.33 .577 1.75 1.50 .42 .317 24 used repetitive or odd phrases 1.00 .000 1.22 .441 .22 .317 25 echoed words or phrases 1.25 .463 1.20 .632 .05 1.0 26 experienced problems in social interactions 2.70 1.49 2.60 1.07 .10 .792 27 used a private or made up language 1.70 1.16 1.11 .333 .59 .276 deborah l. rooks-ellis et al. 166 ^28 played with same age friends 1.28 .756 2.00 1.73 .72 .655 ^29 held back and forth conversations 1.50 1.00 2.00 1.00 .50 .317 ^30 shared his enjoyment or excitement with others 1.44 .881 1.50 1.08 .06 .655 ^31 played cooperatively with groups of children 2.20 1.79 2.75 2.06 .55 1.0 ^32 responded positively to other children's approaches 1.70 1.49 2.40 1.71 .70 .109 ^33 used a social smile to greet people or respond to them 1.00 .000 1.70 1.34 .70 .109 ^34 used gestures to communicate 2.00 1.33 3.20 1.81 1.20 .092 ^35 comforted others when they were upset 1.00 .000 1.20 .422 .20 .157 ^36 seemed interested in other children his age 1.90 1.20 2.11 1.54 .21 .461 ^37 played using his imagination 1.10 .316 1.80 1.40 .70 .141 ^38 used social chit chat 1.00 .000 2.33 1.53 1.33 .180 ^39 used a number of different facial expressions 1.10 .316 2.00 1.15 .90 .059 ^40 brought things to others just to share his interest 1.80 1.32 1.50 .850 .30 .496 ^41 made eye contact with others 1.60 .966 2.70 1.25 1.10 *.026 ^ denotes reverse scored items effects of a parent training using telehealth: equity and access to early intervention for rural families journal of childhood, education & society volume 3, issue 1, 2022, 1-11 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.20223198 research article ©2022 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. teachers’ perspectives on optimizing manipulatives in teaching 21st century skills in kindergarten ryan bautista ramilo1, mika perdigon cruz 2, juli pearl d. geanga3, joel bernal faustino4 abstract: kindergarten teachers optimize manipulatives in teaching young children. these manipulatives can be tools in developing essential skills needed to meet the demands of 21st century society. a descriptive mixed method design was employed in this study. qualitative data were gathered using interviews and classroom observations, while quantitative data were extracted from questionnaire and classroom inventory checklist. quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, whereas qualitative data were transcribed, coded, and categorized by themes. research respondents were the 25 kindergarten teachers from public schools (n=8) and private schools (n=3) in pulilan, bulacan. results showed that teachers use manipulatives in the teaching and learning process as these provide many opportunities for children to learn and acquire different skills. several manipulatives develop more than one skill, depending on their characteristics and nature. moreover, skill development varies depending on the activity and type of manipulatives used. the research finds that manipulatives continue to be relevant and can be used to develop 21st century skills in kindergarten. however, teachers need to undergo training on the optimization of manipulatives that are readily available in the kindergarten classroom. furthermore, there is a need for schools to invest in different manipulatives for use in kindergarten. article history received: 20 april 2021 accepted: 18 october 2021 keywords manipulatives; 21st century skills; kindergarten, children’s behavior; teacher training; learning tools; teaching tools introduction the invention of manipulatives or maneuverable objects that appeal to different senses has revolutionized the teaching process. originally designed for teaching mathematical concepts, manipulatives have advanced into other subjects over the years. in kindergarten, the application of manipulatives in teaching started when friedrich wilhelm august fröbel (1837), known as the "father of kindergarten," developed different types of objects to help his kindergarteners recognize patterns and appreciate geometric forms found in nature (silber, 2015). manipulatives were further emphasized in the early 1900s when italian educator maria montessori advanced the idea that manipulatives are essential tools in education (lillard, 2013). she designed many materials to help preschool and elementary school pupils discover and learn basic math and other subjects. the child's development in mathematics starts at a young age during the child's early years in school. the use of manipulatives in the classroom – such as counters, blocks, geoboards helps the young learners achieve a greater understanding of mathematical concepts, as indicated by the study of d'angelo & iliev (2012). being able to touch and maneuver manipulatives connects the child's senses and boosts their stronger retention of information. such experience is related to experiential learning. moyer (2001) put a definition of manipulatives when she stated that manipulatives are 3_____________ 1 bulacan state university, college of education, pulilan extension, pulilan, bulacan, philippines, email: ramilo.ryan.bautista@gmail.com, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-00030127-3791 2 department of education, segundo esguerra sr. memorial elementary school, pulilan, bulacan, philippines, email: cruzmikaperdigon@gmail.com, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1447-199x 3 bulacan state university, college of education, pulilan extension, pulilan, bulacan, philippines, email: juliepearlgeanga@gmail.com, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-10311756 4 bulacan state university, college of education, pulilan extension, pulilan, bulacan, philippines, email: joel.faustino@bulsu.edu.ph, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-35777958 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.20223198 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:ramilo.ryan.bautista@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0127-3791 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0127-3791 mailto:cruzmikaperdigon@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1447-199x mailto:juliepearlgeanga@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1031-1756 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1031-1756 mailto:joel.faustino@bulsu.edu.ph https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3577-7958 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3577-7958 ryan bautista ramilo et al. 2 dimensional objects that learners use to increase their understanding of and connection between concepts. with the advent of digital technology, moyer brought into focus the use of virtual manipulatives as a takeoff from traditional manipulatives. learners can use manipulatives in a hands-on approach to learning (cockett & kilgour, 2015; larbi & mavis, 2016) as these serve as valuable tools to help students construct an understanding of concepts through meaningful investigation. as we enter modern society, the curriculum is not the only thing that has changed but the intended outcome of what children are expected to know and do. communication and collaboration, critical and creative thinking, information media and technologies, and lastly, life and career are the skills that the 21st century society would like to impose on every learner (ross, 2017). these 21st century skills are what the children need to become successful in the global economy – and be prepared for college and eventually for their entry into the labor force. the active participation of learners through the use of various materials cannot be undermined. czerkawski (2014) states that deeper learning encourages learners to be active in the learning environment to continuously explore, reflect, and produce information to build complex knowledge structures. it involves the interplay of the cognitive, intrapersonal, and interpersonal skills necessary for the teachers to incorporate into the students’ learning experiences. in the philippines, the teachings of 21st century skills are strongly emphasized starting at a young age, and laws have been enacted to meet this thrust. the right of all citizens to quality education at all levels is provided by the 1987 philippine constitution, where sections 1 and 2 of article 14 on the education, science, and technology, arts, culture and sports, specifies that the state shall take appropriate steps to make education accessible to all filipinos. the law also creates an integrated system of education relevant to the needs of the people and society. a system of free public education in the elementary and high school levels is, thus, provided under the constitution. to enable the country to become globally competitive, further improvements in the educational system through the enhanced basic education act of 2013 (republic act 10533) were enacted. the law expands primary education from 10 years to 12 years. before this law, republic act 10157 was signed in 2012, institutionalizing kindergarten education into the primary education system. the compulsory kindergarten is in line with the millennium development goals (mdgs) on achieving education for all (efa) by 2015. thus, the state is committed to make accessible kindergarten education that effectively promotes physical, social, intellectual, emotional, and skills stimulation and values formation to sufficiently prepare young learners for formal elementary schooling (lewin, 2007; britto, 2017). despite these policies, there have been concerns about the quality of philippine education. the national achievement test (nat) and the national career assessment examination (ncae) results in 2014 showed that students' performance in both exams was way below the target mean score. also, the completion rate for primary school remains low (at around 30%) in such areas as mindanao and eastern visayas. another challenge faced by the philippine educational system is budgetary allocation. while the philippine constitution mandates the government to allocate the highest proportion of its yearly budget to education, the philippines has the lowest budget for education among asean countries. shortage of teachers in kindergarten due to lack of budgetary allocation from the national government for teachers' salary and training and an insufficient allocation for educational materials are also affecting the quality of education, according to a statement by act phils (2012). rationale of the study over the years, the use of manipulatives in teaching young learners has gained acceptance. the national council of teachers of mathematics, the world's most extensive mathematics education organization in the united states, has encouraged the use of manipulatives in teaching a wide variety of topics in mathematics such as in sorting, ordering, distinguishing patterns, recognizing shapes, and understanding relationships among them, making measurements, using both nonstandard and standard units with application to both two and three-dimensional objects, understanding the system, comprehending operations, recognizing the relationships among operations, exploring and describing spatial relationships, identifying and describing different types, among others (heddens, 1986; sebesta, & teachers’ perspectives on optimizing manipulatives in teaching... 3 martin, 2004; sulistyaningsih et al., 2017). this has led to manipulatives being introduced to learners as young as those in kindergarten as part of their educational activities. nevertheless, the use of manipulatives has also gained acceptance in subjects other than mathematics. for instance, reading-based manipulatives help students learn concepts ranging from lettersound correspondence to abstract grammatical concepts. in science, manipulatives are being used to make abstract information easier to understand (berkseth, 2013). as the world enters the 21st century, specific skills are needed in order for an individual to adapt to the changing socio-economic environment and become globally competitive. often referred to as 21st century skills, these are specific core competencies such as collaboration, digital literacy, critical thinking, and problem-solving that schools need to teach to help students thrive in today’s world (rich, 2010). the composition of 21st century skills is best summarized by trilling and fadel (2009) using the following formula: 3rs x 7cs = 21st century learning. the more traditionally established skills of “reading”, “writing” and “arithmetic” are represented by the 3rs, while the modern key component, the 7cs, stands for: • critical thinking and problem solving, • communication, information and media literacy, • collaboration, teamwork, and leadership, • creativity and innovation, • career and learning self-reliance, • cross-cultural understanding and • computer and ict literacy. 21st century skills aim to create an individual who can contribute and become a productive member of his family, community, and country. this was emphasized by united nations children's fund (unicef, 2013) when the organization stated that early childhood development is one of the most cost-efficient investments in human capital that leads to a country's sustainable development. economic analyses from the developed and developing world are converging on a set of conclusions, with the main idea being that investing in the earliest years leads to some of the highest rates of return to families, societies, and countries. as a result, governments started to put early childhood education into their agendas, especially after it was proven that good quality of early education has long-lasting effects on the children's later life productivity for the society. as stated earlier, republic act 10533, or the enhanced basic education act of may 15, 2013, was enacted in response to the trend of developing skills for filipinos to become globally competitive. this provision cites that the state shall create a functional basic education system that will develop productive and responsible citizens, equipped with the essential competencies, skills, and values for lifelong learning and employment. according to the department of education (2012), the k to 12 frameworks of the program puts in place a curriculum geared towards the development of 21st century skills among the students such as effective communication skills, learning, and innovative skills, information, media, and technology skills and life and career skills. this study identified the general characteristics of kindergarten pupils and the commonly used manipulatives by teachers in their lessons with a view of relating these to how the 21st century skills can be taught to pupils in kindergarten. figure 1 shows the conceptual framework and variables that were under study. it is worth noting that the current 21st century learning environment combines physical and digital infrastructures to support learning. the seamless integration of face-to-face and online learning is essential in the present situation where digital technology is rapidly gaining popularity in the educational system. in this scenario, the utilization of manipulatives – both physical and virtual – has been made possible. ryan bautista ramilo et al. 4 figure 1. conceptual framework however, the study was conducted before the coronavirus pandemic; hence, the results used physical manipulatives while inside the classroom. as stated earlier, the popularity of manipulatives as tools to aid in teaching starting from the earliest years of the child's education has led to various types of manipulatives being present in the classrooms and used by teachers to teach essential skills. hence, this study aims to identify the manipulatives available in kindergarten classrooms and observe how teachers optimize the use of manipulatives in kindergarten. this study aims to meet the following objectives: 1) identify the available manipulatives being utilized by teachers in kindergarten classes; 2) determine how 21st century skills can be developed using the different manipulatives; and 3) describe how children exhibit the acquisition of 21st century skills through the use of manipulatives. methodology research design a descriptive mixed-method research design was employed in this study using secondary materials as references, while primary data sources included interviews, checklists, and on-site or classroom observation. the design of the study is non-experimental, as factual information is derived from the teachers on the manipulatives they use in teaching pupils in the kindergarten classroom and how these enable the learners to develop 21st century skills. sampling procedure and participants the study is participated by 25 kindergarten teachers from selected schools in pulilan, province of bulacan. this location is one of the biggest towns in the province, with relatively bigger kindergarten schools. the study also took into account that only few researches were done regarding kindergarten schools in pulilan. the teachers were selected based on their years of experience in teaching children at the kindergarten level. the researchers excluded teachers' sex or gender as a consideration because the majority of teachers are female. the 25 teachers/respondents work at 11 schools, eight of which are public schools supervised and funded by the government, and three of which are private schools controlled by private people or businesses. the schools were purposefully chosen depending on the kindergarten enrollment and the accessibility of manipulatives in the classroom. prior to conducting the study methods, the researchers sought formal approval from the school administration or principal of each school. kindergarten instructors were informed of the research aims and methods following approval. after being informed of the study's objective, kindergarten instructors volunteered to participate. it was agreed upon confidentiality that no name of the teachers or schools would be made mentioned in the study. kindergarten pupils characteristics curious enthusiastic optimistic persistent confident intelligent socially intelligent communication manipulatives blocks puzzle toys beads cards and board games flash cards building set sorting and stocking materials geometric solids tangrams and pattern blocks 21st century skills critical thinking and problem solving creativity collaboration cross-cultural understanding communication computing/ict literacy career and learning self reliance teachers’ perspectives on optimizing manipulatives in teaching... 5 data collection and analysis the researchers interviewed 25 kindergarten teachers in 11 schools in pulilan, province of bulacan, to determine the classroom's availability and commonly used manipulatives. there were two stages in the data collection: • the first stage involved distributing a checklist to each of the 25 kindergarten teachers to identify the types of manipulatives they use in their classrooms. after teachers completed the checklist, they were questioned to determine how they use manipulatives in their classrooms and what they believe are the 21st century abilities that can be taught using specific manipulatives. the researchers determine the frequency with which manipulatives are found in the classroom based on the teacher's responses. the mean score was calculated and ranked according to the manipulatives most frequently seen in kindergarten classrooms. additionally, throughout the interviews, teachers were asked to identify barriers and concerns related to obtaining and utilizing manipulatives in their classrooms. classification, analysis, comparison, and grouping were utilized to organize the data obtained from the interviews. • the second stage involved the researchers observing the actual classes to see how the manipulatives are utilized during classes, how the learners behave towards manipulatives and the potential 21st century skills that can be developed. a total of 15 different sessions were observed and after each session, the researchers noted down their observations. the observations were categorized according to the four skills: effective collaboration, learning and innovations, information, media and technology, and life and career. these observations corroborated the replies of the teachers in the interviews conducted. results and discussion the data gathering process to determine the results led to the research meeting the three objectives of the study, namely: identify the available manipulatives being utilized by teachers in kindergarten classes; determine the 21st century skills that can be developed using the different manipulatives; and describe how children exhibit the acquisition of 21st century skills through the use of manipulatives. identification of available manipulatives in the kindergarten classrooms from the checklists submitted by the 25 teachers and the results of the interviews conducted, it was found that that there are ten commonly used manipulatives in kindergarten classrooms as listed in table 1, with blocks being present in all kindergarten classrooms. these blocks are usually made of wood or plastic, provided by the schools or purchased by the teachers. likewise, these materials are readily available in the market, are inexpensive, and helpful in providing meaningful, relevant, and fun learning. this result was also observed in a study by moyer (2001), stressing out that manipulatives like blocks can make teaching and learning 'fun' and promote the acquisition of different skills such as mathematics. moreover, teachers have come to appreciate the learning opportunities that blocks offer, such as cognitive skills, social skills, language skills, and motor skills (tunks, 2009). puzzles and toys ranked next in terms of popularity based on the answers in the checklist distributed and observed during the classroom visit. toys were acquired through purchase and donations from pupils, parents, or other donors, while puzzles were provided by the department of education as part of the budgetary allocation for classroom learning materials. the absence of toys and puzzles in one classroom was due to a lack of supplies and donors. according to the comment of one teacher who participated in this study: the department of education does not provide any toys to our school. sometimes, the teachers ask the pupils to bring toys so they will have something to use. however, the problem is that the pupils here belong to low-income families; that is why they could not give any for the school. ryan bautista ramilo et al. 6 table 1. available manipulatives in kindergarten classrooms top 10 manipulatives frequency mean score rank blocks (woodblocks, plastic blocks) 25 1 1 puzzle (jigsaw, wooden) 24 .96 2.5 toys (stuffed, plastic, dolls, cars, etc.) 24 .96 2.5 beads (small and big, plastic, wood, paper) 23 .92 5 card and board games (indoor and memory) 23 .92 5 flash cards 23 .92 5 building set 22 .88 7 sorting and stocking materials 17 .68 8.5 geometric solids 17 .68 8.5 tangrams and pattern blocks 15 .60 10 note: the identification of the top 10 manipulatives was based on the responses of 25 kindergarten teachers. on the other hand, tangrams and pattern blocks were the least available in the classroom. teachers answered that they are not familiar with tangrams and that tangrams have limited uses, as stated by one teacher, who said, in fact, i have seldom seen a school with tangrams. if ever we have, we could not learn how to use it because it does not apply to the lessons that we teach. moreover, the use of tangrams for kindergarten is time-consuming and complicated. determining the 21st century skills developed using manipulatives table 2 exhibits the 7c’s lifelong skills that trilling and fadel (2009) identified, summarizing the 21st century skills that a learner must acquire to be globally competitive. the table shows the tabulation of the submitted checklists and the interviews conducted with the 25 teachers/respondents indicating the different manipulatives available in the kindergarten classrooms and the teachers' perception of the skills acquired by the learner when using each manipulative. the results in table 2 show that classroom blocks have the highest potential in developing 21st century skills among kindergartens. blocks are unstructured manipulative that are diverse in playability, simple in design, and are effective in stimulating and engaging children's imagination and creativity (clavio and fajardo, 2008). on the other hand, puzzles are the second most effective manipulatives in helping kindergarten develop the necessary skills for 21st century society. puzzles can provide many skills and mental learning benefits and opportunities for kindergartens that increase visual-spatial awareness and grasping understanding correspond to cognitive development, problem-solving skills, decision making, and memory. furthermore, puzzles can promote fine motor development, hand and eye coordination, socialization, self-esteem, and satisfaction (aral et al., 2012). observations of the classes where these manipulatives were used indicate the pupils’ eagerness to participate in the learning process. from the results, toys and flashcards ranked next in terms of potential for developing 21st century skills. toys come in various forms and types and allow children their construction and organization of knowledge and making sense of their world. toys invite children to create and use their imagination and can be the basis for socializing and establishing friendship. according to a study by clavio and fajardo (2008), playing with toys within a group helps children to gain self-confidence, their self-concept, and discover emotion. flashcards are illustrated materials that can be used to teach various subjects. beads, geometric solids, and building sets are next to have the potential to impart 21st century skills. teachers’ perspectives on optimizing manipulatives in teaching... 7 table 2. skills developed through the use of manipulatives as identified by the respondents 21st century skills manipulatives blocks puzzle toys beads cards and board games flash cards building set sorting and stacking materials geometric solids tangrams and patterns total critical thinking and problem solving 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 9 creativity 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 career learning self-reliance 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 collaboration 1 1 1 1 1 1 6 cross-cultural understanding 1 1 1 1 1 1 6 communication 1 1 1 1 1 1 6 computing/ict literacy 1 1 1 1 4 note: the 7c’s lifelong skills was from trilling, b., & fadel, c., 21st century skills: learning for life in our times, 2009. it is worth noting that all respondents agreed that the available manipulatives could teach 21st century skills identified by trilling and fadel (2009). critical thinking and problem-solving are being developed by 90% of all the manipulatives identified. by using the manipulatives, kindergarten pupils can work independently; hence, their critical thinking and problem-solving skills are enhanced. creativity and career learning/self-reliance are 21st century skills that can be developed by 70% of the manipulatives identified, while three skills, namely, collaboration/cross-cultural understanding and communication, can be developed by 60% of the manipulatives. the 21st century skills of computing/ict literary are developed by 40% of the manipulatives identified. based on the findings of the study, not all manipulatives can develop all skills simultaneously. this is due to the differences in nature and characteristics of the manipulatives resulting in varied competency development. results of this study can imply that a specific manipulative has its unique focus. nevertheless, a combination of several manipulatives used by kindergarten pupils in their creative ways can maximize the development of 21st century skills. the results also indicate that kindergarten pupils become more proactive when manipulatives are used during their classes. interviews with the teachers also revealed some of their concerns about the use of manipulatives. these include: • the need for continuous teachers’ training on how they can maximize the use of manipulatives in their teaching; • the availability of new and more advanced manipulatives – both physical and virtual – to meet the changing needs and interest of the young learners; • budget allocation for the purchase of modern manipulatives and reference materials on how to properly use these manipulatives in the classroom. children exhibit acquisition of 21st century skills through manipulatives the demand of society in developing individuals who are equipped with 21st century skills is very high. even during the early year of schooling, children are provided with learning experiences that promote these essential skills. teachers are using different materials, including manipulatives, to help children develop 21st century skills. based on the data gathered from the observations, manipulatives help children develop skills in four different skill categories. these are practical collaboration skills, learning and innovation, information, media and technology, and life and career. under the effective collaboration skills, the highest frequency values were obtained in "develop language and vocabulary" and "enhanced relationship with peers," as ryan bautista ramilo et al. 8 shown in table 3. these findings reinforce the study of felix-aguelo (2017) that indicated collaborative learning improves the following skills of the learners: speaking, listening, reading, and writing. these are manifested when they are talking, asking, sharing thoughts, and working with each other. meanwhile, "practice negotiation skills and team player" was observed minimally. most of the classroom lessons and activities that use manipulatives were individualized, and there are very few instances where a child is guided to be a leader. table 3. result on observation for effective communication skills specific skills from using manipulatives frequency verbal interpretation develop language and vocabulary 0.66 above average enhanced relationship with peers 0.80 above average practice negotiation skills 0.46 average team player 0.53 average note: the data was based on the results of classroom observations in 15 different sessions. in table 4, the learning and innovation capabilities developed through the use of manipulatives are shown. topping the skills are critical thinking, learning through play, and enjoy and arouse interest with very high rating in the likert scale interpretation. indeed, manipulatives are exciting materials where children learn implicitly while engaged in playing and enjoying themselves. the skills that fall aboveaverage rate are problem-solving, constructing their understanding and observing, questioning, experimenting, & exploring. the average rate is matching, sorting and classifying, team player, and creativity. table 4. results of observation on learning and innovation skills specific skills from using manipulatives frequency verbal interpretation critical thinking 0.86 very high matching, sorting, and classifying 0.53 average problem solving skills 0.66 above average team player 0.53 average creativity 0.53 average construct their own understanding 0.8 above average enjoy and arouse interest 1.00 very high learn through play 0.93 very high observing, questioning, experimenting, and exploring 0.80 above average note: the data was based on the results of classroom observations in 15 different sessions. the skills covered by information, media and technology such as critical thinking, learning through play, enjoy and arouse interest, fine and gross motor skills come up with the best result (see table 5). fun while playing and learning was viewed during observation. also, these enhance small and big muscles by just lifting, arranging, and playing with the manipulatives. meanwhile, eye-hand coordination and problem-solving skills have an above-average rate. from the observation, as pupils use specific materials, they were able to learn through their discovery and solve and finish a given problem by themselves through their way. table 5. results of observation for information and media technology skills specific skills from using manipulatives frequency verbal interpretation eye-hand coordination 0.8 above average gross and fine motor skills 1.00 very high critical thinking 0.86 very high problem solving 0.66 above average enjoy and arouse interest 1.00 very high creativity 0.53 average learn through play 0.93 very high note: the data was based on the results of classroom observations in 15 different sessions. last, included in life and career capabilities as top skills from the use of manipulatives are fine and gross motor skills, helping to clean up, and initiative and self-direction (see table 6). we observed that, teachers’ perspectives on optimizing manipulatives in teaching... 9 aside from the cognitive part, the psychomotor domain was also enhanced by manipulatives, through and with the help of the teacher's instruction. the children know what to do with the materials after they finish using them. this provides early training to form the habit of organizing or packing away their stuff correctly after use. the last skill, leadership, has the lowest rating among all the skills as students work alone and do not do much of group or teamwork wherein they can guide and lead a group. table 6. result of observation for life and career skills specific skills from using manipulatives frequency verbal interpretation gross and fine motor skills 1.00 very high eye-hand coordination 0.80 above average decision making skills 0.66 above average self confidence 0.8 above average help to clean-up 0.93 very high leadership 0.13 low initiative and self direction 0.86 very high productivity 0.80 above average note: the data was based on the results of classroom observations in 15 different sessions. conclusions and recommendations manipulatives are today’s well-known tools for teaching kindergarten pupils. this study found that there are manipulatives used by kindergarten teachers that are effective tools for teaching and imparting 21st century skills to young learners. the manipulatives are directly applied and used by the pupils and have the potential to raise the level of interest of learners to engage in the lesson. the manipulatives available in kindergarten schools are appropriate in helping 5-year-old children develop the 21st century skills required because they match the child's characteristics. the type of manipulative aids the teacher in achieving the goal of early childhood education within the 21st century context. there are various types of manipulatives currently being used, and these have provided opportunities for learners to develop one or more skills depending on their characteristics and the functions of the manipulatives. the study also found that skills development may vary depending on the activity and type of manipulatives utilized. however, distinct observation has verified that manipulatives directly contact pupils and give them first-hand learning, leading to the effective development of 21st century skills among kindergarten pupils. various types of manipulatives are available today in both private and public schools. however, there is a need for teacher training to optimize manipulatives because not all kindergarten teachers today are early childhood education graduates. also, this study perceives that not all of the manipulatives are present in kindergarten classrooms. teachers make improvised materials to achieve the same purpose or rely on donations from their pupils or outside sources. based on the results and conclusion of the study, the following recommendations are hereby extended: the study suggests that teachers be encouraged to promote creative teaching strategies using materials aligned to the philosophy, context, and goals of the k-12 curriculum. these teachers must have access to training to maximize the use of manipulatives and be instructed to let the pupils use the materials instead of keeping the materials inside the cabinet or putting them on display. this study also recommends for the schools to be allocated with sufficient annual budget to support the acquisition of manipulatives for all kindergarten classrooms. the effective manipulatives found in other countries should also be made available in philippine schools to implement effective use of teaching materials to achieve efficient learning and holistic development of a growing child in order for him to acquire the 21st century skills needed to bring him at par with his counterparts in other countries. declarations editorial acknowledgement: the editorial process of this article was carried out by dr. i̇brahim h. acar. ryan bautista ramilo et al. 10 acknowledgement: the authors would like to thank all the preschool teachers who participated in this study. also, special thanks to mrs. normita guerrero for her insights. authors’ contributions: all the authors contributed equally to this paper. competing interests: the author declares that they have no competing interests. ethics approval and consent to participate: ethical consent is obtained from researcher’s institution, and informed consent forms are collected from participants. references act phils. 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(2013). education for all: beyond 2015 mapping current international actions to define the post-2015 education and development agenda. https://apprendre.auf.org/wp-content/opera/13-bf-references-et-bibliorpt2014/education%20in%20the%20post-2015%20development%20agenda_draft%20synthesis%20report%20.pdf https://apprendre.auf.org/wp-content/opera/13-bf-references-et-biblio-rpt2014/education%20in%20the%20post-2015%20development%20agenda_draft%20synthesis%20report%20.pdf https://apprendre.auf.org/wp-content/opera/13-bf-references-et-biblio-rpt2014/education%20in%20the%20post-2015%20development%20agenda_draft%20synthesis%20report%20.pdf journal of childhood, education & society volume 1, issue 2, 2020, pp. 116-140 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.20201237 research article ©2020 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. promoting self-regulated learning in preschoolers lisa jacob1, manuela benick2, sandra dörrenbächer3, franziska perels4 abstract: self-regulated learning (srl) is important for a person's school career and their later academic success, and it should therefore be fostered as early as possible. nevertheless, research focusing on the promotion of srl in preschoolers is limited. the present study aims to examine the efficacy of an srl intervention based on a longitudinal control-group-design for preschoolers (direct-level intervention) and their kindergarten teachers (indirect-level intervention). the srl intervention took place in either a) an autonomous learning environment, where srl learning strategies were practiced with no special focus on the stimulation of communicative abilities or b) in a social-interactive learning environment, where srl learning strategies were practiced while communicative abilities were stimulated. the sample consisted of 189 preschoolers (49.5% ♀, 50.5% ♂, mean age: 5.6 years, sd = .47 years) and 30 kindergarten teachers. srl and general self-regulation ability (gsr) served as performance measures. the results of the paired t-tests revealed an increase in srl and gsr for preschoolers irrespective of the condition, while a group-differential intervention benefit for preschoolers (i.e. directautonomous or direct-interactive intervention) could not be confirmed by the applied repeated measures anova and contrast analyses. further, we did not find any substantial benefit from teacher intervention (i.e. indirect intervention) analysed by nonparametric wilcoxon test. this unexpected result is discussed in light of methodical considerations. nevertheless, the study provides important implications for future intervention studies. article history received: 4 march 2020 accepted: 20 june 2020 keywords self-regulated learning; self-regulation; preschool; intervention introduction self-regulated learning (srl) is defined as the ability to learn through autonomous and self-directed application of strategies (sitzmann & ely, 2011). this definition implies that srl is a) autonomous because the learner is able to select adequate learning strategies independently and b) self-directed because the learner is able to apply the selected learning strategies independently. it is regarded as a superordinate ability which is important for (elementary school) curriculum and academic performance (blair & razza, 2007). srl need to be delimited from a general self-regulation ability (gsr) which refers to general regulation processes in order to achieve goals by the regulating actions, thinking processes and feelings (carver & scheier, 2011). there is empirical support for the effectiveness of srl interventions across different age groups: pupils from elementary schools (dignath, buettner, & langfeldt, 2008; leidinger & perels, 2012) and secondary schools (glaser & brunstein, 2007; souvignier & moklesgerami, 2006; torrance, fidalgo, & garcía, 2007; wagner, dörrenbächer, & perels, 2014) as well as university students (dörrenbächer & perels, 2016; nückles, hübner, & renkl, 2009; shi, frederiksen, & muis, 2013). only a few _____________ 1 saarland university, department of educational science, 66123 saarbrücken, germany, lisa.jacob@uni-saarland.de, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3251-2257 2 saarland university, department of educational science, 66123 saarbrücken, germany, manuela.benick@uni-saarland.de, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7040-9448 3 saarland university, department of educational science, 66123 saarbrücken, germany, s.doerrenbaecher@googlemail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4054-5016 4 saarland university, department of educational science, 66123 saarbrücken, germany, f.perels@mx.uni-saarland.de, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8594-1031 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.20201237 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:lisa.jacob@uni-saarland.de https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3251-2257 mailto:manuela.benick@uni-saarland.de https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7040-9448 mailto:s.doerrenbaecher@googlemail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4054-5016 mailto:f.perels@mx.uni-saarland.de https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8594-1031 promoting self-regulated learning in preschoolers 117 studies so far have already considered preschoolers as addressees of srl intervention research (e.g. dörr & perels, 2019b; perels, merget-kullmann, wende, schmitz, & buchbinder, 2009). more research is therefore needed, because preschoolers are in a particularly sensitive stage for the acquisition of srl. srl should thus be encouraged as early as possible to establish favourable learning habits (e.g. planning of the learning actions by selecting and reflecting adequate learning strategies) and avoid dysfunctional ones (e.g. chaotic learning actions without checking the usefulness of applied learning strategies) (landmann, perels, otto, schnick-vollmer, & schmitz, 2015). therefore, the present study aims to construct and evaluate an srl intervention especially for preschool children. self-regulated learning and general self-regulation ability as mentioned above, a distinction must be made between srl and gsr (schunk, 2008). gsr can be defined as the process of purposefully directing a person's actions, thoughts and feelings towards a goal (carver & scheier, 2011). this implies that gsr enables the individual to provide an adjustment in all of their life areas (williford, whittaker, vitiello, & downer, 2013), even apart the special context of learning. while gsr describes general regulation processes, srl represents an application-oriented concept of especially school and academic contexts. following bronson (2000), the development of gsr proceeds in stages in which children learn to mentally organize informational input from their living environment in order to achieve goals (fox & riconscente, 2008). increasingly improved attention and memory abilities enable children to handle limited cognitive capacities more efficiently (wigfield, klauda, & cambria, 2011). for the development of srl, especially metacognitive processes 1 are highly relevant as they are helpful to adapt the learning process continuously. they depend on neural maturation processes (lyons & ghetti, 2010). zimmerman's social cognitive model (2000) of self-regulation includes assumptions about how the process of achieving goals can be subdivided in different phases. this social-cognitive model is often transferred to learning and, therefore, it is the theoretical framework for srl. following the cyclical model, the learning process follows three different phases: the forethought phase, performance phase and selfreflection phase. different specific learning strategies are assigned to these phases. for preschoolers, we propose an adapted version of zimmerman's (2000) model which contains srl learning strategies appropriate to the stage of development (dörr & perels, 2019b; see figure 1, jacob, dörrenbächer, & perels, 2019). the srl learning strategies which should be considered favourably in the intervention for preschoolers are: using prior knowledge, definition of goals, self-efficacy, keeping breaks and selfmotivation, dealing with deflectors, monitoring, causal attribution and reflection. figure 1. zimmerman's (2000) process model of srl, adapted for preschoolers (jacob et al., 2019) _____________ 1 metacognition describes the availability of ‘meta-information’ about many different types of cognitive processes (martinez, 2006). lisa jacob et al. 118 importance of self-regulated learning interventions for preschoolers in the german school system, preschoolers usually encompass 5 to 6-year-old-children which are in their last year of kindergarten. the entrance age of kindergarten is usually 3 years of age. the mission of german preschool is to prepare children for the transition of elementary school in which they usually enter with 6 years of age. but there is no standardised curriculum for preschoolers. the kind of preparation for elementary school depends on the respective kindergarten institution. importantly for the purpose of our study, preschoolers are in a sensitive developmental period concerning the acquisition of srl. in this period, there appears to be a general shift from an emotion-driven regulation to a more cognitive regulation where complex learning processes such as srl can be built upon (zelazo, 2015). moreover, a qualitative shift from an external regulation to a more internally guided self-regulation style can be observed (see montroy, bowles, skibbe, mcclelland, & morrison, 2016). it has been demonstrated that preschool children have an elementary metacognitive understanding of their own learning processes (lockl, händel, haberkorn, & weinert, 2016). preschoolers are capable of goal setting and adjustment of thinking, and acting towards predefined goals (blaye & chevalier, 2011; hendry, jones, & charman, 2016), which represent important abilities for the forethought phase and performance phase of srl. in addition, preschoolers show inhibitory control (carlson, 2005; lewis, reeve, kelly, & johnson, 2017) and are capable of focusing their attention (bronson, 2000; lewis et al., 2017). both abilities are essential for the performance phase of srl. lastly, preschoolers are able to reflect their own learning process (zelazo, 2015) – an ability which is needed during the self-reflection phase of srl. importantly, environmental factors such as socioeconomic status can influence general child development and the development of self-regulation ability (blair & raver, 2015; dolean, melby-lervåg, tincas, damsa, & lervåg, 2019; seidler & ritchie, 2018; ursache & noble, 2016). an overarching goal in preschool is to facilitate the transition to school by providing basic social and, importantly, learning skills (e.g. chan, 2012). early promotion of srl also appears advantageous because of the high neuro-cognitive plasticity in early childhood (leisman, mualem, & mughrabi, 2018). empirical findings support the assumption that srl and associated skills are trainable in preschool (whitebread et al., 2005). fostering self-regulated learning in preschoolers for preschool age, some studies explicitly consider the srl of young children. these include the study of whitebread et al. (2005), in which the authors focused on 'independent learning', which has a strong overlap with srl, in early years and analysed the pedagogical practices that foster this ability. furthermore, perels et al. (2009) focused on srl in preschoolers. they used a two-level intervention approach. one level included the kindergarten teachers which were assigned to either an intervention group or a control group. the intervention was theoretically based on the process model of self-regulation (schmitz & wiese, 2006), which is an adaptation of the zimmerman (2000) model. it consisted of five intervention sessions (getting to know, pre-action phase of srl, action phase of srl, post-action phase of srl, summary) in which they were taught to a) apply srl strategies for their own learning process to be able to act as a role model and b) to support srl in preschoolers. on the second level, preschoolers’ progress in srl was assessed before and after the teachers' intervention. the authors found an intervention benefit for kindergarten teachers as well as preschoolers. in addition, venitz and perels (2018) applied a two level approach to foster srl in preschoolers. on the one level, the authors trained reference persons to a) apply srl strategies for their own learning processes and b) to support srl in preschool children. altogether, the intervention consisted of three sessions (referring to the three phases of srl). on the second level, the authors examined if the preschoolers had a benefit of the reference person's intervention. it was found that the intervention was successful on the level of preschoolers but not successful on the level of the reference persons. in a further study by dörr and perels (2019a), the authors aimed to improve metacognitive abilities in preschoolers and kindergarten teachers. such metacognitive abilities are seen as important prerequisites for the acquisition of srl (dinsmore, alexander, & loughlin, 2008). the researchers used a two-level intervention approach and found an improvement in specific metacognitive ‘control activities’ at the child level. in a second study, dörr and perels (2019b) examined the efficacy of a combination of an indirect srl intervention (fostering reference persons) and a direct srl intervention promoting self-regulated learning in preschoolers 119 (fostering preschoolers) and could not find a significant intervention benefit concerning preschoolers’ srl performance. in general, intervention studies for preschoolers in the context of self-regulation differ concerning a) the measurement of intervention success, either measuring benefits only at the child-level (schmitt, mcclelland, tominey, & acock, 2015) or via external ratings (dörr & perels, 2019a); b) the type of fostering through direct interventions at the child level (barnett et al., 2008; schmitt et al., 2015) or through indirect interventions which focus on the promotion of potential multipliers, such as kindergarten teachers (see also next section; bradley, atkinson, tomasino, rees & galvin, 2009; ford, mcdougall, & evans, 2009; venitz & perels, 2019); and c) the general stimulation of self-regulation (raver et al., 2011), compared to specific self-regulation strategies/aspects such as self-reflection (espinet, anderson, & zelazo, 2013; flook, goldberg, pinger, & davidson, 2015) or metacognition (dörr & perels, 2019a). however, most of the literature in this age group has tapped into gsr, and less so on srl (e.g. espinet et al., 2013; flook et al., 2015; raver et al., 2011). indeed, gsr can be well trained at preschool age, which manifests itself in positive effects in various life areas (perry, hutchinson, yee, & määttä, 2018) and leads to positive adaptability in school lessons (mcclelland & cameron, 2011). however, given the positive results in srl intervention research, it seems promising to make further efforts to develop srl interventions for preschoolers. the current study aims to develop and evaluate an intervention design that addresses the gap in the literature as follows: a) obtaining child as well as external rating-measures, b) combining a direct with an indirect intervention approach, and c) targeting both general self-regulation ability (gsr) and specific self-regulated learning strategies (srl). fostering self-regulated learning in kindergarten teachers when comparing direct interventions on the child level and indirect interventions on the teacher level (with evaluation on the level of the students), direct interventions in school context have been shown to be more effective (dignath et al., 2008; otto, 2007). however, the additional application of indirect interventions can increase intervention effectiveness (landmann et al., 2015) what is supported by empirical findings from studies that used a two-level intervention approach to foster srl in preschoolers (perels et al., 2009). in addition, there are some further empirical and theoretical reasons which speak for involving kindergarten teachers to foster srl in children. first, they play an important role due to the large amount of time they spent with preschoolers (bodrova & leong, 2001). second, they have the professional task of accompanying and boosting the positive development of the children (barnett, 2008) which should be considered in practice-oriented research. third, mutual interaction processes between kindergarten teachers and preschoolers verifiably influence developmental processes and, respectively the acquisition of srl, by creating a stimulating learning environment via their role model function (bandura, 1986; bronson, 2000) and the use of the metacognitive dialogues in which children learn to perceive and represent their learning by means of requests and informative feedback (pramling, 1986). as a consequence, for the current study, kindergarten teachers should be involved in the srl intervention by teaching them to support preschoolers in selecting and applying srl learning strategies. in the present study, we promote both children (i.e. direct intervention) as well as their kindergarten teachers (i.e. indirect intervention). the influence of communicative processes on self-regulation and self-regulated learning the development of gsr takes place through the communicative interaction of the child and his/her environment (bronson, 2000). here, self-talk plays a prominent role (vygotsky, 1962) and supports the planning, initiation and monitoring of actions (winsler, diaz, & montero, 1997). self-talk can appear a) as social speech in which children communicate their thinking processes to the environment or b) as private speech in which children communicate thinking processes to themselves. with the increasing internalisation of cognitive processes, private speech transforms to inner speech while preschool age (bono & bizri, 2014; winsler, de león, wallace, carlton, & willson-quayle, 2003). as the development of selfregulation ability is not terminated in preschool age, it is reasonable to conclude that fostering gsr, or respectively srl, in preschoolers is also possible by encouraging social-interactive practicing in which instruction for social and private speech is given. consequently, a social-interactive learning environment lisa jacob et al. 120 represents a reasonable frame for a srl intervention for preschoolers. autonomous practicing within an autonomous learning environment stands opposed to this. because of the relevance of speech for selfregulation ability, studies of fostering gsr have used action accompanying language (camp, blom, hebert, & van doorninck, 1977; gaskins, satlow, pressley, & meltzer, 2007; meichenbaum & goodman, 1971; salmon, o’kearney, reese, & fortune, 2016). these studies have mainly built upon the learning principle of meichenbaum and goodman (1971). this principle postulates that adult models execute actions and verbalise aloud in a first step. in a second step, children execute the observed actions and verbalise in parallel, during intervention, children are fostered to internalise increasingly their verbalisations. in the current study, we place the srl intervention in two different learning environments, namely a) an autonomous environment with no special focus on speech and b) a social-interactive environment with speech stimulation, following the learning principle of meichenbaum and goodman (1971). the present study in summary, the present study addresses the development and evaluation of an intervention for preschool children, theoretically based on the adapted srl model of zimmerman (2000). a direct intervention on the child-level is combined with an indirect intervention on the kindergarten-teacher-level. an srl intervention in an autonomous learning environment (i.e. lower demands on communicative skills, e.g. preschoolers were not requested to communicate their thinking processes while doing single exercises) is compared to a social-interactive learning environment (i.e. higher demands on communicative skills; e.g. preschoolers constantly had to communicate their thinking processes to the peers while pair or group exercises). we measure any intervention benefit by using an external rating as well as a direct childappropriate measurement tool. we also compare benefits on general self-regulation abilities (gsr) with benefits on specific self-regulated learning strategies (srl). research aims and hypotheses due to a) empirical evidence for the general trainability of srl (dörr & perels, 2019a; perels et al., 2009; whitebread et al., 2005) and b) and the existence of important developmental prerequisites in preschool age (bronson, 2000; lockl et al., 2016; zelazo, 2015), the main aim of the present study is the evaluation of an srl intervention for preschoolers. preschoolers’ level: because of the fundamental role of speech and communication in gsr and srl (see the section 'relevance of speech processes for self-regulation and srl'), we compare the srl intervention in two different learning environments, namely the autonomous and the social-interactive learning environments, and propose the following hypotheses: 1) the srl intervention group (both in an autonomous and a social-interactive learning environment) shows better results in srl and gsr at posttest after the intervention compared to the pretest. 2) the srl intervention group (both in an autonomous and a social-interactive learning environment) shows a larger improvement in srl and gsr than the active control group. 3) the srl intervention group in a social-interactive learning environment stimulating communicative skills shows a stronger improvement in srl and gsr than the srl intervention group practicing in an autonomous learning environment. teachers' level: due to the important role of kindergarten teachers in influencing preschoolers' development via their function as role models (bandura, 1986) and in designing the critical learning environment (barnett, 2008; bodrova & leong, 2001; bronson, 2000), the evaluation of the srl intervention on kindergarten teacher level is also of interest, thus we hypothesise that: 4) kindergarten teachers from the srl intervention group (in both autonomous and socialinteractive learning environments) show better results in srl self-report at posttest after the intervention compared to the pretest. furthermore, those of the intervention group show better results than those of the control group. promoting self-regulated learning in preschoolers 121 method participants the child sample consisted of n = 215 preschoolers from 18 german kindergartens. 215 preschoolers participated in the pretest, whereas 189 preschoolers participated in pretest and posttest, hence representing an effective sample size. to ensure the likelihood of achieving any benefit from the intervention, the inclusion criterion was that children had to participate at least in three out of nine srl intervention sessions2 between preand posttest. the children were 5 to 6 years old (m = 5.60, sd = .51). females numbered 106 children, and 108 children were male3. all children had normal or corrected-tonormal vision and no hearing impairment. based on parents’ statements, none of the children had a known learning disability or suffered from developmental delay. ethical standards of research were respected. the participation in our study was voluntarily for all persons involved and we aimed at transparency in research design and methods and informed kindergarten teachers and parents about the goals and research methods of our study. the preschoolers’ parents gave their written consent for participation. data protection and safety was assured by the department. personal data of the participants were protected by anonymization. at the pretest, demographic information as well as control measures were collected, such as the socioeconomic status (ses) using the book question following bos et al. (2003) and speech competency using the 'recognizing terms test' (ricken, 2007) and the 'passive vocabulary test' (ricken, 2007). some of those measures revealed significant baseline differences between the intervention conditions (see table 1) and were therefore included as covariates in the statistical analyses. table 1. characteristics of preschoolers by intervention condition autonomous srl intervention (autsrl) social-interactive srl intervention (intsrl) active control group (cg) m (sd) 71.24 (4.83) 2.31 (.82) 7.78 (2.26) 10.68 (2.70) m (sd) 71.23 (5.84) 2.40 (.78) 7.75 (2.36) 11.55 (2.41) m (sd) 75.83 (4.83) 2.51 (.66) 8.82 (2.01) 12.21 (2.05) anova4 age f(2, 155) =13.53, p <.001 ses/book question f(2, 210) = 1.27, p =.283 rt f(2, 156) = 4.20, p =.017 pv f(2,172) =5.91, p =.003 note. rt = recognising terms, pv = passive vocabulary kindergartens were assigned randomly to the intervention conditions. the kindergarten teacher sample consisted of n = 81 kindergarten teachers of the same 18 german kindergartens from where the preschool sample was recruited. all kindergarten teachers finished three years of vocational training as required to work as a kindergarten teacher in the relevant region of germany. in the pretest 76 kindergarten teachers participated, whereas 36 kindergarten teachers participated in the posttest. the effective sample consisted of n = 30 kindergarten teachers of which pretest and posttest data were available. _____________ 2 the decision for this number as criteria was data-driven. we tried to find a balance between the participation at as many sessions as possible and a as low as possible reduction of the sample. 3 due to accidental data loss, gender information cannot be declared in 13 cases. 4 the anova includes 'group' as factor and age, ses, rt and pv as dependent variables. lisa jacob et al. 122 design and procedure on the level of preschoolers, the study was realised as a pretest-intervention-posttest-design with two intervention conditions and one active control group5. pretest data were collected by two trained experimenters who participated in a multi-hour course in which a) theoretical aspects of the applied measurement instruments were explained and b) the practical application of the measurement instruments was exercised with psychology students. further the trainers received test manuals to guarantee a standardised test instruction. at pretest, all children were tested individually, and the measurement was split into two testing occasions each to avoid overstressing the preschoolers. each session lasted approximately 20 minutes. given that the survey of control measures was no longer necessary at posttest, the posttest measurement covered only one session of approximately 20 minutes. the intervention was implemented in a group setting and instructed by two trainers using standardised intervention manuals. in this manual, the procedure of each intervention session was noted as well as concrete formulations which had to be used by the trainers when explaining srl learning strategies and srl exercises to the children. importantly, there are two different learning environments for the srl intervention: one group trained in an autonomous learning setting ('autsrl intervention'), whereas the second group trained in a social-interactive learning setting ('intsrl intervention'). a third group served as an active control group (cg), only performing srl case vignettes. the study design for the intervention at child level is illustrated in figure 2. figure 2. study design on level of preschoolers on the teacher level, the study was realised as a pretest-intervention-posttest-design with two intervention conditions ('autsrl intervention', 'intsrl intervention') and a passive control group (cg). the pretest consisted of an srl self-report filled in by the kindergarten teachers. the intervention consisted of an srl workshop and the concerted application of workshop transfer materials in the regular kindergarten programme by the kindergarten teachers in parallel with the preschooler intervention period. the workshop took approximately two hours and was headed by two trained referents in kindergarten facilities. the control group did not receive any srl input. the posttest (including self-report measurements similar to pretest) at teacher level followed after the intervention period at child level had terminated. the study design for the intervention at teacher level is illustrated in figure 3. _____________ 5 there was no passive control group because we decided for a more conservative comparison with a stronger, active control group. further, within the german kindergarten system, it would be hard to implement a business as usual group because the preschool programs of the kindergartens vary (in germany we do not have a standardised preschool curriculum) and are not always comparable to each other. promoting self-regulated learning in preschoolers 123 figure 3. study design on level of kindergarten teachers measures to evaluate the efficacy of the srl intervention at the child level, srl was measured on child-level and by external ratings before and after the intervention. in addition, gsr was measured using an established measurement instrument. to evaluate the efficacy of the srl intervention at the teacher level, srl was measured by self-report directly before and after the intervention. measurement at the child level: pre – and posttest measurement. self-regulated learning at the child level: srl test. in this study, a quantitative measurement tool to assess srl in preschoolers was applied. the tool was newly developed and first validated and optimised in a study by jacob et al. (2019). the srl test is a form of multiple choice quiz and consists of 11 items with dichotomous response format (good idea vs. bad idea). every item is presented visually in a story book, supported by colourful drawings. children reply to the items by tapping a happy (good idea) or unhappy face (bad idea), as portrayed in the story book. each item asks for knowledge of srl learning strategies. the items are embedded in the narrative of the character little lion 'lennie' of preschool age, who has the overarching goal of finding a present for his friend. on his way to goal achievement, he meets different challenges which are manageable by using certain learning strategies. an example item is shown in figure 4. the range of total performance ranges from -11 (all items were answered incorrectly) to +11 (all items were answered correctly). following jacob et al. (2019), the test tool shows satisfactory test quality criterions: a) an internal consistency of α =.72, b) significant validity determined by cross validation (with external srl rating: r = .20, p = .03 and a direct executive functions measure on child-level: r =.18, p =.02) and c) high objectivity due to a standardised test instruction (jacob et al., 2019). in the present study, the internal consistency was α = .65. lisa jacob et al. 124 figure 4. example item of the srl test self-regulated learning at the child level: external srl rating. the external srl rating scale was filled out by the kindergarten teachers. on the one hand, the item pool consists of a selection of items used in two previous studies examining srl in children (otto, 2007; perels et al., 2009). on the other hand, it consists of items from two established measurement tools: the children's independent learning development checklist (child 3-5) ( whitebread et al., 2009) and the child behavioural rating scale (rowley, 2015). item selection is based on content considerations and the results from the item analysis of a former version of the srl rating scale, used in venitz and perels (2018). all items of the composed measurement tool were rated on a four-point likert scale ranging from 1 (never) to 4 (always). the range of total performance is between 35 – 140. the external srl rating scale contains 35 items, which are grouped into three scales and nine subscales, operationalising srl learning strategies. the structure and reliabilities (internal consistency) of the external srl rating scale are shown in table 2. table 2. structure and reliabilities of the external srl rating srl phase subscale example item number of items reliability forethought phase definition of goals and planning 'the child sets realistic goals.' 