Early Childhood Folio vol. 28 no. 1 (2024)

This article discusses the relationship with time in early childhood practice and research. It is based on a 2-year study, Slow Knowledge and the Unhurried Child (2020–21). The study was underpinned by a concern about time pressures within the early childhood education and care  sector and a desire to seek alternative narratives. This article explains the background to this research before outlining the concept of a slow pedagogy. Two main aspects of the study are discussed. First, “… Read more

This article draws from a Teaching and Learning Research Initiative research project that aimed to explore how three early childhood centres support children to experience and learn about their local area, including its stories, geology, biodiversity, and cultural meanings. The project helps children envision socioecological futures. This article focuses on one of the research settings that participated in this study, Pakuranga Baptist Kindergarten, and how the pedagogy of listening and an… Read more

As part of ongoing collaborations with associate and mentor teachers, we explore teachers’ decision making in order to help student teachers and others become aware of the myriad  decisions and political choices made by teachers in their everyday work with children. In this article we are particularly interested in care, and in the way the idea of care is construed in education as a perhaps a less-valuable, or less-recognised context of learning. Two narratives are presented to provoke… Read more

Stories are a way that children under 3 years of age learn to share meaning with others. Most research with this age group has focused on 1:1 parent–child story relationships at home, largely book reading. These studies have positioned children in the role of story listeners rather than story tellers. Here, I explore new possibilities about the nature of story roles and relationships spanning home and early childhood education settings. I present a storyweb model to make visible the multiple… Read more

Recognising children as active and competent citizens holds promise for early childhood research and pedagogies worldwide. Researchers in China have not previously explored young children’s citizenship in detail. The project that is the focus of this article sought to address this research gap. Moss’ critical approach and Chen’s Asia as Method were employed as the tools for theoretical analysis. This article draws from the first author’s doctoral study and explores data gathered from… Read more

The focus of this study is the cognitive process called mentalisation and how it is woven into Te Whāriki. Employing a qualitative content analysis, we sought to examine the embedded expectations and assumptions evident in the curriculum concerning how mentalisation processes and practices should be employed by teachers. Results showed numerous references to mentalisation that were thoroughly integrated throughout the curriculum, particularly in the Contribution / Mana tangata, Belonging /… Read more