Journal of Childhood, Education & Society

South Korean early childhood educators’ perceptions of North Korean defectors and unification education

Jiah Seo — 2025-02-18

This study investigates South Korean early childhood educators’ perceptions of North Korean defectors, their national identity, reunification, and unification education (UE) to provide some suggestions for an effective integrated education between the children of the two Koreas and related teacher education. Fourteen educators participated in this research in which qualitative semi-structured interviews were employed. Key findings included that most educators regarded North Koreans as the ‘Same Korean race’, with the exception of young educators in their 20s, whose view was that North Koreans are not a member of the Korean people. In addition, the participants felt there were ideological, cultural, language, and economic differences between them and North Korean defectors and their children. Some participants argued that UE for young children is not inherently ineffective due to a lack of understanding of the concept of unification. Alternately, some educators addressed North and South Korean UE through multicultural educational approaches. Recommendations are made for the application of UE via multicultural education approaches at government level, in the class and teacher training.

A longitudinal case study of a preschool-age child’s acquisition of writing

Nektarios Stellakis — 2025-02-18

This article refers to a longitudinal case study, the main aim of which was to depict the development of the writing skills of a child from a high social class background, called Andreas, during the phase of his emergent/early literacy. The writings Andreas produced during literacy events that took place in his family environment from his birth until his entrance in primary school were assessed using the child’s intended purpose and text characteristics as the main axes, while a series of supplementary data was also examined. The results of the in-depth analysis of the written productions provided a satisfactory outline of the process for Andreas’ acquisition of the writing code as this developed over time, and they also brought to light the reasons that prompted him to write.

Exploring Hong Kong student teachers’ perspectives on children’s play and learning

Tracy Chui-Yi Wong — 2025-02-18

The concepts of learning through play and a play-based curriculum have gained widespread recognition and popularity in the 21st century. However, in Hong Kong (HK), parents, teachers, and other stakeholders still exhibit limited confidence and capacity in applying these notions to the field of early childhood education (ECE). Moreover, how ECE student teachers perceive and understand these concepts remains largely unknown. To address these issues, this research adopted the ecological system theory as a theoretical framework to 1) investigate HK ECE student teachers’ views on implementing a play-based curriculum and 2) understand the associated difficulties they encounter in the HK context. The study employed a mixed-methods approach, including a Play Belief Survey and a qualitative focus group interview. In total, 200 survey responses and 100 minutes of interview data were collected from a group of ECE student teachers from teacher education institutes in HK. The findings revealed a salient contradiction and concern among student teachers, who expressed positive beliefs about a play-based curriculum yet faced insufficient support in terms of its practical implementation in local ECE settings. This finding underscores the need to closely scrutinise a play-based curriculum in terms of the uniqueness of the HK ECE context. In addition, the implications of this research for the wider Asia-Pacific region are discussed.

‘We can make a difference’: School leaders’ claims about School-Age Educare in areas with socioeconomic challenges

Marina Wernholm — 2025-02-18

The aim of this study is to explore how School-Age Educare Centers (SAEC) adapt to the circumstances and needs of pupils living in areas with socioeconomic challenges, and how SAEC can contribute to promote pupils’ continued learning and knowledge development for further education and for life. The Swedish school-age educare offers education and care for children aged 6-12 years old, before and after school. The following research question guides the study: What claims are made about the SAEC contribution to pupils in terms of subjectification and qualification? Data consist of 13 interviews with school leaders working in schools in vulnerable areas, neighborhoods at risk, and particularly exposed zones identified by the Swedish Police. Qualitative content analysis was applied. The study is theoretically grounded in Biesta’s concepts subjectification and qualification, which are used as aspects of education. This study contributes with nuanced descriptions of how the SAEC mission to compensate and complement is claimed to be put into practice. One conclusion is that school-age educare centers can make a difference in children’s life conditions and prerequisites for succeeding in school. Another conclusion is that school-age educare centers emerge as potential arenas for crime prevention.

Rethinking play and child-centredness within early childhood curriculum in Croatia

Katarina Bogatić — 2025-02-18

Within Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) the child-centred approach, with all its various and diverse contextual interpretations, is well-established as a cynosure of contemporary theoretical discourses as well as endeavours in everyday practice, at least on a declarative level. Play is positioned as a high priority within the child-centred approach; more specifically, play is conceptualized as the central activity of the child through which they learn. Whilst these two concepts seem to be coherent and based upon similar theoretical underpinnings, there is much room for critical discussion concerning the conceptualizations and rationale behind both of them. This paper discusses how the academic community, in this paper, exemplified by specific policy-makers and early childhood educators in Croatia, see play and child-centredness in the curriculum-framed ECEC context. An e-focus group was conducted with twelve (12) early childhood educators in Croatia, showcasing the educators’ uncertainties regarding thinking about and ‘doing’ play and child-centredness while realising their planned curriculum. The paper concludes with deliberations on the position of adults within child-centred ECEC practice, based on both literature and research results with a potential impact in terms of rethinking ECEC practices as well as documentation practices in Croatia.