7 .88 using prior knowledge 'the child can apply previously learned strategies.' 2 .76 planning and organisation 'the child does not complete tasks, not even after receiving clues.' 3 .68 self-efficacy 'the child enjoys solving problems.' 7 .69 performance phase breaks and selfmotivation 'the child takes a break to relax during longer tasks.' 1 -1 keeping up 'the child can withstand difficulties.' 4 .78 dealing with deflectors 'the child is easily distracted.' 5 .68 monitoring 'the child can actively influence his/her learning outcome.' 3 .70 self-reflection phase reflection 'at the end of a task, the child checks whether the result makes sense.' 3 .73 overall 35 .80 note. 1 the srl learning strategy 'breaks and self-motivation' is represented by only one item, which is why no reliability can be reported. general self-regulation ability at the child level: head-toes-knees-shoulders task. the german version of the head-toes-knees-shoulders-task (htks) (cameron et al., 2008) was applied to measure gsr. the task is divided into three sections. in section one, preschoolers learn up to two instructions ('touch your head/toes.') and comply with the request. in addition, they are invited to name the body part they touch. in section two, children are instructed to perform in the 'opposite' manner to the previously learned instruction (to touch their head when they are instructed to 'touch your toes' and name the body part they promoting self-regulated learning in preschoolers 125 touch and vice versa). in section three, two further instructions are added ('touch your knees/shoulders.') and a child's first task is to train these naturally by complying with the request and naming the respective body part. subsequently, they must switch rules again and perform the 'opposite' action to all four learned instructions. the task consists of twenty trials. action performance and naming of the touched body part are rated separately and form a total score. the range of total performance is between 0 and 80 (0 = incorrect response, 1 = initially incorrect response that was spontaneously corrected, 2 = correct response). the htks shows good psychometric quality, which is reflected by its construct validity and very strong to excellent examiner reliability (κ = .90 -.98, connor et al., 2010; mcclelland et al., 2014; α = .92; cameron et al., 2008). in our sample, we found an internal consistency of α = .95. measurement at child level: control measurement. in addition, the measures used to evaluate the intervention outcome (srl, gsr), the socioeconomic status and speech competence of the preschoolers were measured as control variables. socioeconomic status: book question. in the style of bos et al. (2003), we assessed the socioeconomic status of the children by inquiring as to the domestic book inventory. therefore, children were asked how many books can be found in their homes. to answer, they had to tap on one of three bookshelves, as shown in figure 5. figure 5. book question the total range was between 1 and 3 (1 = none or very few, 2 = enough to fill a bookshelf, 3 = more than 200). speech competence: recognising terms test and passive vocabulary test. speech competence was assessed by measuring two facets: speech production and speech comprehension. speech production was operationalised by the recognizing terms test (in german: 'begriffe erkennen test', be) which is a subtest of the german intelligence test battery for preschool age (age range: 4.0 – 6.11), namely the hannover-wechsler-intelligenztest iii (hawiva-iii) (ricken, 2007). the children's task is to generate words that fit the description of the test leader (e.g. 'guess what i´m thinking of: it's an animal that makes meow. '). the initial 15 items are ordered in increasing difficulty. if a child answers incorrectly five times, the test is terminated. because of the ceiling effects in a pilot study, the first three items were removed for the current study. the final instrument consists of 12 items. the range of total performance is from 0 to 12 (0 = incorrect response, 1 = correct response; m = 8.15, sd = 2.26). the be test turned out to be valid and showed sufficient retest reliability (rtt =.86; ricken, 2007). in our sample, we found a split-half reliability of r = .59. speech comprehension was measured by the passive vocabulary test (in german; 'passiver wortschatz test', pw) which is also a subtest of hawiva-iii (ricken, 2007). it consists of 25 stimulus cards (items). each stimulus card shows four different images. the children are tasked with pointing at the image which fits the test leaders' description. the description contents single elements of the images (e.g. 'show me the curly tail.' correct image: pig). the initial 25 items are ordered in increasing difficulty. if a child lisa jacob et al. 126 incorrectly answers five times, the test is terminated early. because of time-economic reasons, the first four items were deleted in the version of the test used in the current study. nineteen items remained, for which the first items served as an example item and were not concluded in the total test score. the range of total performance is between 0 and 18 points (0 = incorrect response, 1 = correct response; m = 11.52, sd =2.45). the pw is a valid test with a sufficient retest reliability (rtt = .82; ricken, 2007). in our sample, we found a split-half reliability of r = .55. measurement at child level: intervention measurement. case vignettes for preschoolers (manipulation check). the case vignettes were used as manipulation checks for preschoolers. in the case vignettes, the protagonist 'mulle the mole' was faced with problems in connection with the srl learning strategy taught in the respective intervention sessions 2 to 7. for each problem, the children were offered four possible solutions (two targets, two distractors). the children had to evaluate the quality of the solutions by drawing a happy or unhappy face ('good idea', 'bad idea') at the end of the intervention sessions. the evaluation was realised by calculating the total scores over all case vignettes. the possible performance range is between -28 (all items were answered incorrectly) and 28 points (all items were answered correctly). measurement at teacher level. self-regulated learning in kindergarten teachers (teacher srl self-report). the questionnaire was filled out by the kindergarten teachers. it was partly constructed from questionnaires of previous projects, whereby the items were partly adopted and modified. the questionnaires of the projects sele-f (leidinger, 2014) and selves (otto, 2007), projects to promote srl in primary schools, and 'krixel' (merget-kullmann & wende, 2004; see also perels et al., 2009) and 'kiga i' (venitz & perels, 2018), a study in preschool, were used. in addition, items were constructed newly. all items were rated on a four-point likert scale that ranges from 1 to 4 (not true/ rather not true/ rather true/ true). the teacher srl self-report contains 75 items (range of total performance is 75 – 300) which are grouped into two subscales: the subscale 'srl behaviour' which captures how self-regulated teachers behave concerning different learning strategies and the subscale 'srl mediation', which captures how srl strategy knowledge is actively passed on to the preschoolers. the structure and reliabilities of the teacher srl self-report are shown in table 3. table 3. structure and reliabilities of the teacher srl self-report subscale example items number of items reliability srl behaviour 'i have clear goals for my work.' 'i always think carefully about what i want to do when i'm at work.' 43 .86 srl mediation 'i'll show the kids how to divide bigger goals into partial goals.' 'if a child does not succeed in a difficult activity, then we think together how it could proceed.' 32 .85 overall 75 .93 assessment of the application of transfer materials (manipulation check). the manipulation check was used to check if kindergarten teachers applied the transfer materials to their kindergarten routines. they should evaluate the transfer material. they stated a) how often they used it on a three-point likert scale (0 = not at all/1 = 1x/ 2 = more than 1x) and b) how helpful it was on a four-point likert scale (0 = not helpful/ 1= rather not helpful/ 2 = rather helpful/ 3 =helpful). for descriptive evaluation, mean scores were calculated. the intervention the srl intervention aims at the promotion of srl strategies based on zimmerman´s (2000) model of srl (see the section 'self-regulated learning and general self-regulation ability'). promoting self-regulated learning in preschoolers 127 srl intervention for preschoolers. at child level, the intervention consisted of nine sessions of 45 minutes each. the group size was between 8 and 15 children. in the first session, preschoolers and trainers got to know each other and the story of 'mulle the mole' was introduced. the story was extended over all subsequent sessions. in sessions two to eight, the individual srl learning strategies were taught and rehearsed. the ninth and last session served to repeat the srl learning strategies. an overview of the srl learning content of the individual session is shown in table 4. table 4. overview of srl learning content and assignment to the srl phases session learning content srl learning strategy srl phase 1 getting to know & introduction 2 'we set ourselves goals and use our knowledge!' definition of goals, planning, using prior knowledge forethought 3 'we believe in ourselves!' self-efficacy forethought 4 'we're sticking to the point!' breaks & self-motivation performance 5 'we keep disturbers away!' dealing with deflectors performance 6 'we're looking over our own shoulders!' monitoring performance 7 'we give ourselves feedback!' reflection self-reflection 8 repetition all all all intervention sessions followed the same structure. at first, the group performed a welcoming ritual. the learning strategy from the previous session was then recapped with the children. subsequently, the narrative part introduced the relevant learning strategy of the current session. in the frame story, 'mulle the mole's' goal is to give a bouquet of flowers to his mum (forethought phase). for this purpose, mulle digs a tunnel under a fence to reach a flower meadow on the other side (performance phase). mulle reflects his action after he completes the bouquet of flowers (self-reflection phase). in every session, a sequence of the frame story was about mulle, who applied an srl learning strategy to reach the overarching goal (bouquet of flowers). subsequently, the srl strategy was practiced by the children. the wording of the frame story differed between the two intervention conditions. a 'phase model' was used for visualisation during the reading of the frame history (see figure 6). figure 6. phase model used for visualisation of the frame story after the narrative part, the srl learning strategy used by mulle was repeated and practiced via child-appropriate exercises. these exercises differed between the two intervention conditions and focused either on autonomous or social-interactive execution. finally, a manipulation check via case vignettes was conducted. the children received 'mulle stickers' as a reward. the stickers showed mulle applying the srl learning strategy of the session. the stickers were clued on their own phase models. the session was terminated with a goodbye ritual. manipulation of the srl intervention for preschoolers. differences between the 'autsrl intervention' and the ' intsrl intervention' exist a) in the frame story. the 'autsrl intervention' included lisa jacob et al. 128 little spoken language, whereas the 'intsrl intervention' included a considerable amount of speech. this was realised by using verbatim speech and through the specification of guiding principles and key questions, as used by meichenbaum and goodman (1971). furthermore, differences between the 'autsrl intervention' and the 'intsrl intervention' exist in b) srl strategy exercises. in the autonomous setting, children were instructed by the trainers and subsequently performed the exercise independently. in the social-interactive setting, the execution of the srl learning strategy was demonstrated by two trainers and subsequently practiced in peer interaction between the children. the children asked each other key questions or verbalised guiding principles, following meichenbaum and goodman (1971). table 5 presents the differences in two exemplary exercises between both srl intervention conditions in the two sessions. table 5. differences two exemplary exercises between both srl intervention conditions session srl learning strategy exercise in autsrl intervention exercise in intsrl intervention 6 monitoring flower game version a: a picture with a bouquet of flowers is shown; child completes parkour and collects the flowers needed for the bouquet flower game version b: only the quizmaster (peer) knows the number and colour of flowers which are required; the child has to verbally interact with the quiz master to master the parkour 8 attribution puppet show version a: children see two puppet shows in which something goes wrong; they have to choose one of two shields which should be held up high: a) ‘unlucky mulle’(external attribution) or b) ‘selfmulle’(internal attribution) puppet show version b: children see two puppet shows in which something goes wrong; they must explain if the mistake has to be attributed externally or internally; then children play the second story in which something goes wrong in groups of two active control group: preschoolers. the 'intervention' in the active control group consisted of two sessions within which the children worked on the case vignettes which served as manipulation checks in the srl intervention conditions. this means that they were taught no srl learning strategies. srl intervention for kindergarten teachers. at the level of kindergarten teachers, the interventions consisted of an srl workshop and transfer materials. the interactive workshop was held shortly prior to the child intervention. content wise, the workshop comprised a theoretical introduction to srl, experiences of the participants and the presentation of child-centred learning strategies. in addition, the teachers were introduced to the transfer material for each of the strategies, which was to be used in everyday kindergarten life. manipulation of srl intervention for kindergarten teachers. differences between the 'autsrl intervention' and the 'intsrl intervention' at the level of kindergarten teachers exist in a) linguistic orientation: instructions and transfer materials for the kindergarten routine in the 'intsrl intervention' focused on verbalisation, and b) the role of speech in srl was solely taught in the 'intsrl intervention'. in both intervention groups, short questionnaires which captured the frequency and benefit of the transfer materials were used as 'manipulation checks'. control group: kindergarten teachers. there was no (workshop) intervention in the control group. statistical procedure to test hypothesis 1, that is, whether preschool children would show a general improvement after an srl intervention from preto post-test, the pretest scores of each child group (autsrl intervention, intsrl intervention, active control group) were compared to the posttest scores by using paired t-tests. the achieved scores in the srl test, the external srl rating (overall, subscales) and the htks, as a measure of gsr, served as dependent variables. regarding hypotheses 2 and 3, we analysed whether we would find group-differential improvement from pretest to posttest in the children’s score in the srl test, the external srl rating (overall, subscales) and the htks. in the repeated measures anovas, measurement time (pretest/posttest) was the repeated measures factor and group membership (autsrl intervention, intsrl intervention, active control group) promoting self-regulated learning in preschoolers 129 was the between-subjects factor. we controlled for age, speech production, speech comprehension and socioeconomic status as covariates of no further interest. we further calculated directed orthogonal contrast analyses to specify any group differences: a first set of contrasts tested whether both intervention groups (autsrl intervention and intsrl intervention) would show a larger improvement than the active control group on our srl outcome measures. a second set of contrasts tested whether the intsrl intervention group would improve significantly more than the autsrl intervention group given a potential advantage for an environment that also promotes communicative skills. as dependent variables, we used the difference-values (score posttest – score pretest). we controlled for age, speech production, speech comprehension and socioeconomic status. in addition, we compared scores in the manipulation checks between all child groups using univariate anovas to examine whether the intervention per se was successfully manipulated. regarding hypothesis 4, to test the effectiveness of the teacher-level intervention (i.e. indirect intervention) at the teacher level, the pretest scores of each teacher group (autsrl intervention, intsrl intervention, active control group) were compared to the posttest scores by using non-parametric wilcoxon-tests due to small sample sizes. the score of the teacher srl self-report (overall, subscales) served as dependent variables. in addition, we compared scores in the manipulation checks between the teacher groups on the descriptive level to examine whether the intervention was successful. structure of the data. initially, the examined data is of hierarchical structure. we have data on three levels: preschoolers, kindergarten teachers and kindergartens as institutions. a statistical analysis with the aid of multilevel analysis (see snijders, 2011) was not feasible because preschoolers could not be matched 1:1 to a specific kindergarten teacher. in german kindergarten routines, preschoolers interact with several kindergarten teachers throughout the day. on the next higher level, however, preschoolers could be clearly assigned to kindergartens. we therefore analysed in exploratory post-hoc analyses whether membership to a certain kindergarten had an impact, and we found small intra-class-correlations (icc) (see castro, 2002) for the dependent variables (srl test: icc = 0.02, htks: icc = 0.04, external srl rating: icc = 0.07). this means that the influence of kindergarten institutions on preschoolers' performance accounts for only 2% to 7% of variance. based on these statistical findings, we argue that the hierarchical structure of the data on the level of kindergartens could be neglected in the present case. correction of multiple comparisons. to avoid false-positive results, a bonferroni-adjusted significance level of .006 was applied for all statistical analyses on the level of the nine subscales of the external srl rating scale (armstrong, 2014). results measurement at child level: manipulation check of the self-regulated learning intervention preschoolers of the 'autsrl intervention' group achieved on average m = 7.45 points (sd = 6.68). preschoolers of the 'intsrl intervention' group achieved on average m = 5.33 points (sd = 5.54). preschoolers of the active control group achieved on average m = 6.38 points (sd = 4.50). the difference between the three groups did not reach significance (f (2, 84) = .67, p = .514). measurement at child level: consideration of control variables the preschoolers' socioeconomic status (ses), their age, their speech production competency and their speech comprehension competency served, if required (i.e. in the case of substantial baseline differences between groups), as control variables for the following analyses. table 6 shows the correlations between these potential control variables and the dependent variables, as well as the correlations of dependent variables among themselves. lisa jacob et al. 130 table 6. correlations between potential control variables and dependent variables, and dependent variables among themselves variable 1 2 3 4 5 6 1. ses 2. age .05 3. speech prod. .27** .11 4. speech compr. .25** .13 .41** 5. srl test .26** .15 .24** .19* 6. srl rating .07 -.14 .17* .05 .12 7. htks .08 .03 .31** .24** .17* .17* note. ses = socioeconomic status, speech prod. = speech production, speech compr. = speech comprehension, srl test = selfregulated learning test, srl rating = self-regulated learning rating, htks = head-toes-knees-shoulders task; ** indicates p<.001, * indicates p <.05 measurement at child level: general improvement from preto posttest the descriptive statistics for the pretest and posttest scores for the three dependent variables (srl test, external srl rating, htks) are provided in table 7. in the 'autsrl intervention' group, paired t-tests resulted in statistically significant differences between pretestand posttest-score for the following dependent variables: srl test, t (61) = -11.04, p < .001, d = .18, external srl rating subscale 'using prior knowledge', t (48) = -4.46, p < .001, d = .09, and htks, t (44) = 2.43, p = .019, d = .05. in the 'intsrl intervention' group, paired t-tests resulted in statistically significant differences between pretestand posttest-score for the srl test, t (63) = -9.57, p <.001, d = .15. in the active control group, paired t-tests resulted in statistically significant differences between pretestand posttest-score for the following dependent variables: srl test, t (49) = -9.86, p <.001, d = .20, external srl rating overall, t (46) = -4.84, p <.001, external srl rating subscales 'definition of goals', t (46) = -4.84, p<.001, d = .10, 'using prior knowledge', t (46) = -6.04, p <.001, d = .13, 'monitoring', t (43) = -3.82, p <.001, d = .09, reflection, t (42) = -4.32, p<.001, d = .10, and htks, t (46) = -4.03, p<.001, d = .09. table 7. descriptive statistics of srl test, external srl rating and htks autsrl intervention intsrl intervention active control group pre m (sd) post m (sd) pre m (sd) post m (sd) pre m (sd) post m (sd) srl test -1.25 (5.55) 7.34 (3.64) .44 (4.81) 7.37 (3.74) 1.27 (3.58) 7.96 (2.83) srl rating overall go pk pl se b ku dd m r .33 (1.04) .21 ( .96) .08 (1.13) .26 (1.07) .24 ( .95) .18 (1.06) .23 (1.16) .32 (1.17) .16 ( .99) .10 (1.05) .02 ( .90) .12 ( .99) .29 (1.06) .08 ( .90) .01 ( .99) .01 (1.01) .03 ( .97) .07 (1.03) .05 (1.01) .16 (1.10) .15 (1.07) .13 (1.22) .23 (1.03) .08 (.93) .18 (1.12) .08 (.93) .08 (.92) .01 (.83) .21 (1.09) .15 (1.16) .12 (1.11) .11 (1.23) .07 (1.04) .02 (1.07) .11 (1.10) .08 (1.10) .07 (1.02) .01 (.99) .17 (1.18) .05 (1.09) .47 (.65) .29 (.75) .31 (.73) .16 (.97) .40 (.80) .08 (.87) .29 (.86) .40 (.79) .34 (.84) .24 (.74) .08 (1.00) .20 (.78) .22 (.84) .06 (1.04) .11 (.94) .05 (.91) .09 (1.02) .07 (.99) .07 (.94) .20 (.78) htks 55.94 (21.78) 67.41 (16.93) 58.29 (19.17) 64.67 (19.81) 64.39 (15.88) 71.35 (14.02) note. go = definition of goals, pk = using prior knowledge, pl = planning and organisation, se = self-efficacy, b = breaks and selfmotivation, ku = keeping up, dd = dealing with deflectors, m = monitoring, r = reflection; statistically significant differences between preand posttest scores indicated by the reported paired t-tests are written in bold measurement at child level: group-differential improvement from preto posttest a repeated measures anova determined that groups did not differ substantially concerning their improvement from preto posttest in the srl test score between measurements, f(2, 123) = .84, p = .43. however, a repeated measures anova determined that groups differed statistically significantly promoting self-regulated learning in preschoolers 131 concerning their learning growth in the external srl rating score (overall) between measurements, f(2, 108) = 6.76, p =.002, partial η² = .11. more specifically, regarding the subscales of the external srl rating, a repeated measures anova at the univariate level determined that groups differed significantly concerning their improvement in the subscale scores 'definition of goals and planning', f(2, 70) = 6.16, p =.003, partial η² = .15, 'using prior knowledge', f(2, 70) = 6.15, p =.003, partial η² = .15, 'keeping up', f(2, 70) = 3.24, p =.045, partial η² = .09, 'monitoring', f(2, 70) = 5.40, p =.007, partial η² = .13 and 'reflection', f(2, 70) = 6.56, p =.002, partial η² = .16. the results did not reveal substantial differences between groups concerning their learning growth in the remaining four subscales scores, namely 'planning and organisation', f(2, 70) = .65, p =.52, self-efficacy', f(2, 70) = 1.47, p =.24, 'breaks and self-motivation', f(2, 70) = .15, p =.86, and 'dealing with deflectors', f(2, 70) = 1.28, p =.29. a repeated measures anova determined that neither group differed concerning their learning growth in the htks score between measurements, f(2, 78) = .43, p = .65. the results of the repeated measures anovas are displayed in table 8. table 8. summary of the results of repeated measures anovas to compare the three experimental groups (autsrl, intsrl, active control group) group differences srl test nonsig. srl rating overall sig. definition of goals sig. using prior knowledge sig. planning and organisation nonsig. self-efficacy nonsig. breaks and self-motivation nonsig. keeping up nonsig. dealing with deflectors nonsig. monitoring sig. reflection sig. htks nonsig. group-differential improvement in detail. for the external srl rating (overall), contrast analyses showed that the intervention groups (autsrl intervention: m = -.17, sd = 1.12, intsrl intervention: m = .18, sd = .98) differed statistically from the active control group (m = .57, sd = .82) yet pointed in the opposite direction, with a contrast value of -1.51 (se = .35), p <.001. in addition, there was no statistical difference between both intervention groups, contrast value: -.01 (se = .21), p =.97. for the subscale score 'definition of goals', contrast analyses showed that the intervention groups (autsrl intervention: m = -.21, sd = .91, intsrl intervention: m = -.18, sd = .72) differed statistically from the active control group (m = .44, sd = .61), again with a negative contrast value of -1.27 (se = .27), p <.001. in addition, there was no statistical difference between both intervention groups, contrast value: .03 (se = .20), p =.90). for the subscale score 'using prior knowledge', contrast analyses revealed that the intervention groups (autsrl intervention: m = -.35, sd = .92, intsrl intervention: m = -.29, sd = .81) differed statistically from the active control group (m = .52, sd = .59), with an oppositely directed contrast value of -1.69 (se = .26), p <.001. in addition, there was no statistical difference between both intervention groups, contrast value: .06 (se = .19), p =.74. for the subscale 'keeping up', contrast analyses demonstrated that the intervention groups (autsrl intervention: m = -.20, sd = 1.95, intsrl intervention: m = -.05, sd = 1.64) differed statistically from the active control group (m = .52, sd = 1.63) with a negative contrast value of -1.29 (se = .65), p =.05. in addition, there was no statistical difference between both intervention groups, contrast value: .15 (se = .39), p =.70. for the subscale score 'monitoring', contrast analyses showed that the intervention groups (autsrl intervention: m = -.12, sd = .80, intsrl intervention: m = -.21, sd = .89) differed statistically from the active lisa jacob et al. 132 control group (m = .40, sd = .70), with a negative contrast value of -1.14 (se = .30), p <.001. in addition, there was no statistical difference between both intervention groups, contrast value: -.09 (se = .19), p =.65. for the subscale score 'reflection', contrast analyses indicated that the intervention groups (autsrl intervention: m = -.12, sd = .90, intsrl intervention: m = -.18, sd = .73) differed statistically from the active control group (m = .38, sd = .57), also with a negative contrast value of -1.06 (se = .29), p <.001. in addition, there was no statistical difference between both intervention group, (contrast value: -.06 (se = .18), p =.75. the results concerning differences in learning growth in the external srl rating score between the three groups are illustrated in figure 7. figure 7. differences in changes from preto posttest between groups for the external srl rating score (overall, subscales) measurement at teacher level: manipulation check of srl intervention kindergarten teachers of the 'autsrl intervention' group (n = 7) reported a frequency of use of the promoting self-regulated learning in preschoolers 133 transfer material of m =.8 points, sd = .58, and a helpfulness of transfer material of m = 2.1 points, sd = .16. one kindergarten teacher of the 'intsrl intervention' group stated a frequency of use of the transfer materials of m = 1.13 over all material that was handed over. measurement at teacher level: general improvement from preto posttest to avoid a further reduction of sample size due to listwise exclusion of cases, missing values were replaced by using 'participant mean substitution'. this method turned out to be adequate in minor itemlevel missingness (parent, 2013). the descriptive statistics for the pretestand posttest-scores for teacher srl self-report score (overall) as well as the subscales scores 'srl behaviour' and 'srl mediation' are shown in table 9. table 9. descriptive statistics of the kindergarten teacher srl self-report autsrl intervention intsrl intervention active control group pre m (sd) post m (sd) pre m (sd) post m (sd) pre m (sd) post m (sd) srl self-report 221.11 (20.79) 218.30 (15.65) 218.56 (8.93) 225.64 (12.97) 226.40 (17.10) 228.44 (16.46) srl behaviour 124.75 (11.64) 123.75 (8.17) 124.23 (5.55) 127.98 (9.42) 132.52 (9.78) 134.01 (11.22) srl mediation 96.36 (10.01) 94.55 (8.59) 94.34 (5.78) 97.66 (6.06) 101.39 (8.65) 101.83 (7.65) the wilcoxon tests revealed no significant differences between pretest and posttest scores for the teacher srl self-report (overall) in the 'autsrl intervention' (n = 8, z = -.68, p =.50), in the 'intsrl intervention' (n = 8, z = -1.26, p =.21) and in the 'passive control group' (n = 14, z = -.56, p =.58). furthermore, the wilcoxon tests resulted in no pairwise differences between pretest and posttest score for the two subscales in the 'autsrl intervention' ('srl behaviour': z = -.14, p = .89; 'srl mediation': z = -.98, p = .33), in the 'intsrl intervention' ('srl behaviour': z = -.71, p = .48; 'srl mediation': z = -1.86, p = .60) and in the 'passive control group' ('srl behaviour': z = -.51, p = .61; 'srl mediation': z = -1.25, p = .21). conclusion and discussion the study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of an srl intervention for preschool children and their kindergarten teachers. for both target groups, two intervention groups and a control group were compared. the results of the longitudinal analyses showed an increase in srl and gsr across all conditions of preschoolers. however, the used manipulation checks indicated no effects of the srl intervention in general, pointing to general maturational processes rather than an intervention-specific boost. surprisingly, we found significant differences between conditions in favour of the active control group. for kindergarten teachers, we found no significant differences between groups at all. lacking intervention-induced benefit in preschoolers: advantage of the active control group an increase in srl and gsr over time was revealed in all tested group conditions at the child level, whereas an intervention-specific benefit could not be obtained. nor were there differences between our two intervention groups (i.e. 'autsrl' and 'intsrl'). vice versa, the children of the active control group only were rated even better in srl by their kindergarten teachers in comparison to the srl intervention groups. in contrast, we found no differences in performance between groups in the (objective) srl test and the htks which measured gsr. this result goes contrary to our hypotheses. one explanation could concern the measurement instruments. in contrast to our study, perels et al. (2009) fostered srl successfully in kindergarten teachers and preschoolers. they used interview data in preschoolers and questionnaire data in kindergarten teachers to examine intervention efficacy. in addition, dörr and perels (2019b) reported a successful intervention to foster metacognitive skills as an important prerequisite of srl. as practiced in multiple research groups that deal with the assessment of young children (e.g. bünger, urfer-maurer, & grob, 2019; phillips & lonigan, 2010), we chose a multi-method approach to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention of preschoolers. the srl test implies that the srl interventions did not work. this test showed a deficient internal consistency in the current study, which lisa jacob et al. 134 implies that its validity was restricted. consequently, it is questionable whether the srl test data are appropriate to detect an intervention benefit. furthermore, the data of the external srl rating indicated that the active control group was superior to both intervention groups. generally, the use of external (srl) ratings rated by kindergarten teachers which work closely with the preschoolers involves risks. first, it offers empirical evidence for a limited accuracy of teacher ratings concerning the cognitive and socioemotional abilities of their students (an, curby, & brock, 2018; mashburn & henry, 2004). individual characteristics, such as work experience or self-efficacy, have an impact on the teacher ratings of young children (furnari, whittaker, kinzie, & decoster, 2017; mashburn, hamre, downer, & pianta, 2006). second, reactivity effects (foroughi, monfort, paczynski, mcknight, & greenwood, 2016) of the active control group could have emerged. in the run up of the intervention, kindergarten teachers were informed that their preschoolers served as the control group. perhaps the teachers rated them particularly mild to avoid presenting a poor picture of their preschoolers. third, it is reasonable to believe that kindergarten teachers of the intervention groups were sensitised for srl after completing the workshop. this could have led to a stricter rating of the srl ability of the preschoolers in posttest in contrast to their srl rating in pretest, which appears in the data as a decrease in srl (see figure 7). inversely, kindergarten teachers which were part of the active control group were not sensitised and showed, therefore, more consistency in their 'rating severity'. despite a possible sensitisation, we had important reasons for relying on the srl rating by the kindergarten teachers, such as missing instruments at the child level which allow for crossvalidation of the developed srl test and restricted time for capturing various other variables directly on child level. another critical aspect which could have led to the missing intervention benefit is the implementation of the active control group. lipsey (1990) emphasised the role of a weakest possible control condition to achieve design sensitivity, which serves as precondition to detect benefits in intervention studies. even though we did not explain and practice srl learning strategies with the preschoolers of the active control group, we exposed them to those as part of our manipulation check. potentially, the specific and compact presentation of srl positive and srl negative learning processes may have suggested implicit conclusions and learning effects (christiansen, 2019; goujon, didierjean, & thorpe, 2015; perruchet & pacton, 2006). a further critical aspect is that the time interval between intervention and posttest was possibly too small to detect an intervention benefit. the learning-inhibiting effect of intervention activities is known as the mathematanical effect (clark, 1990). this effect appears if known problem-solving strategies are in cognitive conflict with new learned strategies. to overcome the inhibition, it takes time, during which new learned learning strategies prove to be useful. in respect of preschoolers, who do not dispose of sophisticated learning strategies, more time, as well as the exercising of possibilities and success experiences, may be needed to allow intuitive or more impulsive problem-solving behaviour to pass. lastly, the lack of an intervention benefit of kindergarten teachers, which is discussed below, could have resulted in too little support in srl during the kindergarten routine. this could have disrupted the consolidation of srl strategies which preschoolers learned in the intervention sessions. lack of an intervention benefit in kindergarten teachers on the level of kindergarten teachers, a passive control group instead of an active was realised to compare it with the intervention groups. however, an intervention benefit could also not be proven statistically. the three groups did not differ concerning the srl self-report. in particular, the poor results of the manipulation check can be regarded as an indicator for the missing implementation of the transfer materials. this could have provoked not enough occupation with the topic of srl and, in turn, missing indirect support of preschoolers' srl skills by their kindergarten teachers. this support would have been important to consolidate srl knowledge in daily kindergarten life. another opposite explanation could be that the srl workshop was useful for the teachers and helped them to generate knowledge about srl. the sensitisation for srl could have covered intervention benefit due to a more negative self-assessment in posttest (similar to the explanation in the section above). the inaccuracy of kindergarten teacher self-report promoting self-regulated learning in preschoolers 135 of srl was also considered as critical in the intervention study of venitz and perels (2019). limitations and outlook the present study has several different limitations. first, the experimental randomisation of preschoolers to intervention groups was not possible. for practical reasons, we decided to randomise the assignment of kindergartens to intervention groups. as described above, the influence of kindergarten institutions on preschoolers' performance was relatively small. second, the selection of kindergartens was based on geographical position. we were not able to consider variables such as pedagogical orientation, size of kindergarten or allocation of staff. our findings are therefore representative for a certain region in germany but do not allow for generalisation. third, to ensure acceptable testing economics, we assessed only a few control variables. for example, we used only one item, the book question, to measure the socioeconomic status. beyond that, to address the question of topicality in times when people also read e-books, it could more valid to use multiple informants. furthermore, speech competence was measured by assessing only two facets of speech: namely speech production and speech comprehension. fourth, we did not collect detailed information concerning the kindergarten teacher sample for data protection directive reasons. but detailed information like, for example, professional experience could have been helpful for the interpretation of our findings. fifth, because of time-economic reasons, we had to focus on a manageable number of measurement instruments to evaluate the srl intervention. gsr was only assessed by the htks task which displays only one possible perspective on self-regulation. in contrast to the social-cognitive perspective (bandura, 1986) on self-regulation, there also exists an developmental psychological perspective on an self-regulation which refers to regulation of emotion as characteristic of temperament (rothbart & ahadi, 1994). the latter perspective could not be considered within our study but could also have an impact on learning. although we did not find the effect we expected, the study provides a starting point for future studies and is of practical relevance for researchers. in contrast to other age groups, preschool age has not been the focus of research in the field of srl. as described in the section 'importance of srl interventions for preschoolers', there are multiple arguments to consider with regards to young children. future research could address the development and evaluation of adequate measurement instruments which are adequate for evaluating srl interventions. our srl test represents an initial attempt to do so (see jacob et al., 2019). the collection of multiple sources of information to evaluate srl interventions should definitely be continued (desoete, 2008). further, we recommend to apply all measurement instruments in pretestand posttest by means of two experimenters (as we did) and to collect data which allows for calculating an interrater reliability. this would have been an important quality criterion for the current study and could have increased the validity of our measures. in regard to cross-validation, external raters should accompany the preschoolers in everyday kindergarten life to provide more objective ratings than can be achieved by employing only kindergarten teachers that work directly with the children (an et al., 2018; mashburn et al., 2006). for the intervention evaluation on the teacher level, it would also be advisable to rely on further data sources than only those from self-reports (schunk, 2008). on the level of the study design, future studies should implement a third follow-up measure which is temporally further apart from the intervention. this would offer more space for possible long-term learning effects, such as during the transition to primary school. furthermore, an additional passive control group would increase design sensitivity and could help us to understand if manipulation checks that include srl strategies could have led to the implicit conclusions of the preschoolers. besides the practical relevance for researchers in the field of srl, the study also reveals an important outcome for educators. dealing the topic of srl in preschool children stresses the meaning of preschool education, especially in germany and other countries in which no standardised curriculum is implemented so far. additionally, the fundamental role of kindergarten teachers for a successful transition into school becomes apparent (barnett, 2008). in this context, possible effects on the professional training of teachers lisa jacob et al. 136 are conceivable. further, the assessment of srl in preschool teachers can serve as basis for the application of srl in kindergarten context which is of relevance when considering the model function of kindergarten teachers for preschoolers (bandura, 1986). further, the assessment of srl in preschoolers could allow for the development of adaptive srl intervention programs. summary and conclusion to summarise, it must be noted that in light of the statistical results, our applied srl intervention for preschoolers was not efficient. we found that the active group was superior based on external srl ratings by their kindergarten teachers. in addition, we found no indices for the effectiveness of the applied srl intervention for kindergarten teachers, which we hypothesised would support the preschoolers’ learning process. we discussed the multiple methodological aspects and reactivity effects that could have led to this result. nevertheless, preschool age represents an important period in which to implement (srl) learning support. research in this field should therefore be expanded to enable the methodological difficulties which complicate the evaluation of srl interventions for preschoolers to be addressed. declarations acknowledgements: we would like to thank dr. lisa dörr and the entire team of student assistants for their help in data collection. in addition, we are grateful to m. sc. lena grüneisen and m. sc. nathalie zetzmann for their support in designing the intervention sessions. we would also like to thank all preschoolers and their parents as well as all kindergarten teachers for their participation and cooperation. authors’ contributions: m. sc. lisa jacob is the main writer of this manuscript and conducted the study. dr. manuela benick, dr. sandra dörrenbächer and prof. dr. franziska perels gave their support in writing the manuscript. dr. sandra dörrenbächer and prof. dr. franziska perels also supported in the construction of the study. competing interests: the authors declare that they have no competing interests. funding: this study was funded by deutsche forschungsgemeinschaft (dfg) (grant number: pe 1176/13-2). references an, x., curby, t. w., & brock, l. l. 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(2000). attaining self-regulation: a social cognitive perspective. in m. boekarts, p. r. pintrich, & m. zeidner (eds.), handbook of self regulation (pp. 13–41). san diego: acamedic press. journal of childhood, education & society volume 2, issue 2, 2021, 167-177 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.20212288 research article ©2021 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. are grandparents raising grandchildren receiving the services they need? karleah harris1, gifty ashirifi2, charlene harris3, jonathan trauth4 ** abstract: grandparents play an important role in the upbringing of grandchildren and face increased levels of stress. using family stress theory, the present study examined the effectiveness of service programs for grandparents raising grandchildren. data were collected through focus group interviews and audiotaped from a sample of four custodial grandparents living in ohio u.s.a. to better understand grandparents that are raising their grandchildren, we asked the following questions: 1) what support is needed for grandparents raising grandchildren? 2) at what stage is the support needed: beginning, middle or late stages of caregiving? 3) what are grandparent caregivers’ perceptions of service programs? the audiotape was transcribed verbatim and analyzed for themes relevant to the research questions. the findings from these questions are examined and implications discussed. article history received: 03 february 2021 accepted: 03 july 2021 keywords grandparents; grandchildren; grandfamilies; kinship care; family supportive programs introduction today, many grandparents have taken on the role of raising their grandchildren (bigner & gerhardt, 2019). when grandparents raise their grandchildren, they offer nurture instructions, morals, ethics, wisdom, backup support for parents, and values to their grandchildren (bigner & gerhardt, 2019). grandparents may also provide support, attention, time, special outing, and privileges to their grandchildren during divorce (brooks, 2013). the roles do not have clear-cut boundaries or definitions but can be viewed as having diverse aspects with regards to the nature of each grandchild relationship (bigner & gerhardt, 2014). in some cases, grandparents accept the responsibility of raising their grandchildren for cultural reasons (lewis, boyd, allen, rasmus, & henderson, 2018). however, others accept the responsibility to raise their grandchildren because they believe it is the right thing to do compared to the alternatives, such as using the foster care system (peterson, 2018). grandparents contribute immensely to the development of our society by alleviating the expenses associated with the placement of children in foster care or nonkin households. in some instances, some grandparents go back to work to provide adequate support and needs, while others take early retirement to take care of their grandchildren (gardiner, 2015). experiential research has revealed the need for assistance for grandparents raising grandchildren and others involved in kinship care (collins, fruhauf, & bundy-fazioli, 2016; lee & blitz, 2014; dunn & wamsley, 2018). in response, many service programs, both public agencies and non-governmental organizations, have emerged to help these grandparents. with such efforts being directed towards these programs, there is a need to determine whether these programs are helping grandparents raising grandchildren (grg). the current study aimed to explore grg’s perceptions about these service programs, identify their everyday needs, the stages at which they are needed, and factors that can ensure self-sustenance. it is important to _____________ 1 university of arkansas at pine bluff, department of human sciences, pine bluff, usa e-mail: karleah.harris@gmail.com, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7243-4762 2 indiana university; purdue university indianapolis, school of social work, indianapolis, usa, e-mail: justashirifi@gmail.com, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6103-2618 3 state university of new york at oswego, department of human development, oswego, ny, usa, e-mail: charlene.harris@oswego.edu, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-000227974791 4 central state university, department of social and behavioral sciences. wilberforce, usa e-mail: jtrauth@centralstate.edu, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-97925584 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.20212288 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:karleah.harris@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7243-4762 mailto:justashirifi@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6103-2618 mailto:charlene.harris@oswego.edu https://orcid.org/0000-0002-27974791 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-27974791 mailto:jtrauth@centralstate.edu https://orcid.org/0000-0001-97925584 karleah harris et al. 168 understand the family systems where grandparents are raising their grandchildren. this study uses the family stress framework to help bring awareness and to better understand such families. roben hill (1958) proposed the abc-x model and the family stress theory “to explain why some families struggle in response to stress whereas other families thrive” (smith & hanon, 2017, p.129). other researchers later modified the abc-x model (boss, 2002; mccubbin & paterson, 1983; patterson, 1988). drawing from the family stress theory, sands and goldberg-glen (2000), found low stress when they receive support from their community and family. sands and goldberg-glen (2000) mentioned that african americans tend to grandparent caregivers than whites. in comparison, grg reflects a multicultural perspective in our society. according to peterson (2018), custodial grandparents tend to be american indian, alaskan natives, and african americans; however, evidence shows that african americans grandparents are more involved in raising their grandchildren than any other ethnic group. this study will help to understand the perspectives of grandparents raising grandchildren, their views and experiences of service programs, and the coping and adaptive strategies they use in overcoming family stressors by giving in-depth information about the phenomenon. therefore, our study will answer the following question. 1) what support is needed for grandparents raising grandchildren? 2) at what stage do grgs need support: beginning, middle or late stages of caregiving? and 3) what are grandparent caregivers’ perceptions of service programs? the results of this study will be used to help create more effective programs for grandparents who are raising their grandchildren and extend the literature on grandparenting. literature review research has shown in the u. s. that the number of grandchildren living in grandparent-headed households in 1970 was about 3 percent (ellis & simmons, 2008). by 2011, this number escalated to about 7 percent although, this percentage reduced to 6 percent in 2012 (ellis & simons, 2008). in 2018, 8 million grandchildren lived in households headed by grandparents, and 2.7 million parents were primary caregivers for grandchildren. a classic study by casper and bryson (1998) explained five kinds of grandparent-maintained households namely: (1) both grandparents in residence, (2) some parents present and both grandparents in residence, (3) no parents present and grandmother in residence, (4) some parents present and grandmother in residence, (5) no parents present and grandfather only in residence. some researchers refer to grg as kinship caregivers (monahan, smith, & greene, 2013). kinship care is defined as circumstances where blood relatives, godparents, or close family friends care for children on a full-time basis. kinship caregivers tend to be older, single, unemployed, poor, and less educated (casey, 2012). two major kinds of kinship care exist (1) informal/private and (2) formal public. informal or private kinship in cases where extended family members raise children without the involvement of child protective services casey, 2012). public or formal kinship care includes the involvement of the child welfare system and formal placement of children with their family members. in some cases of public kinship care, the child remains in legal custody of the state but is placed (fostered) with their relatives. in ohio, there are 86,502 grandparents raising grandchildren out of the total of 117,000 children being raised by kinship caregivers (ohio grandfacts, 2021). for every child being raised by kinship caregivers in foster care, about 34 children are being raised outside of the foster care system. the prevalence of formal and informal kinship care is worth mentioning because being a formal kinship care or establishing legal adoption, guardianship or custody enables caregivers to access services such as health care, school enrollment, daycare and sports activities as well as obtain affordable housing (cooper, 2012). this means that more informal kinship caregivers are raising children in ohio without the needed support, and the number of informal caregivers continues to increase, according to researchers (amorim, dunifon, & pilkauskas, 2017). apart from the time and financial obligations associated with the process of adoption, which can be a problem for grandparents, many grandparents avoid adoption because it could negatively impact the family dynamics and terminate parental rights (cooper, 2012). gibson and singh (2010) proposed de facto custodian legislation as an approach to help informal grg. de facto custodian legislation would allow informal grandparent caregivers an option to present their caregiving history at custody hearings since many grandparents do not have legal custody of grandchildren. are grandparents raising grandchildren … 169 challenges facing grandparents raising their grandchildren grandparents face several realities following the decision to become second-time parents to their grandchildren. researchers who study this phenomenon have indicated challenges related to role conflict (backhouse & graham, 2013), health problems (butler & zakari, 2005; grinstead, leder, jensen, & bond, 2003), finance issues (collins, 2011), legal issues (van etten & gautam, 2012), and psychological well-being of both the grandchildren and the grandchildren involved. landry-meyer and newman (2004) conducted a study and reported that grandparent caregivers have the challenge of role timing, role ambiguity, and role conflict. additionally, grg experience psychological concerns about themselves and the grandchildren they are raising. some grandparents may worry about being better parents to their grandchildren, especially if they feel that they failed with their first experience (dolbin-macnab, 2006). others may worry about their health and physical wellbeing whether they will live long enough to continue providing care for their grandchildren until they are old enough to gain their independence. grandparents can also worry about the emotional and psychological problems of their grandchildren and be concerned about how they are going to turn out to be when they grow up. grg is also associated with grief due to high levels of depression and stress (backhouse & graham, 2013). in another study conducted by rausch (2016), maintained that housing is one of the crucial challenges of grg as well. some grg may not have access to affordable housing programs due to their legal relationship status with their grandchildren. using a nationally representative sample of 700,000 households, fuller-thomson and minkler (2003) researched grandparents’ housing issues and the realities facing grandparent caregivers who are renters. fuller-thomson and minkler (2003) reported that, out of the total number of grg their grandchildren in the united states, 26 percent were renters. many renters lived below the poverty line and used 30 percent or more of their income on rent. fuller-thomas and minkler (2003) added that grg who are renters have a unique vulnerability, and this vulnerability needs more investigation and intervention. the researchers called for the creation of public policies to address housing vulnerability among grandparents raising grandchildren. rausch (2016) conducted a study that looked at grandfamily housing focusing on the pilot project in kansas city, bronx, and phoenix. rausch (2016) found that grandparents raising grandchildren who participated in these pilot programs still found it hard to make ends meet, which hindered their ability to benefit from the program entirely. in addition, eligibility criteria of having legal custody of the grandchildren these grandparents are also raising could serve as a barrier to the program. rausch (2016) added that these affordable housing staff members must treat residents with respect and be committed to enhancing the well-being of grg. coping and adaptation process the process of caring for grandchildren fulltime can be problematic for both grandparents and the grandchildren because they both have to find ways to make things work in the new environment of caregiving and care for themselves. they both have to deal with new roles and new identities, and they have to find ways to cope and adapt to caregiving. coping and adaption are closely related, and pandialagppan and ibrahim (2018) explained the family adaptation theory noting that it is a fluid process where families adjust and expand efforts to tolerate as well as reduce conflict and stress within families. pandialagppan and ibrahim (2018) posited that grandparents raising grandchildren take on multiple roles and experience stress with adaptation and parenting demands. bailey, letiecq, and porterfield (2009) studied 26 grg and how grandparents cope and adapt. they found out that these grandparents are able to cope using strategies such as shifting their roles, identities, relationship, resources, and the way they perceive the situation. according to the researchers, further studies are needed to identify and support coping strategies that grg use to adapt and cope within the complex family transitions and stressors in which they find themselves. in another study, porterfield (2007) utilized mccubbin and patterson’s (1983) double abc-x model and focused on the coping and adaptive strategies of grg. in the abc-x model, porterfield (2007) noted that in the family, a reflects demands, b reflects resources, c reflects perception, and x reflects the family crisis. therefore, by using the family adaptation as a central concept, the double abc-x model attempts to explain the outcomes of a family effort to overcome crises and attain a balance after those crises. porterfield (2007) maintained that coping and adaptive strategies could be affected by karleah harris et al. 170 external, internal, cultural, historical, economical, developmental, hereditary, psychological, and structural factors. these findings were consistent with the results of the research by bailey et al. (2009). the results suggested that grandparents must deal with shifting roles, identity, relationships, community relationships, resources, and perceptions. the author added that grandparents caring for grandchildren must delay retirement and utilize their resources to engage in primary caregiving. available resources recently there has been an increase in services and service programs for grandparents raising grandchildren. grg can now apply for assistance and receive benefits from programs such as temporary assistance for needing families (tanf), supplemental nutrition assistance program (snap), and medicaid (child welfare information gateway, 2016). through non-profit advocacy organizations such as generations united, public policies that address the needs of grandparents raising grandchildren are changing and expanding to bring more assistance and services to such families. according to the american association of retrieved persons (aarp) several resources in ohio can benefit grandparents raising grandchildren. these programs include, the area agency on aging (for referrals on legal assistance), the ohio grandparent kinship caregiver coalition, ohio department of job and family services (2017) (provides at toll-free helpline), the ohio family care association, and the kinship caregiver navigator grant-public children services association of ohio. one of the major challenges facing grg is that they need education on where and how to find community services and service programs. gardiner (2015) noted that grandparents raising their grandchildren could benefit from family life education as a resource that provides grandparents with education regarding finding resources. in addition, gardiner (2015) suggested that collaboration among service organizations may be beneficial and enable grg to reach the services they need. as a result, grg can have resources available to them from different sources, including the government, non-profit organizations, state and federal programs. the supporting grandparents raising grandchildren act was passed to help grandparents raising their grandchildren (generation united, 2018). this new ohio law will establish a council that will support the affairs of grandparents and other family members who are raising grandchildren. this council will be overseen by the department of human services (generation united, 2018). despite the availability of resources and service programs, sutphin (2015) reported low participation in state services by kin caregivers involved in raising grandchildren. low usage of state services occurs because kinship caregivers do not want to interact with child welfare agencies. in addition, some services users, including grandparent caregivers, report being disrespected and mistrusting child welfare agencies (sutphin, 2015). therefore, these state service agencies must train their employees to treat service users with respect and remain consistent with the quality of services to gain trust from their service users (sutphin, 2015). family stress theory boss, bryant, and mancini (2017) defined family stress as “a disturbance in the steady-state of the family system” (p. 2). family stress is also referred to as a disturbance that takes place in family life organization and process (white, klein, & martin, 2015). hill (1958) proposed the abc-x model of family stress known, and it is the foundation upon which the family stress theory is formed, which helps us to illustrate the processes in which individuals and families experience stressor events. the revised abc-x model was modified by boss (2002) to include the coping component. at the same time, mccubbin and patterson (1983) modified the abc-x model known as the double abc-x to reflect additional stressors. later, patterson (1988) included the family adjustment and adaption response model (faar), thus, focusing on the family’s adjustment after a stressor. arditti (2015) highlighted that the “modern variations of the family stress theory often focus on intervening psychological and relational process that determines in part how a particular stressor event connects with family outcome” (p.6). sands and goldberg-glen (2000) used stress the stress theory to explain grg relationships. the study was conducted in the u.s. and consisted of 129 grandparents (i.e., 32 middle age 50-59 african american, 32 white and 34 older 60 to 90 are grandparents raising grandchildren … 171 african american and 31 white). the participants were recruited from various community organizations e.g., churches, social service agencies, big brother/big sister clubs, grandparent support groups, and public and private schools and preschools. sands and goldberg-glen (2000) found “a correlation between the grandchildren's psychological and physical problems and the grandparents' stress” (p.104). in another study, whitley, lamis, and martin (2016) investigated 679 african american grandmothers between 33 and 83 years old and raising their grandchildren. whitley et al. (2016) showed that 406 of the grandmothers in their study had a high school degree, while 273 did not. at the same time, only 279 of the grandmothers were employed, whereas 400 were retired or unemployed. the results revealed that the interventions that they provided to the grandmothers who were displaying low verses. high stress contributed to a reduction in psychological distress. additionally, the “grandmothers with high stress at baseline appeared to have benefited more from improved access to family resources, as indicated with reductions in distress, compared with grandmothers with low stress” (p. 574). purpose of the study the purpose of our study is to examine the perspectives of grandparents who are raising grandchildren and their views and experiences of support programs in ohio. to better understand grandparents that are raising their grandchildren, we answer the following questions: 1) what support is needed for grandparents raising grandchildren? 2) at what stage is the support needed: beginning, middle or late stages of caregiving? 