Dialogue about “learning” across the Northern Norway-Russia border: An analysis of textbooks in kindergarten teacher education

This paper is the first in a series of three studies that explore the pedagogy used in the Norwegian and Russian early childhood settings by examining texts that are part of the syllabus in two early childhood teacher education programs that participated in our project with student international exchanges. The study explores how Mikhail Bakhtin’s notion of dialogue relates to the concept of ‘learning’ in the context of early childhood teacher educations in Northern Norway and Northern Russia. The data sources are textbooks used as syllabi for kindergarten teacher education in those countries. These national dialogues are understood as authoritative discourses on the concepts of learning to which the students in both countries have to relate. By being inspired by Bakhtin’s notion of dialogue, we consider that the ideas in textbooks areas are in a dialogic relationship as they are parts of a regulating battle between centrifugal and centripetal forces. A constructivist perspective on learning and the division of the learning process into subject, knowledge and education areas are identified as the centripetal forces in the dialogue on learning. Activities, tools, and the role of adults are identified as centrifugal forces. Based on the hypothetical premise that textbooks influence practices and that practice may unfold as textbooks describe, we have created hypothetical discussions between educators and students in these countries. The study provides better insight on the premises for the dialogue about learning across international borders which can be useful in internalization and exchange programs in kindergarten teacher educations in different countries

Team reflexivity and the shared mind in interprofessional learning

In interprofessional (IP) workplace education, course and project leaders need a deeper understanding of how students learn. Basically, in IP workplace learning students learn from each other, from the affected agents (patients, clients, children, youth, or elderly), from the staff, and from using multitudes of artifacts. Most of these interpersonal processes are largely tacit, and we therefor decided on elucidating their possible parts in IP learning theoretically, focusing on central interpersonal aspects of team learning processes; team reflexivity and intersubjectivity. Consequently, our study aim was to elucidate possible associations between team reflexivity and the shared mind when students in the IP team interact within each other, with the people and with the artifacts around them. In this article we investigate, elaborate, and conceptualize relevant social theories which address aspects of team reflexivity and intersubjective activities. We will then elaborate and conceptualize consequences for increased understanding IP team learning. Based on our mutual libraries, we have searched in PubMed and Google Scholar for team reflexivity, intersubjectivity, shared mind and their combinations. We came to understand reflexivity and team reflexivity as mostly tacit activities which may be regarded as being interpersonal and self-pacing. Intersubjectivity is however based on the free interaction between minds, orchestrating each other with common ideas, thoughts, attitudes, and bodily actions. Intersubjectivity is created when team members’ verbal and non-verbal activities resonate, giving a shared feeling of developing mutual and common ideas, concepts, and understanding. Team reflexivity, and intersubjectivity are necessary aspects in understanding the learning processes in IP student teams, and we have sketched some consequences for IP course design.publishedVersio

Barnehagelærere med ny identitet

When professionals leave the profession for which they were trained, it is reasonable to assume that society has a challenge. Important theoretical and practical expertise and knowledge leave the sector. Often, escape routes from a profession are also a signal that those who are professionally educated are not satisfied with the working conditions at their workplace - a signal of an identity crisis in the profession. Pre-school or kindergarten teachers in Norway were for a long time a professional group that left their profession - they were nomads of professions. A study from 2015 (Gulbrandsen 2015) showed that kindergarten teachers stopped quitting. The nomad character for Norwegian pre-school teachers became weaker. Guldbrandsen concludes that the change can be explained by a strengthened societal recognition of the professional group's contribution and expertise. The professional identity gained legitimacy in the occupational group's surroundings. This article is based on findings from extensive follow-up research for the reform of Norwegian kindergarten teacher training - the BLU reform from 2014 to 2016. The survey provided extensive data material with answers from students for 3 years over the entire reform period. Our findings indicate that attitudes and values among the students - future professionals - can contribute to the nomadic character of the kindergarten teaching profession remaining low in the future as well. One factor that contributes strongly to explaining variation is the distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. The students in our selection are strongly internally motivated. The heart beats for the children. No other factor provides a stronger explanatory power than this one

Barnehagelærere med ny identitet: Ikke lenger profesjonsnomader?

When professionals leave the profession for which they were trained, it is reasonable to assume that society has a challenge. Important theoretical and practical expertise and knowledge leave the sector. Often, escape routes from a profession are also a signal that those who are professionally educated are not satisfied with the working conditions at their workplace - a signal of an identity crisis in the profession. Pre-school or kindergarten teachers in Norway were for a long time a professional group that left their profession - they were nomads of professions. A study from 2015 (Gulbrandsen 2015) showed that kindergarten teachers stopped quitting. The nomad character for Norwegian pre-school teachers became weaker. Guldbrandsen concludes that the change can be explained by a strengthened societal recognition of the professional group's contribution and expertise. The professional identity gained legitimacy in the occupational group's surroundings. This article is based on findings from extensive follow-up research for the reform of Norwegian kindergarten teacher training - the BLU reform from 2014 to 2016. The survey provided extensive data material with answers from students for 3 years over the entire reform period. Our findings indicate that attitudes and values among the students - future professionals - can contribute to the nomadic character of the kindergarten teaching profession remaining low in the future as well. One factor that contributes strongly to explaining variation is the distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. The students in our selection are strongly internally motivated. The heart beats for the children. No other factor provides a stronger explanatory power than this one

Reimagining “Collaborative Exploration”—A Signature Pedagogy for Sustainability in Early Childhood Education and Care

