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In out-of-school care centres in Flanders, building warm and trusting relationships with parents is both an important aim and a huge frustration. Practitioners often struggle with their role towards parents and feel insufficiently trained to deal with increasing expectations about cooperation with parents. In this article we describe the results of an action research on improving the relationship between practitioners and parents in two out-of-school care centres. The article focuses on showing how the work on contacts between practitioners and parents also changed the meaning practitioners attached to parental involvement in out-of-school care. We use four allegorical stories to report on these changes. These allegories show how practitioners, through their active engagement in the action research, have moved from distrust or fear of parents to dialogue, from a we/them story to a story of togetherness, and from low self-confidence to growing strength. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As early childhood rises on state agendas in low and middle-income countries, the concern for building a quality workforce continues to be a challenge due to many epistemic injustices. South Africa is in the process of professionalising its early years. It is thus timely and critical to examine issues of practitioner knowledge and context-responsiveness. This article thus used the notions of Funds of Knowledge and Community of Practice as an asset-based lens. The conceptual framework was used to understand how practitioners operate as a Community of Practice to inform their work in early childhood centres in a vulnerable context with three- and four-year-olds. A qualitative case study using semi-structured interviews with eight under-qualified practitioners informed the study. The findings suggested that practitioners use informal and personal sources of knowledge while working as Communities of Practice to navigate sustainable outcomes for young children. These illustrative sources function both as enablers and disablers for shaping inclusive and quality practices. Practitioners are able to use their knowledge to be responsive, but they also have unexamined assumptions which are in need of disruption. The article concluded with a call for a more bottom-up model of professionalism that speaks to context-responsiveness, intentionality development and fostering of an ethic of care.

South Korea was one of the few countries in the world to face a major outbreak in the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study portrays the lived experiences of Korean early childhood practitioners striving to thrive between 2020 and 2021. Their stories offer their reflections on their challenges, struggles, and lessons learned throughout the pandemic. Findings reveal that, as time passed, there were longstanding struggles and newly emerging challenges. This study sheds light on early childhood practitioners' experiences of teaching during the unique and uncertain time of the pandemic, which can offer in-depth understanding for the betterment of future teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored nursery practitioners 'slowed down' documentary photography in everyday moments. The enquiry draws on Documentary Photography, Visual Sociology and Early Childhood and entails a novel application of the theoretical concept of 'presence' (Senge, P., C. O. Scharmer, J. Jaworski, and B. S. Flowers. 2008. Presence: Exploring Profound Change in People, Organizations and Society. Boston: Nicholas Brealey Publishing.). Naturalistic data collection techniques and thematic analysis were employed. An original application of 'presence' supported practitioners' shared language and discursive resource for visual practice that invited questions; supported children's sensemaking and mediation of relationships. This new theorisation and application of presence offers a 'holding space' for these activities and nuanced seeing anew. This creative disruption is significant in speeded-up educational contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the findings of an interview study (phase one of a three-phase doctoral research project) that attempted to establish practitioners’ and parents’ views of why parent–child group music making activities are offered in interdisciplinary Children's Centres in England for the 0–3 years age range. These settings are community hubs where a range of services is available for families with children under five. The responses of individual parents and practitioners (total 20) to a standardised interview schedule gave rise to eight main themes:social,emotional,learning,teaching,parenting,musical,links-to-home, andorganisational. Practitioners emphasised the learning and development benefits, whereas parents were more concerned about the social and emotional reasons for attending music groups. Practitioners and parents both emphasised the emotional benefits that resulted from participating in musical activities. These findings suggest that socialisation may be multi-dimensional in the music group: between parent and child and amongst the wider group. Practitioners’ knowledge of the benefits of music may not necessarily lead to appropriate pedagogical musical approaches and there are questions raised about musical ‘culture’ and links to and from home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Childminders in England have historically been seen as marginal providers of childcare, fulfilling Bruner’s description of the service as an ‘accordion pleat’ in provision. This article outlines the history and current position of childminders in English early childhood policy, and then reports on the views on this role of childminders who participated in focus groups to discuss the statutory requirements for their role. The participants describe their feelings about their role, revealing tensions between the maternal and professional aspects of their practice, the ‘expert’ and ‘common-sense’ contributions they make, and the ways in which they perceive adherence to regulatory frameworks as undermining the relationships with parents, which form a core theme in their self-perception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various forms of digital devices have established themselves as resources within constructions of professional practices in early childhood education. This article is centred on the question of how we might rethink an example of digital practice based on a Foucauldian understanding of discourse and a rhizomatic understanding of digital practice through the actor network theory. The article puts forth several theoretical arguments to examine data illustrating recurring situations from an ethnographically inspired fieldwork in Norwegian kindergartens. Acknowledging how material agency destabilises human knowledge, the final section of the paper presents the Deleuzian concept of ‘event’ to examine some elements that evoke forces and actions in the network. The article argues that the potential of these forces can both open up pedagogy in relation to digital practices and challenge notions of agency when non-humans are understood as actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teaching self-determination skills is an effective way to improve the quality of life of individuals with disabilities. Embedding self-determination strategies in early childhood curriculum helps students with disabilities gain access to the general education. Considering families’ cultural values can improve relationships between professionals and parents, as well as maximum the effectiveness of intervention. However, there has been limited research to address self-determination in young children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. This article is a literature review of studies that addressed self-determination in young children with special needs and those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. An analysis of the findings reveals that self-determination needs to be adapted according to a child's age and their cultural values. To promote development of self-determination in young children with disabilities from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and to build collaborative relationships with families, professionals need a better understanding of various cultural values. Implications and practices for professionals and educators are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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More than 1,800 early intervention practitioners serving birth to 3 year old children and preschool special education practitioners serving 3 to 5 year old children made self-judgments of their competence and confidence in using six different kinds of practices (family-centered practices, teaming and collaboration, assessment and evaluation, IFSPs and IEPs, instructional practices, and natural environments and inclusion). The participants include regular and special education teachers, speech, occupation and physical therapists, and psychologists and social workers. Results showed that in nearly all analyses, the practitioners judged themselves as more confident than competent in using the practices with children and families regardless of discipline. The findings taken together constitute the first set of data on the similarities and differences in practitioners' appraisals of their early intervention and preschool special education capabilities. Implications for research and practice are described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]