3) what are grandparent caregivers’ perceptions of service programs? method and participants in order to attain rich in-depth, descriptive data on the perceptions and experiences of grandparents raising grandchildren, we used a qualitative approach. grandparents were recruited through the kinship navigator program (knp) of ohio which provides support services to relative or kinship caregivers. grandparents willing to participate in the program met at the study site on a scheduled date for the focus group interview. prior to the beginning of the focus group interview, the objectives of the study were explained to the participants and they were provided with the consent forms. the focus group interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim for thematic analysis. the session was about 90 minutes long, and each participant received a gift card and refreshments from the knp staff. the participants were asked a variety of questions regarding kinship caregivers. the researchers were guided by braun and clarke’s (2012) six thematic analysis procedures, including familiarizing yourself with the data, generating initial codes, searching for themes, reviewing and defining before reporting the themes. the thematic analysis broke down the data into individualized concepts, labeled by content and organized into more prominent themes in response to each of the research questions; 1) what support is needed for grg? 2) at what stage do grgs need support: beginning, middle or late stages of caregiving? and 3) what are grandparent caregivers’ perceptions of service programs? ravitch and carl’s (2016) three-step process of “data organization and management, immersive engagement, and writing and representation” (p. 238) were used to interpret the data. trustworthiness was established through discussions between the researchers to refine and clarify themes. disagreements around themes were reviewed and clarified. the participants in this study consisted of four grandparents. other grandparents were recruited to participate, but only four showed up for the focus group interview. one of the four grandparents in this study was at the beginning stages of raising their grandchildren, while the others had as much as 18 years of grandparenting experience. some of them were informal caregivers who did not have a legal relationship with the grandchildren they were raising. also, others were formal caregivers with full custody of the children that they were raising. some of them were still employed, while others were stay-at-home parents that are raising their grandchildren. they also had varying income levels ranging from middle to low and even below the poverty line. all of the participants in this study were living in ohio, females and nonlatino white. to maintain the confidentiality of the participants, the results below were presented in an aggregated summary form, and pseudonyms were used when referring to individual participants. karleah harris et al. 172 results the first interview questions focused on the types of ongoing support needed for grandparents who are raising grandchildren? all four participants agreed that they need varied support, including financial and emotional support. our results revealed that service programs for kinship care are most effective for grandparents who are raising grandchildren. we also learned from our participants that they need support at all stages (beginning, middle, and end) of caregiving. additionally, our study shows that grandparents raising grandchildren experience stress and need family and community support and confirm with (pandialagappan & ibrahim, 2018; sands & goldberg-glen, 2000) work. thus, our results showed that the family stress framework is associated with grandparents raising grandchildren as they experience stress (i.e., financial hardship, challenges) in their caregiving roles. some of these areas that they need support include legal assistance, support groups, affordable public housing, and social support. further details of our findings are discussed below. support groups all of the participants reported that they needed support of others. they maintained that they need support groups to share ideas, recommendations, education, and emotional support since they are going through the process of raising their grandchildren. one of the participants said: “this is what we need. what we need is each other to talk to about because we are all in the same calling, in the same boat, we are like in the same journey.” all four participants also added that they need service programs to assist them with the many challenges they face in raising grandchildren. accessing children’s clothing was a prominent theme during the interviews, and three of the participants noted that children grow very fast and easily outgrow their clothes. one of the grandparents also added that she needed after school programs for her grandchildren to help with mathematics. the after-school programs enable grandchildren to get caught up with the school curriculum. due to the abusive situations that some grandchildren were in before living with their grandparents, one also wanted counseling services for the grandchildren. two of the grandparents mentioned that some of the grandchildren they are raising have attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (adhd) and most of their children are emotionally unstable. support for extra-curricular activities, including sports programs and summer camps, was also among the ongoing needs of two of the grandparents. one of the participants said: “i need “support to help my grandchild with extra curriculum activities.” legal assistance all of the participants reported that they need assistance in the legal process of gaining custody or guardianship for the grandchildren they are raising. all four of the grandparents posited that the legal process could be time-consuming and costly. in addition, two reported that they have challenges with attaining of custody for the grandchildren they are raising because the parents refuse to give them custody. three of them reported not accessing public assistance because they do not have legal custody over the grandchildren they are raising. one participant said: “i have no spouse, no second income it’s just me and this lady and she helped me crib, a car sit, she listened. she helped me with like all the legal stuff i’m like cos i don’t know what i was doing, like i knew what i was doing but i didn’t. so, she was a great support but then it’s like i’m kind of stuck in the middle now because it’s a children services case and mom still want custody back but and i can’t get any money at all.” another participant said: “i think a huge part of this and the stressfulness you know where can we get more support you know on the end. ahh you know sharing our frustrations of we have these babies we’re taking care of some of us don’t even have legal rights to them.” affordable public housing one of the four grandparents reported the need for affordable housing services. she explained that are grandparents raising grandchildren … 173 the inability to access affordable housing leads to frequent interruptions in living situations, which can be difficult with grandchildren. therefore, it would be better if there was affordable public housing for grandparents who are raising grandchildren. it would provide grandchildren with stable housing. three grandparents agreed that once they assumed custody of their grandchildren, they were essentially responsible for housing---there was no follow up on their living situation. in many cases, grandparents did not have stable housing and continue to move around with the grandchildren they are raising. one of the participants stated, “i’ve been depressed since i lost my home. i was living in a van with three kids at the park cause i was scared of my son.” another participant revealed: “…i think that would be helpful is that like parents or caregivers or grandparents, there should be a program to where they should be able to maybe like have a home, the kids know oh the is my home and i’m not going anywhere. i don’t have to move no more, and then once the kids are grown; they can give it back to the state.” policymakers should follow the recommendations made by researchers and develop affordable housing policies that will alleviate grg of this burden to enhance the quality of life and well-being of grandfamilies. informal social support two of the grandparents shared that they have family and friends who give them some emotional support sometimes. however, when it comes to financial needs, they bear the full burden. one of the grandparents maintained that if family and friends could take the grandchildren sometime to provide respite opportunities for grg, this would be very helpful. one also shared that it would be great if they could receive some support from the other grandparents of the children. however, they maintained that interference from the parents of the grandchildren causes a lot more harm than good because most parents are not consistent in their offering of support. one of the participants said: “they say they’ll come but they don’t. …so that now they stop the weekend visits cos he used to go there every weekend. he never missed meeting… halfway and now they stopped it and my grandson is run into depression...and we had a big old party for him for halloween/birthday party cause his birthday is on the 25th and he didn’t know that his big brother was coming down and then when mary pulled him to the backyard on the side then he says that’s my big brother, my dad. and he’s got that same one. i think they need more support like that too. you know.” the second research question asked at what stage grandparents raising grandchildren need support, i.e., in the beginning, middle or late stages of caregiving. all four of the participants of the focus group interview agreed that they need support at all stages. they all insisted that it is essential for them to have someone (e.g., case manager) who is trustworthy and reliable, especially during difficult times. one of the participants said: “you should be able to have that support person that you can trust capital letters trust that you could call on and say hey i’m having this issue or they can you give me just five minutes of your time and talk to me, or hey can we meet up somewhere and let me show you how their behaviors is and can you direct me.” three participants added that they need all kinds of support, including clothes, because they grow very fast and quickly outgrow their clothes. three grandparents agreed that they could not get their grandchildren registered for any of these extra-curricular activities due to limited income. one of the grandparents stated that she does not like the school in her area, so she considered homeschool or a private school for her grandchild because most of the children who attend the school are from low-income and dysfunctional homes. she was concerned that her grandchild would be negatively influenced by other children from dysfunctional homes at her current school. another grandparent immediately recommended a different school that her grandchildren attended and added that the school is designed to work well with children from low-income families who are high-risk students. she said the school has summer school and counseling programs for the students as well. the third research question focus on what are grandparents’ perceptions of service programs? the grandparents shared that the knp has been beneficial to them, and they appreciate all the support they have received from the program. according to the grandparents, knp has assisted them with education, connecting them to community resources and accessing tangible goods such as baby cribs, car seats, pullkarleah harris et al. 174 up diapers, and clothes. one of the grandparents shared that she received support from the knp to gain custody of her grandchild. while sharing about the knp, the grandparents focused on a particular employee of the kinship program known as “bev.” all four participants shared how wonderful she has been to them and the tremendous support she has been to them through the knp. for participants to access the service program, they needed someone they can trust and rely on, and “bev” was labeled as this person. the grandparents described “bev” as kind, patient, knowledgeable, reliable, and accessible. they added that some of the organizations that run service programs for grg are not easy to access. according to participants in this study, some organizations say they will come, but they never show up. even though the knp has been extremely helpful to the grandparents, they also agreed that the program has its limits. some of the participants said: “kingship can only do so much they can help us with certain things; she gets us what she can. she did get maxine she did get us a car sit. bev helped me she helped me a big supply of pull-ups and a new car seat.” another participant shared: “i know that i have received help from kinship from bev for probably eighteen years… she’s been nothing but support; whether emotional, if i need something for my son or one of my grandkids umm. it’s an amazing program kinship is, and i don’t know what i would have done without bev. yeah, bev has been a huge support for me.” discussion we investigated grg and service programs. at the same time, we used a qualitative approach and three main questions. our first research question addresses the ongoing support needed grg. the findings of this study suggest that grg’s unmet needs include support groups, service programs, legal assistance, affordable housing, and emotional support from family and friends. our results also showed that some service programs like the kinship navigator program for grandparents are effective and helpful. the participants shared their perspectives of what makes service programs effective. these results are consistent with existing literature on the ongoing needs of grandparents raising grandchildren and those providing foster care for grandchildren. even though the focus group interview was not organized to function as a support group, participants could share and talk about their challenges in that safe environment and receive feedback from other participants who have had the same experience and were knowledgeable about what to do in such circumstance. thus, we further clarified how important and beneficial support groups could be to grandparents raising grandchildren. many factors such as the financial burden, time, and negative family dynamics make it difficult for grandparents to gain legal custody of the grandchildren they are raising (cooper (2012). without legal custody, grg’s ability to access public assistance is impeded. however, this study highlights the need for increased support services for grg. without increasing support, grandparents will continue to experience the stressors associated with the care of grandchildren which can have adverse outcomes for all involved. social workers must engage in policies and legislation at the state level, to increase funding for grg and by other relatives to improve child well-being outcomes. as attested by other researchers such as rausch (2016), housing continues to be one of the crucial challenges of grg. for many grandparents providing a stable home for their grandchildren is important as unstable housing situations can impede custodial placement. however, many barriers exist including, rising costs associated with rentals and mortgage rates which make access to affordable housing out of reach for grg. our second research question addresses what stage grandparents are raising grandchildren need support, beginning, middle or late stages of caregiving. all the grandparents agreed that they need support throughout the three stages (i.e., beginning, middle, end) of caring for and raising their grandchildren. access to support at the beginning stage could be critical for both grandparents and grandchildren. as reported by the participants in this study and other researchers, most grandparents get called into the service of raising grandchildren without prior notice, or initial training. most grandparents insisted that are grandparents raising grandchildren … 175 even though they accepted the call to raise their grandchildren, they did not know how to attain custody of the grandchildren, access services or obtain information. therefore, having access to support at the beginning stage to eliminate the confusion of not knowing what to do could be very helpful. in addition, most public support programs require grandparents that are raising grandchildren to have legal custody or guardianship prior as an eligibility criterion for receiving services. without the legal relationship between grandparents and the grandchildren they are raising, grandparents are not eligible to receive public support for housing in new york (boss et al., 2017). grandparents’ ability to receive services at the beginning stage of raising grandchildren is again crucial because they mostly are not prepared to take care of grandchildren when they get called into raising their grandchildren. unexpectedly, they have to deal with additional financial and other responsibilities related to raising their grandchildren which can be overwhelming. hence receiving services and support at this stage could bring them tremendously much needed help. in the past few years, several funding bills have been passed that could be helpful to grgs in the state of ohio. our third research question asked about grandparents’ perceptions of service programs. overwhelmingly, grandparents stated that the personality traits of the employees working with organizations that provide services to grandparent caregivers are critical to the accessibility of the program by the target population, as well as the impact and the general success of the program. the grandparents who participated in this study maintained that it is important to have a program employee whom you can trust and whom you can call in difficult times when you need someone to talk to for support and direction. unfortunately, because of the stigma associated with grandparents caring for grandchildren, many grandparents may not even want to engage with service programs because of the stereotypes and stigma associated with their situation. therefore, program staff must be trained to treat clients to ensure program accessibility and the success of their programs. recommendations for future research the study shows that support groups and services programs that help grandparents raise grandchildren are still unmet. therefore, future research should focus on grandparent caregivers’ unmet needs and the barriers that prevent them from receiving support. access to support groups and services during the early stages when the grandparents get the grandchildren is crucial. we should put more effort into strengthening the support for grandparents at these early stages. in addition, organizations that work with grandparent caregivers should emphasize the importance of interpersonal communication for working with vulnerable populations such as grandparents raising grandchildren. in addition, creating affordable public housing for grandparents raising grandchildren where there are non-existent is important. this could help to enhance the quality of life for both grandparents and the grandchildren they are raising. limitations of the study there are a number of limitations to the study. first, the small sample size (4) are not generalizable to all grandparents. future studies should recruit a large sample of grandparents this will allow for more generalizability of study findings. second, participants of this study were all white females (grandmothers) residing in ohio. grandfathers raising their grandchildren were not included in this study, thus we cannot account for parental experience of grandfathers. additionally, this study consists of a homogenous sample of grandparents residing in the state of ohio. other states may have different regulations, support programs and policies for grg. conclusion grandparent-headed households and grandparent caregiving are fixtures in our society. our research findings add to the existing literature on grandparents raising grandchildren and expands the understanding of this phenomenon based on the research objectives. despite the size of the sample, our paper can be expanded to focus on services that grandparents need while raising their grandchildren as well as to improve services for grandparents. policy changes are required to ensure adequate resources and karleah harris et al. 176 support for both grandparents and the grandchildren they are raising. our research shows that even though we are making progress towards supporting the needs of grandparent caregivers, more support is needed. declarations acknowledgements: the authors are grateful to dr. anthony james for his support and assistance in the data collection. we also want to thank dr. alec sithole for his helpful comments on earlier versions of this article and all the participants in this study. authors’ contributions: the authors contributed equally to this paper. competing interests: the authors declare that there was no conflict of interests. funding: not applicable. references american association of retrieved persons (aarp). grandfacts state fact sheet for grandparents and other relative raising children. retrieved from https://www.aarp.org/content/dam/aarp/relationships/friends-family/grandfacts/grandfacts-ohio.pdf amorim, m., dunifon, r., & pilkauskas, n. 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(2016). mental health stress, family resources and psychological distress: a longitudinal mediation analysis in african american grandmothers raising grandchildren. journal of clinical psychology, 72(6), 563–579. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.22272 https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/43.1.92 https://www.gu.org/press_releases/new-law-will-help-the-growing-number-of-grandparents-raising-grandchildren/ https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2648.2003.02807.x https://doi.org/10.1177/1044389458039002-318 https://doi.org/10.1177/1044389458039002-318 https://doi.org/10.1177/0192513x04265955 https://doi.org/10.1111/cfs.12153 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10823-018-9350-z https://doi.org/10.1300/j002v06n01_02 https://doi.org/10.1080/10522158.2013.832464 http://www.co.warren.oh.us/childrenservices/care/guidebook.pdf https://www.grandfamilies.org/portals/0/state%20fact%20sheets/ohio%20grandfacts%20state%20fact%20sheet%202021%20update.pdf https://www.grandfamilies.org/portals/0/state%20fact%20sheets/ohio%20grandfacts%20state%20fact%20sheet%202021%20update.pdf https://doi.org/10.26710/jbsee.v4i1.372 https://doi.org/10.1037/h0089739 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3729.2000.00097.x https://doi.org/10.3928/00989134-20120509-02 https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.22272 are grandparents raising grandchildren receiving the services they need? journal of childhood, education & society volume 2, issue 1, 2021, 29-42 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.20212172 research article ©2021 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. preschoolers’ views on integration of digital technologies ora segal-drori 1, anat ben shabat 2 abstract: the aim of the present study was to explore preschool children’s views on the integration of digital technologies in their school. the study included 171 israeli children aged 3 to 6 who participated in in-depth interviews regarding their views on digital technologies in their preschool. the interviews were analyzed using content analysis. three major views regarding digital technologies in the preschool were found: the degree to which digital technologies are necessary; the goals of the use of these technologies; the setting for using the digital technologies. fifty percent of the children, especially the younger ones, claimed that use of these technologies is not necessary in preschool. however, most of them understood the importance of using these technologies and their contribution to many fields. in relation to the setting use, they referred to time and social aspects. the findings indicate that preschool teachers need to mediate these aspects more wisely and adapt them to the children's understanding and view toward digital technologies than actually takes place when they use them with the children. article history received: 09 november 2020 accepted: 25 december 2020 keywords children’s views; digital technologies; preschool introduction digital technologies, such as computers, tablets, smartphones, and others, have become an integral part of our lives and their influence is apparent in all life domains. use of digital technologies has become increasingly common among children, both at home and in education settings, including schools and preschools (holloway, green, & livingstone, 2013; ng, 2016). studies in the world indicate increasing use of these technologies, already from early childhood (elias and sulkin, 2017; kabali et al., 2015; palaiologou, 2016a). teachers and educators have concerns regarding the use of digital technologies by young children. one of the main arguments for not enabling children’s exposure to digital technologies refers to children’s passivity in these situations. the idea is that lack of physical and mental activity when watching the screen may inhibit development in many fields (ebbeck, yim, chan, & goh, 2016). concerns that increased use of screens will cause attention and focusing problems, cognitive decline and emotional and social problems were also raised (ebbeck et al., 2016). however, these concerns have not been proven scientifically, and there is ambiguity surrounding this issue. the scientific literature is divided on this matter. on the one hand, there is evidence of a relationship (but not a proven causal relation) between extensive use of media means and attention problems, low achievements, and obesity (brown, 2011; chassiakos, radesky, christakis, moreno, & cross, 2016). on the other hand, there is increasing evidence that well-designed digital technologies are effective in supporting children’s development. use of digital technologies was found to contribute to improvements in children’s cognitive functions, such as memory, visual thinking skills, analogical thinking, abstract thinking, logical mathematical thinking, creative thinking, metacognition, development of language and literacy and development of visuo-motor coordination (neuman, 2018; passig, tzuriel, & eshel-kedmi,2016; vernadakis, avgerinos, tsitskari, & zachopoulou, 2005). they can help children with learning disabilities and attention deficit disorders, children with special _____________ 1 levinsky college of education, faculty of education & early childhood department, tel aviv, israel, e-mail:ora.segal.drori@gmail.com, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-00030480-2046 2 levinsky college of education, faculty of education & early childhood department, tel aviv, israel, e-mail:anatbensha@gmail.com, orcid: https://orcid.org/00000002-9614-6092 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.20212172 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:ora.segal.drori@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0480-2046 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0480-2046 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9614-6092 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9614-6092 ora segal-drori & anat ben shabat 30 needs and children from a low socioeconomic status (felicia, sharif, wong, & marriappan, 2014; korat, gitait, bergman deitcher, & mevarech, 2017). it was also found that use of digital technologies contributes to communication with friends and promotes meaningful interactions with other children, and that adult mediation for using digital technologies improves children’s discourse skills (hsin, li, & chin-chung, 2014). many countries encourage the use of digital technologies for preschoolers for supporting their development, and it is also recommended by the oecd (organization for economic cooperation and development) (bakia, murphy, anderson, & trinidad, 2011). in education settings, digital technologies can be integrated for example in the area, of information and communications technology (ict). teachers can use ict for instruction, and for administration and communication purposes, with numerous implications for classroom management, instructional practices, pedagogical approaches and time use. competence in using ict and digital literacy are becoming recognized as important skills that students need to acquire if they are to flourish in the digital age (oecd, 2018). however, in spite of the contribution of digital technology use to young children, the encouragement of countries and the oecd’s recommendation to use digital technologies for preschoolers, the actual situation in many countries is far from assimilating digital technologies (preradovićet, lešin, & boras, 2017). in israel, for example, where the present study was conducted, a national ict program was begun in 2010, which continues to date, within whose framework schools receive budgets from the ministry of education to purchase digital technology means, infrastructures and maintenance, and for professional development in this field (ministry of education, 2017a). this program does not include preschools. the only national program that advances assimilation of digital technologies in the preschools is “laptop for every preschool teacher”, which has been operating since 2012 and helps preschool teachers to acquire laptop computers and progress in their professional development (ministry of education, 2017b). in a model currently being developed by the ministry of education regarding the "future preschool" it is indicated that digital technologies should be integrated into the preschool pedagogy and that the children should develop technological skills in preschool, but this aspect in the model is not yet detailed (ministry of education, 2020). however, the actual situation in preschools in israel is far from including digital technologies. the only recent research performed on this subject in israel to date (zilka, 2011) found that 10% of 150 preschools had a new computer that was connected to the internet, and the ministry of education policy was implemented in only 15% of the preschools. according to the israeli ministry of education policy, the computer environment comprises part of the preschool’s social-cultural environment and helps train an independent and active learner who uses digital technologies wisely for carrying out processes that support emotional, social and cognitive development (ministry of education, 2017a). nonetheless, old computers were found in 70% of the tested preschools. however, the computer was not in use in 65% of these preschools, due to technical problems. some preschools had one computer for 35 children (zilka, 2011). this situation harms mainly those children who do not have access to a computer at home, and they also do not approach the computer often in the preschool. such a situation comprises a risk for expanding digital gaps that lead to education gaps (rogers, 2001). the preschool teachers reported difficulties in organizing the preschool, making time for each child or group of children, absence of a solution for technical problems and non-usability of the computer (zilka, 2011). similar findings were reported in additional studies from israel and elsewhere (joshi, pan, murakami, & naranayan, 2010; magen-nagar and firstater, 2017; manessis, 2011; ntuli and kyeiblankson, 2010; palaiologou, 2016b; preradović et al., 2017). magen-nagar and firstater (2017) tested the perceptions of preschool teachers in israel regarding the assimilation of ict in their classes. their aim was to identify obstacles embedded in this assimilation. they found that although preschool teachers recognize the value of these media, they think that ict does not play a major role in preschools, that ict serves mainly as an instrument for collecting information and as an advanced teaching mean for visual illustration of the learning contents, and that ict contributes mainly to the social interaction between the children, albeit not always in a positive manner, in particular among children with difficulties. their main conclusion was that preschool teachers do not pose pedagogical goals that include ict and do not realize its preschoolers’ views on integration of digital technologies 31 pedagogical potential. they use it mainly for illustration, diversification, and enrichment. the investigators indicated a need to cause preschool teachers to adopt innovative pedagogies in ways that are suitable for the preschool, with emphasis on changing the traditional perceptions. children’s views investigation of children’s views or perspectives is a relatively new field of research that has developed over the past two decades. this research stemmed from the understanding that it is important to hear the children’s voice and perform studies together with boys and girls, and not only about boys and girls. the aspiration was to develop research methodologies within whose framework children would not only be objects of research, but rather partners in the research (dockett and perry, 2003; einarsdottir, 2010). these insights were influenced by the un convention on the rights of the child, where section 13 states that each child will have the right to freedom of expression, including freedom to search, receive and give information and ideas of any kind, regardless of borders, orally, in writing or in print, in an artistic manner or by any other mean of their choice (united nations, 1989). the year of the publication of the convention on the rights of the child comprises a landmark that symbolizes a change in perception. children are no longer perceived as passive objects lacking opinions and outlooks, but as subjects with opinions and independent ideas, ability to describe and interpret their routine life, power and strength, and a right to be involved in decisions that will affect them (fargas-malet, mcsherry, larkin, & robinson, 2010). researching children’s perspectives is based on two theoretical approaches: the postmodern approach in education and the “sociology of childhood” approach. it is compatible with a democratic worldview that emphasizes the independence of all individuals in the society and their right to express their opinions. the postmodern approach perceives reality as being complex and as including many perspectives. according to this approach, there is no single objective reality and no absolute knowledge or universal truth. knowledge is the result of social structuration and those who experience reality interpret it through their interactions with their community. knowledge therefore exists in a specific and subjective context (cannella, 2005). the “sociology of childhood” approach presents childhood as a unique and important period, and not only as a period of preparation for adult life. according to this approach, children are a social group that operates in a social-cultural space and maintains reciprocal relations with other groups in society, such as adults (vandenhole, desmet, reynaert, & lembrechts, 2015). according to this perception, children are active and skilled subjects able to present attitudes and ideas (harcourt and conroy, 2011), to describe and interpret their routine life, have power and strength, and construct knowledge through everyday interactions with others (alderson, 2000; langston, abbot, lewis, & kellett, 2004). the democratic viewpoint also comprises a point of origin for research on children’s perspectives. democracy must recognize multiple opinions and viewpoints and enable individuals to develop in different ways. in a democratic system, there is awareness of the fact that there is no one correct answer and shared meaning can be constructed through a democratic discussion. a democratic discussion is supposed to enable children to express their opinions and construct meaning for their experiences (dahlberg, moss, & pence, 2007). according to this perception, preschools should comprise a space in which diverse opinions can exist and the preschool teacher, together with the children, create a meaning that enriches thinking and participate in decision-making processes in all areas of preschool life. the research literature in the field of investigating children’s perspectives refers to construction of knowledge on children’s lives from the children’s point of view (christensen and james, 2000; clark, 2017; corsaro and molinari, 2000).this literature presented children’s perspectives in the preschool and showed that things that are important for children can be revealed and that boys and girls are able to understand and analyze experiences in a much broader manner than we sometimes think. it is therefore important to examine and discover their views in different fields of their lives, including the field of digital technology. our literature review yielded very few studies on young children’s views and attitudes toward integration of digital technologies in the preschool. these studies tested the knowledge, understanding and ora segal-drori & anat ben shabat 32 preferences of young children regarding the use of digital technologies in general (aubrey and dahl, 2014; danovitch and alzahabi, 2013; dashti and yateem, 2018; eisen and lillard, 2016, 2017; palaiologou, 2016a). other studies interviewed children on their attitudes and views regarding the use of digital technologies in the context of the school and the preschool. however, they referred solely to computers (mckenney and voogt, 2010) or tablets (dunn, gray, moffett, & mitchell, 2018; oliemat, ihmeideh, & alkhawaldeh, 2018). oliemat et al. (2018) tested young children’s views regarding tablets in general. they interviewed and held observations of 40 children in an educational setting, from preschool to second grade, on their use, knowledge and views in the context of tablets as well as on parents’ role in supporting tablet use among children. they found that children have knowledge on tablets and their components and acquired the abilities necessary for using a tablet. however, in some cases mastery was not complete. furthermore, children perceived tablets more as an entertainment than as a learning tool, and used them for different uses, where the most common use was playing games, followed by watching youtube. use of games applications and pleasure replaced traditional play activities, and the children indicated that their parents had rules regarding use of the tablet and that they need help and guidance on tablet use from their parents. the present study explored children’s views, not regarding one specific technology, but rather in general regarding digital technologies, including computers and tablets as well as smartphones, projectors, digital photography, game consoles, etc. the present study explored children’s views regarding use of these technologies, but also, and especially, regarding the desired integration of these technologies in the preschool. for example, should there be such integration in the preschool, what should it include and what should be its characteristics, through in-depth interviews. our assumption was that such research will enable better understanding of the opinions and needs of preschoolers in this context and will lead to improved and more effective integration of digital technologies in the preschool. this understanding is very important for preschool teachers in their work with children, in order to better adapt it to the needs of children in the 21st century and can contribute to optimal training of future preschool teachers in colleges of education in the context of integration of digital technologies in the preschool. method participants the research population included 171 israeli children, aged 3-6 (younger than 4 years: 38 [18 boys, 20 girls], 4-5 years: 77 [38 boys, 39 girls], older than 5 years: 56 [29 boys, 27 girls]), from 37 preschools. the parents of the children gave their consent for their children’s participation in the research. the children were also asked for their consent and a child who did not agree to participate, did not participate. the research procedure was approved by the ethics committees of the researchers' institute and by the israeli ministry of education. the preschools are from the national education stream, located in the center of the country. they are situated in neighborhoods with different socioeconomic statuses (ses), from the low to the high status (ses level was determined according to the israeli municipalities’ statistical report, central bureau of statistics, 2012). instruments semi-structured in-depth interviews were held with the children. the interviewers were undergraduate students for early childhood with experience in the researched preschools as part of their degree. they were trained by the authors on how to interview the children. each interviewing student randomly chose four children from each preschool for interviewing (with one or two students performing interviews in each preschool). the interviews were held individually, in a quiet room in the preschool, in a one-time session that lasted 15-20 minutes. the questions which the participants were asked included: “i want to ask you about digital technologies such as a computer, tablet (ipad), smartphone, digital camera, playstation, xbox, and so on. do you use them often at home? do you like to use them? for what?”, “do you think that the preschool should also have them? that it is important that they be in the preschool? preschoolers’ views on integration of digital technologies 33 which of them should be in the preschool? why?”, “what should be done with them in the preschool? what would you like to do with them in the preschool?”. the questions and the time of the interview were adapted to the child's age and/or understanding if necessary. all interviews were voice recorded and transcribed. a single preliminary observation of the preschools was also made by the interviewing students in order to ascertain whether the preschool has digital technologies, such as computers, tablets, smartphones, television, projectors, digital photography and game consoles. these yielded a diverse situation. a few preschools had no digital technology (no computer and no television, in some there was no computer, but there was a television). most preschools had only one computer, which was used mainly by the preschool teacher. very few preschools had two computers. in some of the preschools where the children did use the computer, the computer was not connected to the internet and contained mainly games, including educational games, for example for learning arithmetic, literacy and language. in very few preschools the computer also included inquiry software. five preschools had a projector. there were no tablets and no game consoles in any preschool and there was practically no use of digital cameras. a smartphone was used only by the preschool teacher. data analysis and processing the interviews were analyzed by two coders (the authors), using content analysis. content analysis enables identification of an organizing pattern that reflects the participants’ view regarding the integration of digital technology in the preschool. the children's responses were coded through open processes. the responses were developed into categories and headings, with reference to the number of respondents who shared the same responses under each heading. next, quotes were selected from the interviews and were used to support and develop the results. results the aim of this study was to test how children perceive the integration of digital technologies in the preschool. we found that the children were aware of the existence of digital technologies in their environment, and when answering the question, what digital technologies should be added to the preschool, they indicated technologies such as television, computer, projector, tablet, computer games, game consoles such as playstation and xbox, digital camera and mobile phone, which they apparently use mainly at home. in the first stage, we analyzed the in-depth interviews held with the children according to the questions they were asked. in the second stage, we identified three main categories that were raised from the children’s answers: the degree to which digital technologies are necessary in the preschool; the goals of their use; and the framework for using digital technologies in the preschool. the main results are illustrated in figure 1. ora segal-drori & anat ben shabat 34 figure 1. the participants’ view regarding the integration of digital technology in the preschool the degree to which digital technologies are necessary in the preschool two main sub-categories arose from the children’s answers regarding the degree to which digital technologies are necessary in the preschool: non-necessity of the use of digital technologies in the preschool; importance and contribution of the use of digital technologies in the preschool: fifty percent of the children do not perceive any need for using digital technologies in the preschool. they spoke against its integration and gave diverse reasons for this. this view is, apparently supported by examples from their life experience at home and their limited experience in preschool according to the observations which were made in their preschools. some children perceived digital technology as a source for interferences. some indicated that they comprise a waste of time and interference with free play, which they apparently perceive as more enjoyable or important. for example, 3.8-year-old alma indicated that: “this is not necessary in the preschool because there are non-digital games and that is more fun”. other children indicated that this may cause interferences with the routine and distraction from the preschool teacher’s explanations. hodaya, 5.5 years old, said: “it is impossible to learn with a computer, tablet and tv, we need to listen to the teacher!”. five-year-old ben is aware of the contribution of the other activities in the preschool: “you cannot play on the computer all day because you are wasting your time for other things”. several children claimed that digital technologies are not needed for promoting learning in the preschool, and that children learn from other sources, such as adult mediation or a book. for example, 5-year-old yuval said: “they do not help, because learning is things that one knows from the head and from reading books, and a computer is not a real thing”. some children explained their opposition in that technology belongs solely to adults. uri, 3.5 years old, expressed this: “only when i am big will i play on the computer. now i am not big”. some are afraid preschoolers’ views on integration of digital technologies 35 that the instrument will be ruined, will get lost, will not be charged (technical difficulty) or will electrocute. for example, 4.5-year-old alex explained: “i would like to put them in a drawer so that they will not break or be destroyed”. six-year-old lior claimed: “a person can become electrocuted by this and the charge can decrease”. hodaya, 5.5 years old, added: “it will get lost and the children will be really sad”. a few children perceived their technological/technical ability as limited, and therefore it is not desirable that they use digital technologies. four-year-old jonathan: “this is my mom’s phone. she does not allow me because i do not know”. several children said that the adults do not allow them to use digital technologies. there were children who claimed that use of digital technologies may be dangerous and unhealthy. some indicated that general harm to health is possible, others used arguments that describe possible injury to body parts that are more specific to use of digital technologies. it seems that some of the children heard these claims at preschool or at home, by the preschool teachers, parents or other relatives. four-year-old rotem: “screens are not good for the eyes, the head and the brain”. six-year-old hadar and 4.6-year-old gur: “there are people who wear reading glasses because they are very close to the computer. this is not healthy for the eyes”. another argument was that these technologies emit dangerous radiation and should not be in the preschool. omri, 5.5 years old, said: “clearly they should not be entered into the preschool! if there will be many digital technologies, there will be more radiation, and this is harmful”. additional items that express the nonnecessity of digital technologies in the preschool explain the children’s concern for unfair and unequal division of time between the children using them that may cause quarrels. five-year-old mor described a situation where: “in the middle everyone will want, and they will begin to cry. this will be unpleasant and unfair”. ariel, 4.5 years old, said: “because there is only one computer and one telephone, and it will not be fair and then we can fight about this”. this led to concerns about possible harm to social relations and social skills. dor, 5.5 years old, added: “i would not like that because the friends will not play with me or with other children and will always be with the technologies”. ben, 5.5 years old, summarized: “it is more important to play with your friends”. the goals of the use of the digital technologies in the preschool as the interviews advanced, and reached the question: “what should be done with digital technologies in the preschool?", 30% of the children who expressed the non-necessity of the use of these technologies in the preschool added ways and goals for which they should be used in the preschool. those children, and the other 50% of the children who thought the digital technologies are necessary in the preschool, supplied explanations on the importance and possible contribution of the use of digital technologies in the preschool. their sayings indicate that they are well-aware of the purpose of digital technologies and understand what goals they may promote in the preschool. the children’s answers present the main goal of using these technologies as games. they indicate their main occupation with digital games and their pleasure from them. five-year-old shai stressed the importance of introducing other digital technologies for upgrading the playing possibilities: “it is possible to play with the mobile phone in the preschool. it has games we don’t have on our preschool computer”. improving communication and cooperation skills: the children indicated the importance of shared play. four-year-old roy: “we are always lots of children on the computer”. some are aware of the messages transmitted by the preschool teacher and others feel the significance of shared play and express it in their own words. four-year-old or: “from the game we have on the computer in preschool, the teacher told us that we learn to cooperate with friends”. very few stressed the experience of personal play. the children’s views expressed the importance of the ability to communicate using the digital technologies, for example to “send a message”, “to share what we do in preschool with the parents”. the children indicated the importance of maintaining contact with the environment, in the close circle and in broader circles, in different contexts (with the family, friends, emergency responders). there were also children who indicated the possibility for peer learning. for example, 4.5-year-old dan explained: “if someone forgets then one of the friends will explain to him and will enable him to look with the other child and see how he does it”. twenty five percent of the children (half of those who expressed the necessity of technology) also expressed an understanding of the contribution of digital technology to promoting pleasure and relaxation. in this aspect, the children who espouse this view referred particularly to tv shows and series, youtube ora segal-drori & anat ben shabat 36 videos and digital games. they apparently believe that an activity which uses digital technologies enables increasing relaxation, attention and concentration as a basis for other activities. five-year-old shaked stressed: “it is important that we play with the computer so we will calm down and only then go to the workshop”. five-year-old ben added: “if there were no television there would be a mess, this way it is comfortable and quiet”. the children also described the way in which they perceive the integration of digital technologies as a mean for promoting diverse fields of learning. one-hundred and two children (60%) mentioned the possible foci of learning. zohar, 4.1 years old, and gur, 4.6 years old, believe that technology can help to “learn and to inquire”. five-year-old ofir reinforced this view: “the computer can help us inquire and learn because it shows lots of things". it seems that the children’s answers reflected their knowledge on searching for information and the possibilities they attribute to increasing scientific knowledge by means of digital technologies. it is interesting to note that some of the children perceive the digital technologies as a mean for independent search for information and inquiry. for example, 6-year-old dan: “if someone wants to inquire about something, then instead of the preschool teacher having to explain every second, it is possible to use the computer”. daniel, 5.5 years old, recalled: “the preschool teacher sometimes tells us to check things on the computer because perhaps there are answers to our questions”. the children mentioned specific fields of knowledge which may be supported by the technology, such as learning literacy and language. four-yearold uri described recognition of letters and regarded the computer as a basis for learning to read and write: “i saw my name on the computer! mother showed me how to write it”. offir, 5.5 years old, described expansion of knowledge for learning other languages: “you can learn, for example, english or spanish, like i learn with the mermaid, this is in english and spanish and i try to understand what they are saying”. mathematics enrichment was also indicated. gali, 5.5 years old, mentioned: “sometimes you can learn numbers, arithmetic, all kinds of things like that”. these quotes illustrate the children’s view regarding the ability to learn arithmetic, numbers and exercises using digital technologies. another learning channel was identified in the children’s answers, which refers to enrichment and self-instruction using digital technology. five-year-old itai: “on the computer, i inquired about my father because he is a pilot and i inquired about pilots”. five-year-old emily indicated that she was exposed to new information using the tablet at home: “yes, on the tablet i learn all kinds of things. once i didn’t know that there was a state called hawaii, and then i heard this on the tablet”. the children indicated their technical/technological abilities that develop when using these technologies, which help their orientation with digital technologies at home, so they feel confident in using them in the preschool. the children referred to the great benefit of photographing pictures and movies, watching them and sharing with others. for example, 5.5-year-old topaz: “it is important that there will be such instruments in the preschool so we can see movies and can learn many things from them. this is very helpful”. five-year-old shai added: “you can photograph things from the mobile phone and send them to the ipad and then more children will see the pictures. children can photograph each other”. these answers represent the children’s view that there is no limit to the knowledge they can obtain via digital technologies, via viewing pictures, listening to explanations or watching different instruction videos, which they mentioned, for example, when referring to youtube or the teacher's computer. other children referred to instruction that can be obtained regarding things that we can do ourselves, such as cooking, fitness or construction and creation. the framework for using digital technologies in the preschool we found that the majority of the children (60%) think that the time for using digital technologies should be limited, such as 3.8-year-old alma, who said: “yes, i can play on the computer just a little because it is boring”. only 40% think that play and learning with these technologies should not be limited, such as 4year-old danielle: “we need more time on the computer during free time, this is not enough”. it can be seen that the children are accustomed to having a short and limited time for using these technologies. although time perception is not well-developed at these young ages, the children indicated recommended time periods and stressed that “we need smaller numbers” (a short time). the arguments of those who believe that there is no need to limit the time for using these technologies were that this is enjoyable and educational and should be done more and more. others suggested not limiting the time so as not to harm the continuity of learning preschoolers’ views on integration of digital technologies 37 that is possible when using digital technologies. five-year-old ben: “there is no need to tell children when to stop, because maybe they are in the middle of something important, and they will be stopped in the middle and perhaps will not be able to continue to learn”. only a small percentage referred to the social composition, which in their opinion is ascribed to the use of digital technologies in the preschool. 13% of the children expressed a preference for learning together (in a group or with friends). for example, 4.3-year-old anael: “yes, i would like, but together with someone else”. some of the children described an existing situation. four-year-old roy: “always on the computer, we are many children”. only six children expressed a desire to play and learn alone using the digital technologies. some perceive a computer game as something done independently, compared to non-digital games that are a social matter. five-year-old shai: “if the teacher would bring a tablet to the preschool, i would prefer to play on it alone, i would prefer to play regular games with friends – puzzles, cubes”. in conclusion, the findings indicate that most of the children are greatly aware of the different representations of the digital technologies that exist in their close environment, apparently mostly at home but also to a certain extent in the preschool, and recognize their importance and contribution to our lives. however, 50% (mostly the younger children, up to age 4) also apparently express the messages transmitted to them by the adults in their surroundings, parents, older relatives or teachers, which reflect non-necessity and danger in the context of these technologies. the non-necessity of digital technologies in the preschool was expressed in three main fields, regardless of age: these technologies may comprise interference to the regular preschool schedule, digital technology is intended solely for adults, and possible health hazards. fifty percent of the children expressed the need to use digital technologies in the preschool and with the 30% of the children who expressed the non-necessity of the use of technologies in the preschool, indicated the goal of using these technologies and their contribution to different aspects of their lives in general, and in the preschool in particular, such as promotion of pleasure and relaxation, establishment of learning processes and enrichment in diverse learning fields. in their answers, they also referred to the different timeframes of the activity and the social composition, which are ascribed to using digital technologies in the preschool. as to the children’s view that pertains to the timeframe of using digital technologies in the preschool, it is mainly the younger children (up to age 4) who think that the time should be limited, while the older ones believe that the time for playing and learning with these technologies should not be limited. regarding the social composition during activity with the digital technologies, the children who supported working in a group (13%), expressed a preference for playing and learning together. only a minority (4%) expressed a desire to play and learn alone using these technologies. among some of the latter, playing on the computer is perceived as something done independently, whereas non-digital games are a social matter. conclusion and discussion three main views were raised in the present study regarding the integration of digital technologies in the preschool: the extent to which digital technologies are needed, the goals of the use of digital technologies in preschool; the setting for using digital technologies in the preschool. fifty percent of the children, especially the younger ones, claimed that use of digital technologies is not necessary in the preschool. their explanations referred to interference with the regular preschool schedule, the view that technology is intended for grown-ups and possible health hazards from this use. the lack of digital technologies in the preschools which these children attend, or the scarce, ineffective or unwise use of these technologies that does not arouse curiosity, may have led them to these conclusions. this importance was also indicated by the view raised in the present study, which refers to the goals of using digital technologies in the preschool. most of the children indicated mainly or only play and pleasure. this view was also raised in their description of the use of digital technology at home. this finding is compatible with the few studies that interviewed children on their attitudes and views regarding use of digital technologies in the context of the preschool and the school (dunn et al., 2018; mckenney and voogt, 2010; oliemat et al., 2018). in these studies, it was found that the children perceived these technologies as entertainment and play instruments, more than as learning tools, and that their most common activity with them was play, followed by watching ora segal-drori & anat ben shabat 38 movies, mainly on youtube. young children’s main uses of digital technologies in the home context is also for play and pleasure. a longitudinal study conducted in the united states among 350 families found that parents gave mobile phones to their children when they had to perform house chores or to calm the children, and that most children used these technologies for pleasure and watching movies alone (kabali et al., 2015). the current study shows that some of the children emphasized the social aspects of digital technologies in the context of play. they expressed an understanding or desire that play with the digital technologies will be social (in a group or with friends), apparently as opposed to the individual digital games at home. the third view that was raised, that refers to the setting for using digital technologies in the preschool, indicates that several children who considered to the social aspects of digital technologies expressed a preference to play and learn together, and several children expressed a desire to play and learn alone on these technologies. some perceive playing on the computer as something that is done independently, whereas non-digital technology games are a social matter. the preschool teacher’s mediation in the context of digital technologies is therefore important in the context of shared work and social-group interactions among children, as well as with reference to the fact that young children have fewer opportunities for such contexts in the home setting. it was indeed found that use of digital technologies contributes to communication with friends and supports meaningful interactions with other children (flewitt, messer, & kucirkova, 2015; hsin et al., 2014). it seems that most of the children who participated in the current study understand the importance of using the digital technologies and their contribution to different aspects of their lives in general and in the preschool in particular. they indicated different aspects, such as promoting pleasure and relaxation and enrichment in different learning aspects. it seems that the children have a view of different levels of learning sources or mediation in learning, and while digital technologies are a source of learning and research in different fields, in their opinion they are not as good a source for learning and mediation as a preschool teacher or printed books. these findings emphasize the great importance and need for mediation of the preschool teacher for wise use of digital technologies in the preschool, and regarding the advantages and contribution of using these technologies for topics learned in the preschool. these findings illustrate the importance of additional, deeper, and wiser uses of digital technologies in the preschool. the children in the present study indicated a broad range of inquiry and learning possibilities with the digital technologies in the fields of language, mathematics, scientific inquiry that includes independent inquiry ability, enrichment and instruction, making contacts with different agents, photography, watching and relaxing. other studies also presented many and diverse examples for deep and wise uses and inquiry and learning possibilities that include digital technologies among young children (flewitt et al., 2015; friedman, 2018; keren and fridin, 2014). concomitantly to the above-indicated modes of mediation, it is recommended that preschool teachers explain use of these technologies to the children in an age-adapted manner. this should be accompanied by setting clear rules on wise use of these technologies and the dangers that sometimes accompany their use (for example, health hazards which the children in the present study indicated). they should also teach the children about forbidden contents and interactions with strangers (which the children in the present study did not mention), which are also very important for safe use of digital technologies. preventing the use of digital technologies and/or frightening children regarding their use will probably not help them make wise use of these technologies. rather, real, meaningful, relevant and greater use of these technologies by the children that will be accompanied by effective mediation of the preschool teacher is necessary. such mediation will not only contribute to safe use of these technologies, but will also improve and increase children’s understanding and learning from these technologies and will even help set the desired time setting of using the digital technologies in the preschool, which is an additional component to which the children referred in their third view. some children think that the time for using the technologies should be limited. others believe that the time for play and learning with these technologies should not be delineated. the preschool teacher should take the age of the children into account when determining the time of the activity with the digital technologies and his/her mediation during these activities to adapt a preschoolers’ views on integration of digital technologies 39 suitable time for each child with these technologies. the present study indicates the importance of listening to children’s voices on integration of digital technologies in the preschool and their perspectives and needs in this field, since they are partners to the everyday activities in the preschool. from the current study, it is possible that the children's views about digital technologies were more influenced by their home environment and less by the preschool environment, perhaps because of the limited digital technology environment which was observed in the preschools. they may also have been influenced by what they were told and or heard by adults (their parents and teachers). the children's points of view may also reflect the society and the cultural practices in israel regarding the use of digital technologies. there is very limited literature on these aspects among parents to young children (elias and sulkin, 2017, 2019; lev and elias, 2020) and preschool teachers (magen-nagar and firstater, 2017; zilka, 2011) in israel. magen-nagar and firstater (2017) for example, found that preschool teachers do indeed recognize the value of the digital technologies. however, in their opinion such technologies do not play a major role in preschools and are mainly used as instruments for collecting information and as a teaching mean for visual illustration of the learning contents. these means contribute mainly to the social interaction between the children, albeit not always in a positive manner especially among children with difficulties. their main conclusion was that preschool teachers generally do not formulate pedagogical goals that include digital technologies and thus do not realize their pedagogical potential. the teachers use digital technologies mostly for illustration, diversification and enrichment. elias and sulkin (2017, 2019) and lev and elias (2020) who investigated the use of digital technologies at home among toddlers until age 3 revealed that using digital technologies has become normative behavior among toddlers. this emphasizes how deeply use of digital technologies is integrated into the basic daily routine of parents to very young children who use digital technologies platforms to fulfill a wide range of their childrearing needs. their use of digital technologies is mainly instrumental, as a babysitter, for schedule regulation, family time and before bedtime and not for children’s enrichment. in addition, the children were exposed to contents not intended for them and experienced limited interaction with their parents during this activity. it is therefore recommended that future research investigate the perspectives of preschoolers in this context at greater depth in an attempt to understand the sources for the children's views and their influences. this may be achieved by using additional means beyond personal depth interviews, such as group discussions on this issue, asking the children to draw or photograph the things that are important to them in this field and talking with them about it, videotaping children during interactions that include digital technologies in individual and group settings and with the preschool teacher’s mediation, and afterwards watching them together and interviewing the children in order to understand their interpretation of the videotaped interactions. after collecting these data, the preschool teachers can integrate and mediate digital technologies more intelligently, in a way that is adapted to the children's understanding and view of these technologies. the children in the current study referred to the integration of the digital technologies, to the promotion of pleasure and relaxation, establishment of learning processes and enrichment in diverse learning field, as well as to time frames of activities with these technologies and their social composition. to complete the overall picture, it is also advisable to examine the perspectives of preschoolers in this context in greater depth and using quantitative research methods, with reference to the children's ses. it is recommended to examine the views of preschool teachers and parents on the integration of digital technologies in preschool. i̇t is further recommended to compare these issues to countries and cultures other than israel. according to the limited digital technology environment in the preschools which was observed and raised from the children's descriptions in the current study, as well as from the very few studies which were performed in israel (magen-nagar and firstater, 2017; zilka, 2011), it is possible that the preschool teachers in israel may be encouraged to increase their integration and mediation of digital technologies and to do so in a more developmentally appropriate practice. the ministry of education is currently developing a model of the "future preschool", where it stresses the need to integrate digital technologies into preschool ora segal-drori & anat ben shabat 40 pedagogy. the model claims that children should be supported in the development of technological skills in preschool. however, this part of the model has not been completed, and has not been formulated in detail as yet (ministry of education, 2020). there might be a stronger and clearer ministry of education policy in this field, as recommended by the global policy (see, for example, the recommendations of the oecd and the national association for the education of young children (naeyc) as presented in bakia et al., 2011 and radich, 2013). this situation may have a greater influence on preschoolers' views about optimal integration of digital technologies in the preschool in general, and on more positive views in this aspect, especially among the younger preschoolers as emerged from the present study. preschool teachers might integrate and mediate digital technologies more wisely, and in a manner adapted to the children's understanding and view toward these technologies. such integration will enable 21st century preschoolers to better adapt their needs and the needs of society in the present and in the future and prevent a risk for expanding digital gaps that lead to education gaps. declarations authors’ 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(2011). sviva limudit digitalit beganei hayeladim [digital environment in the kindergartens]. in d. chen, & g. kurtz (eds.), tikshuv lemida vehoraha [ict, learning and teaching] (pp. 207-230). or-yehuda: the center for academic studies. