Constructions of Neuroscience in Early Childhood Education

Vandenbroeck, Michel; Vos, Jan De; Fias, Wim; Olsson, Liselott Mariett; Penn, Helen; Wastell, David; White, Sue

doi:10.4324/9781315445120

Cited by 31 publications

(13 citation statements)

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“…As we know, childhood education is high on political agendas (Vandenbroeck et al, 2010). In times of neoliberalism, market forces are continuously shaping educational discourses (see Allsup, 2015) by promoting what has been known as the “economic” or “investment” argument in education (Moss, 2013; Vandenbroeck, 2017a). Early childhood education, for example, has often been recognized not so much for what it contributes to children’s lives “in the moment” (again, children in the process of “being”), but for its economic benefits, such as lower levels of incarceration later in life (i.e., children in the process of “becoming”) (see Reynolds et al, 2011).…”

Section: Longitudinal Studies On Collective Music Education and Childmentioning

confidence: 99%

Longitudinal Research on Music Education and Child Development: Contributions and Challenges

Ilari

2020

Music & Science

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Based on a comprehensive analysis of 39 studies published in academic journals in the past decade (2010–2020), this article discusses the strengths of current research and the challenges that lie ahead for researchers interested in conducting longitudinal research on music education and child development. Among the strengths of the reviewed studies are multi-year projects, diverse study samples and programs, and a wide range of areas of interest—cognitive and neural to socioemotional and musical development. Challenges for future research are described in relation to three main perspectives. The methodological, the first perspective, tackles future challenges in terms of research approaches, population sampling, randomization, replication, and the lack of cross-cultural longitudinal research. The second perspective, the conceptual-philosophical, focuses on how children, music, and music education have been defined—in deliberate or tacit ways—in longitudinal works, and their implications for both research and practice. The third perspective, the political, focuses on the extent to which research on the effects of music education may be interpreted by some as promoting a neoliberal educational agenda. I conclude the article with suggestions for future research.

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Section: Longitudinal Studies On Collective Music Education and Childmentioning

confidence: 99%

Longitudinal Research on Music Education and Child Development: Contributions and Challenges

Ilari

2020

Music & Science

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“…The use of neuroscience along with an economic investment rationale in early childhood education is also to be noticed in local interventions, events for parents and discussions between private day care organisers and local authorities (Boyle 2016). It is as if all agree that there is but one rationale for publicly funding early childhood care and education: the alleged economic benefits (for a further elaboration of this issue, see Vandenbroeck et al 2017).…”

Section: The Brain As the Ultimate Objectificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measuring the young child: on facts, figures and ideologies in early childhood

Vandenbroeck

2020

Ethics and Education

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In this contribution, we look-both historically and in the present-at how children are objectified in data and how it is assumed that this objectivation is a way to dismiss ideology, or at least to separate the ideological from the scientific. We argue, however, that the separation of data from ideology is itself a highly ideological choice. As Freire points out: education never was and never can be objective. The objectivation of the child and, more generally, of pedagogy means that the agenda that this serves remains veiled. A closer look at what data are put forward as the means to objectify education reveals that this agenda is deeply individualistic and fit to serve a competitive capitalist society. We argue that if this is the case, it ought to be the result of democratic debate and, therefore, we need more, not less, ideologies in pedagogy, because facts and data are always embedded in ideologies. And so they should be.

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“…This notion takes for granted an idea that the gap needs a bridged relation. The metaphor of ‘bridge the gap’ that Samuels (2009) has used has also been expressed as ‘building bridges’ by Ansari and Coch (2006), ‘build the neuroscience and education bridge’ by Bruer as early as 1997 (see also Fischer et al., 2007; Szűcs and Goswami, 2007; Varma et al., 2008) and even ‘bridge the gulf’ by Goswami (2006). The metaphor thus becomes an almost unquestionable truism.…”

Section: The Discourse Of Difficultymentioning

confidence: 99%

Reconsidering the concept of difference: A proposal to connect education and neuroscience in new ways

Aronsson

2019

Policy Futures in Education

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Connecting neuroscience and education is a desire in contemporary society, related to the recurring calls for education to become more evidence-based. Research in educational neuroscience strives towards such interdisciplinary knowledge production and to an enhanced interaction between neuroscience research and educational practice. However, various problems and difficulties in achieving these collaborations are often reported. Discrepancies, hierarchies, misconceptions and communication problems can be described as creating a ‘discourse of difficulty’. The aim of this paper is to trace the specific difficulties that have created this discourse, and to problematize these difficulties in ways that enable new conceptions of what might be entailed by interaction and mutual knowledge development between the fields of neuroscience and education, and between academic theory and educational practice. The most significant difficulty is caused by a binary understanding of the concept of difference in relation to understanding the fields. Instead of understanding the fields in opposition to each other, I will suggest an understanding that implies difference emerging in each of the collaborating fields as the self-differing effects of the encounter. In the concluding discussion, I will argue that an understanding of the concept of difference as a process of mutual transformation can be essential for reciprocity and bi-directionality in collaborations. Instead of producing contradictions and hierarchies between scientific fields and between theory and practice, such an understanding of difference might facilitate an investigation of the polarizations that always position something as of lesser value, and ultimately, creates the gaps that collaborations want to bridge.

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Constructions of Neuroscience in Early Childhood Education

Cited by 31 publications

References 0 publications

Longitudinal Research on Music Education and Child Development: Contributions and Challenges

Longitudinal Research on Music Education and Child Development: Contributions and Challenges

Measuring the young child: on facts, figures and ideologies in early childhood

Reconsidering the concept of difference: A proposal to connect education and neuroscience in new ways

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