Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood

This article reports on a literature review of 49 articles that cited a single monograph written in 1981 about early learning in mathematics to make claims of similarity or difference across lines of race and class in early mathematics. The review found that while about two-thirds of the articles cited the monograph to make claims of no significant differences across race and class in early mathematics performances (which is the perspective taken by the monograph’s authors in their conclusion and summary), almost one-third of the articles cited the monograph to establish significant social class differences in early mathematics, despite the claims of the monograph’s authors to the contrary. Similarly, a major US government report on early childhood mathematics cited the monograph to establish both race and social class differences. The reasons for and implications of these findings are discussed, including the tendency in recent years to understand race and class in US education primarily in terms of achievement gaps.

This article examines the value of work in childcare, and the ways this is impacted by historical schemes of value in relation to social class and gender. It critically examines the push for professionalism within the field, showing that this favours particular classed forms of cultural capital, while rendering other forms of capital invisible. Drawing on interviews with childcare workers in Australia – overwhelmingly female and with little access to symbolic capital – the data shows an ambivalence towards the professionalisation process and frustration about the lack of recognition for their work, either financially or culturally. The workers’ views highlight emotional and relational skills, which are at odds with traditional definitions of professional skills. The author argues that what is needed is a new concept of childcare expertise, which acknowledges the classed and gendered histories of workers, and the already significant worth of the work they do.

This article offers a methodological reflection on how ‘baby-cam’ enhanced ethically reflective attitudes in a large-scale research project that set out to research with infants in Australian early childhood education and care settings. By juxtaposing digital images produced by two different digital-camera technologies and drawing on informal conversations with those who have viewed the images, it addresses the question: ‘What might we perceive or sense differently if we look at one filmed event through two different camera technologies, one of which is baby-cam?’ It is proposed that baby-cam-generated digital images may provide participatory researchers with a useful heuristic device in that they can remind researchers of the limits of their own ‘gaze’ and ways of knowing and theorising infants. When utilised in this way, baby-cam may assist infants to move further towards more fully claiming their ‘participant’ stance within early childhood education and care participatory research.

The importance of a positive start to school has been highlighted in a range of national and international research. This has stimulated considerable ongoing research attention, as well as initiatives across policy and practice, all with the aim of promoting a positive transition to school for all children. Despite the common interests across these sectors, the links and/or relationships between and among research, policy and practice remain unclear. This article maps the potential online users of the Transition to School: Position Statement – a document developed collaboratively by researchers, policymakers and practitioners – and organisations whose ambit includes transition to school. Using network analysis, the authors identify the online network of stakeholders involved in the field of early childhood and the links between these, before considering how such links might influence discourse and policy formation around transition to school. The analysis highlights weak cross-sectoral links and online networks dominated by government departments and agencies. Implications of these results are explored and the potential for digital research methods in research about transition to school is considered.

International comparisons strongly influence national policy agendas in the early years. However, an appreciation of details and national context and differences is imperative to promote democracy. From the perspective of a Danish social pedagogue¹ lecturing in Early Childhood Studies in England, the author presents a cross-national comparison to elicit parallels and differences in discourses of democracy and schoolification within early years curriculum policies in England and Denmark. An initial discussion of democracy and schoolification leads to a consideration of the differing welfare contexts and quality assurance processes that inform the curriculum frameworks. The influence of schoolification is exemplified in a detailed analysis of the raised expectations with regard to language assessment in England and Denmark. This discussion reveals the tensions between local democratic participation in early years communities and policy agendas that emphasize preparation for school. The article explores how the limitations of a schoolification discourse, which is already dominant in England and becoming more prevalent in Denmark, potentially displacing children, parents and professionals as democratic stakeholders. The conclusion takes the form of an invitation to the early years community, locally, nationally and internationally, to find ways of developing resilience to the pressure of a neo-liberal accountability culture and external governance.

Borderlands of practice are spaces where teachers are engaged in negotiating multiple conceptions of “best practices” within their daily teaching practice. Teachers at work in borderlands must actively negotiate varied conceptions, expectations, and assumptions about what is “best” for their students. These conceptions often challenge teacher professional knowledge and can result in a sense of dissonance about how to best meet the needs of students. Using a case study of one veteran teacher’s sense-making processes in her first year of teaching pre-Kindergarten, this article explores how a theoretical lens of dissonance might help researchers and teacher educators to better understand and support teacher identity formation in borderlands of practice.