Critical Teacher Inquiry: Collaborative Action Research Using Post-Structuralist and Cross-National Provocations

This study reports on the work of six early childhood teachers and the researcher as they enacted a variation of collaborative action research in a university-based early childhood center. The project included cross-national provocation via a “day in the life” video from an infant-toddler center in Milan, Italy. In addition, the model utilized a post-structural approach known as deconstructive talk (Lenz Taguchi, 2008) to facilitate teachers’ critical reflective inquiry into their own narratives. Teachers viewed the video from Milan, discussed provocations from the video, set foci of inquiry for their own classrooms, video recorded in their own classrooms, and undertook multiple rounds of interpretation and analysis of the video documentation. Deconstructive talk within the rounds of interpretation provided an approach to uncover assumptions and allowed for exploration of the sources of knowledge underlying their pedagogical approaches. Findings reveal the areas of their own practice teachers scrutinized and the processes the group employed to engage in critical, reflective thinking about epistemological foundations of pedagogy. Particular areas of inquiry included teachers’ involvement and intervention, teachers’ roles and relationships, children’s social negotiations, and children’s use of space and materials. In addition, the findings report on how the teachers used this particular collaborative action research process to transform and reconstruct new, locally-situated epistemologies in order to inform daily pedagogical decisions. Implications of the project contribute to discourse in early childhood about possible models that foster transformative teacher discourse and situated knowledge construction

Who feeds children? A child's-eye-view of caregiver feeding patterns among the Aka foragers in Congo

This study describes the contributions of various types of caregivers to the direct provisioning and feeding of Aka children in households reliant on foraging in Congo. Ecological and family factors that predict allomaternal caregiving (i.e., caregiving by individuals other than mothers) are identified and discussed in light of current anthropological and public health perspectives on child feeding and cooperative caregiving. The study is based on 8 months of ethnographic fieldwork in the Republic of Congo in 2004 and 2005, and utilizes naturalistic observations of 22 focal children between two and four years of age. Observations spanned 12 daylight hours spread out over three different days. The results of this study demonstrate that even though mothers were the single highest contributor to child feeding, combined allomaternal contributions (i.e., contributions by fathers, grandmothers, aunts, siblings, and cousins) to child feeding was higher than that of mothers. Furthermore, birth order and the transition in families to having a new infant predicted allomaternal contributions. These results reinforce the need to extend public health and nutrition education programs to target more than just parents, as other individuals may have substantial influence over child feeding patterns. Furthermore, these results exemplify a cooperative child rearing pattern that is consistent with behavioral ecology perspectives that have suggested that humans evolved as cooperative childrearers rather than as maternal-centric or parent-only childrearers. Lastly, individual child and family characteristics predicted allomaternal contributions to child feeding and therefore research and public health initiatives need to consider variation in child and family characteristics in order to accurately describe and serve populations throughout the world.Congo Aka foragers Child feeding Allomothers Cooperative child rearing International public health Nutrition

Reciprocal learning: il confronto interculturale come dispositivo per la formazione degli educatori - insights da una ricerca tra Italia e Stati Uniti

The need to foster an “intercultural stance” beginning at the ECE level is a core theme in the current debate on how to support education practitioners working in multicultural settings. Changing one’s outlook, decentring, attempting to see educational phenomena from different angles, developing alternative perspectives are required skills for quality educational work in complex and multicultural educational contexts. How can we help ECEC educators to develop an educational culture that is open to intercultural dialogue and views cultural displacement as an opportunity for learning and exercising critical-reflexive thinking? Based on data from a professional development research project with groups of educators in Italy and the United States, this article discusses how video-mediated processes of intercultural dialogue, debate and exchange can help to foster the development of an appropriate educational stance (and not just educational tools) for multicultural settings.Il tema della formazione a una “postura interculturale” fin dai servizi per la prima infanzia è al centro della riflessione contemporanea su come sostenere gli educatori impegnati in contesti educativi multiculturali. Cambiare prospettiva, decentrarsi, provare a vedere i fenomeni educativi da un altro punto di vista, vedere altrimenti sono competenze oggi necessarie per garantire la qualità del lavoro educativo in contesti educativi complessi e multiculturali. Come formare gli educatori che già lavorano nei servizi per l’infanzia a una cultura pedagogica aperta al dialogo interculturale e capace di cogliere nello spiazzamento culturale un’occasione di formazione e di allenamento al pensiero critico-riflessivo?A partire dai dati emersi da una ricerca sulla formazione degli educatori che ha coinvolto alcune educatriciin Italia e negli Stati Uniti, l’articolo propone una riflessione su come i processi di dialogo, confronto e scambio interculturale, mediati da video, possano essere dispositivi interessanti per promuovere lo sviluppo di una postura e non solo di strumenti per l’azione educativa in contesti multiculturali.O tema da formação para uma “postura intercultural” desde os serviços para a primeira infância está no centro da reflexão contemporânea em como apoiar os/as educadores/as envolvidos/as em contextos educativos multiculturais. Mudar a perspectiva, descentralizar-se, tentar entender os fenômenos educativos de um outro ponto de vista, ver de outra forma, são competências hoje necessárias para garantir a qualidade do trabalho educativo em contextos educativos complexos e multiculturais. Como formar os/as educadores/as que já trabalham nos serviços para a pequena infância para uma cultura pedagógica aberta ao diálogo intercultural e capaz de aproveitar no reposicionamento cultural uma ocasião de formação e exercícios para o pensamento crítico-reflexivo? A partir dos dados obtidos numa pesquisa acerca da formação de educadores/as que envolveu algumas educadoras da Itália e dos Estados Unidos, o artigo propõe uma reflexão a respeito de como os processos de diálogo, de confronto e troca intercultural, mediados por vídeo, podem ser dispositivos interessantes para promover o desenvolvimento de uma postura e não somente como instrumentos de ação educativa em contextos multiculturais

Adopting a framework to support the process of critical reflection and understanding of online engagement

Extensive literature within the learning sciences addresses the phenomenon of online engagement and strategies that support online learning. However, for academics, there is limited guidance to support them in the processes of reflecting on efforts to facilitate online learner engagement and, ultimately, to use those reflections to redesign approaches to teaching and learning. This paper reports on findings from an international case study that involved a group of interdisciplinary academics engaged in a process of critical reflection, which aimed to increase their understanding of the ways in which online engagement is supported in higher education. Findings from the current study suggested that reference to an online engagement framework heightens the effectiveness of critical reflection by elucidating an awareness of learning about ways of supporting student learning and online engagement to improve student success. The paper offers implications related to reflection on and of practice