In Taiwan,the low birth rate has become one of the most critical problems faced by the government and educational institutions at all levels.The enrolling student number of kindergartens perhaps is the most directly a...In Taiwan,the low birth rate has become one of the most critical problems faced by the government and educational institutions at all levels.The enrolling student number of kindergartens perhaps is the most directly affected by such trend.The purpose of this study aims at constructing a system dynamics model to depict the relationships between the preschool children and their stakeholders for deducing the evolutionary trends of,and the interactions of,governmental policies and the operations of the early childhood education institutions.Through the interpretation of policies and simulation analysis of the twenty-year growth trend related to the child population in Taiwan,this study found that governmental policies and the promotion of education and care services have a positive effect on the growth of all levels of kindergarten classes.Besides,the relationship between the education and care service staff and the kindergarten play a causal balancing role in our proposed model.We suggest that the system dynamics model proposed by this study can help to observe the dynamic relationships formed by the stakeholders in preschool education and care system based on the“joint responsibility”of Taiwan’s early childhood education.展开更多
Purpose:This article provides an overview of how childhood curriculum in the United Arab Emirates(UAE)is designed to serve cultural values.Design/Approach/Methods:The framework of kindergarten curriculum adopts the un...Purpose:This article provides an overview of how childhood curriculum in the United Arab Emirates(UAE)is designed to serve cultural values.Design/Approach/Methods:The framework of kindergarten curriculum adopts the uniqueness of children laying the foundation for their cultural identity.This paper provides a description of how this is achieved through a case study of the kindergarten curriculum in the UAE.Findings:The core elements of Emirati culture are delivered in the early childhood education(ECE)curriculum,which is influenced by global practices.Islamic studies is a key component in the Emirati kindergarten curriculum,which is designed to help children practice principles of religion,with the main Islamic values of gratitude and charity as aspects that are deeply embedded.Similarly,through social studies,children learn about Emirati heritage and culture.In addition to exposure to world communities,the learning experience engages children in authentic stories that relate to their personal lives,families,and community to build national awareness.Originality/Value:This paper sheds light on ECE in the UAE.Although the topic is of interest to UAE policymakers and educators and the global audience interested in UAE education,there is no study to the researcher's best knowledge that has examined the influence of the UAE culture on ECEcurriculum.展开更多
Purpose:The article investigates how to make a broader understanding of sustainability relevant for early childhood education(ECE)guided by the four dimensions suggested by United Nations Educational,Scientific and Cu...Purpose:The article investigates how to make a broader understanding of sustainability relevant for early childhood education(ECE)guided by the four dimensions suggested by United Nations Educational,Scientific and Cultural Organization:ecological,economic and social/cultural sustainability,and good governance.Design/Approach/Methods:Previous research on ECE on sustainability is discussed in relation to the four dimensions and to Biesta’s concepts of socialization,qualification,and subjectification.Findings:The investigation finds that all four dimensions are necessary in ECE for sustainability,and it suggests how the dimensions can be understood,how they may overlap,and how they can be contradictive.Originality/Value:The article depicts how children’s opportunities to engage and to disturb established ways of thinking can be facilitated through all dimensions.展开更多
This study investigates 727 parents from China, Japan, and Korea by a self-devised scale and compares the differences in their expectation of early childhood education in cross-cultural backgrounds. The result shows t...This study investigates 727 parents from China, Japan, and Korea by a self-devised scale and compares the differences in their expectation of early childhood education in cross-cultural backgrounds. The result shows that parents from the three countries have a positive attitude toward their children’s development. The main effect of nations on such factors as individual development, close attention to diet, willpower training, moral judgment, and emotional exchange with adults is significant, while the two-way interaction between nations and child gender, nations and child age, and the three-way interaction between nations, child gender, and child age are not significant.展开更多
Purpose:The new Finnish National Core Curriculum for Early Childhood Education and Care(2018)strongly highlights pedagogical knowledge and practice,demanding teachers to develop their pedagogical thinking,evaluation,j...Purpose:The new Finnish National Core Curriculum for Early Childhood Education and Care(2018)strongly highlights pedagogical knowledge and practice,demanding teachers to develop their pedagogical thinking,evaluation,judgment,and operating culture.Since ethics is viewed as vital characteristics of the teaching profession,our objective is to make these complex ethical issues more visible to be subject to democratic discussion and change.Design/Approach/Methods:The framework comprises a broad theory base of codes of ethics and professional codes of ethics of teaching.The research materials were national curricula of early childhood education and care(ECEC)-and pre-primary education.The eight-step qualitative analysis process was applied to identify and shed light on the codes of ethics laying the foundations forpurposeful and ethical earlychildhood education(ECE)teacher.Findings:The results indicate that through both theoretical lenses,the Finnish ECEC curricula comprise several ethical codes.For the future purposeful ECE teachers as ethical professionals,the results raise questions for further discussion.Particularly,issues related to the ethics of care,intellectual freedom,inquiry stance,and professional competence,and diversity may further enhance our ECEC curricula.展开更多
