Everyday Care Situations as Learning Environments in Danish Early Childhood Settings NERA 42nd Congress Lillehammer 2014 Karen Prins Ass. Professor, UCC Denmark
Project Introduction Understanding everyday situations as learning environments through videorecording of various situations, and through interviews with participating professionals about their intentions. Part of UCC project: Children s Learning in Daycare Settings with the aim of contributing to a constructive concept of learning. A project in its early stage. 2
Context 3 The Battle on Daycare institutions (Camilla Smidt et al(red)) 2014 Learning in Daycare institutions an attempt of Conquering (Christian Aabro red)2014 A highly politicised field where learning is often: connected to school, to a certain curriculum and aims for childrens learning outcome; associated with a neoliberal agenda that is pushing forward the schoolpreparation purpose for early childhood settings; As the opposite of a progressive education inspired tradition
Though that is an important analysis, we would like to contribute to a learning concept, that can speak about possibilites and limitations in what, where and how younger children are learning in early childhood settings. 4
A few words about terminology Kindergarden, daycare institutions, daycare centres, early childhood education centres, child care, child care centres, educational centres, preschools early childhood settings 5 Pedagogues, pedagogical staff, educationalists, teachers, preschool teachers, kindergarden teachers, early childhood teachers, professionals
Children s Everydaylife - The Flow of the day Three types of situations; Adult initiated activities Child initiated activities Everyday care situations 6
Why everyday care situations? In the Danish Pedagogical tradition everyday care situations have historically been seen as important and as an integrated part of the professional work with the children, where the professionals have many intentions for children s outcome (Ahrenkiel et al 2012), (Krogh, Smidt, og Stæhr 2013), (Krogh & Smidt 2013). 7 At the same time a lot of what is actually happening in these everyday situations seem to go by unnoticed (Ahrenkiel et al 2012), and a large part of the professional attention, reflection, documentation and evaluation in relation to children s learning, is devoted to the adult iniated situations(andersen 2013), (Plum 2011)
Children in Public Day-care 8 100% 80% Average time pr day; 6,7 Hours 60% 40% 20% 0% Nursery KinderG 1-2 years 3-5 years Danmarks Statistik 2011
Research Questions How can everyday care situations be understood as learning environments for children in ECS? What are the professionals intentions for the everyday care situations? What is actually happening in practice in everyday care situations? How are professionals and children participating, relating, comunicating? How are everyday care situations organized, structured and implemented in practice? How do professionals connect intentions for children s outcome in everyday situations with curriculum descriptions(læreplanen)? 9
Research Design: 10 Interviews with professionals about their intentions for the chosen situations Videorecordings of the chosen routine Our own observation of the recordings, topics of interests, topics from intentions Groupinterview with participating staff while watching the video
11 Film
Challenges at present time 12 How to conceptualize the everyday care situations? Routines, Rythms, Care situations? How to capture everyday situations with the camera? *What s in focus?(tobin et al 2009, Tobien Hsueh 2010) *When does a situation start and stop?(kampmann 2002) *What is my impact on the situation and how can I work with it?, (Kornerup 2011, Ehn & Löfgren 1994)
References Andersen, Peter Ø. (2013): Pædagogiske læreplaner, dokumentation og evaluering. Hans Reitzel, København. Andersen, P.Ø. og Kampmann, J. (2002): Børns legekultur. Gyldendal Uddannelse. København. Ahrenkilde, A et al (2012): Daginstitutionen til hverdag: Den upåagtede faglighed. Frydenlund. København. Danmarks Statistik (2011): Børnepasning mv 2010 i Nyt fra danmarks statistik nr. 80. 22 Februar 2011. Ehn, B og Löfgren,O: (1994):Kulturanalyse. Krogh, S, Smidt, S, Stæhr, M (2013): Midtvejsevaluering. Klynger i udvikling 2. UCC. København. Kornerup, Ida (2011):Efteruddannelse og dagtilbud under forandring. Dagtilbudspædagogers deltagelse i politisk initieret efter og videreuddannelse i det omkalfatrede velfærdssamfund. Roskilde Universitetsforlag. Lave, J og Wenger, E (2003): Situeret læring og andre tekster. Hans Reitzels forlag. København Plum Maja 2011: Dokumenteret faglighed: Analyser af hvordan pædagogisk faglighed produceres gennem læreplanernes dokumentationsteknologi. Ph.D. thesis, Københavns Universitet. Rasmussen, Kim (2013):Viseulle tilgange i tværfaglige pædagogiske studier. Roskilde Universitesforlag Rasmussen, K. og Smidt, S. (1998): Spor af børns institutionsliv - Unges beretninger og erindringer om livet i børnehaven. Hans Reitzels forlag. København. Tobin, Joseph and Yeh Hsueh(2010) The Poetics and Pleasures of Video Ethnography of Education. In R. Goldman (Ed). Video Research in the Learning Sciences. NY: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 2007. Tobin, Joseph et al(2009); Preschool in Three cultures revisited. The University of Chicago press. 13