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2017.10.006 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05822-1_5 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2018.03.028 https://doi.org/10.1080/1350293x.2014.929876 https://doi.org/10.1080/09575146.2016.1174816 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2016.01.009 https://doi.org/10.1177/135485650100700406 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315769530 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-005-0026-2 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-005-0026-2 preschoolers’ views on integration of digital technologies journal of childhood, education & society volume 2, issue 2, 2021, 126-138 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.20212294 research article ©2021 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on children’s mental health and wellbeing, and beyond: a scoping review jane spiteri1 abstract: the major threat of covid-19 has become a priority to education and health systems worldwide. this scoping review reports on, and analyses, the literature pertaining to the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on children’s mental health and wellbeing, and the resources needed to assist them in these difficult times. the findings of this literature review point out the impacts of the pandemic on the mental health and wellbeing of children hailing from different socio-economic backgrounds, as well as the impacts on families and schools. they also highlight how lockdown, quarantine, social distancing, social media and the measures needed to prevent the spread of infection can negatively affect children’s mental health and wellbeing. consequently, cautionary measures that minimise these impacts on children, and recommendations for policy, research and practice are discussed. article history received: 26 march 2021 accepted: 22 june 2021 keywords children; covid-19; pandemic; mental health; wellbeing introduction historically, major disease outbreaks, such as pandemics, have burdened humanity. pandemics are infectious disease outbreaks that threaten human health on a global scale (fong & iarocci, 2020). on march 11th, 2020, the world health organization (who) declared the novel coronavirus (sars-cov-2), known as covid-19, a pandemic (who, 2020). in response to this declaration, many countries have imposed lockdowns and other social distance measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus within the community (fong & iarocci, 2020). quarantine and disease contamination measures are considered unpleasant by most (brooks et al., 2020), and can be traumatising to many (sprang & silman, 2013). this is mostly because lockdown and social isolation are especially hard on individuals, particularly for children and their parents, and these have been shown to trigger symptoms of mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety (organisation for economic co-operation and development [oecd], 2020a). this has led to the recent growing interest in the psychological manifestations of the pandemic (ashikkali, carroll, & johnson, 2020; sprang & silman, 2013). indeed, strong evidence confirms the profound psychological impacts lockdowns and isolation on humanity (brooks et al., 2020; garcia de avila et al., 2020; hawke et al., 2020; roy et al., 2020; yue, zang, le, & an, 2020). prior research has consistently shown that families who were either isolated, or quarantined, during the h1n1 pandemic, in the united states, experienced post-traumatic stress disorder (ptsd) symptoms and anxiety (sprang & silman, 2013). similarly, following a review of the psychological impact of previous quarantines during sars, the 2009 and 2010 h1n1 influenza pandemic, mers, ebola, and equine influenza, brooks et al. (2020) reported the harmful psychological effects of quarantine, which included symptoms of ptsd, confusion, and anger. simply put, quarantine, fear of infection, frustration, boredom, financial loss, inadequate information, stigma and lack of support, can have long-lasting effects on individuals (brooks et al., 2020). few months into the covid-19 pandemic, humanity has come to the realisation that disease _____________ 1 university of malta, faculty of education, department of early childhood and primary education, msida, malta, e-mail: jane.spiteri@um.edu.mt, orcid: https://orcid.org/00000001-6625-2372 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.20212294 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:jane.spiteri@um.edu.mt https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6625-2372 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6625-2372 jane spiteri 127 prevention measures, such as lockdown and social distance, coupled with the direct effects of the pandemic, such as illness and mortality, and the indirect effects on the economy, workplace, schools/day care and social life, have generated significant stress on communities, leading to a multitude of psychological challenges to many, including children (united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization [unesco], 2020a, 2020b, 2020c). major mental health issues reported by children during a pandemic included stress, anxiety, depressive symptoms, insomnia, denial, anger and fear (roy et al., 2020). this is not surprising considering the bidirectional relationship between mental health issues, such as depressive disorders and anxiety, and poverty, destressing life events and physical illnesses (who, 2017). understanding the complexity of the psychological and mental health impacts of covid-19 on different segments of the population is vitally important if children (from birth to 17 years of age) are to be provided with the appropriate support to safeguard their wellbeing. as a vulnerable group of society, children are experiencing the psychological impacts of the covid-19 pandemic. these can potentially have longstanding implications for their health outcomes (kang, lim, ragen, tan, & aishworiya, 2020), and their social and economic future (prime, wade, & browne, 2020). we now know that the number of new infections and the death rate are likely to increase unless the community has been vaccinated. therefore, understanding and addressing the stressors caused by the pandemic are essential first steps towards promoting and protecting the wellbeing of children (prime et al., 2020). the present study despite the dire impact of covid-19 on humanity, particularly on children, there is paucity in research related to the effect of the pandemic on children’s mental health and the resources needed to assist children in these difficult times (fong & iarocci, 2020). furthermore, “the precise extent to which covid19 is shaping children and family functioning is largely unknown” (prime et al., 2020, p. 639). it is important for professionals working with children and families to understand the impact of covid-19 on children and how these are influenced by family dynamics (prime et al., 2020). this paper fills this gap in the literature by drawing on the literature to describe the mental health issues experienced by children (from birth to 17 years of age) during the covid-19 pandemic. the preliminary observations reported here serve as an informed basis to understand some of the impacts brought about by the uncertainly and the disruption caused by covid-19. the primary focus is on children’s wellbeing and the characteristics that may heighten the risk of the negative consequences of the pandemic. as such, this paper draws on the literature across topic areas, including education, health and crises, to examine the potential consequences (shortand long-term) of the covid-19 pandemic on children’s mental health within a context. in doing so, it presents a unique perspective, written from a particular part of the western world, and a particular position, in relation to children’s wellbeing during the covid-19 pandemic. at the same time, it acknowledges that it is revealing experiences of the pandemic that might be strikingly different to some as it leaves out the perspectives and shared experiences (linguistic, cultural and geographical), voices and particular challenges which are uniquely shared by other communities from different parts of the world. most striking though, is the recognition of the global impact of the pandemic on children. in doing so, this paper provides a baseline of the literature and research moving forward, by synthesising currently available literature from a limited number of publications. more importantly, this paper initiates a dialogue about how unforeseen local and global crises, such as pandemics, might be managed in the future. in saying that, the author is mindful that drawing recommendations for children can be problematic as any recommendations made are likely to be influenced by context. importantly though, when considering any recommendations and applying them to differing contexts, these need to be challenged and adapted to the environment in which it is being implemented. finally, research strengths, gaps and implications are discussed. the impact of covid-19 on children’s mental health and wellbeing… 128 method in light the above, the current study adopted a scoping review of the literature to inform research related to the impact of covid-19 on children’s mental health. scoping review of the literature provides the framework for the identification and analysis of this article (arksey & o’malley, 2005; levac, colquhoun, & o’brien, 2010). a scoping review assesses the potential size and scope of the availability, and extent, of the literature related to particular research questions (grant & booth, 2009). like systematic reviews, scoping reviews are useful for addressing research questions, in methodical and replicable ways (arskey & o’malley, 2005). a goal of the current study is to illustrate the mental health issues children experience during the pandemic. hence, a scoping review methodology was considered optimal to address the broad questions guiding this paper, while making room for the inclusion of various publications. furthermore, a scoping review allows for reflection on, and reconsideration of, articles relevant to include. this is highly desirable and relevant when considering the articles included in this review. identifying the research questions the present study reports findings of a scoping review of the literature published during the covid19 pandemic, between 2020 and 2021. i̇t was conducted to examine contemporary knowledge about the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on children’s mental health and wellbeing. specifically, it aimed to map the different ways in which children’s mental health and wellbeing have been impacted during the covid19 pandemic, to help advance knowledge and educational practices. consequently, this review addressed the following questions: (1) what is known about the impact of covid-19 on children’s mental health? (2) what prevention measures or procedures can be implemented in schools and at home? identifying relevant studies consistent with arksey and o’malley’s (2005) recommendations, in this scoping review, broad search criteria were applied to identify studies related to the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on children’s mental health and wellbeing. key databases were identified and searches were performed in each of the following databases: hydi, eric, proquest social sciences, psycinfo, pubmed, scopus, social work abstracts, and web of science. the search strategy included a combination of key words and subject headings that were conjoined using the boolean operation and/or. keywords included mental health, wellbeing, children, school, family, covid-19, and pandemics. in this scoping review, “children” refers to all minors, from birth up to 17 years of age. an iterative process influenced the article search process, where the diverse impact of the covid19 pandemic on children’s mental health and wellbeing have been considered (arksey & o’malley, 2005). inclusion criteria were that each study was: (a) published between 2020 and 2021; (b) related to the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on children’s mental health and wellbeing; (c) electronic sources; and, (d) published in english. exclusion criteria were: (a) articles detailing intervention studies not related to the covid-19 pandemic; (b) editorials; (c) opinion articles; (d) articles focussing on youths and adults; and (e) abstract not provided. study selection since literature from diverse disciplines was considered for this scoping review, there was a number of articles that made room for comparisons and contrasts, a decision that offered balance between the number of articles found and the issues of feasibility of this scoping review (levac et al., 2010). in line with a scoping review methodology, all relevant literature was included during the research design process. a decision was made to limit articles to those using data collected in 2020 or later, to ensure that only studies related to covid-19 were included. charting the data an excel worksheet was used to categorise the data. the collected data were charted in the excel table, in the following categories: (a) an annotated bibliography of each article; (b) year of publication; (c) jane spiteri 129 type of study; (d) database; (e) discipling of the first author; (f) participants and their age; (g) the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on the participants’ mental health and wellbeing; (h) authors’ assumptions about their findings; (i) abstract of the study; and, (j) country of origin. collating, summarising and reporting the results using the excel table described above, the charted data were compared and contrasted by two reviewers who were not involved in the data collection. they examined the full-text review articles and excluded those that contained data collected before 2020. their review enabled the rigour of the analysis. during this process, articles with similar perspectives were grouped together and descriptive summaries were written for each. next, additional analysis led to the differences and similarities to emerge, both within each perspective and across categories. the final synthesis produced the impacts identified. a total of 22 articles were selected. results the initial search strategy, shown in the flow diagram in figure 1 below, outlined the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis (prisma), yielded a total of 150 articles. after removing duplicate and ambiguous articles, and going through the inclusion and exclusion criteria by relying on the titles and abstracts, 22 articles remained. figure 1. preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis (prisma) flow chart depicting the identification, screening, eligibility and inclusion of studies within this scoping review. one limitation of this scoping study that is worth noting is the fact that since it relied only on electronic sources, relevant documents published in a different format, or the ones published at a later date, have been excluded. another limitation is the fact that it only considered articles published in english, thus leaving out valuable research published in languages other than english. discussion given the link between mental health and physical health, both are affected during a pandemic, and both can impact children’s wellbeing (ashikkali et al., 2020; fong & iarocci, 2020). clearly, during the covid-19 pandemic children have been exposed, directly and vicariously, to some form of psychological records identified through database search (n = 150) records removed before screening: duplicate records removed (n =5) records marked as ineligible by automation tools (n =4) records removed for other reasons (n =1) title and abstract screened (n = 140) abstract excluded (n =15) full-text articles assessed for eligibility (n =125) full-text articles excluded, with reasons (n=103) studies included in this scoping review (n =22) id en ti fi ca ti on s cr ee n in g in cl u d ed e li ge b il it y the impact of covid-19 on children’s mental health and wellbeing… 130 distress, leading many to become stressed and anxious. hence, children’s mental health and wellbeing merit some investigation. this scoping review aimed to identify and critically review published literature related to the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on children’s (from birth to 17 years of age) mental health and wellbeing. the analysis of the 22 studies selected revealed eight broad categories: children’s wellbeing; children with preexisting mental health conditions; family relationships; school relationships; socio-economic backgrounds; lockdown, quarantine and social distancing; social media; and, psychological support services. the approach to discussing the results of each category draws on the narrative review, a common strategy to reporting findings of scoping reviews (grant & booth, 2009). children’s wellbeing while research shows that children’s physical health is less likely to be impacted by the covid-19 virus (bond, dibner, & schweingruber, 2020; castagnoli et al., 2020; ludvigsson, 2020; spaull, 2020), new evidence is starting to emerge indicating that in a situation characterised by constant change, such as a pandemic, children are reporting unpleasant symptoms. recent research suggests that anxiety, depression and mood disorders have been the most common mental health issues reported by children during the covid-19 pandemic (courtney, watson, battaglia, mulsant, & szatmar, 2020; kang et al., 2020). in fact, an escalation in physical symptoms experienced by children, including tummy aches, headaches, feeling sick and panic attaches, have reported by medical professionals despite the fact that these were otherwise healthy children and had not been infected by the coronavirus. anxiety in children is manifesting itself as physical symptoms because children are more vulnerable to the negative impact of sustained stressful situation (courtney et al., 2020; garcia de avila et al., 2020). it likely that while social distance measures have been effective at reducing the number of new infections, this has led a rise in anxiety, depression and other ailment, even in children (gromada, rees, & chzhen, 2020; parsons, 2020; xie et al., 2020). most studies exploring the role of gender in the management of anxiety during the covid-19 pandemic found that gender was a risk factor for depression and anxiety symptoms (fong & iarocci, 2020; yue et al., 2020). preliminary findings indicate that girls and women were hit harder during the pandemic (fong & iarocci, 2020; yue et al., 2020). perhaps this is because during the pandemic women had to cope with the stress created by the pandemic itself, and the care responsibilities bestowed on them (yue et al., 2020). however, literature has emerged that offers contradictory findings. for example, while garcia de avila et al. (2020) reported that girls experienced higher levels of anxiety than boys, yue et al. (2020) reported that age and gender were not predictors of psychological distress in children. definite conclusions cannot be drawn yet especially since studies related to the impact of gender on the management of anxiety and wellbeing during the covid-19 pandemic are scarce. in fact, this is an area that merits further investigation (fong & iarocci, 2020). children with pre-existing mental health conditions to date, the literature on children with pre-existing mental health conditions has highlighted an increase in the prevalence of anxiety (garcia de avila et al., 2020; oecd, 2020a; parsons, 2020; roy et al., 2020). research by roy et al. (2020) has established that children with pre-existing mental health issues had harder time coping with school closure, and the lack of contact and recreational activities outdoors. reasons for this included fear of the disease, stigma, lack of awareness of risk, diminished personal protection, confinement in psychiatric wards during the pandemic, discrimination, and fear of social isolation (roy et al., 2020). similarly, hawke et al. (2020) confirmed the significant risk posed by the pandemic for the exacerbation of symptoms of distress, such as anxiety, which are both painful and debilitating, in children with pre-existing mental health issues. surprisingly though, the disruption caused by the pandemic has improved some of the pre-existing anxiety disorders in children, even if only temporarily. courtney et al. (2020) found that children who had been affected by social and performance anxiety and agoraphobia before the pandemic, did better during the pandemic, even if such improvement may be short-lived. courtney et al. (2020) explained that children jane spiteri 131 with pre-existing anxiety disorders may have felt less anxious during lockdown because the events that caused them anxiety before, such as separating from their parents, were gone and they felt they were in a safe space. the fact that these children had to maintain social distance measures and had to stay away from school may have helped ease their school anxiety. similarly, papetti et al. (2020) found that children and adolescents with primary and chronic headache disorders reported a significant improvement in the prevalence, intensity and frequency of headache attacks during the lockdown compared to the previous two months. as school anxiety and effort diminished, headache improvement was reported, indicating that lifestyle modification, as in the case of school closure, represents the main factor impacting the course of mental health issues (papetti et al., 2020). overall, in these studies, a reduction in school-related stress as a result of school closure was the main factor explaining the general improvement in the participants’ mental health issues. therefore, in these cases, school closure helped to improve the children’s mental health. family relationships central to children’s wellbeing is the influence of the family system and the interactions therein (bronfenbrenner & morris, 2006). parents are in a good position to help their children buffer everyday stress and help them manage their feelings effectively (courtney et al., 2020; yue et al., 2020). in fact, time and time again, research has indicated a correlation between parental mental health and children’s wellbeing, suggesting that caregivers’ mental health is important to protect children’s wellbeing (fong & iarocci, 2020). during a pandemic, parents play a crucial role in providing emotional and psychological support to help their children deal with the uncertainty of the crisis, particularly by providing a stable and secure environment (fong & iarocci, 2020). since the covid-19 pandemic has amplified the stress families are experiencing, high parental anxiety can be projected onto children, negatively impacting their wellbeing (kang et al., 2020; oecd, 2020a; parsons, 2020; sprang & silman, 2013). the mounting rates of unemployment during the pandemic have caused an abrupt and major upheaval in the daily lives of many families. parsons (2020) argued that during the first lockdown, parental stress and worries over financial insecurities, and the pandemic itself, even if unintentionally, have impacted children’s understanding of disaster, family tragedy and their resiliency. loss of employment is a significant life stressor that can take a psychological toll on individuals, and can take years to recover (infurna & luthar, 2016). economic adversity and job loss cause stress, a major risk factor for increased family violence, psychological and physical maltreatment, and child abuse (fong & iarocci, 2020; lawson, piel, & simon, 2020; who, 2020; yeasmin et al., 2020). since these uncertainties, coupled with the extra burden on parents by the pandemic, limit the parents’ abilities to meet their family’s needs, parental mental health may suffer. as a result, parents may be less able to help their children deal with emotional issues (courtney et al., 2020; fong & iarocci, 2020; pittinsky, 2020). under such circumstances, child psychological problems are likely to worsen (sprang & silman, 2013), a situation encapsulated in the shadow of fear caused by the fact that children were restrained from attending school and extra-curricular activities, meeting relatives and peers, for fear of contracting the coronavirus (courtney et al., 2020; kang et al., 2020; parsons, 2020). strong evidence suggests that parental educational level could be conducive to lower levels of anxiety in children during the covid-19 pandemic (garcia de avila et al., 2020; yeasmin et al., 2020; yue et al., 2020). in a study by yue et al. (2020), parents with higher income and higher educational attainment were reported as having lower levels of psychological distress probably because these attributes provided the family with more resources to understand and deal with the stressors created by the pandemic. similar findings have been confirmed by garcia de avila et al. (2020), who reported that highly educated parents seemed to be in a better position to offer a range of support to their children, such as talking and listening to children’s concerns over covid-19, and providing further information, safer environments and emotional support, thus helping in minimising the children’s anxiety levels. in contrast, yeasmin et al. (2020) reported a higher percentage of mental health issues in children whose parents were highly educated. the authors attributed this incidence to the fact that highly educated the impact of covid-19 on children’s mental health and wellbeing… 132 parents were still expected to work despite the lockdown and they did not have time to meet their children’s demands and nurture them. as a result, children of higher-income parents experienced more psychological distress than children of low-income parents (yeasmin et al., 2020). based on the findings yeasmin et al. (2020) concluded that it is likely that parents who are able to manage their emotions and depression, will be good role models of resilience for their children. nevertheless, what seems to be more important for children during a pandemic is that parents are able to model healthy ways of dealing with anxiety triggers, particularly during stressful times like a pandemic (oecd, 2020a). in addition, financial support and flexible childcare provisions could ease the burden on families, thus enabling them to cope with their responsibilities during the pandemic, by increasing the chances of better mental health outcomes (fong & iarocci, 2020). school relationships in an attempt to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus, many educational institutions worldwide were closed and learning has been transferred to home-based learning, which has been mostly carried out online. it is estimated that mass school closure has affected approximately 91.3%, or 1.5 million students, worldwide (unesco, 2020c). this has created global repercussions, impacting economic, educational and health systems, and the lives of children worldwide (unesco, 2020a, 2020b, 2020c). indeed, many education experts have sounded the alarm numerous times about the detrimental effects of school closure on children’s learning (martin et al., 2020; oecd, 2020b; unesco, 2020d; united nations, 2020). it is now clear that school closure has caused major interruptions to children’s learning, and perhaps even worse, it has impacted children’s social and emotional wellbeing. anxiety in children has increased exponentially following school closure, particularly because it has influenced family structures and the children’s daily routines (kang et al., 2020). with school closure and lack of socialisation, children’s sense of belonging to the school community may have been lost, unless they kept abreast with online learning and activities (oecd, 2020a). the lack of social contact is impactful for all students, particularly the most vulnerable, who may suffer from social exclusion, physical violence, lack of family support and proper housing, and food insecurity (oecd, 2020a). age has been found to be an influential psychological stressor experienced by children. existing research confirmed that primary school children were stressed and anxious because of school closure, particularly because the resources which they usually had access to through schools were no longer available when schools closed (yue et al., 2020). aware of this need, the oecd (2020a) has called for education systems worldwide to ensure children’s social and emotional wellbeing, especially the vulnerable. to address the disruptions in children’s education, unesco (2020b) developed ten key recommendations for learning, including wellbeing and educational needs of children, the emotional needs of educators, and the need for common directions/guidelines for educational institutions, to ensure that learning remains relatively uninterrupted during the pandemic. eventually, schools reopened but nervousness about covid-19 began affecting some children once more (pittinsky, 2020). educators have an important role to play in reducing children’s anxiety during the pandemic by providing a sense of stability to help children process, adjust, and develop new coping skills to deal with the uncertainty amid rapid change. towards this end, educators can discuss covid-19 has changed their school routine, rather than dismiss children’s emotions as this may increase anxiety. in this regard, pittinsky (2020) suggested that educators can discuss with children what is known and what remains unclear about the pandemic, help them understand the risks of new infections, ask them how they are doing and feeling, and emphasis positive ways of taking care of themselves, their family and friends – hand washing, mask wearing and physical distancing. socio-economic backgrounds socio-economic background has been identified as a major contributing factor to the way children have been impacted by the pandemic. the impact of the economic crisis brought about by the pandemic had a significant impact on the social and emotional wellbeing of many children worldwide (courtney et jane spiteri 133 al., 2020; garcia de avila et al., 2020; kang et al., 2020; keshri, 2020; parsons, 2020). the impact of the pandemic on children living in inadequate housing in low-income neighbourhoods and those experiencing domestic violence has been profound (garcia de avila et al., 2020; oecd, 2020a; parsons, 2020). detailed examination of the impact of the pandemic on children living with their parents in urban areas by yeasmin et al. (2020), showed that these children were more likely to have poorer mental health when compared to the rural area’s child. yeasmin et al. (2020) attributed this finding to the fact that children living rural areas were forced to stay indoors, whereas children in urban areas were still able to play outside and they had stronger immune systems. therefore, being mindful of context is key to meeting the psychological needs of children during a crisis. lockdown, quarantine and social distancing much of the available literature has confirmed that government-imposed lockdowns and social distance measures impacted children in different ways, often increasing the likelihood of mental health issues (garcia de avila et al., 2020; urbano agbing et al., 2020; yeasmin et al., 2020; yue et al., 2020). over a sustained period, these losses are likely to negatively impact children’s mental health (courtney et al., 2020). the research is clear in this regard. yeasmin et al. (2020) reported an increase in depression, anxiety, and sleep disturbance during lockdown amongst children living in bangladesh. similarly, garcia de avila et al. (2020) confirmed that brazilian schoolchildren who were socially distanced from both parents, children living in households with higher number of inhabitants, children living with young parents, and parental low-education level, had lower test scores than children who were socially isolated with a person other than their parent. together, these findings highlight the crucial human need to reconnect with others and the role parents play in children’s lives, particularly in times of crises. yue et al. (2020) reported that children confined within the home during the covid-19 lockdown in china developed symptoms of psychological distress, including anxiety, depression and ptsd. in parsons’ (2020) study, preschool children were unable to verbally express their feelings around what was going on, mostly because they could not understand what was happening, had sleep and appetite disturbances, and also behaviour problems. in addition, parsons (2020) reported that school children were more disorganised and exhibited more disruptive behaviour at school, and consequently their academic performance suffered. these findings suggest that while younger children tend to worry because they may find it hard to fully comprehend the situation; older children worry about their future prospects and the financial situation within the family. nevertheless, research has confirmed that children of all ages seem to be afraid of what the coronavirus might do to them and to their loved ones (pittinsky, 2020; roy et al., 2020). taken together, these studies confirmed that mental health issues remained fairly elevated among children in different countries around the world. even though for most children, the pandemic and school closure have led to disruptions in their routines, and social isolation may have led to increase in feelings of boredom, frustration and fear, this was not always the case. yue et al. (2020) also reported that even though chinese children suffered from higher levels of anxiety than their parents, they suffered significantly lower levels of ptsd than their parents during the outbreak. such differences could be attributed the differences in cognitive abilities between children and adults, where children’s cognitive abilities were still developing. however, higher levels of anxiety in children could be a result of lack of understanding of the issue and lack of coping strategies (yue et al., 2020). yue et al. (2020) attributed three factors to the increase in anxiety in children: first, at the time of data collection, the coronavirus outbreak was under control and this could have alleviated some of the destress caused by the pandemic; second, there has been an increases in online mental health services during quarantine which helped people cope better under these circumstances; and third, quarantine increased the time families spent together and this could have brought them closer to each other, thus improving family relationships and easing psychological distress. similarly, in a study by urbano agbing et al. (2020), children in the philippines, described the coronavirus as a deadly, dangerous, contagious, a disease which kills people worldwide; and they expressed sadness, fear, boredom, anger, disappointments about their experiences during these difficult times. urbano agbing et al. (2020) reported that while children expressed mixed emotions (both positive and negative) about lockdown, they also expressed hope the impact of covid-19 on children’s mental health and wellbeing… 134 and faith in god and prayers. consequently, the children employed various coping mechanisms, such as taking up new hobbies and interests as acts of mindfulness. urbano agbing et al. (2020) suggested that such strategies can assist children during critical events, but the researchers also called for longitudinal research to explore the effects of pandemic, and its aftermath, on health outcomes of different children. despite the conflicting evidence, lockdowns and quarantine are difficult for children. in this regard, brooks et al. (2020) suggested that whenever quarantine cannot be dismissed, it should be as brief as medically possible, and medical officials should provide clear rationale for quarantine, enough information about protocols, ensure sufficient supplies and support in order to minimise the psychological impact of quarantine and isolation. undoubtedly, in order to reduce psychological stress for children some sort of structure or routine and social interactions are recommended (oecd, 2020a). parents also have a pivotal role in this regard. parents can create a learning routine at home and engage children in creative and mentally stimulating indoor activities to help them manage their anxiety and meet their emotional needs (garcia de avila et al., 2020; roy et al., 2020), particularly by creating fun activities during the pandemic (garcia de avila et al., 2020). engaging children with school work and chores, and allowing them enough time for daily exercise have been reported to reduce depression and anxiety (kang et al., 2020; yeasmin et al., 2020). additionally, parents can find ways to help children stay in touch with friends so that they do not feel lonely and isolated. social media measures to restrict the coronavirus transmission in the community, such as lockdowns, social distancing, and restrictions in movement, have often resulted in increased screen time, particularly for children, but not only (roy et al., 2020). the way information about the coronavirus is presented to children can impact their ability to adjust to the situation (fong & iarocci, 2020). moreover, the younger the children are, the less likely they are able to process the information correctly and they may overor under-estimated the threat of the virus. this means that constant misinformation on social media portals may increase the incidence of children experiencing panic and anxiety attacks (roy et al., 2020). in fact, research confirmed that frequent social media exposure during the covid-19 outbreak was positively associated with high prevalence of mental health issues (gao et al., 2020; roy et al., 2020) and put children at higher risk of experiencing anxiety and ptsd (yue et al., 2020). together, these findings call for a different discourse around covid-19 and children on social media as a necessary tool in addressing fear of the coronavirus in children (roy et al., 2020; yue et al., 2020). more importantly, these findings highlight the need for a reduction in children’s exposure to social media and negative news (roy et al., 2020; yue et al., 2020). more importantly, pittinsky (2020) cautioned that shielding children from the truth or having very high expectations of them during the pandemic could be more harmful. parents have a role to play in this regard in that they need to monitor the children’s use of social media and teach them how to rely on reliable sources of information about the pandemic. certainly, children need to be provided with clear, accurate and meaningful explanation of the current situation. by using age-appropriate tools, vocabulary and communication strategies about the pandemic, which neither over-estimate nor minimise the dangers, parents will ensure that children do not feel guilty about the situation and so that parents do not heighten children’s fears (fong & iarocci, 2020; garcia de avila et al., 2020; oecd, 2020a; pittinsky, 2020; roy et al., 2020). as evidenced by an array of recent research (garcia de avila et al., 2020; kang et al., 2020; yue et al., 2020), providing children with accurate and meaningful explanations about the coronavirus may help alleviate their worries and anxiety. nevertheless, parents need to monitor children’s reactions with care and caution. psychological support services major events, such as the covid-19 pandemic, influence development over the lifespan and even across generations. therefore, the burden of the covid-19 pandemic makes a strong case for promoting the wellbeing of children and families. children who experience trauma during the pandemic may require a supportive structure that is closely aligned with both educational and mental health services (firestein, 2019), a need that cannot be overlooked (fong & iarocci, 2020; sprang & silman, 2013). it is likely that jane spiteri 135 interventions and strategies to address mental health issues during the pandemic (hawke et al., 2020) and the need to strengthen families in order to help children feel safe (garcia de avila et al., 2020) are vital ways of supporting children’s mental health and wellbeing. in these difficult times, psychological support services are essential more than ever to detect and treat anxiety disorders and emotional distress in children (courtney et al., 2020; kang et al., 2020), and child maltreatment (lawson et al., 2020; yeasmin et al., 2020). however, psychological support services in the form of face-to-face meetings can be costly for many families who are already facing financial hardships, and availability can be problematic in face of social distancing measures (parsons, 2020). this is especially true of low-income families who are less likely to have access psychological support services due to lack of financial resources to meet these needs. to overcome these financial constraints, governments should legislate to provide technology-based psychological interventions to children and parents, which could be a useful alternative in the current circumstances (fong & iarocci, 2020). indeed, recently developed effective approaches to providing psychological support services during the pandemic range from psychological intervention strategies (lawson et al., 2020; prime et al., 2020; yeasmin et al., 2020) to telemedicine as a means of supporting the mental health needs of individuals, including children (ashikkali et al., 2020). given the associated economic benefits of improved mental health issues, social and medical services, counselling and socialisation opportunities should be provided to children and their families during the pandemic (oecd, 2020a). consequently, understanding the most effective combination of support in different population is an important next step. next, policies need to be put in place to reduce barriers to psychological support services in order to strengthen both the children’s and the family’ mental health and wellbeing (fong & iarocci, 2020). limitations and future directions the limitations of this scoping review highlight the paucity in the literature related to children’s mental health and wellbeing in times of global crises. based on the evidence reviewed here, the majority of the literature reviewed targeted the covid-19 pandemic as a medical issue rather than as an issue that could trigger mental health problems. in fact, only a limited number of studies proposed appropriate interventions to improve children’s mental health and wellbeing during these difficult times. the lack of available research suggests that there remain several aspects of the impact of the covid19 pandemic on children’s mental health and wellbeing about which relatively little is known. first, further research would benefit from intervention evaluations that provide support to children’s mental health, during and after the pandemic. second, there is a need for the exploration of new and effective strategies that help children and their families cope with the direct and indirect effects of the stress caused by the pandemic in order to ensure their wellbeing, during this and future outbreaks. third, research to further explore the impact of the pandemic on girls’ mental health and wellbeing is also required. conclusions this study reviewed the results of published literature to explore the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on children’s (from birth to 17 years of age) mental health and wellbeing. collectively, these studies indicated that globally, children have been exposed to severe and unprecedented events that have disrupted their routines. the pandemic has posed severe economic hardships on the entire planet, that have social consequences for people of all ages. clearly, the impacts of the covid-19 pandemic on children’s holistic wellbeing are numerous and go beyond the risk of acquiring a severe acute respiratory infection. all this has repercussions for children, which if not addressed, are likely to be longstanding and could have even worse outcomes in the future. in this regard, this scoping review is an important first step towards holistically evaluating the effects of the covid-19 pandemic on children’s mental health and the resources need to help them overcome these challenges, an area in which exiting quality research is scarce (fong & iarocci, 2020). this paper marks the starting point from which informed conversations around children’s emotional and social wellbeing during a major crisis can evolve. the impact of covid-19 on children’s mental health and wellbeing… 136 lastly, the findings from this scoping review have practical implications for policymakers and educators. it is recommended that governments, non-governmental organizations, educators, healthcare and psychosocial professionals adopt a collaborative approach towards preventing further mental health issues caused by the pandemic. thus, interventions with children and families should be considered as a way of preventing the potential negative effects from the covid-19 pandemic. to achieve this, professionals need to work with parents and children to provide them with strategies to lower the negative impact of the pandemic on their mental health. governments, employers and policymakers clearly have a useful role to plan in financially supporting families to reduce the stress and mental health issues caused by the pandemic. declarations acknowledgements: the author would like to thank the anonymous reviewers who made comments on the paper. authors’ contributions: this paper was written entirely by the sole author. 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(2020). anxiety, depression and ptsd among children and their parent during 2019 novel coronavirus disease (covid-19) outbreak in china. current psychology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-020-01191-4 https://en.unesco.org/news/covid-19-10-recommendations-plan-distancelearning-solutions https://en.unesco.org/news/covid-19-10-recommendations-plan-distancelearning-solutions https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/policy_brief_on_covid_impact_on_children_16_april_2020.pdf https://doi.org/10.1177%2f1054137320966846 https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/254610/who-msd-mer-2017.2-eng.pdf https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/who-2019-ncov-violence_actions-2020.1 https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2020.1619 https://dx.doi.org/10.1016%2fj.childyouth.2020.105277 the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on children’s mental health and wellbeing, and beyond: a scoping review journal of childhood, education & society volume 2, issue 2, 2021, 87-105 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.20212276 research article ©2021 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. learning chinese mandarin characters in an english-speaking country: the development of a child’s symbolic mind wenjie wang1, annabelle black delfin2 abstract: this qualitative research explores the development of the symbolic mind in children through learning chinese mandarin characters. navigated through the lens of relational developmental system metatheory and guided by vygotsky’s sociocultural theory, findings present the analysis of the developmental processes in children’s recognition of symbols and use of known symbols to make and share meaning. this study also offers an explanation of the effect of changes in the sociocultural environment on children's symbolic development. further, cultural differences toward symbolic representation are discussed with the recommendation of focusing on recognition followed by writing when learning chinese mandarin characters. article history received: 28 november 2020 accepted: 15 march 2021 keywords symbolic development; symbolic representation; early childhood; chinese mandarin characters; relational developmental systems metatheory; sociocultural theory introduction symbol systems have existed and have been utilized for communication throughout history (vallotton and ayoub, 2010). symbols, symbolic play, symbolic thought, symbolic development, symbolic interpretation, and symbolic representation have been widely studied across multiple fields (deloache, 2004; uttal and yuan, 2014; wu, 2013). symbolic representation is considered an important phenomenon in children’s cognitive development and language learning (smith and jones, 2011). for our purposes here, symbolic representation refers to developmentally dependent abilities to discern symbolic meaning, to interpret symbolic meaning, and to use symbols to convey or communicate meaning. however, on the one hand, most studies underline symbolic representation for learning an alphabetic language, but less research attention is given to non-alphabetic languages such as chinese mandarin1, which is characterized by its non-alphabetic orthography. on the other hand, learning chinese mandarin is becoming more and more popular in the united states. numerous research studies have been conducted primarily focused on teaching chinese mandarin as a second language to a non-chinese population, teaching chinese mandarin as a heritage, and developing chinese mandarin programs and curricula for populations of chinese descent (wu, 2013). chinese mandarin has been studied from listening, speaking, reading, and writing perspectives with specific investigations on mastering chinese mandarin characters among youth, but there is less research exploring how young children learn chinese characters from the lens of symbolic development, especially to those who are temporarily residing in the united states. with such background that is described above, we were very interested in comprehending how chinese children develop cognitive abilities to perceive meaning from symbols in the course of learning chinese mandarin characters. this is of particular interest, from a developmental perspective, when taking into consideration that the preschool children in this study have been learning characters when residing in _____________ 1 new mexico state university, glass family research institute, las cruces, nm, usa, e-mail: wenjie@nmsu.edu, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3103-8445 2 new mexico state university, curriculum and instruction, las cruces, nm, usa, e-mail: kablack1@nmsu.edu, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6343-5528 1 for the purposes of this article, unless otherwise specified, the words "chinese" and 'character/s' refer to chinese mandarin (simplified) characters. https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.20212276 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:wenjie@nmsu.edu https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3103-8445 mailto:kablack1@nmsu.edu https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6343-5528 wenjie wang & annabelle black delfin 88 the united states, and not immersed in chinese culture. the research inquiry for this study is about children’s development in understanding and using symbolic representation in the process of learning characters. in attempting to acquire some understanding of these developmental processes, the research questions for the study are: 1) how a child’s symbolic mind is developed when learning chinese mandarin characters? 2) how do chinese children learn to discern meaning from the symbols represented in chinese characters? 3) how do cultural and social environments influence children’s learning of chinese mandarin characters when they are temporarily residing in the united states? this study aims to contribute to the educational field, especially in the area of early childhood with a focus on symbolic representation in learning non-alphabetic languages. parents, teachers, early caregivers, school administrators, and other educators are able to refer to the collected information on symbols, symbolic understanding, visual object recognition, symbolic function, symbolic play, symbolic representation, and concept acquisition in children’s learning and teaching. much of this work is cited here, comprising many underpinning features that make up the abilities we refer to as symbolic representation. this paper incorporates previous work that examines the understanding and use of symbols and has applied that to a non-alphabetic language system, also taking into account what experiences chinese families have had, especially in improving learning chinese characters with a change of social and cultural environment. besides, the cases in this study may serve as examples to families of how to advance nonalphabetic language learning, such as chinese characters, and this study may call attention to how symbolic representation and concept acquisition works in children’s cognitive development from the very beginning with appropriate strategies. in addition, teachers, educators, and researchers may benefit by having more detailed information about the role of symbolic representation in the chinese language and the nonalphabetic system. theoretical framework in seeking to better understand developmental processes in young children, this research is focused on some of the most uniquely human capacities; symbolic representation and language. examining these topics through a developmental framework, it is important to note that, while at times, we may refer to cognitive or linguistic development, our developmental lens is not ordered in distinct stages or learning domains. traditionally developmental theories have conceptualized child development as a teleological and, mostly, linear movement toward increasing complexity. child development is often portrayed as progressions in mental structure and successively higher skill level, whereby each successive ‘level’ encompasses previous ‘levels’, allowing for increasing mental complexity and skill acquisition (taylor, 2016). while we do agree that development typically proceeds toward greater complexity, we do not see it progressing as parallel lines of ages, stages, and learning domains that never meet. cognitive development encompasses, among other things, symbolic representational abilities, abstract thinking and language learning. these three aspects of cognitive development are part of a relational system that produces cognitive processes such as comprehension, conveyance, and communication. as such, this line of inquiry comes through the lens of relational developmental systems metatheory (overton, 2013). relational developmental systems offer a holistic, context-based perspective on developmental sciences. in relational developmental systems, development is seen as emergent from the relations of interacting aspects of the whole system. overton (2013) explains, “it is through complex reciprocal bidirectional and circular reciprocal interpenetrating actions among the co-acting parts that the system moves to levels of increasingly organized complexity” (p. 53). the system in this case would refer, not only to the child, but also to the environment in which the child is contextualized and situated. relational developmental system metatheory is not another cartesian developmental theory pitting the influence of a discrete ‘environment’ against the influence of a predetermined biology. instead the child’s development is understood to emerge from the relations of the system’s interdependent parts; ancestry, child, family, culture, community, society, language, and others. development, then, is an emergent learning chinese mandarin characters in an english-speaking… 89 quality of an adaptive system, where the parts are unique to each child, place, and time, thus making the behavior of the whole system undetermined (overton, 2013). a main principle of relational developmental systems metatheory is that people have agency and have a significant impact on their environment, bodies, and development. individual considerations including, "biological, demographic, personality, cognitive, motivational, emotional, and behavioral characteristics, in conjunction with context-specific variables explain variation or consistency in developmental trajectories over time" (gayman, fraser-thomas and baker, 2017). with this holistic view on children's development, it was impossible to explore development, especially focusing on factors as centrally situated as symbols and language, without deeply considering the culture and society in which a child is embedded when developing the capacity for symbolic representation. hence, we have also employed vygotsky’s (1978) sociocultural theory as a theoretical framework through which to analyze this research. vygotsky offers several metaphorical devices and routes to understanding the effect/s of language and culture on development. the sociocultural theory has been widely used in various studies regarding language teaching and learning, based on the belief that the process of language learning is always being socially constructed and reconstructed (menezes, 2013) with cultural tools (vygotsky, 1978). on the one hand, tools, in vygotsky’s (1978) understanding, exist in two categories, technical tools such as texts, books, materials, media, digital devices, and psychological tools such as language, signs, and symbols. both play crucial roles in children’s cognitive development and concept acquisition. on the other hand, vygotsky (1978) views language as not only a technical tool for communication, but also a psychological tool that promotes cognitive development through constructing meaning between humans and their linguistic objectives (hammond, 2002). therefore, children’s language learning involves both types of tools through social interactions. children convert/transform from technical tools to their own representations, symbols, patterns, and meaning when they have conversations and other types of communications in the context of social interactions, and in turn, social interactions internalize children’s understanding of the language, form the individual’s perceptions toward language practices, and establishes foundations for further language progress and growth (gee, 1990; vygotsky, 1978). in this research study, sociocultural theory informs us that children learn chinese characters through interaction with technical tools such as books and apps, as well as through social and linguistic interactions with others. children became symbol-minded through deconstructing characters from abstract concepts to concrete visuals and reconstructing them with meaning-making by acknowledging the engagement of the learning environment such as family communication, school collaboration, peer influence, and community participation. with this being said, sociocultural theory and relational developmental systems metatheory guide us to a deeper exploration of the relationship between two main aspects of cognitive development; the symbolic mind and language learning, as well as a broader understanding of children’s concept acquisition and symbolically relevant mental activities and deeds. review of the literature based on the background of the study and focused on the research questions, this study provides reviews from two paths, 1) the development of cognitive capacities that involve symbolic representation and language learning and 2) learning chinese mandarin characters. children’s symbolic representation in language learning as this paper seeks to provide some explanation for the developmental processes that account for meaning-making from symbols, especially when learning language, it proved useful to examine the literature that has deconstructed the levels of complexity in representational abilities. we begin by examining symbols and early symbolic understanding in young children. as children grow they begin to incorporate visual object recognition, object substitution in play and gain understanding of the symbolic function. further cognitive development leads most children to the ability to discern, convey and communicate meaning from and through symbols; symbolic representation, which underpins deeper wenjie wang & annabelle black delfin 90 understanding and concept acquisition. these developmental progressions in cognitive complexity have been studied by many in the field. here we present a brief overview of children's symbolic representation in language learning. in discussing children’s cognitive development, including symbolic representation and language learning, piaget and bruner’s theories must be first highlighted as they are pioneers who studied symbols in children’s development. inhelder and piaget (1964) advocated that children should be able to make connections and find relations among abstract concepts, as well as have abstract thinking ability when they learn to read written language. piaget further suggests that until children are about 12 years old, they do not fully acquire these abilities because children need to first develop symbolic and operational thinking abilities (piaget, 1950). in a similar vein, bruner (1966) also said that there are three modes of representation relating to children’s development, they are, enactive, iconic and symbolic, and symbolic is the foundation for children’s language learning. both piaget and bruner believed that symbols are keys to support children’s symbolic development which further advances children’s cognitive development including abstract thinking skills and symbolic representational abilities. this can be seen, especially in areas of language learning, such as when children express themselves through mark making (abbott, 2000; pampoulou and detheridge, 2007). written expression is evidence of a child’s relationship with symbols (athey, 2007). symbol and symbolic understanding. a symbol can be any number of things as long as it is intended to represent something else and can be interpreted that way by another person. uttal and yuan (2014) state that, “to use a symbol, children need to 1) understand the intention that led to the creation and use of the symbol and 2) how the symbol relates to its referent” (p. 295). bruner (1966) also asserted that objects include social objects or people, physical objects or things, and abstract objects or ideas (p. 10). in language learning, vygotsky (1981; 1987) proposed that symbols are also tools for serving social-emotionalcognitive functions, namely, communication and representation. as such, uttal and yuan (2014) explain that there are three components of symbolic understanding: a symbol, its referent, and the human interpretation that discerns the relationship between the symbol with its referent. the intention of both the creator or user of the symbol and the interpreter or receiver of the symbol is central to the final meaning that can be taken from the symbolic representation. several research studies have shown that children as young as three years old use symbols to interact with the world and then use language/words to communicate with others as well as to represent more complicated social concepts (deloache, 2004; namy and waxman, 2005; vallotton and ayoub, 2010). a child may not know how to read or write but can understand the intention of using spoken sounds to represent words; comprehension of words constitutes a form of symbolic understanding (uttal and yuan, 2014). deloache (2004) has explored young children’s use and creation of symbols. she showed how children's understanding of intention is evident in symbol production. a study was conducted where children were asked to make a drawing to convey information to an adult about a game. when the children were told that more information was needed on the drawing to make sense to the adult, the children added more marks on the drawing to provide more information. this research demonstrated that the children understood the communicative aspect of the drawings; i.e. that the drawing’s function was to convey information (deloache, 2004). this research further demonstrated that children’s ability to understand the communicative function and shared meanings of symbolic representation coincides with the age at which many developmental theorists believe children develop the cognitive functions called theory of mind, or the ability to perceive emotional and intellectual states in others (mercer, 2018). visual object recognition and symbolic function. children’s visual object recognition and play with objects (symbols) can be related to children’s early language development because children use various objects and substitute one object for another to interact/communicate (smith and jones, 2011). the ability to employ object substitution in play or communication depends on sufficient development in visual object recognition. this refers to a child’s ability to recognize visual objects, even when they are represented in such a sparse and geometric way as to be a symbol of the visual object. with this being said, according to smith and jones (2011), “the tie between object substitutions and language development is classically learning chinese mandarin characters in an english-speaking… 91 attributed to a shared ‘symbolic function’” (p. 2). they propose that a symbol-like object is tended to be substituted by younger children in implementing the symbolic function. symbolic play and symbolic thinking. with the understanding of object substitutions and symbolic function, symbolic play is introduced and extended to a broader umbrella with “a range of pretend play behaviors including dress-up and role-playing” (smith and jones, 2011, p. 1). starting from here, the ability to use a symbol to represent something else is often referred to as symbolic development which is “a set of abilities that enable humans to represent concepts in their absence” (vallotton and ayoub, 2010, p. 2). symbolic thinking develops from children's increasing understanding of the symbolic function and encounters with symbols in the course of interacting with others. specifically, it refers to children’s ability to understand concrete concepts, as well as abstractions, and from initially a physical standpoint to both physical and mental stances (vallotton and ayoub, 2010). symbolic development and symbolic representation. clarifying the aforementioned terms is significant for understanding how children make further progress in symbolic development. vygotsky (1987), piaget and inhelder (1969) viewed children’s symbolic play as a crucial stage in developing children’s symbolic representation. according to veraksa and veraksa (2016), “symbolic representation is understood as a special form of mental representation of a learned object or a phenomenon in the mind where the latter are represented through their external (as opposed to their content) traits that can be substituted by some other object or a phenomenon" (p. 669). in play, children have opportunities to develop their capacity for concept formation and symbolic representation through “use of gestures, speech, and written signs in an imaginary situation” (wu, 2013, p. 13) and have chances to operate and practice the nature of social rules that both contribute to children’s language development. an example of this can be seen when a child pretends something like a deck of playing cards is a cell phone and has a pretend conversation. black delfin (2020) demonstrated how everyday play objects can become infused with symbolic meaning in pretend play and used by children to construct and define aspects of their own identities and their understandings of discursive information that surrounds them. vygotsky (1987) also agreed with the importance of symbolic representation, and he viewed that symbolic systems or signs, as used by humans could be used to, not only, change the environment, but also to transform and master themselves. concept acquisition. in short, younger children under three years old mainly use symbols-objects to engage with the world and then these symbols-objects are gradually replaced by symbolic representation in the form of language/words. in this process, visual object recognition, object substitution, and play with objects are crucial signals to assess children’s language development (smith and jones, 2011). although the symbolic function is implemented at a superficial level by younger children, symbolic development is further deepened as they grow up. this deepening of symbolic development results in concept acquisition. as children have more experiences and social/ linguistic exposure to symbols and symbolic thought, they begin to arrange the knowledge gained into broader concepts that include symbols. vygotsky (1987) described