Purpose:This comparative study identifies core values expressed in Early Childhood Education(ECE)official policy documents from a sample of thirteen countries.Design/Approach/Methods:This study employs document analys...Purpose:This comparative study identifies core values expressed in Early Childhood Education(ECE)official policy documents from a sample of thirteen countries.Design/Approach/Methods:This study employs document analysis as well as content and thematic analysis.ECE values identified in the policy documents are categorized into three groups:political and society-related values,educational values,and individual and relational values.Findings:Document analysis reveals the values that are common across countries and those that are more specific to just one or a few countries at most.This study discusses the characteristics of these values from the perspective of globalization.In doing so,this comparative study llustrates and discusses the tendencies for both convergence and divergence in ECE values in policymaking worldwide.展开更多
Purpose:This article examines how early childhood curriculum documents in two culturally different contexts are associated with current concepts of sustainability and principles of early childhood education for sustai...Purpose:This article examines how early childhood curriculum documents in two culturally different contexts are associated with current concepts of sustainability and principles of early childhood education for sustainability(ECEfS)in China and Norway.Design/Approach/Methods:Applying critical document analysis,the study explores a number of landmark curriculum documents from China and Norway,comparing the ways in which ECEfS is conceptualized,including the concept of sustainability,children as agents of change for sustainability,and sustainability in young children’s everyday lives.Findings:Corresponding to the analytical framework,China and Norway attach different importance to the three dimensions of sustainability-social-cultural,economic,and environmental.For example,Norway has a more autonomous view of children’s agency,while China gives more emphasis to teachers’support.The two countries also have different perspectives on how to work with families and communities based on significantly different traditions and institutions.The comparative document analysis argues that predominant cultural dimensions in each context,such as collectivist and individualistic factors,may shape the understandings of sustainability in each country’s early years’curriculum documents.Originality/Values:By broadening the focus on the social-cultural aspects of sustainability,this study extends the development of a culturally inclusive understanding of the concept of sustainability and contextualized/localized approaches to ECEfS across the globe.展开更多
Does enrolling children aged 0-3 in early childhood education(ECE)classes continuously empower their learning and development after entering kindergarten?Based on the tracking survey data of 664 children aged 3-6 in 2...Does enrolling children aged 0-3 in early childhood education(ECE)classes continuously empower their learning and development after entering kindergarten?Based on the tracking survey data of 664 children aged 3-6 in 2017 and 367 children aged 3-6 in 2018,this study uses Propensity Score Matching to analyze this issue.The findings reveal that children’s family socioeconomic status is a key factor influencing their participation in ECE classes.The baseline data show that participation in ECE classes does not significantly improve children’s learning and development.However,the follow-up data show that participation in ECE classes plays a significant negative role in motor development for children moving to their second year of kindergarten,but subsequently plays a positive role in language development,health,and safety for those entering their third year of kindergarten.Overall,participation in ECE classes plays no continuous positive role in children’s learning and development after they enter kindergarten.Based on these findings,it is suggested that parents should respect the natural laws of child development instead of blindly following the trend of attending ECE classes,and high-quality parental companionship is crucial.The Chinese government is supposed to implement policies such as“double reduction”to regulate ECE institutions that fail to operate in good faith.展开更多
The structure of aged-based education and the science of childhood development were introduced to China in the last decades of the Qing dynasty. Drawing on period textbooks, journal articles, and school documents for ...The structure of aged-based education and the science of childhood development were introduced to China in the last decades of the Qing dynasty. Drawing on period textbooks, journal articles, and school documents for women and children, this study argues that the theory of childhood development helped shape socialized play and citizenship training in new schools. These new institutions followed scientific insights about childhood development in terms of both physical and emotional growth. Educators hoped to found schools that would inculcate respect for political authority within the classroom, and administrators took unprecedented steps in documenting and regulating children. Schools not only became places for disseminating learning, but also centers for gathering information about children and their families, as well as about childhood itself. The production of knowledge and the institutionalization of schools for preschool children helped usher in new trends that denaturalized childrearing outside of the family domain.展开更多
