Understanding childhood weight bias: Laying the foundation for promoting positive body image

This study interviewed 131 kindergarten children in China regarding their perspectives on body size-related bias and associated behavioral tendencies using a case study design. Results showed that body satisfaction was prevalent among this group of young children. Similar to studies conducted in Western cultures targeting young children, body weight bias was evident among this group of Chinese kindergarteners with a strong preference for thinner body types, regardless of their genders. Qualitative findings indicated that weight bias could influence children\u27s behaviors, with a tendency to select friends who either share similar body sizes or have slimmer body types. Meanwhile, children with higher body weight may be perceived as a “protector” prototype, a distinctive discovery and contribution to current literature. Findings also suggested a significant peer influence on body size perception, with family members also playing a role. However, the absence of media influence in the current study highlights the need to reconsider the tripartite model’s applicability in non-Western cultural contexts and distinct age groups, offering a unique contribution to the body image literature with young children

Between a rock and a hard place: Principals’ views on gender issues in teacher recruitment in Indonesian early childhood education

This study explores how kindergarten principals in Indonesia perceive gender issues in relation to the teacher recruitment process. Employing a qualitative approach, the study involved focus group discussion with four principals and individual interviews with three others, guided by socio-cultural theory. The findings reveal that although all principals recognized the value of male teachers, they faced competing challenges in hiring them. These included beliefs that the profession is more appropriate for women, fears of potential harassment, and concerns about masculine teaching styles. Deeply embedded gender stereotypes and dominant social norms that position men primarily as breadwinners further discouraged principals from hiring male teachers. Consequently, early childhood education environments remain gender-homogeneous, sustaining gender imbalances and inequality. Since this study involved only female principals in West Java, future research should include a more diverse group of participants and broader geographical contexts to better understand male teacher participation in Indonesian early childhood education

Language outcomes in high-risk Hawaiian children at Ka Paʻalana: A family-child interaction learning program

The importance of high-quality early childhood education programs in young children’s learning outcomes is well established. However, minority and Indigenous children are widely underrepresented in these programs. Early childhood education programs that implement culture-based education  and encourage family partnerships are designed to support Indigenous children and their families. One such program is Ka Paʻalana Homeless Family Education Program and Preschool, a Family-Child Interaction Learning program in Hawaiʻi, created to support Native Hawaiian families who historically experienced homelessness and poor educational outcomes. Here, we evaluated the efficacy of literacy and language professional development for program educators by examining associated language outcomes in a sample of Native Hawaiian preschool-age children (N=45) from a low-socioeconomic, high-risk community. Results revealed significant improvements in both expressive and receptive language, as measured by the formative GOLD®  assessment system and the standardized Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, 5th edition. Compared to other similar programs serving low-socioeconomic-status minority populations, children enrolled in Ka Paʻalana demonstrated higher language scores. Given the small sample sizes and lack of control groups, results should be viewed as exploratory. Nonetheless, this study serves as an initial examination of the potential outcomes associated with Ka Paʻalana educators’ language and literacy professional development, Ka Paʻalana’s Family-Child Interaction Learning program model and its Hawaiian culture-based education approach to promoting language development, and fostering cultural appreciation in a diverse, at-risk community

Applying activity theory to examine mobile application mediation of engagement and curriculum tensions in Chinese preschool

As a response to the global impact of educational technology, the incorporation of technological tools into Chinese kindergarten settings is increasing. However, this has created a tension between using interactive technologies to increase student engagement, while still aligning with national early childhood education standards which advocate for hands-on, culturally responsive forms of learning. This study applies Activity Theory to better understand this systemic tension, while exploring the integration of a mobile app entitled "Preschool Treasure" within kindergarten settings. Through a qualitative single case study approach and drawing upon multiple data collection methods, including interviews with 6 teachers, 20 video observations of classroom practices, and policy document analyses, this study examined the relationships among digital tools, educational agents and 1 educational institution. The study revealed that contradictions between the design of the app and its pedagogical objectives have become educational possibilities instead of educational barriers. This research illustrates how the educators perceived the imperative to modify their pedagogical intentions during the incorporation of the application into their practice.  By exploring a new application of mobile technology in Chinese kindergartens, this research highlights key drivers of sustainable integration: user engagement, cultural adaptability, and teacher professional autonomy. The study presents a pathway towards educational technology co-design that is collaborative and supports educators\u27 contextual and curricular priorities

