Transitions in Early Childhood Education

Author(s):

Anders GarpelinGunilla SandbergPernilla Anna KallbergKenneth Ekström

Conference:

ECER 2008

Network:

14. Communities, Families and Schooling in Educational Research

Format:

Paper

Session Information

14 SES 08, Home - School Transitions in the Early Years.

Paper Session

Time:

2008-09-12

08:30-10:00

Room:

A1 318

Chair:

Linda Mary Hargreaves

Contribution

In most countries, children pass through several transitions during their years in the educational system. Characterized as being more or less marked, these transitions might be considered as natural, something everyone has to pass, or regarded as critical, with risks for the well-being of the individual. In previous research, we found how marked transitions between primary and lower secondary school, from young peoples’ perspectives, might be interpreted as an important step between childhood and adolescence, a rite of passage recognized by the adult generation. Our current research is focussed on transitions in early childhood education, ranging from the beginning of pre-school to the start of school. The structure of the Swedish pre-school has changed during the last decade. From the 1970s, it was often organized in “sibling groups” with children ranging in age from one to six. By this, children had no more transition until they began school. Since the late 1990s, with the new “pre-school class” for the age-group six, children have got another transition. By this, as a natural consequence of the more narrow age span from one to five, the average age in pre-schools has decreased. To cope with the increased number of younger children, it has become more and more common that the children are divided into age-groups. The aim of our research is, from the perspective of the children and their parents as well as the teachers and the pre-school institution, to deepen our understanding of what these transitions in early childhood education mean, especially with reference to child development, participation and marginalization. At the conference, we will: (1) present a research overview of the field transitions in early childhood education; (2) report on some results from a pilot study on transitions between age-groups in pre-school, and finally, (3) discuss implications on our forthcoming research. The research overview (1) shows that there have been considerably few studies in the field. Those conducted concern either the transition from home to pre-school or from pre-school to school, and hardly any study of transition within pre-schools. The pilot study (2) was conducted with interviews of nine pre-school teachers at two pre-schools with transitions between different age-groups for their children. One pre-school strived to give the children smooth transitions, taking into account how mature the individual was, so that he/she could manage in the new environment with older children. The other pre-school had one special transition day every year, where everyone in the age-group had to pass, as a form of event, like a rite of passage. The implications on our forthcoming research (3) – To deepen our understanding of transitions in early childhood education, we need to take into account all actors’ perspectives and widen our way of collecting data. An interpretive approach will be applied, analyzing data gathered in a comparative ethnographic study by participant observation, recordings, taking photos and interviews. The cases will be scrutinized from the three actor perspectives as well as the field workers’. By applying a special educational perspective, we will study the transitions with reference to participation and marginalization. We will study transitions to pre-school, within the pre-school and to school. We also will compare with other transitions in school life. Through this comparative perspective we can get an even deeper understanding of the meaning of these transitions for children and young people from a life perspective.

Method

To deepen our understanding of what these transitions in early childhood education mean, from the perspective of the children and their parents as well as the teachers and the pre-school institution, we apply an interpretive approach. In the pilot study, we focus on the perspective of the teachers, through qualitative research interviews of nine pre-school teachers at two pre-schools. A research overview of the field is also conducted.

Expected Outcomes

The interviews with the pre-school teachers at two pre-schools revealed two different perspectives on transitions. Both had transitions between different age-groups for their children. One pre-school strived to give the children smooth transitions, taking into account how mature the individual was, so that he/she could manage in the new environment with older children. The other pre-school had one special transition day every year, where everyone in the age-group had to pass, as a form of event, like a rite of passage. Together with our research overview the pilot study has resulted in important implications on our forthcoming research.

