Search

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine changes in speech-language pathology service provision in Iceland during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Method: Data were analyzed for 53 Icelandic speech-language pathologists (SLPs) who completed an online questionnaire between September and October 2020. Participants represented 54.1% of all SLPs practicing in Iceland. The questionnaire examined SLP employment status, populations served, and use of telepractice pre-COVID-19, during COVID-19, and after the first wave of COVID-19. Results: During COVID-19, speech-language pathology services in Iceland were reduced, but many SLPs were able to continue working in some capacity. Services to children and those with lifelong communication difficulties were most affected. There was an increase in the use of telepractice during the first wave of COVID-19, and the most frequently reported platform used was Kara Connect. Qualitative analysis of participants' free-text responses revealed that SLPs saw a range of advantages (themes: SLP service delivery and client accessibility) and disadvantages (themes: technology, personal, interpersonal, and clinical context) of telepractice. Conclusions: Telepractice provided a viable solution for maintaining clinical services in Iceland in response to restrictions on traditional in-person services. This survey provides a unique window into the practices of SLPs in a context that is underrepresented in the literature.

Interpretation in cross-language qualitative research presents a range of methodological and ethical challenges. Among these are the interpreters’ influence on data generation and interview power d...

Knowledge of the fidelity with which interventions are delivered in research studies is crucial to meaningful examination of intervention impact. This paper presents a review of fidelity implementation (FOI) measurements in interventions jointly delivered by speech-language pathologists (SLP) and parents in research for preschool-aged children who stutter (CWS). Four key FOI components were examined: dosage, adherence, quality, responsiveness. Thirty-six studies met the inclusion criteria for this study. Articles were published between 1990 and 2020 described nine different interventions and examined CWS aged 2-6 years. No study reported all FOI components in both the clinical and the home setting and five did not report on any FOI component in either setting. The number of FOI components reported ranged from 0 to 4 in both clinical (M = 1.5) and home (M = 1.0) settings. Across studies, dosage was most often reported (n = 27, 75.0%) and responsiveness was least often reported (n = 16, 44.4%). The number of FOI components reported in articles did not increase over time, although a trend towards greater reporting in recent years was observed. Poor reporting of FOI in intervention research presents a serious methodological concern that impacts the ability of clinicians and researchers to interpret the findings of these studies. Rigorous measurement and reporting of FOI in future intervention studies is required in order to better inform evidence-based practices for interventions with CWS.

The study examines the views of children and educators with regards to belonging in one diverse preschool setting in Iceland. It builds on the ideology of the politics of belonging, referring to ch...

The aim of this research was to gain a deeper understanding of young children’s participation in a diverse peer culture within an Icelandic preschool and their sense of belonging in the preschool community. The participants were 12 children, aged 5–6 years. Data were constructed with each child while they engaged in a walking tour of the preschool in which children took photographs of features of interest as a basis for a subsequent conversation. Participant observations in the preschool classroom were also undertaken to understand in more detail the nature of children’s relationships with each other. Children with Icelandic backgrounds had more power and control in play activities than children with diverse backgrounds. Children who had been enrolled at the preschool for longer periods and who were more fluent in the Icelandic language had greater participatory opportunities than children with more recent enrolment and less experience with the Icelandic language. To ensure a more just preschool community in which all children experience belonging, teachers can encourage children to support and welcome other children’s different experiences and backgrounds, build communication skills and friendships.

Icelandic society has changed rapidly in recent decades. Immigration to Iceland has been growing steadily, and the country has evolved to become a relatively diverse society. In 1998, only 3.8% of preschool children had a mother tongue other than Icelandic. By 2018, this had increased to almost 14% (Hagstofa Islands, 2019 (Statistics Iceland)). In the city of Reykjavik, where the present study was conducted, this number is much higher. Preschools have a significant role to play for young children and their families in Iceland as preschools are where children spend most of their day. Preschools are often the first place where immigrant families meet other children and families. Among other things, children can learn about democracy, solidarity, equality and diversity (Evropuraðið, 2019 (European Commission)). The present study examines how this is put into practice and experienced by a diverse group of children and their educators in one preschool setting in Iceland. The study is grounded in the fields of Childhood Studies and the Children’s Rights Movement. The study makes use of a model created by Lundy (2007) for the implementation of Article 12 of the UNCRC. The model has four features. The first is space, which means that children must be given a safe space and an opportunity to express their views. The second, voice, indicates that children must be provided with appropriate information and assisted in expressing their views. The third, audience, means that their views must be communicated to someone with the responsibility to listen. And the last is influence, which requires that children’s views be taken seriously and acted upon appropriately. The study is also informed by the concept of ‘belonging’ (Yuval-Davis, 2006; Juutinen, 2018). We regard belonging as a fundamental need of all people, one which is closely related to relationships and interconnections with people, social inclusion, and participation. The study also used the lens of multicultural education to analyse the preschool pedagogy. Nine children and four educators participated in the study. Data construction was twofold. First, interviews were conducted with the children using pictures they took on computer tablets. The children walked around the preschool with the researcher and took pictures on the tablets that became the stimulus for conversations that followed. The findings from the study with the children were then introduced to the educators, who reflected on the children’s experiences. The findings inform the two themes; friendship and play, independence and self-dependence. In the minds of the children, belonging mainly meant friendship with other children in the preschool community. They connected friendship with play. They played mainly with children with similar cultural and language backgrounds. Children with non-Icelandic backgrounds seemed to have less choice of playmates and were more frequently excluded from play than their Icelandic peers. The children with Icelandic background also had more resources when they were excluded from play than children with foreign background. They were able to use Icelandic to express their feelings. The participating children were independent in terms of the daily activities of the preschool and they did not seek the educators’ assistance if something came up, but rather retired. The educators reflected on their practices from the perspectives of the children and they had various ideas about how to support their belonging. Such ideas included finding ways to help the children adapt to the school culture and assist them with the Icelandic language. The educators did not seem conscious of the multicultural policy of the city of Reykjavik (Reykjavikurborg, skola og fristundasvið, 2014) nor the emphasis on multicultural education and pedagogy that Icelandic educational authorities have expressed their will to move towards (mennta- og menningarmalaraðuneytið, 2020). From the findings of the study we can assume that the discourse about how to support the belonging of children with diverse background is in its beginning phase in the Icelandic preschool community.

