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This paper discusses how multimodal creative inquiry might be conceptualised and implemented for children’s meaning-making in science. We consider Halliday’s (1978) and Vygotsky’s (1987, 2016) theoretical ideas for showing how the most important characteristics of social semiotics are connected to imagination, play-based and creative inquiry for children’s science meaning-making. Qualitative data was analysed from two preschool classroom video observations of 40 children’s playful interactions with technologies, such as robotic toys, semiotic artefacts, two teachers’ reflective journal documentation and children’s artefacts. Findings show children participate and discuss elements of scientific concepts in inquiry-based dialogues and make sense of science concepts whilst becoming creators of multimodal representations arising from their interests and curiosity. The semiotic resources that operate through technologies such as apps provide a medium for creative inquiry affording communication spaces and multimodal (visual, haptic [digital touch], text) meaning-making around everyday science phenomena. Practical implications lie in upskilling educators’ integration of semiotic resources such as robotic toys and deploying a multimodal creative inquiry approach for reconfiguring children’s science learning opportunities in early childhood educational practices.

This Australian study examines whether and how technologies such as Artificially Intelligent (AI) toys in a home-based setting might socially and emotionally support children with diverse needs through play. Building on the concept of ‘emotional capital', and employing a design-based research approach, parents during the COVID-19 lockdown periods in 2020 intentionally used robotic toys to engage their children with additional diverse needs in home-based play experiences. The data from both parents’ and children’s ( n = 5) Zoom interviews, digital observations and children’s drawings demonstrated how children creatively conversed with their AI robots in innovative and empathy-based dialogues that generated happy feelings and a sense of ‘imaginary’ togetherness with their robot during the coding experiences. This study contributes to research by exploring the use of AI robotic toys together with physical and artificial environments and offers a case to build children’s emotional capital in enabling children’s social-emotional literacies.

This study explores the use of interactive Artificial Intelligence (AI)-interfaced robotic toys within early childhood (EC) settings to develop children’s inquiry literacy. Arguments about the appr...

This research is a comparative study of Finnish and Australian science curricula in early childhood education (EC). The study aims to figure out the constructivist components of the science curriculum in two countries as well as locate the similarities and differences in the rationale and aims, contents, learning outcomes, learning activities, teacher’s role and assessment. The curriculum analysis framework developed by Van den Akker (2003) was used as a methodological framework for the curricula analysis. Based on the theory-driven content analyses, findings show that both countries have several components of constructivist curriculum, but not always clearly focused on science education. The Australian Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) integrates children’s science learning within their five specific learning outcomes, whereas the Finnish national core curriculum for early childhood education and care has no defined learning outcomes in general. The Finnish curriculum more clearly than EYLF encompasses science and environmental education as a learning domain, within which children participate in targeted scientific activities to gain procedural knowledge in specific environmental-related concepts. More focus should be turned to the teachers’ role and assessment, which are not determined in science context in both countries. This international comparative study calls for the need of a considered EC curriculum framework that more explicitly has science domains with specifically defined rationale, aims, content areas, learning outcomes and assessment criteria. The implications lie in providing early childhood educators with tangible and theoretically solid curriculum framework and resources in order to foster scientific thinking in young children.

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in the European Early Childhood Education Research Journal on 20 March 2020, available online: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1350293X.2020.1735739. In the last decade, in particular, understanding technology use within children’s play-based experiences has been an important concern for early childhood education researchers and practitioners (Danby et al. 2018; Stephen and Edwards 2018). The World Economic Forum (2019) has highlighted the pressing issue of the twenty-first-century skills gap related to the digital revolution and ways that educators and researchers around the globe can address it through technology. The critical components of the twenty-first-century skill framework, which includes collaboration, communication, critical thinking and problem-solving, capitalise on teachers’ appropriate use of technology and holds enormous promise to help foster these critical skills in young children.