A study of teachers' perceptions of early childhood language and literacy education: Importance-performance analysis

Soonhwan Kim — 2025-02-18

This study analyzes kindergarten teachers' perceptions of the importance and performance in early childhood language and literacy education in hopes of identifying practical ways to support early childhood language and literacy development. The research questions were as follows. First, how do kindergarten teachers’ perceptions of the importance differ from their perceptions of performance in early childhood language and literacy education? Second, what does an IPA analysis reveal about kindergarten teachers’ importance- and performance-related perceptions of specific areas of early childhood language and literacy? Analyzing a sample of 200 kindergarten and daycare teachers responsible for classes of 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds, we examined differences in importance- and performance-related perceptions regarding early childhood language and literacy education. Our analysis focused on four areas (listening, speaking, reading, writing) in 22 sub-items. The results revealed similarities and differences between kindergarten teachers’ importance- and performance-related perceptions of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The IPA analysis showed that Quadrant 1 had a high proportion of listening, speaking, and reading, mainly featuring elements related to attitude and comprehension, while Quadrant 3 had a high proportion of writing, mainly featuring elements related to the technical aspects of language, such as phonemes, fluency, and accuracy. Exploring the extent to which teachers' perceptions of the importance of each area of early childhood language and literacy education are connected to practice, the results of this study highlight the need for specific support and education in areas where discrepancies exist between perceptions and implementation.

Understanding and implementing play as a learning pedagogy: Narratives of practitioners in early childhood mobile units

Zukiswa Nhase — 2025-02-18

This research examined practitioners' narratives on understanding play as a learning pedagogy in early childhood mobile units. The national curriculum framework encourages practitioners and teachers in early childhood settings to employ a variety of play pedagogies to stimulate young learners to develop core skills in early childhood learning environments. Underpinned by Vygotsky's sociocultural theory, the article draws from the zone of proximal development and social interaction as significant theoretical concepts to examine practitioners’ understanding of play as a learning pedagogy in early childhood mobile units. A phenomenological within the qualitative research domain was utilised to gather in-depth data on the topic under investigation. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews with twenty practitioners purposively selected to provide their narratives on understanding play as a learning pedagogy in early childhood mobile units. The Atlas.ti software was used to analyse the collected data using a narrative strategy. The findings revealed that the practitioners maintained a high standard of service delivery within the mobile Early Childhood Care and Education unit contexts, which was transformative, high-quality and play-based. This paper contributes to the existing knowledge of delivering high-quality play-based learning pedagogy in early childhood settings.

Integrating playful pedagogies with the curriculum: The perspectives and practices of teachers working across infant, first and second classes, in Ireland

Lisha O’Sullivan — 2025-02-18

While play is a key feature of the early childhood curriculum, its role in primary education can be more peripheral. In Ireland, a new primary curriculum framework aims to strengthen connections between learning in preschool and school through embedding a playful approach, more dynamically, in the primary context. This paper will share findings from an online mixed methods survey of 293 teachers, working in junior and senior infants and in first and second class. Congruent with research in other countries, findings suggest that while play is associated with a broad range of benefits, and is seen as compatible with learning in school, its potential is not optimised due to a myriad of system, school, teacher, and child features. While the prominence of playful pedagogies in the new primary curriculum framework is welcome, the current findings underscore issues which could impact on the fidelity with which it is implemented. The findings from this study affirm the value of surfacing teachers’ perspectives during times of curriculum reform. The perceived enablers and barriers, to adopting playful and innovative pedagogical approaches, can inform the provision of resources and design of supports which will be required to embed play successfully in Irish primary schools. To harness existing best practice and to propel and sustain curriculum innovation, teachers clearly need to be seen as partners rather than mere consumers or receivers of curriculum redevelopment.

Teacher’s perceptions of usefulness of online PD resources

Xuanyi Eliza Wu — 2025-02-18

Despite the rise of online professional development (PD) for early childhood educators, few studies have examined their perceptions of the usefulness of learning resources. We developed an online PD centered on teacher-child interactions, based on the critical features of high-quality PD. The PD was composed of 10 units with a variety of learning resources, including video lectures, research notes, testimonials, classroom videos, quizzes, reflection activities, and sharing activities. We examined teachers’ perceptions of the usefulness of such learning resources and explored potential differences based on key demographic variables. Participants were 137 in-service Hong Kong kindergarten teachers. Evaluation surveys and semi-structured interviews were utilized after course completion. Classroom videos, which provided real-life examples, were perceived as most useful resource to improve teaching practices. Participants also considered video lectures, research notes, and testimonials as extremely useful resources, and reflection activities and sharing activities as useful resources. Quizzes emerged as the least useful resource, especially when these involved fact-based questions. Teachers’ perceptions were not influenced by their demographic backgrounds. We conclude that teachers place a higher emphasis on online PD resources that offer practical examples compared to those focus on theoretical knowledge and self-reflection. The current study filled an important gap in the early childhood teacher education literature, specifically in the area of online PD, offering theoretical, practical, and policy-related insights.