The aim of the study was to shed light on Icelandic parents’ views on their children’s preschool educations and explore if their views have changed over the last decade. In 2005/2006, focus group interviews were conducted with parents of 5- and 6-year-old children in three preschools in Iceland. In 2016, the same preschools were revisited, and now 26 parent participants were interviewed. Several challenges have been facing Icelandic early childhood education and care in the last decade. Iceland is faced with academic pushes and pressures to increase accountability. In addition, society is moving from a homogeneous to a multicultural nature. Therefore, it was of interest to explore if parents’ views had changed over the last decade. However, mostly parents of Icelandic origin were willing to participate. The findings from the present study therefore show the views of dominant Icelandic parents. The views of those parents have not changed much over the last decade, in spite of changes in the societal and educational landscape. They endorsed play as well as social and personal competences. The findings indicate that socio-cultural discourses are influential in shaping the narratives of participating parents. It seems that the parents were expressing ideas proposed by the Icelandic National Curriculum Guidelines for Preschools and their views reflect the dominant cultural values that are presented in the curriculum guidelines. One can assume that these cultural values reflected in the curriculum are stronger than the current neoliberal, global emphasis since the ideas of the participating parents had not changed significantly from the views of parents a decade ago, in spite of an international trend emphasising the academification of preschools and increasing multiculturalism in the country. Hence, the study shows clearly that despite neoliberal pressures, play and child-centred preschools remain a priority for Icelandic parents.

This empirical study aims to find if and how preschool teachers communicate values they consider important for children to learn in preschool. The study is a part of a Nordic research project on va...

Preschool children’s relationships with their peers and their educators are essential for their education and well-being. If these relationships are strong, children experience a feeling of belonging to their preschool community. This study is informed by the concept of ‘belonging’ (Yuval-Davis, 2006; Juutinen, 2018). It refers to participation and relationships and the feeling of belonging to a group of children in preschool. With increasing diversity in the preschool population, it is important to understand how preschool educators support children’s belonging. The aim of the study is to shed light on educators’ values and perspectives on children’s belonging in preschool. The study also explored whether diverse views on children and belonging were mirrored in the educators’ responses and how they saw the power positions of children with diverse language and cultural backgrounds. The research questions are as follows: Do the participants have different perspectives on children and belonging? Which values are reflected by the educators’ perspectives and practices on belonging? How do the educators see their role in supporting children and families to foster belonging in preschool? What are the educators’ perspectives on the power positions of children with diverse language and cultural backgrounds? Globalization and increased diversity have a formative influence on educators’ practices. Icelandic society has evolved during a short period of time, from a homogeneous society to a diverse society. Every year the number of preschool children with diverse language and cultural backgrounds increases and thus, during a short period of time, preschools have become intercultural arenas. In 2009, 1,614 preschool children had a home language other than Icelandic; by 2019, this number increased to 2,713 children (Hagstofa Islands, 2020a). Research has shown that children with foreign backgrounds are in danger of being left out of their peer group and, thus, the support of educators can be crucial for their belonging in the preschool community (Eyrun Maria Runarsdottir & Svava Ran Valgeirsdottir, 2019; Johanna Einarsdottir & Sara M. Olafsdottir, 2020a, 2020b; Sadownik, 2018). Data was gathered through an electronic survey which 143 preschool educators in Iceland answered. Approximately half of the respondents were preschool teachers and/or had a bachelor’s degree, one fourth had completed a master’s degree or a diploma following a bachelor’s degree, and one fourth had high school diploma or other education. The findings indicate convergence in the views and values of the participants, especially regarding their perspectives on the competences of children and practices to support belonging in preschools. Responses varied according to education level and period of employment. However, most participants replied that their aim was for all children to be included in the group and for all children to be accepted “as they are.” Most of the educators also felt that parents should be consulted and expressed their willingness to include parents in the preschool practices. This is consistent with the national curriculum guidelines for preschool emphasis (Mennta- og menningarmalaraðuneytið, 2012). In the educators’ responses, their perspectives on children’s competences and abilities to influence the preschool pedagogy were evident. Those who had preschool teacher education or master’s degrees believed more strongly in children’s competences and abilities to invite other children to participate than those with less education. When the participants were asked to choose between children learning belonging through play and interaction with other children or from them being role models for the children, those with a master’s degree were more likely to believe that children learned through play and relationships with other children. They were also more likely to find children competent to understand perspectives of children who had different competences and backgrounds. Concerning the power position of children, the educators mainly thought language could exclude children from their peer group and were concerned about the position of children with diverse language and cultural backgrounds. Few mentioned culture or religion, issues that previous research has shown to be important for children’s belonging (Kalkman & Clark, 2017; Kernan, 2010; Sadownik, 2018). The participants showed willingness to promote belonging among children with foreign backgrounds through understanding and discussion about diversity and emphasis on peer friendships.