two types of concept acquisition; 'every day' and scientific concepts. every day conceptual understanding arises from the day-to-day experiences of children's lives. in this way, everyday concepts exist in the sensory and concrete, as this is where most young children are developmentally in the early years. everyday concepts serve as a foundational understanding of the material world and prepare the child for comprehending scientific concepts. fleer and raban (2006) describe vygotsky's concept acquisition model with everyday concepts developing from "below (concrete) to above (abstract)... and scientific concepts develop from above to below, from the more complex to the more elementary" (p. 70). this two-way avenue of concrete to abstract/ abstract to concrete was noted by vygotsky, "the weakness of the everyday concept lies in its incapacity for abstraction. in contrast the weakness of the scientific concept lies in its insufficient saturation of the concrete" (1987, p 169). vygotsky suggested that the two types of concept acquisitionevery day (concrete) and scientific (abstract) merge together in a mutually reinforcing relationship that allows deep thought to take place. wenjie wang & annabelle black delfin 92 learning chinese mandarin characters as a print system that is non-alphabetic, in chinese the concept of what makes up a word is structured differently than alphabetic orthographies where words are composed of letters that have an auditory connection to the written symbol or letter. chinese word learning involves the radical, the character, and the word. radicals are individual units, made of strokes. chinese characters are made from radicals, usually two or more. radicals can indicate meaning in a character (semantic) or indicate phonetic clusters that cue pronunciation similar to rime in alphabetic systems (yeh, chou and ho, 2017). for example, the water radical (氵) can be found in the characters lake (湖), ocean (海), and river (河). in this way, words in chinese can be comprised of one or more characters, making word definition in print more difficult to isolate compared to alphabetic print systems where there is a designated auditory sound for each letter, with each sound mapped onto a letter and a word is formed. according to mcbride (2016), “chinese characters represent syllable-level sounds” (p. 526). however, chinese writing does not directly reflect representations of speech sounds, rather “one chinese character maps onto a single syllable which is usually also a single morpheme or meaning unit” (mcbride, 2016, p. 527). as many radicals are phonetic and indicate the pronunciation of the character, tong, tong and mcbride (2017) point out that young children gain access to character configuration knowledge visually, followed by auditory cues to pronunciation. they state, “using radical cues in encoding novel chinese characters is a gradual developmental process” (p. 1263). their research implies that young children’s first access to understanding meaning of characters relies on sensory pathways (vision and hearing) that develop before neural abilities for processing of abstract concepts. there are about 2500 to 5000 commonly used chinese characters that should be memorized which sounds impossible, but they are introduced with six different categorizations. they are, 1) pictographs; 2) explicit characters; 3) associative compounds; 4) pathopoeic characters; 5) mutually explanatory characters; and 6) phonetic loan characters (wu, 2016; sun, 2015). pictographs represent the shape of certain objects or their parts such as 木 (mù, wood; tree), 刀 (dāo, knife), 女 (nǚ, woman). explicit characters are simple diagrammatic indications of abstract ideas such as 上 (shàng, above), or下 (xià, below). associative compound characters are derived from their components, which may combine two or more ideographs such as, 明 (míng, bright, the combination of 日 rì, sun and 月 yuè, moon), and 森 (sēn, forest, the combination of three trees 木 mù). the majority of chinese characters are pictophonetic, which combines semantic and phonetic components. for instance, the character 妈 (mā, mother) consists of 女 (nǚ, female) and 马 (mǎ, horse); 女 suggests the general meaning of the character while 马 signals its pronunciation. mutually explanatory (or synonymous) characters refer to those that are of the same or similar meanings and thus can be used to define one another (wu, 2016). phonetic loan characters refer to those that originally had no written form and so borrowed existing characters of the same or similar pronunciation. for example, the character 我 (wǒ) resembles a weapon with a saw-toothed blade and long shaft, and originally referred to a kind of ancient weapon. because the pronunciation of this character is like that of the pronoun “i”, 我 was borrowed to mean “i” or “me” (sun, 2015). with the above descriptions of chinese characters, in analyzing how character recognition is taught in china (the mainland), hong kong, and taiwan, mcbride (2016) emphasizes that character learning usually relies on strong visual-spatial skills to discriminate between the subtle differences in how the characters are written or printed. this is combined with repetition in recreating or copying the characters, resulting in visuo-motor long-term muscle memory. repeated encounters with chinese characters afford memorization. it is also worth noting that simplified chinese characters are taught and used in china mainland, while traditional chinese characters are applied in hong kong and taiwan. the differences between simplified chinese characters and traditional chinese characters is the former uses fewer strokes for complex characters while the latter maintains the same. thus, simplified chinese characters are easier and faster to write compared to traditional chinese, which is more visually complex. learning chinese mandarin characters in an english-speaking… 93 in thinking about how children discern meaning from character recognition, one might ask what is the difference between memorization and recognition? what is recognition, if not to identify a visual memory? do children discern meaning from symbols because an ascribed meaning has discursively been assigned and thus, the meaning associated with that symbol has been ‘learned’ or memorized to later be ‘recognized’? it would seem that meaning is, at first, ‘learned’ and later recognition is applied (i.e. the memory of the assigned meaning is recalled and applied to the symbol.) with memorization and recognition central to chinese character learning, over time proficient chinese learners recognize characters in somewhat the same way that proficient english learners can recognize words as ‘sight words’, where the character or word is not decoded but the meaning is memorized and recognized in whole (mcbride, 2016). researchers lu, wu, fadjo & black (2010) have more recently proposed integrating bodily movement and response in learning chinese characters. their work, along with others (fadjo, lu and black, 2009; glenberg, 2008) in the area of instructional embodiment is grounded in theories of embodied cognition. embodied cognition (gibbs, 2006), like relational developmental systems, does not recognize a mind/body split; instead cognition is understood to be constituted from the lived experience in a human body that interacts with the physical and cultural environments. cognition, then, is seen as emergent from the body's interaction with others and in the environment in which it is embedded. instructional embodiment is grounded in the idea that the mind is embodied, and as such, instruction or learning is more comprehensive if the body is involved in the process of taking up the new instructional content, in this case learning characters. lu et al. (2010) explain, “the kinesthetic action of a person has its importance on how he or she thinks, perceives, learns, uses language, and experiences consciousness, feelings, and the world” (p. 2487). instructional embodiment in the case of chinese character learning could involve learning to write characters and incorporating characters into drawings. additionally, many of the forms of instructional embodiment available involve computer technologies that facilitate the embodied experience; for example, a student wearing a webcam while writing chinese characters and, hence also seeing themselves move (their hands) on the computer screen as their hands form the characters. this perceptual feedback loop serves to amplify the already existing interaction of body, space, materials, content, and cognition that situates the symbolic understanding within the body (lu et al., 2010). research design and method using a qualitative case study approach helped both the authors and the participants of the study to recognize multiple perspectives of the research as well as provided a more in-depth understanding of the research questions. this research study was designed as a two-case study. purposeful sampling was used in order to focus on chinese families who temporarily live in the united states and have china-born parents and china-born children who are bilingual learners between four to five years old. research context and participants families were selected from a local university at city x (pseudonym) which is located in southern new mexico. although the white and hispanic/latino are the majority population, a range of diversity is represented by the local university. with this wide range of diversity, we initially planned to conduct the research face to face at the university campus, however, a state lockdown occurred due to covid-19 and we had to modify our research plan. after seeking suggestions from the institutional review board (irb), the entire research changed from person-to-person to online, that is, call for participants, recruitment of participants, purposeful sampling, consent process, data collection and member check were all processed through emails and online meetings. first, an email of call for participants was sent through our personal and professional contacts. in specific, the call for participants invited people who are, 1) a chinese-born parent; 2) a temporary resident in the united states and 3) teaching their own child/children chinese characters to participate in this study. to those people who thought they were qualified and responded to this email, we then sent a recruitment email with a detailed explanation of the research study such as the research questions, benefits and risks, rights and confidentiality with options of scheduling a phone call for clarifying questions if they need. we also stressed that if they decided to participate in this study, they wenjie wang & annabelle black delfin 94 are free to withdraw from the research study at anytime and anywhere without any penalty. in other words, purposeful sampling was used in recruitment of participants. according to patton (2002), purposeful sampling is an effective strategy in qualitative research for identifying and selecting cases with limited resources. cresswell and plano clark (2011) also address that purposeful sampling involves classifying and determining a group of people who experience and share a common phenomenon or interest. with purposeful sampling, a consent form was sent to potential participants to complete, sign and return to us. as a result, two families, family a and family b were selected. there were a total of five participants, two mothers and three children. family a is flora and her daughter, kayla. family b is zara and her twin sons, aden and alex. all of them are china-born but temporarily living in the united states. both mothers are language teachers who were bilingual in chinese mandarin and english and paid great attention to language teaching and learning to their child/children. all of the children are bilingual (english and chinese mandarin) learners in both countries and they were from four to five years old. detailed information is provided in the following table. table 1. participant information case/family participants age gender length of stay in the u.s. a flora 42 female 1 year kayla 5 female 1 year b zara 44 female 2 years aden 4 male half-year alex 4 male half-year methods of data collection we used a parent questionnaire (see appendix a), parent interview, and children’s products such as children’s writings and drawings as data. the three methods provided us with rich and first-hand information that built a foundation for analysis. in order to further process information in a way that gives both breadth and depth, parents were first invited to complete a parent questionnaire via email. following receipt of the parent questionnaire, interviews were then scheduled and conducted through online meetings for further clarification and comprehension. all interviews were recorded and transcribed, and the interview questions (see appendix b) were semi-structured. depending on the participants’ responses, follow-up questions were also added. in terms of children’s products such as drawings and writings, thompson (1995) says that children’s products are one kind of picture language which represents children’s personal expression and intrinsic thoughts. hence, as important evidence of symbolic development, children’s drawings and writings demonstrate their thinking and learning, namely, cognitive development (thompson, 1995). these were also collected for data interpretation. depending on participants’ selections, participants scanned their child/children’s drawings and writings, shared with us via email and talked about them through online interviews. methods of data analysis qualitative content analysis and visual analysis were used to interpret the data. these two methods helped us to carefully explore the role of symbolic representation in chinese character learning. on the one hand, qualitative content analysis was applied to analyze the parent questionnaire and interview data via an inductive approach by saldaña’s (2009) the coding manual for qualitative researchers. steps such as coding and grouping, categorization, abstraction, comparing, and generalizing were followed in this process. on the other hand, children’s drawings and writings were analyzed by visual analysis. elkins (2003) states that in order to help researchers to navigate data, explore relationships, and understand complex concepts, visual data analysis is a way of discovering and comprehending patterns via visual interpretation. combined with qualitative content analysis and visual data analysis, findings were learning chinese mandarin characters in an english-speaking… 95 organized and reported together. findings and analysis findings are constructed and analyzed by responding to the research questions one by one. in responding to the first question of how chinese children learn to discern meaning from the symbols represented in chinese characters, the analysis focused on switching between a concrete referent and a symbol. in discussing the second question of how a child’s symbolic mind is developed when learning characters, analyses mainly include: 1) applying known symbols to reproduce more meaning, and 2) using symbols and simple storytelling to share meaning from daily experiences. in explaining the third question of how changes in cultural and social environments influence children’s chinese character learning when they are temporarily residing in the united states, the main theme is interpreted as increased interactions with technical tools and decreased interactions with the community. how do chinese children learn to discern meaning from the symbols represented in chinese characters? switching between a concrete referent and a symbol both families highlighted digital tools that helped children understand chinese characters. both families used an app, named wukong literacy (2020) which is featured by its animation demonstration of the transformation of chinese characters. as discussed earlier in the literature review, chinese characters are symbols and they originally come from the actual things, in other words, how the actual things, or referents, slowly transform into the characters. throughout history, chinese characters get reformed, changed, and simplified and this accounts for why the current characters look different from the earlier days. table 2 includes a few examples―the screenshots from the app that displays the transformation from referents to symbols by animation demonstrations when children learn characters. table 2. examples of character transformation from a concrete referent and a symbol (wukong literacy, 2020) actual thing transformation symbol meaning bird fish water as the animations demonstrate the transformation of chinese characters, children can see how the character describes a concrete referent and over time became a symbol for the referent. however, actually learning to recognize characters requires that learners can mentally construct and deconstruct the symbol from its concrete origin to its symbolic representation. as young children experience and learn about reality, the understanding of the material, or concrete, world occurs first in their development. with time, wenjie wang & annabelle black delfin 96 children begin to acquire the capacity for abstract understanding. van oers and poland (2007, p. 14) state that abstraction is ‘a dialectical process between the concretely given objects and the abstract representations of them’ where symbolic representations are constructed as mental objects, which sustain ‘inner relationship’ with the concrete world” (van oers, 2001, p. 287). this ‘inner relationship with the concrete world’ is reflective of the directional sequence of a child’s lived experience with concrete encounters preceding and providing a foundation for neural development that enables abstraction. because of this, reality is usually constructed by young children hierarchically from a concrete understanding of material objects to more subtle abstractions of the object/s that evolve into symbolic representation, or in this case chinese characters. the development of the ability to discern meaning from symbolic representation is linked with the child’s progressing ability to “detach from the concrete world, while maintaining connection with it through representations” (otsuka and jay, 2017, p. 994). once the ability to conceptually hold both the concrete and the symbolic is achieved, then children can conversely begin to understand abstractions or symbols by deconstructing their meaning back to the concrete origin. this ability to comprehend the concrete/abstract relationship of symbols through construction and deconstruction allows children to discern meaning from symbols, recognize new symbols, and to learn characters. specifically, since the level of character, learning speed and total time spent working with the app can be set up by parents, both families in this study only required their children to learn five new characters per day within 30 minutes due to children’s age and their capability of learning. children comprehended new characters from a concrete referent to abstract through watching character transformation, namely, animation demonstration. based on each individual’s development and progress, parents can add a section of character writing when children’s fine motor skills are improved. when the section of character writing is added, children can move from character recognition to character writing through practicing character stroke order that the app offers. thus, working with an app, such as described above that visually demonstrates this two-way evolution of meaning, improves children’s symbolic thinking skills, enhances their symbolic representation ability, and extends their imagination. participants reflected that children enjoyed watching the animation demonstration and their recognition and memorization of characters became stronger and firmer compared to without it. how a child’s symbolic mind is developed when learning chinese mandarin characters? applying known symbols to reproduce more meaning as discussed earlier, one of the main components of a chinese character is the radical which can be a character or an abstract form of a character. radicals usually indicate a character’s meaning or pronunciation and there are about 200 radicals that construct the chinese writing system. in other words, one must remember 200 radicals and use these radicals as a foundation to learn more characters. along with the characters’ stroke order and stroke count, learning chinese is challenging. however, according to wu (2016, p. v), “most radicals, for example, are pictographs, or visual representations of objects or concepts. given a pictograph, learners can turn the character into a vivid picture, or associate the character with a shape, color, sound, smell, feeling, emotion, movement, or action”. in this research study, participants also stated that children must understand radicals and then to learn more complicated characters. in order to do so, participants explained that children first memorize radicals through switching between symbols and concrete referents which is discussed in the previous section, and after that, children interpret radicals’ meaning or sounds (in this research study, children only interpret radicals’ meaning) when they learn more complicated characters. in this way, children continuously expand their vocabulary and symbolic capacities in applying knowledge of radicals to new characters to form new and related meanings. one of the participants, zara, offered an example of how her children tried to use a known symbol to reproduce more meaning of other chinese characters. for instance, when her children, aden and alex learned a character 口 (kǒu), means mouth, they were also explained that 口 (kǒu) also can be a radical in other mandarin characters and it is possible that the radical indicates characters’ meaning. hence, when aden and alex saw more complicated characters which contain a radical of 口(kǒu) such as 唱, 吃, 喝, and learning chinese mandarin characters in an english-speaking… 97 吵, which all has 口 (kǒu) on the left side, they knew the meaning of the complicated characters are somehow associated with the mouth. indeed, these characters can be viewed as verbs. the first character, 唱 (chàng) means to sing; the second character 吃 (chī) means to eat; the third character 喝 (hē) means to drink and the last character 吵 (chǎo) means to quarrel and all of them are related to using the mouth. in such a way, aden and alex further develop their symbolic mind by applying known symbols to reproduce more meaning. taking 女 (nǚ) as another example. flora shared that her child, kayla learned a character, 女(nǚ) which means women/female, and 女(nǚ) is also a radical. when kayla saw a new character, 妈(mā), she analyzed that the left part of the character is 女 (nǚ), which means female so the meaning of the character 妈 (mā, means mother) might be related to female. it is similar to the earlier example of 口 (kǒu), although kayla didn’t know the new character, she was able to guess its meaning by applying known radicals. the last example also illustrates the development of the symbolic mind. specifically, children comprehend 水 (shuǐ) as a character means water along with its radical 氵 (氵is a radical which is an abstraction form of its character, 水), and they further apply its meaning of water to the following characters which contain the radical of 氵such as 江(jiāng) means river; 河 (hé) means river; 湖 (hú) means lake; and 海(hǎi) means ocean. table 3 lists three examples that are discussed above. table 3. examples of applying known radicals to reproduce more meaning known symbol more meaning character/radical meaning new character meaning 口 mouth 唱 sing 吃 eat 喝 drink 吵 quarrel 女 female 妈 mother 姐 older sister 妹 younger sister 姨 aunt 奶 grandmother 水/氵 water 江 river 河 river 湖 lake 海 ocean using symbols and simple storytelling to share meaning from daily experiences flora also underlined the importance of using symbols and simple storytelling while her daughter kayla learns characters. according to flora, using symbols and simple storytelling made kayla relax when she learned the characters. they increased kayla’s self-motivation, which resulted in more recognizing, memorizing, and writing practice. flora further described that kayla enjoyed using symbols such as drawing and simple storytelling to express her ideas when she learned a new character. for example, when learning a new character of 马 (horse), it is more effective to ask kayla to draw a horse, then write the character followed with a simple story of the drawing and text that she produced, rather than give her an order to write the character five times and remember it. in this way, kayla’s understanding of the new character’s meaning is embodied (gibbs, 2006) as she uses her bodily movements to incorporate the character (马) into a framework (in this case, drawing and writing) that employs symbolic representation to produce and convey meaning to the viewer/reader. by using symbols such as drawings and writings, and simple storytelling, kayla not only processes symbol recognition and symbolic representation, but her memorization is also advanced. table 4 displays kayla’s products where kayla used symbols and simple storytelling to share meaning from daily experiences. for example, in the first picture, kayla drew a birthday cake with five candles because she just celebrated her five-year-old birthday. she also drew a little pig and wrote 豆 (dòu) and可 (kě) on the top of the little pig because her nickname is 可 (kě) 可 (kě) and sometimes her parents also called her豆 (dòu) 子 (zi), so together 豆 (dòu) 可(kě) is her nickname. kayla shared her five-year-old wenjie wang & annabelle black delfin 98 celebration of blowing five candles by using a sketch of a little pig that represents herself and writing two characters that make up her nickname. table 4. kayla uses symbols and simple storytelling to share meaning from daily experiences symbol simple storytelling drawing writing 豆;可 “this is how i celebrate my five-year-old birthday. the little pig is me and i am ready to blow candles”. 小;羊 “the sun is red, the sky is blue and the cloud is white. the little lamb is hungry and looking for food, and there is a bone in front of her”. 五岁生日 “today is my birthday, i am five-year-old now. i want to have a gift of a unicorn. here is a santa hat and a christmas tree. i want to celebrate my birthday and christmas together, but i cannot”. similarly, in the second picture, kayla drew a house, a bone and grass on the left bottom, a little learning chinese mandarin characters in an english-speaking… 99 lamb on the right bottom, and a sun with a piece of cloud on the top. she explained that the sun is red, the sky is blue, and the cloud is white. she also expressed that the little lamb is hungry and looking for food. so, she gave the picture a name, 小 (xiǎo) 羊 (yáng), which means little lamb, and wrote the two characters in the middle of the picture. the third picture shows a birthday card made by kayla. kayla first made five candles on the top, drew a unicorn, a santa hat, and a christmas tree on the left side of the card, and wrote characters, 五 (wǔ) 岁 (suì) 生 (shēng) 日(rì) which means five-year-old-birthday on the right side. kayla showed her understanding of celebrating birthdays by using symbols such as drawings and writings which represent candles, cards, presents, and wishing. kayla further told a simple story of how she interpreted the meaning of these symbols, and from there, she shared important moments of her everyday life experience. how do changes in cultural and social environments influence children’s chinese characters’ learning when they are temporarily residing in the united states? increased interactions with technical tools and decreased interactions with the community both families shared that children relied on chinese learning apps, online videos, and books with other materials to learn chinese characters when they were living in the united states because chinese is less used in the community. for instance, zara said, everyone speaks english and many of them also speak spanish. whenever we go, we see english and spanish and there is no chinese (mandarin) at all. even within chinese community or meeting with chinese friends, we also use english or combine both (english and chinese mandarin). so, it is hard to them (children) to have that (chinese mandarin characters) visualizations (participant interview, 2020). in other words, concept acquisition emerges from symbolic understanding and, thus is based in the culture and social world in which the child lives. “culture and social environment are crucial elements that determine both the form of concept constitution and the acquisition of the concept” (toran and temel, 2012, p. 595). this, as seen in this study, becomes central to our research questions regarding children learning chinese characters while temporarily residing in the united states. vygotsky (1987) described everyday encounters and scientific direct instruction as the means by which children acquire conceptual understanding. every day concepts include knowledge and learning that a child experiences in the course of living in a human body within a culture and society. scientific concepts are 'adopted by the child in completed form from the domain of adult thinking' (vygotsky, 1987, p. 169). these concepts are presented by a more knowledgeable other in the form of direct instruction or, perhaps, as an app or computer program. in applying the two pathways of concept acquisition, it would seem that learning chinese characters when not being situated in chinese culture, would require that children take up the concepts associated with chinese characters by way of scientific conceptual acquisition. this would imply direct instruction in the meaning associated with the abstract symbol, with the understanding of the symbol deconstructed back to the concrete referent and then back to the symbol. in contrast, children learning characters while immersed in chinese culture would encounter characters as part of being embedded in the culture surrounded by environmental print. however, at the same time, children's everyday experiences with language provide a foundation for understanding the more abstract aspects of character learning. the mutual entanglement of the two ways of acquiring concepts allows for children's thinking to begin to move from simplistic to complex; from concrete to abstract and back to concrete; from the referent to the symbol and back to the referent. for children learning chinese characters while residing in the united states, it was found that this change in cultural and social environment increased children’s interaction with technical tools (scientific concept acquisition) and decreased their interactions in a chinese community (every day concept acquisition). with learning being disproportionately presented through technical tools and scientific concept acquisition, it is unknown how this affects children’s internalized understandings of the meaning of chinese characters when this learning does not occur within chinese cultural immersion. wenjie wang & annabelle black delfin 100 discussion this research study explored the development of a child’s symbolic mind when learning chinese characters, especially when chinese children are temporarily residing in the united states. as the overall findings of the study analyzed how symbolic thought is developed and how symbols are used, it also sheds light on the relationship between symbolic representation and sociocultural differences as well as symbolic representation in non-alphabetic language learning. in this section, we took a deeper look from these two angles and provided our recommendations accordingly, one is we believed that all children have the capacity of symbolic representation but it is influenced by cultural differences, as well as development over time of cognitive capacities that encompass symbolic understanding, abstractions and language learning. since development is time-dependent there are implications for instructional practice. therefore, it is our suggestion when teaching young children chinese characters that it is necessary to separate recognition and writing as two steps. symbolic representation is influenced by cultural differences based on conversations with the participants, it became understood that children perceive objects first, and then turn objects into pictorial production. this process is referred to as pictorial competencies by rochat and callaghan (2005, p. 3). according to apperly, williams, and williams (2004), pictures are understood before written words, and the meaning discerned in pictures, as shown by the answers our participants provided, is always seen through a cultural lens. the impact of cultural influence and how children take that up play a crucial role in children’s symbolic development and symbolic representation. as the participants expressed, children were surrounded within a kind of sociocultural environment that impacts children’s interactions with it. wang (2018) states, “while adapting from one country to another and transforming from one culture to another, one’s heritage language maintenance endures many changes—social, cultural, economic, and linguistic—along with changes to people’s conceptions of life, societal values, and world outlook” (p. 253). for example, even children residing temporarily in the united states, tend to switch their language from chinese to english to discover it and in turn, they gain more chances to acquire english rather than chinese. in different sociocultural environments, an artifact, a decoration, an ornament, an item, a dish, a piece of clothing, a hairstyle, a toy, a gesture, and even eye contact is composed of cultural elements. cultural influence is an invisible process that impacts children quietly. rakoczy, tomasello, and striano (2005) state that “the symbolizing process always assumes a collective background of shared rules and practices for symbol making and interpreting” (p. 70). indeed, children’s understanding and development of symbolic actions with objects are in fact about cultural learning. it is through culture that shared understanding is defined. with natural observations and interactions, children imitate and sense cultural norms through various cultural (i.e. family) activities (rakoczy et al., 2005). research participants further confirmed that they communicate with their children frequently regarding cultural differences between china and the united states. as they are currently living in the united states, there is a cultural comparison constantly occurring between the family’s home culture and the culture in which they are temporarily residing. where families make an effort to use chinese language in the home, to provide exposure to chinese media or artifacts, to share their cultural knowledge and understandings with their children, the children can experience, as well as comprehend, the differences (between chinese and american culture) hand-in-hand and make connections with those differences to their language learning. implications for practice: separating recognition and writing as two steps when learning chinese characters participants responded that to fully learn chinese characters, that is, being able to recognize chinese characters as well as write them, children should separate recognition and writing as two steps with recognition as the first step and followed by writing as the second step. as described earlier, the learning level, speed, and time can be set up through the wukong literacy app by parents who have a better learning chinese mandarin characters in an english-speaking… 101 understanding of their child/children’s learning background. when the child is ready, such as having better fine motor skills and a foundation of character recognition, parents are able to introduce the character writing system to them. the app offers demonstration of character stroke order as well as the relevant practices, quizzes and games. starting from here, on the one hand, participants stated that it is difficult to ask children to achieve visual recognition of characters, as well as writing at the same time. recognition is usually easier compared to writing and it also occurs earlier in the developmental process than writing. participants confirmed that they started to teach their children character recognition when their children were three years old, but children started to produce writing only after they turned four-years-old. it is understandable that children are still developing fine motor skills when they are three-years-old, their muscle control, balance, coordination between brain and action are not as mature as at four-years-old, thus, teaching children recognition first, then writing, makes sense. on the other hand, chinese characters consist of strokes and both strokes and characters must follow certain writing order rules. it is very hard for children to complete a character without following a correct stroke order, especially when a character has many strokes. at the same time, repetitive writing practice is commonly needed in memorizing the stroke order in reproducing characters. repetitive movements (writing strokes) may establish a motor memory of the action, but for this to be internalized as having meaning, the motor movements should be accompanied by interaction with a ‘more knowledgeable other’ (vygotsky, 1987) to situate the meaning linguistically within a cultural context. hence, the participants emphasized that to achieve the ability to write is a slow process while children not only need to be mentallyphysically ready, but also should have enough mastery of word recognition. however, as children mature and can begin to produce and reproduce characters, the act of drawing and writing, as it involves the body in representing meaning, will ground and integrate previous character recognition in deeper symbolic understanding (gibbs, 2006). limitations of the study the limitations of this study are also recognized. for example, the study is limited to two families who temporally live in the united states; second, each family’s perspective and experience brings stories that are specific to that family; and third, this study began in early 2020 and during the covid-19 pandemic period with stay-at-home orders in place, which to some extent, reflects two families’ strategies in assisting children’s chinese character learning and may be different from the way chinese characters would be taught during regular times. conclusion symbolic representation and concept acquisition underlines much of children's language learning and development. here this was studied through chinese children’s learning of chinese characters in response to the research question of how do chinese children learn to discern meaning from the symbols represented in chinese characters? these two case studies offered some clues and they are, first, children become symbol-minded through interactions with more knowledgeable others, who through shared meaning and shared understanding of meaning, co-constitute a learners' 'culture' (rakoczy et al., 2005). this introduction to meaning, whether through language learning or exposure in the environment, emerges through a cultural filter of shared meaning. when this shared meaning is intentionally introduced, as in the teaching of chinese characters, learning and interacting in this way is cultural transmission of the underlying shared meaning of that culture, and the cultural mediator is language (vygotsky, 1978). it can be said that cultural influence is infused in, not only the content of the language being learned, but also in the structure, the syntax, the grammar, and the phrasing of meaning (boroditsky, 2001). further, for a young child learning a language, the developing child's neural architecture forms in relation to information, cultural and otherwise, that is embedded in the process of learning that particular language. how a child understands symbolic information is greatly influenced by the child's exposure in the environment and to interaction with others (fox, levitt and nelson, 2010). in looking at this through the lens of relational developmental systems metatheory, a child, and thus, wenjie wang & annabelle black delfin 102 a child's development is holistic and occurs simultaneously in a mutually-reinforcing interaction between mind and body "that extends mental processes out into the body and into the technological and cultural worlds" (overton, 2013, p. 36). thus, under this theoretical construct, cultures, individuals and communities are "co-constructed, co-determined, and co-developed" (overton, 2013, p. 36). it would seem that the children in this study who are learning chinese characters when not immersed only in chinese culture, are being exposed to chinese cultural components intentionally by their parents. since the exposure to cultural components is not spontaneous, as it would be if they lived in china, then their first uptake of the cultural aspects of the symbols is coming by way of what vygotsky (1987) called scientific conceptual acquisition. however, since these children are also simultaneously learning other languages (english, spanish) and the associated symbols (alphabet), prior learning from spontaneous concept acquisition is present and transferrable to support their scientific conceptual acquisition of chinese mandarin characters. the second clue to how chinese children discern meaning from chinese characters can be seen when utilizing digital aids such as apps to demonstrate the evolution of chinese characters. the animation process seems to help children engage in every day (spontaneous), as well as scientific, concept acquisition (fleer and raban, 2006; vygotsky, 1987) by way of the process described by vygotsky. further, in encouraging children’s drawings to reinforce symbolic representation, connections are established between children’s production of images and the application of the appropriate chinese character/s. the last clue can be seen in the participants’ suggestion that character recognition and character writing be separated into two steps, as these two items require different skill sets and levels of development. being able to recreate a chinese character may indicate an understanding of the symbol or it may indicate high levels of fine motor skills and imitation. writing chinese characters may not give as much information about symbolic representation as the ability to recognize characters. however, once children begin to recognize the characters, the meaning can be internalized through the (embodied) motor process of (re)producing the symbols through writing (yeh et al., 2017). while it is acknowledged that use of apps, such as wukong literacy, are helpful because they are designed to demonstrate character evolution, capture children’s attention and provide structure for learning practice, it is also understood that due to the cultural basis of language and meaning, children still need social interaction during the learning process to fully comprehend the symbolism inherent in language and specifically, chinese characters. it appears that two, mutually reinforcing modes of acquiring understanding about the world, i.e. the process of constructing concrete mental models into abstractions and deconstructing from an abstract concept to a concrete item, are required for children to develop symbolic thought and abstract concepts. the recognition of chinese characters, and the later step of symbolic representation through writing, exemplifies this relational developmental process where meaning is emergent through the interaction of spontaneous exposure to culture and directed instruction. declarations acknowledgements: we acknowledge our participants’ engagement in our research study. we appreciate their generous time and contribution. we also want to thank the company of wukong literacy which gave us permission to use their copyrighted material. many thanks to the new mexico state university college of education’s school of teacher preparation, administration, and leadership, as well as the new mexico state university office of research integrity and compliance for support of this, and other, early childhood research. authors’ contributions: the authors of this paper have equal contribution. competing interests: the authors declare that they have no competing interests. funding: the authors declare that there were no funding sources for this research. references abbott, c. 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(2017). lexical processing of chinese sub-character components: semantic activation of phonetic radicals as revealed by the stroop effect. scientific reports, 7(1), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-15536-w appendices appendix a parent questionnaire please fill out this questionnaire to the best of your ability. there are no right or wrong answers, and the intent to this questionnaire is to help us get to know your child/children’s chinese learning. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2011.01065.x https://doi.org/10.1002/ss.20173 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-017-9722-8 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.06.701 https://doi.org/10.1002/wcs.1280 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9507.2009.00549.x https://doi.org/10.1007/bf03217453 https://doi.org/10.1080/1350293x.2015.1035539 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-15536-w learning chinese mandarin characters in an english-speaking… 105 basic information 1. child/children’s name 2. child/children’s age 3. child/children’s gender 4. number of siblings 5. you and your child/children’s length of stay in the u.s. language learning question/country china united states 6. child/children home language(s) 7. child/children school language(s) length of time learning chinese (speaking, listening, reading, and writing) 9. place(s) of learning chinese 10. way(s) of learning chinese your observation and reflection 11. child/children’s learning result 12. child/children’s interests the learning differences between the two countries 14. the challenges of learning chinese 15. other thoughts appendix b parent interview 1. how many language(s) is/are your child/children learning now? and at what age did you start teaching your child/children those languages? 2. what is your child/children’s chinese level? can you explain it from the skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing? 3. how does your child/children learn to recognize chinese characters? do you have specific methods? 4. how does your child/children learn to write characters? can you share some strategies? 5. how does your child/children learn chinese in china? can you provide some examples? 6. how does your child/children learn chinese in the united states? can you provide some examples? 7. what are the differences between learning chinese characters in china and the united states? 8. what challenges do you have when you help your child/children learn chinese characters when you are in the united states? and how do you handle those challenges? 9. what suggestions do you want to give to families, parents, children, and educators who are also engaged in chinese learning? 10. do you have any other thoughts that you would like to share? learning chinese mandarin characters in an english-speaking country: the development of a child’s symbolic mind journal of childhood, education & society volume 2, issue 3, 2021, 220-234 issn: 2717-638x doi: 10.37291/2717638x.20212395 research article ©2021 journal of childhood, education & society. this is an open access article under the cc byncnd license. dramatic play as a means to explore and support preschool children’s thinking about thermal insulation glykeria fragkiadaki1, anna armeni2, stella zioga3, konstantinos ravanis4 abstract: research in young children’s ideas, representations, and pre-conceptions about the natural and technical world has a long history. most of the studies in the field have used individual, semi-structured interviews as a methodological technique to generate and collect empirical data. however, less is known about how tracing procedures can come in line and be incorporated into everyday educational reality in early childhood settings in a way that reflects young children’s interests and needs. the present study uses dramatic play to trace young children’s thinking in science and advance their science learning experiences. the study focuses on a science concept young child are familiar with in everyday life though has not been thoroughly studied in the literature yet: thermal insulation. empirical data from 6 pre-schoolers in greece are presented. qualitative data were collected through recordings of children’s dialogues, children’s drawings, field notes from the early childhood teachers, and photographs. the findings revealed that during their dramatic play children a) developed basic argumentation to express their thinking about the phenomenon; b) related the phenomenon with the thermal condition and changes in temperature; c) identified materials and objects with insulating properties and distinguish them from others with non-insulating properties, and d) came to the conclusion that the use of amplified insulation materials can lead to better insulation results. the outcomes of the study add to the research methodology in early childhood science education and inform practice providing a pedagogical framework that balances between play-based pedagogies and advanced learning outcomes in science for young learners. article history received: 11 april 2021 accepted: 08 july 2021 keywords dramatic play; ideas; representations; preconceptions; science concept formation; thermal insulationmelting; solidification; early childhood introduction research in young children’s ideas, representations, and pre-conceptions about the natural and technical world has a long history (ravanis, 2017). several empirical studies have explored children’s scientific thinking about a wide range of science concepts such as optical and sound phenomena (delserieys et al., 2017; pantidos et al., 2017; ravanis et al., 2021; smith & trundle, 2014), the properties of matter phenomena, (christidou et al., 2009; kalogiannakis et al., 2018), mechanic and engineering phenomena (hadzigeorgiou, 2002; larsson, 2013), phenomena associated with electricity (calo mosquera et al., 2021; kada & ravanis, 2016; rodríguez-moreno et al., 2020; solomonidou & kakana, 2000), and e) astronomical and meteorological phenomena (fragkiadaki & ravanis, 2015; malleus et al., 2017; saçkes et al., 2016; trundle & saçkes, 2010). most of the studies in the field have used individual, semi-structured interviews as a methodological technique to generate and collect empirical data sets. however, less is known about how tracing and eliciting procedures can be tailored to young children’s educational needs and be incorporated into everyday early childhood educational reality in a way that reflects young children’s interests. _____________ 1 monash university, faculty of education, frankston, australia, e-mail: glykeria.fragkiadaki@monash.edu, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7280-783x 2 university of patras, department of educational science and early childhood education, patras, greece, e-mail: armenianna2@gmail.com, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-00023031-4401 3 university of patras, department of educational science and early childhood education, patras, greece, e-mail: stella230593@gmail.com, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-00028374-5715 4 university of patras, department of educational science and early childhood education, patras, greece, e-mail: ravanis@upatras.gr, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-44293381 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.20212395 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:glykeria.fragkiadaki@monash.edu https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7280-783x mailto:armenianna2@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3031-4401 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3031-4401 mailto:stella230593@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8374-5715 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8374-5715 mailto:ravanis@upatras.gr https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4429-3381 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4429-3381 dramatic play as a means to explore and support preschool children’s… 221 the present empirical study aims to explore how dramatic play (fleer, 2011, 2013) can be used as a means to trace as well as to support young children’s thinking in science. the study focuses on a science concept that children are familiarized with from the very early beginning of their lives but few studies in the field have explored: the concept of thermal insulation. empirical data from six preschoolers, aged between 5 to 6 years old, in a kindergarten classroom in greece are presented. as part of the study design, children’s dramatic play was inspired by the children’s book entitled “a little bit of winter” written by paul stewart. four diverse activity settings were organized by the two early childhood teachers of the classroom in collaboration with the research team to stimulate children’s dramatic play about the story concerning the natural phenomenon. qualitative data were collected through recordings of children’s dialogues during dramatic play, children’s drawings, field notes from the early childhood teachers, and photographs of children’s dramatic play. indicative case examples are presented. drawing upon the system of concepts of cultural-historical theory the concept of the interrelation between everyday concepts and scientific concepts was used as the main analytical tool. it is argued that dramatic play can give an insight into the way young children think about thermal insulation and at the same support the formation of the concept through play-based settings. the paper begins with a literature review of the challenges young children face in approaching thermal phenomena. this is followed by an overview of how dramatic play is conceptualized in the present study as well as the critical role of dramatic play in early childhood science education. the findings documented the way preschoolers conceptualized and approached the natural phenomenon of thermal insulation during their dramatic play. it was shown that through the intuitive dealing with materials and objects children a) developed basic argumentation to express their thinking and developed an explanation about the natural phenomenon, b) identified materials and objects with insulating properties, c) distinguished these materials and objects from others with non-insulating properties, and d) came to the conclusion that the use of amplified insulation materials can lead to better insulation results. what was also shown is that dramatic play allowed children to realize, unpack, share and use their everyday understandings and real-life experiences to start forming the scientific concept of thermal insulation. the study suggests dramatic play as a social and cultural activity for tracing and, at the same time, supporting the development of young children’s ideas and thinking in science. the paper concludes with an insight into how the findings advance the research methodology in early childhood science education research. the outcomes of the study also inform practice providing a pedagogical framework that balances between play-based pedagogies and advanced learning outcomes in science for young learners. thermal phenomena in early childhood science education a limited number of empirical studies have shown young children face difficulties in conceptualizing thermal phenomena (cain & lee, 2020; cruz-guzmán et al., 2017; kampeza et al., 2016). most of these studies have focused on aspects of young children’s understandings of simple changes in the state of water. to categorize the mental representations of children aged between 5 to 11 years old, russel et al. (1989) introduced and implemented a set of tasks related to the concept of evaporation. the categorization of young children’s representations provided a systematic tracing and recording with specific reference to the notions of conservation, change of location, and change of form of the water. in her research about the circle of water in nature, bar (1989) studied changes in the state of water concerning the retention of the water. it was shown that till the age of 6 to7 years old, children do not yet conceptualize that water or vapor retains while till the age of 8 years old can conceptualize the retention of water but not the retention of the vapors. in line with this research perspective, bar and galili (1994) found similar outcomes for early childhood children. tytler (2000) also studied the development of 6 to 7 years old children’s thinking about evaporation and condensation focusing on tracing patterns at their replies. patterns were based on the description of the phenomena and not on the explanation of them or the interrelation with specific aspects of experimental situations. another study also explored the mental representations of children aged between 5 to 6 years old about melting and solidification of salt which is mostly found in the state of solid glykeria fragkiadaki et al. 222 in everyday life (ravanis, 2014). this research has shown that the most critical aspect of children’s thinking was the familiar state of salt as solid. ravanis and bagakis (1998) after tracing the obstacles in children’s 5 to 6 years old thinking, used a specialized teaching strategy to lead their thinking towards the approach of the stages of evaporation. cruz-guzmán et al. (2017) research also focused on the same topic researching with children aged between 2 to 4 years old. this research followed a process of predictions and experimental confirmation about the changes in the state of matter of everyday materials. finally, kambouri-danos et al. (2019) implemented a teaching intervention into phases. during these phases, children between 5 to 6 years old were asked to do predictions and interpretations for several changes in the state of water aiming at recognizing changes in temperature such as cooling and warming as a reason for the changes. from this limited number of studies, it can be seen that early childhood children approach thermal phenomena in a non-stable and non-general way. children interrelate the temperature of objects with the size of the objects as well as recognize the thermal properties of the materials the objects are made of. regarding the changes in the state of matter young children can conceptualize vapor as the outcome of boiling water. however, children at that age do not realize that vapor becomes water again but usually believe that it disappears or enters solid materials. moreover, the cases that the changes in the state of the matter are conceptualized efficiently by the children are related to these changes that happen as everyday phenomena and do not apply in other materials. despite the variety of research studies related to children’s largely understanding of the thermal phenomena, less is known about how young children conceptualize thermal insulation. this is particularly surprising given that young children are experiencing thermal insulation daily as an everyday phenomenon in real life. for example, they put on their coat in order not to be cold when they play outdoors, or they use food containers made with thermal insulation materials to keep their lunch warm at school. what is known until now from the empirical literature is that young children tend to conceptualize insulation as a property of the materials (paik et al., 2007). touching upon thermal insulation at a theoretical level, fleer (2008) gives an insightful example to explain how young children think about science concepts. she mentions that children wear sweaters when they are cold, and they know that this will keep them warm. this is an understanding based on children’s daily experiences. however, this does not mean that children know the scientific explanation that lays behind it. as a result, children are more unlikely to understand the interrelations in diverse settings such as when they are trying to keep warm in the water by wearing a surfing costume. further empirical research must be done and deeper knowledge has to be gained in order to understand how young children think about this phenomenon they experience everyday and what scientific explanations do they form to approach the phenomenon. the present study seeks to explore how young children conceptualize and develop their thinking about thermal insulation. how dramatic play can be used as a means to trace as well as to support young children’s thinking towards science concepts such as thermal insulation is elaborated in the next subsection. dramatic play as a pedagogical practice in early childhood science education the diverse psychological aspects of drama have been explored widely in the literature (courtney, 1989; wolf & kase-polisini, 1985; wright, 1999). these studies have highlighted the critical role of the concept of drama in the process of the development of the personality. beyond the psychological aspect, drama has a critical role in play-based pedagogical frameworks. research has shown that drama in early childhood settings is a dynamic pedagogical practice and a valued learning medium that promotes cultural, social, emotional, and intellectual learning and development (brown, 2017; courtney, 1989; gao & hall, 2019; neelands, 2002; vidal carulla et al., 2021). following a vygotskian (vygotsky, 1987) and postvygotskian (elkonin, 1977, 1978; leont'ev, 1978) perspective, dramatic play is conceptualized here as the leading activity for preschool and kindergarten age children and is distinguished by other activities by indicating that during dramatic play young children take on a role of another entity, for example, they pretend to be another person, an animal, or an object and use objects in a symbolic way, for example, they use a cardboard box as a spacecraft (bodrova & leong, 1998). as mellou (1994) argues, the value of dramatic play as a means to explore and support preschool children’s… 223 dramatic play for young children lies in five basic functions: “1) it provides personal expression and catharsis of inner desires; 2) it helps the child to distinguish between reality and fantasy; 3) it provides for children's social adaptation: 4) it is dynamic for learning; and 5) it improves intellectual development and specifically creativity, through interaction, transformation and imagination” (p. 105). through their dramatic play, young children express themselves in intellectual, affective, and embodiment levels. they learn about their social and cultural reality as well as about the natural, technical, and technological world. they communicate with their peers and the early childhood teachers, they set and accept rules, undertake different roles, and develop their self-regulation. being in a role through their body positioning, their gesture, their speech, their tone of voice as well as through the mediation of cultural artifacts and the material surroundings, children create new abstract as well as concrete learning spaces. through dramatic play, children also form their perceptions and interpret everyday life as well as transform and expand their reality through their imagination and creativity. despite the wide range of studies related to drama and dramatic play in the early years (brown, 2017; dunn, 2003; furman, 2000) as well as the interrelation between drama and secondary and primary science education (dorion, 2009; mcgregor, 2012; metcalfe et al., 1984; ødegaard, 2003; pantidos et al., 2001; varelas et al., 2010), less is known about the role of dramatic play in early childhood science education. limited research has shown that diverse forms of drama can be a key asset in learning and development in science in the early years. fleer (2011, 2013) has highlighted this dialectic interrelation at a theoretical level and has also introduced a play-based model of practice that combines drama and dramatic play with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (stem) concept formation. in her model named conceptual playworlds model (fleer, 2018) she suggests using drama and dramatic play to stimulate young children to enter an imaginary situation inspired by a children’s book. being within an imaginary situation along with the early childhood teachers, children are introduced into problematic situations that require the formation of a set of science and/or stem concepts in order to be solved. thus, young children begin forming the concepts within the imaginary situation while they are experiencing the drama and as part of their dramatic play (fleer et al., 2020; rai et al., 2021). fleer (2013) also suggests that using drama as a pedagogical practice can unpack the emotional nature of young children's scientific learning in pre-school and support children’s s scientific learning in early years. she argues that through dramatic play inspired by fairy tales young children can develop their scientific consciousness and craft scientific narratives about the concepts and the phenomena of the natural world. what is critical in this direction is that early childhood teachers bring together science and fairy tales into a form of scientific drama that is meaningful for the child and allows the child to explore the surrounding world through play and imagination. remountaki et al. (2017) also used dramatic play to explore the ideas of children between 5 to 6 years old for the phenomenon of dissolution of solid substances into liquids. it was found that the use of a puppet, handled by the early childhood teacher, stimulated children to develop their dramatic play and at the same time orient the children towards the formation of the concept of dissolution. as part of their dramatic play, children wonder about the phenomenon, used their everyday knowledge and experience to form a scientific understanding of the phenomenon, and managed to systematically engage with early forms of science methodology such as the development of the trial skill. kambouri and michaelides (2014) have also touched upon the interrelation between drama and early childhood science education. focusing on the concept of water circulation in nature their research has shown evidence that drama can facilitate children’s scientific understanding and also lead to the improvement in the children’s use of vocabulary concerning the science concept that is explored. as kambouri and michaelides argued (2014) what is critical when using drama techniques for teaching science in early years is to emphasize the development of children’s understanding of the science topic under investigation rather than on the correct and efficient implementation of the drama techniques. glykeria fragkiadaki et al. 224 what we have learned from the above studies is that dramatic play has a critical role in supporting young children’s engagement, learning, and development in science. however, more has to be learned about how dramatic play can be used to get a better insight into children’s thinking in science and to support the formation of science concepts as part of the child’s everyday educational reality. focusing on the underexplored science concept of thermal insulation, the study reported to this paper seeks to address this gap by answering the following research question: how dramatic play creates the conditions for tracing and supporting the process of thermal insulation concept formation in early childhood settings? method study design the study design was based on children’s dramatic play during everyday educational reality in early childhood settings. children’s dramatic play was inspired by the children’s book entitled “a little bit of winter” written by paul stewart. the story of the book is about the friendship of a rabbit and a hedgehog. the hedgehog is facing a problematic situation: he has never seen snow since he goes into hibernation each winter. while the hedgehog is sleeping throughout the winter, the rabbit is trying to keep a snowball for him. he decides to cocoon the snowball in a bunch of leaves to prevent snow from melting. when the winter ends and the hedgehog goes out of hibernation, he finds the leftovers of the snowball. four diverse activity settings were organized based on the story as part of the research procedure. each activity setting was held on different days, during the period of two weeks, following the educational routines of the class and lasted approximately twenty-five minutes. during the four activity settings, children were given the time and space to explore their ideas, express their narratives and argumentation and collaborate with their partner in the dramatic story to find a solution to the introduced problem. the activity settings were organized as follows: first activity setting: engagement with the story. the first activity setting aimed at stimulating children to wonder and unfold their thinking about insulation. children were encouraged to craft a narrative around their conceptualization of the phenomenon making interrelations with everyday real-life experiences and understandings about the phenomenon. the early childhood teachers read the story with the children. as a team, the children and the early childhood teachers discussed commented and reflected on the story. in that phase, early childhood teachers supported children to focus their attention on the concept of thermal insulation, melting, and solidification. the concepts were discussed descriptively, without using specific terminology or any other scientific explanation. storytelling and the following discussions took place in a space of the classroom that the early childhood teachers had transformed to look like the forest that the two of the story animals lived (e.g., a tree, leaves, pieces of ice). second activity setting: experiencing the story through dramatic play. the second activity setting aimed at stimulating children to explore the materials used in the story, that is leaves and ice. children were encouraged to experience the phenomenon and make predictions, test, describe, and explain the phenomenon as well as craft a narrative around their explorations. children were engaged in couples in a dramatic play inspired by the story using a set of props such as a tail and a pair of ears pretending to be in the character of the rabbit and the hedgehog. the focus of the dramatic play was to explore ways of preventing a piece of ice from melting. children were given ice-cubes representing snowballs in their dramatic play. the leading question and problem to be solved by the children were “how can we keep the snowball?”