This article reports on a study investigating how 13 young children in English-speaking countries (England, Scotland, Australia and the USA) watch and engage with digital content on YouTube and YouTube Kids. Given the increasing amount of time children spend viewing these platforms, and related concerns around the commercial algorithms that direct their viewing choices, the research aims were to understand how young children make choices about what to watch, and to explore the extent of their comprehension of the constructed, ‘unreal’ nature that characterises a large proportion of these videos, particularly those presented by children (micro-celebrities). Using child-centred methodologies, the research was carried out by parent-researchers, and the findings were analysed and interpreted using elements of Baudrillard's theory of hyperreality. The study found that the children selected videos for a variety of reasons, including those related to their ‘real-life’ interests, and were largely able to discern between the real and the hyperreal in videos by drawing on existing frames of reference and applying their developing knowledge and understanding of the world. The article provides insights into young children’s experiences, understandings and preferences around using YouTube and YouTube Kids, and extends Baudrillard’s perspectives on the hyperreal from postmodernism into a post-digital conceptual realm.

Children’s digital competence (DC) is often poorly supported in early childhood education (ECE). Furthermore, common definition of DC is difficult to find. Therefore, the aim of this comparative curriculum study was to better understand how objectives and content of DC are defined in ECE. Australia and Finland curricula were analyzed applying theory-driven content analysis. The results indicated that in both countries theoretical basis of DC was present: objectives and content of DC referred to (1) technical skills and practices, (2) applying digital technologies, (3) evaluate digital technologies critically, and (4) motivation to participate in a digital culture. However, aims, content, and practical guidelines on the curricula were unclear. This study recommends that ECE curricula should better emphasis and make explicit the key elements of DC and how to holistically foster children’s DC in practice. Further studies to clarify the important elements of DC in ECE curricula frameworks is required.

This paper responds to the call for the need to develop professional development practices for leaders, supervisors, teachers, and student guidance within the framework of international standards, particularly in line with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s (KSA) vision 2030 (KSA, 2019). The current study aims to identify the obstacles and challenges for implementing sustainable professional development methods for teachers in KSA, who had participated in a ten-month Australian cross-national STEM professional development program. In addition, the teachers also participated in an immersion in Australian schools that lasted for 11 months. This paper reports on a sample of 22 male and female teachers coming from primary and secondary KSA schooling contexts. The participating teachers in the study were those who had participated in the Australian STEM immersion professional learning program in 2019-2020. Drawing from previous studies (Ermeling & Yarbo, 2016; Greene, 2015; Kayi-Aydar & Goering, 2019; Piqueras & Achiam, 2019), we have proposed a framework involving four methods for sustainable professional development for STEM teachers: professional learning communities, communities of practice, action research, and the outside expert. A mixed-methods research design was applied including three methods: individual interviews, open-ended questions to identify the proposed plan of STEM teachers’ implementation of the sustainable professional development methods. Also, a questionnaire to identify obstacles to the implementation of sustainable professional development methods from the viewpoint of STEM teachers was also employed. The results showed that the most prominent obstacles to the implementation of the sustainable professional development methods by STEM teachers in the Saudi educational system where there is no coordination in the school meetings schedule for the members of the professional learning STEM education community, there is no clear plan for communities of practice of STEM education, teachers’ overload teaching duties, lack of coordination between schools to benefit from STEM experts. Implications of our study reside in developing teachers’ ongoing STEM professional development opportunities through execution of a sustainable model of collaborative teacher communities in KSA. Suggestions for curriculum stakeholders and administrator’s coordination and supporting teachers’ ongoing participation and implementation of professional development programs are discussed.

This study draws upon Vygotskian mediation and internalisation constructs to investigate how parental beliefs, values, expectations and familial acculturation processes can shape immigrant children’s secondary schooling subject choices within an Australian context. Using a case study approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 parents and their 12 children from three Australian secondary schools. Findings revealed that parents’ beliefs, values for education, their own past educational and career aspirations inclusive of perceived acculturation barriers guided children’s career pathway decisions. The paper discusses the significance of optimising immigrant parents’ role within the platform of home–school partnership.

