Abstract
Children’s participation is valued in early childhood education but how this is achieved in pedagogy is less obvious. The methodology of conversation analysis is used in this paper to show how specific interactional practices afford opportunities for children to initiate, explore, and assert their own perspectives in everyday activities. The analyses illustrate how teachers’ practices can encourage child participation through the ways in which teachers respond to and extend child-initiated sequences of learning. Data are drawn from research projects conducted in New Zealand and Australia that explore how teachers construct learning opportunities for children within talk-in-interactions. Three data excerpts of teachers and children, aged from 4 to 6 years, are analysed. The analyses of video-taped interactions reveal that teachers’ contributions to (or silences) in interactions and unfolding talk can create particular trajectories of action in early learning environments. Evidence provided by these analyses can inform professional learning for teachers to illustrate how teachers’ interactions with children can support children’s rights to participation in early childhood education.
Résumé
La participation des enfants est valorisée dans l’éducation de la petite enfance, mais la façon d’y parvenir en pédagogie est moins évidente. On utilise dans cet article la méthodologie de l’analyse des conversations afin de montrer comment des pratiques interactionnelles spécifiques offrent aux enfants des occasions d’introduire, explorer et affirmer leurs propres perspectives dans leurs activités quotidiennes. Les analyses illustrent comment les pratiques des enseignants peuvent encourager la participation des enfants selon la façon dont les enseignants réagissent aux séquences d’apprentissage initiées par l’enfant et les agrandissent. Les données proviennent de projets de recherche menés en Nouvelle-Zélande et en Australie cherchant à explorer comment les enseignants établissent pour les enfants des possibilités d’apprentissage dans le cadre d’interactions avec la parole. L’analyse s’applique à trois extraits de données sur les enseignants et des enfants âgés de 4 à 6 ans. L’analyse des interactions enregistrées par vidéo révèle que les contributions (ou silences) des enseignants dans les interactions et les discussions en cours peuvent créer des trajectoires d’action particulières dans des environnements d’apprentissage précoce. Les résultats de ces analyses peuvent éclairer l’apprentissage professionnel des enseignants afin d’illustrer comment les interactions des enseignants avec les enfants peuvent appuyer le droit des enfants à la participation à l’éducation de la petite enfance.
Resumen
La participación de los niños en la educación preescolar tiene gran valor; sin embargo, no resulta clara la forma en que dicha participación pueda incluirse en los métodos de enseñanza. Esta investigación utiliza la metodología de análisis conversacional con el fin de ilustrar la forma en que las prácticas de interacción ofrecen oportunidades para que los niños inicien, exploren y reafirmen sus propias perspectivas en las actividades diarias. Los análisis ilustran la forma en que las prácticas de los educadores pueden motivar la participación de los niños mediante la forma en que responden y amplían secuencias de aprendizaje iniciadas por los niños. Los datos se obtuvieron de proyectos de investigación realizados en Nueva Zelanda y Australia que exploran la forma en que los educadores construyen oportunidades de aprendizaje para los niños en interacciones orales espontáneas. Se analizaron tres muestras de diálogos de educadores y niños entre los 4 y 6 años de edad. Los análisis de interacciones grabadas en video revelan que las contribuciones (o momentos de silencio) de los educadores en las interacciones y diálogo espontáneo pueden crear trayectorias de acción especiales en ambientes de aprendizaje preescolar. La evidencia suministrada mediante estos análisis puede contribuir a la capacitación de educadores para ilustrar la forma en que las interacciones entre educadores y niños pueden apoyar los derechos de los niños a la participación en su educación preescolar.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the children and teachers involved in our research for their generosity in allowing us, and our cameras, to learn about their participation in early childhood education.
Funding
The Young Learner’s Project in Melbourne Australia was supported the by Australian Scholarships Group and the Australian Research Council’s Linkage Projects funding scheme (Project Number LP0883437).
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Appendix 1: Transcription Conventions Used in the Analyses
Appendix 1: Transcription Conventions Used in the Analyses
The transcription conventions used in this article, follow the original work of Sacks et al. (1974).
. Falling intonation.
, Slightly rising or continuing intonation.
? Rising intonation.
¿ Intonation that rises more than a comma but less than a question mark.
:: Lengthened syllable.
↓ Sharp fall in pitch.
↑ Sharp rise in pitch.
Bold emphasis.
CAP increased volume.
[ ] Overlapping talk.
() Unintelligible stretch.
(0.5) Length of silence in tenths of a second.
> < Increase in tempo, rushed stretch of talk.
< > Slower tempo.
hh Audible outbreath.
.hh Audible inbreath.
[°] Talk that is quieter than the surrounding talk.
$ Spoken while smiling.
(()) Description of accompanying behaviour.
→ Points to a phenomenon of particular interest, to be discussed by the author.
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Church, A., Bateman , A. Children’s Right to Participate: How Can Teachers Extend Child-Initiated Learning Sequences?. IJEC 51, 265–281 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13158-019-00250-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13158-019-00250-7