For centuries,educators and psychologists have advocated“play”as the ideal activity for the development of young children.Actually,play has been found currently to be the central pedagogy in the learning of young ch...For centuries,educators and psychologists have advocated“play”as the ideal activity for the development of young children.Actually,play has been found currently to be the central pedagogy in the learning of young children in 21 countries in the world.However,the quality of play-based pedagogy is becoming a key concern across countries.Scholars found that play is either too loosely framed to result in children’s optimal development;or it is too“teacherly”and looses the essence of play.The recent report released by OECD highlighted its concern about play in early childhood education and,urged international researchers and educators to make efforts to bridge the gap.Hong Kong is not an exception on the issue of play enactment.Though resources have been put in for the professional upgrading of early education teachers in the last two decades,the learning and teaching style is still didactic and there appears to be a misinterpretation of play-based pedagogy.The present paper attempts to explore the issue through early childhood teachers’conceptualization of“learning and teaching through play”with the aim of understanding the problem and shedding light for better ways to prepare teachers in this sector.展开更多
文摘In Taiwan,the low birth rate has become one of the most critical problems faced by the government and educational institutions at all levels.The enrolling student number of kindergartens perhaps is the most directly affected by such trend.The purpose of this study aims at constructing a system dynamics model to depict the relationships between the preschool children and their stakeholders for deducing the evolutionary trends of,and the interactions of,governmental policies and the operations of the early childhood education institutions.Through the interpretation of policies and simulation analysis of the twenty-year growth trend related to the child population in Taiwan,this study found that governmental policies and the promotion of education and care services have a positive effect on the growth of all levels of kindergarten classes.Besides,the relationship between the education and care service staff and the kindergarten play a causal balancing role in our proposed model.We suggest that the system dynamics model proposed by this study can help to observe the dynamic relationships formed by the stakeholders in preschool education and care system based on the“joint responsibility”of Taiwan’s early childhood education.
基金The author received no financial support for the research,authorship,and/or publication of this article.
文摘Purpose:This article provides an overview of how childhood curriculum in the United Arab Emirates(UAE)is designed to serve cultural values.Design/Approach/Methods:The framework of kindergarten curriculum adopts the uniqueness of children laying the foundation for their cultural identity.This paper provides a description of how this is achieved through a case study of the kindergarten curriculum in the UAE.Findings:The core elements of Emirati culture are delivered in the early childhood education(ECE)curriculum,which is influenced by global practices.Islamic studies is a key component in the Emirati kindergarten curriculum,which is designed to help children practice principles of religion,with the main Islamic values of gratitude and charity as aspects that are deeply embedded.Similarly,through social studies,children learn about Emirati heritage and culture.In addition to exposure to world communities,the learning experience engages children in authentic stories that relate to their personal lives,families,and community to build national awareness.Originality/Value:This paper sheds light on ECE in the UAE.Although the topic is of interest to UAE policymakers and educators and the global audience interested in UAE education,there is no study to the researcher's best knowledge that has examined the influence of the UAE culture on ECEcurriculum.
文摘Purpose:The article investigates how to make a broader understanding of sustainability relevant for early childhood education(ECE)guided by the four dimensions suggested by United Nations Educational,Scientific and Cultural Organization:ecological,economic and social/cultural sustainability,and good governance.Design/Approach/Methods:Previous research on ECE on sustainability is discussed in relation to the four dimensions and to Biesta’s concepts of socialization,qualification,and subjectification.Findings:The investigation finds that all four dimensions are necessary in ECE for sustainability,and it suggests how the dimensions can be understood,how they may overlap,and how they can be contradictive.Originality/Value:The article depicts how children’s opportunities to engage and to disturb established ways of thinking can be facilitated through all dimensions.
文摘This study investigates 727 parents from China, Japan, and Korea by a self-devised scale and compares the differences in their expectation of early childhood education in cross-cultural backgrounds. The result shows that parents from the three countries have a positive attitude toward their children’s development. The main effect of nations on such factors as individual development, close attention to diet, willpower training, moral judgment, and emotional exchange with adults is significant, while the two-way interaction between nations and child gender, nations and child age, and the three-way interaction between nations, child gender, and child age are not significant.
文摘Purpose:The new Finnish National Core Curriculum for Early Childhood Education and Care(2018)strongly highlights pedagogical knowledge and practice,demanding teachers to develop their pedagogical thinking,evaluation,judgment,and operating culture.Since ethics is viewed as vital characteristics of the teaching profession,our objective is to make these complex ethical issues more visible to be subject to democratic discussion and change.Design/Approach/Methods:The framework comprises a broad theory base of codes of ethics and professional codes of ethics of teaching.The research materials were national curricula of early childhood education and care(ECEC)-and pre-primary education.The eight-step qualitative analysis process was applied to identify and shed light on the codes of ethics laying the foundations forpurposeful and ethical earlychildhood education(ECE)teacher.Findings:The results indicate that through both theoretical lenses,the Finnish ECEC curricula comprise several ethical codes.For the future purposeful ECE teachers as ethical professionals,the results raise questions for further discussion.Particularly,issues related to the ethics of care,intellectual freedom,inquiry stance,and professional competence,and diversity may further enhance our ECEC curricula.
