The Voice of the Child in Early Childhood Education Research in Australia and New Zealand: A Systematic Review

Abstract

THIS LITERATURE REVIEW COVERS journal articles reporting early childhood education (ECE) research in Australia and New Zealand in the past 10 years and it has found that: (1) Nearly half of the articles lacked child-related data with an explicit or implied justification, while less than one-tenth failed to include child-related data with no justification; (2) Over one-third of the articles addressed the voice of the child, while less than one-tenth included child-related data for assessment purpose. A typology of the voice of the child has evolved from the review and it includes: pseudo voice (engendered by assessing the child), inferred voice (engendered by inferring the child's perspective), surveyed voice (engendered by surveying the child) and co-constructed voice (engendered by co-constructing lived experience and understanding with the child). In spite of the evidence from the articles that the voice of the child had generally been recognised, the review has identified a gap between the child's voice rhetoric and research practice. It is argued that the distinction between rhetoric and practice should be recognised and respected.

Türkiye’deki erken çocukluk eğitimi üzerine yazılmış lisansüstü tezlerin bir içerik analizi

“…There was a lack of doctoral dissertations regarding early childhood education. Although the number of international studies on early childhood education graduate theses is limited, there are available studies in which journal articles regarding early childhood education were examined (Hanson, 1973;Lee, 2012;Zhang, 2015).…”

The Focal Play Therapy: An Empirical Study on the Parent–Therapist Alliance, Parent–Child Interactions and Parenting Stress in a Clinical Sample of Children and Their Parents

“…Moreover, the present study mostly focused on the adults’ voice, while data on parent–child interactions were collected from the child’s side as well. In order to obtain a more comprehensive picture of adult and child-related data [ 89 , 90 , 91 , 92 ] future studies should capture children’s voices in reliable and valid ways. It would also be interesting to collect data longitudinally over the course of the FPT-CP to monitor clinical outcomes in terms of both parental variables and remission of child’s symptoms.…”

Preschool aged children’s experiences of integrated early years services in Australia: including missing perspectives

“…Only one study recognised and acknowledged that young children's perspectives are important and should be included (McFarland-Piazza, Allen, and Webb 2013). Young children's voices are frequently excluded from research and knowledge due to methodological challenges and the belief that adults can and should speak on behalf of children (Zhang 2015;Fane et al 2018). Yet, researchers in the areas of early childhood education and childhood studies have long-standing traditions of including children's voices within research paradigms, making young children's exclusion from informing knowledge about IEYS puzzling and problematic.…”

“…While these studies offer important insight into IEYS from the perspective of parents/guardians, educators/carers, service providers, and policy-makers, young children's own experiences and understandings of attending IEYS have not yet been investigated. This gap in knowledge is highly connected to the overarching absence of research into children's experiences in their daily lives and experiences, despite a wealth of evidence demonstrating children's capacity to contribute to knowledge in childhood research (Zhang 2015). The purpose of this study is to offer the first empirical investigation that analyses young children's own perspectives on the impacts of service integration on them during their transition from their ECECS to formal schooling.…”