Little is known about how supportive relationships and parent communities materialize, or fail to materialize, in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) settings characterized by family diversity. This paper explores parents’ lived experiences of belonging and non-belonging through semi-structured interviews with 12 parents of children from diverse backgrounds in two preschools in Reykjavik, Iceland. The children of these parents were 5–6 years old and would make the transition to primary school in the next school year. Interviews focused on parents’ experiences of their child’s time at the preschool, relationships with peers, educators and other families and the forthcoming transition to primary school. Findings suggested varied parental attitudes. While some reported benefits from belonging to a preschool community, others preferred to keep their distance or actively retained boundaries between home and school spheres. For these latter parents, belonging was framed as a matter of choice, influenced by factors such as time and language. A nuanced understanding of time as both facilitating belonging and a limited resource to be managed emerged from the study. These perspectives have implications for how policymakers and educators might facilitate belonging but also the importance of respecting those parents who choose to remain ‘outside’ the preschool community.

In the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, the Icelandic authorities responded to the public health threat by imposing restrictions, including a ban on gatherings of more than 20 people. Such restrictions required school administrators to adapt the operations and practices of their schools to the new reality. In preschools, the standard practice involved inviting children to attend preschool part-time, either on fewer days of the week or for fewer hours in the day. Albeit necessary, temporary school closures disrupt the lives of children and their families and can adversely affect their education, well-being and social relations, especially regarding children in vulnerable groups in society. The benefits of quality preschool education are indisputable. Preschools play a pivotal role in Icelandic society, where they are regarded as part of the education system and where children spend most days with their peers and educators. Preschools are particularly important for children of foreign background, and because immigration into Iceland has risen in the past few decades, preschools there have become more culturally diverse. In general, preschools are often the first stop for families arriving in new countries and sometimes referred to as the windows into their new societies. In turn, quality preschool education emphasising the strengths and experiences of children and collaboration with their families can be crucial in creating equity for children of foreign origin. The study presented here had the aim of providing insight into the school attendance of preschool children of diverse language and cultural backgrounds, as well as into the cooperation of preschool staff with parents during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study used data from a questionnaire survey conducted by the Educational Research Institute in the School of Education at the University of Iceland in June 2020 and a focus group study conducted in August and September 2020 — that is, when the first wave of COVID-19 had passed. The questionnaire was sent to the public emails of 248 preschools, while the focus groups involved the participation of educators from six preschools. In total, 172 administrators answered the questionnaire, and 18 educators participated in the focus groups. The findings indicate considerable restrictions on children’s attendance in preschools during the first wave of COVID-19 and several changes that had to be made to everyday plans and practices. The educators reported that with fewer children in the preschool, the atmosphere became relaxed, and opportunities to attend to individual children expanded. At the same time, the children’s social relations became restricted, and many missed their friends who were not simultaneously attending preschool with them. Children of foreign origin were less likely to attend preschools than their peers in other groups during the ban on gatherings. Beyond that, the focus group interviews revealed that some parents of foreign background relied on information about responses to the pandemic from their home countries, not the guidelines of Icelandic authorities, which underscores the importance of providing better information to those parents. Among other findings, collaboration between the preschool staff and the children’s families changed during the ban on gatherings. Not only did daily informal discussions between parents and educators dramatically decrease; parents’ participation in preschool activities decreased as well. Contrary to those trends, quality preschool education depends on well-educated staff who establish trusting relationships with each child and involves adult-planned practices in addition to play and collaboration with families. Added to that, the preschool is an important venue for developing democracy where children of diverse backgrounds learn to work together. From the findings, however, the restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic have prompted changes to the daily practices of preschools that have impacted, sometimes negatively, the educational and social role of preschools in Iceland.

Markmið rannsóknarinnar var að varpa ljósi á mat foreldra á gæðum leikskólastarfs í samhengi við menningarbundin viðhorf sem birtast í opinberri stefnu leikskóla. Jafnframt að skoða hvort marka mætti breytingar á viðhorfum foreldra á einum áratug. Einstaklings- og hópaviðtöl voru tekin við foreldra barna sem voru að ljúka leikskólagöngu sinni í þremur leikskólum í Reykjavík. Tíu árum áður höfðu sambærileg viðtöl verið tekin við foreldra í þeim sömu leikskólum. Viðhorf og gildi foreldranna eins og þau birtust í umræðum og frásögnum þeirra voru skoðuð í félags- og menningarlegu samhengi (Rogoff, 2003). Niðurstöðurnar sýna að viðhorf foreldranna til gæða leikskólastarfs eru í samræmi við opinbera stefnu leikskóla hér á landi og annars staðar á Norðurlöndum. Þeir lögðu fyrst og fremst áherslu á að börnin lærðu samskipti og félagslega hæfni í leikskólanum. Leikur, óformlegt nám, umhyggja og persónuleg hæfni voru þeir þættir sem foreldrarnir töldu mikilvæga. Hugmyndafræði norrænnar leikskólahefðar hefur átt undir högg að sækja á undanförnum áratugum og hefur sums staðar mátt víkja fyrir bóknámsreki og áherslum á mælanlegan árangur. Þau sjónarmið virtust ekki hafa haft áhrif á viðhorf foreldranna., The aim of this study was to shed light on the quality of preschool education from the perspective of Icelandic parents in light of Icelandic public preschool policy. The study also explored whether parents’ views had changed over a period of ten years. That ten-year period of time was characterized by enormous change in Icelandic society as it transitioned from being largely homogenous to diverse. During this same period, early childhood education internationally has also been confronted with challenges such as accountability and the pressure of academics. Lilian Katz has proposed that the quality of preschool programs can be assessed from different perspectives (Katz,1993). In the top-down perspective, quality is assessed from the views of adults who run the preschools. Inside perspective focuses on quality from the perspective of preschool educators. The bottom-up perspective depends primarily on how the program is experienced by the participating children. The focus of this study is on what Katz calls the outside-inside perspective, which is how the program is experienced by the families it serves. The study was inspired by socio-cultural perspectives and assumes that human life and values are culturally and historically situated and inseparable from the context and activities in which they are situated (Vygotsky, 1978). Barbara Rogoff (2003) focuses on people’s participation in their communities’ cultural practices and traditions. In her studies, she has shown that people develop as they participate in and contribute to cultural activities. She states, “Interpreting the activity of people without regard for their meaning system and goals renders observations meaningless” (p. 17). This study examines parents’ narratives and values in their social and cultural contexts. The following research questions led this inquiry: • What aspects of preschool education do parents find important? • Have parents’ views changed from 2006 to 2016? • How do parents’ perspectives conform with cultural views presented in public policy documents? As the study focuses on the outside-inside perspective, qualitative interviews were conducted with 26 parents of children in three preschools. Ten years earlier, focus group interviews were conducted with parents of children in the same preschools. Still located in various neighborhoods in the city of Reykjavik, all three preschools experienced changes in the 10 years that had passed since the previous study. Specifically, all became more diverse and one of the three saw an increase in the number of children attending, due to merging with another preschool (Jóhanna Einarsdóttir, 2010b). The original intention was to conduct focus group interviews with the 26 parents, but this had to be changed in order to accommodate the parents’ availabilities. Therefore, only one group interview with four participants was conducted. In addition, three interviews with three parents, five interviews with two participants, and three individual interviews were conducted. The findings showed that parents’ views towards the pedagogy of the preschool were in harmony with the Nordic social-pedagogical model and the preschool policies of the Nordic countries. The parents were satisfied with the preschools’ holistic approaches and their emphasis on child-centered orientation and play. Interpersonal relationships, social competency, friendship, and respect for other people were stressed. Personal issues such as independence, safety, self-reliance, well-being, and personal strength were also emphasized. In spite of much change in Icelandic society and children’s realities during the last two decades, parental views on preschool pedagogy were almost identical to the views of parents a decade ago (Jóhanna Einarsdóttir, 2019)., Rannsóknarsjóður Háskóla Íslands

