Embedding character education into an early childhood classroom through service-learning

The implementation of service-learning in early childhood education classrooms has not been well documented, and the links to service-learning and the potential effects on character education are scarce at best. In this paper, a service-learning pedagogy is presented as a way to enhance character through education with the youngest learners: children in an early childhood classroom. This study examines the experiences of both teachers and children in an early childhood classroom participating in the form of a service-learning pedagogy for a year, and investigates the social emotional and character development of the young children participating in the classroom. Through the implementation of service-learning in early childhood classrooms, it is possible to grow and create a generation of learners who connect academic curricula through projects that deal with real community needs. With an emphasis on building relationships and making connections, service-learning the authors suggest, is an approach that can allows teachers to maximize children’s strengths, while at the same time building character and positive social and emotional traits

Promoviendo la justicia social a través del aprendizaje-servicio en la formación de maestros de Educación Infantil

As early childhood teacher education programs have begun to place greater emphasis on standards and accountability, there has been less focus on working with the community, and especially working on important social justice issues (Kroll, 2013). In this paper we argue that integrating service-learning and teacher education is a strategy for increasing awareness of social justice issues for young children, age three to grade three. Through the use of questionnaires and interviews to collect our data, we found that implementing a cascading service-learning model in teacher education programs has a positive transformative effect on Pre-Service Teachers. Additionally, we examined the effects of social justice service-learning projects on young children. The results from the data indicated that implementing a social justice service-learning project with these participants had a great impact or transformation on them.Como en los programas de formación del profesorado para la primera infancia han empezado a poner mayor énfasis en los estándares y la rendición de cuentas, se está haciendo menos hincapié en el trabajo con la comunidad, y especialmente en trabajos centrados en temas relevantes de justicia social (Kroll, 2013). En este artículo se argumenta que la integración del aprendizaje-servicio y la formación del profesorado es una estrategia para aumentar la conciencia sobre temas de justicia social con los niños pequeños, desde los tres años hasta tercer grado. A través del uso de cuestionarios y entrevistas para la recolección de datos, se encontró que la implementación de un modelo de aprendizaje-servicio en cascada en los programas de formación del profesorado tiene un efecto transformador positivo en profesores en formación. Además, se examinaron los efectos de los proyectos de aprendizaje-servicio de justicia social con niños pequeños. Los resultados de los datos indican que la implementación de un proyecto de aprendizaje-servicio de justicia social con estos participantes tiene un gran impacto o transformación en ellos.Os programas de formação do professorado para a primeira infância começaram a pôr maior ênfase nos padrões e a prestação de contas, dando-se menos ênfase ao trabalho com a comunidade, e especialmente em trabalhos centrados em temas relevantes de justiça social (Kroll, 2013). Neste artigo se argumenta que a integração do aprendizagem-serviço e a formação do professorado é uma estratégia para aumentar a consciência sobre temas de justiça social com as crianças pequenas, desde os três anos até o terceiro grau. Através do uso de questionário e entrevistas para a coleta de dados, encontrou-se que a implementação de um modelo de aprendizagem-serviço em cascata nos programas de formação de professores tem um efeito transformador positivo em professores em formação. Ademais, examinaramse os efeitos dos projetos de aprendizagem-serviço de justiça social com crianças pequenas. Os resultados dos dados indicam que a implantação de um projeto de aprendizagem-serviço de justiça social com estes participantes causa neles um grande impacto ou transformação

A UK-US investigation of early education practitioners’ opinions about child poverty and its prioritizing within their practice: final report

Introduction In many developed societies, children in poverty make up a significant minority across education sectors estimated to be 21% of children in the UK and 22% in the USA. Globally, ECEC has been prioritized as a key policy and practice lever to remediate child poverty by reducing the ‘outcomes gap’ in children’s learning and development. Experiencing poverty has a negative effect, particularly for children in the early years range, and children in poverty are disadvantaged in their learning and development by the age of five years. An evidence base suggests quality ECEC provision can address educational and social inequality by improving outcomes for children in poverty. But what constitutes quality early learning provision and environments for children and their families experiencing poverty remains highly contested. With such a significant minority of children experiencing disadvantage, though, for ECEC provision to have 'quality' it needs to be poverty sensitive. So provision should be characterized by poverty sensitivity and it should be poverty proofed i.e. ECEC practitioners’ delivery, practice and decision making will take poverty, social disadvantage and inequality into account in their everyday provision for children from disadvantaged families. Research, hough, which has considered early education practitioners’ opinions on child poverty is rare and recent small -scale qualitative research completed by members of this research team has suggested poverty sensitivity cannot be assumed (Simpson et al,2015). The research reported here built up on this previous work to provide a broad -scale and unique exploration of ECEC practitioners’ opinions about child poverty. Within the context described above, he central aim of the research was to develop knowledge of early education practitioners’ opinions about child poverty and the extent to which they prioritize it in their practice across several geographic locations in England and the USA. The proposed research hoped to move beyond the restrictions of a country by country sui generis approach, allowing for translocal and transnational connections to be made between early education practitioners’ opinions and engagement with child poverty and its remediation. There were good reasons for choosing to focus upon England and the USA to explore these issues. Increasingly there are parallels and points of tangency between the two countries in regard to child poverty and policies to remediate its impact in early childhood. For instance, as indicated above, there are currently high levels of child poverty in the UK and the USA in comparison with other developed nations. Convergence includes prioritizing ECEC as a social mechanism to address child poverty across both countries (Nandy and Minujin 2012). In England and the USA and many other countries, a dominant neoliberal political discourse emphasizing individualism and limited state involvement pervades this prioritizing. ECEC is delivered via a mixed market model including a significant amount of private for profit provision, the costs of which are relatively high in both countries and prohibitive for low income families. Within the US this has necessitated federal and state level programmes. Across England several national schemes can also be seen to cater for those that are excluded from the ECEC market. In meeting the aim mentioned above the following objectives were achieved. The first objective was to ascertain and contrast early education practitioners’ opinions about child poverty in a selection of geographic locations across England and the USA. The second objective was then to clarify the extent to which these ECEC practitioners engage with (or not) poverty sensitivity in their practice. The third objective was, through the research, to provide a mechanism for bringing practitioners’ opinions to current policy, practice and academic debates around the role of early education in remediating child poverty. A final objective was to draw out wider implications for early education policy and practice including the possible need for poverty proofing toolkits in the early years