Exploring gendered professions in nursery rhymes: Implications for learning and social interaction

The significance of early childhood literature in development and perpetuation of ideas and concepts in the minds of toddlers and preschoolers is well-established. A large body of work talks about the impact and role of children\u27s literature in the process of child development but very less or negligible importance is given to the way stereotypes are formed based on the reading and recital by children. Stereotypes generally serve as an underlying justification for prejudice. The formation and development of stereotypes and prejudices is based on the process of social categorization which is majorly related to personal experience and social learning. The paper argues that the language of early childhood literature, nursery rhymes in particular, plays a pivotal role in the perpetuation of stereotypes relating to gendered roles and therefore a reassessment of nursery rhymes is crucial to promote gender equality, the focal point being the professional roles. The Method of Critical Discourse Analysis is used to analyze the nursery rhymes taught at preschools and primary schools in the city of Ahmedabad. The analysis reflects a need for re-imagining rhymes for fostering a more inclusive and equitable society

Centering Black women’s voices to advance anti-racist pedagogy and pro-Black approaches in early childhood settings

Despite calls for anti-racist and pro-Black pedagogy in early childhood settings within Canada, such approaches generally remain absent, and many past efforts have been erased or. Colorblind approaches continue to persist in early childhood care settings. This kind of systemic racism may be linked with the overrepresentation of Black (and Indigenous) children in the child welfare system. To date, few studies have investigated the possible mediating role of early childhood educators. Early childhood educators have the potential to serve as mandated reporters, and this article draws from Black feminist thought, Black critical  theory (BlackCrit) and pro-Black pedagogies to explore how Black early childhood educators in Toronto, Canada can challenge anti-Black racism in childcare settings. Using these frameworks, the article aims to explore the resistance strategies of  Black early childhood educators and specific ways they use their knowledge to resist anti-Black racism and enact pro-Black pedagogies. Nine semi-structured interviews yielded four key themes: (1) teachable moments to challenge anti-Black racism and advance anti-racism; (2) pro-Black approaches as liberatory pedagogical practice; (3) othermothering principles and community leadership to challenge oppression; and (4) resistance practices among Black early childhood educators. The findings revealed how Black early childhood educators affirm Black children\u27s humanity and center Black ways of knowing while disrupting anti-Black racism toward themselves and the children and families they support

(Un)familiar materials: Using dis/assemblage to think critically about race and racism

This study investigates how white educators engage with justice-centered pedagogies and practices in early childhood spaces. It is situated in the Southwestern United States where local/state/federal contexts are attempting to silence Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging initiatives and enact violence towards communities of Color. Rooted in Critical Whiteness Studies as a critique of white supremacy, this work interrogates past-present-future histories of white immunity and domination while forefronting the resistance of communities of Color across time, place, and space. The focus group session shared here is part of a larger study that uses photovoice and arts-informed analyses to move white early childhood educators across-between-within-beyond allyship, activism, and co-conspiracy. Coming together as critical friends to unearth and confront enactments of race, racism, and whiteness«antiBlackness in early childhood spaces, co-researchers dis/assembled familiar-now-unfamiliar-to-be-familiar-again materials to make sense of previously-taken photographs. This individual and collective artmaking moved co-researchers with/in spaces of un/certainty – both with artmaking and speaking about race and racism. This study illustrates how artmaking set the stage for bravery, positioned co-researchers as critical friends, and provoked critical reflexivity. In doing so, it asserts dis/assemblage as a literal and metaphorical re-making process through which white educators build, break, and re-build art, themselves, and their early childhood spaces. This article calls for researchers to engage with methods and analyses processes outside of the whitestream and posits analytical artmaking as pivotal to whitewomen’s critical reflexivity