Tilgangur rannsóknarinnar var að bera saman áhrif beinnar og óbeinnar orðaforðakennslu hjá börnum með málþroskaröskun. Einkenni málþroskaröskunar er slök færni í tungumálinu, bæði í málskilningi og máltjáningu. Beina orðaforðakennslan fólst í að lesa sögubók og skoða hvort börn lærðu ný orð með því að útskýra og vinna sérstaklega með ákveðin markorð sem komu fyrir í textanum. Við óbeina kennslu var sama bók lesin án þess að staldra við markorðin eða útskýra þau. Þátttakendur voru tveir, báðir í elsta árgangi í leikskóla, og höfðu niðurstöður málþroskamælinga fyrir íhlutun sýnt slaka færni, bæði í málskilningi og máltjáningu. Kennslan fór fram í leikskóla barnanna fjórum sinnum í viku, í sex vikur. Niðurstöður leiddu í ljós að góður árangur náðist með þann orðaforða sem kenndur var með beinni kennslu. Orðaforði barnanna jókst hins vegar mun minna við óbeina kennslu. Sú þekking sem börnin höfðu tileinkað sér að lokinni íhlutun hélst að nokkru leyti mánuði eftir að íhlutun lauk. Mikilvægt er að lesa fyrir leikskólabörn og skapa aðstæður þar sem markvisst er verið að kenna ný orð. Jafnframt er nauðsynlegt að huga sérstaklega vel að börnum með slaka málfærni og auðvelda þeim að hlusta á sögu með því að útskýra orð jafnóðum. Þessar niðurstöður gefa vísbendingar um að til að auka orðaforða barna við sögulestur þurfi að útskýra ný orð sérstaklega. Foreldrar, kennarar og talmeinafræðingar geta ekki gert ráð fyrir að börn tileinki sér ný orð með því að heyra þau lesin í sögubók og geti sér til um þýðingu þeirra út frá samhengi., Children diagnosed with developmental language disorders (DLD) have difficulty learning language. This affects both language comprehension and expression and occurs without any obvious explanation. Many children with DLD have coexisting conditions, such as attentional or emotional problems. Children with DLD can have different types of difficulties learning language and the severity varies. The symptoms are numerous, including problems with learning and applying the rules of grammar, sentence construction, and language use. One common symptom is limited vocabulary. Children with DLD have smaller receptive and expressive vocabularies than their peers. They learn new words at slower rate and forget newly acquired words more rapidly. They know fewer words and have weaker semantic connections within their lexical system. This deficit is visible in their expressive language as they often use simple, high frequency vocabulary. This lack of vocabulary diversity can affect their future reading comprehension and academic performance. Research have shown that DLD is common, with approximately 9% of children displaying signs of language impairment without other coexisting difficulties. Considered in the context of the population of Iceland, this means that approximately 400 children in every year-based age group could be affected by DLD. The aim of this project was to examine the effect of an intervention which aimed to increase the vocabulary of two children diagnosed with DLD. Both attended the same preschool and were in their last year in the preschool where the training took place. The training involved reading a story book where two different methods of teaching target words were compared. The words were either (a) explained explicitly and directly when they occurred in the text, or (b) indirectly when the children were exposed to the words in the text but without explicit teaching. A multiple baseline design was employed by comparing the intervention methods between the children. The intervention took place four times a week for six weeks. Child A received indirect teaching in the first week, then two weeks of direct teaching, followed by three weeks of indirect teaching. As regards Child B, indirect teaching occurred in the first four weeks, followed by direct teaching during the last two weeks. The effect of the intervention was measured by testing how well the children could define the target words and by language samples of spontaneous speech. Measurements were made before, during, and immediately following training, as well as a month after training ended. Expanding vocabulary by direct teaching was found to be a more powerful method than indirect teaching. Vocabulary training using direct teaching had a positive effect with regard to the words taught. Measurements showed that when direct teaching was conducted the children in this study knew the words and were able to explain them, whereas their vocabulary improved only slightly when indirect teaching methods were applied. Measurements taken a month after intervention showed that the children did not fully retain the newly gained vocabulary. It is clear, however, that to maintain the newly gained vocabulary repeated reading, including discussion of target words, is necessary for children with DLD. Reading storybooks with or without direct teaching of target words did not affect the children’s spontaneous vocabulary use as measured by language samples; that is, they did not begin to use more complex and different words when speaking spontaneously. However, on average the children produced more grammatically correct sentences and made fewer morphemic errors. The findings of this study show the importance of reading story books to children during their preschool years. The findings demonstrate that for learning new words children with poor language skills need direct teaching and repeated intensive instruction. It is not enough merely to read the stories without explaining unknown new words. Furthermore, repeated measurements showed that during and after the intervention the children spoke with fewer grammatical errors. This is probably because the researcher made intensive use of the method of recasting during the intervention. Recasting has been shown to be an effective way of correcting syntactic and grammatical errors. The study also demonstrated the importance of supporting children with poor language skills and facilitating their language acquisition. These results can be used for the benefit of parents, teachers and speech pathologists alike.

