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1 Research Threads: Weaving Understandings of Early Childhood Education from the 20th Century
In this first chapter I want to trace some of the threads of research interests which have run through my career and to share some thoughts about how they have been woven together ā in a variety of ways. Unlike the rest of the book, this chapter is somewhat autobiographical and brings into the picture the foci that have had an important impact on me. Looking back over several decades of research in the late 20th, and the early 21st century, I have chosen eight āthreadsā which have influenced me, as a nursery teacher, as a mother and as an academic in higher education, and together they form a sort of platform for the rest of the book. These threads are:
- young childrenās learning
- parentsā roles
- childrenās rights
- assessment
- early literacy
- inclusion
- the arts
- history.
The discoveries of research in each of these areas opened new windows of thinking for me, and stimulated much of my own work. Some threads are stronger than others, and each has its imperfections, but they each illustrate important factors in early childhood education (ECE) policy, practice and research. These research themes form important starting points for some of the research discussed in later chapters in the book.
Young Childrenās Learning
Young children are imaginative and capable learners; curricula should match their developmental needs and their patterns of learning.
I want to illustrate this with two of my own accounts that reflect young childrenās thinking.
āA three year old sits on the edge of a river bank. Her toes just touching the gently flowing water. She watches the insects skimming the surface, stares intently at a tiny fish which swims near to her feet. For some twenty minutes this little girl observes patiently. No one knows what she is thinking, but there is no doubt that her diligent study of the environment around her is something which takes up the whole of her being. No one tells her to study the water and the wildlife around her, no one asks her to sits still, to be quiet and to watch. Her interest is fuelled by a natural and instinctive curiosity about the world around her. (Nutbrown, 2011: 3).
John was walking to school with his father. āIf thereās woodwork today ā¦ if thereās the woodwork things ā¦ if there is Iām gonna, Iām gonna do my plane. Iām gonna finish the nailing and put on the wings ā then I think I can paint it.ā
Johnās father asked, āHave you got much to do to it?ā
John replied, āCould be a morningās work there.ā
At four years old John was able to think about what he had done yesterday and plan what he wanted to do in his early years centre that morning. It depended, he knew, on what provision was available that day ā on whether the adults made the woodworking bench and tools available as they had done the day before. Johnās plan was to follow through on something he began the day before, he had plans for how to complete his model plane and was thinking about how long it might take him. He was being consistent, planning his progress through a self-chosen task. What he needed was the right provision ā the available equipment and space to enable him to see his plans through. (Nutbrown, 2011: 28) ā
As a nursery teacher in Sheffield in the mid-1980s, I was privileged to work with two women who are responsible for my discovery of this very first thread, and for it being woven into my own learning and research. Ann Hedley was an amazing and inspiring head teacher of a small nursery-infant school, and Ann Sharp was the forward-looking General Adviser for Early Childhood Education in the local authority in Sheffield. They both introduced me to the work of Chris Athey (2007) and so I was able to set up a nursery environment which was effectively a workshop ā full of opportunities for children to do, and explore and create. They asked questions and tested out their theories. And it is such a privilege to be with young children learning; as Einstein said: āTeaching should be such that what is offered is perceived as a valuable gift and not as a hard dutyā (Stachel, 1987: 17).
And so, this first research thread is about children as capable and tenacious learners who play with, and puzzle over, the stuff of the world. Searching for childrenās schematic patterns of learning and creating curricula to support their forms of thought took me on a research journey ā where, for a year in the nursery, I worked with note books by my side ā watching the children, thinking about how to extend their learning and writing many accounts of their learning. At a time in the UK when there was no state prescribed curriculum for children under five, play was central to the work and so, for that year, I worked with three- and four-year-old builders, architects, authors, pilots, bus drivers, mothers, cooks, artists and the occasional superman. The ideas that relate to this particular thread of research are picked up again in other chapters, including those that consider play, participation, curricula and pedagogy.
Parentsā Roles in their Childrenās Learning
For all our efforts and professionalism, it is parents and families that are the primary and major educators.
It was whilst working as a nursery teacher that I learned ā really learned ā about the importance of working closely with young childrenās parents: the people who put them to bed at night, brought them to school each day, fed them, clothed them, the people who really knew them and loved them in ways that teachers could never hope to match.
Sharing professional knowledge with parents, about child development, and how even very ordinary everyday experiences could be turned into valuable and essential learning opportunities for young children, brought dividends to the childrenās experience. And thereās nothing very new about this idea. In 1885, Charlotte Mason was asked by her vicar to make a donation towards St Markās Anglican Church in Manningham, Bradford. She did not offer money but suggested that she might give a series of lectures for parents on the education of young children, later published as Home Education (Mason, 2008). She pioneered the training of teachers of young children, had strong and innovative views about pedagogy, and of the role of mothers in their childrenās learning. Charlotte Mason remains for many a pioneer of home education, particularly in the USA.
The nursery where I worked in the early 1980s, was rarely without parents in it and I recall an occasion where a father used our woodwork bench to repair some furniture; a mother borrowed our sewing machine to hem some curtains; and through these and many other small events the children saw the nursery staff and their parents cooperating together and sharing their learning and working space. The nursery for much of the time was one large workshop, with different zones of activity and play. The roles of parents are visited in this book with a reprise of some recent research in chapters on parents, early literacy, languages and digital technologies.
It wasnāt always easy work in that little school; this was a poor community where families experienced struggle and difficulty and poverty and desperation: when a baby died tragically, many of the staff tried to support the family. Each day brought its challenges, but at the heart of it was Ann Hedley who brought calm and love to us all. It was in this place that as a young teacher I really learned something about what poverty was, and how circumstances of little money, poor housing, inferior educational opportunity and lack of support, all disadvantage families and limit choices. It was in these circumstances of extreme disadvantage that I came to know that all parents wanted the best for their children, and would do what they could, when they could, to help make that happen. The shocking issues of poverty today are considered in Chapter 6, which reflects on the impact of poverty on childrenās early education.
During the 1980s, and in no small way due to the work of Ann Sharp, innovative work with parents was well established in Sheffield, including the Manor Home Teaching Project, the Mosborough Townships Under Fives Service, home visiting by most nursery teachers in 62 nursery classes around the city, a Bilingual Home Teaching Project in five Sh...