文摘Purpose:This comparative study identifies core values expressed in Early Childhood Education(ECE)official policy documents from a sample of thirteen countries.Design/Approach/Methods:This study employs document analysis as well as content and thematic analysis.ECE values identified in the policy documents are categorized into three groups:political and society-related values,educational values,and individual and relational values.Findings:Document analysis reveals the values that are common across countries and those that are more specific to just one or a few countries at most.This study discusses the characteristics of these values from the perspective of globalization.In doing so,this comparative study llustrates and discusses the tendencies for both convergence and divergence in ECE values in policymaking worldwide.
文摘Purpose:This article examines how early childhood curriculum documents in two culturally different contexts are associated with current concepts of sustainability and principles of early childhood education for sustainability(ECEfS)in China and Norway.Design/Approach/Methods:Applying critical document analysis,the study explores a number of landmark curriculum documents from China and Norway,comparing the ways in which ECEfS is conceptualized,including the concept of sustainability,children as agents of change for sustainability,and sustainability in young children’s everyday lives.Findings:Corresponding to the analytical framework,China and Norway attach different importance to the three dimensions of sustainability-social-cultural,economic,and environmental.For example,Norway has a more autonomous view of children’s agency,while China gives more emphasis to teachers’support.The two countries also have different perspectives on how to work with families and communities based on significantly different traditions and institutions.The comparative document analysis argues that predominant cultural dimensions in each context,such as collectivist and individualistic factors,may shape the understandings of sustainability in each country’s early years’curriculum documents.Originality/Values:By broadening the focus on the social-cultural aspects of sustainability,this study extends the development of a culturally inclusive understanding of the concept of sustainability and contextualized/localized approaches to ECEfS across the globe.
基金research result of the general program“Family Capital,Shadow Education and Social Reproduction”(No.71774112)supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China.
文摘Does enrolling children aged 0-3 in early childhood education(ECE)classes continuously empower their learning and development after entering kindergarten?Based on the tracking survey data of 664 children aged 3-6 in 2017 and 367 children aged 3-6 in 2018,this study uses Propensity Score Matching to analyze this issue.The findings reveal that children’s family socioeconomic status is a key factor influencing their participation in ECE classes.The baseline data show that participation in ECE classes does not significantly improve children’s learning and development.However,the follow-up data show that participation in ECE classes plays a significant negative role in motor development for children moving to their second year of kindergarten,but subsequently plays a positive role in language development,health,and safety for those entering their third year of kindergarten.Overall,participation in ECE classes plays no continuous positive role in children’s learning and development after they enter kindergarten.Based on these findings,it is suggested that parents should respect the natural laws of child development instead of blindly following the trend of attending ECE classes,and high-quality parental companionship is crucial.The Chinese government is supposed to implement policies such as“double reduction”to regulate ECE institutions that fail to operate in good faith.
文摘The structure of aged-based education and the science of childhood development were introduced to China in the last decades of the Qing dynasty. Drawing on period textbooks, journal articles, and school documents for women and children, this study argues that the theory of childhood development helped shape socialized play and citizenship training in new schools. These new institutions followed scientific insights about childhood development in terms of both physical and emotional growth. Educators hoped to found schools that would inculcate respect for political authority within the classroom, and administrators took unprecedented steps in documenting and regulating children. Schools not only became places for disseminating learning, but also centers for gathering information about children and their families, as well as about childhood itself. The production of knowledge and the institutionalization of schools for preschool children helped usher in new trends that denaturalized childrearing outside of the family domain.
文摘For centuries,educators and psychologists have advocated“play”as the ideal activity for the development of young children.Actually,play has been found currently to be the central pedagogy in the learning of young children in 21 countries in the world.However,the quality of play-based pedagogy is becoming a key concern across countries.Scholars found that play is either too loosely framed to result in children’s optimal development;or it is too“teacherly”and looses the essence of play.The recent report released by OECD highlighted its concern about play in early childhood education and,urged international researchers and educators to make efforts to bridge the gap.Hong Kong is not an exception on the issue of play enactment.Though resources have been put in for the professional upgrading of early education teachers in the last two decades,the learning and teaching style is still didactic and there appears to be a misinterpretation of play-based pedagogy.The present paper attempts to explore the issue through early childhood teachers’conceptualization of“learning and teaching through play”with the aim of understanding the problem and shedding light for better ways to prepare teachers in this sector.