References

Arstad Thorsen, A., Bø, I., Løge, I.K. & Omdal, H. Transition From Day-Care Centres to School. What Kind of Information do Schools Want From Day-Care Centres and Parents, and What Kind of Information do the Two Parties Want to give Schools? European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 14, (1), 77-90. Bateson, G. (1958) Naven. A Survey of the Problems suggested by Composite Picture of the Culture of a New Guinea Tribe drawn from Three Points of View. (2nd ed) Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. Bettelheim, B. (1954) Symbolic Wounds. Glencoe, Illinois: Free Press. Broström, S. (2000) Transition to School. Konferensbidrag vid EECERAs konferens i London, England, Aug 29 – Sep 1, 2000. Broström, S. & Wagner, J.T. (Eds.). (2003). Early Childhood Education in Five Nordic Countries. Århus: Systime. Corsaro, W.A. & Molianri, L. (2000) Priming Events and Italian Children’s Transition from Preschool to Elementary School: Representations and Action. Social Psychology Quarterly, 63, (1), 16 -33. Corsaro, W.A., Molianri, L. & Rosier Brown, K. (2002) Zena and Carlotta: Transition Narratives and Early Education in the United States and Italy. Human Development, 45, 323-348. Corsaro, W.A., Molianri, L., Gold Hadley, K., Sugioka, H. (2003) Keeping and Making Friends: Italian Children’s Transition from Preschool to Elementary School. Social Psychology Quarterly, 66, (3), 272-292. Dalli, C., (1999). Learning to be in Childcare: Mothers’ stories of their child’s Settling in. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 7, (2), 53-66. Denzin, N. (1997) Interpretive ethnography. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Dilthey, W. (1976) Selected Writings. (Ed. H. P. Rickman translated to English). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Orig. publ. 1883). Dockett, S. & Perry, B. (2005) “As I got to learn it got fun”: Children’s reflections on their first year at school. (Refereebedömt konferensbidrag) Presented at the annual conference of the Australian association for research in Education, 2004. www.aare.edu.au/04pap/doc04324.pdf Hämtat 2007-11-12 Duda, M.A. & Minick, V. (2006) Easing the transition to kindergarten: demonstrating partnership through service-learning. Mentoring and Tutoring: Partnership in learning, 14, (1), 111-121. A.W. Dunlop & H. Fabian (Eds.) Informing transitions in the early years: Research, Policy and Practice. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill/Open University Press. Early, D.M., Pianta, R.C., Taylor, L.C. & Cox, M.J. (2001) Transition Practices: Findings from a National Survey of Kindergarten Teachers. Early Childhood Education Journal, 28, (3). Einarsdóttir, J. (2007) Research with children: methodological and ethical challenges. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 15, (2), 197-211. Ekström, Kenneth. (2007) Förskolans pedagogiska praktik – ett verksamhetsperspektiv. [The pedagogical practice in pre-schools – in a perspective of activity.] Umeå: Umeå universitet. Erickson, F. (1986) 'Qualitative Methods in Research on Teaching', in Merlin Wittrock (Ed.), Handbook of Research on Teaching. (3rd ed.). New York: Macmillan. Erikson, E.H. (1982) The Life Cycle Completed: a Review. New York: W.W. Norton. European Commission (2005) Key Data on Education in Europe 2005. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities. http://www.eurydice.org/ressources/eurydice/pdf/0_integral/052EN.pdf Hämtat 2008-01-22 Freud, S. (1953) The Standard Edition of the Complete Works of Sigmund Freud. Vol. 13 (1913-1914). Totem and Taboo and other Works. London: Hogarth Press. Garpelin, A. (1997) Lektionen och livet. [Lesson and Life] Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. Garpelin, A. (2003) Ung i skolan. [Young in School] Lund: Studentlitteratur. Garpelin, A (2005a). Rites of Passage in School – Rites of Passage in Life. Paper presented at the ECER meeting in Dublin, September 7-10 2005. Garpelin, A (2005b). Understanding the Lesson from Young People´s Perspectives. Paper presented at the ECER meeting in Dublin, September 7-10 2005. van Gennep, A. (1960) Rites of Passage. (Translated by Monika B. Vizedom & Gabrielle L. Caffee). (original published in French 1908). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Giorgi, A. (1985) Phenomenology and Psychological Research. Pittsburgh: Duquense Univ. Press. Grimes, R. (2000) Deeply into the Bone. Re-Inventing Rites of Passage. Berkeley: University of California Press. Hansson, M.J. Horn, E., Sandall, S., Beckman, P., Morgan, M., Marquart, J., Barnwell, D. & Chuo, H.