‘Seen but not heard’. Practitioners work with poverty and the organising out of disadvantaged children’s voices and participation in the early years

Living in poverty disadvantages young children reducing school readiness. ‘Pedagogy of listening’ can potentially support resilience remediating against poverty’s negative effects. Little, though, is known about how early childhood education and care (ECEC) practitioners work with children in poverty and the attainment gap between such children and their peers remains significant within England and the US. This article reports research using a mixed methodology which explored these issues in localities across both these countries. We argue a dominant technocratic model of early years provision in these contexts creates normalisation and diversity reduction. This, and austerity measures, stymie pedagogical space and practice organising out listening to children in poverty. We suggest this may help explain why the attainment gap remains so stubbornly resistant to reduction across these countries

Talking heresy about ‘quality’ early childhood education and care for children in poverty

This paper considers the socially progressive function of a model of 'quality' early childhood education and care widely prescribed to address child poverty across England and the USA. Ubiquitous, it is imbued with a sense of objectivity, secureness and practicality. We question these foundations. Then using data from practitioners in both countries, we contrast expectations about this model of ECEC as an unmitigated good building resilience to 'break cycles of disadvantage', with the everyday experiences and frustrations of practitioners pursuing it. Their data suggest this model of 'quality' has limitations and some heresy is required about this policy orthodoxy

'New Normal' or continued 'Social Distancing'? Preschool practitioners’ responses to poverty across post-lockdown England and the USA

Just as illness can sometimes heal us, some have speculated an unexpected silver lining of COVID-19 may be an invigoration of a prosocial vision as the ‘new normal’ necessitates new ways of thinking and doing things differently across society and in preschool. This article explores this and reports survey research completed with preschool practitioners post-lockdown across several locations in England and the USA. This repeated a previous survey we did in 2014 which found notable levels of ‘social distancing’ – i.e. restrictions in social connection between preschool practitioners and children and their parents in poverty. Yet, since 2014 with austerity and then COVID-19, the pressure, and need, for prosocial preschool systems to work flexibly and inclusively with children and families in poverty has never been greater. We report findings from our 2021 survey and raise some concerns in the context of COVID-19 recovery policies emerging across both countries post-lockdown

Spirit, mind and body: the archaeology of monastic healing

Archaeology and material culture are used in this chapter to consider how monastic experience responded to illness, ageing and disability. The approach taken is influenced by the material study of religion, which interrogates how bodies and things engage to construct the sensory experience of religion, and by practice-based approaches in archaeology, which examine the active role of space and material culture in shaping religious agency and embodiment. The archaeology of monastic healing focuses on the full spectrum of healing technologies, from managing the body in order to prevent illness, through to the treatment of the sick and preparation of the corpse for burial

An embedding technique to determine ττ backgrounds in proton-proton collision data

An embedding technique is presented to estimate standard model tau tau backgrounds from data with minimal simulation input. In the data, the muons are removed from reconstructed mu mu events and replaced with simulated tau leptons with the same kinematic properties. In this way, a set of hybrid events is obtained that does not rely on simulation except for the decay of the tau leptons. The challenges in describing the underlying event or the production of associated jets in the simulation are avoided. The technique described in this paper was developed for CMS. Its validation and the inherent uncertainties are also discussed. The demonstration of the performance of the technique is based on a sample of proton-proton collisions collected by CMS in 2017 at root s = 13 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 41.5 fb(-1).Peer reviewe

Measurement of t(t)over-bar normalised multi-differential cross sections in pp collisions at root s=13 TeV, and simultaneous determination of the strong coupling strength, top quark pole mass, and parton distribution functions

Peer reviewe

Bose-Einstein correlations of charged hadrons in proton-proton collisions at s\sqrt s = 13 TeV

Bose-Einstein correlations of charged hadrons are measured over a broad multiplicity range, from a few particles up to about 250 reconstructed charged hadrons in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV. The results are based on data collected using the CMS detector at the LHC during runs with a special low-pileup configuration. Three analysis techniques with different degrees of dependence on simulations are used to remove the non-Bose-Einstein background from the correlation functions. All three methods give consistent results. The measured lengths of homogeneity are studied as functions of particle multiplicity as well as average pair transverse momentum and mass. The results are compared with data from both CMS and ATLAS at $\sqrt{s}$ = 7 TeV, as well as with theoretical predictions.[graphic not available: see fulltext]Bose-Einstein correlations of charged hadrons are measured over a broad multiplicity range, from a few particles up to about 250 reconstructed charged hadrons in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} =$ 13 TeV. The results are based on data collected using the CMS detector at the LHC during runs with a special low-pileup configuration. Three analysis techniques with different degrees of dependence on simulations are used to remove the non-Bose-Einstein background from the correlation functions. All three methods give consistent results. The measured lengths of homogeneity are studied as functions of particle multiplicity as well as average pair transverse momentum and mass. The results are compared with data from both CMS and ATLAS at $\sqrt{s} =$ 7 TeV, as well as with theoretical predictions