From compliance to refusal: White childhoods and abolitionist imaginaries in early childhood education and care

This paper introduces the concept of white childhoods as a critical framework to examine how whiteness, coloniality, and racial capitalism shape early childhood education and care systems in Europe. Dominant norms of childhood, rooted in white, middle-class, heteronormative, and non-disabled ideals, structure how children are seen as emotionally legible, developmentally "normal," and worthy of institutional care. Racialized and migrant children are often positioned as deficient, with their languages, cultural practices, and family structures rendered unintelligible or threatening. Drawing on in-depth interviews with Syrian mothers and ethnographic observations across Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands, the paper maps how white childhoods are enforced through language policy, affective expectations, and maternal surveillance. Beyond critique, the paper uses short speculative vignettes to explore abolitionist futures in which care is collective, multilingualism is embraced, and belonging is not conditional. These speculative fragments are grounded in the lived experiences and quiet refusals voiced by migrant mothers, treating imagination as both method and political strategy. Rather than seeking inclusion or reform, the paper calls for dismantling the racialized logics of early childhood education and care and for building educational spaces grounded in relationality, cultural sovereignty, and joy. Abolition here is framed not as utopian idealism but as a pedagogical and methodological commitment to living otherwise

Pluralist proximity: Speculation for an antiracist pedagogy in Swedish and Norwegian early childhood education

This article builds on findings that racism significantly affects the well-being of minoritised students in early childhood education in Sweden and Norway. We understand the lack of a specific antiracist early childhood education in a colourblind society as impacting the development of young children and the future of the Earth when racial disparity amplifies the instabilities caused by predatory capitalism and the climate crisis. We challenge the assumption that education in the arts is inherently beneficial and speculate on a future where critical awareness of differences and colonial understanding are integral in early childhood education. Our aim with this article is to enhance the abilities of early childhood education students and teachers, as well as early childhood teachers, to develop visual racial literacy. We unpack the Solmaz collective\u27s emerging concept of pluralist proximity: a state of collective professional development that can scaffold a practice of emancipatory antiracism needed in early childhood education contexts. It is a speculative, emerging pathway for students and teachers to develop antiracist pedagogy for early childhood education in Sweden and Norway. The notion of pluralist proximity investigates how zones of racial discomfort can be acknowledged and harnessed to develop antiracist teaching practices. The authors of the article use performative research, which is entangled with postcolonial thought. By identifying how stereotypes are subtly perpetuated through colonised lenses, the image thus becomes a theoretical and methodological tool for critically thinking about our entanglements in racialisation processes. It aligns with the concept of visual racial literacy

Transformational (methodological) shifts towards anti-racism: Revolt, realities and rhizomes

Many worldly concerns of today are arguably – and potentially increasingly – fuelled by racist orientations. They are institutional, structural, and individual. What is the role then, of early education, and of educational research? In what ways might research contribute to transforming orientations, towards difference, towards racism? Given the emphasis on strengthening young children’s cultural sense of belonging, teachers ask: but what about me? Teachers’ own marginalisations remain an under-researched area, a situation which is further exacerbated in the highly diverse contexts of Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, where further immigration is encouraged to fill dire teacher shortages. This paper draws on teachers’ storying of realities and of transformations towards diversities and explicit racist behaviours in Australia and Aotearoa. The research is funded by the Australian Research Council, obtained University of Melbourne ethical approval, and involves 23 participants. In this paper I draw on 1 teacher’s narrative to explicate experiences and orientations in early childhood settings. I argue for feminist philosophical research approaches foregrounded by Kristeva’s notion of revolt, as a state of constant critical questioning. Further, the notions of teachers’ realities and rhizomes elevate the importance of a reorientation of attitudes beyond racism in research and teaching for teachers of young children. Doing research and difference differently, I argue, is crucial for raising awareness of and respecting diversities in more equitable, less racist ways