. in that activity setting children used the same materials that the rabbit had used in the book, that is leaves. early childhood teachers supported children’s explorations by posing questions and stimulating the children to wonder about the concept of thermal insulation, melting, and solidification (e.g., “why are you cocooning the ice, rabbi?”, “what do you expect happening after cocooning the ice?”, “what do you think is going to happen if you do not do cocoon the ice”, “how do you know this?”). third activity setting: expanding the story through dramatic play. the third activity setting aimed at stimulating children to explore a set of diverse materials in order to make predictions, test, describe and dramatic play as a means to explore and support preschool children’s… 225 explain the phenomenon as well as craft a narrative around their explorations. children and the early childhood teachers continued the dramatic play inspired by the story. the problematic situation that was introduced in that phase was expressed as follows: “we have now run out of leaves! what should we do to keep the ice as it is?”. children have at their disposal a set of additional materials and objects such as aluminum foil, paper napkins, a plastic bag, a piece of cloth. children were encouraged to select the material they consider more appropriate for preventing ice melting as well as to express their argumentation (convertini, 2019) regarding their choice (e.g., “which material do you think that is more appropriate for keeping the snowball as it is?”, “how do you know that?”, “what will happen when you cocoon the ice with this material?”). forth activity setting: using drawings to overview the overall experience. the fourth activity setting aimed at encouraging children to draw their overall experience and their understandings of the natural phenomenon. children also explained, commended, and created a narrative around their drawings which they shared with the early childhood teachers and their peers. the dramatic play was present throughout children’s engagement with the science concept during the activity settings. children had the possibility to lead the dramatic play based on their interests. early childhood teachers’ role was supportive to children’s explorations of objects and materials during the dramatic play. early childhood teachers consistently stimulated children to express verbally their thinking as well as document their thinking around the science concept through drawings. participants six preschool children participated in the study. the children were aged between 5 to 6 years old and were attending one kindergarten classroom in an urban area in greece. the six children participated in the data generation process after expressing their will to join the dramatic play initiated by the early childhood teachers of the classroom. parents’ informed consent was given. the study was approved by the ethics committee of the department of educational sciences and early childhood education of the university of patras. children had no previous engagement in teaching and learning interventions regarding the concepts of thermal insulation, melting, and solidification. two early childhood teachers of the classroom also took part in the study. both teachers had less than two years of teaching experience and had not previously participated in professional development programs for teaching science in early childhood settings. data collection and analysis qualitative data were collected through a) recordings of children’s and early childhood teachers’ dialogues during dramatic play (approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes in total); b) their drawings after each activity setting (24 drawings in total); c) field notes from the early childhood teachers (4 pages in total); and d) photographs of children’s dramatic play (20 photographs in total). conversational analysis (pea, 1993; sacks, 1995) of the transcripted dialogues and narratives were carried out supported by the documentation from the drawings, the field notes, and the photographs. the analysis aimed at capturing critical moments when, using dramatic play, children managed to start developing early forms of the science concept. themes such as interrelation with the thermal condition and changes in temperature, interrelation with everyday life as well as codes such as mentioning heating sources, mentioning family routines and interactions with adults emerged from the empirical data during the qualitative analysis. results the overall findings of the study have shown that dramatic play allowed children to a) develop basic argumentation to express their thinking about the phenomenon realizing that several materials and objects can prevent ice melting; b) relate the phenomenon with the thermal condition and changes in temperature; c) identify materials and objects with insulating properties and distinguish these materials and objects from others with non-insulating properties, and d) come to the conclusion that the use of amplified insulation materials can lead to better insulation results. what was also shown is that dramatic play created the glykeria fragkiadaki et al. 226 conditions for the children to interrelate their everyday knowledge and experience about thermal insulation as an everyday phenomenon with a scientific explanation that is compatible with the explanatory model that can be used in education about the phenomenon. the detailed findings and indicative examples of how children start forming the concept of insulation through dramatic play are presented below. developing basic argumentation about the phenomenon as part of the dramatic play the findings revealed that children unfold and expressed their ideas about the phenomenon as being in the character of the rabbit or the hedgehog while handling and experimenting with the materials and objects during their dramatic play (figure 1). figure 1. cocooning the ice-cube with leaves in particular, the findings pointed to the ability of the children to generate basic argumentation to express their thinking about thermal insulation and provide an explanation about the phenomenon. the qualitative data analysis has shown that all the children (6/6) were able to provide an argument about the need for insulating the ice-cube to prevent melting. the following excerpt (excerpt 1) illustrates indicative examples of children’s argumentation for insulating the ice-cubes. excerpt 1: children’s arguments around insulating ice to prevent melting early childhood teacher (e): hedgehog, what would you do? would you wrap the snowball? hedgehog 1 (h1): i would wrap it. e: aaa, why? h1: in order not to, not to… lose…. lose the cold. […] e: yes. and if we don't have leaves, will we wrap it or leave it like that? h1: we will leave it like that. e: what will happen if we leave it like that? h1: it will melt. […] rabbit 1 (r1): with plastic. e: ah, with the plastic. have you seen at your home wrapping cold things in plastic? r1: we've seen ice wrap. dramatic play as a means to explore and support preschool children’s… 227 e: why do you think this is happening? does mom do it at home? r1: [affirmative nod] e: do you know why she does this? r1: why? e: do you know? r1: in order not to melt the ice-cubes. […] e: do you agree with your friend who chose to wrap it in foil? h1: yes. e: so, you would wrap it with the same material? h1: yes. e: why? h1: to keep it a little cold. e: have you seen something like this somewhere and thought about it? how did you think of that? h1: yes, my mom, when we don't have a bag to put it in, she puts it in aluminum foil so that they don't leave it, and then she keeps it that way. the above excerpt illustrates how being in the role of the hedgehog or the rabbit and trying to provide a solution to the problem that emerged from the story children begun crafting a narrative around the science concept. this science narrative included arguments that are suggestive of the realization of cause and effect relations between elements related to the phenomenon such as that wrapping results to keep the cold (insulation) and not wrapping results to lose the cold (melting). what is also important here is that children used their everyday experiences to craft the science narrative and support their arguments. drawings were also used as a supplementary means for the children to express as well as document their thinking about thermal insulation. in the indicative drawings presented below (figures 2 and 3) children drew the element that they consider as critical for the thermal insulation of the snowball, which is the leaves. in particular, at one drawing (figure 3) one child also decided to draw an acorn in the snowball expanding the narrative about how snow is going to keep the acorn also fresh. figure 2. drawing the rabbit cocooning the snowball with leaves glykeria fragkiadaki et al. 228 figure 3. drawing the rabbit cocooning an acorn with snow and leaves relating the phenomenon with the thermal condition and changes in temperature four out of six (4/6) children were able to develop a basic explanation about the concept of thermal insulation relating the phenomenon with the thermal condition and changes in temperature (e.g., “it will not melt because it will be cold”, “it will melt because spring will come”, “it will melt because when spring comes everything melts because it is too hot”, “it will melt because it is too hot”). this understanding is particularly important for approaching thermal insulation in a way that is compatible with the scientific model that can be used in early childhood education about this concept. indicative examples of children’s explanations related to the thermal condition and changes in temperature are presented in the following excerpt (excerpt 2). excerpt 2: science narratives around relating the phenomenon with the thermal condition and changes in temperature e: and if you don't wrap it with leaves, what will happen? rabbit 3 (r3): it will melt! e: a! why? r3: [laughs] why? because when spring comes, everything melts! e: a! why is that? r3: why? because it's too hot! […] e: would it melt? while if we wrap it with aluminium foil, what will happen? hedgehog 2 (h2): it wouldn't melt. e: why? h2: why (…) because the sun can't burn the foil. this excerpt illustrates how children expand their science narratives about insulation during their dramatic play. what is important here is that as the dramatic play evolves children reach and express more advanced understandings of insulation. it appears to be able to connect the phenomenon to thermal conditions and changes in temperature. this is a core idea in understanding thermal insulation. identifying materials and objects based on the criterion of insulating property and distinguishing these materials and objects from others with non-insulating properties during their dramatic play, children had the opportunity to choose from a wide range of materials and objects such as fabric, aluminium foil, plastic bag, a paper napkin to insulate the ice-cubes (see figure dramatic play as a means to explore and support preschool children’s… 229 4). figure 4. children select materials and objects to cocoon the ice-cube the findings revealed that the children were able, to some extent, to approach the insulating or noninsulating property of the materials. this is evident from the fact that most of the children (4/6) selected aluminium foil as the most suitable for maintaining the “frozen snowball”. respectively, most of the children (5/6) considered the fabric inappropriate as a material for the preservation of the “frozen snowball”. each child developed their reasoning to justify his/her choice, whether it was about snowball management or the choice of material or object. paper was not selected as an appropriate material from most of the children (5/6). regarding the choice of paper as a suitable material, only one child chose it without giving a justification. excerpt 3. using the criterion of insulating property and distinguishing materials and objects based on this criterion e: would you wrap it with something? or would you leave as it is? (r1): i would wrap it with… e: yes. r1: (holds the aluminium foil) e: with that? r1: [affirmative nod] e: do you know what that is? r1: aluminium foil. e: ah! and why would you wrap it with this and not with the rest? r1: in order not to melt… […] e: if you wrap the snowball with this fabric, what will happen? r1: i think it will melt. […] e: are you thinking of something else that we could wrap around so it wouldn't melt? something you've ever seen at home. r1: with plastic. e: ah with the plastic. have you seen your home wrap cold things in plastic? r1: we've seen ice wrap. […] e: would you choose the napkin? hedgehog 2 (h2): no. glykeria fragkiadaki et al. 230 e: why? h2: because it would melt. e: it would melt. while with what you chose, what will happen? h2: it wouldn't melt. […] e: so, what materials did you choose? rabbit 3 (r3): aluminium foil and a bag. e: and if you don't wrap the snowball with something, what will happen? r3: it will melt. look at the water (means the water from the ice melting)! e: how do you know? r3: because look at the water! the school is full of! e: but what if we wrapped the snowball with this fabric? r3: it will melt again! e: why do you say it will melt again? r3: why? (shakes hands as a sign of wonder). see for yourself why. look, what does it look like! e: what does it look like? r3: water! the above excerpt demonstrates that children were aware of the fact that different qualities and types of materials and objects can lead to diverse results regarding thermal insulation. the dialogues highlight that this realization allowed children to distinguish materials and objects as efficient and nonefficient options in insulating the ice-cubes during their dramatic play. what is also important here is that, while playing, children develop a trial skill to test the efficiency of the materials (e.g., e: how do you know? r3: because look at the water! the school is full of!). realizing that the use of amplified insulation materials can lead to better insulation results while being in dramatic play as the characters of the story and handling the provided objects and materials, children also appeared to be able to realize that the use of more amplified insulation materials can lead to better insulation results. regarding the choice of a plastic bag as a suitable material, one child chose it as the main material, emphasizing the quantity of the bags that should be used. that is, he considered plastic bags to be suitable for wrapping snowballs, provided they were “many”. for example, “i know why if we wrap one, one, one, one, once it gets there it won't melt”. excerpt 4. realising that amplified insulation materials can lead to better insulation results e: or would you choose something else? r3: more bags! not just one! e: ah! why? r3: why? in order not to melt! e: have you seen this somewhere? how do you know? r3: i know this because if we wrap one, one, one, one, once it gets up there and it is no way it will melt! e: with bags! so, in other words, you say that we have to wrap it, but with many, many, many bags. r3: yes. e: is one not enough? r3: (…) no. the excerpt presented here showcases that through their extensive engagement with the concept during dramatic play children were able to gradually deepen their understanding of diverse aspects of dramatic play as a means to explore and support preschool children’s… 231 thermal insulation. the argumentation in the above excerpt is suggestive that the child realized that amplified insulation solutions can lead to better insulation results. what lies behind this realization is the advanced understanding that layers of insulation can block thermal transfer. conclusions and discussion the present study explored how dramatic play created the conditions for tracing and supporting the process of thermal insulation concept formation in early childhood settings. evidence showed that through dramatic play inspired by a children’s book, preschool children were able to conceptualize thermal insulation and develop explanations about the phenomenon. what was also found is that following the flow of children’s dramatic play early childhood teachers managed to pose questions and better unpack children’s thinking and stimulated them to wonder more thoroughly and develop their understandings about thermal insulation within play-based settings. in particular, the qualitative analysis of the empirical data showed that dramatic play allowed children to a) develop basic argumentation to express their thinking about the phenomenon realizing that several materials and objects can prevent ice melting; b) relate the phenomenon with the thermal condition and changes in temperature; c) identify materials and objects with insulating properties and distinguish these materials and objects from others with non-insulating properties, and d) come to the conclusion that the use of amplified insulation materials can lead to better insulation results. the overall analysis also highlighted that dramatic play created the conditions for the children to make conceptual bridges between their everyday knowledge and experience about thermal insulation and a scientific understanding of the concept. almost all children (5/6) reported experiences from their daily lives such as domestic routines, housekeeping, cartoons, free play with toys, objects and materials, during the interaction process with their friends and early childhood teachers. one child initially reported seeing his mom at home wrapping “ice” in plastic to keep it from melting. his peer, listening to his friend, agreed that his mom does the same and even added that when she does not have bags, she wraps them in aluminum foil. another child reported something related to the general issue, stating that he knew that the snow would melt at some point because it had snowed in his apartment building. this is not directly related to the choice of material but suggests an appropriate correlation of the child with the subject. what was also important is that children used the book several times during their dramatic play to get more information from the illustrated pictures regarding the materials and the procedure of thermal insulating the snowball. this is suggestive that children were motivated through dramatic play to approach thermal insulation as a real-life phenomenon and as a real-life problem that has to be solved. the dramatic framework reinforced children’s engagement with the collective science experience. at the same time, it allowed early childhood teachers to follow and process children’s narratives and actions in a more naturalistic way than interviewing children. the present study adds to the literature in a twofold way. firstly, the findings provide important insights into a science concept that has not been previously explored systematically in the literature of early childhood science education research. this is particularly important given the fact that young children experience thermal insulation as an everyday phenomenon in their daily life. a better understanding of how young children think and wonder about thermal insulation can orient and shape teaching and learning interventions in early childhood settings. interventions tailored made to young children’s conceptual interests and needs can support children to form explanatory models about thermal insulation that are compatible with the models used in early childhood education. secondly, the study provides an alternative to the traditional tracing procedures of children’s ideas, mental representations, and pre-conceptions. the study demonstrates empirical evidence of how dramatic play can be used for tracing as well as supporting young children’s ideas and thinking in science. thus, the evidence allows us to rethink tracing procedures in early childhood science education as social and cultural activities incorporated into the child’s everyday educational reality. this realisation informs everyday practice providing a pedagogical framework that supports early childhood teachers to promote young children’s engagement with the natural and technical world through play-based settings and in a way that glykeria fragkiadaki et al. 232 is meaningful and enjoyable for the children. the study concludes by highlighting the need for conducting further research on children's ideas about thermal insulation. future research on this theme can consider the expansion of the number of participants as well as the design of a precursor model that illustrates the challenges as well as the opportunities and the possibilities young children have while approaching thermal insulation in early childhood settings. what is also important to be considered in future research is the need for designing and implementing playful and meaningful for the child procedures for tracing and detecting young children’s ideas, representations, and pre-conceptions in science. declarations acknowledgements: not applicable. authors’ contributions: gf: 25%, aa: 25%, sz: 25%, kr: 25%. competing interests: the authors declare that they have no competing interests. funding: not applicable. references bar, v. 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review zhen lin1, guofang li2 abstract: drawing on research about young children’s literacy development, this review article discusses a recent paradigmatic turn for understanding the child and childhood from human-centerism to posthumanism. building on the new materialist tradition (e.g., barad, 2007) and the assemblage theory of deleuze and guattari (1987, 1997), the posthuman lens enables researchers and educators to see children as parts of entangled networks of relationships who continuously intra-act with their peers, teachers, materials, and the other nonhuman entities and activities produced constantly by the child-material entanglements. as such, the posthumanist perspective expands the current research on early literacy by offering new possibilities for re-conceptualizing the child, the materials or resources for early literacy, and the meaning of childhood and children’s play. these new ways of seeing the child, the materials, and childhood have also generated new pedagogical practices that are material-oriented, intra-active, and flexible. the review concludes by providing directions for conducting research from a posthuman perspective in the field of early literacy education. article history received: 01 november 2020 accepted: 18 december 2020 keywords early literacy; posthumanism; materials; nonhuman entities; child and childhood introduction over the past few decades, there have been continuing inter-disciplinary shifts and reconceptualizations regarding how researchers and educators approach early literacy and language learning. one recent advancement examines the multimodal nature of early literacy development, seeing early literacy practices as involving multiple symbolic systems in real-world contexts (e.g., jewitt, 2011; kress, 1997, 2011). while early language is viewed as playing a fundamental role in young children’s meaning-making, multiple modes of children’s representations and the myriad materials within the different sociocultural contexts also impact their early meaning-making (e.g., dobinson & dunworth, 2019; hill, 2020; narey, 2017). children’s multimodal interactions with differential materials (such as making pillows as cars or playing with the cardboard box as a pirate ship) are seen as “communications” through which children strategically choose and use actions, materials, and artifacts for a communicative purpose (kress, 1997, p. 9). the multimodal perspective expands the common assumptions that emphasize the nature of early literacy practices as human endeavours and lies on what children do “with each other” and “to materials” to learn to communicate (kuby & crawford, 2018, p. 21), whereas the posthuman perspective moves beyond the multimodal perspective and prioritizes children’s ways of doing/knowing/being literacies and their unexpected and emergent literacy practices with materials and other nonhuman entities (e.g., hackett & rautio, 2019; hackett & somerville, 2017; kuby, spector, & thiel, 2019). researchers, therefore, note that this posthuman lens foregrounds the agency of nonhumans (e.g., materials, animals, and contexts) and humans (children) in co-constructing meanings; they also believe that the lens enables them to theorize and _____________ 1 the university of british columbia, faculty of education, language and literacy education, vancouver, canada, e-mail: zhen.lin@alumni.ubc.ca, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7790-1630 2 the university of british columbia, faculty of education, language and literacy education, vancouver, canada, e-mail: guofang.li@ubc.ca, orcid: https://orcid.org/00000002-5523-6892 https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.20212169 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:zhen.lin@alumni.ubc.ca https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7790-1630 mailto:guofang.li@ubc.ca https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5523-6892 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5523-6892 zhen lin & guofang li 70 examine materials as active agents in producing discourses and realities, further disturbing the humannonhuman or natural-cultural boundaries. from human-centered research to posthumanism, the paradigm shift enables productive potentials for researchers and educators to rethink and reinterpret early literacy as emergent, entangled, and embodied (e.g., enriquez, 2016; leander & boldt, 2013). it adds to what counts as literacy by focusing more on the process of making meaning than just meaning. the current article reviews this emerging trend of studies targeting early literacy development from this posthuman lens. this review was guided by the following questions: 1. how do researchers employ posthuman theories to frame their exploration of young children’s early literacy development? 2. what are the new understandings of early literacy provided by the posthuman perspective, and what are the pedagogical implications? 3. what are the implications for future research and practice? through responding to the three guiding questions, this review aims to uncover alternative interpretations of early literacy, the child, and the childhood from the posthuman lens in different contexts. it also seeks to provide a snapshot of how posthumanist theories influence early literacy educators in fostering early literacy development in their classrooms and beyond. further, this review will also shed light on the gaps in the conventional literature on early literacy research that can be better addressed through a posthuman lens. posthumanism in early literacy: an overview of key concepts and approaches while there is a variety of scholarship to interpret posthumanism, two main approaches have been taken in the field of early education: agential realism in the new materialist tradition (e.g., barad, 2007; coole & frost, 2010) and the assemblage theory of deleuze and guattari (1987, 1997). new materialism asserts that all human and nonhuman entities in the world are matters and that knowledge and phenomenon emerge from the continuous and various encounters among living and nonliving entities (e.g., barad, 2007; bogost, 2012; braidotti, 2013; žižek, 2014). sanzo (2018) validates that new materialism has been coined as early as the 1990s as “a theoretical turn away from the persistent dualism in modern and humanist traditions whose influences are present in much of cultural theory” (n. p.). one key approach within new materialism was taken up in early literacy research was barad’s (2007) agential realism. building on the “quantum ontology” that emphasizes connectivity and relationality of different entities in the world, the concept of agential realism further sees the world as comprised of phenomena or objects that are products of “the ontological inseparability/entanglement of intra-acting agencies” (p. 139). in a phenomenon, actants including human and nonhuman objects do not pre-exist but come into being through their entanglements with material beings in the more-than-human world, namely, intra-actions, that change "possibilities for worldly reconfiguring” (barad, 2012, interviewed by dolphijn & van der tuin, p. 55). to barad, agency is “no longer aligned with human intentionality or subjectivity” (p. 177) through which human do things “to make changes in the world” (thiel, kuby, & spector, 2019, p. 19) but “a matter of intra-acting” or “an enactment” (p. 178) that generates practices of mattering or meaning making from intra-actions of humans, nonhumans, and the more-than-human world in the material-discursive conditions. in early literacy, agential realism offers a paradigmatic shift from the humanist assumption of the relationship between active minds and passive objects to the active agential roles of both children and materials playing together in the dynamic becoming of knowledge and relationships. the shift of ontological focus motivates the scholarship to ask how languages and literacies come to be and to re-read children’s literacy events posthumanly by ‘trying to do justice to the materials” (jokinen & murris, 2020, p. 49) that children work with during the becoming of literacies and considering the power of things enacted in the interactions between materialized children bodies and materials. a posthuman perspective on early literacy… 71 another theoretical take-up in early education from a posthuman perspective is the re-reading of the assemblage theory proposed by deleuze and guattari in their book, a thousand plataeus (1987). assemblage theory explores the way heterogeneous elements or assemblage components in material systems select, compose, and self-organize to articulate meaning. building on deleuze and guattari, bennett (2010) rereads the concept of "assemblage" as the "ad hoc groupings of diverse elements" (pp. 23-24) in a phenomenon in which "no one materiality or type of material has sufficient competence to determine consistently the trajectory or impact of the group" (p. 21). bennett argues that the lively kind of agency of nonhuman objects, namely, "thing power”, manifests through the forming processes of the humannonhuman assemblages. moreover, another take-up of the assemblage theory in early literacy research is the interpretation of affects and components within and among other bodies in order to better understand the child from a posthuman perspective. in this regard, scholars align and re-conceptualize from a posthuman perspective several terms suggested by deleuze and guattari, including affect (1987) and desire (1997), in order to seek new insights on young children's literacy development. a deleuzoguattarian explanation of affect is nonconscious, instinctive bodily experiences (1987). in a posthuman reading, affect serves as a means to understand the "non-cognitive, non-volitional expressions of life, including feelings, animation, tactility, and habituation" (roelvink & zolkos, 2015, p. 1). the affective approach thus scaffolds early literacy researchers to explore the complex interrelations of children's bodies, thing powers, contextual-situated emotions, and material-discursive practices in a specific time and space. one frequently explored affective dimension is children’s desires. deleuze (1997) conceives the human body as one assemblage of machines (or heterogeneous elements) that produce desires. based on this conception of the body as a desiring-machine, in children’s play with objects (desiring with objects), the objects children interact with also offer desire; therefore, the body and the objects emerge something co-constructive in producing the affect of desiring. inspired by this notion of desire, researchers such as kuby and rucker (2015) put forward the concept of literacy desiring, calling for studies of early literacy to focus on the present process of “the intra-actions of people-with-materials, -movements, and -surprises” when children engage in the process of making meaning and creating (p. 315). therefore, literacy desiring encourages researchers to focus on affective dimensions and becoming embodied during literacy creations but not necessarily a future end product (kuby & rucker, 2015; leader & boldt, 2013). in sum, scholars have drawn on different posthuman approaches to engage in early literacy research from a human-decentered standpoint. all these scholars embrace the vitality of materials and matters and zoom in on the intra-actions or in-the-moment transactions of both children and the materialistic world as they entangle and interact with each other. research on early literacy from a posthuman perspective the literature search on major databases such as eric and education source using engines “early literacy”, “post-humanism”, “new materialism”, “early education” generated a large number of results. after reviewing the major entires, a total of twenty journal articles and two books that closely examined early literacy education (2-10-year-old) from a posthumanism perspective were included in this review. each selected article was further coded by topic/ontological foci and theoretical frames (which are shown in the tables listed below). after this round of coding, three overlapping strands of scholarship generated, namely, the reconceptualization of the child, the attention to the materials in childhood, and the reinterpretation of processes of early literacy development. first, a group of studies (e.g., jokinen & murris, 2020; macrae, hackett, holmes, & jones, 2018; murris, 2016;) focused on re-conceptualizing what accounts for the "child" within the changed adultchild/human-nonhuman boundaries from a posthuman viewpoint (see table 1). new materialism disturbs boundaries not only between humans and nonhumans but also between adults and children. the changing boundaries evoke the scholars to reposition the child in relationships existing in the broader world, calling for a reconceptualization of the child as the embodiment of flexibility that transforms through its in-thezhen lin & guofang li 72 moment becomings with the nonhuman objects and the world and creating new possibilities for research and pedagogies of early literacy. table 1. studies within the strands of reconceptualizing the child study topics age of the child participant(s) locale for collecting the data the relevant posthuman approach murris, 2016 the posthuman child and picturebooks 6 years old, 8 years old home context, south africa agential realism, rhizome, affect jokinen & murris, 2020 the posthuman child and vocabulary learning 7-8 years old a literacy classroom, finnish agential realism macrea et al., 2018 the posthuman child and children’s becomings with materials in the museum 2 years old manchester city art gallery, england the child as “iii” (murris, 2016) thiel, 2015 how the posthuman child and things collaboratively co-constructed meanings 5 years old, 6 years old, and 8 years old a community center, the u.s. thing power, assemblage, affect the second strand of research (see table 2) concentrates on the materials for young children’s literacy development, or particularly the agential role of other-than-human entities in the embodiment of both representational literacies, such as discourses, texts, and artifacts, and non-representational practices, such as movements, sensations, and emotions (e.g., lenz taguchi, 2013; thiel et al., 2019). table 2. studies within the strands of the agency of materials study topics age of the child participant(s) locale for collecting the data the relevant posthuman approach represnetational resources lenz taguchi, 2010 non-digital resources 2-3 years old a preschool, sweden agential realism, intra-action schulte, 2019a non-digital resources preschoolers the playground of a preschool, sweden agential realism schulte, 2019b non-digital resources 4 years old a university-affiliated preschool classroom, the u.s. agential realism bendiksen, østern, & belliveau, 2019 non-digital resources 3-5 years old a kindergarten setting, norway agential realism crescenzi, jewitt, & price, 2014 digital resources, touch (nonrepresentational practices) 1.5-3 years old a nursery school, london, england intra-action you, 2019 picture book children at the early age n/a agential realism murris, 2016 picture book 6 years old, 8 years old home context, south africa agential realism, rhizome, affect nonrepresentational resources hackett & somerville, 2017 movement and sound 2 years old; 6 and 7 years old a museum in england; the backyard, the nearby river, and places in-between, australia posthuman theories of both barad and deleuze harwood & collier, 2017 movement preschoolers a forest school, canada assemblage, agency, intraactivity wargo, 2017 sound and writing first graders a primary school classroom, the u.s. intra-activity in contrast to the attention to the materialistic entities, studies in the third strands pay attention to re-reading the nature of childhood and children's play through the posthuman lens (see table 3). in particular, researchers in this vein look into literacies and practices generated from the human-nonhuman intra-actions and entanglements during children's play (e.g., hackett & somerville, 2017; leander & boldt, 2013; procter & hackett, 2017; wohlwend, peppler, keune, & thompson, 2017). a posthuman perspective on early literacy… 73 table 3. studies within the strands of reconfiguring childhood and children’s play study topics age of the child participant(s) locale for collecting the data the relevant posthuman approach hackett & rautio, 2019 children’s play, movements, multimodal meaning-making kindergarteners, around 2 years old a kindergarten, finland; a daycare center, england phenomenon, agency, intra-action, assemblage leander & boldt, 2013 children’s play, movements, reading and writing 10 years old home contexts, the u.s. rhizome, assemblage wohlwend et al., 2017 children’s play, makerspace, and multimodal meaningmaking 3-5 years old three early childhood classrooms, the u.s. agential realism procter & hackett, 2017 children’s play, emotions, fear 2 years old a museum, england affect, agency kuby & rucker, 2015 children’s play, literacy desiring, and writing second graders a writer’s studio in a second-grade classroom, the u.s. intra-activity wargo, 2018 children’s play, digital devices, sound, and writing early elementary age children a 6-week intensive writing camp, the u.s. intra-action/intraactivity in the following sections, we detail the three strands of research followed by discussing the implications provided by these papers for future pedagogies and research. rethinking the child and in-the-moment becoming broadly speaking, studies on early literacy has experienced three main shifts in researching the child and childhood, namely, from the psychological territory to the sociological and then the philosophical domains, although the psychology of childhood continuously and paramountly impacts on policies, pedagogies, and practices of early childhood education (e.g., file, basler wisneski, & mueller, 2012; murris, 2016). from the psychological perspective, scholars contributed to the early childhood education domain with numerous developmental-oriented theories, including paramount ones such as piaget’s theory of cognitive and gesell’s concept of maturation. aligning with piaget's learning theories and developmental trajectories, the child is seen as cognitive (or “i” [murris, 2016]) and on a linear intellectual growth from an infantile, sensorimotor, and concrete stage towards an adult, operative, and natural-universal intelligence (e.g., anderson & harrison, 2010; burman, 2016; jenks, 2005) where the world can be conceptually abstracted by and separate from children's mind. as a result, pedagogies and practices regarding early literacy keep pace with the children’s developmental rule that they acquire literacy linearly “from the simple to the complex, from the particular to the general, from the concrete to the abstract, and from the empirical to the rational” (egan & ling, 2002, p. 94). another perspective on researching the child and the childhood is socio-constructivist view that aims to understand how the child gains knowledge through and with the sociocultural milieu. the socioconstructivism into early childhood education questions the universal, ought-to-be, and linear stories described by using developmentalism, as well as the hegemonic position of developmental psychology in constructing policies and curriculum for the young. socio-constructivist researchers employ alternative lens such as feminist, poststructuralist, postcolonial, and postmodernist theories to explore the roles of political, social, and cultural powers playing in children’s learning and life. several seminal works in the socio-constructivist vein regards childhood as an invention of culture and society (aries, 1962), or as a social construction (alanen, 1988), as well as seeing the child as “social agent” (cregan & cuthbert, 2014, p. 12), or “ii” (murris, 2016), which is “discursively produced through a process of social and cultural signification” (macrae et al., 2018, p. 506), thereby disturbing the cognitive position of the child as an “object of cognitive science” (murris, 2016, p. 84). while the socio-constructivism expands the concept of the child, it does not address the shifting boundaries between humans and nonhumans and between adults and children. these gaps in our understandings invoke more philosophical discussions of what counts as literacy, the child, and childhood, zhen lin & guofang li 74 mostly from the posthuman lens. researchers in the posthuman view question the aforementioned two constructions of the child as “a pre-determined map” (olsson, 2009, p. 13) and childhood as an absence of adulthood, indicating that the child “perpetually becoming and not being defined once and for all” (p. 14). by reconfiguring the nature of the child with posthuman theories, researchers articulate the child’s body as an unbounded organism that exists in a human-nonhuman entangled network of the world rather than representations contained in the linguisticand humanist-oriented discourse nor production from a prescriptive, normative developmental process. so, for example, murris’s (2016) groundbreaking work detailed the posthuman construction of the child—the child as “iii”, or the posthuman child. the posthuman child, as murris elucidated, pays more attention to the not-yet-known beginnings that are "taken up and materialized in intra-action with other human animals and nonhuman others” (murris, 2016, p. 102). a new materialist lens foregrounds the materiality of children's bodies in their entanglements with objects and the more-than-human world. it shifts the focuses from “what the child is” to “who, when, and where the child is with”. in this vein, the child is seen as a “unique and singular being with fluid boundaries comes into the world” (p. 102). thus, this notion of the posthuman child invites researchers and educators to take up their investigations and interpretations about children’s learning and development from a new lens. macrae and her colleagues (2018) detailed how these different conceptions of the child can lead to a different understanding of the child by reinterpreting data with the “iii” perspective on a two-year-old girl’s encounters with space and objects (e.g., sponge) in a museum gallery. from a cognitive viewpoint, the girl’s mental concepts were developing, and her learning moved from concrete to abstract as she manipulated the objects as instruments to develop her conceptual and logical knowledge. secondly, the socio-constructivist lens led researchers to interpret the sponge that matilda's play with as a cultural signifier, which afforded potentials for the planned learning (i.e., naming the sponge by using language) conducted between matilda and the accompanying adults. through the posthuman lens, the authors shifted their attention to the agentic role of the "still" sponge and other objects in the museum in interactions and entanglements with matilda and space, noting that the sponges “emanated desire, driving matilda to reach for them, and stoke them across her cheek” (p. 508). matilda's seemingly repetitive movements were viewed as qualitatively-different thinking and becomings that occur in the dynamic flow of movements, or simply, “improvisational threads of variability” (manning, 2016, p. 2). thus, the materialist approach altered the researcher's understanding of the child to reconsider children’s being/knowing/doing literacies by highlighting the dynamic and ongoing becoming of humans, nonhumans, and the more-than-human world. for instance, thiel’s (2015) explored how the posthuman child and things collaboratively co-constructed meanings by examining three children (5, 6, and 8 years old) from low socioeconomic families of the southeastern us and their encounter with a box of fabric remnants in their playroom. from a new materialist lens, the fabrics served as actants that propelled children's work, including designing/imagining, manipulating tools, and crafting pieces for fantasy characters (e.g., warriors) in their superhero stories. thus, both children and the things were transformed in the intra-actions among them. from a posthuman lens, the child’s body is part of the materiality. jokinen and murris (2020) illustrated this point in their posthuman interpretation of 7-8-year-old immigrant children’s hands with/in visual images of body-part vocabulary in a second language lesson in a finnish elementary classroom. with the posthuman lens, the hands, along with the movements and actions of children’s hands such as lifting, stretching, holding smartphones, and touching the game board, were seen as engaging in embodied entanglements with each other. building on haraway (2016)’s term, sympoietic, which means “makingwith” or “thinking-with” (p. 58) and implies the ongoing becomings of both human and nonhuman bodies, the two authors further reconfigured the child in literacy practices as a sympoietic phenomenon that is “always already assembled in human and more-than-human company” (p. 46). a posthuman perspective on early literacy… 75 the agency of the materials and contexts: representational and non-representational resources studies draw on the posthuman approaches acknowledge the mutually-constitutive relationship of children, materials, and contexts. with the posthuman lens, the scope of materials for children’s literacy construction has been expanded by including all matters, both tangible (such as semiotic and digital) and non-tangible (such as actional, sonic, and emotional) resources. most of the research in the stream moves beyond the conventional, prevalent representational materials for children’s literacy learning such as pens and books to include a wide range of semiotic objects such as sticks, ribbons, and the untimely dead bird, digital technologies embedded in children's daily practices for current times (e.g., crescenzi, jewitt, & price, 2014; lemieux & rowsell, 2020; lenz taguchi, 2010). as well, the posthuman reading of early literacy recognizes literacy practices as ongoing, unstructured, and fluid, moving the understanding of children’s literacies from children wielding materials to meanings generating through entanglement between children and the more-than-human materialistic world, including actions, movements, sounds, and words. picture books. in early literacy, teachers often use texts such as picture books to support children’s reading. a small number of researchers have re-examined the traits of children’s picture books with the new materialist lens and discussed how to include picture books to generate intra-actions of children, space, text, and other objects emerging more children's experiences and literacies practices through these engagements. from the human-decentered perspectives, you (2019) examined the significance of diverse forms of depicting the animal gorilla in children’s picture books gorilla and zoo composed by anthony browne. in browne's picture books, the gorilla and other zoo animals were endowed with diverse anthropomorphic emotions and behaviours, representing the author's ethical position against the dominant human gaze to the nonhumans. the anthropomorphic gorilla described in the books entangled with and contrasted to children’s previous experience of animals imprisoned in the zoo cages, further inviting them to ponder the animal issues with “an emergent sense of ethical responsibility” (you, 2019, p. 34). when children encounter the human-animal contact intertangled at the realistic and allegorical levels in the books, they can gain “a renewed intellectual and affective sense of environmental care”, rather than just symbolically read the book. focusing on browne’s another book little beauty, murris’s (2016) study demonstrates how the "silent" materiality (e.g., colours, lines, and drawing styles) of picture books saliently affects the ways of constructing meaning through unpredictable, dynamic, and material-discursive entanglements between children and the picture book. by reinterpreting the data of a home-reading activity between two girls (6-year-old and 8-year-old) and their mother on little beauty, murris noted that the realist imaginary drawings in the book, the colour selected in one specific drawing, and the storyline prompted children to ponder and question human-animal, real-life-made-up, and truth-telling-lying distinctions, to connect with their prior experience and knowledge, and to create an empathetic relationship with the gorilla. the posthuman reading of the reading activity also indicated that the picture book provides both the adult (the mother) and children (two girls) with creative opportunities to destabilize discriminatory binaries as provocations for communities of enquiry, and thereby disrupts the adult/child dichotomy by valuing children’s capacities of knowledge construction. as a result, children's processes of knowing/becoming/doing literacies are facilitated by the probing, open-ended questions emerging in equal adult-child interactions built on the book. representational and semiotic resources. to date, several studies have focused on non-digital materials, including traditional pens and papers and other semiotic resources, surrounding and entangling with children in producing knowledge and practices in specific time and space. the resources encompass a wide range of human-nonhuman entities ranging from a small one (e.g., a yellow lemon) to a large item such as a dump truck with big tires. lenz taguchi’s (2010) study focused on the agentic role of children’s play sticks in contributing to 2-3-year-old preschoolers’ literacy development. the study documented the agentic forces of various material realities such as wooden sticks, shiny papers, and coloured ribbons that propelled children to zhen lin & guofang li 76 discursively think about and creatively transform the stick as guns, swords, and stick-dolls in intra-active processes between children, the teacher, and materials. simultaneously, the discursive transformations of the sticks played an active role in shifting patterns of children’s play. when children, especially boys, entangled with wooden sticks as guns and swords, children’s play became war games; while children encountered with the stick, the thoughts of naming the stick, and coloured ribbons/papers, the play was transformed from aggressive to warm and inclusive, further attracting girls to take part in the stick-dollmaking process. subsequently, along with the doll-making play, children began to wonder about how the stick had been one part of a tree and how the tree as a part of nature depended on natural elements such as sunshine and soil. lenz taguchi thus stressed that “it is the material-discursive forces and intensities that emerge in the intra-actions in-between the child and the materials in the room that together constitute the learning that can take place” (p. 36). in schulte’s (2019a) study, the material that served as an active actant in producing literacies was an untimely-dead bird that suddenly emerged near a playhouse at the far end of a playground. the study vividly depicted how children's bodies detached from their previous contexts scattering in the expansive playground to the magnetic space where the bird fell. schulte noted that the sudden death of the bird "effectively transformed the children's interests" and entirely "redirected the focus of their endeavouring" (p. 73). the complicated encounter of the bird, children, space, and time generated newness and differences of children’s thoughts, emotions, movements, and actions, further transforming the patterns of children’s becomings and knowing individually and collectively. for the individual shifts, a boy became a little scared with a tense body and partially hid his body behind one girl, while a girl showed her sorrow and readied a dandelion to place on the bird’s head. for the collective shift, a discussion of the reasons why the bird died emerged among children, further evolving as a mining of children's prior memories and experiences with similar occurrences and an exploration of life and death. meanwhile, a collaborative work of digging the bird’s grave was done by the children. with the posthuman interpretation of the encounter between children and the bird, schulte affirmed the vibrant agential role the death of the bird played in generating a material occasion and potential literacies for young children. another research of schulte (2019b) documented how humans and nonhumans intra-acted with each other to produce “undeniable signifying forces” (iovino & oppermann, 2012, p. 2) in the drawing practices of a four-year-old boy, andrew, in a childcare center. in the study, a dump truck occasionally idling outside of the classroom window served as a key operator and a decisive agency that catalyzed the interlocked transformations of andrew’s body, mind, and his drawing, for instance, the emergent dilemma of whether to draw a truck as the truck appearing, the eyes fixed on the intersection to check if the truck would reappeared, the exciting shout bursting when the truck showed up, and the newly-added lines, circles, and dots in the drawing which represented the truck, the road, and the rock carried by truck. similarly, bendiksen, østern, and belliveau (2019) re-read three literacy events that occurred from writing play activities for children between three and five years old. barad's agential realism scaffolded the researchers to recognize the performative nonhuman agents such as the treasure chests, the yellow lemon smell and taste, the flat iron, the mood of expectancy, the blackboard that intra-acted with human agents such as teachers, children, and the researchers in producing practices, knowledge, and experiences concerning linguistic awareness, handwriting, and meaning-making. both of the two studies added evidence to the vital agential force of materials in producing literacies for the child. in addition to various non-digital resources for early literacy, a growing number of early childhood education research also seeks to develop a better understanding of how the differences between the conventional paper-based resources and digital tools lead to different ways of child-material entanglements and therefore different ways of children’s being/knowing/doing with literacies. for instance, baroutsis and woods (2019) considered both print and digital materials (such as papers and digital devices) and proposed makerspace (usually a collaborative workspace in the schooling contexts) as a pedagogical approach. they designed three problem-solving activities to discover how the materials of a makerspace altered the composition of first graders growing-up in a high-poverty community. specifically, the three play-based makerspace activities are respectively themed by the hansel and gretel a posthuman perspective on early literacy… 77 fairy tale, children's prior experiences about something interesting happened last week, and the life in a fish tank. in baroutsis and woods’s posthuman observation, different materials acted as active agents and took part in the construction of multiple realities (including children’s written stories), producing ample practices and encouraging children to highly engage in writing and become more efficient and effective thinkers. for instance, during the second activity, the interesting things occurring in the previous week, the children, the papers, ribbons, glues, etc. intertwined with each other and generated new forms of practices (e.g., making a spaceship, moving around the room to check other peers' work, and writing sentences to describe the artifacts created), emotions (e.g., children’s enjoyment in the play-based activities; the pride that children demonstrated in their writing), and material realities (e.g., a spaceship, an alien, and a written text about the alien sighted last week). besides, crescenzi et al. (2014) explored the role of screen touch in preschool children’s learning to use an ipad versus paper interaction. to compare how touch features in painting with a tablet versus painting with paper, the researchers found that while digital mobile devices afforded children a wider variety of touch-based interactions, they also cause some “losses” that need further considerations in education for young children. children’s non-representational practices: movement and sound. existing literature also explored how movements scaffold children’s literacy learning by reconsidering the active moving-space-material actants in human-nonhuman interactions, which produce new patterns of literacy practices and learning for young children. the posthumanist perspective re-reads children’s movements as unfolding relations in which space, time, and matter are always entangled (barad, 2013). in other words, movements are rhizomatic, unprepared, and improvisational child-material interactions existing in the past, present, and future. particularly, sound is defined as a vibrational movement at a molecular level (gershon, 2013). therefore, a growing number of existing literature in this vein turn to explore the dynamic and contingent child-object-matter-space encounters such as movements and sounds that generate discursive practices and literacies for children in specific spaces such as museums, galleries, and forests (e.g., hackett & somerville, 2017; harwood & collier, 2017; macrae et al., 2018; procter & hackett, 2017). hackett and somerville (2017) reported two studies of emergent literacies conducted in the uk and australia. for the year-long uk study, they drew data from monthly visits of a group of two-year-old children in a local museum and captured some “child-led traditions” such as marching while banging the drum that repeatedly emerged during the children's visits. the posthumanist analysis showed that different locations in the museum (e.g., a small gallery and corridors) and the drumstick played a crucial role in the production of movements (e.g., drumming, marching) and sounds (e.g., banging, shoe scuffing). the movements and sounds further synergically created diverse and influential affective responses between children, materials, and the museum. the affective properties of movements and sounds consisted of children’s non-linguistic utterances, which collaboratively produced representative and communicative practices and participated in the world-forming moment by moment. for the australian study, two six and seven-year-old girls' stories, sentences, and commentaries emerging during play with mud nearby a river were incorporated. drawing on barad’s (2007) concept of agential realism, hackett and somerville regarded the sounds and words as vibrations driven by the mud and the water. both the two studies revealed that different repertoires of literacy practices emerged spontaneously through the shared becomings of children (humans), materials such as the drum, the water, the mud (nonhumans), and the more-than-human world that sounds and movements partially constituted. as the researchers noted, “posthuman readings of early childhood literacy offer the possibility to shift the narrative and to reconceptualize emergent literacy in ways that reconcile with young children's being in the world” (p. 389). another example of children’s movements is harwood and collier’s (2017) research that aimed to illustrate interactions among children and nonhuman others in a forest setting by detailing the ways of how sticks coexisted with children’s bodies, elicited actions, sounds, movements, and relations, and produced new possibilities for children to learn literacies and develop identities. the authors argued that matters such as sticks and movements with sticks in the forest played as powerful agents to children's playful literacy practices that were “constantly in flux” (p. 350), thus inviting infinite possibilities for zhen lin & guofang li 78 literacy teaching and learning. they concluded that the world of a forest which was awash with human and nonhuman forces had enriched resources and capacities of early literacy education. a small amount of the posthuman research focuses on the lesser-known modal resource such as sound in early writing (e.g., wargo, 2017, 2018). thinking with conceptual approaches of sound studies and the posthuman ways of being/knowing/doing/becoming, wargo (2017) analyzed a digital audio clip and a tableau that documented first graders’ writing with sound in the classroom and the sensations and thoughts emerging alongside children’s composition. through investigating the rhythmic rituals of “emergent listening”, wargo emphasized that the sound and the sonic (e.g., a chorus of classroom claps and tapping the canvas with fingers) as the explicit material referent actively effected on generating different forms of embodied encounters (e.g., inviting children to collaboratively come together, creating boundaries of place and community for children as readers or writers, or shifting acoustic ambience of the classroom) when children and other nonhuman entities such as the mass-produced microphone yeti, hands, shoes, and the laughter entangled with each other in the classroom. wargo further encouraged researchers and educators of early literacy to ponder the modal affordances of sounds to pedagogical shifts to generate new creative energies of knowing and doing literacies in the classroom. rethinking children’s play: literacies, emotions, and literacy desirings building on inquiries about the relationality between bodies and the otherness or the materials, a group of scholars sought to use the posthuman lens to understand the process of “bringing-into-relation” (weheliye, 2014, p. 13) emerging between these entities, particularly the impromptu, entangled, and fluid encounters during children's play (e.g., hackett & rautio, 2019; lenz taugchi, 2013; sintonen, 2020). in this context, children’s play is seen as a space where children, objects, and places play with and are played back by each other in and with material-discursive contexts (e.g., jones & holmes, 2014; lenz taguchi, 2014). literacies emergent in and through play. hackett and rautio (2019) analyzed children's grass-hill rolling in the uk and running in a pine tree forest in finland to understand what multimodal meaningmaking might emerge. approaching children's running or rolling as forms of correspondence or relationship with the tree, the steep grassy hill, and the other things existing in children's surroundings, the researchers discovered the children produced particular kinds of embodied multimodal meaningmaking, in response to the pine tree, bugs, the wind and the sand while running or rolling, a process that was collaboratively “brought into being” between the human (children) and more-than-human participants (tree, bugs, sand, hill etc.) involved in the relationships. in this “process of growth and ongoingness" (p. 1026), a shared meaning emerged over time without pre-intended goals. hence, hackett and rautio emphasized the non-predetermined and emergent nature of involvement of the more-thanhuman multimodal meaning-making, which was not productions or skills that children possessed or intended to possess. instead, it should be understood as “pathways and channels… for the voices and stories of the world” (p. 1025). drawing on the same framework, leander and boldt (2013) studied a ten-year-old japanese boy's one-day out-of-school practices—reading and playing with texts from the japanese manga series inuyasha and naruto. while the boy was reading, the researchers observed constant and unpredictable nonrepresentational and unconscious actions (e.g., the boy retrieved one headband from his bedroom, frequently touched or adjusted the headband, practiced hand gestures, and rearranged knives while reading the manga), feelings (e.g., the boy articulated, “i love this so much” at times), and movements (e.g., the boy and his friend moved freely from the living room to the front yard, swung the sword at each other, and played the scenes from the manga book). these assemblages of discursive things presenting in the reading and play (such as the performing scene) transformed the boy from being identified as a struggling reader and writer to a book fan who sank into the chair and read and thought for a couple of hours. therefore, as the authors noted, to the boy, literacy activities were not “projected toward some textual endpoint” but “living in its life in the ongoing present” (p. 27). in short, literacy practices for children can be produced “through an emergent moment-by-moment unfolding” (p. 29). a posthuman perspective on early literacy… 79 wohlwend et al. (2017) added further argument for the strength of the posthuman notions in interpreting children’s play as emergent early literacy learning processes by re-examining the previously overlooked moments filtered out as meaningless and mess during children’s play in a preschool makerspace. they recognized the fluid meaning production during the nonsensical play by tracking the emergent and transient flows of interactions between children, materials, and the preschool makerspace. through a new materialist lens, wohlwend and her colleague granted these overlooked moments such as non-representational experiences and the free-wheeling nonsense existing in children’s play as literacies that are “both sense-making and sensory” (p. 445). thus, instead of the conventional and extended interpretations of children’s play, they brought newness to the notion of early literacies during play. emotions in the playful childhood. affect and emotions, particularly for young children, have close interconnections (shouse, 2005) as emotion is “the capacity to affect and be affected” (massumi, 2002, p. 15). much research in early educational studies have been directed towards shaping children’s emotional worlds through play-based approaches, seeing children’s play as a therapeutic mean of helping children to regulate their emotions (e.g., savina, 2014; zachariou & whitebread, 2015). different from these approaches, the new materialist research turns to emotions and bodily sensations as offering agencies in understanding the significance of children intra-acting with place and materials with play encounters (e.g., pahl, 2014; procter, 2013; rowsell, as cited in leander et al., 2017), seeking to develop the attributes associated with emotional wellbeing such as emotional literacy. a notable example of work in this area is procter and hackett’s (2017) study on the “dark emotions”, such as fear, showing that how emotionally-textured play of children, materials, and spaces is mediated within material-discursive contexts. procter and hackett brought together two case studies