Historically, the professional structure of higher education has provided restricted employment, career, and leadership opportunities for women. This is exacerbated where there is an intersection between gender and race, culture, religion, or age. Women continue to be underrepresented in senior leadership positions across a range of disciplines, and this lack of representation of women within the professional structure of higher education itself acts as a barrier for more women reaching senior levels within institutions. More women are needed in higher positions to increase representation and visibility, and to encourage and mentor others to then aspire to follow a similar path. This critical review examines gender equity across the major career benchmarks of the academy in light of the impact of the personal contexts of women, systemic processes, and cultural barriers that hinder career progression. Research-based systemic solutions that work towards improved gender equity for women are discussed. The findings from this critical review highlight the need for global systemic change in higher education to create ethical equities in the employment, career, and leadership opportunities for women.

One of the key debates within acculturation theory is to clearly demarcate the differences between integration and assimilation. These concepts are central to understanding acculturation and the ways of finding one’s identity amid getting accustomed to new cultural and social norms through migration experiences. In this chapter, I explore my own experiences with acculturation, cultural beliefs and educational values in negotiating my identity as an Indo-Australian transnational woman and an academic. I first borrow on Berry’s (1997) theoretical concepts on acculturation, thereby highlighting the need to understand migration experiences of transnational women academics such as myself, since my move to Australia from India in 2005. Using auto-ethnography, I critically review my push-pull experiences in negotiating my emerging identity as an Australian teacher educator and academic. This chapter concludes by opening an ongoing conversation with educational policy practitioners in addressing the need to offer more integrated opportunities and space to immigrant women for sharing of their educational experiences, acculturation processes and negotiation of identities as informed by their personal lives and professional careers in host countries.

This chapter discusses the understanding of children’s role-play with technologies, objects that simulate technologies and new innovative Internet-connected Toys. Data are largely observational, gathered via both video and narrative observations, and offer a rich and dynamic discussion of children’s experiences. A multiple case-study approach was used to collect data via interviews and conversations with early childhood (EC) educators and parents. In negotiation with practitioners and parents, observations at home and in EC settings were gathered, but the nature of the observations varied across contexts. A broadly social-ecological theoretical approach was adopted to offer a broad and holistic interpretation of children’s experiences. Children’s ability to empathise with digital technologies affords opportunity to reinvent and imagine a new world.

This article explored the variability of parental educational mind-sets among Australian parents toward the accessible educational and learning capitals that may affect their children’s educational achievement. The participants ( N = 1,917) responded to the Family Educational and Learning Capitals Questionnaire as well as their ethnic identity. Parents also reported their children’s numeracy scores in a standardized test of achievement. Six major groups were adequate for statistical analysis, including Australians, British, Chinese, Indian, Other Asian, and Other European. A multiple comparison analysis was performed on the responses by parents from the six ethnic groups to examine the differences in parent responses to access to capitals. Controlled for ethnic groups, stepwise regression analysis showed which capitals predicted numeracy achievement of their children. The results indicated that within this sample of Australian parents, there is variability across different ethnic groups in what is considered important in their children’s educational achievement and this variability is associated with differences in numeracy outcomes.

Research-informed immersive professional learning in schools is another avenue for pre-service teachers (PSTs) to develop their understanding and reflection about theories, methods, and practices of teaching and learning. From a collaborative research project that aimed at developing the intercultural capabilities of Prep level students in a primary school, in this paper, as teacher educators, we examine the views of four PSTs involved in this project. The findings draw upon the opportunities and affordances PSTs identified from this in-school “immersive” and situated teaching experience in; bridging the incongruences of the theory/practice divide; reflecting on their teaching practices; and in improving their teacher efficacy, agency, and relational agency. From a reflexive stance, as teacher educators, we further discuss the implications of this collaborative research with PSTs in closing the gap of the theory/practice divide between university-based learning and teaching practices in schools. We also discuss the mentioned affordances as emphasised by the PSTs towards the improvement of their teacher efficacy, agency, and relational agency. The paper concludes on further strengthening of university-school collaborative research partnerships. It highlights research-informed projects to offer PSTs opportunities for situated teaching experiences from guided mentorship as another avenue for “immersive” professional learning in schools.