The purpose of this article is to identify the components and features of a signature pedagogy for sustainability in early childhood education and care to respond to the call for tradition and innovation in early childhood education. Collaborative exploration is proposed as a pedagogical strategy, a relevant mode of action for sustainable practice. This is a conceptual article that recalls the origins of early childhood pedagogy and uses an exemplary empirical narrative from a recent study to illustrate collaborative exploration in an early childhood educational setting. The outlining of the key features of collaborative exploration is furthermore inspired by dialogism. This article provides an argument against mainstream understandings of pedagogical strategies for early childhood education, which are often based on instrumental program approaches, emphasizing the transmission of information in a traditional classroom setting. It is argued that practices of collaborative exploration are embodied in a way that is aligned with the tradition of child-centred early years pedagogy. Moreover, they are crucial to ensuring that all participating children are given responsive support to become members of ecologically, socially and culturally sustainable educational practices, strengthening children’s resilience and agency and inclusive education. The article’s value lies in its potential to support teachers’ thinking and practice in recognizing and articulating collaborative exploration as a signature pedagog

The importance of looking at someone looking through a pirates telescope

This article will address methodological issues concerning the making of knowledge. Drawing on a recent case study from an early childhood educational setting, I will give detailed descriptions of the process of video analysis including the process of transcription and the uses of logs. An aspiration is to create transparency by displaying an analytical process as dynamic, and show how theoretical positions and the researcher her/himself is intertwined in the construction of the empirical base, and thereby in the construction of knowledge. A meta-case is made, and will thereby serve as an example of epistemological reflexivity; how a process of analysis gives certain views and certain truths. To put it in a narrative idiom, this article contains a researcher’s learning story about the importance of looking at someone looking through a pirate’s telescope, to put it in words indicating a meta perspective on a case study called Captain Andreas and his Crew (Ødegaard 2006a, 2007). The article will also, on the basis of a creation of a meta-case, contribute to rethinking truths of children’s meaning-making, gender- and identity-work; boys using swords for battles, as the mention of pirates indicates. The article will problematize whether boys using swords for play battles necessarily can be seen as gendering stereotype masculinity

Observation as a professional tool in Norwegian kindergartens and kindergarten teacher education

Observation has a long history in kindergarten teachers' education and profession. This research investigates observation as a professional tool in Norwegian kindergartens and as a topic in kindergarten teacher education. Based on a survey among 1311 in-service teachers, kindergarten managers, and pedagogy teachers, this study determines the use of and rationale for observation in kindergarten practice and teacher training. The results reveal that observation is considered important for several reasons – to obtain knowledge pertaining to children’s development, out of concern for children, as preparation for parent-teacher conferences, for didactic work, and to develop pedagogical praxis. However, it appears that observational work is infrequent and informal, and does not focus on children’s learning. Increasing the opportunities for teachers carry out observation as per kindergarten policy documents is important, to ensure that all children are provided for in accordance with the Kindergarten Act, and to develop pedagogical practice.publishedVersio

Historical Roots of Exploration – Through a Fröbelian Third Space

References to Fröbel are often seen in early childhood educational research, especially in introductions to topics such as play, learning and pedagogical ideals, and in the origin of early childhood pedagogy, there is however, to our knowledge, not earlier given much attention to the pedagogics of ‘exploration’ in Fröbel’s texts. This chapter will add to body of knowledge that find new interpretations and inspirations in historical roots of pedagogy. The main question we explore in this chapter is: How does the practice of ‘exploration’ appear in Friedrich Fröbel’s texts from the perspective of a Fröbelian ‘third space’? We have selected two texts for this purpose: The Education of Man (Fröbel, Die Menschenerziehung, die Erziehungs-, Unterrichts- und Lehrkunst, angestrebt in der allgemeinen deutschen Erziehungsanstalt zu Keilhau. (Original manuscript). Bayerische Statsbibliotek, Leipzig, 1826, The education of man, trans Jarvis J. A. Lovell & Company, New York, 1885, The education of man, trans Hailmann WN. University Press of the Pacific, Honolulu (Original work published 1885), 2005) and Pedagogics of the Kindergarten (Fröbel, Fredrich Fröbel’s pedagogics of the kindergarten, or, his ideas concerning the play and playthings of the child, trans Jarvis J, vol 30. D. Appleton and Company, New York, 1909). This chapter see texts as a mediated artefact that creates conditions for thinking, understanding and practice, and thereby one of many conditions for what kinds of activities kindergarten teachers and children are allowed and encouraged to do. We will give special attention to how activities are articulated and proposed as explorative practice in classical texts by Fröbel, and we will also draw on the narrative of a Norwegian kindergarten teacher who grew up attending a Fröbelian kindergarten as a child and in order to illustrate exploration as a pedagogy of a third space. We will trace and discuss how Fröbel’s ideas and ideals meet past and current educational challenges for the kindergarten teacher and we will argue for exploration in early years’ pedagogy for the future

Visualising Epistemological Perspectives Using Symbols and Metaphors to Research Sustainability

This study articulates the epistemological underpinnings of a web banner’s visual elements featured on the webpage of the research centre, Kindergarten Knowledge Centre for Systemic Research on Diversity and Sustainable Futures (KINDknow). Through interdisciplinary work within a diverse framework including dialogical, cultural, historical, systemic, anthropological and more-than-human epistemological approaches, the research team has consolidated a common sphere of member-identifying visual representations. This work tells the story of how the research team became ‘ocular’ in developing a web banner and establishing a new research centre. The aim of the narrative is to demonstrate how visual forms, elements, symbols and metaphors can be productive in research teamwork for articulating epistemological commonplaces and commonalities. The article shows the text and visual elements used. The video attached outlines one of the metaphors that served as a productive thinking tool in the process