Investigating child participation in the everyday talk of a teacher and children in a preparatory year

In early years research, policy and education, a democratic perspective that positions children as participants and citizens is increasingly emphasized. These ideas take seriously listening to children’s opinions and respecting children’s influence over their everyday affairs. While much political and social investment has been paid to the inclusion of participatory approaches little has been reported on the practical achievement of such an approach in the day to day of early childhood education within school settings. This paper investigates talk and interaction in the everyday activities of a teacher and children in an Australian preparatory class (for children age 4-6 years) to see how ideas of child participation are experienced. We use an interactional analytic approach to demonstrate how participatory methods are employed in practical ways to manage routine interactions. Analysis shows that whilst the teacher seeks the children’s opinion and involves them in decision-making, child participation is at times constrained by the context and institutional categories of “teacher” and “student” that are jointly produced in their talk. The paper highlights tensions that arise for teachers as they balance a pedagogical intent of “teaching” and the associated institutional expectations, with efforts to engage children in decision-making. Recommendations include adopting a variety of conversational styles when engaging with children; consideration of temporal concerns and the need to acknowledge the culture of the school

"We reaffirm our Mozambican identity in the fight against HIV and AIDS": Examining educational perspectives on women’s ‘proper’ place in the nation of Mozambique

There is increasing recognition of the importance of space in the study of education, resulting in a greatly diversified literature on the geographies of education. This article builds on this growing body of scholarly work to examine a number of critical spatial assumptions underpinning school-based HIV- and AIDS-related education in Maputo, Mozambique. It does so through an analysis of key governmental and ministerial documents and policy-makers’ and educators’ conceptions of the aims of such education. This article highlights how school-based HIV- and AIDS-related education in Mozambique was conceptualized in gendered and distinctly place-based terms. In addition, we elucidate how, despite the various discursive shifts since the struggle for independence from Portugal, young women continue to be construed as the symbolic anchor of the nation, their natural place defined in relation to the domestic, the intimate, and local ‘in-here.

Possibilities and quandaries for young children's active citizenship

Concepts of children's citizenship are highly contested. Contemporary policy and rhetoric increasingly includes the concept of citizenship in relation to children, yet there is considerable ambiguity as to what children's citizenship actually means. Unlike other marginalised groups it is not children claiming citizenship rights for themselves, but adults claiming rights for children on their behalf. Practice or Policy This paper draws from a doctoral study that inquired into possibilities for young children’s active citizenship through analysis of the participation of a class of children aged five to six years in a social justice storytelling program. Possibilities and quandaries for young children's active citizenship are proposed from critical and post-structuralist readings of young children's comments and actions in response to unfair treatment of others experienced through live storytelling. Implications of these possibilities and quandaries are suggested for those who work with young children in early childhood education and citizenship contexts

Complicating ‘student behaviour’:exploring the discursive constitution of ‘learner subjectivities’

When educators consider 'student behaviour', they usually think about 'problem behaviour' such as disruption or defiance. This limited and limiting view of 'student behaviour' not only fails to acknowledge children as educational actors in a wider sense, but also narrowly positions educators as either in control or out of control of their classroom. Mainstream educational psychology's responses to 'challenging behaviour' point educators to numerous ways to prevent its occurrence, through, for example, changing their disciplining approaches and techniques. However, much of the advice directed at improving student behaviour fails to interrogate the core notion of 'student behaviour' itself, as well as the conceptual baggage that it carries. The focus is squarely on eliminating 'problem behaviour' and often resorts to a pathologisation of students. Meanwhile, when considering 'student behaviour' through a Foucauldian post-structuralist optic, behaviour emerges as something highly complex - as spatialised, embodied action within/against governing discourses. In this opening up, it becomes both possible and critical to defamiliarise oneself with the categorisation of 'challenging behaviour' and to interrogate the discourses and subject positionings at play. In this paper, we pursue this task by asking: what happens with the notion of 'behaviour' if we change focus from 'fixing problems' to looking at the discursive constitution of 'learner subjectivities'? What does it become possible to see, think, feel and do? In this exploration, we theorise 'behaviour' as learning and illustrate the constitution of 'learner subjectivities'. Drawing on two case scenarios, we explore how children accomplish themselves as learners and how this accomplishment links the production of subjectivity and embodied action, and illustrate how 'student/child behaviour' appears significantly different to what mainstream educational psychology would have us see