-Y. (2001) After Preeschool Inclusion: Children’s Educational Pathways Over the Early School Years. Exeptional Children, 68, (1), 65-83. Holm, J. & Bowker, J. (Ed.) (1994) Rites of Passage. London: Pinter Publishers. Kraft-Sayre, M.E. & Pianta, R.C. (2000) Enhancing the transition to Kindergarten. Linking Children, Families, & Schools. Charlottesville: University of Virginia, National Centre for Early Development and Learning. Kreinath, J., Hartung, C. & Deschner, A. (Eds) (2004) The Dynamic of Changing Rituals: the Transformation of Religious Rituals within their Social and Cultural Context. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc. Ladd, G.W., Price, J.M. (1987) Predicting Children's Social and School Adjustment Following the Transition from Preschool to Kindergarten. Child Development, 58, (5), 1168-1189 Lee McIntyre, L., Eckert, T.L., Fiese, B.H., DiGennaro, F.D. & Wildenger, L.K. (2007) Transition to Kindergarten: Family Experiences and Involvement. Early Childhood Education Journal, 35, (1), 83-88. Mahdi, L. Carus, C., Geyer, N. & Meade, M. (Eds) (1996) Crossroads: the Quest for Contemporary Rites of Passage. Chicago: Open Court. Margetts, K. (2002) Transition to school –Complexity and diversity. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 10, (2), 103-114. Marlow-Ferguson, R. (Ed) (2001) World Education Encyclopedia: A Survey of Educational Systems Worldwide. (Volume 1-3). (2nd ed) Detroit: Gale. Mead, G.H. (1934) Mind, Self and Society. From a standpoint of a social behaviorist. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Mead, M. (1939) From the South Seas. Studies of Adolescence and Sex in Primitive Societies. New York: William Morrow Mehan, H. (1992) Understanding inequality in schools: The contribution of interpretive studies. Sociology of Education 1992, 65, (4), pp. 1-20. Merry R. (2007) The contsruction of different identities within an early childhood center; a case study in A.W. Dunlop & H. Fabian (Eds.) Informing transitions in the early years: Research, Policy and Practice. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill/Open University Press. Peak, L. (1989) Learning to Become Part of the Group: The Japanese child’s Transition to Preshool life. Journal of Japanese Studies, 15, (1), 93-123. Ricoeur, P. (1981) The model of the text: meaningful action considered as a text. In J. B. Thomspon (Ed.) P. Ricoeur: Hermeneutics and the Human Sciences. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Rimm-Kaufmann, S.E. & Pianta, R.C. (2000) An Ecological Perspective on the Transition to Kindergarten. A Theoretical Framework to Guide Empirical Research. Journal of Applied Development Psychology, 21, (5), 491-511. Stephen, C. (2006). Early Years Education: Perspectives From a Rewiew of International Litterature. Scottish Executive Education Dep., Victoria Quay, Edinburgh. http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/02/06145130. Stormont, M., Beckner, R., Mitchell, B. & Richter, M. (2005) Supporting Successful Transitions to Kindergarten: General Challenges and Specific Implikations for Students with Problem Behavior. Psychology in the Schools, 42, (8), 765-778. Turner, V. (1969) The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Turner, V. (1982) From Ritual to Theatre. New York: PAJ Publications. White, G. & Sharp, C. (2007) ‘It is different…because you are getting older and growing up.’ How children make sense of the transition to year 1. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal. 15, (1), 87-102.

Author Information

Anders Garpelin

Umeå University

BUSV

Umeå

186

Gunilla Sandberg

Uppsala University

Department of Curriculum Studies

Uppsala

186

Pernilla Anna Kallberg

Uppsala Univesitet

Department of curriculum studies

UPPSALA

186

Kenneth Ekström

Umeå Universitet

Institutionen för barn och ungdomspedagogik, specialpedagogik och vägledning

Umeå

186

Update Modus of this Database

The current conference programme can be browsed in the conference management system (conftool) and, closer to the conference, in the conference app.
This database will be updated with the conference data after ECER.

Search the ECER Programme

Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
Search for authors and in the respective field.
For planning your conference attendance, please use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference and the conference agenda provided in conftool.
If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.