to understand the emotion of fear in children's play encounters. one example regarding young children recorded a twoyear-old boy's movement and emotion trajectories during one museum visiting: he repeated to express his fear while keeping moving in and out of place to explore a natural history exhibition. the exhibition's materiality, including light and exhibits, induced the boy's intensities and propelled his bodily movements to enter and leave the space. in the two play episodes, procter and hackett found that the emotion of fear was “bounded in place” (p. 220). the bodily experience of the place and materials worked on children, evoking certain emotions that, in turn, acted on characterizing and categorizing human and nonhuman bodies. in this case, procter and hackett foregrounded the agential role of the complicated materialdiscursive forces in the more-than-human world, calling for extensive attention to the possibilities and conditions produced by the place and materials for establishing children’s experiences. the study implies that educators need to take seriously children’s emotional experiences in place and how the emotional experiences connect with children’s body, objects, the play, and the space in order to offer opportunities for children’s practices including both metanarratives and representations “of self and other, of what counts as human and less-than-human” (p. 223). literacy desirings. seeing play as the process of children becoming literacies opens spaces for children to live out their literacy desirings or “the present processes of producing—a force, a becoming, a coming together of flows and intensities” (kuby & rucker, 2015, p. 315) through entanglement with intangible and tangible others in their realities. for instance, in their 2015 study, kuby and rucker tracked the process of production and becoming a writer of a boy, neil, who showed no passion for writing before. through a human-decentered lens, researchers witnessed the boy’s intra-acting with papers, scissors, pencils, and tape that generated peers' interests in neil's 3d artifacts—a station and a train, and the emergent neil-peer-teacher questions and conversations about how the artifact worked and how neil’s story of the train would be composed). significantly, the process brought shared becomings of the materials (papers transforming and being transformed into the 3d artifacts) and neil himself shifting from a student who did not like writing to both a confident expositor and a writer who desired to share the information of his creation. these unexpected and off-task moments emerging from the intra-actions between children, materials, and others in the writers’ studio served as spaces where the ongoing process of production was realized and simultaneously opened up new possibilities of producing literacy desirings. also focusing on children’s composition process, wargo (2018) studied 12 early elementary-aged zhen lin & guofang li 80 children reauthoring showers’s picture book the listening walk in a 6-week creative writing camp in the us. the author was particularly interested in how children wrote creatively with the wearables—digital technologies such as ipads and gopro with fundamental functions requiring connections with bodies. through the more-than-human apparatus, including strategic sketches (leander & boldt, 2013) and emergent listening (davies, 2014), the study looked into the relational assemblages of children, head harness, boom mic, and the sonic affordances of the gopro wearable that worked to amplify the ambient acoustics of the father-child walk described in the listening walk. wargo envisioned writing as a process of literacy desiring or an “ongoing series of relational encounters” (p. 504), rather than a practiced skill. the study's findings demonstrated that the intra-actions, or the withness between children, composition, and materials expanded children’s literacy desirings and practices that effected their potentials of being and becoming a writer. a posthuman approach to early literacy instruction: toward material-oriented, intra-active, and flexible the three strands of scholarship reviewed in the current paper provide important implications for early literacy instruction. collectively, the studies move the field towards a material-oriented, intra-active, and flexible pedagogy that is open to possibilities and unexpectedness emerging in literacy teaching and learning for young children. instead of the conventional anthropocentric (human-centered) and logocentric (language-focused) approach to early literacy (e.g., akhter, 2016; heider & renck-jalongo, 2014; jesson, mcnaughton, & wilson, 2015), the posthuman stance beckons scholars to question the taken-for-granted conceptions about what counts as literacy for young children, to focus on the processes of becoming instead of the end products of meaning, and to move beyond ‘justice-to-come” (barad, 2009, n. p.) but the present, “a better, more just right now” (kuby et al., 2019, p. 13). from a posthuman perspective, children are regarded as parts of “an entangled web or network of relationships” (lenz taguchi, 2010, p. 152), who continuously intra-act with their peers, teachers, materials, and the other more-than-humans (e.g., practices and activities produced continuously by the child-material entanglements). for instance, as murris’s 2016 study noted, except for the content of pictures in the book, the colors, the painting styles and even patterns of lines used to sketch the contours of figures collaboratively contribute to children’s empathic emotions to the gorilla and the communications about equity generated between the two girls and their mother. also, bendiksen et al. (2019) described how the strong smell and taste of a yellow lemon brought various sensuous experiences to children, then provoking children’s impromptu writing practices with their fingers, the lemon juice “ink”, and papers. in the two cases, the notion of the picturebook or the lemon moves beyond our conventional understandings of them as reading materials that are set out for children to read and comprehend or fruits that are wait to be described through children’s textual outcomes. instead, the material traits make them become “performative agents” (p. 15) that scaffold unpredictable practices when they are encountering with children, time, and contexts, opening up children’s opportunities of accessing and producing literacies and therefore, increasing children’s engagements in literacy events. these examples may guide early educators to rethink what counts as materials in early literacy education as flexible other than the conventional ones which are “closely connected to making” and “are often set out for children to make or create something with” (pacini-ketchabaw, kind, & kocher, 2017, p. 26). hence, teachers need to be aware of how the context, time, and materials are organized and allocated and what kinds of knowledge, experience, learning, and practices might be produced within the intra-activities between children, materials, and the places where children and materials are engaging with each other and with the contexts (leander & boldt, 2013; lenz taguchi, 2010). that is, teachers need to “think with” materials (pacini-ketchabaw et al., 2017), being sensitive about the inclinations and potentials of different materials in producing in-the-moment practices such as bodily emotions and movements generating from child-material entanglements in certain contexts. as well, teachers need to move beyond pursuing children’s textual products as the endpoint of literacy practices and become attentive to the production process of children’s in-the-moment practices. a posthuman perspective on early literacy… 81 sintonen (2020) showcased how teachers can pay attention to intra-activity in early literacy instruction through her reflective autoethnographic consideration of two distinct learning processes of creating artifacts, conventional acrylic painting and digital painting. sintonen observed that compared with the conventional acrylic painting with papers, painting with digital tools involved more modes, affects, and affordances, therefore different intra-actions and meanings. therefore, for young children, educators need to make a thorough consideration of how different materials are manifesting and modulating ways of meaning-making. in particular, sintonen stressed the critical focus on the “sensory, embodied, experimental, and playful intra-actions” among “unforeseen smooth spaces and material invitations” (p. 1330). furthering sintonen’s argument, baroutsis and woods (2019) proposed the concept of “literacy as material practices” (p. 250), which highlights the agentic role of the material (including the discursive and the virtual as well) working with the child and the more-than-human world in producing literacies. in their study, they closely observed how changing materials from non-digital such as ribbons to digital such as ipads changed and afforded the text production of children in a makerspace, suggesting “makerspace as a pedagogical approach” (p. 251) where teachers can shift the focus from materials to the dynamic and the discursive when children playing with various human and nonhuman bodies. teachers, as the study suggested, may also abandon conventional desk-chair classroom-arrangement and hide themselves in “a mess bodies scattered across the room” (p. 263) to offer children’s freedom to access other bodies and further make full use of the classroom space. by creating inclusive spaces and decentering teachers’ roles in the play-based makerspace, children, especially the ones who are reluctant to write and disengaged with literacy learning, can gain increasing opportunities for literacy learning in the classroom. moreover, with a posthuman lens, early literacy instruction can become more inclusive by embracing the out-of-classroom world for children’s literacy acquisition. the opportunities of children’s becoming and knowing literacies can be generated as young learners encounter a bird falling down onto the playground, a wooden stick found in a forest, a truck occasionally passing outside of the classroom, a spatial museum gallery, or a grassy hillside. in a sense, the children’s educational settings are “[fields] of possibility” (koepke, 2015, n. p), presenting infinite possibilities of supporting children’s literacy learning with the objects, the context, and experiences “that are at hand” (n. p.). in these contexts, the materials, the materiality of human bodies, and the more-than-human world can collaboratively serve as tools for the enacting of literacy education for children. in this sense, early literacy educators need to become cognizant of the human-nonhuman relationality and rearticulate their understanding of early childhood education as an assemblage of the child, materials, and the space, and knowledge as “a product of relation” (hargraves, 2019, p. 192). in addition to celebrating child-material entanglements and de-territorializing spaces, teachers also need to remain flexible and open to hear children’s desirings, as well as allow children’s literacy desirings to live out (kuby & rucker, 2015). studies (kuby & rucker, 2015; 2020; kuby, rucker, & darolia, 2017) advocated that teachers need to break the rigid structures of literacy instructions, embracing fissures occurring in the curriculum agenda. teachers should not only value children’s creations that were purposefully made for communications but also their “sometimes unpredictable…collaborative processes of creating and the assortment of artifacts they (might) produce” (2015, p. 326). permitting children to use open-ended materials in ways that make sense to them would also generate more children-material interactions and subsequently produce expansive practices and activities concerning literacy in the classroom. that is, when given the material-time-space opportunities to pursue their desirings of literacy, students may then be/know/become literacies in the ways beyond our imagination. finally, several studies (e.g., kuby & crawford, 2018; lenz taguchi, 2010; wargo, 2018) suggested several tangible practices for early childhood educators to study their own practices in creating in-themoment improvisational unfolding of early literacy. for example, educators can work as educational researchers, watching, teaching, and learning with children, such as inviting children to participate in the design of the curriculum to listen to children’s literacy desirings. simultaneously, teachers can document their pedagogical and teaching experiences by using a mosaic approach (clark & moss, 2001), including educator journals, photos, and videos and flexibly letting children chronicle their own learning experiences zhen lin & guofang li 82 into the document. the pedagogical documentation is not about a recording of “knowledge or the progress of learning goals” but rather “…what questions have been produced…what kinds of materials and tools have been tried, and what are the potentials for continuing” (kuby & crawford, 2018, p. 22). also, teachers can reimage the use of instructional tools and materials commonly used in daily literacy classroom, for instance, linking the picturebooks with the natural-cultural world by adding aural and actional dimensions to the figurative but static texts to open up children’s subsequent practices such as discussions and play. teachers can also include the out-of-classroom settings such as playground, museum, and forests as the place of instruction, inclusively viewing materials and the space as performative agents in leading pedagogies and embracing any potentials of materials and the place that learning may take place. in sum, the posthuman lens encourages early childhood educators to combat the “institutionalized ageist practices” in early instruction (murris, 2016, p. 1) and offer alternative pedagogical possibilities. teachers of young children (as well as parents) need to become attentive to a broader range of materials, time, and spaces for literacy teaching and learning. conclusions and future research directions the review of research on early literacy revealed that the posthumanism perspective offers expansive possibilities for reconceptualizing the child, the materials or resources for early literacy, and the meaning of childhood and children’s play. researchers with a posthuman lens move beyond a humanist worldview that locates learning in individuals to see children’s learning as “a cooperative and communicative activity” (murris, 2016) in which children actively co-construct knowledge with the other human-nonhuman bodies and entities. this reconfiguration of the child shifts from viewing children as passively receiving knowledge, language, and concepts to valuing children’s active role in being/knowing/doing knowledge moment-by-moment. posthuman researchers also expand the view of materials for children’s literacy learning from predesigned and intentional resources for literacy (e.g., textbooks and teaching materials) to all tangible and intangible matters entangled within the process of producing literacies. these tangible and intangible matters can be sticks in the forest, emotions emerging in the museum, and sounds during the march with the drum. all these matters, intertwining with the specific places at the specific time, serve as agencies in the interactions between the matters and the children to produce moment-by-moment practices and literacies. the recognition of the agential power of matters and materials in producing literacies helps educators to reconsider what resources can be used to support children’s literacy development and how the resources serve as part of the children's meaning-making. this review revealed several gaps in the contemporary research and education of early literacy. first, with a few exceptions, most of the existing studies focused on toddlers and preschoolers. more studies on young children at the primary school age do literacies in both inand out-of-school contexts, and how they reconcile with formal assessments are still required. furthermore, whereas the researchers are productive in using the posthumanist lens to explore materials in contexts focusing on children’s moment to moment becomings, few studies have taken up a critical view of the posthuman child and early literacy by examining the inequalities that may embody in the children’s intra-active experiences. thirdly, although emerging studies has demonstrated possibilities in grounding posthuman theories in early literacy pedagogy, future research still needs to explore how posthuman theories can transform educators’ theoretical beliefs and practices in educational settings for young children. finally, it must be noted that one limitation of this review is that it did not touch upon research methodologies from a posthuman perspective. future research must focus on methodological questions for conducting studies from a posthuman lens (e.g., toohey et al., 2015). major methodological questions may include, for example, 1) what are possible ethical issues when applying posthuman theories to research literacy education that is conventionally a human-oriented domain; 2) what interpretative dilemma we may have when moving from a traditional anthropocentric (human-centered), logocentric (language-centered) stance toward the ontological tenets of posthumanism, especially in thinking about a posthuman perspective on early literacy… 83 and researching children’s literacy teaching and learning; 3) what alternative orientations and methods for data analyses are needed to address the ethico-onto-epistemological paradigmatic shift to open up newness about researching early literacy; and 4) what problems regarding reliability and accuracy may arise, for instance, how to document children’s discursive, emergent, and complex non-representational communicative practices (e.g., emotions and movements) comprehensively and how to interpret the ongoing mutual becomings between the child and the outside world. more methodological discussions are needed to wrestle with these critical questions in the future. declarations acknowledgements: not applicable. competing interests: the authors declare that they have no competing interests. funding: this manuscript and work was not funded by any funding agency or grant. references akhter, p. 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2) some newcomer families face systemic barriers exacerbated by their immigration status, and; 3) feelings and perceptions of families and service providers, as well as social supports, networks, and relationships influence how programs and services are accessed and experienced. our review identifies the requirement for additional, participatory research that centres the voices and perspectives of newcomer children and their families and the need to expand that research to less populated and rural areas of the country to inform meaningful and culturally relevant policies, programs, and services for newcomer families to support their children’s wellbeing. article history received: 24 june 2020 accepted: 17 july 2020 keywords newcomer families; early childhood development; programs; services introduction the early years are recognized as a critical period for establishing the conditions for lifelong learning and wellbeing (marmot, friel, bell, houweling & taylor, 2008). early childhood development is a key social determinant of health; early education, family support and services can improve long-term health and educational outcomes and reduce inequities in health, income, and education at a population level (black et al., 2017; marmot et al., 2008; mccain, mustard & shanker, 2007; mustard, 2006; world health organization, 2020). it can be difficult for families with young children to navigate systems to find the supports they need (mccain, 2020); this can be even more difficult for newcomer families as they may encounter barriers in relation to language and literacy, employment, transportation, health, food security, housing, and documentation (cho & shin, 2008; gelatt, adams & huerta, 2014). newcomer families are defined broadly here as those who fall within any of canada’s immigration categories (i.e., economic immigrant, immigrant sponsored by family, refugee, temporary worker, undocumented) who left their country for varied reasons, voluntarily or involuntarily (statistics canada, 2019). _____________ 1 mount saint vincent university and school of information management, early childhood collaborative research centre, dalhousie university, halifax, nova scotia, canada, e-mail: alisonbrown@dal.ca, orcid: https://orcid.org/ 0000-0002-4372-8574 2 mount saint vincent university, early childhood collaborative research centre, faculty of education, department of child and youth study, halifax, nova scotia, canada, e-mail: jessie-lee.mcisaac@msvu.ca, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9294-5313 3 mount saint vincent university, department of child and youth study, halifax, nova scotia, canada, e-mail: sarah.reddington@msvu.ca, orcid: https://orcid.org/00000002-1870-0342 4 mount saint vincent university, early childhood collaborative research centre, halifax, nova scotia, canada, e-mail: taylor.hill1@msvu.ca, orcid: https://orcid.org/ 00000003-0048-7712 5 mount saint vincent university, faculty of education, halifax, nova scotia, canada, e-mail: susan.brigham@msvu.ca, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0273-3366 6 dalhousie university,school of health and human performance, halifax, nova scotia, canada, e-mail: becky.spencer@dal.ca, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5567-8041 7 nscad university, division of art history & contemporary culture, halifax, nova scotia, canada, e-mail: amandrona@nscad.ca, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1625514x https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638x.20201249 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ mailto:susan.brigham@msvu.ca newcomer families' experiences with programs and services to support early childhood… 183 in recent decades, the number of migrants and refugees has risen dramatically. in 2000, there were 173 million migrants; that number now stands at 272 million (united nations, 2019). canada’s newcomer population has likewise flourished. according to the 2016 census, 21.9% of canada’s population are immigrants and 3.5% of canada’s population have arrived in the past five years (statistics canada, 2017). in 2018, canada admitted the highest number of newcomers (313, 580) in its history (government of canada, 2019). there is limited understanding about the extent to which existing programs, services, and policies are succeeding in supporting newcomer families with young children, especially from the perspective of those families. this scoping review reports what is known about newcomer families' experiences with programs and services to support early childhood development in canada (e.g., childcare centres, parenting programs, health care providers, family resource centres, and nutritional supplementation). the newcomer family experience is often marked by change and challenge as they learn to understand, manage, and navigate canadian physical, social, economic, political and cultural settings and systems, and this unfamiliarity can impact their access to supports and services. their migration stories and current living conditions similarly influence their complex settlement and integration processes (best start resource centre, 2010; colbert, 2013; mayhew, 2018). as newcomer families become woven into the social fabric of communities across canada they demonstrate tremendous resilience and resourcefulness (mayhew, 2018). however, many experience feelings of loss, anxiety, isolation, and stress; many similarly encounter systemic obstacles that impede their integration and inclusive access to programs, services, and community opportunities (gelatt et al., 2014; hernandez, takanishi & marotz, 2009). this review paper contributes to the study of early childhood by focusing on the perspectives of a specific population– newcomer children and their parents—in a specific context—canada—highlighting the findings of recent studies (2000-2019) about newcomer families’ experiences with supports and services for early childhood development. given that countries around the world are increasingly receiving newcomer families with young children, the paper is of interest and value to early childhood studies researchers, policy makers, and practitioners in other geographical locations who want to understand the unique needs and barriers to supports and services experienced by newcomer families and how to enhance community assets to strengthen early childhood development. background newcomer families with young children face specific challenges and often require additional resources, programs, and services that are tailored to their assets, experiences, and needs to support the healthy development and wellbeing of their children. it has been well documented that access to these supports enhances family settlement, reduces socio-economic inequities, addresses newcomers’ diverse needs and promotes agency within their communities (karoly & gonzalez, 2011; magnuson & shager, 2010). moreover, newcomer families require information on how to locate, activate, and engage with these supports to enhance their access to all facets of community life and wellbeing. research reveals that newcomer families experience significant barriers as they try to navigate the complex systems to meet their needs. further, how newcomer families experience social determinants of health such as employment and working conditions, food and housing insecurity, social exclusion, and discrimination may increase vulnerability and limit access to supports (browne et al., 2017; browne, wade, prime & jenkins, 2018). many existing systems and services are unresponsive or not built to address newcomer families’ particular realities. for instance, many families face challenges with application documentation requirements, work-schedule conflicts, fear of child protective service involvement, transportation, and limited program capacity, and may lack affordable childcare, or awareness of the availability of early education programs and services (browne et al., 2017, 2018; mazer, dion & moryoussef, 2008; mccain et al., 2007; mckeary & newbold, 2010). there is a requirement to prioritize culturally responsive programs and services (i.e., those which are asset-based and acknowledge, respond to, celebrate, and nurture families’ unique cultures) as a means to enhance newcomer families’ experiences within their communities as well as their access to services (ladson-billings, 2014). abihanna (2020), who alison brown et al. 184 conducted a study with newcomer families in halifax, nova scotia, asserts that culturally responsive pedagogy and programming are vital from the early years for ensuring that newcomer children are provided learning environments in which they can develop a sense of "belonging, being, and becoming" (p. 198). however, research indicates that many programs and services are not staffed by multilingual and/or culturally competent providers and therefore are ill-equipped to provide inclusive and accessible programs to newcomer families (corter & pelletier, 2010; health & education research group, 2013; human early learning partnership, 2015; mccain et al., 2007). purpose of the study one tool designed to mitigate barriers and promote culturally competent policy and practice when working with newcomer families with young children is the raised between cultures model. the raised model was developed by researchers, service providers, educators, policy-makers, and immigrant community members to inform culturally competent practice with immigrant families and young children (brosinsky, georgis, gokiert, mejia & kirova, 2018). the factors comprising the raised acronym are: reveal culture, acknowledge premigration experiences, identify post-migration systemic barriers, support family and community strengths, establish connections between environments, and determine child outcomes together with families. the model highlights the importance of having a deep understanding of families’ cultural backgrounds, their migration experiences and challenges, as well as their strengths to support early childhood wellbeing (brosinsky et al., 2018). the current study uses a scoping review methodology and draws on the raised between cultures conceptual model to examine the strengths and challenges that newcomer families with young children encounter when seeking supports. the aim of this scoping review is to describe what is known about newcomer families’ experiences with programs and services to support early childhood development in canada and identify how to enhance family and community assets to better support newcomer children and families to thrive. method scoping reviews address an exploratory research question by systematically searching, selecting, and synthesizing a wide range of literature to determine the breadth of evidence on a particular topic ( levac, colquhoun, & o’brien, 2010; peterson, pearce, ferguson & langford, 2017). they are a type of knowledge synthesis that clarifies key concepts and related characteristics, allows assessment of emerging evidence, examines how research is conducted, identifies gaps in the literature, and scopes or maps a body of literature with relevance to time, location, source, method, and origin (levac et al., 2010). the scoping review method can serve as a richly informed starting point for further investigations to contribute to research, practice, and policy. this scoping review was conducted using the five-stage framework described by arksey and o’malley (2005): identifying the research question, identifying relevant studies, selecting studies, charting the data, and collating, summarizing, and reporting the results. identifying the research question the research question guiding this scoping review was: what is known about newcomer families' experiences with programs and services to support early childhood development in canada? for the purpose of this review, “newcomer families” is an umbrella term encompassing those who have moved from their countries of origin for varied reasons, voluntarily or involuntarily, and those who fall within any of canada’s immigration categories: economic immigrant, immigrant sponsored by family, refugee, temporary worker, undocumented, and other (statistics canada, 2019). when we refer to early childhood development in relation to newcomer families’ experiences, we are referring to language and culture, structural barriers and opportunities, divergent practices and systems, psychosocial factors, and social supports and relationships that determine young children’s access and overall development in the early years context. programs and services are those which support families’ efforts to secure their children’s healthy development and well-being (e.g., childcare centres, parenting programs, health care providers, family resource centres, and recreational activities.). newcomer families' experiences with programs and services to support early childhood… 185 identifying relevant studies we created a sensitive search strategy, in consultation with a subject specialist librarian, to identify relevant articles for inclusion in the study’s analysis and synthesis. to identify english, peer-reviewed documents published between 2000 and 2019, without methodological restrictions, we searched 12 electronic bibliographic databases: child development and adolescent studies, academic search premier, cinahl plus, education research complete, education resources information center (eric), psycharticles, psychinfo, socindex, medline, gender studies database, lgbt life, and springerlink. database searching was followed by a search of the first twenty pages in google scholar. for grey literature, we conferred with canadian immigration experts to create a list of relevant government and nongovernment organizations (n=18) from which to search for relevant reports. finally, we handsearched the reference lists of identified review articles, and key journals (e.g., journal of immigrant and minority health, journal of comparative family studies, health and social care in the community) and authors (e.g., higginbottom, khanlou, and stewart) identified by our research team and canadian immigration experts. the review of literature was completed over four months, ending in july 2019. using the research question as a guide, we developed a list of search terms to capture the salient concepts of the study population (e.g. immigrant, newcomer, refugee, permanent resident) combined with the study focus (e.g., early childhood, program, service, support, help-seeking). the terms were searched as key words, topics, and subject headings, particular to each database. as familiarity with the literature evolved, an iterative process was used to establish inclusion and exclusion criteria, outlined in table 1. articles were included for consideration if they were focused on the canadian context, focused on the experiences of newcomer families with young children, included a discussion of access to and experiences of supports for early childhood development, published in english or french, and published between january 2000 and july 2019. table 1. inclusion and exclusion criteria criteria inclusion exclusion country canada any country other than canada focus experiences of newcomer families’ access and experience of early childhood development supports not newcomer families with young children; no discussion of experiences with early childhood supports language english, french any other than english or french publication type peer-reviewed; grey literature review articles publication date january 2000 – january 2019 before january 2000; after january 2019 publication date january 2000 – january 2019 before january 2000; after january 2019 selecting the studies applying the developed search strategy and removing duplicates identified 2390 potential articles. scoping reviews use an iterative process for study selection, reviewing potential items in progressively more depth, and updating selection criteria as familiarity with the literature develops (arksey & o’malley, 2005). an initial reading of the title and abstract of all articles identified from the databases was undertaken independently by two reviewers; screening against inclusion and exclusion criteria, they identified 168 articles for full-text review. two members of the research team independently read the full text of those articles and screened against the same inclusion and exclusion criteria. where there was need for further discussion additional members of the research team were consulted. of those excluded, 95 articles did not focus on or have substantial discussion about families’ access to or experience with supports for early childhood. sixteen articles did not explore the experiences of newcomer families and nineteen articles did not focus on newcomer families with young children. finally, four articles were excluded as they did not report on experiences of families within canada. this screening process, illustrated in fig. 1 below, resulted in the inclusion of 34 articles in the scoping review. alison brown et al. 186 figure 1. flowchart depicting search results and exclusions. charting the studies using a descriptive and analytical method recommended by arksey and o’malley (2005), we systematically extracted, charted, and tabulated data from the studies that met the inclusion criteria. we used an extraction form, collectively and iteratively developed and refined by the authors with categories related to key study characteristics and those that best responded to the research question and objectives (levac et al., 2010). the information charted included: author(s), publication year, and location; study purpose; methods, design and sample; study key findings; experiences with programs and services to support early childhood development; barriers to programs and services, and; opportunities for improvements. our data extraction and charting are presented in appendix a. collating, summarizing, and reporting the findings the fifth and final stage of arksey and o’malley’s (2005) scoping review framework summarizes and reports findings. the analysis of this scoping review occurred in three phases and involved careful reflection and examination among the authors independently and in meetings. first, we tabulated and reported a descriptive numerical summary for data pertaining to study characteristics (e.g., frequency counts for where and when the studies were conducted, types of studies). extracted data reporting experiences with early childhood supports, barriers to supports, and opportunities for improvements were then thematically analyzed using the six-step process described by (braun & clarke, 2006): familiarization of data (e.g. reading the data multiple times), initial coding, generating themes, validity and reliability of themes, defining and naming of themes, and interpretation and reporting. we identified common themes and sub-themes in the literature and have categorized them across three broad categories that describe newcomer families' experiences with programs and services to support early childhood development in canada: 1) language and culture, 2) structural barriers and opportunities, and 3) psychosocial factors, social supports and relationships. a final analytical step involved reviewing the themes in relation to the raised between cultures conceptual model. this process was guided by our research objective to identify the families’ experiences and perspectives that could be helpful to policymakers and practitioners in developing, delivering, and articles identified through database search (n = 2390) additional articles identified through grey literature (n=14) and hand searching (n = 6) duplicates removed (n = 25) titles/abstracts of articles screened (n = 2365) full text articles assessed for eligibility (n = 168) articles excluded (n = 134) for the following reasons: 95 lack of substantial discussion of experiences 16 lack of focus on experiences of newcomer families 19 lack of focus on experiences of newcomer families with young children 4 not specific to families in canada articles included in final review (n = 34) newcomer families' experiences with programs and services to support early childhood… 187 sustaining meaningful, effective, culturally relevant supports for early childhood well-being. the mapping of our research findings to the raised between cultures model is presented in the discussion section. results descriptive numerical summary of the 34 articles that met the final inclusion criteria, the earliest was published in 2003 and twelve were published in the past five years. the greatest number of articles reported research from ontario (n = 17), followed by alberta (n = 8) and quebec (n = 7). the peer-reviewed articles were from a range of disciplines including education, maternal health, health sciences, and social work. the reviewed research included populations identified as economic immigrants, refugees, immigrant families with children with disabilities or illnesses, and those with a variety of immigration statuses such as undocumented. we sought to describe the experiences of newcomer families as they navigate health care and education systems in canada. studies mostly (n = 27) applied solely qualitative methods; likely due to our focus on the experiences of families, although there were also solely quantitative (n = 1), mixed-methods (n = 5), and program evaluation (n = 1) studies included. some studies focused on specific populations, such as children with disabilities (n = 6) or cancer (n = 2), or newcomer women accessing maternity care (n = 5). some studies (n = 7) were based on service or care providers’ (scps) experiences supporting newcomer families and their perspectives of families’ experiences. major themes the overall aim with this scoping review was to present what is known about newcomer families' experiences with programs and services to support early childhood development in canada. we analyzed the reported family experiences with early childhood programs and services, barriers to programs and services, and opportunities for improved programs and services. we identified three common and connected themes: 1) language and culture, 2) structural barriers and opportunities, and 3) psychosocial factors, social supports, and relationships. the evidence for each theme and subtheme is described with key concepts and illustrative examples below (and outlined in table 2). table 2. summary of themes theme description subthemes language and culture culture and language are intertwined; they evolve together and influence one another. the need for effective intercultural understanding, responsiveness, and communication to ensure full access to meaningful programs and services. cultural responsiveness; language constraints; interpretation and translation services; communication between home and service structural barriers and opportunities newcomer families face disproportionate challenges stemming from systems or sets of procedures beyond their control and exacerbated by their immigration status. affordability; employment and education; administrative logistics psychosocial factors, social supports, and relationships feelings and perceptions of both families and scps, as well as social supports/networks/ relationships influence how programs and services are accessed and experienced. language and culture cultural responsiveness to a unique set of experiences. it was evident in the included studies that a responsive understanding and appreciation of cultural diversity is essential for appropriate, inclusive, and meaningful care from scps to support early childhood development. generally, cultural alison brown et al. 188 responsiveness was described as offering culturally appropriate screening, services, programs, and practices (n = 19). for instance, scps should be aware of the social determinants of newcomer’s health (e.g., social isolation, poverty, education and trained in how to effectively support this population (ahmed, bowen & feng, 2017; alaggia, maiter & jenney, 2017). in addition to tailoring supports to newcomer families’ migratory context, the intersection of other circumstances may require attention, such as parents of a child with an intellectual or cognitive disability (khanlou, mustafa, vazquez, davidson & yoshida, 2017). divergent beliefs and practices exist between scps and parents (brassart, prévost, bétrisey, lemieux & desmarais, 2017; cobb, 2014; fontil & petrakos, 2015; gagnon et al., 2010; higginbottom et al., 2013; jessri, farmer & olson, 2013). as awareness stems from pre-migration systems which tend to differ greatly from post-migration systems (cobb, 2014; khanlou et al., 2017), unique cultural norms (e.g., importance of dental care) may determine newcomer parents’ engagement with certain services (amin & elsalhy, 2017). newcomer parents and scps may hold divergent beliefs about children’s medical care (brassart et al., 2017; klassen et al., 2012), stemming from a misunderstanding between health care system professionals and the newcomers (gagnon et al., 2010; higginbottom et al., 2013; klassen et al., 2012; woodgate et al., 2017), and accompanied by incongruent expectations regarding parents’ involvement in medical health services (brassart et al., 2017). for example, newcomer mothers may be uncomfortable discussing the use of inclusive education programs and services because they are not familiar with them to comfortably advocate for their use (cobb, 2014). acknowledging and trying to understand newcomers’ challenges in resettlement at the first meeting between newcomers and scps can help build rapport and validate their feelings and experiences (ansion & merali, 2017). scps’ commitment to enhancing awareness of the interaction between migratory context and subsequent challenges can improve feelings of social support in newcomer parents (ben-cheikh & rousseau, 2013) and enhance communication (dumbrill, 2009). when designing programs and services to support newcomer families, the multiple layers of influence should be considered (e.g., community, cultural) to ensure cultural acceptability (jessri et al., 2013). newcomer mothers whose culture and religion hold certain beliefs and practices can be supported, for example, by scps’ respectful acknowledgement of these differences (jessri et al., 2013). higginbottom et al. (2013) report sudanese women’s concern when nurses gave newborn babies a bottle when the mothers wanted to breastfeed. the need for acknowledging and understanding different cultural beliefs and practices is further discussed below. professional development to increase cultural competency and responsiveness across the scp workforce can develop new ways of informing and educating newcomer parents about the resources available to them (klassen et al., 2012). for example, educating scps on newcomer families’ coverage and eligibility for health care services can minimize the fragmentation of care (rink et al., 2017), especially if scps can convey health information in accessible language formats (merry, gagnon, kalim, & bouris, 2011). language constraints. language barriers impact newcomer parents’ awareness of their rights (khanlou haque, sheehan & jones, 2015) and available services and supports (cobb, 2014; dumbrill, 2009; jessri et al., 2013; joyette, 2014; kilbride & ali, 2010; king et al., 2011; merry et al., 2011; wahoush, 2009). moreover, parents’ level of awareness is shaped by their command of the english language (cobb, 2014; dumbrill, 2009) and their capacity to seek useful, relevant information. for example, parents may be unaware of educational (joyette, 2014; kilbride & ali, 2010) or supportive (jessri et al., 2013; wahoush, 2009) opportunities for their child and not have the literacy skills to access information in the english language (dumbrill, 2009). even if newcomer parents have the tools to informationand help-seek, scps tend to hold varying levels of knowledge about newcomer-specific resources (king et al., 2011; merry et al., 2011) or have resources available in limited languages (woodgate et al., 2017). the ability of families to communicate effectively with scps and community institutions (e.g., their children’s school) is also dependent on their command of the english language as mentioned previously. limited english language proficiency was reported as a barrier in most studies reviewed (n = 22) and can compound their access to a modality of supports. for example, a parental language barrier influences mothers’ knowledge of available supports (cobb, 2014; dumbrill, 2009) and may impede accessing specific formal services that would benefit their child (fontil & petrakos, 2015). mothers who experience language newcomer families' experiences with programs and services to support early childhood… 189 barriers may have difficulty navigating education systems, have challenges advocating for their child and, as a result, impede their child’s access to inclusive learning environments (kilbride & ali, 2010). in addition to verbal communication, scps’ interpretation of nonverbal behavior (e.g., maternal distress during labour) may be inaccurate due to their lack of understanding of cultural differences in expression (higginbottom et al., 2013). particularly sensitive contexts, such as childbirth, present an enhanced requirement for culture and language relevant care (reitmanova & gustafson, 2008). for example, higginbottom and colleagues (2013) reported that newcomer women may hold cultural beliefs about stoicism, which prevents scps from identifying signals of distress and ultimately, referrals for maternity care. when health-related information is typically shared with newcomer parents in english or french (the official languages of canada) discrepancies in understanding can occur (klassen et al., 2012) and contribute to lower health literacy in newcomer parents. in particular, newcomer mothers may have difficulty expressing health concerns or accessing supports due to their language barrier (reitmanova & gustafson, 2008). an opportunity to improve the experience of newcomer families accessing supports is to coordinate intense supports for english and/or french language learning (roer-strier, strier, este, shimoni & clark, 2005). as newcomer parents develop their english and/or french language skills, employment and educational opportunities arise which they may have been excluded from previously. hoen (2003) evaluated a program designed to support newcomer families and enhance their relationship with the canadian education and social service systems. the evaluation report concluded that newcomer parents learned how to promote healthy child development, specifically using teaching approaches commonly used in canadian school systems to enhance children’s transition into school. newcomer parents also gained knowledge on methods of communication and interaction with school personnel and recognize their right to request an interpreter and information about their children’s progress. the program taught parents about the structures and services embedded in the canadian systems that relate to families, and to feel empowered in this process by advocating for their rights, both parents and children (hoen, 2003). another article spoke to the importance of scps understanding parents’ apprehension regarding therapeutic goals due to cultural differences (e.g., stigma of mental health issues) and consider how they can appropriately involve parents in treatment (e.g., help parents understand treatment process and the importance of therapy by defining achievable goals) (brassart et al., 2017). cultural interpreters can positively engage newcomer families by enabling them to communicate in their own language, although scps may lack the resources necessary to employ cultural interpreters or to train support workers (alaggia et al., 2017). some newcomer families prefer to speak in english to learn about the new systems and structures in canada (alaggia et al., 2017), or when engaging in community support groups (stewart et al., 2012). further, some parents depend on their child to translate while navigating new systems, especially if their child is in an english-taught school (kilbride & ali, 2010). one study demonstrated how scps, using culturally competent practice or with the help of cultural interpreters, can use alternative methods to communicate with newcomer families. by employing pictures, photos, or translation software tools, scps and parents can develop a shared understanding of needs, resources, and experiences (brassart et al., 2017). if interpreters and translators are hired, scps should be trained on how to engage with their services in a way that best supports newcomer families (dumbrill, 2009; king et al., 2011). at the very least, scps should have a working knowledge of the language services and supports available to newcomer families (woodgate et al., 2017) and not assume that newcomer parents know what supports exist (king et al., 2011). communication between home and services. evident from our review is the need for scps to implement measures for consistent, effective communication between families and the services they access. one included study suggests that by “establishing a network of champions” (joyette, 2014, p. 6) that represent different domains of support for newcomer families (e.g., early childhood education, faith and ethnic groups, local support groups), efforts can be consolidated to optimally support newcomer families (joyette, 2014). offering in-home, culturally responsive services that respond to the needs of the whole family (maiter & stalker, 2011) is another strengths-based, community-embedded way to enhance communication with newcomer families. for newcomer children with disabilities, such as autism spectrum alison brown et al. 190 disorders, the transition from preschool to elementary school requires a strengthening of educational and community support. schools must intentionally take steps to develop trusting collaborative partnerships with families (fontil & petrakos, 2015). community-embedded programming can enhance newcomer families’ resettlement experiences (e.g., mental health support) (simich, wu & nerad, 2007; stewart, simich, shizha, makumbe & makwarimba, 2012). moreover, intersectoral collaboration among supportive services (e.g., agencies) can reduce barriers to accessing supports while being culturally relevant (stewart et al., 2008; woodgate et al., 2017). structuring supports into culturally sensitive, holistic, comprehensive and collaborative programs can ultimately promote the multifaceted well-being of newcomer families, especially in the early childhood period (roer-strier et al., 2005). structural barriers and opportunities affordability. personal financial ability to access supports and the financial constraints of many service organizations were mentioned in many of the studies reviewed (n = 9). for example, alaggia and colleagues (2017) identified a need for increased funding for service provision for newcomer families with language challenges who are seeking community-based supports. families’ ability to access health services such as dental care for their children was influenced by their ability to pay for these services (badri, wolfe, farmer & amin, 2018), especially for ‘irregular’ immigrants who have limited access to insurance (simich et al., 2007). newcomer families may experience medication and non-basic health care services as high-cost expenses (woodgate et al., 2017), and hospitalization is a particularly dire financial burden (stewart et al., 2012). refugee claimants may be denied access to care because of a lack of continuous health insurance which is not well understood by some health care providers (rink et al., 2017). in canada, an estimated 500 000 live without health insurance due to their immigration status; many provinces and territories require a 3-month waiting period, temporary foreign workers, undocumented, and refugee claimants may qualify for the interim federal health program but the program is not used consistently across jurisdictions (barnes, 2016). medical personnel are sometimes reluctant to serve refugee families or those with tenuous immigration status, due to the confusing bureaucracy and delayed reimbursements (barnes, 2016; tastsoglou, abidi, brigham & lange, 2014). suggestions for mitigating this barrier are presented in several of our scoping review included articles. enforcing a no-denial, no-fee policy would ensure all children can access medical care (rink et al., 2017), especially considering how financial barriers may impede newcomer parents from following through with referrals from scps (gagnon et al., 2010). the three-month waiting period for provincial insurance coverage (e.g., ontario health insurance plan) for newcomers re-enforces this barrier (goel, bloch & caulford, 2013). taking the time to explain and convey health-related information is essential for effective communication between the health workforce and newcomer families. for example, newcomer mothers may not be able to access postpartum and social services due to financial difficulties (merry et al., 2011). one way to overcome this barrier is the provision of access to government-sponsored benefits for new parents who are new to canada; scps could implement screening procedures to identify and refer mothers who may be at-risk for experiencing financial difficulties (merry et al., 2011) and do not know their rights (rink et al., 2017). focusing interventions designed to promote the healthy development of newcomer children should consider tailoring support to families with low income (hoen, 2003), especially considering the negative health consequences associated with financial stress in newcomer families (khanlou et al., 2017). employment and education. finding meaningful and suitable employment can be difficult for newcomer parents (khanlou et al., 2017; woodgate et al., 2017), resulting in unemployment or underemployment (stewart et al., 2012). barriers to employment include discrimination against newcomers and not having access to community supports such as certain employment services that are limited to canadian citizens and permanent residents with the appropriate paperwork (stewart et al., 2008). in one study it was found that the amount of time that newcomer fathers spend with their children was linked to their employment status, wherein fathers who are not meaningfully employed in a way that utilizes their skills and education (i.e., they are over-qualified for their new employment) feel they cannot adequately financially provide for their children (roer-strier et al., 2005). newcomer parents trying to navigate the newcomer families' experiences with programs and services to support early childhood… 191 education system on behalf of their children valued interactions with educators who showed compassion, avoided judgement and who worked with the parents in genuine partnerships; however, some educators lacked knowledge of families’ pre-migration conditions and were not culturally sensitive in their work with parents (fontil & petrakos, 2015). kilbride and ali (2010) highlighted how communication between home and school is especially important to avoid streaming newcomer children (i.e., grouped with children who have academic challenges). scps can also benefit from continuing education, especially front-line workers and community service providers (falihi, 2019). scps should be strongly encouraged to avail themselves of the professional development opportunities that exist for navigating supportive relationships with newcomers, such as cross-sectoral learning exchanges and field placements (falihi, 2019). administration and logistics. newcomer families faced many administrative-related barriers to accessing supports, for example: supports being inaccessible to newcomer families due to long wait times (ben-cheikh & rousseau, 2013), inflexible scheduling (gagnon et al., 2010) with inconvenient locations and times (khanlou et al., 2017), and services that are too short or lacking in resources (dumbrill, 2009). formfilling was identified as a challenge for newcomer parents; the burden of extensive paperwork can be exacerbated by language gaps and paucity of help from scps (khanlou et al., 2015; king et al., 2011; klassen et al., 2012). the rigid complexity of the canadian health care system (brassart et al., 2017) makes navigating a new system increasingly difficult; a caseworker, peer-navigator, or cultural broker model is recommended (e.g., klassen et al., 2012). minimal access to childcare can also impede newcomer mothers from attending english language learning classes (merry et al., 2011) or pre-natal classes (reitmanova & gustafson, 2008). some newcomer parents struggle to find childcare when attending appointments and commitments for one child (ahmed, bowen, & feng, 2017; amin & elsalhy, 2017; gagnon et al., 2010), and perceive scps as annoyed when other children are present (gagnon et al., 2010). studies recommend that scps be empathetic when dealing with other children being present at appointments (gagnon et al., 2010) or even offer in-home consultations and care provision in keeping with family-centred care (maiter & stalker, 2011). joyette (2014) advocates for newcomer families to receive public transit subsidies when registered in city programs, to overcome logistical issues. as many services are geographically dispersed (khanlou et al., 2015), it would be ideal to secure resources to support the development of multi-service centres (joyette, 2014) to overcome consistently report transportation obstacles (ahmed et al., 2017; amin & elsalhy, 2017; gagnon et al., 2010; klassen et al., 2012; merry et al., 2011; stewart et al., 2008; woodgate et al., 2017). interprofessional collaboration (brassart et al., 2017) that helps coordinate and integrate knowledge exchange between organizations and individuals can bridge the provision of services (falihi, 2019). for instance, establishing an equity committee within schools that mandates professional development opportunities for culturally responsive practices (cobb, 2014) can build the capacity to expand community awareness and responsiveness. by being aware of the need for change, which exists on many levels, existing relevant resources can be used, adapted, built on, and expanded (falihi, 2019). identifying newcomer families’ needs and being aware of existing resources can propel systematic and strategic planning on multiple levels (falihi, 2019). the studies also suggest that policies and procedures be developed and implemented in a holistic approach, with strategic planning on multiple levels (falihi, 2019) that is focused on the needs and issues experienced by newcomer families and young children (joyette, 2014). psychosocial factors, social support, and relationships the experiences of newcomer families are shaped in part by their mental health, which is further influenced by the preand post-migration experiences and their cultural norms and beliefs. for example, families describe feelings of depression and loneliness (ansion & merali, 2017; klassen et al., 2012; stewart et al., 2012), especially parents worried about their family being separated due to irregular immigration status (simich et al., 2007). lack of legal status takes a psychological toll, yet some parents may distrust those outside of their family which impedes their willingness to seek support (dumbrill, 2009; klassen et al., 2012; simich et al., 2007). woven through several included studies were feelings of mistrust, disrupted support systems, and challenges with establishing supportive formal and informal relationships. alison brown et al. 192 newcomer parents may feel isolated (ansion & merali, 2017; khanlou et al., 2017) and in need of more guidance from scps (fontil & petrakos, 2015; khanlou et al., 2015). newcomer parents with children with developmental disabilities may struggle with guilt and feel judgement by the community when with their children in public places resulting in social isolation (fontil & petrakos, 2015). roer-strier et al. (2005) describe how fathers felt that support could be more tailored to fatherhood, such as programming designed specifically for newcomer fathers. cultural stigma and privacy concerns are reported barriers to accessing mental health services a ( ahmed et al., 2017; khanlou et al., 2017 ). for example, ahmed et al. (2017) report that refugee women have difficulty expressing feelings of depression due to the stigma of mental health in their cultural beliefs, leading to poor maternal mental health. pre-existing barriers to accessing services can be exacerbated by inadequate informal support (stewart et al., 2008), wherein parents are not connected to relevant sources of support which would help them manage their child’s well-being. families’ interactions with scps, especially the first meeting, shapes their perceptions and feelings about their experiences. in nearly one-third of the studies reviewed (n = 11), families reveal facing varying levels of discrimination (dumbrill, 2009; khanlou et al., 2017; maiter & stalker, 2011; simich et al., 2007). poor interactions can produce negative feelings toward the health care system and workers (ben-cheikh & rousseau, 2013) and subsequent avoidance of care (goel et al., 2013; rink et al., 2017; wahoush, 2009). to overcome this barrier, studies recommend that scps be knowledgeable and friendly (badri et al., 2018), culturally sensitive (higginbottom et al, 2013), solicit and address any concerns with parents (dumbrill, 2009), utilize a strength-based approach to practice (maiter & stalker, 2011), and increase communityembedded supportive services (simich et al., 2007). normalizing families’ experiences and feelings with empathetic professionals (gagnon et al., 2010) in community-embedded mental health services (simich et al., 2007) can enhance emotional support (ansion & merali, 2017), and ultimately newcomers’ mental health. although newcomer families experience a diminished extended family support system in their resettlement in canada, new support networks can be created in unexpected ways (ansion & merali, 2017). for example, some families report establishing friendships within the health care and school systems (ansion & merali, 2017) and among other newcomer parents (klassen et al., 2012), especially when seeking information about their child’s health (wahoush, 2009). indeed, an opportunity for scps to improve the supports available to newcomer families is to provide the means necessary to build a new social network (ansion & merali, 2017; ben-cheikh & rousseau, 2013; reitmanova & gustafson, 2008), through informal or formal community supports (hoen, 2003; stewart et al., 2012) that can help develop trusted relationships (fontil & petrakos, 2015). for instance, fontil and petrakos (2015) report the buffering-capacity of support systems (e.g., teachers, family, and community supportive services) to help overcome challenges associated with resettlement. community networks are especially important for newcomer families as they navigate supports for early childhood development (maiter & stalker, 2011). stewart et al. (2012) suggest that programming for newcomer children should encourage age-based, gender-based, and language-based groupings (stewart et al., 2012) to effectively nurture positive relationships and develop social networks. intersectoral collaboration among organizations is especially helpful when addressing the supportive needs of newcomers, by coordinating different types of support (i.e., instrumental, practical, social) and should be made known to newcomers (stewart et al., 2008). ideally, parenting programs should be designed and implemented that are meaningful and relevant to newcomer families. developing a peer-to-peer support system for newcomer parents to be supported by someone from their culture (klassen et al., 2012) would be a way of informing and educating parents about resources while also providing the means to build a new social network. discussion our scoping review reveals a range of factors that affect newcomer families’ access and experiences of supports for early childhood development in their new canadian communities. in turn, these factors are influenced by the beliefs, socio-cultural practices, and actions of both the families and the systems, newcomer families' experiences with programs and services to support early childhood… 193 institutions, and organizations designed to support them. while major themes were outlined above it is important to recognize that the obstacles and opportunities within one domain influence the other and all interact to shape the experiences of newcomer families with young children. to critically examine and better understand our results, we looked at them in relation to the raised between cultures (raised) model. the raised model builds on bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory (1979) and was designed collectively by researchers, service providers, educators, policy-makers, and immigrant community members to inform culturally competent practice with immigrant families and young children (brosinsky et al., 2018). the model outlines six key factors that when considered by educators and practitioners working with newcomer families can contribute to children’s well-being, as outlined in figures 2 and 3. the factors comprising the raised acronym are: reveal culture, acknowledge premigration experiences, identify post-migration systemic barriers, support family and community strengths, establish connections between environments, and determine child outcomes together with families. the findings from our review connect well to the interdependent factors within the raisded model and suggest the model would be a useful tool for developing, delivering, and sustaining successful, meaningful, culturally relevant supports for early childhood development. figure 2. raised model, reprinted from “raised between cultures: new resources for working with children of immigrant or refugee background” by l. brosinsky, r. georgis, r. gokiert, t. mejia and a. kirova, 2018, childhood education, 94, p. 20. reveal culture this factor of the raised model highlights the importance of understanding how culture, including the social practices, beliefs, and norms of different communities, shapes every aspect of family life, including access and experiences of early childhood services and programs. the raised model stresses that while some cultural traditions are visible and apparent (e.g., food, clothing, language), others are less visible (e.g., beliefs about childhood development, value placed on dental care, post-partum practices). the results of our review suggest that it is important to identify, understand, and respect the deeper meaning behind these culturally-influenced practices and norms (brosinsky et al., 2018). for example, what is revered in some cultures (e.g., stoicism during childbirth) can be viewed as confusing or worrying to others (higginbottom et al., 2013). without recognition and acceptance of cultural differences, the risk of stigmatization, assumptions, and misinterpretation