Photo elicitation has become an important method to produce data in qualitative research. There is quite an extensive literature indicating the benefits of photo elicitation in order to facilitate collaboration in meaning making between researcher and the interviewee. This article addresses dilemmas associated with using photo elicitation in a comparative research project focusing on kindergartens in Norway and in China. The article discusses dilemmas associated with the process of taking photos and selecting those to be used in the interview. Furthermore, the article reflects upon dilemmas in relation to positioning of the researcher, the interpreter and the kindergarten teachers in the interviews. Finally the dilemma of the agency of the pictures is discussed. The article argues for the importance of discussing these dilemmas specifically in cross-cultural research with presumably large cultural differences as China and Norway. Furthermore the article emphasises the importance of using both insider teachers and outsider teachers in interpretation of the photos in comparative research in order to disturb the taken for granted interpretations.The real voyage of discovery consists of not seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.
The purpose of this article is to carry out a critical inquiry of comparative education by using an example of a comparative programme within kindergarten teacher education in Norway. The article discusses the inclination, in cross-cultural comparative studies, to emphasise cultural essentialism, to evaluate educational practice from a mono-cultural perspective and to overlook the interrelation between globalisation and local practices. The article further argues for promoting dialogism in order to understand local practices in cross-cultural comparative studies. Furthermore, the article underlines the importance of extending the understanding of context and problematising the position of the students in order to construct knowledge which challenges their preconceptions, and to contribute to transformation of knowledge.
As the Norwegian society, and thereby the kindergartens, have become more multicultural, the need for cultivating teachers capable of operating in an ever diversified and global world is highlighted as an important educational strategy within teacher education. The purpose of the specific intercultural program in kindergarten teacher education discussed in this article refers to competences needed as a professional teacher in a multicultural kindergarten. Teachers often have various assumptions and beliefs taken for granted. Therefore, reflexivity appears in intercultural education as a crucial asset. However, the article argues that the notion of self-contemplation and self-reflection that can give the subject freedom as a thinking being needs to be challenged. Questioning beliefs and assumptions includes an examination of one's emotional experiences, values and perspectives. This examination can threaten one's core beliefs and create powerful feelings such as anger, shame or resentment. Introducing the concept of disorienting dilemmas, the article problematizes the rationalist intellectual orientation in teacher education and discusses the need to focus on intercultural experiences as sensuous, intellectual and affective. The article illustrates some disorienting dilemmas with narratives from students who have attended the program. Finally, the article considers the conditions and pedagogical means that might support a more holistic approach to learning in intercultural experiences.
Social and cultural sustainability is outlined as creating surroundings that include and stimulate positive interactions, such as promoting a sense of community and a feeling of belonging to a community, by being safe and attached to the local area. Artefacts chosen in early childhood education (ECE) institutions are integrated parts of the culture in which the ECE institutions are embedded; artefacts, thus, are understood as serving belonging and cultural sustainability. The study examined what insight into cultural sustainability could be surfaced in conflicting perspectives about military artefacts in ECE. Focus group interviews were conducted with Chinese and Norwegian graduate students and ECE researchers, during which photographs of a Chinese kindergarten where military artefacts and toys were highly represented. Conflicting perspectives on military artefacts among the participant surfaced how belonging are closely intertwined with protection and where to belong: locally, nationally or internationally. The skeptical approach to military artefacts is challenged by awareness of different ways to promote national pride and entanglement among generations. The findings indicate a need for more research on conditions for belonging and the normative complexities of artefacts in cultural sustainability.
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