Greinin byggir á tveimur rannsóknum þar sem leitað var eftir hugmyndum barna um hlutverk og ábyrgð leikskólakennara. Þannig var reynt að skilja þau ómeðvituðu og meðvituðu gildi sem starfsfólk leikskóla miðlar til barna. Byggt er á hugmyndafræði bernskurannsókna þar sem litið er svo á að bernskan sé félagslega mótuð og lögð er áhersla á sjónarmið og þátttöku barna. Jafnframt er tekið mið af Samningi Sameinuðu þjóðanna um réttindi barnsins (1992) sem lagði mikilvægan grunn að réttindum og hæfni barna og áhersla er lögð á rétt barna til að tjá skoðanir sínar á málefnum sem varða þau. Markmiðið með greininni er að varpa ljósi á sýn barna á hlutverk fullorðinna í leikskólanum og út frá því er leitast við að greina þau gildi sem starfsfólkið miðlar til barnanna í daglegu starfi. Niðurstöður rannsóknanna sýndu að í augum barnanna voru hlutverk starfsmanna margþætt og flókin og snerust um að stjórna, veita umhyggju, að veita stuðning og að vera leikfélagi. Þessi fjögur hlutverk voru flokkuð og greind í þrjú samofin gildi: Aga, umhyggju og þátttöku. Rannsóknin sýnir hæfni barnanna til að tjá reynslu sína og sjónarmið á fjölbreyttan hátt og mikilvægi þess að starfsfólk leikskóla hlusti á sjónarmið barna í daglegu starfi leikskólans., The aim of the article is to investigate children’s views on their preschool educators. It is based on two studies with children aged one to five years old in Icelandic preschools (Hrönn Pálmadóttir & Jóhanna Einarsdóttir, 2015; Jóhanna Einarsdóttir, 2014). By examining the children’s views on the educators’ roles, responsibilities, and actions, an attempt was made to understand the conscious and unconscious values that preschool educators communicate to children. The foundations of the two studies are ideas of childhood studies that aim to understand childhood as it is experienced by children, and emphasise the perspectives, agency, and rights of children. Childhood is viewed as a social construction and children are regarded as competent active citizens, capable of participating in and influencing their environment (Dahlberg & Moss, 2005; James & Prout, 1997; Jenks, 2004; Jóhanna Einarsdóttir, 2012; Qvortrup, 1994). Childhood studies share intersecting visions and interest with the children’s rights movement, which has a base in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (United Nations, 2005) ) which recognizes respect for children’s views and their rights to express their opinions and influence their environment. Early-childhood education settings are seen as significant places for children to learn values (Emilson & Johansson, 2009). In this study, values are understood as fundamental principles and convictions which guide behaviour (Halstead & Taylor, 2000, p. 169). Values education refers to educational practices through which children develop and learn values. Values education can be characterised as either explicit, which refers to embedding teaching values in the official curriculum, or implicit, which refers to communicating values through daily practices in educational settings (Thornberg & Oguz, 2013). The article aims to answer two questions: How do children view the roles of preschool educators? What values do preschool educators communicate to children? Four groups of children in three Icelandic preschools participated in the study. In one of the preschools, 46 children, aged one to three, participated. In two preschools, 32 of the oldest preschool children, aged five to six, participated. The younger children’s views were observed mainly through video recordings made during play sessions over a period of five months in one preschool. The older children were given disposable cameras and invited to take photos of what they were doing in preschool. They could also take pictures of the educators and what the educators did in preschool. After the pictures were developed, the children were interviewed individually. Conducting research with children demands attention to several methodological and ethical issues. In this study, the inequality of power between children and the adult researcher was kept in mind; the children were informed of their right to opt out of the study, and when seeking their consent verbal as well as non-verbal gestures were recognized. The findings reveal that according to the children, the roles of the educators were manifold and complex, and it can be assumed that they reflect the values communicated in the preschools. In the eyes of the children, the roles evolved around control, care and support, but the children also found it important that the educators were their playmates and participants in their community. The findings were grouped into three value fields: discipline, care and participation; these were integrated in daily interaction with the children. Discipline stands for the educator’s role as controller who sets the rules and makes sure they are followed. The value of care involves providing the children with support and the value of participation involves the roles of the educators as playmates and participants in the children’s community. The study gives a glimpse of how children express their experiences and perspectives through various means, both non-verbal and verbal. The findings indicate that children are competent to communicate their perspectives, but they are also in a vulnerable position towards the adult educators. The study provides important implications for practice as preschool educators become aware of how they consciously and unconsciously communicate values to children. It is of vital importance that they listen to the children and demonstrate their concern about their acts of meaning, which can provide information about children’s perspectives. It is the educators’ responsibility to hear what children have to say and to become aware of the explicit and implicit values they are communicating to children.

