Temporal settings in kindergarten: a lens to trace historical and current cultural formation ideals?

Birkeland, Åsta

doi:10.1080/1350293x.2018.1556534

Cited by 4 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…As researchers, we are situated in the Nordic context, Denmark and Norway. Additionally, Birkeland has more than 15 years of experience with ECE in China (Birkeland, 2012(Birkeland, , 2013a(Birkeland, , 2013b(Birkeland, , 2016(Birkeland, , 2019, and Sørensen has several years of experience with outdoor activities in kindergartens in Denmark and Norway (Sørensen, 2013(Sørensen, , 2016(Sørensen, , 2017. Therefore, the researchers have both insider and outsider perspectives on the ECE practices in both countries.…”

Section: Studying Children's Exploration In Kindergartenmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The kindergarten is situated in a suburb and focuses on outdoor activities. At the institutional level, the traditions of structuring tasks and activities limited to 20-30 min is prevalent in Chinese kindergartens (Birkeland, 2019). This is a tradition from the Soviet-inspired era where the daily schedule was divided into subjects.…”

Section: Institutional Organization and Demandsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Children’s Explorative Activities in Kindergarten Playgrounds: A Case Study in China and Norway

Sørensen

Birkeland

2020

International Perspectives on Early Childhood Education and Development

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Nordic countries have historically emphasized play in early childhood education to a higher degree than China. However, recent educational reforms have reformulated its importance in early childhood education. In this chapter, we discuss young children’s activities in the playground as a basis for conceptualising diverse conditions for children’s exploration and cultural formation. Prevailing assumptions in the Nordic countries seem to indicate that children’s free play facilitates exploration, whereas teacher-structured activities limit children’s exploration and agentic position. The aim of the article is to challenge these dichotomies through examples from Chinese and Norwegian kindergartens, and to contribute to a conceptualisation of children’s activities in the playground as exploration. The research takes a cultural-historical approach to human development as a dialectical process in which humans constantly and actively interact with their surroundings. We investigate children’s participation in the activity setting of the playground organized by kindergarten teachers in one kindergarten in China and one in Norway to examine varieties in conditions for children’s explorative activities in kindergartens. Our findings illustrate the influence of weather conditions on the activity settings. Despite major differences in climate and the institutional and societal level, kindergarten teachers’ dialogical engagement with children is crucial for children’s exploration. These findings led to an elaboration of Hedegaard’s model (2012) of child development in a personal, institutional and societal perspective by adding the perspective of climate and air quality that is central for children’s explorative activity.

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Section: Studying Children's Exploration In Kindergartenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Institutional Organization and Demandsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Children’s Explorative Activities in Kindergarten Playgrounds: A Case Study in China and Norway

Sørensen

Birkeland

2020

International Perspectives on Early Childhood Education and Development

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“…Outdoor play in kindergarten is a crucial part of everyday life in kindergartens globally, and is organized as a temporally and culturally re-occurring event in most kindergartens 1 (Bang, 2009;Birkeland, 2019). The importance of outdoor activities in kindergartens has received increased concern and focus globally (Waller, AErleman-Hagser, & Sandseter, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Time regulation as such is not a neutral practice, but rather is value-laden, indicating what focus is prioritized. How everyday life in kindergarten is structured is an indication of the intentions and goals which have become more or less tacit (Birkeland, 2019). The everyday structure and program have been neglected as a focus for research on outdoor play, despite it being an important institutional condition for children's outdoor play.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Time Regulation as Institutional Condition for Children’s Outdoor Play and Cultural Formation in Kindergarten

Birkeland

Sørensen

2021

International Perspectives on Early Childhood Education and Development

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Time regulation is an important aspect of the everyday life in any kindergarten and has an impact on which activities are given priority. In this case study, the outdoor playtime in one kindergarten in China and one in Norway is compared based on the understanding that children’s cultural formation develops in a dialectical relationship between children’s interests and motives and societal, institutional, and weather conditions. The aim of the article is to identify how time regulations provide conditions for children’s play and cultural formation during outdoor playtime. The research question is: How does institutional time regulation interplay with the pedagogical practice and children’s activities in the outdoor playtime? Employing a cultural-historical approach, drawing on Hedegaard’s concepts of development and cultural formation as an individual, institutional and societal process, the dialectical interplay between institutional time regulation and children’s engagement in outdoor activities is the unit of analysis in this study. Our findings indicate that the kindergarten teachers in the Chinese kindergarten as well as the Norwegian kindergarten aim to adjust the pedagogical content and time schedule to the traditions, values, and conditions in both countries. This chapter contributes to knowledge about the interplay between institutional conditions and children’s activities and cultural formation in outdoor play.

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Enquanto você (não) dormia: tempos, rotinas e ritmos em negociação no processo de transição do bebê à creche

2022

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RESUMO O ingresso de bebês em instituições de educação infantil é um fenômeno crescente que vem ganhando maior interesse de pesquisadores. Contudo, para além do foco na separação materna, o campo ainda precisa avançar na noção da transição como um processo de entrecruzamento entre os contextos casa-creche, sendo um dos seus elementos constitutivos as múltiplas dimensões temporais, cultural e socialmente circunscritas, que se estabelecem a partir de um novo cotidiano. Com base em uma abordagem histórico-cultural, discutimos o processo de transição de um bebê-focal do ponto de vista da negociação relacional frente aos (des)compassos de tempos, rotinas e ritmos que se materializam no tempo presente da instituição. Entre os diferentes elementos, o recorte temático estará centrado nas rotinas de sono.

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Temporal settings in kindergarten: a lens to trace historical and current cultural formation ideals?

Cited by 4 publications

References 18 publications

Children’s Explorative Activities in Kindergarten Playgrounds: A Case Study in China and Norway

Children’s Explorative Activities in Kindergarten Playgrounds: A Case Study in China and Norway

Time Regulation as Institutional Condition for Children’s Outdoor Play and Cultural Formation in Kindergarten

Enquanto você (não) dormia: tempos, rotinas e ritmos em negociação no processo de transição do bebê à creche

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