is high. moreover, if families feel their customs or beliefs are not respected, they may avoid seeking necessary supports (rink et al., 2017; stewart et al., 2006). nearly every study in our scoping review emphasize that culturally sensitive and responsive support is vital, providing support for the raised model’s advocacy for the provision of professional development to scps for culturally responsive service delivery. alison brown et al. 194 further, language is intertwined with culture. most of the reviewed articles discuss how not sharing a common language creates numerous challenges for families as they attempt to access and experience early childhood services and programs. language barriers lead to families being unaware of programs and services, unable to navigate the unfamiliar systems, or experience discomfort, discrimination, or misunderstandings in the provision of those programs and services. limited dominant language proficiency also creates challenges in securing education or employment opportunities, directly and indirectly compounding constraints in accessing programs and services for early childhood development. cultural brokers, translators, and interpreters can strengthen the provision of supports, facilitating shared understanding (dumbrill, 2009; king et al., 2011; woodgate et al., 2017). intensive language supports can strengthen families’ abilities to navigate the additional services they need. acknowledge pre-migration experiences this factor emphasizes the need for scps to understand that every newcomer family had experiences prior to their migration to canada that shape their current socio-cultural practices and actions. learning about and acknowledging these experiences can uncover the information necessary to develop and deliver effective, responsive supports for early childhood development. our review included studies reporting the experiences of families who voluntarily chose to come to canada for economic or family reasons, families who did not choose canada but were forced to flee their countries of origin and provided refuge in canada, and families who were looking for better health care and educational opportunities. regardless of their motivations for moving to canada, all families left behind social networks, and familiar systems and processes and as a result, many experienced feelings of isolation and fear. a sense of belonging is a vital component of the inclusion of vulnerable groups, such as newcomer families, into local canadian community contexts. canadian early childhood programs and services should be developed to take into consideration global mobility and migration. additionally, families initially relied on their pre-migration knowledge and experiences of navigating early childhood development supports and services, despite that canadian systems (e.g., government, healthcare, educational, social development) may be quite different (amin & elsalhy, 2017; ansion & merali, 2018; brassart et al., 2017; cobb, 2014; fontil & petrakos, 2015; higginbottom et al., 2013; jessri et al., 2013; khanlou et al., 2017; roer-strier et al., 2005; woodgate et al., 2017). this highlights the importance of knowing the political, cultural, and social contexts from which newcomer families have arrived and understanding how these contexts influence their current understandings and experiences. for example, families who come from a culture where stigma surrounding mental health or inclusive education remains, may be reluctant to access the required supports or be unfamiliar with how to navigate them (ahmed, bowen, & feng, 2017; ben-cheikh & rousseau, 2013; joyette, 2014; khanlou et al., 2015). findings from our review support the raised model’s recommendation to proactively learn about and acknowledge each family’s pre-migration experience as their stories can inform how to best support them. identify post-migration systemic barriers evident from our review is that several post-migration systemic barriers prevent or hamper newcomer families from accessing the supports they need to ensure their children’s well-being. systemic barriers are “practices, processes/procedures, and beliefs that do not take into account the social, cultural, and language realities of all families and may prevent meaningful participation and equitable access to programs and services” (georgis et al., 2017, p. 16). corroborating findings from past studies in other jurisdictions, families in our review of studies identified several issues that directly or indirectly created challenges to successfully securing supports for early childhood development: financial constraints, limited educational or employment opportunities, lack of proficiency in the dominant language (english or french), feeling unwelcomed and discriminated against, long waiting times, inconvenient locations or scheduling, lack of affordable childcare or transportation, complicated forms, lack of insurance, and stringent eligibility requirements for certain services. identifying newcomer families’ needs and being aware of the obstacles in meeting those needs can propel coordinated and strategic efforts to adapt or expand existing resources, as well as develop and implement new ones (falihi, 2019; roer-strier et al., newcomer families' experiences with programs and services to support early childhood… 195 2005). support family and community strengths the raised model highlights that alongside the multiple challenges experienced by families are their demonstrated assets and strengths. findings from our review confirm that family and community strengths such as multilingualism, interdependence, perseverance, and family bonds can be leveraged to improve access and experiences of supports for early childhood development (ben-cheikh & rousseau, 2013, p.?; khanlou et al., 2017; maiter & stalker, 2011; reitmanova & gustafson, 2008; stewart et al., 2008). several of the studies included in our review highlight the importance of family and community networks to combat feelings of isolation and to improve awareness of and access to meaningful information and services (ansion & merali, 2017; klassen et al., 2012; wahoush, 2009) for example, cologon (2016) investigated the experiences of families with children with disabilities and explains the requirement to better understand what views families hold and to not make assumptions about the views of parents. cologon’s (2016) research resonates with experiences of newcomers who often are stigmatized and misunderstood. hence, the necessity to work closely with newcomer families and community organizations that support their transition to canada. establish connections between environments this factor of the raised model underscores the importance of creating trusted connections between newcomer families’ homes and broader community supports. supports for early childhood development are often the first point of contact with their new communities; a trusted relationship between families and the varying care environments can be instrumental to ensuring children’s well-being. scps must explore creative and meaningful ways to enhance newcomer children’s and families’ connections to these spaces. establishing an intersectoral “network of champions” through better coordination, collaboration, and knowledge exchange among services and providers, appointing systems navigators, and delivering culturally responsive, in-home or community-embedded programming can secure those trusted connections (joyette, 2014; maiter & stalker, 2011; roer-strier et al., 2005simich et al., 2007; stewart et al., 2008, 2012; woodgate et al., 2017 ). determine child outcomes together with family the final factor of the raised model highlights the importance of working with, rather than for, families to identify needs and potential solutions in developing and delivering early childhood supports (georgis et al., 2017). this follows the united nations convention on the rights of the child that identifies in article 29, “the development of respect for the child's parents, his or her own cultural identity, language and values, for the national values of the country in which the child is living, the country from which he or she may originate, and for civilizations different from his or her own” (united nations, 1991). our findings highlight the importance of family-centered care and the need for scps and families to use creative communication methods in working together in develop shared understandings and expectations (e.g., of medical conditions and treatments, program and funding opportunities) (brassart et al., 2017; king et al., 2011; maiter & stalker, 2011). migration can co-occur with a loss of linguistic and cultural heritage, as well as a severing of connection to important traditions and histories (strekalova-hughes & wang, 2019). however, our findings illuminate the problematic nature of the prevailing integration rhetoric insofar as it places the onus on newcomers to adapt, rather than on the development of truly inclusive systems and structures. this perspective risks exacerbating existing inequalities and barriers to services for newcomer families. to assume that because newcomers may have had traumatic experiences and therefore may lack the understanding necessary to identify and navigate available supports, implies that their socio-cultural knowledge are devoid of holistic and responsive relational practices. alison brown et al. 196 strengths, limitations and gaps this article reports a comprehensive, systematic review of the most recent available evidence exploring the experiences of newcomer families supports and services for early child development in canada. our use of the arksey and o’malley (2005) scoping review framework is a strength, as is our discussion of the results using the raised between cultures model. as well, this work is being conducted by a team with diverse expertise in a variety of fields relevant to this work, and experience in conducting evidence synthesis, including scoping reviews (brown, spencer, mcisaac & howard, 2020; mcisaac, spencer, chiasson, kontak & kirk, 2019; spencer, rehman & kirk 2015). a typical restriction of scoping reviews is that they do not include quality assessment; we can therefore not speak to the quality of articles included in this study. further, each newcomer family has its own story and migration path which can influence its access to and experience of supports and resources. a comparison of experiences between those in different immigrant categories was beyond the scope of this study. one of the strengths of scoping reviews is their ability to identify gaps in the literature that inform where future research should or might take place. a critical gap identified in this review is that no included studies were conducted from the perspective of newcomer children. future research would benefit from positioning newcomer children’s voices as the focus (ajodhia-andrews, 2016; den besten, 2010; roxas, gabriel & becker, 2017). child-centred perspectives would allow us to better understand of newcomer children's experiences of programs and services that are designed for them and to more fully understand children's capacity to influence and transform their social and cultural surroundings (james, jenks & prout, 1998). even in a review focused on the experiences of newcomer families, some of the included studies considered only the perspectives of scps. additional research should centre the voices and ideas of newcomer children and families as they describe and interpret their experiences related to early childhood programs and services in the canadian context. as pence and nsamenang (2008) state: [westernized universal] assumptions and understandings have become the normal and natural way to see and understand children, regardless of culture and context. local perspectives, activities, and practices are all too often considered to be deviant or deficient by comparison and, like local languages, submerged in their wake (p. 1). relatedly, many of the included articles subscribed to the prevailing rhetoric around integration, continuing to position newcomers as those who must adapt. research with newcomer families should include an explicit discussion of how the barriers they experience do not reveal their lack of understanding or navigational skills, but point to the ways in which education, healthcare, and service structures continue to best serve privileged groups. as well, while included studies were primarily qualitative and therefore able to illuminate the experiences of newcomer families, only one study used a participatory approach. future research in this area should consider the strengths that could be added by using participatory and community-based methodologies. much of the research reviewed was conducted in fields of education, social work, and health sciences. conducting research on newcomer families’ access to services to supports in fields such as psychology and sociology would enable other orientations and perspectives to emerge that can contribute to richer insights. a final gap identified by this review is that it is reflective primarily of experiences in only three large canadian provinces, where supports and infrastructure are likely to be most accessible; future research should aim to explore the experiences of newcomer families in provinces and territories with smaller populations and those in rural or remote areas. conclusions and implications this paper used a scoping review method to examine the findings of recent studies (2000-2019) about newcomer families’ experiences with supports and services in canada. it utilized the raised between cultures (brosinsky et al., 2018) model to critically examine and better understand our results. in describing and interpreting what is known about newcomer families’ experiences with programs and services to support early childhood development in canada, our scoping review identifies ways family and newcomer families' experiences with programs and services to support early childhood… 197 community assets can be enhanced to better ensure families thrive. our findings reveal three prevalent and connected themes (language and culture, structural barriers and opportunities, and psychosocial factors, social supports, and relationships) that reinforce the raised model’s factors scps must consider to better ensure newcomer children’s well-being. a responsive understanding and appreciation of cultural diversity to provide appropriate, inclusive, and meaningful care from scps is critical. this involves providing translation and interpretation and increased communication between newcomer families and service providers. given the myriad structural barriers experienced by newcomer families (including lack of affordability for services and programs, un/underemployment, challenges in navigating education systems, and administrative-related barriers), in-home consultations should be offered where possible, multi-service centres should be developed, a holistic approach for delivering services and programs should be taken, and there should be increased interprofessional collaboration to bridge the provision of services. finally, scps must acknowledge that the experiences of newcomer families are shaped by their mental health, which is further shaped by the preand post-migration experiences and their cultural norms and beliefs. this means that establishing supportive and trusting formal and informal relationships is essential, which requires scps be knowledgeable and friendly, culturally sensitive, capable of soliciting and addressing the concerns of parents and using a strength-based approach to practice. further, this scoping review shows that newcomer families’ actions and relationships are influenced by social, political, and historical discourses that contribute to their daily experiences with canadian early childhood programming and services. in this way, agency plays a central role in deciphering newcomer families’ needs and desires. there is a requirement to explore more fully research that examines newcomer families’ experiences when living and partaking in canadian early childhood programs. this type of research will help to inform if their needs are being met, but more importantly, if they feel like they are contributing members of our communities. in addition, this scoping review highlights the merit in exploring the development of policies, practice, and research in early childhood contexts that advocate for newcomers to increasingly participate in decision-making processes that impact their families’ lives and well-being. declarations acknowledgements: the research team wishes to thank samantha rioux, sarah morris, and nahal fakhari for their support in conducting the search and help reviewing articles. authors’ contributions: ab and jdm conceived and designed the study. ab and th conducted the search, article selection, and data extraction with support from jdm. ab and th drafted and wrote the manuscript. ab, jdm, th, sr, sb, rs, and am were involved in the interpretation of data and critically revising the manuscript. all authors read and approved the final manuscript. competing interests: the authors declare that they have no competing interests. funding: this research was undertaken, in part, thanks to funding from the canada research chairs program and an internal new scholars grant from mount saint vincent university. the funding bodies did not have any role in the design of the study, collection, analysis, and interpretation of data, or in writing the manuscript. references abihanna, r. 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(n.d.). early child development. retrieved from http://www.who.int/ social_determinants/themes/earlychilddevelopment/en/ woodgate, r. l., busolo, d. s., crockett, m., dean, r. a., amaladas, m. r., & plourde, p. j. (2017). a qualitative study on african immigrant and refugee families’ experiences of accessing primary health care services in manitoba, canada: it’s not easy! international journal for equity in health, 16(1), 5, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-016-0510-x alison brown et al. 202 appendix a: summary of charted data author, year, location study purpose method, design, sample study’s key findings experiences with early childhood supports barriers to supports opportunities for improved supports ahmed, bowen, & feng, 2017, saskatoon, sk to understand how refugee women understand and experience maternal depression and social support mixed-methods utilizing questionnaires and focus groups; 12 perinatal syrian refugee women maternal depression is prominent in syrian refugee women recently resettled in canada; migration jeopardizes mental health; women reluctant to disclose depressive symptoms experience of migration and resettlement affects maternal mental health: difficulty expressing feelings of depression stigma of mental health; privacy concerns; language; transportation; lack of childcare raise awareness among refugee women of causes, symptoms, treatment of maternal depression; raise clinician awareness of social determinants of refugee women’s health; provide trained interpreters, increased opportunities for social connection and culturally appropriate screening and services; family (especially mother) reunification alaggia, maiter, & jenney, 2017, toronto, on explore how support workers in shelter and community-based services respond to the language needs of clients with limited language abilities due to nationality qualitative utilizing focus groups; 26 support workers between four focus groups language barriers are prominent issues for newcomers seeking protection services. five themes associated with language barriers included: enhancing client engagement and selfagency; advantages and drawbacks in use of interpreters; creative and intensive translation strategies; structural challenges; gender and cultural considerations interpreters were clientvalued; positive client engagement when clients could tell stories in their preferred language; some preferred to speak in english to learn about systems; extra steps were taken with ipv clients as the nature of the conversations were uncomfortable; structural constraints existed which influenced how the service providers were able to are for newcomers; providers need to be understanding of environmental and cultural contexts language; inadequate resources for support services to employ cultural interpreters or to train support workers provide training for workers in multiple contexts with specific protocols; organizational commitment to support the worker–client relationship when language challenges exist; increased funding for service provision for clients with language challenges amin & elsalhy, 2017, edmonton, ab to explore factors affecting children’s dental attendance among new immigrants cross-sectional quantitative utilizing a questionnaire; 314 newcomer child-parent pairs at the pre-school level main determinants of children’s dental attendance: perceived efficiency of parental checking, perceived dental check-up as a painful experience, lack of insurance and time; less than half of immigrant children had a dental visit in last year majority of parents believed that going to the dentist was somewhat effective or very effective for detecting caries; parents were unaware of dental status until they visited a dentist; after a visit, parents were more aware of the need to seek treatment children’s resistance; lack of time and lack of knowledge; lack of insurance; weather, transportation; lack of childcare; difficulty finding a dentist increased awareness of the importance of dental visits; education that visits do not necessarily cause discomfort; increased supports for insurance newcomer families' experiences with programs and services to support early childhood… 203 author, year, location study purpose method, design, sample study’s key findings experiences with early childhood supports barriers to supports opportunities for improved supports ansion & merali, 2018, edmonton, ab investigate the experiences and adjustment processes of an ethnically mixed group of latino immigrant mothers and fathers raising young children in canada without extended family support networks qualitative; interpretative inquiry of interview data; 5 latino couples with at least one child under the age of 10 felt increased family responsibility following migration leading to poor emotional well-being, leading to adoption of canadian family norms (e.g., new parenting partnerships) which increased nuclear family cohesion and paternal engagement; rebuild social network through friends (‘surrogate family members’); anxiety, fear dissipates through increased system contact initially, lack of support led to depression, loneliness, fear or worry, fatigue and symptoms of burnout; successful adaptations once they access services; new support networks were established in surprising ways, such as through interfaces with friends and the health care and school systems; new relationships compensated for the loss of extended family support systems initial lack of social support; fear and skepticism regarding the canadian health care system care providers should acknowledge newcomers’ difficulties in resettlement at first meeting; appoint a systems navigator to help families remain culturally empowered and to help access services; provide opportunities for building social network; normalize families’ experiences, feelings badri, wolfe, farmer, & amin, 2018, edmonton, ab to better understand how filipino parents perceive and experience adhering to preventative dental attendance for their preschool children, and the psychosocial factors influencing adherence inductive focused ethnography; 18 filipino parents with children of 2-6 years of age psychosocial factors (stressors, resources) shaped parents' beliefs and perceptions of pediatric dental care; premigration, parents took preventative strategies as dental care was expensive; post-migration, parents open to dental care, despite socioeconomic hardships stressors negatively affected, while resources positively affected, the participants’ perceptions, experiences, beliefs and behaviors around adherence to dental care for their children financial struggles, lack of access to pediatric dentist, not provided information about oral health, poor communication from dental providers acculturation; high quality dental services; knowledgeable, friendly, culturally competent providers and staff, referrals/reminders ben-cheikh & rousseau, 2013, quebec to understand the impact of an autism diagnosis disorder or a pervasive developmental disorder on the social support networks of newly immigrated north african parents qualitative, utilizing semistructured interviews; 10 individual parents autism diagnosis reorganizes a families' internal and external social networks; group support with other mothers was beneficial; therapeutic alliance must hold through intercultural communication difficulties and administrative obstacles long wait times for services; negative feelings towards health care system and workers; perception of health care workers lacking empathy being discriminating; experienced stigma; negative psychological outcomes post-diagnosis wait times; poor interaction with health care system leading to subsequent avoidance greater awareness by health and social professionals of the interaction between the migratory context and the social network challenges associated with autism diagnosis; opportunities for increased social network alison brown et al. 204 author, year, location study purpose method, design, sample study’s key findings experiences with early childhood supports barriers to supports opportunities for improved supports brassart, prévost, bétrisey, lemieu, desmarais, 2017, montreal, gatineau, and quebec city, qc filling gap in knowledge of how service providers address barriers and strategies to enhance engagement in treatment by immigrant parents raising a child with a disability qualitative, interviews; 21 service providers (20 women, 1 man, all caucasian) service providers' knowledge of barriers and strategies for immigrant parents raising a child with a disability centred around three main strategies for overcoming barriers: overcoming language barrier; developing shared understanding of the child's disability; helping parents understand the treatment process na (from sps point of view) language; divergent beliefs about child’s diagnosis; misunderstanding of the health care system, divergent beliefs about the role of parents in treatment; rigidity and complexity of health care system; lack of sp training for cultural sensitivity develop a shared understanding of the child’s disability between parents and service providers; help parents understand treatment process; training for sps to develop cultural competency; encourage sps to use other communication methods when language barriers exist (such as using translation software, pictures, photos); sps can engage parents by helping them better understand the importance of the therapy and define achievable expectations; sps should thoroughly understand parents’ non-acceptance of therapeutic goals because of cultural reasons and divergent beliefs about the role of the family in treatment; interprofessional collaboration (e.g., social workers) can help parents navigate the systems cobb, 2014, urban centre in ontario identify barriers, and strategies to address those barriers, faced by culturally and linguistically diverse (cld) parents to interacting with school professionals in the context of special education critical qualitative inquiry; case study of a koreancanadian mother being culturally and linguistically diverse influences knowledge awareness, gathering, and use of special education milieu, which in turn influences inclusion in school procedures maternal language barrier influenced knowledge of supports that were available; awareness stemmed from premigration system which differed greatly; maternal discomfort with school when discussing use of special education (based on different systems, lack of awareness and opportunity to comfortably advocate) language; lack of awareness of procedures or supports (special education registration expectations, documentation requirements, application timelines, child and parent rights, translation), lack of cultural competence among staff establish strong connections between feeder daycare centres and schools to ease transition; coordinate and integrate knowledge exchange between organisations and individuals; provide translation/interpretation; establish equity committees within schools and professional development for culturally responsive practices newcomer families' experiences with programs and services to support early childhood… 205 author, year, location study purpose method, design, sample study’s key findings experiences with early childhood supports barriers to supports opportunities for improved supports dumbrill (2009); ontario to enable refugee parents to share their experiences and provide information that might help child protection workers and agencies to better engage refugee communities for participatory action; photovoice and focus groups; 11 participants (9 women, 2 men; 8 from west africa, 3 from southwest and central asia) despite this lack of confidence and mistrust in child protection and the government, refugee parents want to work with child welfare services to develop systems that act in the interests of their children; social workers should be aware of newcomers’ fears, settlement challenges, and hopes culture shock which went unaddressed by support workers; services were too short and lacking in support; unaware of after school programs stemming from language barriers; lack of culturally-appropriate services; experiences with social workers shaped by lack of cultural understanding, respect, and translators; feelings of judgement and misunderstanding from child protection workers language; post-traumatic stress; perceived racism; mistrust in government agencies and social work systems; lack of awareness of supports; lack of culturally-appropriate services social workers could build a deeper understanding and communicate with participants; address child welfare concerns and responses of the parents; service providers could build a greater awareness of the issues faced by refugee families; create initiatives where child protection agencies and welfare policymakers build relationships with refugee communities falihi, 2019, saskatoon, sk how do mid-level leaders of saskatoon’s community service provider organizations perceive the importance of cross-cultural responsiveness in supporting the cultural integration of newcomer families? qualitative; interview; social constructivist framework; 2 participants (scps) four types of capacity building for culturally responsive service delivery for newcomer families: expanding community awareness and responsiveness; leadership development; educational preparedness; culturally responsive resource development; consistent policies and procedures build capacity to expand community awareness and responsiveness by being aware of: need for change; existing need on multiple levels; existing relevant resources to use, adapt, build, and expand on; need for systematic strategic planning to address identified needs; need for ongoing, educational opportunities; cultural planning, brokering, and bridging when providing services. educational preparedness: upgrade education for front-line professionals and community service providers (e.g., professional development and cross-sectorial learning exchanges and field placements; policies and procedures should be delivered in a holistic approach with strategic planning on multiple levels alison brown et al. 206 author, year, location study purpose method, design, sample study’s key findings experiences with early childhood supports barriers to supports opportunities for improved supports fontil & petrakos, 2015, urban centre, quebec to explore the varying experiences, support systems, and obstacles of canadian and immigrant families of children with autism spectrum disorders (asds) during their transition to school qualitative utilizing semistructured interviews; 10 children (9 male, 1 female) with asds and their parents, half were immigrant (jamaica, china, peru, haiti, and the philippines) importance of home-school relationships; parents perceived the quality of care during preschool as more supportive than in elementary school; immigrant families reported language barriers with educators; resources such as educational and community support are beneficial parents felt that: working with educators who genuinely cared for and supported the needs of their children was an essential component of relationship; support systems, such as teacher knowledge or family and community support can help buffer challenges; used a variety of resources to gain support during settlement; sometimes support was lacking teachers lack pre-migration information; parents struggle with guilt and judgment, leading to isolation in home; divergent belief systems between home and school; communication between service or programs and school; language barriers impede communication transition practices (e.g., meeting elementary school teachers prior to transition) supports for teachers to involve parents; increased formal/informal community supports; develop trusted relationships; better utilize school psychologists gagnon, carnevale, saucier, clausen, jeannotte, & oxmanmartinez, 2010, montreal, qc to explore inhibitors and facilitators of migrant women for following through with referrals, to ultimately develop an intervention to address this reduced access issue qualitative, interviews and focus groups; 25 women with migration experience barriers included language differences, transportation and scheduling, low paternal engagement, child care, weather, potentially inappropriate referrals, and culture differences; facilitators included appropriate service referrals, caring professionals, and timely providing of information; both barriers and facilitators can be due to cultural discordance in health care expectations empathetic care encouraged women to follow-up; difficulties with accessing "hotline" care as it was in french; unsure how to make an appointment; outdated professional lists; complicated phone systems and inflexible scheduling; staff annoyed with extra children; incongruent understanding of appropriate medical care language; financial; limited knowledge of the transportation network; physical access and distance between home and appointment; weather; difficulty making appointments; husband’s availability; disengagement; lack of childcare; perceived culturally-inappropriate referrals develop culturally competent, organized referral pathways to culturalor faith-based health and social programs, considering culture, language, beliefs, family structure, family support systems, and knowledge of the health care system; ensure early receipt of information and empathetic professionals goel, bloch, & caulford, 2013, toronto, on describe the experiences of a group of new immigrants or their caregivers who were subject to the 3-month waiting period for the provincial health plan while in need of health care qualitative, semi-structured interviews; 7 participants, either immigrants or their caregivers, waiting for access to health care newcomers cited a lack of clear information and little assistance available leading to delayed care-seeking; unmet health care needs produced risk for emotional hardship and poor health outcomes; aspects of hardship included lack of support, economic instability, difficulty accessing alternative care options; lead to negative feelings toward canada three month waiting period to access health care following migration; lack of clear information and help from professionals when accessing health care services; negative social interactions influenced subsequent service access; fear of financial insecurity due to accessing health services; may have to choose between paying for care or cease care due to cost lack of information and lack of help from officials; three month waiting period once arriving to canada; financial; alternative care options eliminate the three month waiting period newcomer families' experiences with programs and services to support early childhood… 207 author, year, location study purpose method, design, sample study’s key findings experiences with early childhood supports barriers to supports opportunities for improved supports higginbottom, safipour, mumtaz, chiu, paton, & pillay, 2013, urban centre, alberta explore the perinatal experiences of women of sudanese origin to better understand how maternity services can better enable immigrant/minority women to have positive maternity experiences ethnographic focus groups; 12 sudanese women within one year postpartum divergent cultural beliefs (e.g., stoicism) and practices (e.g. hot foods) between patients and providers can lead to misunderstandings and are a barrier to meeting health care needs maternal settings; birthrelated behaviors are highly cultural revealing need for cultural sensitivity during labour, care providers misinterpret women’s signals (outward display of pain is considered weakness; childbirth perceived as natural and empowering) and misunderstand practices (desire for hot food) misinterpretation due to divergent cultural beliefs and practices facilitate cultural awareness and competency of care to prevent misunderstandings and even harm hoen, 2003, toronto, on, montreal, qc, vancouver, bc external evaluation of a program developed to help newcomer families promote their children’s development and success in school and improve their relationships with canadian education and social service systems program delivery directed at latin american parents of children ages 4-8 (fall) and parents of children from birth to kindergarten (spring); evaluation of the program high attendance at program sessions; mothers satisfied with program as they learned about topics of importance to them, their child’s development, and how to improve child’s school success; appreciated opportunity to speak in their own language; suitable logistics (location, time); desire for more in-depth coverage of some topics. in the program designed to support newcomer families, mothers: increased use of informal and formal supports; learned about children’s healthy development and how to promote it; learned and used “canadian ways” to promote children’s’ school readiness; learned about structures and services of canadian systems related to children and families; learned about their own and their children’s rights, and how to use them translate program delivery into necessary language(s); further development and acquisition of culturally appropriate resources using more current technology such as visual aids; focus implementation of supportive programs on newcomer families who are most at risk due to stressors (e.g., low education and income) jessri, farmer, & olson, 2012, edmonton, ab explore the beliefs, values and experiences that shape breastfeeding practices of middle-eastern mothers (from their own perspective) residing in a city in western canada qualitative ethnographic; 22 newcomer mothers from the middle east five layers of influence on maternal decision-making process: culture/society, community, health care system, family/friends and mother-infant dyad; religious beliefs were threaded throughout as determinant of breastfeeding decision positive experiences with wet-nursing in home country; negative experience with pumping milk in work bathroom; decision to breastfeed influenced by family members' religious beliefs; cultural tension between home and host country; believed their culture is not respected in canadian society even by health care professionals divergent cultural beliefs and practices; lack of awareness of community supports (e.g., clinics, hotlines); perceived lack of societal support; lack of nursing rooms at work or in public; mixed messages from healthcare information interventions must occur at different levels of influence and should consider religious beliefs to ensure cultural acceptability; practitioners may support breastfeeding through cultural competency, and respectfully acknowledging islamic beliefs and practices; bilingual clinicians alison brown et al. 208 author, year, location study purpose method, design, sample study’s key findings experiences with early childhood supports barriers to supports opportunities for improved supports joyette, 2014 ontario summarizes findings and recommendations from a consultation process conducted; investigate factors contributing to the reduction in use of ece services by newcomer parents as the time since arriving to canada increases; understand and address the. specific challenges and barriers that newcomer families experience in accessing or seeking out ece services newcomer parents of children aged 0-6; compared parents usage of supports to parents similar in sociodemographic characteristics; 223 newcomer parents, scps, and cultural/faith leaders participated in focus groups, surveys, and large community consultation four broad themes: reality of life in canada (high motivation in first six months of arrival in canada which wanes with the demands and stressors of re-settling); access and availability of services (travel and logistics; cost of childcare for other children; language difficulties; limited space, long waiting lists, being denied); relevance and quality of services and supports (felt isolated, overwhelmed, and lacking in traditional family supports; concerned over losing culture, language, values; stigma), and promotion and engagement (unaware of ecd programs and supports; mostly use word of mouth for gathering information; opportunities for connecting parents to ecd services are missed; limited chances of being referred to ecd services after first year post-settlement) advocate for public transit subsidies for families and children registered in city programs to overcome logistical issues; secure resources to support the development of multi-service centres; leverage opportunities for sharing tools, resources, knowledge, and skills that build capacity to create welcome, relevant, and inclusive ecd services and supports; establish a network of champions representing ecd, faith/ethnic groups, settlement and local government, and explore possibilities for the consolidation of efforts; develop strategy to encourage political attention and action on the needs and issues experienced by newcomer families and young children khanlou, mustafa, vazquez, davidson, & yoshida, 2017, toronto, on explore health promotion needs and strategies of newcomer mothers of children with developmental delays qualitative, interviews; 28 newcomer mothers with at least one child under two factors impacting mother's well-being are macro-level (financial, linguistic, and racial barriers, lack of programs and services) meso-level (social networks, mother blaming), and individual-level (lack of trust in health care system, limited leisure time, lack of self-esteem); identified health promotion strategies include self-care and expanded maternal-specific programs and services financial stress caused negative health consequences for mother and family; language barriers obstacle to accessing and navigating health care system; mothers felt isolated without their social support networks and without guidance from professionals; mistrust of health professionals; stigma is barrier to information seeking financial barriers; finding employment; language; lack of trust; lack of programs and services tailored to immigrant mothers of children with a developmental delay; inconvenient locations and times meaningful, relevant parenting programs; information sessions; social support groups newcomer families' experiences with programs and services to support early childhood… 209 author, year, location study purpose method, design, sample study’s key findings experiences with early childhood supports barriers to supports opportunities for improved supports khanlou, haque, sheehan, & jones (2015); ontario present perspectives of service providers on immigrant mothers’ challenges raising children with disabilities qualitative utilizing interviews; 27 service providers gender and immigration status interact for mothers of children with disabilities; challenges identified included structural, instrumental, emotional, and perceptual support; language barriers are significant for accessing these types of social support difficulty with navigating a new system and its complexities; extensive paperwork and lack of help form-filling by service providers; some mothers thought that sps had inadequate information of the needs of immigrant mothers of children with disabilities (disability awareness) language and communication; geographically-dispersed services; complex system to navigate meaning families were unsure where to go or who to ask for help and information; form-filling was complicated for mothers due to lack of professional help, time constraints, limited language skills; mothers may be unaware that access to health/education is their basic right and do not forcefully seek this out for their children utilize a case worker model to help mothers understand the systems of service, complete paperwork for them; inform about available resources; in big cities where lots of immigrants settles there could be a navigation system implemented; kilbride & ali, 2010, toronto, on to identify the key obstacles to learning english experienced by immigrant women, and their views on how to overcome obstacles qualitative utilizing focus groups and interviews; 30 immigrant mothers (8 each in the cantonese, mandarin, and urdu groups, 6 in the punjabi group) reasons for learning english were occupational pursuits, effective communication with health care providers, educators, and government, and for family well-being; barriers were financial and logistical mothers who face language barriers when navigating education system have children who are streamed into non-academic programmes, limiting their opportunities in higher education; children are unlikely to be aware of or receive special services; difficulty in accessing emergency services; some mothers rely on their children as translators when navigating the health system barriers to learning english: logistics of taking english language classes, especially for mothers who do shift work; financial barriers; eligibility requirements; racism; challenges with teaching methods needs-based subsidies for english classes – or free classes; holding local classes during weekends; provide childcare; provide interpreters in beginner levels; provide anti-bias professional development for all instructors alison brown et al. 210 author, year, location study purpose method, design, sample study’s key findings experiences with early childhood supports barriers to supports opportunities for improved supports king, lindsay, klassen, esses, & mesterman , 2011, ontario assess attitudinal, policy, and practice barriers to health service utilization by immigrant parents who are raising a disabled child or youth in ontario two-part mixed methods; assessed perceptions of three groups (community scps geared toward newcomer parents; 15 newcomer parents; scps in health care centres) regarding barriers in service delivery for newcomer families, extent of unmet needs, and extend to which services are culturally sensitive and familycentred; phase 1: qualitative assessment of perceptions of barriers and supports; phase 2: survey assessing families’ needs and experiences scps had no training in cultural competency newcomer parents had unmet needs regarding help finding available services; advocacy; day to day support for their child; lack of cultural competency in scps scps who have greater community connections are able to refer families to services available in the community; scps could be trained on how to work with translators, to be aware of what language services are available to newcomer families and not assume they know what supports exist; hire scps from diverse backgrounds to break down barriers; take extra to time to talk to newcomer parents about their knowledge of the services, supports, equipment, funding, and possibilities for their children; scps could link parents with a social worker or settlement worker to help navigate the system (finding services, form filling); newcomer parents with extended family in canada may fare better, due to the informational, emotional, and practical support they receive from family members klassen, gulati, watt, banerjee, sung, klaassen, dix, poureslami, & shaw, 2012, cancer centres across canada explore any special challenges faced by immigrant parents seeking care for their child with cancer; identify supportive factors qualitative, interviews; 50 first-generation asian parents context of being an immigrant made certain experiences particularly challenging; challenges include managing caregiving demand and financial strain, accessing support from others, and interfacing with the healthcare system; practical, emotional, social and informational support from extended family, their workplace, other cancer families, community organizations and health care providers parents had to take initiative when informationseeking about their child's illness and options; complex medical terminology was challenging to understand due to language barriers; some sought out information from other immigrant parents at the hospital; some parents did not know how to or what to ask for in terms of help; form filling to obtain financial assistance was difficult socio-economic status, resettlement issues; loneliness and social isolation; divergent cultural norms regarding health and illness; health information provided in englishlanguage only; obstacles to transportation; low health literacy; lack of culturerelevant resources and supports; discomfort with help-seeking; unfamiliar with canadian health care system; form-filling develop initiatives to increase cultural competency across the healthcare work force; increase number of readily available interpreter services; develop new ways of informing and educating parents about resources; develop a peer-to-peer support system for immigrant parents to be supported by someone from their culture newcomer families' experiences with programs and services to support early childhood… 211 author, year, location study purpose method, design, sample study’s key findings experiences with early childhood supports barriers to supports opportunities for improved supports maiter & stalker, 2011, large metropolitan centre, on better understand the stressors in the lives of south asian families perceived as contributing to involvement in the child protection system, and the services found helpful or unhelpful qualitative, long interview method; 20 south asian parents (12 women, 8 men) despite the many struggles , findings revealed the resilience, strength, resourcefulness, and personal agency of these parents participants reluctant to express dissatisfaction with services; some grateful for positive changes in family while others confused about investigative nature (vs support service); disappointed in lack of services; reporting to system caused mistrust in healthcare and social service providers; turnover in workers caused confusion/ interruption; sense of fear; both positive and negative experiences of worker-client relationship; parenting groups helpful and normalizing poor understanding about the reasons for child protection involvement; lack of cultural sensitivity and family-centred care; lack of social supports; men expressed feelings of inadequacy provide in-home, culturally responsive services that respond to needs of whole family; utilize strength-based approaches to practice; establish community networks merry, gagnon, kalim, & bouris (2011); montreal, vancouver, toronto to gain a greater understanding of barriers vulnerable migrant women face in accessing health and social services postpartum barriers to accessing care: refusal of care for infants of mothers covered under ifhp; maternal isolation and difficulty for public health nurses to reach women postpartum; lack of assessment, support and referrals for psychosocial concerns newcomer mothers were concerned about: refusal of care; maternal isolation and difficulty for public health nurses to reach women postpartum; language barriers; low health literacy; inadequate psychosocial screening; support and referrals; and lack of awareness of insurance coverage mothers were unsure how to access health care services leading to belief there were none available; felt unsupported by service providers; some stopped seeking services due to their refugee status; many were flat-out refused/denied care and service for their children or self some mothers do not own a cell phone leading to isolation; language; transportation; financial; low health literacy led to a reluctance to seek help or ask for the appropriate care; lack of awareness which services are covered by provincial health insurance; because of lack of childcare or transportation mothers couldn’t attend esl classes provide access to: subsidized language courses; social housing; government-sponsored benefits for parents; sps should implement screening to identify and refer highrisk mothers; sps should request additional or back up phone numbers and contact information, or do ‘drop-in’ visits; educate clinicians on claimants’ coverage/eligibility for services; use pictograms/ plain language to convey information alison brown et al. 212 author, year, location study purpose method, design, sample study’s key findings experiences with early childhood supports barriers to supports opportunities for improved supports reitmanova & gustafson, 2008, st. john’s, nl to document and explore the maternity health care needs and the barriers to accessing maternity health services from the perspective of immigrant muslim women living in st. john’s, nl. qualitative, interviews; 6 muslim women immigrant women had concern their cultural or religious beliefs impacted their experience of health care; limited access to culturallyrelevant resources and support; lack of knowledge about religion or culture among health care providers; poor social or community support; feeling embarrassed, insulted, or misunderstood, many women stopped seeking support women experienced discrimination, insensitivity and lack of knowledge about their religious and cultural practices; health information was limited or lacked the cultural and religious specificity to meet their needs during pregnancy, labor, delivery, and postpartum phases; emotionally unsupported by existing maternity health services which should be sensitive to cultural and linguistic contexts difficulty expressing health concerns or accessing supports due to language barrier; health care providers uniformed about maternity needs of muslim women; weak social supports; routine check-ups perceived as burden; no childcare for other children while attending pre-natal classes; cultural/religious challenges participating in programs attended by men design services that consider impact of religious diversity and migration status and ensure that immigrant muslim women receive relevant, useful information; offer women-only pre-natal classes to accommodate religious beliefs regarding mixed-sex events; provide healthcare providers cultural competency training; provide worship areas and translation/ interpretation services; establish and refer to social support networks; partner with immigrant services rink, muttalib, morantz, chase, cleveland, rousseau, & li, 2017, montreal, qc describe experiences of refugee claimant families who were denied health services; identify barriers to health care access and understand the impact; provide recommendations for child health care providers to improve access to care for refugee claimant children qualitative, interviews; 11 individual refugee parents (9 mothers, 2 fathers from caribbean, africa, middle east, southeast asia, south america) barriers to health care led to increased risk of negative health outcomes, psychological distress, financial burden, and social stigma all mothers reported being refused service or being asked to pay for services despite financial barriers; information was sought from word-of-mouth or social worker assistance; distress related to delayed care for their children; some actively avoided seeking care due to past experiences lack of continuous health insurance which was not well understood by health care provider; refusal of services or fees charged; lack of information regarding health care rights and services; language; financial enforce a no denial, no-fee policy so all children can access medical care; encourage medical professionals to sign up to be an interim federal health program provider; educate administrators, medical trainees, and all allied health professionals about refugee claimant health care rights roer-strier, strier, este, shimoni, & clark, 2005, across canada explore fathers values, expectations, role definitions, and beliefs related to being an immigrant father, opportunities for and barriers to fathering in related to their immigration, involvement in daily childcare responsibilities, their participation in intervention programmes for parents and families, and their recommendations for designing successful programmes that promote the involvement of fathers in the lives of their children qualitative, interviews; 24 immigrant fathers of preschool children (6 chinese, 1 from el salvador, 4 from colombia, 1 from chile, 2 from yugoslavia, 2 bosnian; 3 from india, 1 from nepal, and 3 from pakistan) fathers highly committed to playing central role; migration adjustment themes included role; involvement; meaning attached to paternal role; opportunities and barriers to fatherhood in host culture; cultural variation in themes as the meaning of fatherhood is a social and cultural construction; all fathers identified as main provider for family enthusiasm for resources (parks, playgrounds) that facilitate interaction between fathers and children, sense of safety and security, educational opportunities, and opportunities to learn about child development and parenting; lack of support networks and programs just for fathers language barriers and lack of meaningful employment impacts self-esteem and shapes parenting; lack of support networks; challenges with shift to new cultural norms (gender equality, shared parenting responsibilities, different notions of ‘authority’ culturally sensitive, holistic, comprehensive, collaborative programs to promote the health, social, emotional, physical, and cognitive development immigrant and refugee families through early childhood phases; intense supports for language training and employment; stronger social policies; combat institutional racism newcomer families' experiences with programs and services to support early childhood… 213 author, year, location study purpose method, design, sample study’s key findings experiences with early childhood supports barriers to supports opportunities for improved supports simich, wu, & nerad, 2007, toronto, on explore the experiences of living without regular immigrant status and implications for health security among irregular migrant families qualitative, interviews; 11 individual parents (8 women, 3 men) with diverse countries of origin although participants demonstrate resilience in maintaining a work ethic, moral self-image, and strong parenting, emotional distress related to their insecure situation is significant. all report unmet health needs that impact children perceived discrimination due to lack of legal status; worried about family separation; chronic stress and trauma impact ability to seek and access supports; inconsistent treatment from service providers psychological and practical toll due to lack of legal status; distrust/limited support outside family; financial burden of hospitalization; language barriers raise awareness of the challenges that irregular immigrants face; increase availability of communityembedded mental health services stewart, simich, shizha, makumbe, & makwarimba, 2012, urban centres in ontario and alberta design and pilot test a culturally congruent intervention that meets the support needs and preferences of ethno-culturally distinct refugee groups qualitative, interviews and face-to-face support groups facilitated by peers and professionals; 68 somali and sudanese refugees intervention gave african refugees informational and social support, decreased loneliness, expanded coping capacity; support groups filled information gaps on how to navigate service systems and practical support (resumes, workers’ rights, parenting info) refugees had difficulty accessing and navigating education, health-care, childcare, social assistance and employment; frustrated by the lack of information regarding available services adjusting to culture shock; language difficulties; loneliness and isolation; seeking safe and affordable housing, unemployment and under-employment after-school groups to support children’s engagement with school; support groups to build community, converse in mother tongue; encourage age-based, gender-based, and language-based groupings stewart, anderson, beiser, mwakarimba, neufeld, simich, & spitzer, 2008, toronto, on, edmonton, ab, vancouver, bc examine immigrant women family caregivers’ access and barriers to services and supports, and to describe implications for services, programmes and policies qualitative, interviews; 29 immigrant women family caregivers, 15 service providers barriers comparable to canadian-born caregivers with low income, low flexibility, heavy demands; may avoid formal services because of lack of cultural sensitivity; challenges compounded by language, immigration and separation from home country and family when accessing services, women encountered waiting lists and inconvenient hours of service; felt that services should be reaching out to the women as well as women reaching out immigration policies; language peer mentors to help women through challenges which are culture and language specific; recruit volunteer translators to attend doctor appointments; modifying and expanding policies and programmes which influence maternal ability to care for family members with illnesses or disabilities within the context of canadian society (e.g., information, transportation, language, attitudinal and network barriers); intersectoral collaboration among agencies is essential to reduce barriers; establish services which are linguistically and culturally appropriate alison brown et al. 214 author, year, location study purpose method, design, sample study’s key findings experiences with early childhood supports barriers to supports opportunities for improved supports stewart, anderson, beiser, mwakarimba, neufeld, simich, & spitzer, 2008, toronto, on, edmonton, ab, vancouver, bc understand the meanings of social support for immigrants and refugees; to explore the types and adequacy of formal supports mixed-methods, interviews and linking to census data; 120 newcomers and 60 service providers challenges that required support included language difficulties, finding employment, system navigation, family dynamics, childcare, immigration status, expectations versus reality, discrimination. challenges tended to co-occur; coping hindered by limited personal resources and depleted social networks difficulty accessing services, such as childcare, can disrupt family dynamics (e.g., role changes, children’s welfare); difficulty finding adequate childcare based on insufficient subsidies to cover high costs of child care; obstacle for accessing services is discrimination; language mediated other challenges; (e.g., finding work, navigating systems); barriers exacerbated by inadequate informal support from dwindling social support network; discrimination led to problems finding employment and housing; dwindling social networks; extensive unmet support needs due to service providers’ bureaucratic and resource constraints; immigration status prevented refugees from accessing social services and programs, delayed family reunification policies and programs should foster culturally relevant support; both formal and inform social supports were helpful; intersectoral collaboration among organizations could address the support needs of immigrants and refugees; understand different types of support (i.e., instrumental: practical help integrating into new environment); make supports very well-known and advertised to newcomers; walhoush (2009); ontario generate evidence about equity and access to health services for preschool children in refugee families mixed-method including interviews; 55 refugee claimant mothers barriers to care include financial, inadequate health insurance, lack of knowledge about available services, fear of judgement; perceived discrimination; health insurance was not sufficient to predict service uptake; even canadian-born ohip-covered children had little access to information about services; parents tended to self-problem solve to compensate child’s health insurance was not sufficient to ensure access to health care; lacking information on health services available leading to extensive problem-solving to manage child’s illness; prior to accessing health services, mothers contacted other mothers before deciding if a hospital visit was necessary for child; negative prior experiences with providers hindered willingness to help-seek in the future financial; negative prior experiences influencing subsequent help-seeking behaviors; lack of continuous health care insurance; lack of awareness of available services; refugee claimants excluded from settlement supports means parents are not connected to relevant sources of support and information that could help them manage child’s well-being health care staff should be trained in working with refugee and other immigrant groups; use sensitive explanations of expected delays and wait times to prevent being interpreted as discriminatory; care providers should be able to address the informational needs of refugee mothers watt, dix, gulati, sung, klaassen, shaw, & klassen, 2011, canada describe asian immigrant parents’ experiences of familycentred care in paediatric oncology settings qualitative, constructive grounded theory, interviews; 50 firstgeneration asian immigrant parents parents generally satisfied with care; concerns included low perceived status as member of medical team, inconsistency in quality and coordination of care, insensitivity of care providers, providers providing inappropriately explicit frustration and not understanding why the same questions were being asked repetitively; felt they were left in the dark concerning their child’s care; those with english proficiency found the doctors and information language; fragmented care led to confusion of which service provider to seek help from enhanced communication of the elements of family centred-care between healthcare staff and families is needed to negotiate a clear role for the parents as partners of the healthcare team (e.g., explain family-centred care and the potential role of parents in the care team) newcomer families' experiences with programs and services to support early childhood… 215 author, year, location study purpose method, design, sample study’s key findings experiences with early childhood supports barriers to supports opportunities for improved supports information with children without parental consent provided was sufficient and comprehensive; some felt they did not have enough time to think through all the information due to the urgency to start treatment; some parents felt their decisions about what was best for their child was not respected or considered woodgate, busolo, crockett, dean, amaladas, & plourde, 2017, urban centre, mb examine experiences of access to primary health care by african immigrant and refugee families qualitative, interviews; 83 african refugee immigrant families african newcomer families experienced three major barriers to accessing primary health care: expectations different than reality; facing a new life; utilizing a networking approach to increase access families felt that expectations of the canadian health system were not met; waiting times were too long; challenges in cultural differences concerning care perceived high cost of medication and non-basic health care services; care lacked cultural sensitivity; unfamiliarity with health system; system; dependent on sponsor to get oriented to new health care system; transportation; finding employment; language; lack of interpretation services or dissatisfaction with translation services culturally relevant programs and health care where care providers can reflect on values, beliefs, and practices of others; collaborative networking approaches; policies that focus on addressing social determinants of health; increase efforts to raise awareness about potential supports and services for refugee families with languageappropriate materials; increase provincially funded programs that do not exclude based on neighbourhood/area; subsidizing indirect and non-basic health care costs for low income newcomer families; culture-specific community organizations could act as a knowledge broker to link service providers with immigrant communities