In preschool settings, children challenge the adult-initiated rules in many ways during their play activities with peers. This ethnographic study with children aged 3–5 years was built on Corsaro’s sociology of childhood construct that views children as agents and active participants in preschool society. The study is conducted in two preschools in Iceland, and explores children’s perspectives of adult-initiated rules in their preschool settings and how they challenge these rules in their play activities. Children’s perspectives were explored by video-recording their play activities and inviting the children to watch and discuss the recordings. The children reported how they interactionally managed the adult-initiated rules in their preschool settings. The findings indicate the different strategies used by the children to challenge these rules, which were often related to who could take part in the play. The implication of the study is a better understanding of the complexity of rules within and a...

Post-print (lokagerð höfundar), Play is an important part of early childhood education and has been defined from different perspectives and paradigms. However, definitions of play have been studied more from adults’ perspectives than from children themselves. This ethnographic research with children aged three to five years and built on sociological construct, will explore children’s views on play in two preschool settings in Iceland. Video-stimulated recordings were used to support children’s conversations about their different activities in the settings, to explore which activities they considered play. Most of the children said that they were playing when they took on roles and could decide what to do with the material. When the children prepared the play or were drawing, they usually said they were not playing. These findings add to the understanding of play from children’s perspectives and are valuable to the research field and for educators working with young children., Doctoral Grants of the University of Iceland 2013 [grant number 201377]

Changing perspectives of children and recognition of the importance of researching with, rather than on, children, have contributed to a great deal of interest in participatory research methods. While many participatory methods have been developed to incorporate visual elements, uncertainty remains about the role and purpose of the image within these. For example, how are images to be analysed; does the image represent a child’s ‘reality’; is the image itself considered data, or is the major purpose of the image to stimulate discussion? In this paper, we explore the method of photo elicitation and propose the use of critical visual methodology as one means to interrogate the images involved. Using two photos, we reflect on issues of production, content, audience and interpretation and how these contribute to understandings of the visual elements of photo elicitation. Our aim is to support critical reflection and conversation about what has been a widely adopted method in research with young children.

Increasing migration, accountability, and globalization has affected Icelandic early childhood education immensely. In the wake of substantial changes in the population of Iceland during a short period of time, the chapter reports from a study whose aim is to examine the well-being and belonging among a diverse group of preschool children. The study builds on the ideology of childhood studies, which views childhood as a social construction, contingent upon culture, time and context, and focuses on children’s competencies to actively influence their surroundings. The study also draws on the politics of belonging, within which belonging and exclusion are understood as relational rather than individual phenomena. Nine children participated in the study. Data-gathering included participant observations, individual interviews that were based on photos that the children took with computer tablets, as well as group interviews. The data were reduced into four main themes: (a) friendship; (b) participation; (c) solidarity; and (d) identity. Findings reveal that participation in the community of peers was most important for experiencing belonging in preschool. There was also a clear sign of solidarity among the children. They showed empathy toward each other and sympathized with children who were in some way or another left out. Belonging to the community of preschool was also constructed through children’s relations with the material and the environment.

Across studies there is great variability in reported rates of stuttering recovery. This study examined the impact that different definitions of recovery had on calculation of recovery rates and factors associated with recovery within the same sample of children.Speech samples and parents and child reports of their experiences of stuttering were collected from 38 children who stuttered aged 2-5 years of age (Occassion-1) and again at 9-13 years of age (Occassion-2). Four different criteria for recovery that were developed representing variations in criteria reported in previous research were applied to data from these children.. The majority of the participants (82%) showed very little disfluent speech (1% syllables stuttered) at Occasion 2. Recovery rate varied greatly depending on the criteria used, ranging from 13.2%-94.7%. Definitions ordered from least to greatest recovery that were (a) parent and clinician report no stuttering and no stuttering observed (13.2 %); (b) ≤1% syllables stuttered; severity rated at ≤1; parent, clinician, and child report recovery (55.3 %); (c) ≤1% syllables stuttered; severity rated at ≤1; parent and clinician report recovery (71.1 %); (d)3.0 % syllables stuttered (94.7 %). Five participants were considered recovered and two were considered persistent stutters across all criteria. Different factors were associated with recovery from stuttering depending on the criterion used.The concept of recovery from stuttering is complex and estimations of recovery rate are likely to be greatly affected by differences in definitions and measurement across studies. This has a flow-on effect in determining the factors associated with recovery from stuttering.

The transition from preschool to primary school is an important milestone in children’s lives that can have implications for their future education and well-being. For many children, this already complex transition occurs at the same time as children make the transition to school age care. While there are transition to school programmes in many communities, most of these are planned by adults, often with little input from the children at the centre of the transition. Transition to school age care programmes are relatively rare. This book emphasises the importance of listening to and respecting children’s perspectives in order to understand how children experience both horizontal and vertical transitions as they start school. The chapters report research from early childhood settings in eight different countries that highlight the importance of children’s perspectives and their implications for developing supportive and effective transitions. The reports of actual practice situate children’s perspectives in real-life early-childhood, school and school age care settings while, at the same time, highlighting issues, contexts and approach that will provoke critical reflection and facilitate informed professional praxis.