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in the European Early Childhood Education Research Journal on 3 March 2020, available online: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1350293X.2020.1735738. This paper presents findings from an on-going international study of early childhood educators’ and children’s use of new digital technologies, such as the Internet of Toys (IoToys) and the pedagogic interactions which occur when these artefacts are integrated into classrooms. Based on qualitative methodology, data have been collected in four countries: Australia, Norway, Scotland and England. Data collection includes observations of interactions with IoToys (written and video), multimedia messages (digital images, videos), short written reflections and consultations with the children. Findings across all countries show that IoToys offers a platform for interactions to become multidirectional, multidimensional and multimodal. Examining the interactions in the ecology of the playroom, this study calls for pedagogy involving IoToys to provide a platform for children’s rich symbiotic explorations, creativity, collaboration and problem solving

This paper presents findings from an on-going international study (Australia and Finland) of preschool teachers’ beliefs and pedagogical practices in the integration of technology to engage young children in learning science. Scarcely used in early childhood education research, this study is framed using Mishra and Koehler’s (2006) Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK) theory. Case studies presented in this paper are undertaken with data collected from three preschools in Australia. Participant observation of teachers’ (N = 7) and children’s play experiences, and semi-structured interviews, revealed that teachers occasionally used iPads and some apps within their intentionally constructed science investigations, both for teacher-initiated research and for communicating with parents via children’s journals. Teachers were not adverse to, but rather accepting of embedding technology as a pedagogical affordance and keen on planning for multimodal science-based experiences. The findings of this study imply the need for a pedagogical shift, wherein teachers’ technological pedagogical knowledge improves in how and when to sensibly integrate technology for children’s engagement in scientific inquiry, rather than relying on hands-on experiences alone. Implications lie in more closely aligning teachers’ TPK and related practices with science content knowledge by co-researching together with children and foregrounding both teachers’ and children’s perspectives.

Parents’ beliefs, values and associated everyday practices can play an influential role in their children’s educational environment. This paper reports on a subsection of data from a larger qualitative study on how immigrant parents’ cultural beliefs, values and everyday practices contributed to shaping their young children’s early engagement in science learning. Parents in the study were asked to reflect upon their past familial experiences before migrating to Australia. Drawing on Vygotsky’s (1978) sociocultural theory, the parental role is considered as being the ‘more knowledgeable other’ in the child’s everyday home environment, whereby interactions with children are rooted in parents’ beliefs, sociocultural values and future aspirations for their children’s science career pursuits. By conducting semi-structured interviews with 11 immigrant parents, this study maps the conditions and science engagement opportunities that inspire children to study science in the future. The results focus on how everyday interactions and activities that parents indulge in with their children at an early age through to primary schooling are foregrounded in parents’ own cultural beliefs and values. Parental aspirations for their children to study science at school consciously or unconsciously develop children’s science aptitude. This study contributes to the theoretical knowledge and calls for parent–school collaboration practices in early childhood science education to understand the familial sociocultural practices of immigrant children.

Background:This paper presents findings from an on-going international study of Early Childhood (EC) teachers’ and children’s use of internet-connected toys (IoToys) to understand possibilities for developing children’s cognitive capacities (e.g., creativity, inquiry, engineering design thinking).Material and methods:The study employed a Design Based Research (DBR) method, where teachers intentionally plan and deliver technologically constructed Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) experiences for preschoolers. Using Australia as a case study, data collection involved participant observation of three teachers’ and 17 children’s technology constructed play experiences with robotic toys, littleBits electronic magnetic blocks, alongside pre and post semi-structured interviews with teachers and children’s photo voice sessions were video recorded.Results:Analysing the findings using embodied cognition theory showed that the teachers, although novice in their own technological pedagogical knowledge engaged children's play with the robotic toys, and co-learn with the children. Integration of STEM-focused playful experiences supported children’s scientific inquiry, design thinking and creativity as well as vocabulary targeted at interdisciplinary STEM concepts.Conclusions:With the ever increasing focus on developing children’s 21st century skills, this study recommends engineering habits of mind, creativity and inquiry dispositions should now be taken into account in teaching and learning situations with young children and to develop STEM engagement.