In this chapter, the value of children’s play for learning is considered by exploring their learning processes in two different Icelandic early childhood contexts. In order to make these processes explicit, detailed descriptions are provided of how children learned as they participated in the daily activities of their respective preschools. Hopefully, this close look at children’s play might give some insight into an ongoing debate regarding what and how children are learning and whether their learning needs to be assessed. The findings of this study add to the extensive research that has shown the importance of play for young children’s learning. Given the debates over the goals and nature of young children’s preschool experiences, these issues are addressed in light of policy, both nationally and internationally.

This study explored how practitioners interpreted educational practices from the perspective of values in Nordic preschools. Drawing data from group interviews in five Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden), practitioners reflected on an observational episode about children dressing for outdoor play in a Swedish preschool. The research material consisted of extracts from group interviews in ten preschools (two from each Nordic country). The research questions included: How do values emerge in practitioners’ interpretations? What is the interpretive process like, especially in the context of cross-cultural research? The research material was analysed nationally and cross-nationally. Using Gadamer’s concept of horizons, the study examined how practitioners made sense of the dressing episode, including the horizons of the text that attracted the practitioners’ attention and the co-construction of interpretations in the group dialogues. The practitioners employed indirect means more often than direct means to express their values. The group interviews contained themes that were connected to caring, disciplinary, competence and democratic values. The study provided evidence that practitioners shared some core pedagogical ideas and values across Nordic preschools. Differences were apparent between individual practitioners and preschools rather than between the Nordic countries.

This study focuses on rights and gender in educator and child interactions in Nordic preschools. The research questions are as follows: What kinds of rights are communicated in the interactions and how? What kind of gender patterns can be identified? Rights refer to entitlements related to the early childhood education context, given or claimed by educators or children. The research material consists of 25 video observations of conflicts in educator and child interactions in Nordic preschools. Jurgen Habermas’ concepts of strategic and communicative actions informed the interpretation of the communication of rights, and Bronwyn Davies’s idea of duality between femininity and masculinity informed the analyses of gender. The analyses revealed two kinds of rights: individual and collective rights. The individual rights were connected to the integrity of the person and, alternatively, to the institution. Collective rights were related to shared institutional rights. The governing of the children appeared as benevolent. The study displayed how masculinity was given hegemony in interactions on rights and how adaptation was directed toward girls, which required them to compromise and sometimes waive rights.

Values education is embedded in the curricula of all the Nordic countries. However, values education remains a neglected area for research and practice in early childhood education and care. This article reports on the aspects of an action research project conducted in a preschool in Iceland, across a period of 18 months. The study focused on the nature of the values that the preschool teachers deemed as important to communicate to children and how they saw their own role in values education. Habermas’ theory of communicative action is the theoretical framework of the study. Data for this study were gathered in collaboration with the seven preschool teachers who participated in the study. The preschool teachers chose three values to focus on during the action research project: care, respect, and discipline. The data consisted of audio recordings from meetings, interviews, and journal writings. Thematic analysis was used to find themes and patterns in the data. Five themes were identified concerning the preschool teachers’ role in values education: being a good role model, use of language, discussion, guidance, and direction. The findings showed that the participating preschool teachers emphasized children’s participation and development of social skills. While these data were collected in just one Icelandic preschool, it appeared that the preschool teachers strongly valued mutual understanding and meaningful interactions with the children.

This chapter discusses a number of central dimensions and dilemmas of early childhood education and care (ECEC) in the Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. In the two first sections, ‘Early Childhood Education and Care: An Integrated Part of the Welfare System, Democracy and Women’s Liberation’ and ‘ECEC for All in an Internordic Perspective’, we describe the fact that almost all children in the Nordic countries attend preschool, which on the one hand can be described in the light of the participation of both mothers and fathers in the labour market and on the other hand reflects the positive view of society with regard to ECEC. Then in Sect. 45.5, basic educational ideas are introduced, and for each country, there is an account of how early childhood services and education have progressed during recent decades. In continuation of this, Sect. 45.6 presents details from the development of curricula in each Nordic country during the last two decades. Subsequently, in Sect. 45.7, we focus on some current as also as upcoming tasks and problems related to children’s learning and development, which are also related to the question of ECEC Didaktik.

Action research is an umbrella term used for research conducted with and by practitioners. In the Nordic study on values education in preschools, collaborative action research was the main methodology, with preschool educators and university researchers collaborating closely. In collaborative action research, two communities with different aims and demands meet: a scientific community and a practice community. Such research can thus be understood to involve two joint learning cycles that together create a process of change. In a school–university partnership, both parties benefit from the collaboration. It is suggested that from the collaboration of researchers and practitioners, a third space can emerge when a successful partnership is achieved. The aim of this chapter is to address the advantages and challenges faced in one Icelandic preschool during a collaborative action research on values education. Collaborative action research has been found to be a powerful mode for educators’ professional development and a means to improve the quality of teacher education. The findings show advantages for professional development, improvement of practice, and children’s learning and well-being. The main challenges the preschool teachers faced were how to find time for the action research, uncertainty concerning the process of action research and values education, and how to influence the whole preschool. Collaboration with the external researcher and colleagues was seen as a crucial factor in making the project successful.

This chapter examines preschool children’s views of the role of their educators in the daily life of preschool. It is based on two studies that depart from childhood studies. By exploring how children see their educators, their intentions, their duties and their roles, we attempt to understand the implicit and explicit values the educators communicate to the children. The methods used were participant observations, video recordings and interviews with the children based on their photos. The findings reveal intertwined themes that provided insight into the participating children’s perspectives on the roles of preschool educators and the values communicated in the preschools.

Speech-language pathologists nowadays are more and more confronted with clients who speak a language different from their own mother tongue. The assessment of persons who speak a foreign language poses particular challenges. The present study investigated the possible role and interplay of factors involved in the identification of stuttering severity in a foreign language. Nineteen speech-language pathologists from five different countries (i.e. Iceland, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Belgium) rated stuttering severity of speech samples featuring persons who stutter speaking Icelandic, Swedish, Norwegian, or Dutch. Additionally, they were asked to score how easy they found it to rate the samples. Accuracy of rating stuttering severity in another language appeared to be foremost determined by the client's stuttering severity, while experienced ease of rating stuttering severity was essentially related to closeness of the language of the clinician to that of the client and familiarity of the clinician with the client's language. Stuttering measurement training programmes in different languages are needed.

The article seeks to explore the relationship between the researcher and children aged from one to three years old. The findings are drawn from a research project in an Icelandic preschool where video recordings were used as the main method. The aim of the research project was to understand children's lived experiences when creating their communities in play. The study was based on phenomenological approaches of Merleau-Ponty (1945/1962). The findings indicate that video recordings have considerable potential to provide insight into children's lived experiences, as well as reveal the importance of reflections during the research process. Three main themes emerged and provided insights into the relations between the researcher and the children during the research process: (1) assent; (2) exploring the role of the researcher; and (3) involving the researcher in play. In the article examples will be drawn from the research project to illustrate the ethical challenges in the relations between the researcher a...

This article aims to explore young children's (from one to three years old) perspectives of the role and pedagogy of educators in play in an Icelandic preschool. The intention is to explore the meaning that children put into involving educators in their play and whether the children experience educators' actions as a resource for their play. The study is based on a phenomenological approach. Data consist of video recordings and field notes of 46 children, from one to three years old, as well as eight educators. Four main categories that illustrate children's perspectives on the role of the educators emerged: (a) assistance connected to play situations and play material, (b) confirmation of competence, (c) support connected to children's social interactions, and (d) participation in play and playful actions. The findings reveal that children's perspectives and experiences in their own life-worlds in play can be considered an important dimension that contributes to changes in the pedagogical practices that ...

The aim of the study is to explore how Nordic Early Childhood Education and Care policies frame values education in preschools with a special focus on the values of democracy, caring and competence. The study is part of a larger Nordic project, Values education in Nordic preschools: Basis of education for tomorrow, the aim of which is to explore values education from various perspectives, policy levels, institutional levels and personal levels. The study applies Habermas’s theoretical ideas of communicative actions, lifeworld, and the system. Here the focus is on the system level, namely, values in national curriculum guidelines that serve as the basis of pedagogical practices in preschools in the Nordic countries. Thematic research analysis described by Braun and Clarke inspired the qualitative analysis of the documents. In addition, a quantitative language-based approach was applied to the study. Keywords related with democratic, caring and competence values were selected. The findings reveal different ...

This study aims to examine the meaning-making of parents in five Icelandic preschools concerning the collaboration between preschools and families. Further, the perspectives of educators on the views of the parents were also sought. The theoretical background was Moss’s ideas of democratic early childhood education and MacNaughton’s ideas of power relationships between parents and educators. Data were gathered in two steps: first, focus-group interviews were conducted with parents; and second, focus group interviews were conducted with a group of preschool educators who reflected upon the parent interviews. The parents and educators seemed to have similar experiences and views of the parent-professional collaboration, and of the division of power and knowledge between the two groups. The type of collaboration the parents and the educators described is not in line with democratic preschool pedagogy as explained by Moss (2007). They did not seem to believe that parents should be involved in decision making concerning the purposes, practices, and environment of the preschool. The parents from other cultures who participated in the study were in a marginalized position, and the educators seemed to be unsure about how to communicate with and accommodate families from cultures different from their own. The study reveals power relationships on many levels in the preschool community., European Union Comenius Life Long Learning program. Strengthening activity-oriented Interaction and Growth in the early years and in transitions. SIGNALS [538783-LLP-1-2013-1-DE-Comenius-CMP]

In this chapter, we present a study generated with young children in their home context. The focus of the study is on how young children explore and make sense of their lives through drawing stories. The chapter is based on a study that began with two sisters, Anna (3) and Maria (1.5), who made drawings of their daily lives and the changes in their lives when their younger sister was born. By examining extracts from the 5-year investigation, this chapter considers how the aesthetics and narration intertwine with the knowledge construction processes in the children’s daily lives. The research practice shifted over time from following and listening to the children’s drawing processes toward co-drawing.

This study aims to enhance awareness of what young children want to do outside and their preferences regarding their outdoor environment. Views of children as active participants, the affordance of the environment and the importance of place for children’s learning constitute the theoretical background of the study. The study was part of a research and development project on education for sustainable development in which preschool children and compulsory school children participated in decision-making about how their common school ground should be constructed. Data were gathered through observations and interviews with children and teachers. The findings show that the children wanted to challenge themselves as well as to be secure, explore things, be in contact with others, find or create nests and enjoy beautiful things outdoors. The children highly valued the natural environment and liked diversity in playground equipment.

Full-day integrated preschool is universal in the Nordic countries. In the past, preschools were part of the social sector but have been moving gradually under the Ministries of Education. Today, a...

This paper explores the nature of young children’s aesthetic experience and the ways in which they narrate their life changes within spontaneous drawing stories. The drawing stories were generated during a period of close to 1 year in the home of a mother with two young children. The theoretical and methodological basis of this study is narrative research and the view of children is as competent participants, constructing the knowledge of their childhood. The study highlights the importance of taking young children’s holistic and embodied way of living into account. It also emphasizes that young children’s aesthetic experience, often arising in action, is a vital part of their construction of knowledge. Methodologically and theoretically, this study points out the importance of listening to children’s multimodal narrating as a tool for understanding young children’s processes of responding to life changes, and for enabling young children’s voices in supportive ways.